Okay you can have a Castlevania strip
Some people were saying that the cliffside castle was making them want a Castlevnia comic and it seemed to fit in with the narrative okay, so here you go.
Simon Belmont is not exactly a character I’m heartbroken to see redesigned. Every reiteration of the character seems to be equally standalone, and in their own way, oddly generic.
DiC Simon was… I don’t even know. Some sort of Air Force pilot? I’m not sure the people at DiC had ever actually seen a Castlevania game.
Ayami Kojima’s Simon was pretty in the same way that all Ayami Kojima’s characters are, I didn’t understand the red hair, but I can only assume it was so people could differentiate her Simon from her Alucard. Her art is very aesthetically pleasing, and it pains me to speak ill of her because her Castlevania is the Castlevania I grew up with, but she has some mighty sameface going on.
Of course, then we have Takeshi Obata’s hilariously mismatched Simon.
He’s even got that seam around the neck to complete my “this is a fifteen year old’s head grafted onto a 35 year old bodybuilder” headcanon. I’m sure I’ll see people coming out of the woodwork to remind me that Japan has different standards regarding machismo, but I’ll also assume these people haven’t seen a lot of Japanese bodybuilders in their day. Regardless of your country of origin you drop down to 2% body fat and it’s gonna chisel out your face a bit, putting the Deathnote star’s head on Macho Man Randy Savage in goth club gear just looks like a clip art joke gone awry.
I laughed so hard I started coughing. “Good call, Indiana Jonesey.” And the expressions on Jonesey’s face!
Same here XD Priceless!
About Simon (DiC version)… Is he’s the model for Comander, Squid? ^^;;
Its so similar, its spooky.
Not more than any of the other hundred equally stereotypical beefy blond action heroes that people swear Commander looks exactly like.
I’m sure you get questions like that all the time :p
But I was sure I saw a resemblance when I saw the picture you posted. A little.
Wonder how many guys who look like that there are?
Does have a little resemblance. But I’ve never seen CB wearing such an atrociously cheerful expression as that. Or wearing such a clean shave, for that matter.
I am so thankful for Jonsey right now
Brilliant. Wins the “best use of a crossbow in a webcomic” award. Although to make sure it’s dead you’ll have to set it on fire.
Seconded
Rule 4: Double tap
Beautiful.
Is it just me, or does DiC Simon have an uncanny resemblance to the Commander?
Careful. Say that too loud and the crossbow’ll be aimed at you next.
No, I totally thought the same. I’m just glad that I wasn’t the first to say it. She’ll have to run out of crossbow bolts eventually.
Oh thank god. So I wasn’t the only one thinking it. I wonder if there’s a connection to be found here.
I don’t always post but when I do Commander reminds me of Jack from Madworld.
Uh… yeah I don’t really see the Jack comparison so much… at all. Jack reminds me more of Hellboy than Commander.
I can see the resemblance in less of a “this is Commander in another drawing style” way and more of a “This is the Commander’s waaaaaacky sitcom cousin from out of town!” kind of way.
I thought that was canadian guy
Dear god I will see Obata’s Simon in my nightmares. Somethin’ just ain’t right with that boy.
Dad? What are you doing here?!
Brilliant! Also a nice callback to the scene where Indy shoots the swordsman in the 1st movie.
Yup. Simon Yagami is definitely an atrocity.
The only good thing to come out of Judgement was the music.
It has been so long, I forgot the Commander’s face.
It’s at the top of the page.
Sometimes I hit HOME so I don’t forget.
About the DiC show: They hadn’t. I read an article on Captain N where they interviewed the people behind the show: Not only had they not played ANY of the games, they hadn’t even heard of half of them. They didn’t even know who Samus, the protagonist of Metroid and the one who fought Mother Brain all those times, was. My guess? They took names and just went with their own ideas for designs, ignoring the sources completely.
And here I thought they only tried to avoid copyright issues (as most of the names are generic enough not to be copyrighted or copyrightable)
What’s worse, this seemed to be a deliberate creative decision. The one guy, as i recall, said like, he’d play a few minutes of the game and go from there. He didn’t want to be “bogged” down by the stories.
Of course, the result was the stories were shit.
Were they the ones who created those horrendous Legend of Zelda and Mario cartoon shows? The resemblance is uncanny.
Ah, Castlevania Judgment. We hardly knew ye. And a good thing too. That game was horrible.
That…. explains so very much…
he i love it. it’s a perfect set up and execution. i can’t help but laugh. Commander made a good call bringing Josey with him her look says it all..
I congratulate you on your Monday update. Let’s see if this trend will keep going or if you go the way of vgcats.
Apparently people even act dickish when I update on time.
Welp, that just means there’s less incentive to.
People will act dickish for any reason. I, for one, appreciate any comic we get from you, at any time. I have not read one yet I haven’t liked. Thank you for taking the time to give us free entertainment.
Haters gonna hate. There has not been a single comic you’ve made yet that I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed. From what I’ve seen scanning the comments, the majority don’t care how long it takes you to update as long as the end result is enjoyed by all, and the vocal minority asshats just whine.
