July 29, 2008
Etrian Oddity, or the World Tree Madness in the West: #00001
"And other ills, in countless multitude,
Thou seest not yet, on thee and on thy seed
Shall fall alike. Vent forth thy wrath then loud,
On Creon and on me. There lives not man
Who wastes his life more wretchedly than thou."
Etrian Oddity Cover (designed by prettyprophet and funny_bunny)
Etrian Oddity Issue #00001 - Welcome to Etria (written by the 1000 Rabbits, visualized by funny_bunny)
Lavie Rhap: To commemorate the first actual scanlation by the Rabbit Reich, funny decided to release the next issue of Etrian Oddity.
funny_bunny: It's RABBIT-TASTIC!
Lavie Rhap: funny, when do you think the next issue will be done?
funny_bunny: When Mori wears a spiked brassiere with stiletto heels!
Lavie Rhap: funny's burning himself out in order to release a number of things before prophet and nde return from vacation. I think it's for the best that we space ourselves out, however.
funny_bunny: Never! We must hurtle forward into the future like the speed demons we are! Isn't that right, my happy holstein?
Lavie Rhap: Will she join us as well?
holstein: Yes. [note: holstein didn't say anything after that.]
funny_bunny: Shall we begin?
Lavie Rhap: There's two items in this post: the "cover" of the series and the #00001 issue. Technically, #00000 is the real start but funny had great desire to designate it with a "0" number.
funny_bunny: The zero means INFINITE.
Lavie Rhap: And the eight?
funny_bunny: I like both.
Lavie Rhap: We'll begin with the cover: As some may realize, this is a direct copy off Blood Meridian's Vintage published cover. Originally, funny intended to draw a Thousand Rabbits version of it...
funny_bunny: And we can see how ALL THAT TURNED OUT.
Lavie Rhap: Then prophet thought it'd be better to draw nothing at all. So instead of a reproduction of the Vintage art, we get delightful scribbles from the artistic fields of funny.
funny_bunny: I referenced a lot of stuff there that I leave for you to figure out! BECAUSE REFERENCES ARE FUN.
Lavie Rhap: The Thousand Rabbits actually has an obsession with referencing anything that relates to the given subject...and sometimes even if there's no relation. I think funny personally does it to keep us on our toes.
funny_bunny: Like a ballerina.
Lavie Rhap: Anna Pavlova.
funny_bunny: When shall you travel the world, performing for foreign dignitaries?
Lavie Rhap: I'd rather perform through a different art instead.
funny_bunny: Erotic arts!
Lavie Rhap: One more thing I almost neglected to mention relating to the cover: Although I didn't write anything for it, prophet paraphrased a situation that was rather close to what you've read. It was months ago, when Etrian Oddity was being formulated: no one thought funny would be able to dedicate himself to drawing a comic but I knew he could. However, afterwards funny didn't draw much relating to Etrian aside from the initial sketches, so everyone kept telling him how disappointed I was in him, which was completely untrue. Either way, funny wasn't disheartened at all, so no harm done.
Onto Issue One: funny, as per recent tradition, placed holstein as the speaker of notes. How does she feel about being the mascot? Apparently funny hasn't told her and is motioning for me not to say anything, since holstein is only a few feet away.
Panel One
To those who are unfamiliar with our real-life counterparts: Harvest Pingpong is prettyprophet and Clover O'Dannyboy is Kawaii Pattycakes. Almost all the names were generated through the first non-profane words to come from ed's mouth and refer to our generic racial backgrounds, with "Pingpong", "Moshimoshi", and "Poe" being the exceptions. Pingpong was used thanks to everyone's enjoyment of the Simpsons quote:
Grampa: Oh, come on, there's lots of ways to pass the time. Hitch up your pants, air whittle, make friends with a Chinese man.
[an Asian man enters the room]
Craig: Um, Mr. Simpson, you weren't supposed to leave the home.
Abe: Thank you Ping-Pong!
Craig: Um, my name is Craig.
funny still loves that. prophet was made an Alchemist because chemistry is her major and Pat demanded the Dancer class. While a number of us play Etrian Odyssey now, namely the sequel, Pat was the first who became interested in it. Her fascination drew the rest of us in.
Panel Two
Pat does want all of us to cosplay at one time or another; I'm not much of a cosplayer, to tell the truth. The fabric isn't to my liking...and funny tells me that's why he has an aversion as well. "Too cheap-looking!" he says. prophet simply refuses, while nde and Ink avoid Pat whenever she arrives with a costume. ed actually will cosplay on the condition that he's allowed to keep the costume and wear it to his shows. Oh ed, if only we were all as brave as you.
