It's time for more unfrequently asked questions or rather, as it seems to have become, my commentary on the latest episode of The Word Smith. Here we go.
Episode 9 - In a Binding
This is the second episode in what is, effectively, The Word Smith's first "two-parter": it picks up where the previous episode left off. Could they have been combined into one episode? Maybe, but with things split up as they are, Episode 8 ended on a bit of a cliff hanger and I'm also trying to prevent individual episodes get too long. As such, the setting remains the same as the previous episode.
Page 1 officially names one of the villains that's being lurking in the background since episode 5: The Book Worm! The name is, perhaps, revealed with a little less fanfare than I perhaps should have used. The last row of the page shows events from The Pen's point of view whilst the first row of the following page shows them from, well, from everyone else's point of view, I guess.
Page 2 concludes with a pen being thrown from off-screen to a rat-a-tat. This is somewhat of a private joke (sorry) which originated with the original DiC run of Sailor Moon - when Tuxedo Mask was flinging his roses around, he would generally be heralded by the sound of castanets which led to the notion of "cats with castanets" (the idea being that Luna (or, I suppose, Artemis) would be lurking around somewhere playing the castanets). And in the final page of page 2 we do see a cat with a castanet strapped to its tail.
I tried to give The Pen a Tuxedo Mask-esque speech when she reappeared at the start of page 3. Maybe it sort of worked? Well, it was supposed to be corny, so as long as it hit that note it's alright. The Pen and The Word Smith then proceed to defeat the Irony Chef with pedantry so, yay?
Also of note in the final panel of page 3 in the far right of the background (just above The Pen) is what is supposed to be a Tesla Model S. It is there because I think they're cool. I don't know how much it actually looks like a Model S because drawing things that intentionally look like actual things is not easy and still something I'm working on. It is also visible in the first panel of page 4 and page 8.
A three page flashback to episode 3, showing the Book Worm's origin story (from her perspective, at least) starts on page 5. This was originally scripted to only be one page, but I decided that would just be too rushed and too crowded so I ended up expanding it. As a result, the episode ended up being longer than intended. I redrew the flashback panels by hand, rather than trace or otherwise directly duplicate the original panels. I did measure some things to make the panels as close to the originals as possible and I did copy-and-paste (and transform) the covers of the issue of Battle Scientist Malie C. that the (pre-)Book Worm is holding. Obviously, the whole flashback casts The Word Smith in a more villainous light than in the original episode. Finally, a Nissan Leaf (or something that is supposed to resemble one) can be seen in the final page of the flashback. Have I mentioned I'm pretty keen on electric cars in general?
Back to the present on page 8, the Worm Guard (who we've seen in the background in various previous episodes) appear briefly before being easily squashed. I mean, they are only worms, what does one expect? Of note, the pose that The Word Smith takes in the page's final panel (and the first panel on the next page) is based off of the battle stance often adopted by Saitou Hajime as portrayed in Rurouni Kenshin.
Speaking of page 9, The Pen's ability to interact with word balloons was previously shown in episode 4, though here it is shown she can rewrite dialogue rather than just using them as bludgeons. Which is more useful? Who knows? The Musty Old Tome that the Book Worm pulls out was in the stack of books that she was shown to be buying in episode 3 / the flashback.
On page 10, The Word Smith gets to demonstrate his golf swing again (which he original used in the first episode). As discussed in a previous post, there were some inking snafus on this page that ended up with it getting delayed.
The important thing to note on page 11 is that the Book Worm gets to show off here book teleportation powers. She was previously seen disappearing into a book in episode 6, but this is the first time the teleportation aspect of that ability has been shown/confirmed. Also, The Pen makes various sarcastic remarks.
And the final page has the recurring business woman and her daughter showing up, just in time for the business woman to get hit in the face with a book, which seems to be happening a lot (well, twice) this chapter. Did you know the business woman has freckles? I didn't either until I was looking at her episode 1 appearance for reference and noticed she did. She's mostly been in the background since then so this is the first time since episode 2, I think, where she's gotten a closeup. Also, I think this marks the first time where she's said something that wasn't in response to something her daughter said.
Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there is a small Spaceballs reference in the bottom left panel of page 12. Also, since the Book Worm lost grip of her book when The Pen tugged on her cape, one could technically argue that it was The Pen's fault. This is, also, a sort-of shoryuken that The Word Smith is performing in the first panel.
Lastly, the final two pages of the episode weren't originally planned. I changed the script because I decided I didn't like how the episode originally ended which necessitated adding a couple of extra pages to get things wrapped up in a reasonable-ish (I hope?) manner. One side effect of this is that a lot of episode 10 is going to have to be replanned.
Anywho, that's a wrap for episode 9. Look for episode 10 to start sometime in the fall.
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Showing posts with label unfaq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unfaq. Show all posts
Friday, July 29, 2016
Monday, August 31, 2015
Unfaq Vol 5
As the Freak Log continues to do not much of anything, it occured to me that I never got around to doing the Unfaq for Word Smith Episode 8. The lack of an outcry on this matter suggests that nobody cares, but why should that stop me? So lets do this thing.
Episode 8 - Isn't it Ironic?
The episode's title is the same as an Alanis Morissette song. The answer to the title's question (in both cases) is, probably, no, or, at best, maybe. I was a bit wary about doing an episode related to irony as irony is a concept that I don't think that I entirely get. Oh, I went and read the definition and all that, and whilst I sort of "get" it, irony is one of those concepts which to me seems a little bit nebulous, and I'm not sure if I really "get" it on a fundamental level. Or at least when I'm trying to deliberately be (non-)ironic in some fashion. Oh well, lets not dwell on this.
