VR Sketches, Part Two

by on September 21, 2008 at 12:01 am
Chapter:

Shaenon: I drew the above doodle after finishing the last two weeks of strips. I’m writing a book about the manga team CLAMP, and I was inspired to draw Nick in Chobits-themed headgear. Why are you looking at me like that?

Anyway, after massive intervention from friends and family, as chronicled last Sunday, I managed to come up with VR gear with which I was reasonably satisfied. It looks a bit Star Wars, but I guess that’s okay. The key was to make it clunky and a little too big for Nick.

On second thought, I should have gone with the colander-and-light-bulbs concept Andrew drew in the margin there.

While we’re at it, below is my first sketch of Nick. Language warning, although everything involving Nick requires a language warning. I’m sorry about that. It’s all my fault; I think I even kept adding extra swears to the scripts Jeffrey wrote.

This is still the best drawing of him I’ve done.

Channing: Ah, yes, the cussing. Shaenon and I actually write in a remarkably similar fashion. The two major red flags that will allow you to tell us apart are as follows: first, while I have funny ideas, Shaenon has a lot more funny lines. Second… well, my folks tend to cuss. A lot. I don’t really do it all that often in real life, but put me down in front of the keys and my characters start swearing a blue streak. I do not wholly understand it. Shaenon valiantly attempts to absorb blame above, but I think she’s just trying to be nice.

Introducing this character was a matter of some concern for me. While “Narbonic” dealt with some rather racy themes at times, the language was always extremely tame. Even Seth, arguably the most profane character in the strip, only ever cussed in the symbol set. Ergo, I approached this whole concept with great trepidness, and as I am actually writing this before any of the strips in question have gone live, I do not yet know what y’all felt about it in practice. Time will tell. If I have been lynched by angry mobs of Garrity fans by the time you read this, let it be remembered that I gave my life for Comics. Potty-mouth comics.

Anyway, It gets better after this. Really.