Alternate Universe: She's One of a Kind, Kine ~ Pages 66 - 77
This is another comic you can easily compare to the original.
However, it had to be reworked in a way, because even though the fundamental reasons for drawing are still the same for me (mood dependent, the most interesting and accurate expression succeeding being on model, etc), art evolution and character development changes things that are no longer relevant. For example, Nidorina in 2001 followed in the footsteps of Mrs. Nidorina in being cuter than average, and the old answer was good enough. Today, Nidorina is supposed to reflect a specific personality. It's already stated in universe that Nidorina is attractively cute, so Kirby's old retort wouldn't fly either.
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In strip three panel four, I flipped who says what in that it makes more sense in this context. For the record, the reason for Kirby's fear of changing to the current standard differs in both versions. In the original, I didn't like the design of 64 Kirby. Today, I like all the Kirby designs from 1992 to now. It's the personality change I don't like, and I'll probably never warm up to it. Kirby became a lot less self aware and a lot more... primitive (I'm putting it very very nicely).
Also, I must stress that BKi is based off of the Adventure sprite, since the in game art and the promotional art often differed wildly (See Poppy, Twister, Chilly, and others). However, he did have a few additions given to him after Nightmare in Dream Land that are part of his current design, making him a hybrid of sorts.
I tried a different method of clean up here, with some inks. Problem is that cleaning up the older comics in this collection was time consuming sometimes, but using this method, I can't really do fine background details (especially faces of distant characters) because the pen tip is too fat. Well, I'll keep playing around unitl I find a happy medium somewhere.
Went out and bought some better, more expensive inks. I'm liking these so far, they allow me to make thinner and smaller, more precise lines. I may continue with this clean up method.
It was only a matter of time before I got to that comic. However, something seems different... Now that we (including myself) have a better idea what kind of girl Nidorina is, it's more fitting that she plays up a cute angle, with some big ol' eyes and knee high socks.
I'm just rolling out the easy comparables. Since I've started up again, I began to make more of effort to make Dream Land look more like Dream Land. At least, I want to make Popstar feel like a different planet, common structures aside (even Air Ride had typical looking skyscrapers). While doing so, it dawned on me that the anime didn't. You'd think the official show would've pushed the otherworldliness of the planet, too. Not that I care, but still. However, most of the manga do, which brings me to another point...
How do you like that? It's now been long enough that Pokemon Gold/Silver itself is the old RPG battle (as the original PPB no. 8 states). Didn't think this comic would survive this long, or even resurface in the first place. Also, reference to the MissingoNo virus from Poke Tales.
So what was that point back on page 76? Just that while I knew this would be my favorite collection before I even started, I really love the direction of this one, as well. It's a lot more intentional, and the character models are way better, and cuter as well (well, Kirby still looks like he's from 1998 but anyway). And when I look at these Pointless Poke Battles, I almost feel like their reaching a manga/4 koma kind of level of attention. Then again, my style seems to be west-eastern by default as I just go with whatever's cuter/funnier for the frame anyway.
