My 24 Hour Comic - part 3

Last year I did a bunch of parodies of Australian Comics, called Kipper Comics. About 3 people found them funny which is good enough for me so i did some more. Well I planned to, I was going to do a yaoi based comics involving twin brothers. That didn't work out.
So I only did a parody of Witch King. Released earlier this year, its a graphic novel, a beautifully illustrated and coloured story (Pencilled by Paul Abstruse, inked by PJ Magalhaes and Darren Close, and coloured by Laing Rahner and Annette Kwok) released by Phosphorescent Comics its a good read written by Christian Read. Fantasy is not my thing (magic shits me) and i, for the most part enjoyed it.

There were some questions if I was mocking the creators behind it. No, absolutely not. Whilst I made fun of the personalities of the people in the Top Cow story, I didn't do so here. I did a plain parody of the story. The Witch King is basically the story of the ugly duckling who after being tormented by others runs away only to become a beautiful swan who returns to face the other forest animals. In the Witch King's case, its a bookish prince who runs away to becomea powerful wizard and then comes back to take over his father's kingdom.

I turned it into a story of a nerd who goes backpacking and returns home to torment his older brother.

My thanks to Em who took the photos, though she said that she would only take photos if she didn't have to get off the couch and if it was inbetween commercial breaks. Thanks Babe, your commitment to art is uplifting.

So if you are a nerd who

• was bullied
• likes role playing
• likes science fiction
• likes reading
• was sent backpacking by parents
• got an allowance while overseas
• stayed with family while overseas
• had sex with a "Canadian" who we wouldn't know
• has a live journal
• whines about people on their LJ
• has a MySpace page
• writes poetry
• listens to Deathcab for Cutie
• likes Battlestar Galatica
• dropped acid
• lives at his parent's house
  
• and likes Dr Who

then it is about you.
Me? I match up with 7 of them.

In terms of the suit, I wear suits 9 hours a day 5 days a week and I look great in them. i thought you needed to see this. Also i was dressed in the suit for the yaoi thing and needed to be easily indentifiable opposite the brother. I only had a 15 minute window of Em's attention so i had to be snappy.

anyway the Witch Kipper






After I posted this comic during the Challenge i had a dialogue with a creator about the parody comics which lead to me posting

I've been having a discussion with a local comic creator who has raised a really valid point. The 24 hour Challenge is usually a lot of people's first attempt at putting together a comic and its their first exposure to the larger local comic scene.

That can be quiet scary.

Subsequently, the 24hr challenge forum needs to be a supportive and welcoming place.

In that light I don't think the Kipper comics (my parodies) are really suitable for the Challenge for 2 reasons; the injokiness of them gives this boy's club feeling which can be quite intimidating but more importantly there is a thin line between parody and mockery.

When I did the Top Cow story and Witch King parodies there was no intentional vindictiveness behind them. it was meant to be light hearted poking at issues in the local scene and some of their stories. It wasn't meant to be personal mockery - the Top Cow gets personal but i don't think i was mean.
But it does set up a precedent in the future. I'd hate if next year someone started doing vindictive and hurtful comics directed at Australian Comic Creators, it would pretty much be a step backwards to all the work me and others have put into the Challenge.

In the light of this I won't be doing any more Kipper Comics in the 24 hr forum. Whilst its only a small issue, i'm deadly afraid of slippery slopes. I do plan to do some more later on but in more appropriate places.

more peepee and hoohoo jokes tommorrow