Form of: Flying Potato Squid!
June 25, 2012
12:00 am
I don’t know if it looks much different, but I inked this week’s comic with Manga Studio. The drawing tools are much more crisp and responsive than Photoshop.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Updated Mondays or whenever I feel like it
Oh my god.
I wonder if those wings can do anything? Maybe spin him around in a circle.
Or blow wind towards the Commander. Not enough to make him off balance but enough to lightly tousle his golden hair during a moment of clarity or realization. Let us hope that doesn’t happen.
Naw, I’d say they just make Gakt’s hair flow around all pretty-like.
Or just to fan him out if the situation gets hot XDDDDDDDDDDDD
Tornado spells, shoot feathers, maybe some elemental attacks….who can say? We’re in JRPG Land here. Given the location, get out your Castlevania Boss Themes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exQPrLmIj-4
Why Dawn of Sorrow…. why? D:
I hate all the art in that game, Aria of Sorrow had the best
Sorry, I didn’t mean to upset anyone. D:
My first Castlevania game was Circle of Moon, and Dawn of Sorrow was my second, so I am partial to the music from those games for nostalgia, even if the songs originally came from older games.
I did the GBA ones in order. Circle, then… those other two… and then I pirated Symphony, but made it all better by purchasing the PSP game that had it as an unlockable!
Like the series, but not enough to dedicate huge tracts of time to it.
Good job justifying pirating a game a game I nearly called the Internet police.
You must remember this is running on final fantasy logic, they could achieve some sort of lift
No, see, that’s the thing, he can fly, but the wings themselves have nothing to do with that ability. He probably flies via some kind of weird spacial distortion or something that’s not explained, and if anyone did explain it it would be some half-assed bullshit that would make absolutely no sense in the real world. That would be FF logic at its finest.
Off the top of my head: Float was a spell at one point and it did exactly what it said. Let’s see, there were also gravity spells at one point but those were mostly sucking stuff into a gravity well to damage it. Or crushing them with dark matter or some blob of darkness.
And that was just FF8!
But hey, why does ANY logic have to apply? Let’s just take any idea and toss it in, and BOOM, there’s yer boss!
Tachyon?
I really hope you’re referring the same Tachyon as I think.
Quickest Woman on Earth?
Could be referring to Tachyon particles themselves.
Or Dr Tachyon from the wildly unappreciated yet brilliant Wild Cards series.
Could be “Tachyon the Fish” from the wildly unpopular Galactic Fishbowl series
Well, “logic does not apply here” isn’t really a special problem of FF or JRPGs, but much more general.
Also “hey there’s a spell for that” works for me in an universe with magic or whatever they call it this week.
Im just gonna go with
Attack
Magic <–
Items
Fire
Water
Lightning
Fly<–
FFA. the wings NEVER do anything
It says “flying” right in the title.
*fighting Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts*
Me: “Why does he have one wing?”
Brother: “So he can fly around in circles.”
Yep, summed it up.
I see more details and sharper lines.
Detail is always a good thing. Like dakka.
YA KANTZ HAZ ENUF DAKKA!
I wonder what a bishounen orc would look like.
*shudders*
No. It’s not as bad it sounds. It’s pretty on par with the rest of bishounen. I played a bishounen orc once in table top to fuck with people. It-was-FUNNY! XD
A normal, if slightly buff Human?
And green
Perhaps some sharp teeth, too.
In the form of “cute fangs”, probably.
(No, I won’t link the trope. I’m in a good mood today. :P )
Don’t forget the pointy ears and at least three earrrings.
Thank you, kind sir.
… … Id hit it.
Here. Bishy Orc. http://fromdraenor.com/?p=259
Oh gawd… its worse than I ever imagined possible…
OHMYGOSH THAT IS SO MESSED UP! XD
….and you, sir, are evil.
Can never remove that image. Not even with the home-made brain-bleach.
How do you make your home made brain bleach. I need enough to wipe out about 4-5 years.
this one is better
http://vampjac.com/lj/humor/gygax/Orcbard.jpg
I once played a gay orc minstrel who had been raised by elves and wore red tights and pantaloons.
Sebastian Stoatgobbler was a very silly character.
I would LOVE to see Warboss Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, Warboss Gorgutz ‘Ead ‘Unter, or Kaptin Bluddflagg in this comic. Everything can always stand to be more orky.
Only if they’re accompanied by Commissar Yarrick and/or High Marshall Helbrecht.
Those silly Orks… they think Yarrik’s stare can kill, but then again with an eye laser with the same power as a bolter it might as well!
I don’t follow the mythos at all, but YEAH ORKS
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH
Even if they did get in here, i think you’d hafta choose.
The thing with Ork Warbosses is that they don’t get along, only one can be the biggest and the strongest.
Kaptin Bluddflagg, Kaptin Bluddflagg!
I think, of all of them, he’d be the most suited for this comic.
Kaptin Bluddflagg: Alright mistah Nailbrain, you first, on wit’ ya.
Nailbrain steps onto the tellyporta pad, disappears in a minor explosion.
