long-time neopian & artist- hello!

[stjarne]

hi all, great to be here!   
feel free to call me jar- i'm 22 (almost 23) and came back to neo mid last year upon hearing of the site going independent. you might recognize me from the r/Neopets discord- which is how i found out about this place.
i've been playing neo on & off for nearly my entire life- since 2007 when i was only 6 years old! from then on til mid-2015 i played pretty much daily until my first main account became perma-frozen (thanks, day of sin, and thanks 14 yr old me). in that time i was a huge huge fan of the times, especially of all the comic artists during those years. really it was what inspired me to start my artistic journey 

i came back with a decade old side account of mine last year and made it my main. you can find it at rebeccanmn with my new side account being stjarne. i have 2 comics in as of writing, 1 pending for the 1000th anniversary, but hope to get more in & perhaps start a series? idk, we'll see

a bit more about me:
- on neo, besides the NT i love customizing/painting my pets, gathering items for my gallery (love faerie items, usukis, plush, cool food & more), & stocking my shop!
- outside of neo i love to draw (of course), listen to music, collect old toy lines (MLP is my biggest- i have over 100 & am in several other forums dedicated to collecting, LPS, plush and others), & going out for fun local events from time to time 
- if you want a quick look at some of my old (and i mean old, circa 2009-2012) comics/drawings you can see some at /~crayolacutie ! i'll probably upload a few more as time goes on.


that all being said, thanks for having me! just two questions, if anyone is happy to answer:
i heard about a discord server for the NTWF? whats it take to be invited?
for those who've submitted comic series for the times, how did you come up with your title? i struggle with this & would love some insight

[Twillie]

Hello and welcome! I messaged you briefly about this place on Discord, in case you may recognize me haha. It's great to have you, and if you have any questions on where or what things are, feel free to ask! I hope you enjoy your time here :3

For our Discord server, we prefer if members are active on the forum first for at least a month, and then after that you can request an invite link (if you aren't already sent one) from any of us~

For my comic series title, I think it mainly came from my desire for something simple and my love for anything floral. It also helped that I already had my username picked out, so pulling Blossom from it for a title felt like a good way to keep it simple while still tying back to me.

Some other series title methods I've seen that might help:
-Picking a specific Neopian item that might relate back to your comic either literally or vibes-wise (e.g. Medical Tree, NeoPizza)
-Taking an irl phrase and Neopets-ifying it (e.g. And the Meepits Outgrabe, One Fish Two Fish)
-Using a goofy word or alliteration (e.g. The Goobers, Feepit Frenzy, Notions and Nonsense, etc.)
-PUN

Titles are tricky though, I face that struggle every time I start a new mini comic arc lol. I think I usually go the pun/play on words route for those, like with past titles like Snowball Effect and Heart to Heart.

I'll have to give your old art a look as well, I always love seeing others' comics and artwork! :3 It's also fun seeing the comics you make now in the NT, your art style is so graphic and distinct and reminds me a bit of those old toy lines you mentioned!

[Killix]

Hello and welcome to the NTWF!

I came up with my comic title in classic kid fashion: By combining the words "Neopets" and "Fun" together. X'D It's not the most creative, but it fulfilled its purpose, I suppose.

[stjarne]

thanks for the kind welcome both of you! i'll admit i've been trying to find some place where all (or a good chunk of) NT authors nowadays seem to congregate and it looks like i've found a good one   

twillie yes i recognize you & thank you for the comments on my art style! lol my toy collections do kinda seep into my art it seems. i'm trying to get used to digital art with my new pen/laptop however it's been making the process of comics go a lot faster so im happy about that.

also ok, i figured there had to be a reason why the server was private. i shall be patiently awaiting my time to join...   thanks for letting me know!

i appreciate both your input on comic titles. when i was a kid the only comics i made were for myself and they'd be titled along the lines of "kooky critterz" or some variation. i just did not care lol i'll have to give neopets-ifying a phrase a try

[June Scarlet]

Hey Jar, nice to meet ya!