The title page features the "villain of the week," as it were - the Irony Chef, meant to be a spoof on the Iron Chef (a show I've never actually watched, ironically enough.) I tried to associate him with a bunch of things connected to "iron," mostly prominently via a golf club and a curling iron as seen in the title.
Page 1 occurs in another bit of Kitchener/Waterloo - a part of Victoria park, in this instance. We get a look at the transformation sequence of one of the behind-the-scenes villains here. I practiced whirling my cape (that I own) around for the second last panel.
The next scene is another location in K/W. We get to see The Pen and The Waitress hanging out "out of costume" and get to hear about The Waitress' new job working at MegaBook Co. This is a reference back to Episode 2. The unfortunate victim of the cashiers in the middle row is meant to be a cameo of me (and not actually my first appearance.) The Pen's MegaBook Co membership was previously mention on this page.
We then have a series of flashbacks that reveal The Pen's origin story. This sequence is kicked off with a super dorky Magic: The Gathering reference. (Flashback is an ability that appears in some instants and sorceries.) The Pen became "The Pen" due to a co-op job that nobody else applied for. The whole bit about "still better than making charts" is based on one of my own work terms (which involved making charts...)
The final sequence takes place at a mall in K/W, though it's probably not overly obvious since there's no long shots of the mall so only a small portion gets shown in panels. We also find out that the Irony Chef's dialogue seems to involve a lot of iron-related things.
And there's not too much else to say. The situation with the Irony Chef turns out to be a trap that succussfuly lures out The Word Smith. The "book trap" at the end was meant to evoke the traps from Ghostbusters, ending the episode on a cliff hanger.
And with that, Episode 8 is officially finished. The script for Episode 9 is actually mostly written at this point so with any luck, and a bit of self-discipline, work should commence on it soonish and hopefully the adventures of The Word Smith should continue.
Until next time,
Freak Out.
-TFitC
Episode 8 - Isn't it Ironic?
The episode's title is the same as an Alanis Morissette song. The answer to the title's question (in both cases) is, probably, no, or, at best, maybe. I was a bit wary about doing an episode related to irony as irony is a concept that I don't think that I entirely get. Oh, I went and read the definition and all that, and whilst I sort of "get" it, irony is one of those concepts which to me seems a little bit nebulous, and I'm not sure if I really "get" it on a fundamental level. Or at least when I'm trying to deliberately be (non-)ironic in some fashion. Oh well, lets not dwell on this.
The title page features the "villain of the week," as it were - the Irony Chef, meant to be a spoof on the Iron Chef (a show I've never actually watched, ironically enough.) I tried to associate him with a bunch of things connected to "iron," mostly prominently via a golf club and a curling iron as seen in the title.
Page 1 occurs in another bit of Kitchener/Waterloo - a part of Victoria park, in this instance. We get a look at the transformation sequence of one of the behind-the-scenes villains here. I practiced whirling my cape (that I own) around for the second last panel.
The next scene is another location in K/W. We get to see The Pen and The Waitress hanging out "out of costume" and get to hear about The Waitress' new job working at MegaBook Co. This is a reference back to Episode 2. The unfortunate victim of the cashiers in the middle row is meant to be a cameo of me (and not actually my first appearance.) The Pen's MegaBook Co membership was previously mention on this page.
We then have a series of flashbacks that reveal The Pen's origin story. This sequence is kicked off with a super dorky Magic: The Gathering reference. (Flashback is an ability that appears in some instants and sorceries.) The Pen became "The Pen" due to a co-op job that nobody else applied for. The whole bit about "still better than making charts" is based on one of my own work terms (which involved making charts...)
The final sequence takes place at a mall in K/W, though it's probably not overly obvious since there's no long shots of the mall so only a small portion gets shown in panels. We also find out that the Irony Chef's dialogue seems to involve a lot of iron-related things.
And there's not too much else to say. The situation with the Irony Chef turns out to be a trap that succussfuly lures out The Word Smith. The "book trap" at the end was meant to evoke the traps from Ghostbusters, ending the episode on a cliff hanger.
And with that, Episode 8 is officially finished. The script for Episode 9 is actually mostly written at this point so with any luck, and a bit of self-discipline, work should commence on it soonish and hopefully the adventures of The Word Smith should continue.
Until next time,
Freak Out.
-TFitC
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Unfaq Vol 4
And welcome to episode 7's edition of "questions nobody cared about in the first place," or, "unfaq." I consider these to be a sort of "post-mortem" for the episode so let's get on with the rambling.
Episode 7 - Revenge of the Waitress
So you might ask, "who is this waitress and what's up with her?" She was a minor character from episode 1 - a waitress, as you might expect, and certainly not a Sith Lord - who worked at the Street Meet Cafe. The Word Smith kind of trashed the cafe a bit and now she's out for revenge, more-or-less. I don't recall why I decided to bring her back, I suppose I wanted to tie back to the first episode at some point. Some may also recall the waitress from an interlude during episode 6.
I did a number of design sketches when working out the title page:
From the looks of it, I more-or-less went with the first sketch (upper left) though I used a different pose.