Maybe I’m just used to random updates being a fan of Megatokyo for 6 years, but still. No one has a right to bitch if they’re getting something for free. Keep going strong madame Squid, and the sane people will be backing you always,
I’m not very articulate so ^what they said^
Same sentiment here. I have enjoyed every one of the strips. I fact, just yesterday I archive binged and was in tears for a full half an hour. And then at work everyone was asking what I was snerking about–I don’t know if any of them will take me up on the recommendations, but I tried.
When there’s no new page, I read the whole thing again from the beginning. ‹3
Take your time with the comics. I think most of us agree that we’d like you to be late and not burnt out on continuing the story rather than finding it dreadful. So stuff the haters, you’re doing awesome work.
Sidenote: Obata’s Simon is just… dear God, those shorts? With those shoes?!
Quality over quantity. This remains the only webcomic site on my favorites bar.
Squidy! Please don’t punish the many for the mistakes of the… well… apparently also many, but that’s not my point! The beauty of being the owner of your own webcomic is that you have all of your followers at your mercy! You do not answer to us no matter how much we beg and plead! Do not lose hope! Do not give in to masses! Down with conformity!!!
try to ignore the dickish people. in the long run they are more or less baiting you and everyone who reads there comments to be assholes. Most of us are content to wait for your comic because among other reasons it’s evident how much effort you put into quality
Me and my friends all love your webcomic, and want it to keep going.
Hopefully donating counters hating. ^_^
Its the internet its 80% dicks
And about 95% visit 4chan regularly, I’d bet.
I would like this comic whether it was updated regularly or not. It’s just that good.
I’m going to reply in two fashions. First, the polite fashion:
That Coelasquid does this comic at all — for free — should be enough for you. Yeah, I get frustrated when comics I enjoy suffer schedule slip, too. Or when they stop updating altogether. But you know what? I haven’t paid one red cent to keep the comic going, so you know what? That they’re giving me great comics worth reading for free is more than enough for me, and it should be for you. Don’t act like you’re entitled to anything, especially if you haven’t paid for it.
And now, the reply that more suits me:
ram ur dick in urself
I agree with both replies. The second one is especially eloquent.
I feel like the only person here who can read those comments as something not meant to be dickish whining about the update times. However in this case even I heard first the arrogant and demanding voice you can interpret this was written in.
And it is utterly stupid.
Any kind of users have a right to voice their concerns and opinions about the product in hand, even if it’s free, but this comic has been updated weekly without any significant slips. If it’s weekly, I don’t care if it’s on Monday, or Tuesday, or Saturday. It’s still weekly, and that is pretty darn often in the field of webcomics.
Even if that comment was written with more positive intent, I’d call it stupid. There haven’t been any slipping into irregularity or being absent so far, so why the hell do you call for it to come?
All these silly complaints are leading me to believe that there is an evil cabal that wants to stress Coela so that she stops making MGDMT because they feed on boredom and MGDMT brings too much awesome and joy into the world or something. Or why else would people keep on pushing her that way with their comments… *growls*
(And because I don’t feel like making another comment, creepy Simon is creepy. May his soul rest in peace. “Indiana Jonesy” wins The Best Bad Joke award, here is some internets *gives*)
Was that struggled “kill me” a Alien 4 reference? I liked it!
The bad guy’s gonna be in the middle of getting dressed thinking that battle would have given him enough time to finish.
I’m still banking on trolls getting slaughtered at some point.
This was suppose to go at the bottom :/
:/ Damn, the commenting system tricked you! … … that’s kinda scary. But hey, free upper spot for your comment :’D
Man, passively aggressively bitching about the comic updating on time AND using VGCats as a reference?
What? Where you born in 1999 or something?
DAMN, son. She gives us something every week, even if it isn’t colored, and very rarely misses a week. When she does, it’s because she has a fucking life and this isn’t her day job. I don’t think Coela is going to hit the “whenever I feel like it through-out the year, maybe, because I’m no longer interested in the comic really” point because I think Coela has more of an overarching plot than purely gag-a-day format. If she got tired of the comic, I think she’d probably wrap up at least some of the loose ends or just decide to end it when it feels right. But she would probably end it, not let it linger in some hellish limbo in order to sell merchandise better.
Harlow, you make me sad with your trolling. So sad. :1
I’ve never missed a week. I ran guest comics twice, but there is always new content.
Don’t worry. He’s just being a troll–you can’t step in any place in the internet without ever encountering 1 or 10. I don’t think he really cares about the webcomic, he just wants a reaction from you (and everyone), any kind of reaction, the more negative the better.
I don’t think I’ve commented before but I have to say that my boyfriend and I love these comics and we are happy to see any new one whenever it’s added. some people are jerks just because they can be and they’re not worth any amount of stress
Really dude? You’re bitching about the schedule of free entertainment? This is someone making something awesome and then choosing to share it with the world. If the rate at which she produces free content is too slow for you, read something else.
What the hell is wrong with you? If you can’t be patient to wait a few days for free entertainment, then you have issues. Go masticate upon a male reproductive organ, you indecent slagmonger. I mean seriously, I personally find it quite annoying for people who are impatient for no good reason.
Whoops. Meant that I was annoyed by people impatient for no reason.
I am both shocked and not surprised at all that that last one is a legit character design. Oh, Japan…
On Obata’s version, it’s the jaw, chin, and cheeks that bug me a lot. Oh whoops that’s practically the whole face.
