July 26, 2008

Etrian Oddity, or the World Tree Madness in the West: GENESIS

This a preview and tiramisu SUCKS

"In the beginning the Great Moon Rabbit created the moon and the field. The field was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the green; and the Spirit of the Great Moon Rabbit was moving over the face of the grass. And the Great Moon Rabbit said, 'Let there be cake'; and there was cake."

Etrian Oddity Issue #00000 - See the Child (written by prettyprophet, visualized by funny_bunny) <- Fufu.

HAVE A CHEESECAKE SMOOTHIE.

Lavie Rhap: Hi, I'm Lavie Rhap and I'm here to clear up anything funny left out. According to the bunny himself, there's quite a bit. Bear with us and we'll enlighten you to our inner workings and then some.

This is the first issue of Etrian Oddity, or a World Tree Madness in the West by the Thousand Rabbits, the much talked-about fan comic that prophet and funny had been collaborating on. We originally planned for it to be the vanguard of comics done by our little circle; as those following the Reich's progress may have noticed, Savior Blood, Smash Bizarre 2D ended up taking precedence. However, as circumstances dictated, funny decided to shift focus back to Etrian Oddity.

prettyprophet: Wassup gangstas, I'm just going to pop in here for a click. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I wouldn't do any Reich work because I'm on vacation...but I want to add in my own notes here. Lavie's keeping things civil, but a BIG reason why Etrian didn't fly was thanks to Ink, Pat, and ed. Namely ed, that fucker. It started off as a real 1000 Rabbit joint, with everyone pouring in random ideas and anecdotes...but we got fed up with arguing over interpreting characters.

See, here's a not-so-secret fact that practically anyone who's talked to us in the real world should figure out: all the characters are directly representing ourselves. Some exaggerations, duh, but they're us. SBSB2D is only based. Etrian? Almost 1:1 ratio of accuracy. Well, visually not so much; you can thank funny's RAD DRAWING SKILLZ for that. Point is, me and ed kept butting heads over practically everything so funny started writing. Again, you can thank him for any wackness that makes you say what the fuck. Ways to tell who wrote what: if it's an actual sentence, either me, nde, or Lavie. If it's random geek, me or funny. If it's total fucking otaku, pat. If it's offensive, me, funny, or ed. No, not ALL of us work on a single issue. Usually it's me, funny, and nde tossing ideas, Lavie and Ink critiquing, and Pat and ed as 'consultants'. "Hey prophet, you cunt, is THAT why the doujin's a piece of shit?" Yeah, actually, that's exactly why. We have no idea what Etrian Oddity's going to turn into because, unlike SBSB2D, there is zero game plan for this thing. We're just going to flip this bitch and see how it lands.

You know, the funny thing is that Lavie has no idea that I'm editing this thing into her own edit. Peace out.

Lavie Rhap: Etrian Oddity, is a fan comic very loosely based off Atlus' Etrian Odyssey. In order to differentiate itself from another Etrian Oddity, funny decided to add the subtitle The World Tree Madness in the West, as his tribute to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West. How he'll tie that in, only prophet knows. (prophet note: Technically he already did, with "See the Child" as title. First line from Blood Meridian, yo.)

The reason for the five-panel style instead of the more common "4-koma" is due to Pat's insistence that four is an unlucky number. On that day, she was bitten by at least four mosquitoes, which funny took as an omen and bumped the amount of panels up one. I'd also like to note that reason for the explanations appearing in the post is because we could add links, making it easier for the reader to understand the many obtuse references we use.

Panel One

funny wanted to put the entire cast in a row but found it impossible with such small frames, so he chose to put a number of them in the background. The shirts on the Survivalist and Alchemist are from Nucleus, designed by Chris Appelhans. This was a request from prophet, who is a fan of Nucleus apparel.

Panel Two

I didn't want to leave this blank, so I moved an aspect of panel one down here: the eyes. funny tells me that although the style used overall was a complete amalgamation of various artists, the eyes of the Survivalist and Alchemist were specifically copied from circle Z-Vector. I can see how he copied, but looking at the specific doujinshi he used, I'd say that the eyes are generic enough for anyone to claim ownership. I was somewhat reminded of Breath of Fire artwork.

Panel Three

All I'd like to say on the Protector is that I'm pleasantly surprised funny kept her modest. Thank you for that.

Panel Four

I'm told that this entire panel was to build up to the line "We're nothing but caricatures of reality". prophet has emphatically stated it was her mission to include 'Morisms', which are quotes from the ever-impassive Mori. This line was not taken out of context; she really was referring to a work based on our lives...a sock-puppet show performed by prophet and Pat in high school for a fundraiser. Thankfully, Mori's icy nature serves as a most excellent counterpoint to the flames of our more wild members.

Panel Five

funny directly copied off another Nucleus artist for the tree, Robert Kondo's Day One. I'm not sure why funny chose this; "It seemed big" was all he could think of. I added the blurb about nine characters in search of an author, since Luigi Pirandello's play was the first thing that came to my mind when I read this.

prophet sez: This is a fucking source of IRE. I'm not even in the fucking country and funny messages me saying, "Do you remember who I copied off of for that tree? Because I don't!" So I spend five minutes of my precious time scanning through Nucleus. "funny, are you sure it's a print?" "Yeah!" "How sure are you?" "You know, sure!" "I can't find this shit." "Oh wait, it's in the artwork section! Fufufu, no need to worry it!" funny, fuck you. I wasted five minutes of my precious chill time and now I'm wasting more lashing out. You better buy me tiramisu when we come back. Cheesecake? Thumbs down, sucker.

---

Lavie Rhap: Despite Etrian Oddity being more "insider" than SBSB2D, we hope it has more widespread appeal in the sense that this comic will provide snapshots of our interactions with one another. While our chatlogs do enough, funny wanted to add a visual element. Ink, following his artistic calling, became unavailable for such duties, so funny took it upon himself to do so. That said, please be generous in your tolerance for funny's artwork. Most of it is copied, unabashedly so. A rather low-note to end out on, but here with the Rabbits, we try to be honest when we can.

funny_bunny: Don't worry, my luxurious Lavie! Let's get away, fly away! I found the path to paradise! Shining spiral of gold! Take my hand, find our way out! Heavenly stars above...just believe what's in your heart! No border between us; I can always feel you inside! INSIDE!

Lavie Rhap: How comforting! I'll rest easy tonight.

funny_bunny: And every night! For the night is what we own and the stars are ours.

Lavie Rhap: Ah, have you started on the next issue?

funny_bunny: Hoho! HOHO!

Lavie Rhap: May the stars guide you to brilliance and ecstasy.

funny_bunny: When WOULDN'T they?

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