If you ever asked yourself "where exactly does The Word Smith take place?" this episode should make it fairly ambiguous. Page 1 starts off with an exterior shot of the PAC at the University of Waterloo, page 3 shows an interior shot (technically the fencing scenes are also interior shots though I wasn't working from any specific reference photos for those) and Waterloo Town Square forms the backdrop for pages 5 and onward (minus the flashback page.)
In this episode we also finally get to see The Pen in action for a fencing match, even though she was first implied to be a fencer way back at the start of episode 2 (some fencing periphenalia is also visible in her room in episode 4).
On pages 1 and 3 we can see what I referred to as "the cheering squad." They're basically a few friends of The Pen who, at this point, don't have actual names. I did a couple of design sketches for them:
Page 2 is the first of two flashbacks, this one showing some of the events of episode 1 from the perspective of the waitress. Once again we see a pair of hitodama floating above the waitress in the final panel - these are things one sees periodically in anime and manga. The "memory cam" thing is meant to indicate that we're seeing things from the waitress' point of view and that the recollections might not be 100% accurate.
On the first panel of page 5 we see the business woman and her daughter who have shown up periodically through the comic (we haven't seen them for a few episodes).
Random trivia: the combination of the waitress' "Prepare to be served!" on the first panel of page 6 and her Tray Volley attack makes me think she might play volley ball.
And speaking of page 6, one might notice that I drew in the whites of the waitress' eyes on that page which isn't something I've typically done (at least not since episode 3 probably, I think...) I decided to not bother with that on subsequent pages. The only one who routinely gets the whites of his eyes coloured is The Word Smith, and even then only when he's wearing his mask.
Page 8 is the second flashback shown partly from the point of view of a shadowy figure who has been seen before. The sequence in the middle tier was meant to be similar to that at the end of episode 3. Dun, dun dun. Things might be afoot.
The cheque that The Word Smith is writing at the bottom of the page is presumably to cover (at least some of) the damage he caused. This is meant to (hopefully) make him seem a bit less of an ass, especially since insisting that The Pen leave her tournament (as he did in this episode) is rather jerky. I think he's a well meaning individual, he just gets rather hyper-focused on language related issues at times. I had a bird fly off with the cheque because, well, it amused me.
And that brings us to the final page! Nothing too much to say here as it's just wrapping things up for the episode. The waitress realizes she didn't really care about that lousy job after all and she and The Pen call a truce while The Word Smith continues to do his own thing.
Anywho, that's all for this episode's unfaq. As mentioned previously, episode 8 will mostly like start sometime in January so in the mean time,
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Episode 7 - Revenge of the Waitress
So you might ask, "who is this waitress and what's up with her?" She was a minor character from episode 1 - a waitress, as you might expect, and certainly not a Sith Lord - who worked at the Street Meet Cafe. The Word Smith kind of trashed the cafe a bit and now she's out for revenge, more-or-less. I don't recall why I decided to bring her back, I suppose I wanted to tie back to the first episode at some point. Some may also recall the waitress from an interlude during episode 6.
I did a number of design sketches when working out the title page:
If you ever asked yourself "where exactly does The Word Smith take place?" this episode should make it fairly ambiguous. Page 1 starts off with an exterior shot of the PAC at the University of Waterloo, page 3 shows an interior shot (technically the fencing scenes are also interior shots though I wasn't working from any specific reference photos for those) and Waterloo Town Square forms the backdrop for pages 5 and onward (minus the flashback page.)
In this episode we also finally get to see The Pen in action for a fencing match, even though she was first implied to be a fencer way back at the start of episode 2 (some fencing periphenalia is also visible in her room in episode 4).
On pages 1 and 3 we can see what I referred to as "the cheering squad." They're basically a few friends of The Pen who, at this point, don't have actual names. I did a couple of design sketches for them:
Page 2 is the first of two flashbacks, this one showing some of the events of episode 1 from the perspective of the waitress. Once again we see a pair of hitodama floating above the waitress in the final panel - these are things one sees periodically in anime and manga. The "memory cam" thing is meant to indicate that we're seeing things from the waitress' point of view and that the recollections might not be 100% accurate.
On the first panel of page 5 we see the business woman and her daughter who have shown up periodically through the comic (we haven't seen them for a few episodes).
Random trivia: the combination of the waitress' "Prepare to be served!" on the first panel of page 6 and her Tray Volley attack makes me think she might play volley ball.
And speaking of page 6, one might notice that I drew in the whites of the waitress' eyes on that page which isn't something I've typically done (at least not since episode 3 probably, I think...) I decided to not bother with that on subsequent pages. The only one who routinely gets the whites of his eyes coloured is The Word Smith, and even then only when he's wearing his mask.
Page 8 is the second flashback shown partly from the point of view of a shadowy figure who has been seen before. The sequence in the middle tier was meant to be similar to that at the end of episode 3. Dun, dun dun. Things might be afoot.
The cheque that The Word Smith is writing at the bottom of the page is presumably to cover (at least some of) the damage he caused. This is meant to (hopefully) make him seem a bit less of an ass, especially since insisting that The Pen leave her tournament (as he did in this episode) is rather jerky. I think he's a well meaning individual, he just gets rather hyper-focused on language related issues at times. I had a bird fly off with the cheque because, well, it amused me.
And that brings us to the final page! Nothing too much to say here as it's just wrapping things up for the episode. The waitress realizes she didn't really care about that lousy job after all and she and The Pen call a truce while The Word Smith continues to do his own thing.