Kaptin Bluddflag: “Ohhh, I ‘ave no idea if that means it works . . . “
i have never asked for a comic about a specific character, but DAMN i want to see Kaptin Bluddflagg in this!
pretty please? >_<
Cheer warhammer & 40k ork ork ork ork orksXD
haha, that is the perfect spoof of all rpg endbosses! :D especially final fantasy (anyone remember kefka?) with those angel wing everywhere
Most certainly agreed. The more random wings and tentacles, the “scarier” it’s supposed to be… though it just ends up looking like an unholy genetics experiment that should be put out of its misery. Honestly, what good could those wings even do?!
…I do feel kinda bad for the Sora head. He’s got this look like “WTF did I just smoke?”.
At least Kefka’s wings kinda made sense, what with his ascension to near-godhood and all
Oh, Gawd, the wings.
*looks again*
Oh, Gawd, the mouths.
*looks again*
Oh, Gawd, the heads.
*looks again*
Oh, GHAWD, the tentacles.
*looks again*
OH, EFFING GHAWD, THE BELTS.
Fifty winged angel.
Close. Fifty-winged meatball. XD
Oh God. Now my brain is reading his dialogue in the voice of Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Flying Spaghetti Monster’s Brother?
why do they like using angel wings when they are the bad guys? dont tell me his super attack is you get bird flu or he lays eggs…
Angel of death and all that jazz
Because teenagers love angel wings. So edgy and non-conformistic!
And like, ohmygawd, it’s sooo symbolic! They’re, like, so totally misunderstood and stuff, because, like, the power of love can redeem him? And it looks soooo dreamy~!
…god, it hurt to type that.
Don’t feel bad. It hurt to read that, too! :D
Agreed.
Once this arc is over, we will never speak of this discussion again.
Just like a Victoria secret model, haha
If its JRPG centric, then angels and gods themselves are usually boss bait.
Give a look at Japans history with Christians and the like. It gives an interesting look into why some shows and games use religious deities as bad guys.
Some honestly joke that one of the writers of a persona side series uses a bible and a mad libs style scripting pattern.
I just don’t think angel wings mean the same thing to eastern culture as they do to western culture. It’s kind of like how to us Marluxia a villian from Kingdom Hearts seemed wierd since all his attacks either spread cherry blossom petals or use them. Now in Japan cherry blossoms are associated with death, so to them it was akin to a grim reaper. A culture clash I would suppose.
The form there kind of reminds me of one of my all time favourite RPGs, Shadow Hearts where the main character turns into demons and fights monsters/demons and at the end kills God. Not sure WHAT god, just God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Hearts
Now that I did not know. Marluxia makes a whole lot more sense now!
He does actually, despite the fact that I thought it was just one of those effects emphasizing a sort of Hell’s Angel concept. Just a serious dangerous guy who has beautiful but extremely powerful attacks and whatnot, sort of like Captain Kuchiki from the anime “Bleach”.
Man, Byakuya just took on a whole new level of bad ass. But now his somber sullenness makes more sense!
It always made sense to me. I just thought he was one of those tough serious guys who cared about nobody but his sister and her friends. Sort of like the stereotypical brute. Looks like a bully, but has a sweet spot for his sister.
Yeha, but he’s a pretty boy. Steriotypical brutes are usually fuckin’ massive and ugly. Byakuya is borderline bish.
Well, they did give a bit of a tip. Marluxia used a scythe as a weapon didn’t he?
Yeah but it was somewhat mitigated by the stem green handle and the cherry blossom coloured blade.
He also used an enormous battle suit/vehicle thingy. XD
WINGS, WINGS ERRYWHERE
Also, is it bad that the first thing I thought was “Broodmother…”?
“First day, they come and catch everyone. “
“Second day, they beat us and eat some for meat.”
The first time I played through the Dead Trenches, the broodmother freaked me out in a major way. It still gives me the chills even when I know its coming.
On a happier note, I hope we get to see Mr. Fish hyperbeamin’ the Gackt-monster. Not using him when he’s right over there would be a terrible waste of a laser fish.
Naw, Mr. Fish’ll just eat it, get that “WTF-!” look on his face, puke violently, and then the Gackt surrenders out of desperate need for more hair gel.
That or Jonesy will shoot it in a panic…
lol, or maybe just both.
I am permanently creeped out by both the concept and game-reality of broodmothers. That was the single most terrifying part of that game.
Mr. Fish is still firing lasers in the background!
Manga Studio looks good on you, Coelasquid. Is this going to become a regular thing with your work?
I think it might be, I inked this much faster than usual and the fine details stayed crisp.
I’m no art critic and yours always looks good no matter what, but I do think it looks a little clearer than normal. And hey, if you were able to make it faster and have it still look as good, then I don’t see a downside.
Holy crap, it seriously took me a good moment to stop laughing when I saw the last panel. Still grinning like a moron.
Same! XD
Th-that’s not pretty at all!
But I bet it has lovely smooth flawless skin.
Ooooookaaaaaay…that’s…disturbing…
It’s true if you don’t count feathers or random jawless mouths as flaws.