Sometimes there is no better answer for a situation than a crossbow bolt to the face. Glad to see that archery class started with “How to aim”.
Just figured this would be a good moment to bring up that bishonens and burly men are not quite mutually exclusive.
http://soggettoketer01.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/shadowdio.png
Just saying.
Dio doesn’t have a teenager’s face strapped onto Hidetada Yamagashi’s body, which I believe is that qualm I’m raising with Obata’s Belmont. Dio’s more like Ayami Kojima’s Belmont.
Even if Dio did have a teenaged face, he still wouldn’t be a good example since he quite literally is a slimmer man’s head transplanted onto a larger, more muscular man’s body.
Well, not quite. Even before he stoel Jonathan’s body Dio was pretty damn burly.
http://hosran.blogg.se/images/2011/diooooooooooo_131958469.jpg
Case in point.
I really think the “The Japanese have a different standard for masculinity” argument is a copout. Between Dragon Ball Z, Riki-Oh, and Fist of the North star I’ve seen more ridiculously ripped muscle-beasts shooting fireballs and kicking dogs in half.
Even your examples from the anti-bishi comic (they were deserved) were kind of exceptions to the rule. Sesshoumaru (No spell-check, I am not trying to spell “Housewares”) is supposed to look ridiculous, it’s part of his character and Vincent is a bad-ass because of his abilities not his character (as anyone who played Dirge of Cerberus knows all too well) he summed up the reasons he’s cool in the comic: he can turn into a demon.
I think the reason so many animes and mangas and video games from Japan feature angsty whiny teenagers as protagonists is because that’s the sort of people who buy them over there or at least people who identify with angsty loners in tight pants. But from Goku to Kenshiro to Yusuke to Spike Spiegel, Lupin III, Vash the Stampede, even Inuyasha the standards of masculinity are held pretty much in line with the Western ideals maybe skewing a little more towards the passionate and non-confrontational in Japan’s case. Then again I haven’t watched or read a manga/anime made in the last 5-6 years so I could just be behind the times.
Things really have kinda changed in the past 10 years or so–Japan is all about the well-built pretty-boys these days, but they do still hold appreciation for the burly dudes of yesteryear.
It doesn’t help that only a few people filter certain shows into america for the major companies. So we are seeing what they want to show us, not all what is available.
I’ve learned the hard way from trying to draw people myself that you need to make sure the head is designed to fit the body. This does not apply solely to burly musclemen, either; I once tried drawing a sort of masculine chick and realized I’d put her head on a moderately-endowed teenage girl’s body, which served to make her look old and evil – as if the sweet old apple-selling witch from Disney’s Snow White had had plastic surgery on everything but her face. Similar to how the aforementioned rendition of Belmont looks like a heavyweight punk rock metal band dude was playing Headless Horseman in a room full of Visual Kei performers.
I guess what I’m saying is, I look at this and feel like someone needs to send this guy’s face to boot camp.
I realized belatedly I was talking about Kojima’s Belmont, but now that I look at Obata’s again it applies there as well, in some ways more so.
I can’t say the same for the Dio linked, primarily because the art style is a bit too impressionistic to make missing muscle lines on the face say “babyface” outright. That, and the eyes are clearly those of a man whose resting anger levels are off the charts.
It was also drawn in an era where shonnen men looked like that. So that’s not surprising. Art styles, and trends in what is “attractive” in a man differ in every era.
In the same way Vincent and his ilk are considered more attractive since that was around the time when a certain look was deemed attractive.
For me I’d love to have Vincent and Sephiroth drawn by Hirohiko Araki (the guy who makes the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures among other things). I think it’s because I grew up in the 80’s and I’ve had a fondness of substantial men vs. toothpicks.
Bah. “considered attractive” not “more attractive.” sorry about that.
That was the point I was making. Not so much specific to this strip, just in general.
Of course, the same could be said of many JJBA characters, I just went with Dio because he’s the most recognizable.
… Is it weird that thing looked hot? I always thought Yagami needed some mutilation to be attractive, but then, I have a crush on Ryuk the shinigami!
Phh there wasn’t a single thing in that show that wasn’t bangable.
Rem? Mr.Yagami? Watari?
Id bang two of them points if you can guess which
There’s a slash fic of Ryuk and Watari somewhere on the internet.
*Googles Hidetada Yamagishi*
Holy shit, Kazuma Kiryu’s been pumping some serious iron.
It is great when the logical action, and the comical action are one in the same. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it makes me smile for weeks to come. It is odd that this is the second happening of this recently, the other being the encounter between the Hulk and Loki in the Avengers movie.
XD I saw this on tumblr and didn’t think twice. I thought it was weird, maybe ‘liked’ it but never reblogged it. I should have but I still find that Yagami experiment creepy lol
So *this* is what happens when you use a Death Note. Good to know.
lolololololololololol
Did that crossbow get twice as big since Jonesey first picked it up?
Probably, I didn’t care enough to reference the first strip.
She swapped her old one out for this one. It was a loot drop.
Perhaps it’s one of those weapons that becomes more powerful, and bigger, with experience. She climbed a mountain and fought robots. She must have leveled up at least once.
They’ve entered Castlevania Castle, so all the weapons (except for whips) are now huge. That’s how all the Castlevanias I’ve played work.
