I should invite you to drop by the message board, from the community link on the main page of the secrets of the universe site in order to keep up on the news. We do a good deal of chatting there which would be of interest to you. Recent chatter involved the next Quiver series that will appear on Secrets of the Universe and a little something about the look of the comic. Have you noticed the variable look of the comic?

Joel did not write a tirade about it. I mentioned it, but he has focused his skills on producing more of the comic and that did not leave time to write articles for here. You can read the exchange on the community if you would like to see the version that I am summarizing here. It was written much better by Joel than I am going to write it.

The comic is drawn from the viewpoint of some of the characters. Joel says that this is ‘The Guys;’ however, that doesn’t mean a great deal. I would write that it was drawn from the viewpoint of the Joel character because the prototype Joel character is doing the drawing. This effects the look of the artwork that you see. You may even find that your own view of the world changes by the way that you relate to it.

When ‘the guys’ are not being serious, they are drawn with a more cartoon look to them. This is their natural state. However, when they react emotionally and their senses are focused, the drawing gets more realistic. Joel allows you to step into the minds of the characters by changing the depiction of the comic panels. Looking at the artwork, you can tell how the characters are viewing their world.

‘The Girls’ are mysterious and unearthly. Since that is how the characters, in specific the Joel, sees them in the strip, that is how they are drawn. In the Joel’s eye view, the depiction of the girls optimizes their positive qualities and removes their defects. Greater care is taken in their creation because they are observed in greater detail by the Joel’s Eye view that the comic depicts.

Lastly, we come to “The Matson.’ The Matson is drawn as dark and mysterious. He is the arch villain of the story so he is drawn to represent the darkness behind the story. You should see hints of Joel’s idea of evil in the depiction of The Matson. That is not to say that the man on whom The Matson is based is evil, conspiring against the students, an alien or that he is not blackmailing me to say nice things about him.

Herman and Test Rat, amongst the other pets of the series, usually fall in with ‘the guys.’ Some characters have not been seen well enough to tell where they fall, yet you can tell what Joel is thinking whenever he shows you a panel of the strip. Test Rat is completely new in this season. His depiction, thus far, has been more detailed than you would expect from any of the characters in ‘the guys’ group. Where the pets will eventually fall into the pattern remains to be seen as the mythos of the story proceeds.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Mulligan Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.