Baby Bum soft.
…………….yuk.
That was… perfect.
Lasers were not addressed. That being said, the potion to the face was priceless as well as a eye wash station in the middle of the place.
I like how you had commander blinded and had him kept busy while the bad guy changed into his ultimate form. It always bothered me that the hero or villain would just stand there and wait for them to finish transforming. Commander obviously would not have so giving him a legitimate reason to turn away was excellent.
So during the over extended fight did “Indiana Jonesy” make a sandwich or something?
I imagine Jones didn’t want to, you know, miss and shoot the wrong person. Hitting moving targets is hard. Hitting targets moving around each other is harder.
That said, POTIONS AM WHERE JARED AM VIKING.
No, I figured she wouldn’t be in on the fight as that seems to be a one on one thing. I just meant the epic fight from last time (no I will not put money in the jar) seemed to go on along time. I was curious as to whether she stayed the whole time or if she came to the realization that this was going to take a while and made a sandwich or balanced her check book.
Oh.
If it’s anything like being dragged to church, I’ll go with checkbook.
the jar, always with the jar
Well “epic” is a over used word but no one seems to know who holds this jar and I’m not giving my money to someone else’s beer fund.
I believe it a symbolic jar so meh, I generally throw a dollar at one of those dimestore charity cans.
Lower left of last panel, background, lasers are still firing.
If there is an eye wash station, I bet there is a concession stand and she’s grubbing on a greasy dog covered the works, sitting in the bleachers next to the concession stand. Also, a macho, popcorn, giant slurpee, team flag, and corny foam finger all in her lap or beside her.
Yeah, the lasers weren’t addressed, and also he page count skipped. Think the wrong page might’ve been uploaded?
Er… Disregard. The numbers on this site don’t seem to follow a conventional order.
Actually, about the Lasers.. Last panel, bottom left corner.
Okay the lasers were seen not addressed. I could see the lasers. I never said I could not. They were not addressed was my point. The whole reason Jared shows up is because he was freaking out. I just curious about the not ADDRESSING the lasers thing.
I agree with that completely. And Indiana Jonesey is probably going to shoot that thing in the back now that she can’t possibly miss. *Mushu shows up* “You missed! How could you miss when he was right in front of you!?” *BOOM*
I couldn’t help but burst into laughter when I saw the transformation. The way he just casually turns into it might have contributed to that.
I note that despite Commander’s protest, his face IS healed.
His face is, yes. NOBODY RUINS THE FACE AND KEEPS IT THAT WAY. XD Nobody said anything about his bones and whatnot. ;)
So the potion works if it’s only made contact with his skin but it can’t remove glass from his eyes. Guess you’d need a blind-removal potion for that.
Will Gackht have a third ultra pretty form?
Well, it’s not glass in his eyes, it’s health potion. Probably stings like shampoo or something.
I love everything about this strip; the art, the timing, the end boss and I won’t lie, the eye wash station had me in a laughing fit.
So, are we to assume that Mr. Fish ran out of PP then?
Wait, looking closer at the last panel Mr. Fish is still firing. Nevermind, ignore me
I’m not sure that’s possible, technically it’s still just one hyperbeam.
oh shit its vagina-man every encounter with him involves cheap death and status ailments.
Just hope it doesn’t spawn minions.
Bosses with minion support are the worst.
You’re telling me. There’s this one game, I cannot remember which atm, where the first five or so bosses are all pretty much JUST minion support… and you can’t shoot at a boss that still has living minions.
Worse is that after the first two bosses, the minions become undead, and keep getting back up. In addition to the ones that keep spawning.
Strangely, that monster coincides with a bunch of my interests – arms, body horror, mouths that grow everywhere and tentacles. But, those bishie heads and wings…
*puts on the Ultimate 9,000-winged Angel soundtrack* But wouldn’t it be cool if health potions actually WERE water balloons?
They’d be much more practical, in the throwing aspect, but one puncture and you’d be out of a health potion. I think just keeping them in the glass bottles, then pouring the health potion into a water balloon might be more practical. That said, I love the idea personally!
Why not go the extra mile and fill a water gun with said potion?
“Nice Aid Smash” –> “Nice Aid Splash”!?
LOL Mr. Fish is still back there making lasers. XD
Yeah, makes you wish he’d turn his head slightly and lazor Gackt in the back
The ultimate form is so funny & disturbing at the same time. It vaguely reminded me of this guy: http://images.wikia.com/megamitensei/images/d/da/Nyarlathotepfatherfusion.jpg
That in turn puts me in mind of Andrei’s flesh monstrosities from Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.
Isn’t Mr. Fish shooting lasers right now? He could just angle his head a smidge towards the center and blow up the flying squid potato.
You can’t tell Mr. Fish what to do!
Even if you could, he’s a high enough level to know hyper beam and Jared has no badges!
The badges thing only applies only to exchanged pokemons, not your own.
Sure about that? I remember goofing around with the Missing No. bug and catching something past level 100. He went to sleep whenever he damned well pleased.