Anywho, that's all for this episode's unfaq. As mentioned previously, episode 8 will mostly like start sometime in January so in the mean time,
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Friday, June 13, 2014
Unfaq Vol 3
Well, it's a bit later than I had intended, but it's time for the next volume of "questions you never had in the first place." Nothing much to ramble on about right now so lets dive right in.
Episode 6 - Literary Criticism
The T-rex on the title page is inteded to be the same one that appears in both episode 2 and 3. There really can't be that many T-rexes just wandering around, after all. Also, why does that one guy have a snorkel? He just does and reappears throughout the episode (along with most of the extras on the title page.)
The computer that The Word Smith uses inside the Word Cave is a Commodore PET, with an extra cooling tower. The text that appears on the screen is various random things from a natural language processing text book that I have - it's not just gibberish! It just has no particular meaning when mashed all together like that.
The first exterior shot on page 4 is based off of a branch of the Waterloo Public Library. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which one, exactly.
The whole Dielight thing (page 5) is, of course, meant to be a spoof of Twilight. The text on the book may be a bit hard to read so here it is in full:
Dielight
- A Tale Of -
Sparkly Zombies
And Other Things
With Sparkles!
And beside the zombie:
Can't See!
Too Many
Damn Sparkles!
For the record, I'm not really a fan of zombies, I think they're kind of boring.
The reveal on page 6 where the villain of the day is actually The Pen's mother was something that just happened whilst I was working out the details of the episode 6 script (it wasn't in the overall outline.) I don't recall why I went that route, I think it was just an idea that popped in my head whilst I was working out dialogue. Fun-ish fact: I briefly considered making The Word Smith The Pen's father, but decided against it.
Of course page 8 has a Sailor Moon-ish transformation sequence (with sparkles!) I based The Author's outfit on actual 80s workout clothes (according to a google image search) and there's actually more garish/ridiculous looking stuff than what I went with.
I believe I mentioned it in the page 9 blog post/comments, but it bears repeating: drawing crowd scenes is annoying. Coming up with a relatively unique look for that many people can take a bit. And me being me, things sneak in like ducks on peoples' heads. Also, if one looks in the lower right corner of the last panel (ie, the one with the crowd scene), one may notice a couple of cameos of characters from previous episodes.
The pose that The Author gets stuck in is based on a real gymnastics pose, though I've probably not rendered it entirely correctly. Gymnists are freakishly flexible.
And this episode also starts to hint at the overall plot of the comic (yes, there is one!) Dun dun dun!
Whelp, that is all for this volume of the unfaq. The script for episode 7 is basically written (minus some dialogue and editing) so I'll be looking to resume the comic in the next week or two so stay tuned!
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Episode 6 - Literary Criticism
The T-rex on the title page is inteded to be the same one that appears in both episode 2 and 3. There really can't be that many T-rexes just wandering around, after all. Also, why does that one guy have a snorkel? He just does and reappears throughout the episode (along with most of the extras on the title page.)
The computer that The Word Smith uses inside the Word Cave is a Commodore PET, with an extra cooling tower. The text that appears on the screen is various random things from a natural language processing text book that I have - it's not just gibberish! It just has no particular meaning when mashed all together like that.
The first exterior shot on page 4 is based off of a branch of the Waterloo Public Library. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which one, exactly.
The whole Dielight thing (page 5) is, of course, meant to be a spoof of Twilight. The text on the book may be a bit hard to read so here it is in full:
Dielight
- A Tale Of -
Sparkly Zombies
And Other Things
With Sparkles!
And beside the zombie:
Can't See!
Too Many
Damn Sparkles!
For the record, I'm not really a fan of zombies, I think they're kind of boring.
The reveal on page 6 where the villain of the day is actually The Pen's mother was something that just happened whilst I was working out the details of the episode 6 script (it wasn't in the overall outline.) I don't recall why I went that route, I think it was just an idea that popped in my head whilst I was working out dialogue. Fun-ish fact: I briefly considered making The Word Smith The Pen's father, but decided against it.
Of course page 8 has a Sailor Moon-ish transformation sequence (with sparkles!) I based The Author's outfit on actual 80s workout clothes (according to a google image search) and there's actually more garish/ridiculous looking stuff than what I went with.
I believe I mentioned it in the page 9 blog post/comments, but it bears repeating: drawing crowd scenes is annoying. Coming up with a relatively unique look for that many people can take a bit. And me being me, things sneak in like ducks on peoples' heads. Also, if one looks in the lower right corner of the last panel (ie, the one with the crowd scene), one may notice a couple of cameos of characters from previous episodes.
The pose that The Author gets stuck in is based on a real gymnastics pose, though I've probably not rendered it entirely correctly. Gymnists are freakishly flexible.
And this episode also starts to hint at the overall plot of the comic (yes, there is one!) Dun dun dun!
Whelp, that is all for this volume of the unfaq. The script for episode 7 is basically written (minus some dialogue and editing) so I'll be looking to resume the comic in the next week or two so stay tuned!
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Unfaq Vol 2
Now that the One Acts are over it's time to get back into some comicing. The script for Word Smith episode 6 is progressing well, but for this week, it's the second volume of "Answers to Questions Nobody Cared About in the First Place." This will be shorter than the first one since there's only one episode to cover so lets dive right in...
Episode 5 - Spam in the Place Where I Work
Alternate title I considered: You've got Spam! But I went with the Weird Al reference because Weird Al is awesome.
The Word Cave (page 1) - we'll see the inside of the Word Cave in episode 6 (please look forward to it!) and this is also the end of the meeting referred to back in episode 3. (I'd personally never want to work in a place with early morning Monday meetings.)