Two of my favorite things in one sad mutilated creature. Deathnote and castlevania.
You forgot Simon’s Quest box art Simon, not so barbarian but still has the impression of a warrior, and before Miss Kojima came along with chronciles, it was the prettiest Simon was (this is relatively speaking as he wasn’t excessively pretty)
wait wasn’t alucard the first to be bish if we compare his original cv 3 portrait to his sotn or his “pretending to be a Japanese agent” wait wasn’t CV1 simon was an actor playing a role of belmont? and CV4 was the original telling of CV1 so I guess they didn’t turn alucard until after they perfected bish transformation on simon leading to multiple head swaps and body shifting. but good god where did they stash the original head at?
And when I thought this was only a perverse Japan/Wapan thing,
Loki.
http://rinacane.deviantart.com/art/Loki-commission-304926589
http://rinacane.deviantart.com/art/Loki-304267600
In Loki’s case that look could actually happen, he’s like Renly Baratheon, (Spends more on clothes than all the women in the kingdoms court) Some people are just like that.
Loki turned into a female horse at one point and gave birth to Sleipnir. I think he can do whatever he wants and I doubt he’d see a problem with this. :P
He also spent many a hot tryst as a women getting pregnant by random human men and also become pregnant as man a few times giving birth to some of the troll breeds/races.
I think he has bit of a pregnancy fetish. X3
Loki was clearly written by mpreg people, trying to rid themselves of these nasty females who are vitally necessary for the production of another generation.
That last one is reminiscent of Vampire Hunter D, I’d say.
Maybe intentionally, Yoshitaka Amano is fairly well legendary.
I laughed so hard at the whole Castlevania rant. I’m not even familiar with it, but good fucking god that link. Why would anyone draw that. As for the other one, sameface seems to be a really common practice in Japanese art. You can look at most anime/manga and remove the hair from each male or female character and switch them with someone of the same gender–boom, same person. Obviously there are exceptions, and I’m sure someone who knows all about anime will rush to show me every single one of those examples. Just saying, look at someone like Yuu Watase. Hell even the men and women in that have the same faces.
No, it really is that common. Sometimes they have subtle differences but it’s only rarely in the actual structure of the face. I imagine it makes animation a lot easier though and that might be why it’s not only so prevalent but simply accepted as the norm for most manga and animation.
But, that said, you also have to consider the instances where American animation tends to have more notable physique in their characters. Either it’s heavily exaggerated cartoon styling, in most cases, which are either very easy to draw rapidly or also very simplified versus when they’re typically less extreme in design, which is usually a large project, most often a movie, where the characters are more humanoid in style and while there differences are there they’re often more slight. There’s also the consideration of how big the cast is. The heavily exaggerated cartoons tend to have fewer characters and less “crowd scenes” (or at least less crowd scenes with easily definable features) and the more humanoid and somewhat less distinct tend to feature with a larger supporting cast or at least more instances of humanity in the world at large. But then I might be extrapolating on things that are symptomatic rather than directly controlling such decisions and things.
Case in point for Anime Sameness: the male Shinji Ikari of Neon Genesis Evangelion uses basically the exact same character design as the female Nadia of Nadia of Blue Water.
Except for the breasts, obviously.
That crossbow on the second to last panel is ridiculously wide, and inconsistent with the last panel.
You’re right. It’s almost like they were each individually drawn, which is odd, because these are clearly still photos. Something is amiss here.
Hey, now, there’s nothing wrong with legitimate art criticism.
That said, it looks to me like it’s really wide in the second to last panel as well, but as far as being inconsistent, it’s probably splayed out right after being fired, and then pulled back again in the last panel after Jonesey reloaded/reset it.
-Legitimate criticism is fine, it’s just that there’s such a history of people nitplicking the crap out of the comic that it gets a little tiresome.
Plus … I can’t speak for Ceolasquid, but as an artist myself? I don’t want critique on things I do for fun. If I’m not being paid for the work then redlining it just makes me feel like the whole thing is tedious and unrewarding.
I’m not going to be a baby about critique, but I’ll freely admit there are some things I just have no fucks to give about when I draw this strip. When I drew the first crossbow people complained it was too small, so, y’know, whatever.
This probably goes without saying, but that really depends on the crossbow–I have a couple of 50-lb pistol crossbows that are small, but an 80-lb pull would be bigger etc. Still, I think it’s silly anyone would bother to complain about it because it’s a detail that doesn’t really have any bearing on the strip’s outcome. Bottom line: Jonesy shoots a crossbow, we no longer have to be terrified by Yagami-Belmont nightmare fuel, hurray! Story advances :)
Castlevania remains my favourite series of games of all time, and while I do love Ayami Kojima art for them, I still have a great soft-spot for old-style barbarian Simon.
Takeshi Obata’s abomination, on the other hand, just got exactly what it deserved. XD
Looking at the Japanese body builder reminded me of Wakka from Final Fantasy X. I think he’s one of the very few Final Fantasy characters that Could pass for manly, or at least not overly feminine.
Hi, Auron from Final Fantasy X would like a word with you about body building manliness .
This is actually what I thought when I saw Obata’s character design. Just wow…
I also love Kojima but do have to admit she does have sameface syndrome. Though I have seen some illustrations that deviate from her norm, at least.