I have a few comic series titles. My everyday Neopets comic is called "Dinner with the Scarlets," because way back I thought if I ever made a comic series for the NT, I'd call it that, and I did end up making a comic series. As to why "Dinner with the Scarlets?" Well, I wanted a name that referred to all my Neopets, the Scarlets, and "Dinner with" made it clear that "Scarlet" is a surname. What I still don't have after all these years is a thumbnail for that series. Or a Neohome.

"Ink" is named after the main character's alias, but is also a pun on the medium I drew it in, traditional ink.

I guess I named it after characters in both cases, but also in a way that told a little more about what the comic was about.

So for example, if I was naming your comic series, I'd probably start with "jar" and go from there. Like, "Neopets in a Jar" or "Put Neopoints in Jar" or "NP in a Jar" or something like that. Twillie has some good tips as well.

[stjarne]

Jan 22, 2024 19:16:24 GMT -5 June Scarlet said:

Hey Jar, nice to meet ya!

I have a few comic series titles. My everyday Neopets comic is called "Dinner with the Scarlets," because way back I thought if I ever made a comic series for the NT, I'd call it that, and I did end up making a comic series. As to why "Dinner with the Scarlets?" Well, I wanted a name that referred to all my Neopets, the Scarlets, and "Dinner with" made it clear that "Scarlet" is a surname. What I still don't have after all these years is a thumbnail for that series. Or a Neohome.

"Ink" is named after the main character's alias, but is also a pun on the medium I drew it in, traditional ink.

I guess I named it after characters in both cases, but also in a way that told a little more about what the comic was about.

So for example, if I was naming your comic series, I'd probably start with "jar" and go from there. Like, "Neopets in a Jar" or "Put Neopoints in Jar" or "NP in a Jar" or something like that. Twillie has some good tips as well.

thank you june! nice to meet you too & i love the backstory behind yours. i'll definitely consider your ideas- i've already thought of maybe something like 'Tip Jar' or 'Laugh Jar'? since most of my comics come with some kind of punchline 

[Twillie]

Oh Tip Jar is a fun one!

[Killix]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention this in my initial response, but I am also a toy collector, and I have accumulated a MLP collection that I never expected, but those old ponies just have so much charm! :D

_{(I also collect plushies (from franchises/media I enjoy, or just generic creatures), dragons in general, Transformers, Furby, and keychain virtual pets (such as Tamagotchi). I have a small army of Monster High dolls, and a massive army of Beanie Babies from my childhood. XD)}

[stjarne]

Jan 22, 2024 23:15:30 GMT -5 Killix said:

Oh yes, I forgot to mention this in my initial response, but I am also a toy collector, and I have accumulated a MLP collection that I never expected, but those old ponies just have so much charm!

_{(I also collect plushies (from franchises/media I enjoy, or just generic creatures), dragons in general, Transformers, Furby, and keychain virtual pets (such as Tamagotchi). I have a small army of Monster High dolls, and a massive army of Beanie Babies from my childhood. XD)}

oh so cool! yea i agree, i had a sizeable amount of G3's as a kid and when i was a teen my mom had decided to give most away... and during the pandemic i started missing them so i bought 1, then 1 became 5, 5 became 10 and so on 

i used to have a huge collection of beanies too! gave most of mine away before we moved year and a half ago and now i only really collect the bears. those alone have enough variety to keep me happy lol
i've looked into furbies & MH dolls a bit, dunno if i'll grab any for myself though

if you want a peek at what my mlp collection looks like... well, see for yourself below    this is an older image so i have more than these currently. some rare ones in there!

SPOILER: Click to show

  

and ofc i have neopets merch too! robo kacheek plush, faerie grundo plush, baby kau plush and a few BK figures to name a few.   plus red kau plush, mcdonalds nova, orange kougra plush & a green faellie door hanger i leave on my door.

[Ginz ❤]

Welcome to the forum, Jar! Nice to meet you! You sound like a really cool person and it's great to have you around.

I'm more of a casual Neo player these days (though I keep wanting to get back into it too because I miss it, but life gets in the way sometimes) but it's been fun to read about how people come up with the comic titles, so I figured I'd share mine.

I haven't submitted to the Times in quite a while, but I had 2 sporadic comic series way back in the day. The first one was called Unimaginable because I wanted the title to include "Uni", since my Uni was the main protagonist. When drawing my thumbnail, I even put a Uni horn in place of the first "I" so the play on words was more apparent, heh.