The most exciting thing on page 2 is probably that it reveals the Word Smith's real name - Gord Smith (on the nameplate in panel 2.) While figuring out The Pen's real name was somewhat agonizing, figuring out the Word Smith's was much easier (it's obviously "Gord Smith") plus the idea that his real name is almost the same as his secret identity amused me. I briefly considered making him Ward Smith or something like that, but stuck with Gord.
Page 3 - the first panel is supposed to be a (probably rather obscure) reference to Phantom of the Opera. "Track down this murderer he must be found...", "Down to the dungeon of my deep despair..."; also note that he has his hand at the level of his eyes. The perhaps more obvious reference on this page is the VR helmet in the last panel which is meant to be siilar to Mega Man's helmet.
Page 4 is chock full of references, most of which are probably fairly obvious. Top right is Tron (which I've never actually seen), bottom left is ReBoot (which was the last panel I came up with - honestly can't believe it took me that long to think of ReBoot when trying to come up with references), bottom right is The Matrix. The reference that might be least obvious is the one in the centre which references an anime called Sword Art Online.
Nothing much to note for Page 5 except that The Pen facepalms on panel 4 (she also sort of did on page 1 as well). I should probably keep a running tally.
Also not much to comment on for Page 6, though the Word Smith delivers the first of two cheesy speaches in this episode, both of which are cut off.
The villian of the day is introduced on Page 7 - the Homophone! Note the various "phone" imagery in his outfit. He's wearing the receiver of a telephone as a headband as well as using a rotary phone dial as a belt buckle. His weapon of choice is a megaphone. And, of course, he speaks using homophones. The second last panel is meant to imply that the Word Smith can actually hear the difference between homophones and, thus, can tell that the wrong word is being used and that the language is being butchered.
Not too much to say about page 8, though in panel 2, The Pen says "What are you doing?" for the third time this episode.
Page 9 - those ribbon-like things on The Pen's sidekick outfit aren't just decorative, they're filled with ink and can be used (as in this case) as ink squirters. It amused me that the Homophone would be weak against puns. I hope that my puns here were sufficiently bad.
Page 10 - the two guards are wearing earthworm costumes (neither of them are named Jim). The reasons for this should become apparant later on, though these character might just be one offs. We'll have to see about that. Also note that in panel 3, the hooded figure is watching recent events unfold via a book (you can see pages 8 and 9). And sitting on a pile of books may not be as intimidating as a pile of skulls, it is more thematically appropriate for the character.
And that is all for this edition of the unfaq! I'm going to aim to get something up for the comic next week, if only just an interlude. In the meantime, here's some concept sketches for the episode 6 title page:
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Episode 5 - Spam in the Place Where I Work
Alternate title I considered: You've got Spam! But I went with the Weird Al reference because Weird Al is awesome.
The Word Cave (page 1) - we'll see the inside of the Word Cave in episode 6 (please look forward to it!) and this is also the end of the meeting referred to back in episode 3. (I'd personally never want to work in a place with early morning Monday meetings.)
The most exciting thing on page 2 is probably that it reveals the Word Smith's real name - Gord Smith (on the nameplate in panel 2.) While figuring out The Pen's real name was somewhat agonizing, figuring out the Word Smith's was much easier (it's obviously "Gord Smith") plus the idea that his real name is almost the same as his secret identity amused me. I briefly considered making him Ward Smith or something like that, but stuck with Gord.
Page 3 - the first panel is supposed to be a (probably rather obscure) reference to Phantom of the Opera. "Track down this murderer he must be found...", "Down to the dungeon of my deep despair..."; also note that he has his hand at the level of his eyes. The perhaps more obvious reference on this page is the VR helmet in the last panel which is meant to be siilar to Mega Man's helmet.
Page 4 is chock full of references, most of which are probably fairly obvious. Top right is Tron (which I've never actually seen), bottom left is ReBoot (which was the last panel I came up with - honestly can't believe it took me that long to think of ReBoot when trying to come up with references), bottom right is The Matrix. The reference that might be least obvious is the one in the centre which references an anime called Sword Art Online.
Nothing much to note for Page 5 except that The Pen facepalms on panel 4 (she also sort of did on page 1 as well). I should probably keep a running tally.
Also not much to comment on for Page 6, though the Word Smith delivers the first of two cheesy speaches in this episode, both of which are cut off.
The villian of the day is introduced on Page 7 - the Homophone! Note the various "phone" imagery in his outfit. He's wearing the receiver of a telephone as a headband as well as using a rotary phone dial as a belt buckle. His weapon of choice is a megaphone. And, of course, he speaks using homophones. The second last panel is meant to imply that the Word Smith can actually hear the difference between homophones and, thus, can tell that the wrong word is being used and that the language is being butchered.
Not too much to say about page 8, though in panel 2, The Pen says "What are you doing?" for the third time this episode.
Page 9 - those ribbon-like things on The Pen's sidekick outfit aren't just decorative, they're filled with ink and can be used (as in this case) as ink squirters. It amused me that the Homophone would be weak against puns. I hope that my puns here were sufficiently bad.
Page 10 - the two guards are wearing earthworm costumes (neither of them are named Jim). The reasons for this should become apparant later on, though these character might just be one offs. We'll have to see about that. Also note that in panel 3, the hooded figure is watching recent events unfold via a book (you can see pages 8 and 9). And sitting on a pile of books may not be as intimidating as a pile of skulls, it is more thematically appropriate for the character.