Jonesy, angel of mercy.
Man, this particular strip really shows up how many video games provide material for the theme of this story arc. Even I, with my personal irrational allergy against the manga/anime family of styles, have a bunch of games in my collection that are very guilty of this stuff.
The bishi-face syndrome is a thing that’s always annoyed me in manga and it’s why one of my favourite artists is Mujik Park aka Boichi. Some of his work is a bit porny but When he draws highly muscled men their faces are cut out of the same wood as the rest of them.
I was never a big fan of Castlevania games (though I loved the crap out of SotN), and I’m used to anime styles, but I still cried when I saw Judgment’s character art. That was just wrong. It’s like, drawing Berserk characters in the style of Blue’s Clues. It just doesn’t FIT.
Holy crap! Someone using a Blue’s Clues reference. That’s an old show I worked on back in the day, and it’s weird when people casually bring it up in conversations in places I hang out. LOL
You are officially my hero.
You know what’s funny?
I moved off the Blue’s Clues team at the end of Steve Burn’s run. We actually filmed the last two episodes with Steve in reverse, so we were all pretty depressed during the second to the last episode’s filming. I mean, I really didn’t want to finish the last Steve episode, because even I cried. Although it was great that Steve went on to do his music his way and I even saw him live opening for the Flaming Lips. We had a heck of a send off for Steve – the fact I knew him makes me a better person, honestly.
I didn’t get to know Donovan Patton too well, since I left like a little while after he started. But he was a very likable guy, and he was really funny. I heard he went on to do Team Umizoomie as a voice actor. Bot, I think.
Loved working for Nickelodean back in the day.
Here’s the mail
it never fails
it makes me want to KILL GRIFFITH
Holy shit, man. Too funny.
I think that’s the only song that survived unaltered as the show went on. Alan Zdinak slowly evolved the other songs – starting with the To Play Blue’s Clues song.
But HERE’S THE MAIL never changed. NOT ONCE. And when people learn I worked on Blue’s Clues, they always sing that song with as much enthusiasm as Steve did. AND I FREAKIN’ LOVE IT!
C.ool whip
L.eather whip
F.laming whip
i remember them years ..
C.ream whip
Japanese body builders and Simon have something in common now –
They are both tortured souls.
I call shenanigans. Commander Badass is awesome no matter how it’s said.
I think it depends on who says it and how they say it.
Since Gackt’s English isn’t great, my mind uses George Takei’s voice (specifically his voice for Lok Durd from the Clone Wars). It’s good times.
This comic just got even funnier.
I grew up with the nintendo 64 castlevania. I got Reinhardt. guy was awesome.
i know a lot of people give the two 64 games a lot of stink but i liked them. they were pretty solid for a N64 game.
Ooh, this is scary! Say, if it’s Light’s head on Simon’s shoulders, whose brain is it?
Not lights, he’s not really the “kill me” type, if I had to fathom a guess, random mook
Or the BLU spy
Truly, time and time again this comic proves to me it is the greatest comic ever!!!!
Does anyone notice that the crossbow in Panel 5 looks a bit…exaggerated?
I KNEW I wasn’t the only one who saw him as light yagami in that design! Now I can rest in peace and leave this asylum
That would have been my first reaction, too–not just to put that poor grotesque out of his misery, but also to keep it the HELL away from me. My pity only extends as far as I can shoot!
please tell me the eat what you kill rule doesnt apply anymore….
…Also, regarding face-chiseling, that’s more the result of dropping down to 2% body fat BY filling your body with artificial testosterone. (Certainly that’s how Hidetada Yamagishi got there.) The body sooner or later protests this process and tries to murder the testes, which (the testosterone being from an outside source) doesn’t do all that much good. That Arnold jaw ain’t natural, it’s what you get when you take the body’s natural manliness and turn it up to about 45 on a scale from 1 to 10.
Ah ha, yes, all bodybuilders have the faces of young teenagers unless they are on steroids, that’s exactly how it works. I can’t wait for summer to gear up so I can head to the beach and watch all that organic beef swaggering around with their little child heads.
I’m picturing a beach populated by reverse-minotaurs. It’s not a pretty sight.
I dunno, but I’m gonna draw that because the imagery is hilarious.
Could you provide us with a link when you’re done?
Certainly.
Natural man’s manliness is shaped roughly in this fashion:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/AmericasBestComics3036.jpg
You say that as if you think I haven’t extensively researched different types of athletic physiques.
I personally never thought about it before but I would like to see some of this research. I know you have machismo and tuff guy bodies down to science but I didn’t think you did research to acquire that knowledge. I figured you acquired it through the experience of your life. Do you have notes?
I tried typing in machismo into the for dummies website and the only thing that cam up was “How to Behave with Puerto Rican Businesspeople or Customers”. Male physique got me “The Pyrenean Shepherd Lives Loyal and Works Hard”. Neither sounds appealing to me so obviously you have a window to write a book on the matter. Instead of that goofy guy with glasses guiding me it could be Jared.
If you’re asking whether or not I have notes you probably haven’t seen that musculature VS character design thing I did like three years ago that gets posted everywhere.
*learning*
My offspring is an ectomorph, then. I think…
I can’t like on here but I do like that sentence and thought you should know. How old is offspring?
