Messages

646

Discuss Anything / Re: Dude Shinobi Homebrews

« on: December 02, 2014, 10:00:14 AM »

Seeing Dude Shinobi being played in the arcades as shown in the comic, I was thinking on if someone were to make an actual Dude Shinobi beat-em-up fighting game for old school consoles like the NES, SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive and others.

With homebrew games popping up like wildfire, it would be something to see a real Dude Shinobi game created for fun. Of course, it has to have the standards of all games like items, enemies and bosses. Fun stuff.

What do you think?

Hah! I would fucking love that. In fact, it's actually something Jessica and I have talked about. But making a game, even a simple retro beat-em-up, is a huge task. Maybe if our comic ever blows up in popularity, it'd be something that we'd be able to tackle.

647

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: The Evolution of Eddie's Dude Shinobi Poster

« on: December 02, 2014, 09:57:20 AM »

The way I read about Duke Shinobi is almost G.I. Joe-esque like a cross between Duke and Snake-Eyes.

I'm sure the camo-pants contribute to the G.I. Joe feel.

648

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: December 02, 2014, 09:55:53 AM »

I didn't recognise you in MCD because I expected you to be bald and wear a leather jacket and aviators..

Shit. I guess I'll just have to learn to do CG so I can go through all my old movies and correct my appearance.

649

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: The Evolution of Eddie's Dude Shinobi Poster

« on: December 01, 2014, 02:32:32 AM »

Not sure if it needs it, I mean he doesn't look like Duke at all this way. Jungles are cool as well but you wouldn't have the same background colour anymore and I think that improves the atmosphere a lot. Maybe it should be a jungle that's on fire.. 

Hah! I was totally intending the jungle to be on fire for that exact reason. I'm thinking either a flaming jungle, or they're on a rooftop and there's a flaming city behind them.

The underboobs are great, maybe you should write a few more into the comic..

On it!

650

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: December 01, 2014, 02:30:30 AM »

I wish my stories were like this. I guess I was much too serious for this.

No, don't wish that. That movie is painfully idiotic. Of course, we thought it was the funniest thing in the world when we made it.

How old were you guys here?

It was the summer of '95, so I must've been 14. My friend Bob would have been 13.

Was that your face or your friend's? Somehow I expected you to be bald in the video as well..

That was Bob. He mostly made that movie himself. I just kind of had a cameo as the voice of Satan (of course) the Grim Reaper, and, uh, Dale.

You know what I looked like as a youngling, Rijst. You saw me kick all kinds of ass in Mega City Dragons. My head was chock full of luscious brown curls.

651

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: November 30, 2014, 05:49:30 PM »

The problem with these licensed sets is that they're just that, a copy of whatever film or series they depict. I'd rather have one generic set with lots of little pieces that let me make up my own story. I guess that's what drew me towards Lego in the first place.

That's because you're good, and you played with Lego the right way. But since I wasn't much of an architect and therefore hardly ever used the blocks to build things, Legos were kind of wasted on me. I still found them super appealing, though.

One of my favorite Lego minifigs was one that I put together to resemble Boba Fett from Star Wars. I think he had a green torso, gray legs, a gray motorcycle helmet with a black visor, and a scuba tank on his back to serve as his jet pack. One day I was happily playing with him when this asshole pet ferret my family had at the time bounded up to me, snatched Boba Fett out of my hand, and bounded away before I could catch him. I don't think I ever saw that Boba Fett again.

Oh, and when I was in middle-school, my friends and I started using my Lego minifigs to make short stop-motion movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngypLZ3jVmg

652

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: The Evolution of Eddie's Dude Shinobi Poster

« on: November 30, 2014, 05:36:04 PM »

The explosion in the background is still reminiscent of Duke Nukem, but the different clothes, hair and name definitely makes him a distinct character now.

I suggested having an explosion behind him in my original notes simply to drive home the action hero aspect. But thinking about it now, having a mushroom cloud explosion behind him is still too Duke Nukem, so we're probably going to change that to something else. Not sure what. Maybe a jungle. '80s action movies loved jungles.

The girls' hair have also changed and I think the brunette has improved much overall (better facial expression and her clothes are more real and less chosen for the occasion if you know what I mean). The girl being carried has a more realistic pose as well, lying on Dude's shoulder instead of in it.

Yeah, I didn't notice how screwy a lot of the anatomy is in the previous version of the poster until I had the new one to compare it to. I do miss the underboob, though.

653

Discuss Blog Entries / The Evolution of Eddie's Dude Shinobi Poster

« on: November 30, 2014, 01:04:27 AM »

Read it here!

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Discuss Blog Entries / Re: News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: November 29, 2014, 09:36:56 AM »

I got one every now and then. Whenever I got money for my birthday I'd usually spend it on Lego too.

Did you have a preferred Lego "theme"? I was mostly partial to the medieval sets. I always wanted one of the pirate sets, but I never got one. The "Town" sets seemed really boring to me.

The thing that kills me is that I used to act out Star Wars, Ninja Turtles, and Spider-Man stories with my Lego minifigs. Of course, the characters I had to use looked nothing like what I was pretending they were. But kids these days get officially licensed Legos for all those things! I would have sacrificed my own mother on a pentagram altar to have those Lego sets when I was a kid. These kids today don't know how fucking rad they have it.

I have to admit I spent my lunch break watching those commercials and I was impressed by the child acting. Kids are usually more shy when you visibly point a camera at their faces..

It was the '80s, so those kids were most likely coked out of their minds.

655

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: November 28, 2014, 08:11:29 PM »

At first I thought you'd made a spelling mistake, but Optimist Prime made me stop doubting your language skills.

Hah, uh, yeah. And "Rapeheal" was totally intentional as well...