Of course, that was fourteen, fifteen years ago. My memory could just be bad.
I think we can all agree that Jared is a poor enough Pokemon trainer that he has no control over Mr. Fish’s lasers, badges or no. Beating things to death with a Magikarp qualifies as awful no matter which version of the game you’re playing.
But childhood (or pre-evolution-hood) trauma develops character!!!
Actually, I think that it’s probably the most effective utilisation of a magikarp that I have ever seen… Beats the ol’ exp share system
Pretty sure, my main pokemon was always higher level than any of my badges.
Yes,my main pokemon was very high level and the other five only used for MO’s.
Jason, if any pokemon was from in-game and non-traded from normal gameplay, it would have the same ID has your player, and you would not ever need a badge for it regardless of level. Traded and Missingno catches do not have the same ID number. You can also tell this is the case since both gain the experience boost from being traded.
Naw, that’s a common thing with the glitch PKMN. They just don’t listen to you or do some other outlandish nonsense. For in depth coverage of Gen 1 glitches in all their magnificence, please consult
http://lparchive.org/Pokemon-Blue/Update%2001/ <- Consult that. Copy/paste fail.
BADGES??? HE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ BADGES!!!!
As long as Mr. Fish’s happiness is high enough he’d listen anyway. Does Mr. Fish love Jared?
As long as he gets to eat cuddly cute Pokemon I’m sure Mr. Fish thinks he’s a neat guy.
He needs a move called “Don’t Eat Jared.” You decide.
Lol squid potato what a perfect name! XD
Nah, this isn’t his ultimate form. Everyone knows that after the hideous One Winged Angel comes the slimmed-down final fight mode. Sephiroth, Freiza, it’s always the same.
After I got to the “Sephiroth has a seraphim poking out of his ass” fight, I took the disc out and threw it away. After hours of staring at ZOMG-3D-IS BETTER-EVEN-WHEN-IT’S-UGLY-AS-SIN, that was the last awful character design I could take from that game.
THIS is so very true. If we don’t get a third monsterous-but-human-form, even for the briefest second, you’ll seriously let us down, Coelasquid. At least add a pencil sketch of one, if it doesn’t fit into the story. Not having one would just be…plain wrong.
Please.
You can tell the difference if you know what to look for, but I think it turned out really well ^^
I wonder what Ultimate Gackt’s weakness is?
Maybe a mirror? Or rabid fangirls?
MASSIVE DAMAGE.
Doesn’t matter what it is, it’s always vulnerable to getting punched really hard.
And fire. Even if it’s made of it. If fire doesn’t work, use more fire. Eventually, you’ll have enough fire to form a sun, and whatever it was will be squished by the pressure anyways.
If that still doesn’t work, add more fire until it collapses into a Black Hole.
. . . belts , BELTS EVERYWHERE !!!!!!!!
Okay, somebody else noticed the horn belts. I feel better now.
Not nearly enough wings, Coela. WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU
Don’t forget the zippers! There’s clearly not enough zippers! Or chains!
As long as there’s an odd number of wings, it should be fine.
(Exceptions are made for deity references, of course.)
What upsets me is I’m sure there’s already an erotic fanfic about that ultimate endboss.
They really should put those eye wash stations everywhere, way to many people come into my store to get some sort of thing pulled out of their eye.
Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhh. That hurts my soul, that final form. Though it’s a really great imitation of like every Cthuloid Horror Second Form ever.
i think your supposed to drink the potion
Who’s the lower right head? I can make out Cloud, Tidus, Sora, and Squall, but I can’t for the life of me figure out who that last guy is.
Sion from the Bouncer.
I get a feeling slaneesh has somethingto do with this. Or I’ve been dragged too deep in realms of War and Hammer.
Mouths on the chest is notmally nurgle…
But not enough rot, plague or other unplesantries to make it nurgle… 50/50 Slaneesh and Nurgle then?
The first 6 panels just had me laugh too hard
reminds me a little bit of ballos
I like how Gyrados is still Hyper-beaming in the background of the last panel.
Also, I must ponder what compelled Gackt to place an eye-wash station in his arena. maybe it doubled as a lab.
I feel that no one’s mentioned the fact that the healing potion to the face DID heal him… His flawless skin is back and unbloodied!
Whelp, I’m officially in love with you.
I love Mr. Fish still blasting away uncontrollably in the background.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY! I’m gonna be sick!
I dunno if maybe it’s just the fact that now there’s lighting from outdoors or what, but the colors look more vibrant. I’m not sure; I’m not an animator/drawer/painter in any capacity. :V
Gackt… that… that is not pretty or sexy, Gackt….
But tentacle rape is sexy in J-Land. He’s just catching with the running fad.
Actually on that, they have a strange fascination with such things, dating back quite a while, such as the 1814 the dream of the fisherman’s wife, rather disturbing to say the least. So not as much a fad, but something more ingrained in their culture?