I am old enough to have a 24 year old.
Well, you did cite a known juicer above.
I’m honestly not sure why you’re still posting things. You may have noticed your Charles Atlas example doesn’t exactly have a child’s face either. Or not, apparently, since you’re still trying to make an argument out of this?
Obata took a ‘roided out body, added a teenage Obataface to it, and called it a day. It’s a poorly executed design. Whenever I point things like that out (only in regard to characters that were designed in Japan, it’s fine to poke fun at cartoons from anywhere else in the world), I get people jumping in to say “no no it makes sense because in Japan pretty guys are considered ‘manliest’ of all” (which is a somewhat flawed observation, but that’s a whole different can of worms). I figure these people have not seen many actual Japanese bodybuilders because, steroids or not, their bodies do not firm up independently of their heads. Even muscular East Asian guys on the “prettier” end of the musclebound spectrum don’t look like they have high school faces on swaggering Lundgren bodies.
Charles Atlas has a man’s jaw, the jaw of a man who has been through puberty and who lifts heavy things often. What he doesn’t have is the ‘chiseled jaw’ of a modern bodybuilder, like Arnie or Stallone, because he didn’t augment his ability to lift heavy things by ingesting artificial androgens. (He also didn’t get “cut” abs by crash diets to remove layers of subcutaneous fat to make them more defined.)
I’m not arguing what you seem to think I’m arguing; tiny heads on goliath musclebound bodies look silly whether it’s a Japanese girly-man or not. But it does set me off when chemically-augmented physiques are held up as the male ideal, same way it does for haute couture models on liquid diets and cabbage leaves.
Then you are arguing about something that no one but you brought up, because my point was only about making heads that suit the bodies they were drawn with.
I find it strange that literally no matter how explicitly someone explains something, someone on the internet will get pissed off at them for a reason that isn’t even attached to their original idea. The internet should come with an age restriction and a reading and comprehension test.
…What? For starters, thanks for insinuating that I’m illiterate and all, but I can read just fine.
Th’ words I read were that “you drop down to 2% body fat and it�s gonna chisel out your face a bit,” with Hidetada Yamagishi as the example. That was pretty explicit, but what it was an explicit endorsement of the cocktail of anabolic steroids Yamagishi consumes as par for the course in male development. A cocktail that, a few years ago when he was caught in the airport, included:
human chorionic gonadotropin
trenbolone
stanozolol
mesterolone
oxandrolone
Two male enhancement pills I can’t mention by name (nitric oxide boosters)
Anyhoo, good job recovering from the hardware meltdown there, Coelasquid. Glad it wasn’t a permanent thing.
Nah, you’re pretty much just reinforcing what we’re saying about your apparent reading comprehension here.
Yamagishi was an example of nothing but what the face on a real life jacked up Japanese bodybuilder looks like for the sake of comparison to Obata’s ridiculous Simon, because the last time I tried to bring that same character design up I had fangirls arguing that human bodies work differently in Japan and the machoest of the macho are also the prettiest. So I plucked the most famous Japanese bodybuilder I could find off of google to show that no, that’s not exactly the case, Japanese guys can look like juiced up pitbulls like anyone else.
I think the word you’re tripping over here is”chisel”, you seem to assume I’m saying that I’m saying “if you get down to 2% body fat you will have a brick jaw”. Which is not correct in the least. I’m saying that removing fat from your body means you also remove fat from your face (chisels- they subtract matter). You won’t have round, soft, smooth, childlike curves, your cheek bones will likely be more pronounced or gaunt, and you’ll be able to see more of the underlying structure of the head because there won’t be a layer of baby fat filling in the crevices.
If you still don’t accept that, I can’t help you.
I am offended that you find my hobby strange! I will write an angry blog about how politics caused this to happen!
Signed,
THE INTERNETS!!!!!
My reaction was far too in line with jonesy’s gut reaction to laugh at this. That thing was more disturbing than anything I saw last time I gave resident evil a spin.
On one hand, Indiana Jonesey, an image I am going to treasure forever.
On the other hand… Good god, Takeshi Obata, you can do better than that! Just… why?!
I am somewhat grateful that the syndrome doesn’t also cause them do the end of battle victory pose because I feel nothing could have topped that headshot complete with those disgusted looks.
Well, it’s not like the art style of Castlevania Judgement gathered a lot of fans. Hell, Judgement itself didn’t please most Castlevania fans, so if there’s a fan rage against you due to this strip, I imagine it is pretty shallow.
At least Light was dead before the head graft. Now Simon may rest in piece.
i wisch i code do that in some other games ynow cut the crap the cut sene ande shoot the basterd in the face XD
Do you fire crossbows IRL? Because you pretty much nailed the sound effect.
Long have I ranted about the various pretty-boy Belmont re-imaginings.
The Belmont bloodline is cursed with the power and drive to defeat Dracula every 100 years. I imagine it’s something they need to do in the same way that you and I occasionally need to poop; as in, if they aren’t fighting Dracula, they’re preparing their offspring to fight Dracula, and if they aren’t doing that, they feel a nameless pressure to do so in their head. Or… that’s what I’d figure, anyway.