My childhood revolved around Lego, full stop. I had boxes full of the stuff and was always building one thing or another. Medieval castles, pirate hideouts, space ships, you name it.

Oh yeah, I loved Lego. But the sets were really expensive, so it was rare that I'd get one. I actually ended up using the "minifigs" more than I fucked around with the blocks. I was always more into acting out stories than building things.

I only got into it when the movie came out. Your appraisal is spot on if you ask me, it's way out there.

Are you talking about the recent live action movies? I havent' seen those as they look terrible. For some reason, I love a lot of terrible things from the 80s and even the 90s, but terrible post-2000 media just doesn't tickle me in the same way.

Was He-Man similar to GI Joe in that it was also just a long commercial for the action figures?

Oh yeah. In fact, I think He-Man might have been the first cartoon series made specifically to market and sell the related action figures. They didn't even attempt to draw the characters to not look like action figures. And since they only had one main body mold for male characters, everyone is just as buff as He-Man. It kind of renders He-Man less impressive when everyone from Man-At-Arms to King Randor and even He-Man's "wimpy" Prince Adam alter-ego is just as buff as the titular beefcake.

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Discuss Blog Entries / Re: News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: November 28, 2014, 07:57:18 AM »

While I rarely had a chance to watch He-Man I did have the Greyskull Castle.  I got that and a bunch of X-Men action figures as hand me down toys from my cousin.

That reminds me that I never had a full set of action figures for a single brand. For instance, I had a few He-Man villains, but none of the main good guys, so I couldn't exactly act out a He-Man adventure. And I had maybe two of the ninja turtles, plus a couple of their villains. Which meant any Ninja Turtle plot I played out had to center around my two turtles on an unending quest to find their brothers. The really shitty thing is that it became impossible to find a "default" ninja turtle at any of the local stores. Instead, all I could find where those stupid gimmicky versions of the turtles like, Punk Rock Donatello, Cross Dresser Leonardo, or whatever. So If I wanted to finally get Rapeheal, I'd have to settle for some bullshit like, "Slam Dunk Raphael", and my plotlines would then be forced to revolve around Rapheal's unyielding desire to constantly play basketball. Fuck whatever marketing dude came up with those gimmicks.

So I was basically forced to utilize all my motley crew of toys into one crazy shared universe, where Optimist Prime and Hulk Hogan would team up to save my medieval Lego castle from the terror of Skeletor, Destro, and their army of Battle Beasts and MUSCLE figures. But I suppose that was as precursor to the kind of '80s hodgepodge I ended up doing with the comic.

I watched the old GI Joe cartoons a few years back (the ones I could find on youtube) and was hugely entertained by the randomness of events, the ridiculous machines and weapons and terrible plot lines. The suckiness is probably the best part about these cartoons but I guess you need a certain perspective to enjoy it..

I watched some G.I. Joe as a kid, but never got into it as much as I did with He-Man or Transformers. Earlier in the year when Jessica and I started watching classic '80s cartoons for comic inspiration, we were a little hesitant to watch G.I. Joe, since neither of us are into military-themed things. However, that cartoon was so fucking crazy, nonsensical, and delightfully stupid that it's now one of our favorite '80s cartoons.

657

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: November 27, 2014, 03:22:36 PM »

That Dragon Walker looks rubbish haha! I can only imagine you projecting your voice through the house with that Snake Mountain thing, driving your parents up the wall with maniacal laughter..

I actually totally forgot about that microphone thing until I saw that commercial again. It didn't exactly amplify the voice as much as distort it a little.

It's a good thing everyone's name consists of two syllables otherwise that drum-chant in the background wouldn't work..

Haha, I hadn't even thought of that. The marketing dude must have been super proud of that gimmick and demanded all toys follow the two-syllable rule so they could reuse it over and over...

I'll have to watch these cartoons now, I missed most of them in the eighties..

US cartoons in the early to-mid eighties tended to have some pretty terrible animation, and He-Man was one of the worst offenders. It's like they had maybe a dozen different animations of He-Man and just keep reusing them over and over.

It's weird. I loved those cartoons when I was really little. Then I re-watched some episodes as a teenager, and I hated them because of how much they sucked. Now, I watch them as an adult, and I love them specifically because of how much they suck.

658

Discuss Blog Entries / News Update & He-Man Commercials

« on: November 27, 2014, 07:02:08 AM »

Read it here!

659

Discuss Comic Pages / Re: Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 23 - To the Moon

« on: November 25, 2014, 11:50:53 PM »

I feel Eddie should have reacted different to the whole Grandma giving it up on the 1st date for a stuffed pig teddy-bear thing, and then thinking that pig should get him lucky.

Having Eddie respond to that with something like, "Whoa, TMI, Grandma," would certainly be a more expected response, but not as funny to us as Eddie's cheerful non-reaction. And here's our justification for his response: For one thing, Eddie is used to his grandma speaking bluntly, as that's just the way she is. And for another thing, he's just about to enter the party and chase after his dreams, so his mind is more than a little preoccupied.

Is the cuddly pig a reference to the ice-cream-loving pig we saw earlier?

Hmm... not exactly. Although it does seem to imply that the McCarthy family has a thing for pigs.

660

Discuss Comic Pages / Re: Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 23 - To the Moon

« on: November 25, 2014, 08:46:27 AM »

I definitely regret not having had pool parties now, although I tend to skip the hard drugs.

This page is 100% accurate to every pool party I've ever attended.

Oh man, that suit and teddybear are going to painful.

Heh heh heh...

*squints* Is Grandma driving a Gremlin?

Totally. Although it might be called a Mogwai in the 198X-verse. Not sure if we're going to have parody car names yet or not.