And that is all for this edition of the unfaq! I'm going to aim to get something up for the comic next week, if only just an interlude. In the meantime, here's some concept sketches for the episode 6 title page:
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Unfaq Vol 1
Welcome to the first edition of The Word Smith's series of "Answers to Questions Nobody Cared About in the First Place" - basically, an unfaq. I'm thinking of doing one of these during the down time between episodes to comment on things that I think are interesting (I'm not doing this for any of you, after all) that didn't come up directly during the episode. Think of it like the director's commentary - you know, that stuff on DVDs that nobody really cares about either. Since this is the first unfaq it's actually going to cover the first four episodes in one fell swoop and will thus be longer and more painful than subsequent ones which will only cover the episode at hand.
Lets get started, shall we?
Episode One - Attack of the g4m3rz
The Street Meet Cafe (the name being a play on street meat, ie, road kill) was, visually, loosely based on a photo of the Water Street Cafe in the Gastown part of Vancouver. I've probably been past there as I've been in Gastown, though I've never eaten there. The menu out front of the Street Meet Cafe is hard to read, but it says "Dead Raccoon, Flat Squirrel, Street Pizza, Rodent Medley, Stunned Bird and Cheese Sandwich" (you know, in keeping with the road kill theme).
One of the g4m3rz (G3, specifically, according to my scripts) gained his mannerisms as a result of random stuff that I did in the thumbnails:
On page 3, pay attention to the furniture in the window of the furniture store.
Episode 1 was originally planned to be a one-off thing, though I left an obvious hook at the end in case I ever decided to continue it which I obviously did since we now move onto...
Episode Two - Clerical Error
This episode was done for a comic workshop I ran a while back. I decided it was best to continue an existing project rather than start a new one. The plot of the episode was based on something that bugs a friend of mine - I don't really care that much, but now I can't hear the phrase "Can I help whose next?" without laughing a bit.
The Pen and her brother (not named at this point - none of the characters acquired real names until episode 3) were not originally related. I didn't decide they were related until I started planning for this episode. And why did I decide to make them siblings? Simple: they both have a bit of hair sticking up at the back.
The book titles on page 2 are mostly some sort of grammar/language based jokes. It was a bit annoying coming up with that many of them. People who know me may note that Quasi appears on one of the books.
The Word Smith's first thought bubble on page 3 contains a reference to Les Miserable. The actual lyrics from the musical are "There is none but me who can intercede in mercy's name, three days is all I need..." (it's when Valjean is pleading with Javert to let him see to it that Fantine's child, Cosette, is properly looked after... see here for more details).
Page 4 contains a He-man reference. (Yeah, Les Mis to He-Man, classy.) I should possibly also note that the business woman and her daughter reappeared from episode 1, seems like they'll become a running joke.
Page 5 contains references to Sailor Moon, Star Trek (specifically, The Borg) and an internet meme. Oh, for character design, the male clerk's moustache was an artefact of the thumbnails - for the rough sketches, at some point in kind of looked like he had a moustache and I decided to keep it.
And we'll close out episode 2 by drawing attention to the MC Hammer (why am I providing a link? oh well...) reference on page 6. Also, the last panel was meant to recall the last panel on page 2.
Episode 3 - Metaphorically Speaking
I decided to try colouring this episode and ended up doing so for the entire episode. I had read a bit about "flatting" at the time and wanted to try it out. It turns out to be a bit of a pain and is, in part, what has motivated some of my current research. This episode takes place immediately after the end of episode 2 (which, incidentally, takes place on the afternoon of the same day as episode 1, which is sometime in the morning).
The Pen's outfit is based off of my exercise outfit (though my exercise shirt has sleeves). I also debated for a while on what The Pen's real name should be. I was trying to come up with something whose meaning was related to swords (since she fences) but they all seemed too old fashioned to me. Unfortunately, I don't remember what names I had considered or I'd list them here. Oh well.
Battle Scientist Malie C. is a typical "adjective noun name" that one sees semi-frequently in anime/manga. The idea of a Battle Scientist amuses me. In particular, this is meant to be a rather vague reference to a series called Battle Angel Alita (which I've never actually seen, I just know the name for some reason) - Malie C is the same number of sylables as Alita and sounds kinda the same, maybe, if you squint just right. It is also similar to a certain real female scientist's name. If you consider that in Japanese phonetics, L = R, well, you do the science.
The pink-ish haired character (dubbed the "Book Lady" in my scripts so far) was hard to write for since she's supposed to be talking in various mixed/twisted/broken/nonsensical metaphors. Not easy! Also note that her books mostly have punny titles.
In one of the backgrounds on page 4 you can see something resembling a Feynman diagram which is something physicists use to describe particle interactions (I make no claims as to the correctness of it, though what I drew seems to vaguely resemble this one). Also note that the crowd behind The Pen and The Book Lady consists of the characters from The Word Smith's internal monologue back in episode 2 along with the recurring business woman and her daughter.
Fun fact: the blue flames appearing above the Book Lady on pages 5 and 6 are called hitodama and appear semi-frequently in anime/manga. I did some checking to see if they had a canonical appearance or not; they don't seem to, but checking made me figure out what they were called.
The sort of sinister seeming individual who conveniently has their face obscured on the last panel is the same person as the shadowy guy at the end of episode 1, if it wasn't already apparent. Spoilars! You'll probably have all forgotten by the time it becomes relevant so whatever. Also, the T-Rex is eating science.
