Bloids '18: Help! The 'Bloids Are Imploding On Me!

[downrightdude]

First we got an unseasonal humid beginning for autumn, and now it's snowing in November??

[Lizica]

Bloids!

I saw this super fun hypothetical question elsewhere and had to share:

If your story was adapted by the Muppets, which character would be the human? (Or, let's say there are 1 to 3 humans max.)

And follow-up question-- Which characters do you think would be the humans in our various NTWF roleplay stories? XD

[Gelquie]

So I'm brainstorming answers to the questions through various distractions, and I haven't come up with anything yet, but I'm starting with Mafia II...

But honestly, everyone is so zany in Mafia II that I'm just having too much fun brainstorming their puppet versions. xD

(I originally thought "Britknee should be human," but she is one whose self absolutely must be converted to puppet form.)

[Thorn]

In The Town, the only human is Kree (I think that was her name?), one of the creatures from beyond the wall.

[Twillie]

I'm not too familiar with the Muppets, so is there any certain vibe the human characters usually give? Do they tend to be the straight man, or maybe the one with the main emotional arc?

[downrightdude]

I'm not too familiar with the Muppets, but I think Miss Piggy would make ana exceptional Snaw.

Granted I'm prettier and way more talented, but she can convey at least 65% of my talented beauty.

[Celestial]

Nov 12, 2022 0:28:46 GMT -5 Lizica said:

Bloids!

I saw this super fun hypothetical question elsewhere and had to share:

If your story was adapted by the Muppets, which character would be the human? (Or, let's say there are 1 to 3 humans max.)

And follow-up question-- Which characters do you think would be the humans in our various NTWF roleplay stories? XD

For the sake of this hypothetical, I'll choose Absolon's story. And I think Ivar will be the human in that. Absy is just too much of a cinnamon roll not to be a muppet. xD

(Also, 'bloids, we are at 50 pages. Who wants the honour of making the new 'bloid?)

[Killix]

Nov 12, 2022 14:03:18 GMT -5 Twillie said:

I'm not too familiar with the Muppets, so is there any certain vibe the human characters usually give? Do they tend to be the straight man, or maybe the one with the main emotional arc?

Good question.

I think it depends on the muppets-related property.
In Sesame Street, the human actors typically served to contrast the muppets' childlike POV, and helped them navigate problems or the moral of the day. Sometimes the humans were just guest stars the muppet characters would meet. The humans and muppet characters were all members of a community/neighbourhood.

Wheras in something like Fraggle Rock, humans and the Fraggles live in their own separate ecosystems. Neither really know much about each other, and IIRC humans don't really interact with the plot.


... and then there are the muppet characters who are "human" muppets. That gets confusing if you think about it too long. XD

[Birdy]

Nov 12, 2022 0:28:46 GMT -5 Lizica said:

Bloids!

I saw this super fun hypothetical question elsewhere and had to share:

If your story was adapted by the Muppets, which character would be the human? (Or, let's say there are 1 to 3 humans max.)

And follow-up question-- Which characters do you think would be the humans in our various NTWF roleplay stories? XD

Mafia III. Everyone is Muppets...


...except Bardsley.

[June Scarlet]

I know there's lots of Muppets lore, but I keep thinking back to A Muppet Christmas Carrol. In that one, the human was Scrooge, both the protagonist and the straight man. The actor said something like he planned to treat the Muppet cast as if he were working with a famous serious acting troupe that I can't recall the name of right now. But the point is, he took his role very seriously, and let the rest of the cast build off that.

With that said, now I'm having fun imagining having all the secondary characters be silly cartoony parodies in Crime Show Comic. Lisa Copper and Franklin Fuzz would be the humans, having to carry the story, but all the criminals and witnesses and such could be whatever, not necessarily human. Would solve one problem of having to come up with a bunch of different one-off criminal human characters, and replace it with having to come up with a bunch of nonhuman characters. It's a silly thought, but also my mind keeps going "But what if we DID do that?"

On a related note, you know how in comics, sometimes a generic person is drawn as a featureless bluish/grayish/whitish figure? But there's also the important character(s) fully colored and drawn out? I've seen that work, I really have, but when I tried to draw Lisa and Franklin fully colored, and the criminal just a featureless blob, I couldn't get it to not look weird.

My plan was to give up on that tack, do a bunch of research and planning and have a diverse cast of one-off criminals with original designs and everything. But now I want to take a second look at the first idea. So how do thoe other comics pull it off, and why can't I?

[Lizica]

Nov 12, 2022 14:00:44 GMT -5 Thorn said:

In The Town, the only human is Kree (I think that was her name?), one of the creatures from beyond the wall.

Oh, I love that idea!! YES. 8DD

Nov 12, 2022 20:47:48 GMT -5 Birdy said:

Mafia III. Everyone is Muppets...


...except Bardsley.

YESSSSSSS. XDDDD (This perfect mental image alone made me burst out laughing. XD)


I was also looking at the Wrighton character list... Do you think Christian or Dion would be a more fun human? ...Or Bloody Mary? XD


If you're inspired, I say have fun and experiment, June Scarlet ! =D You could have a ton of fun playing with different designs/concepts and see what sticks!
Trying to think about why those "fully-designed character and comparatively featureless character" interactions work so well in some comics. I wonder if there's a specific visual tone that lends itself to the comedy? Or alternately, if your main two detectives are the only characters fully rendered versus others, does it mean that your MCs (or your readers) see the MCs as the only two sane people in a world of weirdos, or the only important people in a world of unimportant/interchangeable criminals? Or, do they live in a world that just happens to also be inhabited by caricatures/animals/Muppets/blobs, and this is just business as usual? I guess, what are the side characters in the minds of your MCs?

[Thorn]

Oh in Wrighton the human should DEFINITELY be bloody mary. xD

[Celestial]

IMHO, in Wrighton, the only human should be SCIP. Everyone else is muppets.

[Lizica]

On the one hand, YES. 8D But on the other hand, I would LOVE to see Scip as a Muppet, too!

[June Scarlet]

Nov 13, 2022 0:25:28 GMT -5 Lizica said:

If you're inspired, I say have fun and experiment, June Scarlet ! =D You could have a ton of fun playing with different designs/concepts and see what sticks!
Trying to think about why those "fully-designed character and comparatively featureless character" interactions work so well in some comics. I wonder if there's a specific visual tone that lends itself to the comedy? Or alternately, if your main two detectives are the only characters fully rendered versus others, does it mean that your MCs (or your readers) see the MCs as the only two sane people in a world of weirdos, or the only important people in a world of unimportant/interchangeable criminals? Or, do they live in a world that just happens to also be inhabited by caricatures/animals/Muppets/blobs, and this is just business as usual? I guess, what are the side characters in the minds of your MCs?

Unimportant/interchangeable. It doesn't really matter what the characters besides the 2-3 main characters look like. They are all one-off characters there to serve the comic. Most of them are criminals or suspects as well.

I suppose in a Neopets comic, featureless figures are generally used for owners because we aren't supposed to know what a user looks like, and also because it's unimportant to the comic. A recent example can be found in Random Oddness: My petpet is now my brother, where such featureless figure is referred to by the Bori as Mom.