My second series starred my Jelly Ixi, and I named it Jelly Woes. I wanted something that sounded a bit like Jelly World because I loved playing along with the 'Jelly World doesn't exist' joke, and my Ixi was more of a zany character too.

I really like your title ideas for your comic series too! Good luck with all your Neo goals!

[Killix]

Jan 23, 2024 0:28:38 GMT -5 stjarne said:

oh so cool! yea i agree, i had a sizeable amount of G3's as a kid and when i was a teen my mom had decided to give most away... and during the pandemic i started missing them so i bought 1, then 1 became 5, 5 became 10 and so on 

i used to have a huge collection of beanies too! gave most of mine away before we moved year and a half ago and now i only really collect the bears. those alone have enough variety to keep me happy lol
i've looked into furbies & MH dolls a bit, dunno if i'll grab any for myself though

(snip)

and ofc i have neopets merch too! robo kacheek plush, faerie grundo plush, baby kau plush and a few BK figures to name a few.  :)  plus red kau plush, mcdonalds nova, orange kougra plush & a green faellie door hanger i leave on my door.

My pony army sorta happened like that, too, though I never had them as a child. I found Minty at a thrift shop and said "Ah yes, classic MLP. I don't collect these, but this mint pony will look cute on my shelf."
Then I found some G1s and couldn't resist them, and kept finding more neat looking G3s which usually come in bags of 3 or more at the thrift shops. Then my Grandma found out I liked them and kept mailing me a whole bunch of ponies that she'd find while thrifting... So it just snowballed. XD

Noice! I'm not too knowledgeable on MLPs in regards to collecting (I was armying them very casually, haha.) but I recognize some of those G3s!

I don't actively collect Beanies anymore, but I've always been interested in everything but the bears, haha. My mob of bean-filled animals are tucked away in a big bin in my closet and I really wish I had the room to display a lot of them.

Nice!
I have some of the original Neopets merch, myself! A handful of plushies (petpets from Claire's, a talking disco Aisha, black kougra, faerie... something, and about a billion of the McDonalds mini plushies), two talking electronic pets (Kacheek and Kougra), and one of the Neopets virtual pets (An excellent overlap in the venn diagram that was my interest in Neopets and keychain virtual pets).
I haven't played Neopets in decades, but they're too nostalgic to get rid of!

[Kengplant]

Hey! Glad to see you found your way here!

OMG that old art! You should redraw the christmas tree one for next christmas haha

As for comic titles...

Life Improvised: this was the title I came up with when I was young. I had just learned about improv and was leaning into that "lol-random-core" (which was the style at the time). Then years later I came back and when I started drawing again I wanted to pay homage to how it started. It feels like it's a little off base from what I draw now, as my storylines feel less improvised sillyness now and more concrete. I've thought about shortening or re-naming it. But I don't want to break the streak.

The Locker Room: This was for my Altador Cup themed comics. They had nothing to do with my pets. So I wanted a name that reflected the sports part and set it apart from my regular series. This made a brief comeback as my warmup comic when I returned, but is now retired as I'd rather focus on my own guys.

The R.S. Caroosel : Different story line than my main guys! A shorter adventure series. It's the name of the their ship!

Art Bites: My newest addition to what has become quite the collection of titles (oops). This is for giving little art tips and tutorials for people looking to make comics. It's an inbetween things project. Only one entry so far

Not everyone uses a title!

Shad And Saura are kinda just informally known by that title as they're the main characters. Lex (kuroneko_kitty) doesn't add a series title when submitting but they're both still easily picked out by their thumbnails.

*reminder, thumbnail form is broken, host offsite + link img url or hosting petpage in description

[Stephanie (swordlilly)]

Welcome (back) to Neopets, stjarne! I look forward to seeing what you make

My comic title, "Second Glance," is kind of an accident. ^^; I took it from a phrase in this first comic about how my mutant Hissi twins went to a Halloween party and enjoyed themselves because no one gave them a second glance. After that, I continued with the same title because I was too lazy to change it. xD But I did try to make each comic continue to be about a second look or second consideration.