Episode 4 - Surfing the Weeb
This was a mostly filler episode, as far as the overall plot goes, but I decided I wanted to bring the g4m3rz back, in some capacity and it seemed like it might be a fun diversion. The design for the g4m34z' characters was based on the (very small) versions that appeared on their laptop screens in episode 1.
As with the book titles in episode 2, among the stuff on The Word Smith's desk, vigilant viewers may note boxes that hint at Quasi Soft and a certain Final Reality, amongst other things.
I should perhaps note that Final Reality Online is only related indirectly to the Final Fantasy series' online entries as FR Online is based on my long running FR project which is meant to be a parody of FF as a whole, rather than any one specific entry. In particular, the presence of cat-girls in FR can, I think, be primarily attributed to Vision of Escaflowne which I encountered well before FF XI was released.
The googly-eyed alien on page 3 was meant to be doing more of a "Hi Mom!" type of thing at the camera, though in retrospect it looks more like it's attempting to hit on Taramir. The statue on the fountain is meant to be a tribute to a certain cape-wearing freak.
Fun fact: the staff that Caelinandrica carries is called "Saturn-on-a-stick" (for real!) though I never found a way to work that into the script, alas.
From when the adventuring team is being introduced: I seem to like having dwarf names start with "kh", in fact I think every dwarf name I've ever made up probably starts with kh. That is probably attributable to the name "Khazad-dum" from The Lord of the Rings. Also, for some reason, I made Kho's name sound like a camera.
That's a sudoku puzzle on the pedistal on page 6, also meant to evoke the cloisters from FFX. Visually, the exterior of the tower is a mix of Orthanc and the CN Tower. And sentient-ish appliances have a long history in FR.
I think The Pen's character facepalms a lot in this episode. Though I think The Pen facepalms a lot in general.
The Word Smith's character was meant to be some sort of "fire and brimstone" preacher, except with grammar. Page 10 shows enlarged versions of some of the background characters from page 8 (which was the only character design they ever received). The female dwarf is wearing a pot helm. I'm not sure if that's the same alien from earlier or if it's a different one.
For the design of the GM on page 11, I was basically trying to make him look ridiculous. Also note that his outfit is red on the episode's title page; that is because GMs in FF XI are red (but otherwise don't really look similar). He's also supposed to be snapping his fingers in a Q-like manner when he teleports everyone off to jail. All of the background characters in the first panel of the page had appeared at some point previously in the episode.
The sign off message "This ends our broadcast day" on page 12 was something I always used to use for programs I wrote back in highschool (and probably during undergrad too). The Word Smith's computer was also meant to look a little archaic. The idea of the cat playing for The Pen after she falls asleep amused me, especially since the cat is hunting rats. Also, the whole fiery cow thing is, well, a thing.
And wooo... that was a bit wordy. Next one (when it happens) won't be nearly so long since it'll only be one episode!
Until next time...
Freak Out,
-TFitC
Lets get started, shall we?
Episode One - Attack of the g4m3rz
The Street Meet Cafe (the name being a play on street meat, ie, road kill) was, visually, loosely based on a photo of the Water Street Cafe in the Gastown part of Vancouver. I've probably been past there as I've been in Gastown, though I've never eaten there. The menu out front of the Street Meet Cafe is hard to read, but it says "Dead Raccoon, Flat Squirrel, Street Pizza, Rodent Medley, Stunned Bird and Cheese Sandwich" (you know, in keeping with the road kill theme).
One of the g4m3rz (G3, specifically, according to my scripts) gained his mannerisms as a result of random stuff that I did in the thumbnails:
This pose was totally unplanned... it just happened and he just kept doing it.
On page 3, pay attention to the furniture in the window of the furniture store.
Episode 1 was originally planned to be a one-off thing, though I left an obvious hook at the end in case I ever decided to continue it which I obviously did since we now move onto...
Episode Two - Clerical Error
This episode was done for a comic workshop I ran a while back. I decided it was best to continue an existing project rather than start a new one. The plot of the episode was based on something that bugs a friend of mine - I don't really care that much, but now I can't hear the phrase "Can I help whose next?" without laughing a bit.
The Pen and her brother (not named at this point - none of the characters acquired real names until episode 3) were not originally related. I didn't decide they were related until I started planning for this episode. And why did I decide to make them siblings? Simple: they both have a bit of hair sticking up at the back.
Yes. It is. Very logical. Very.
The book titles on page 2 are mostly some sort of grammar/language based jokes. It was a bit annoying coming up with that many of them. People who know me may note that Quasi appears on one of the books.
The Word Smith's first thought bubble on page 3 contains a reference to Les Miserable. The actual lyrics from the musical are "There is none but me who can intercede in mercy's name, three days is all I need..." (it's when Valjean is pleading with Javert to let him see to it that Fantine's child, Cosette, is properly looked after... see here for more details).
Page 4 contains a He-man reference. (Yeah, Les Mis to He-Man, classy.) I should possibly also note that the business woman and her daughter reappeared from episode 1, seems like they'll become a running joke.
Page 5 contains references to Sailor Moon, Star Trek (specifically, The Borg) and an internet meme. Oh, for character design, the male clerk's moustache was an artefact of the thumbnails - for the rough sketches, at some point in kind of looked like he had a moustache and I decided to keep it.
Doesn't he look like he's got a moustache?
And we'll close out episode 2 by drawing attention to the MC Hammer (why am I providing a link? oh well...) reference on page 6. Also, the last panel was meant to recall the last panel on page 2.
