Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 2 - Lunch with Carmen

[Adam Dravian]

This was the first page Jessica drew with Manga Studio instead of Adobe Photoshop. Our friend Dave recommended Manga Studio to her, and, despite being a little put off by the name, Jessica gave it a shot. She ended up really liking the program and will probably use it to illustrate the rest of the comic.

Satan Ninja trivia for the day: just about every article of clothing that our characters wear is inspired by outfits worn in actual '80s movies.

[666threesixes666]

LOL @ "corey's a boner connoisseur."   

[Rijst]

Were the outfits 'inspired by' 80s movie clothing in general or do we have to guess which outfit came from which movie?

[Adam Dravian]

Most outfits are taken directly from something a character is wearing in an '80s movie (or maybe a music video or TV show or something, but mostly movies). Sometimes Jessica will modify the outfit a bit or do some mixing and matching. However, I doubt anyone would be able to guess all the sources, as we sometimes draw inspiration from extras and not just main characters.

In fact, the comic is full of stupidly obscure little references that I doubt anyone will ever notice. We don't really put them there to be jokes in and of themselves, but more as little easter eggs for anyone who does happen to catch them. And just because we enjoy that sort of thing. I'll give one little example: on page 11 (https://satanninja.com/comic/satan-ninja-198x/issue-1-video-dreamer/page-11) Trance's panel has a whole bunch of pretty obvious references. But I'd be surprised if anyone would notice that in Joe's panel, his lamp is based off of "Lampy" from the '87 animated film The Brave Little Toaster.

[Rijst]

I'm going to miss most of these references, I was born in '83 so was a bit too young to have seen all those movies. I like the references though, if you're going to put a lamp there you might as well model it on an 80's lamp and avoid anachronisms..

That mech-type model in Trance's background, is that modeled on Robocop 2?

[Adam Dravian]

You're actually not too much younger than me. I was born in '81. However, my dad was a cableman, so I grew up watching a non-stop parade of movies on HBO. Jessica was born in '88, but her parents exposed her to a lot of retro things when she was young, so she never had that stigma some people do about media that was made "before their time."

Your guess is close. The mecha-thing is based on ED-209 from the first Robocop. Robocop 2 came out in '90 and is thus out of bounds for our comic.

[aett]

You're actually not too much younger than me. I was born in '81. However, my dad was a cableman, so I grew up watching a non-stop parade of movies on HBO. Jessica was born in '88, but her parents exposed her to a lot of retro things when she was young, so she never had that stigma some people do about media that was made "before their time."

My wife and I have the same age difference - I was born in '83 and she was born in '90. As a result, she doesn't get '80s references like I do, but she was raised by her grandparents, so she's more familiar with classic stuff like I Love Lucy than I will EVER be.

[Adam Dravian]

My wife and I have the same age difference - I was born in '83 and she was born in '90. As a result, she doesn't get '80s references like I do, but she was raised by her grandparents, so she's more familiar with classic stuff like I Love Lucy than I will EVER be.

You need to do your duty as a boyfriend and introduce her to the '80s classics. At least the big ones like Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Terminator, Robocop, Beetlejuice, etc. And then force her to read Satan Ninja. And force her to like it.

I'm not really a fan old classic TV shows, but I'm pretty familiar with a lot of them. I've always had a hard time sleeping at night, so I'd stay up really late watching Nick At Nite.

Oh, and welcome to our infantile forums. Thanks for joining us. You are now a super-rad dude.

[aett]

Oh man, I had so many movies to show her when we first met. Pretty hit and miss with her, though. She liked BTTF and Ghostbusters but didn't care for Star Wars (more '70s, but still) or Indiana Jones or Beetlejuice. She'd hate Terminator and Robocop - too violent. One viewing of The Thing was mooore than enough for her. Ah well!

Glad to be rad, hope one day to advance to Rad to the Max.

[Adam Dravian]

She's not into violence, huh? There goes Predator then, too. I'm impressed you were able to get her to watch The Thing. We just re-watched it a few weeks ago and the practical creature/gore effects are so fucking amazing. Jessica was so in awe of it that it nearly drove her to cry tears of happiness.

Judging from the movies you said she liked, perhaps the John Hughes teen movies would be more up her alley. Or Labyrinth.

Fortunately, Jessica and I have nearly identical movie taste, so we don't have to worry about suffering through each other's movies. For the past five or six years we've actually been on a quest to watch all the most notable movies in chronological order. From the silent era on up. Now that we've finally made it to the early '80s, we've broaden our selection to include every genre movie that's notable or interests us. Yeah, we're a little insane, but it's good research and it's interesting to see the evolution of film.

[Rijst]

all the most notable movies in chronological order.

That's quite a feat. I really love Dr. Strangelove, you must've seen it in your quest for completeness right?

[aett]

She's not into violence, huh? There goes Predator then, too. I'm impressed you were able to get her to watch The Thing. We just re-watched it a few weeks ago and the practical creature/gore effects are so fucking amazing. Jessica was so in awe of it that it nearly drove her to cry tears of happiness.

Judging from the movies you said she liked, perhaps the John Hughes teen movies would be more up her alley. Or Labyrinth.

Fortunately, Jessica and I have nearly identical movie taste, so we don't have to worry about suffering through each other's movies. For the past five or six years we've actually been on a quest to watch all the most notable movies in chronological order. From the silent era on up. Now that we've finally made it to the early '80s, we've broaden our selection to include every genre movie that's notable or interests us. Yeah, we're a little insane, but it's good research and it's interesting to see the evolution of film.

Oh yeah, she liked Labyrinth well enough. I'm forgetting a lot of movies - we watched them almost nonstop when we first met and until we had our kid. Now movie time (together, at least) is a rare and wonderous thing, but we can still watch an episode or two of a TV show on a more regular basis.

It's clear that watching all those movies has had a great effect on you and Jessica, at least in terms of the details (big and small) in the comic! Just the collection of robots alone was great.

[Adam Dravian]

That's quite a feat. I really love Dr. Strangelove, you must've seen it in your quest for completeness right?

Oh yeah, we saw the Kubrick classics. We didn't like Dr. Strangelove as much as we had expected, which I feel a bit guilty about as a huge fan of the Fallout series. I think it might have been hyped up to us too much or something. However, we ended up really liking Barry Lyndon, which was a Kubrick movie neither of us had even heard of before seeing it. Lolita was good, and 2001 was awesome, with the exception of the drawn out sequence at the end where it just shows psychedelic landscapes for like 5 minutes.

It's clear that watching all those movies has had a great effect on you and Jessica, at least in terms of the details (big and small) in the comic! Just the collection of robots alone was great.

Thanks. Now that we've finally gotten into the '80s, we can feel a bit more justified in our insane movie-watching quest, since it can now all be considered "Satan Ninja research."