Those new Belmonts don’t look like they’ve spent their lives training to fight monsters and vampires and such, they look like they’ve spent their lives primping in front of a mirror.
Rantrantrantrantrant
Please excuse me.
Well only the early belmonts kinda have been bish(leon though he kinda cursed his entire bloodline anyway so blame him,juste,someparts simon). so far the newer belmonts tend to look either between normal looking(the village in OOE) to buff bearded(julius).
Never thought I’d laugh that hard at something making fun of my sense of humor.
I learn so much reading your comic… I dont venture outside of FB much.
All hail Indiana Jonsey! Firer of crossbows, interrupter of monologues!
…and I’m pretty sure I misspelt something there.
Weird. Mr. Belmont looks a little bit like something Adam Warren would draw.
Wow, I thought that whole “Light Yagami’s head grafted” thing was an exaggeration… and then I clicked on the link.
I had not realized the extent of the horror until now.
My goodness, I didn’t think I’d have add another wing to the Simon Belmont section of my “Character Design while Huffing Paint” mental archive.
I like that Jonesey just killed a man and none of us so much as batted an eyelash…
He was asking for it. Literally.
And besides, I’d say Gackt had already killed him.
Still. She took a man’s life. That’s kinda heavy if you think about it…
It would be heavier if not for the fact that, one, Light already died in his own series. Two, Commander Badass works with guys that dealt out death like free pizza to college kids. Three, it’s humorous strip so death in this should be viewed the same way we would view Kenny’s deaths on South Park.
Frankly I’m hoping she gets to use a butcher knife cuz she works as one.
1. Not all of us knew that. Might want to watch the spoilers.
2. The guys he works with and Jonesey are different animals, no? Had Duke killed him I wouldn’t’ve thought anything of it.
3. Fair enough.
Thank you.
This is one of those posts that makes me go “Damn!” a lot. Like… Damn! That’s a messed-up Frankenstein hooker of a Simon Belmont. And… Damn! Japanese bodybuilders do not fool around. And so on.
….Okay couple things. 1st. This is the most disturbing strip of yours I’ve read. I really feel revulsion when I see that Frankenstein walk out. And even more when I see the Simon4.jpg. The body looks like something out of Hokuto no Ken (fist of the north star about as manly an Anime as you can get) And the head well….yeah looks like Light Yagami…that smug little fuck. also the japenese bodybuilder:…HOLY SHIT! I didn’t know they got that big. O.o
ya know, now we also have Lords of Shadow-continuity Simon.
http://i.imgur.com/QNuu7.png
I’m getting a ‘mountain man samurai’ feel from that.
This is not so much directed at the comic (or the current storyline) as the attitudes likely to congratulate it, and one hates to sound like a spoilsport, it’s just that…
… it’s kinda noticeable that the hypocrisy involves a character stereotype like The Kratos will be chuckled at but ultimately treated with a kind of ugly duckling love. But the Japanese equivalent of a potentially funny stereotype will, in the end, be purely derided with more authentic scorn and even cruelty.
In other words, for all that this comic (only as an example) celebrates the overused stereotype of the ‘manly man’, American foibles are treated as in the end, having a kind of legitimacy. By the Japanese foibles are treated as something that really shouldn’t exist, and are merely an offense to anyone “sensible”.
“Oh Japan, how is that a legitimate character design?” is apt to be spoken by the same person who doesn’t question an army of lookalike 30-something brown haired caucasian protagonists who all have the same smirk and the same half tucked shirt. (aka, the Half Tuck Hero.)
Again, this is not really directed at the comic itself, but more at the attitudes that such a comic is likely to bring out in people.
Which is exactly why I had reservations about doing this arc for so long and pretty explicitly tried to beat it over the audience’s head that it’s making fun of that Club Kawaii-style practice of taking characters and turn them into something hilariously off the mark, while also pointing out that kind of thing is a two way street.
It’s more of an ode to all the years I spent on DeviantArt than anything else.
As much as I actually like Obata’s Castlevania designs {most of them}, I have to agree that you got your message across well with both this and the Ryu strip there. Of course, I’m also one who can handle a joke and have a chuckle at something I like.
Me and my text… ya really did do it.
What next the final showdown with Nier, ala Dracula?
Seriously, guys?
“Wah, you don’t update!”
“Wah, you actually updated!”
“Wah, the comic isn’t realistic!”
“Wah, the faces aren’t realistic!”
Seriously?
I’ll bet you’ve been waiting for a chance to make an indiana jonesy joke since the strip started.
I’m not sure if the stitches ripping in the 5th panel make it funnier or more gross.
I’m gonna go with “yes”.
Buff Asian people terrify me.
I do not know why.
That is the most disturbing Light Yagami I’ve ever seen.
And yes, I have seen the “Go, Raito, Go!” comic (Dora the Explorer spin off “Go, Diago, Go!” crossed with Deathnote. It’s brill). I’ve also seen the doujin where he plays DDR.
AH! But now Light is dead, Ryuk will be there to reap him, and then they can have Ryuk on their team!
After the Randy Savage bit, all I can think of is Macho Man sitting at a club full of goth kids going WHAT AM I EVEN DOING HERE, BROTHER!
Then he beats them all up and they like it.
i think all of those swiss army interests of jonsey’s have prepared her for exactly this type of carreer!