Episode 3 - Metaphorically Speaking
I decided to try colouring this episode and ended up doing so for the entire episode. I had read a bit about "flatting" at the time and wanted to try it out. It turns out to be a bit of a pain and is, in part, what has motivated some of my current research. This episode takes place immediately after the end of episode 2 (which, incidentally, takes place on the afternoon of the same day as episode 1, which is sometime in the morning).
The Pen's outfit is based off of my exercise outfit (though my exercise shirt has sleeves). I also debated for a while on what The Pen's real name should be. I was trying to come up with something whose meaning was related to swords (since she fences) but they all seemed too old fashioned to me. Unfortunately, I don't remember what names I had considered or I'd list them here. Oh well.
Battle Scientist Malie C. is a typical "adjective noun name" that one sees semi-frequently in anime/manga. The idea of a Battle Scientist amuses me. In particular, this is meant to be a rather vague reference to a series called Battle Angel Alita (which I've never actually seen, I just know the name for some reason) - Malie C is the same number of sylables as Alita and sounds kinda the same, maybe, if you squint just right. It is also similar to a certain real female scientist's name. If you consider that in Japanese phonetics, L = R, well, you do the science.
The pink-ish haired character (dubbed the "Book Lady" in my scripts so far) was hard to write for since she's supposed to be talking in various mixed/twisted/broken/nonsensical metaphors. Not easy! Also note that her books mostly have punny titles.
In one of the backgrounds on page 4 you can see something resembling a Feynman diagram which is something physicists use to describe particle interactions (I make no claims as to the correctness of it, though what I drew seems to vaguely resemble this one). Also note that the crowd behind The Pen and The Book Lady consists of the characters from The Word Smith's internal monologue back in episode 2 along with the recurring business woman and her daughter.
Fun fact: the blue flames appearing above the Book Lady on pages 5 and 6 are called hitodama and appear semi-frequently in anime/manga. I did some checking to see if they had a canonical appearance or not; they don't seem to, but checking made me figure out what they were called.
Those blue flame things are hitodama... spirits of the dead or something.
The sort of sinister seeming individual who conveniently has their face obscured on the last panel is the same person as the shadowy guy at the end of episode 1, if it wasn't already apparent. Spoilars! You'll probably have all forgotten by the time it becomes relevant so whatever. Also, the T-Rex is eating science.
Episode 4 - Surfing the Weeb
This was a mostly filler episode, as far as the overall plot goes, but I decided I wanted to bring the g4m3rz back, in some capacity and it seemed like it might be a fun diversion. The design for the g4m34z' characters was based on the (very small) versions that appeared on their laptop screens in episode 1.
As with the book titles in episode 2, among the stuff on The Word Smith's desk, vigilant viewers may note boxes that hint at Quasi Soft and a certain Final Reality, amongst other things.
I should perhaps note that Final Reality Online is only related indirectly to the Final Fantasy series' online entries as FR Online is based on my long running FR project which is meant to be a parody of FF as a whole, rather than any one specific entry. In particular, the presence of cat-girls in FR can, I think, be primarily attributed to Vision of Escaflowne which I encountered well before FF XI was released.
The googly-eyed alien on page 3 was meant to be doing more of a "Hi Mom!" type of thing at the camera, though in retrospect it looks more like it's attempting to hit on Taramir. The statue on the fountain is meant to be a tribute to a certain cape-wearing freak.
Fun fact: the staff that Caelinandrica carries is called "Saturn-on-a-stick" (for real!) though I never found a way to work that into the script, alas.
I picked the colours to be similar to Saturn's. If I were being more meticulous, I'd have used the planet as a texture, or somesuch.
From when the adventuring team is being introduced: I seem to like having dwarf names start with "kh", in fact I think every dwarf name I've ever made up probably starts with kh. That is probably attributable to the name "Khazad-dum" from The Lord of the Rings. Also, for some reason, I made Kho's name sound like a camera.
That's a sudoku puzzle on the pedistal on page 6, also meant to evoke the cloisters from FFX. Visually, the exterior of the tower is a mix of Orthanc and the CN Tower. And sentient-ish appliances have a long history in FR.
I think The Pen's character facepalms a lot in this episode. Though I think The Pen facepalms a lot in general.
Better get used to it 'cause it'll probably keep happening...
The Word Smith's character was meant to be some sort of "fire and brimstone" preacher, except with grammar. Page 10 shows enlarged versions of some of the background characters from page 8 (which was the only character design they ever received). The female dwarf is wearing a pot helm. I'm not sure if that's the same alien from earlier or if it's a different one.
For the design of the GM on page 11, I was basically trying to make him look ridiculous. Also note that his outfit is red on the episode's title page; that is because GMs in FF XI are red (but otherwise don't really look similar). He's also supposed to be snapping his fingers in a Q-like manner when he teleports everyone off to jail. All of the background characters in the first panel of the page had appeared at some point previously in the episode.
The sign off message "This ends our broadcast day" on page 12 was something I always used to use for programs I wrote back in highschool (and probably during undergrad too). The Word Smith's computer was also meant to look a little archaic. The idea of the cat playing for The Pen after she falls asleep amused me, especially since the cat is hunting rats. Also, the whole fiery cow thing is, well, a thing.
And wooo... that was a bit wordy. Next one (when it happens) won't be nearly so long since it'll only be one episode!
Until next time...
Freak Out,
-TFitC
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