Then again, i do not know much about Japanese culture except from presumably wrong stereotypes so meh
It was never about being pretty or sexy, and always about re-shaping people against their will. That’s why it’s appropriate (and hilarious) that Gackt’s second form is equal parts Final Fantasy and Resident Evil.
I call foul. You can’t have superfluous angel wings and vaginae dentatae on the same boss. It’s just not done!
Can’t read that without thinking, “what a wonderful phrase!”
Vagina!
Dentata!
Vagina!
Dentata!
*ad infinitum*
Akira status
The thrope in here is strong, can’t unsee anymore. (┛◉Д◉)┛
When I saw this final form…terrible and nightmarish memories came to mind. http://images.wikia.com/batenkaitos/images/f/f7/Geldoblame_End_Magnus_form.jpg
I have to say though, I am surprised that since he’s so vain and set on everything being beautiful, I’m surprised that he would make such a hideous end form.
This was pretty much inevitable, really. The only question was whether his super form would be a Genesis-esque One-Winged Angel or a monstrosity. Looks like we got our answer here.
Also, the faces are Sora, Tidus, Cloud, Squall… and which one’s on the bottom right? Sion?
My guess: The square-cube law is gonna come into play in a moment, and Gackt will collapse in on himself.
Reality has completely ignored this entire story arc, so if there’s any moment for it to come back in full force for maximum ridiculosity, it’s now.
No that’s how he gets to his TRUE final from, collapsing in upon himself and becoming
Super Massive Black Hole Gackt…. No ultimate boss fight can be complete now without a PS reference.
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4&p=001740
Well, at least the Potion worked.
This could all be solved in one panel.
CB – “Jared! Point Mr. Fish over here!”
Jared – “Okay!”
Gackt – “NO! LASERS! MY ONE WEAKNESS!”
*Commander turns burly again and everyone is happy*
He’ll just come back in the next game with some ridiculous plot device.
Probably a steampunk accordion possessed of the soul of the planet.
I had my money on a giant blob of flesh and bat parts. SO CLOSE! >:{
….0.o
Ok now that is just bizarre.
How long has Jared been carrying those health potions without managing to break them???
…brb, LOL’ing forever. *snicker* It’s like Sephiroth’s ass wings from Kingdom Hearts II met Tetsuo from Akira and had a terrible baby. I feel bad for the the random other Gackt’s that appear to be assimilated into his Final Form…and those tentacles remind me of every anime I’ve ever seen where the bad guy will randomly turn into a tentacle monster (Weiss Kreuz, anyone?) and start menacing the prettiest male in its vicinity.
I can’t wait for the next panel! Fantastic job and your lines look a lot cleaner in this strip. :)
Aw, C’MON!!!!
SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS.
The lines for Photoshop tend to be a bit fuzzy and not so crisp. I have been using Paint Tool SAI for awhile now and I love the smooth lines it gives me. I would suggest giving it a try. Only sucky thing about it is that it has no typing tool, for word bubbles and such.
Also, another lovely page as usual. ^.^
I’d try SAI, but it looks like a pain to install on a Mac.
SAI is a pain to install anywhere, but I’ve found it to be worth it. It’s probably the most user-friendly program I’ve ever used for drawing anything.
My, but that’s a lot of belts.
And the mouths look kinda like zippers, too.
RPGs sure are weird with their potion use. Throwing glass bottles at half dead party members and all.
The amount of belts lol… definitely is a key thing in every damn design of Nomura… surprised the manish Lightning wasn’t thrown into his ultimate form or Sephiroth.
Oh please, the undesputed master of belts is Lulu. She made a dress from them!
That sure is a FF endboss! I love how happy Jared looks to be helping.
To quote Buttlord GT: “Jesus FUCK, dude, can you even MOVE?”
Buttlord GT might be the golden standard of weeaboo bullshit parody.
It looks like Mr. Gackt has some more *sunglasses* mouths to feed.
YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Did Mr. Fish ever get the laser off? Or is he just going to vaporize Gackt?
Nevermind, I see in the background he’s still going
The mad science approach to sexyness :
Belt : sexy
–> Belt on arm : moar sexy
–> The more arms you possess (with belts), the sexier you are !
–> Eldritch Abomination
So…uh…
Why did this remind me of the Broodmother from Dragon Age ?
Okay, seriously that is just gross. The final ultimate forms of all FF and KH games are not at all gross. They are imaginative, but not vomit inducing.
It’s basically equal parts Pandora, Deathevan, and Safer Sephiroth.
Oh yeah, Deathevan/Deathevns/Whateven did have that kind of tentacle skirt didn’t he.
Parodies tend to exaggerate certain qualities of what they’re parodying, not be exact copies. That’s kind of the point. Not to mention that there are other JRPGs besides Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, not designed by Tetsuya Nomura.
You…you realize this entire arc has been repeatedly lampooning JRPGs as a whole and that the likelihood of the final boss being taken seriously was nil, yes? Good! Glad we had this discussion!
This is what the final form reminds me of.
I think it’s adequate, if bloated.
O_o|||
Nuke it nuke it!!!
The melding of color to give shine effects is much sharper.
