Sunday, January 30

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

(Source)

I no longer look forward to seeing the familiar PVP characters dressed up for Halloween or roleplaying. Why? Because there's no visual continuity. The real Jade's shoulders are about a third as wide as those of her bardic giantess counterpart. It just doesn't feel like the same person -- because it doesn't look like the same person. I don't see any reason for this to be happening, but it's been the case more often than not over the past two years. And it really shines through in the shoulders and body length. Skull, of course, always looks quite recognizable -- because you can't find Skull in a Google image search of costumes to trace. The real shame is that dressing familiar characters up in new ways is one of my favorite things to see, and can showcase real depth in both the character and the artwork.

I don't want to see familiar faces slapped atop completely unfamiliar bodies. It seems... well, it seems like a lot of things. Careless, for one. Maybe thoughtless. It could be better, is what I'm saying. If you keep forcing your characters into unnatural (For them), realistic shapes, perhaps you should decide to change your characters' normal appearances? And if that's not what you want to do, then maybe you can go back to costumes that genuinely clothe the way you normally draw your own characters.

The only saving grace is the element of fantasy that's involved here (And in most other cases). Still, the lack of continuity is jarring.

In other news, yes: Francis definitely caught the eye disease that Jade used to have. Hell, I think he has it worse! Maybe after multiple years of uncomfortable irritation, he too will regain control over his eyeballs and be applauded for looking nicer.

I'm going to continue with a side-note that is comprised of a quote from the Comics Curmudgeon:

"Cartoonists: I understand that there are good reasons for drawing your characters with four fingers instead of five, mostly because in the limited space you have available drawing too many fingers risks having none of those fingers be really visible. But if you’re going to go down that road, you absolutely must not depict your four-fingered characters as making distinctive hand gestures that generally rely on the full complement of digits — like, say, the devil horns/rock-n-roll symbol — or else you risk giving the impression that your characters are freakish claw-handed mutants."

Of course, Skull isn't a human -- the humans in PVP have the correct amount of digits, these days -- but his hand really does suffer visually in that panel. Okay, side-note over.

This strip's biggest disappointment is that it's trying to reinvent the wheel that Skull is based on. Go ahead, think up two words that sum up Skull for you. Are they "Lovable" and "Dumb"? Perhaps "Bumbling" and "Spaz"? It's not impossible that I'm too attached to the Skull of "olden" days, but this new Skull with his "fresh" lyrics and "in your face" attitude is freaking me out in a big way. I'll be honest: I hate it. That isn't who Skull used to be, and I am entrenched in the old ways. I don't like when he's given human eyes instead of beady (Cole-type) eyes. Skull's look and feel was a classic; it's one of the (Perhaps few) things I never felt was worth switching up or letting evolve in PVP. Maybe I've grown up too much, but Skull doesn't seem as big as he used to, or as dumb, or as fun. His character isn't dependable when he keeps doing "funny, cool" things like this. Do I need to move on?

Hang on, let me post another picture of Skull...

OH MY GOD!

Fourteen years ago, The Simpsons tried to warn us with one of their best-remembered episodes, The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show. But did we listen? I guess we didn't. There are too many uncomfortable parallels that can be drawn between this PVP strip and that masterful satire. The PVP strip has no point -- it's showcasing "hip Skull", in an interesting, rich role-playing environment where we ought to be getting treated to some sort of fireworks factory finale.

There's nothing more I can add. If I can convince you to do anything right now, I would want it to be that you go and re-watch that classic Simpsons episode.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, I wasn't ever expecting to see anything here again. Good to see you back. :)

    ReplyDelete

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