page 44 of this, I suppose.
That slide goes into my ball of fame for badly designed metallic objects that I can’t draw consistently next to the lizard’s car and every metallic object I have designed. Jack Kirby I’m not. I think this became clear when I devoted several paragraphs to complaining about characters that prominently display their neon waist triangles at all times. I keep my fame in a ball because I dwell in an apartment and don’t even have a hall, much less a spare one to devote to my personal failings. A ball because mother says I can’t go to the ball, and I don’t want to see this stuff anyway.
And unlike Mr. Kirby, there isn’t going to be forty years of indistinguishable comic artists trying to copy my style. They couldn’t if they wanted to because they’d have to change in every frame.
This is the first, perhaps only page whose ink was placed entirely without disposable pens. It is very dark because I didn’t do it very well. Every time I DIPped the NIB, the mark was very wide at first and then got really narrow. When I wanted a heavy line I felt like I had to use the narrow remnants and when I wanted narrow lines I didn’t want to waste the heavy ink. Even so, I covered a few nearby paper objects with blot marks to rid myself of excess ink and seem to have half-emptied one of my two ink bottles.
The result was still unsightly and I still had to do hours of digital correction, but it’s fun to pretend I’m improving sometimes.
It’s entirely possible that references to future events on this page will amount to nothing because I don’t know what they are yet.
Slinky Jr. sez:
kumquats are orange not green noob
…Then again, biv may simply be not yet be ripe.
Yibrick is an interesting character, being the only one shown thus far who can truly match wits with Kumquat, and who is also no less mysterious than the latter. This is facilitated by the fact that all of biv’s [non-background] appearances thus far have been quite brief page-number-wise, yet filled with quite a lot of content. When Yibrick stops by, we know we’re not messing around anymore.
Ah, but so much mystery on this page. Is Yibrick a robot? A rowboat? Will we finally learn what Kumquat’s “deal” is? Could anyone truly think it a good idea to leave Pog in charge of a large complex full of heavy machinery, dangerous chemicals and the like? Stay tuned to find out.
Uvprimlurx sez:
Yibrick is meant to be a synthetic being with robotic tendencies yet somehow with something resembling free will and the abilities to be jealous or rude. That is not easily created, from what I understand. It is a holdover from my old comics years ago* so I have not given it the thought it probably deserves. I was comfortable saying that the old kumquat kounterpart could design and build such things, but I would not believe in this one so much, apart from serving as consultant for the speech habits. Maybe yibricks come from store purchased kits which users can program their own behavioral preferences into. Or maybe yibrick just learned to be contrary and irritating.
The old kumquatoid was even more insufferably perfect, though it was an abuser of a transformation potion which imbued the drinker with greater powers so maybe I thought that justified its strengths.
*well both my old comics, I guess, since Megaman type** robots get away with the same stuff, but they at least are mildly robotic in appearance.
**I imagine Megaman is actually an Astro-Boy type robot but I have not checked to see if Astro Boy is an impertinent disobedient idiot in his unofficial comic strip adaptations.
PurpleSpace sez:
I would imagine it is a built-in factory design choice, that over time, Yibrick’s simply become contrary and irritating regardless of how they are treated. Thus, the buyer is forced to get a new one to deal with the original, not realizing the new one will also become equally as contrary.
Jumbi sez:
I like how you are finding increasingly creative ways to fit each entire character into the frames of your panels. I also like the interaction between Yibrick and Kumquat. Unless Meepmire is secretly an evil genius, they seem like the two most witty characters in your cast and it’s interesting to watch them debate.
Uvprimlurx sez:
purp:
Ybricks practically sell themselves. Especially if the buyer has one that is assigned to do the shopping.
jumb:
Ah thank you! I enjoyed this exchange more than a lot others that I had written. Ybrick doesn’t have any clear goal or agenda, other than to be a nuisance, so I don’t need to aim the conversation toward solving anything. It was so long ago, I’m not entirely sure why I inserted this scene at all, apart from having Kumquat set up some future events that may not occur at all. Nothing of immediate importance, certainly.