Not gonna lie, I’m a bit sad that the mouths aren’t zippers, to go with all the belts.
Ewww… Well at least it’s not Pandora from Persona. I’d link an image, but that’s require me to do an image search…
I am somehow reminded of the boss “Legion” from the Castlevania games.
I love the laserfish in the background. Totally gonna get laser’d.
Also, for what it’s worth, I can definitely tell the lines are crisper :) Manga Studio is great. Not that the lines were bad before, of course. Love this comic.
…
…
…
What?
SWEET JESUS all the leather straps! D8
Also, the dismayed bishi-heads are amusing as hell. ‘Where am I and how many wings do I have?!’
This on top of all the hilarity of the previous panels. Potion smash. Jared fail. Eyewash. XD
Come on, Gackt, even for this game that’s not kosher!
So. Someone’s probably said this, but if Mr Fish was altered by the virus would it turn him into a dragonair, >>?
Well, at the start of the arc there were a lot of jokes about him becoming a Milotic.
Which is stupid because milotics are tied for first in highest non legendary stats of water types.
I’ve seen enough hentai to know where this could go. But this is a sfw comic, so it won’t. lol
I saw enough Hentai to know where this is going……………….
The potion thing does bug me a bit. Games like Tactic Ogre and of course Final Fantasy Tactics have you throw glass bottles at people to no ill effect. Always bugged me a bit.
You think that’s bad? Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 had a Canoneer class which could load a potion into a portable cannon, then fire it at a teammate.
Jonesy, look out! Are those the faces of other bishi-fied men who’ve tried to fight Gackt? *wail* Nice work!
Man, I love the Chemist reference. That always looked like it should hurt.
Holy Eldritch Abomination, Batman!! ULTIMATE FORM is right!
Although I agree with some of the other commenters, though. We want to see a “ACTUALLY-THIS-IS-THE-ONE” form, that looks a lot more human. Because I bet it will be a not-bishounen Gackht and it will be strangely awesome.
To name a few there are quite a lot of troll final boss forms in JRPGS:
-Genesis from FF Crisis Core (RIGHT after his supposed god form)
-Orphan form 2, 3 (Odd. Just odd to transform in the middle of a clunky rpg battle)
-Nyx form 14 (Giant ball of light in Persona 3)
-Sephiroth (Its needless to say no one needed to see him shirtless in FF 7)
-The Masked Man (Not really a form but just seemed fitting to “human” boss fight in Mother 3)
-Smithy (Lots of creepy heads from Mario and the Seven….Stars? I think)
-Shadow Queen (So many hands….Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door)
I would say something about fire emblem but all the bosses seem to be consistent dragons with no real “human” form.
OH GOD KILL IT
KILL IT WITH FIRE
I like to think Gackt has an emergency eye wash station just for the off-chance his mascara gets too clumpy and he needs to wash it off and re-apply as quickly as possible.
Also, my unartistic eye can’t notice a difference, so if this was easier for you to do then full steam ahead with the change, I say! ^_^
MangaStudio FTW! I loooove that program. I got shaky hands and “correction” feature is pretty much the only way I can get smooth lines using a tablet. (I know Vector has something similar but I never got comfortable using it.) I dunno how much you’ve gotten into the program but there are some excellent Tutorials on Youtube (by mariokluser & contentparadise).
Anyway, I hope you have fun with it! It’s one of those programs that the more you use it, the better it becomes. :D
Is that a Me Gusta face on Jared’s shirt?
It’s a happy goldfish.
Therefor, yes, it is a Me Gusta face on a goldfish. The “Me Gustafish”. That actually sounds like it has a ring to it! There is a comic with a funny little gag called the Caddy Chicken. A chicken the caddied for the main character while he was golfing in a really bizarre dream. Now, Coelasquid, you can use the Me Gustafish as your own little mascot! 8D
Or a running gag type thing of course.
And yes, there are now shirts with the caddy chicken on them. They can be bought in that comic’s store.
Personally I use SAI to ink my comics ( I too found photoshop to be a bit clunky when doing inking ). Will have to check out this Manga Studio to see how it compares to SAI.
Also, first time commenting on your comic. Just wanted to say it’s awesome and I’m looking forward to each new page. Keep up the awesome art and story! Cheers.
Manga Studio has an active-by-default lazy mouse feature that gets you super, super clean lines. It’s not strong enough to alter your actual drawing style, but it smooths out a lot of subtle irregularities and jitter. It’s great for people who have shakey hands (like Draw2much above), or sub-par tablets (like me. If anyone’s reading this, don’t buy a Kanvus: the sensors are jittery, you have to press too hard, the pen is uniformly slick and round so it constantly feels like it’s gonna squirt out of your hand, and replacement nibs don’t exist).
I usually have this “gift” for looking at the most shocking panel of a comic first, so I don’t read the things the right order and it doesn’t leave much of an impact. Didn’t do that here.
In conclusion: AH GAWD
Gackt at his finest.
Oh look, it’s an Old One.
The stars aren’t aligned though… This Old God is going to fail.