This is just plain hilarious! XD
I am pleased to see Light Yagami’s head meet such an unpleasant end.
‘aesthetically pleasing’
Yessssss….
Keep up the great updates!
http://i.imgur.com/jW3kyh.jpg
I’ll just leave this here
I love seeing manga nerds coming out of the woodwork, all butthurt, every time someone criticizes them.
Fills my heart with cheer.
Great comic, by the way. I also wish you were able to post more frequently (for selfish reasons; I want to read more!), but at the same time I completely understand why you stick to one comic per week.
That was simultaneously unexpected and highly disturbing. Yay.
Simon4 really did look like he had Yagami’s head stitched on. Which is somehow even more disturbing.
Also, people who whine when a person who make comics for fun don’t post fast enough? Stop it, it’s annoying. Be glad she hasn’t stopped making comics for your/her amusement. Pestering just annoys people.
I am absolutely loving how Sarah acts nonchalant when odd shit is going down. She declared once she didn’t want to appear ignorant by acting surprised to the weird stuff that happens around the Commander, but I think it just comes naturally for her. Reminds me of those pictures where there’s a chick getting naked and everyone’s all “Holy crap, check out those curtains!”. I’m loving this character.
By the way, the comic made me look up if “make do” was correct, as I always thought “make due” was the right way (made sense to me, being force to meet a deadline/goal/debt) and now I got edumacated hard. Goddamn, the comic’s even educational now.
Oh good, someone else noticed that Judgment Simon looked like Light Imagay.
I’m gonna be honest, when I first read the comic and he made the Light Yagami comment I was like “nah, surely you’re exaggerating.”
And then I clicked on the picture. That looks pretty much exactly like Light Yagami.
With this arc, at first I was questioning the usage of Gackt as the main villain, only because he’s not the western ideal of machismo, but I think I kind of get it. Gackt is pretty much entirely plastic surgery and airbrushing, ergo, “manufactured”.
What? What plastic surgery?
I am overjoyed to see the comic back up again!
Seconded!
I’m with you!
Dracula’s castle? I wonder if this has anything to do with Aria of Sorrow…
Welcome back, Manly Guys! Let’s go punch things!
I’m pretty sure it takes you more time to read/answer comments than to do actual comics.
But I guess it’s a part of the show.
Anyway, happy to see you back on the frontline!
I just love your take on Judgment’s Simon. XD
I have two questions for you, if you don’t mind…
1 – So, it seems Lords of Shadows’ take on Simon was revealed during E3. Do you have any thoughts on it? (I know I hate it) http://images.wikia.com/castlevania/images/6/6b/SimonBelmont-MoF-Final.jpg
2 – Since Duke’s showed up already, can we expect to see “Serious” Sam Stone in the comic eventually? =D
I find myself torn between the disappointment of you killing one of my most favorite heroes, and the joy of you killing the male-stripper-abomination they turned him into.
Okay, so this is really nitpicky… but if the transfer happened well before Gackt had the Nomura virus (which is implied to have been around for at least a while)why are the stitches still bleeding in the fourth panel? If it was mostly magic that kept him together than I can kinda see the actual thread ripping when Jonesy shot the head, but I don’t see how the wound would bleed in panel four. Either he’s alive, and the stitches would have ‘healed’, or he’s dead, and the bleeding should still have stopped by then because he’d have no more blood (or at least not enough to be randomly seeping out).
I like the concept, and I like the setup – Jonesy’s expression is gold – and as always, I love your art style.
I like that you can buy “head transplant” but not that the bodies wouldn’t successfully graft together very well.
This comic came on an extremely appropriate week – my latest Nintendo Power arrived, and not only did it bash the DiC and Light Yagami artworks of Simon Belmont, it printed the original -and- the cover was the newest one (who looks like he’d FIT at the Agency and match CB’s criteria). Gotta love perfect timing, especially when it’s completely accidental like this.
I think the ‘seam’ on the Obata Simon is supposed to be a tattoo.
I’m not the only one who saw the second image of Simon and thought that he looked quite a bit like CB’s normal look? He’s even got the same brushed back hair and gogles, and that manly, manly chin.
The joke about the DiC cartoons was that nobody had even researched the characters except for asking a ten year old who they were.
Coelasquid I’ve got a critique for and it goes a little something like this…. this comic is so fucking epic (puts fifty thousand dollars in the epic jar) I love it even if it isn’t updated on mondays anymore I know from personal experience how hard it is to continually draw or create the same stuff making sure it looks a okay, then posting it, I love this comic keep up the good work it is quiet hilarious to read the whole thing while waiting for your new stuff I throughly enjoy reading and re-reading the older stuff good job
Seriously, good call. Worst Simon Belmont ever.
Holy schnitzels, I just saw the most recent comic where it mentioned this, and when I hit random, this flipping popped up.
The weirdest thing is that I feel like, in Death Note, Obata didn’t have anything resembling a sameface problem… I mean, I could be wrong, but everyone seemed pretty damn distinct to me, so putting a carbon-copy of Light’s head on Simon’s shoulders… It’s not even lazy, it’s just poor decision making.
I never comment and this is years after the fact, but when the linked image of Frankenbelmont loaded I actually said, “Oh God, why?” out loud, and I don’t know shit about these games.