Reebok Rajaratnam is Killer Ink. Ink has a liking for K-Swiss shoes, so prophet decided to use a rival company for the first name. The surname comes from a photo we saw on Facebook of a man with said surname. He looked practically identical to Ink if not for the fact that he was older and had facial hair. ed chose his nickname for Ink that day. Ink also happens to be a Landsknetcht but convinced funny to not draw him in costume. I assume it's because this references a sore spot of Ink's, so I won't expand on that. Ink's suit came from a Kazuma Kaneko drawing of Dr. Mekata of Shin Megami Tensei II fame (funny: scan from BE YOUR TRUE MIND).
And there is myself, "Olga Stalenvodka". I am a Protector because apparently that is what I do. funny even bought me a figure of the Etrian Protector/Paladin, which I have on my desk at home. Thanks, funny (funny: Now buy me some artbooks!).
Panel Three
The Dark Hunter happens to be edthefucker, as the name suggests. The "Newguyin" comes from the common "Nguyen" surname, a surname that ed informs many as his own...which it's not. Mori is the Ronin and her name was specifically crafted by Pat. While prophet dislikes Pat's otaku nature, Mori tends to have zero tolerance for it. As such, Pat attempts to convert her even more, hence the "moe".
prophet anecdote: The lines ed and Mori have are basically direct quotes: ed happened to come across me and Mori practicing a skit, causing him to shout, "Who the fuck thought it'd be a good idea to put Mori in a comedy?" with Mori saying "If you ever point at me again, I'll cripple you." ed pointed a finger, THE FINGER, and Mori replied by throwing a textbook at his face. ed, hilariously, was standing at the top of some stairs and fell the fuck down, breaking his wrist. I'd go on about the "humorless bitch" line, but we'll save that one. Back to Lavie with the next paragraph.
The style of note here is ed: funny copied off Sketchbook, a manga that many of us have become enamored with. Thank you, Musashi Quality.
Panel Four
Snowflake Pingpong the Survivalist and Poe the Hexer are nde and Nyx, respectively. They're the more quiet of the Rabbits, so they requested to have as few lines as possible. nde chose to have simply a question mark and Nyx chose to have absolutely nothing. prophet decided to make Nyx a silent character from there on.
Panel Five
The chief problem with maintaining the five-panel standard came down upon us here, when we were figuring out how to end. The original outline had quite a bit of action but we realized we couldn't fit all nine in, so we settled on purely introductions. At that point, funny exclaimed, "Punchline!" and prophet finalized the fifth panel. funny happens to be prone to making bizarre statements and for that, we love him. Being the spearhead for Etrian Oddtity, funny got to choose his class and appearance without interference...and he chose the Medic, female version. funny tells me he doesn't cross-dress normally, unless he sees very stylish clothing.
---
Lavie Rhap: And that is #00001. Nothing special, just setting up our characters. A note I forgot to add last time was that funny copied the credit style from the webcomic VG Cats. I'm not sure why; he hasn't given a reason yet. But reason isn't something he needs, yes?
funny_bunny: Reason? Who needs reason when you've got FUN?
Lavie Rhap: Reason allows us to appreciate the fun on more extensive levels. Not everyone is as carefree as you, unfortunately.
funny_bunny: I'm not carefree. I care about MANY THINGS! Like scanning some manhua! Or getting a PS3!
Lavie Rhap: Can't you play at Pat's?
funny_bunny: No! SHE'S A GAMEHOG.
Lavie Rhap: I'll try to talk some sense into her for you.
funny_bunny: Danke, but even you, oh mighty Lavie Rhap, shall fail! FOR SHE HAS BECOME A THRALL TO SOUL CALIBUR.
Lavie Rhap: Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI comes out any day now for the PC. You could play that.
funny_bunny: Yeah! And Persona too. I STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO THE ANSWER.
Lavie Rhap: You restarted, after all.
funny_bunny: SHHHHH, DON'T SPOIL!
Lavie Rhap: Don't worry, funny. I'm sure you'll find your summer full of surprises.
funny_bunny: You know what would surprise me? A person named Killer Ink taking over the artistic duties for all the doujinshi. INK, GIVE ME A SURPRISE!
Lavie Rhap: There's always next year.
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