Where did all this extra mass come from? Either Gackt is magical, or he was very very dense and compact and just unfolded into this… thing.
That’s discworld logic! This is FF logic! Mass can come from anywhere in FF, its basic fake science. Now you know and knowing is half the battle.
Didn’t quite notice the art change, but your jokes are gold.
Yea THE potion bit it anoyde the F out of me in à lot of games ty fore pointing it ouwt
… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
*inhale*AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*gasp*AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH
!!!
Gods that thing is horrible. KILL IT! KILL IIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!
Welp, there’s my nightmare fuel for the evening. Thanks a bunch.
I didn’t think he had any actual potions. I thought it was just the Commander playing him a trick to help with the self-esteem.
I hear artists often get tired of arcs often, but I gotta say I am cheering about the two months and a half left of this arc. I love it.
Lastly: This part needs more Sarah acting incredibly relax around this madness.
am i the only one thinking that this could have been avoided had commander been wearing the shades of badassitude* properly?
*not really badass, but hey.
Well that’s just not kawaii at ALL.
Kawaii-NOT.
Oh my god Jared is the White Mage!
Reminds me of the ridiculous fusion boss from Gamerz Heaven: http://manga.animea.net/gamerzheaven-chapter-8-page-22.html
I think this is the first time we’ve seen the Commander yell/curse at Jared.
Well in all fairness, a glass bottle to the face probably doesn’t feel like a goose down pillow…not that I’d know.
Somebody get a flamethrower.
Or… a laser fish?
It’s so….Inu Yasha. Oh gackt. XD
So his form is krang with multiple limbs. So I take it he going to fight Commander half way into the match like this. http://www.truimagz.com/host/fortcrush2/folder3/mechagackt.png
That is both horrifying and utterly fantastic.
Oh my gosh! Eye wash station! I just love the sense of humor of this comic. Thank you for producing it.
Yeah, you have arms and wings and faces galore. Now try moving. I doubt those arms can do so effectively, especially with how heavy you are. XD
RPG, remember? Physics have no place here.
Parody comic, remember? THEY JUST MIGHT. O_O I would certainly laugh to see what would happen next if he finds he can’t move. What would the commander and Indiana Jonesey do when they realize he can’t move? XD
Tentacles can do wonders!
So what happened to Nier? Wasn’t he like central to the whole plotline?
Oshit.
Now you have me expecting Nier is gonna come out of nowhere, override the bishie virus with SHEER RAGE and be the “Take the Final Boss Down to Player Level” sacrifice character.
Not anymore central than the first zombie someone sees hobbling down the street is central to a stay-alive horror movie.
That makes sense, thank you.
Jonesy has left the room right?
Not to stereotype but I’ve yet to really see the mix of Japanese, tentacles, and women in the same room and it ending well for the female.
Not that I think that will go that route.
…
ew.
Complain all you want commander, but it did heal you from your injuries.
Eww. That thing looks worse than I do in the morning, and that is really bad.
Poor Sora…
Commander, Quick! Ask him what time is it. You’ll have a five minute window while he tries to find which wrist his watch is on!
Hahah, so they were healing potions after all. I was almost expecting that the Commander was giving him flasks full of Kool-aid just to keep Jared’s self-esteem intact.
Is that title a Kingdom of Loathing reference?
C’mon, commander! Punch that Cthulu so i can put you in one of TVTrope’s trope!! XD
Read the post I just made at the bottom. It has to do with TVTropes.
Wow, I so did not know that seraphim and squids were cross fertile. Eww, not a cute progeny.
awww…. poor misunderstood gact just wants someone he can hang with, on his “level”…see how caring he was about the glass in commader’s eye??
Needs more buckles and/or belts to be properly Final Fantasyesque
Stellar work as usuall!
Y’now, I would expect Gackt’s final form to be more… bishounen, unless of course this isn’t his final form, ultimate and final doesn’t overlap often…
HO HO HO HO! GIVE ME THE TEETH, COMMANDER BADASS!
Annnnd Vanish! Doom! The End.
Despite Commander B being hurt by the bottle, it looked like it worked pretty well- just look at dat unmarred skin. Besides, how else was Jared supposed to get it to him? Heaven forbid Jared getting of Fishy- FISHY IS JUST TOO GOOD.
:) and that final boss monster reminds me slightly of the Brood Mother. Man I hate the Brood Mother.
There’s like, a bajillion angel wings on it.
Effin. Genius.
Looks like a Behelit from Berserk to me.
Glad I’m not the only person seeing a behelit.
FITHOS!
LUSEC!
WECOS!
VINOSEC!
Gesundheit.
HAHHAHAHAAH hyper beamin’ mr. fish in the background is the absolute best!
Even though he nearly had his cornea scratched out by broken glass, he still healed up. :D The eyewash station was my favourite place to hang out in the lab and art rooms at college. Not sure why.
The eye wash station is like the water cooler in other companies.
I would wear this on a t-shirt. Or on a rain poncho, as an alternative.
Oh, God, like I said, multiple forms. Though Gackt seems to have skipped stage two and jumped to stage three, I suppose that’s a testament to the Commander’s strangth.
You realize that, at some point here, federal law (Ringo Act, article IV) requires him to say “Okay you ugly son-of-a-bitch, let’s see what ya got!”
Need more wings and armbands. It’s not enough.
Yeeeah… I still think something is missing. More belts maybe– you sure you have enough belts in there…?
Wait… the potion seems to have worked…
I just found something rather interesting on TVTropes. This is a direct quote: “In Final Fantasy Tactics, the Chemist class hurls healing items at the recipient. There is a hilarious picture◊ of Ramza getting nailed in the face with a potion (Still in the glass flask, which shattered) and screaming in pain until it went into effect.” Here’s the link to the picture mentioned: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/NinjaZeku/FF/FFT_Chemist_vs__Ramza_.jpg
Coelasquid, were you referencing this, or is this pure coincidence?
Somebody said Jared would be chucking health potions like water balloons back in the strip where he was designated potion monkey, I thought it was a funny mental image.
So it’s a coincidence? Well, at least maybe someone would be willing to update TVTropes on that page to include this scene then, as it was referring to things that would normally cause damage but instead do the opposite. I believe the most common example, or at least the most recognizable by me, was the Cure Staff from the Final Fantasy Tactics games, which heals those you hit with it rather than dealing damage like any other weapon.
LE GA! Have you been watching Akira?
the shadows and highlights look a bit more controlled, and the color palette looks a bit more uniform, but other than that, it doesn’t look much different.
if it’s faster though, that’s a plus for you. Death to the hegemony of Photoshop! Death to Tyrants!
Needs more belt buckles.
He looks like a malboro that’s into S&M.
That’s a lotta wings
I am delighted at the eye wash station in an evil lair. Final panel? Epic win forever.
Wow, a hecatonchires, Gackt-style. Coelasquid ma’am, you never cease to delight and amaze.
I like the hint of Hyper Beaming Mr Fish in the background of the final panel. Nice touch!
Oh my~ what a ridiculous turn of events?
OK… Aim Mr. Fish at that…. THING and then win the battle. Everyone’s happy!
If Gackt gets to use his ultimate form it’s only fair that he restore the Commander back to his “ultimate form” for the final round of the battle.
Jared looks extra effeminate this week
i can’t wait to see, what skills jonesy has, waiting in the wings, to display her squid-related skill to help her man out of this situation!
Can’t help but notice that even though throwing the glass bottle like a water balloon was painful, it still healed the commander well enough xD
Oh man I love this. The potion to the eyes was a perfect excuse. I find myself oddly relieved that FF9’s hero, Zidaine, is not in that ultimate form. Its like he was one of the only heroes of later FF games to escape. XD
Also, randomly, the art looks good as ever! *Thumbs up* Thanks for the awesome.
I love how Gackt’s first reaction to Commander’s glass-to-face moment was not to take advantage of the situation and punch Commander to death, but to say “that looks painful” and direct him to an eyewash station (final form aside).
It really is so Gackt, after all! The pretty pretty face is holy and not to be marred. Of course he’d have pity on Commander long enough to let him wash his eyes.
… And now I can just see him crying “No! Not the face!”
Well, it’s apparently been hours and they haven’t managed to punch each other to death yet, I doubt a sucker punch would have made much of a difference.
Besides, this fits perfectly with jrpg rules, first you have the fight,m then there’s a short break, then you fight the final form.
O gawd, i’ve seen enough hentai to know where this is going.
This is exactly why I can’t leave my stereotypical JRPG villain alone at my house anymore.
It’s like I leave for 5 minutes and he starts scratching at the door, pees on the rug, and transforms into a giant monster and destroys the furniture. Still better than what my dog used to do though…
You forgot to make half of them Black wings, or maybe demon or skeletal wings
Oh hey, Jared is now an alchemist potion pitcher in training. No, seriously, that looks painful, poor Commander.
It’s simply horrifying! I must know who your designer was, Lovecraft?
Eye wash stations are rather practical I suppose. You think of everything and now I can never take Kingdom Hearts seriously again. (Like I could before.)
I’m a little disappointed at his ultimate form, it doesn’t look enough like an attempt at looking like a human heart that winds up looking more like a pulsating scrotum.
To quote J. Carpenter’s “The Thing”…
“ya gotta be f#####g kidding me!”
Blow it up. Blow it up good. Blow it up REAL good, commander!
Sora and Cloud in there made me lol.
Oh my god so many belts…
Blerch.
Huh…Gackt’s REALLY One-Winged Angel-ing it here. Or Eldritch abomination…it’s hard to tell really…
Ia Ia! Gackt fhtagn!
This isn’t even his final form.
By the Lovecraftian Hordes of Shoggoth, he got UGLY!
That thing looks like H.P. Lovecraft and Clive Barker had sex over a pile of CLAMP’s doujinshi.
The way he’s saying it makes me think Gackt sounds like Frieza.
“I know gold’s a bit gauche, but I wanted to ensure you grasp my new position atop the pecking order.”