Just another rant I wrote at 11:30 PM, inspired by some of the weekly readings I've done. Prompted by reading the epilogue to 8-Bit Theatre (Which was fantastic).This might be a good read for you or maybe not, I just tend to rant a lot at around this time of night when I'm really tired.
Link to 8-Bit Theatre is at the bottom of the page.
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Being quite the fan of comics, not only comic books, I’ve read a lot of web comics. One that is still outstanding to me is one by the name of 8-bit theatre. This is a comic that uses the sprites from various 8-bit final fantasy games and follows a story line that very loosely based off of the original final fantasy. My affection towards this comic has nothing to do with the fact that it’s basically just a whacky version of Final Fantasy, well, that’s sort of it actually. But the writing of the comic itself is fantastic. The author of the comic, Brian Clevinger, is a fantastic writer. But he’s obviously not an artist which is why he decided to recycle the 8-bit Final Fantasy sprites, that and the fact that in the end his comic is all about 8-Bit sprites, hence the name. But regardless, his style of writing serves as a great inspiration for my sprite comic, and is the main inspiration for me making a sprite comic in the first place.
I first started my sprite comic back sometime during late 2009 and since then I’ve been trying to keep up with my sprite comic but lately I’ve been lacking inspiration, why? 8-bit theatre ended. As I’ve said just now, 8-bit theatre was my huge inspiration to make a sprite comic, because I’ve enjoyed 8-bit theatre so much I was determined to make a sprite comic that I will personally equally enjoy, as well as other people if they happen to stumble upon my comic. Naturally, because 8-bit theatre ended all my will to continue with my comic suddenly vanished, but not completely, of course, I still want to make the best comic ever made, or at least something I find satisfactory. But it’s kind of hard when my main source of inspiration is now dead.
I’d like to say a thing or two about Brian Clevinger and 8-bit theatre for a little bit more. The peculiar thing about Clevingers writing style is that it’s very unique and it implements a lot of anti-climactic moments that are suited more for comedy, for example; at the end of 8-bit theatre, when the Light Warriors are confronting Chaos and are at a loss as to what they should do and are discussing what to do in a vain attempt to prolong their lives, a group of never before seen characters and White Mage quickly swoop in and destroy Chaos, and then while the Light Warriors are still oblivions to what’s happening, the Dark Warriors take the credit for saving the world. There are plenty of moments such as this, some villains get tricked into losing against the dim-witted Light Warriors, and others may be the cause of their own demise. But it’s this kind of thing that made this comic so enjoyable and an inspiration for me.
While some writers try to build up a tense situation and then create an epic climax, Clevinger does the exact opposite and releases the tension by making something extraordinarily stupid happen to the characters or the villain that will in the end make the main characters triumphant. I love this, it’s so fantastically annoying and it’s something I want to create, it’s a very silly thing but it’s fantastic in the sense of how enjoyable and “Right” it makes it feel.
Trying to adapt to what you think is good is all part of my imaginary inspiration cycle, and in effect of this cycle I feel that my personal projects have a lot of different things to offer usually and thus making them interesting, personal and unique. After all, it’s not just Clevingers 8-bit Theatre that inspires me to do my sprite comic, it’s just what inspired me the most I think. And it’s that mix of different kinds of inspirations that make things unique. No one person likes the exact same things, we might have the same interests however inspiration might come differently, and with each person’s different inspirations, something unique might spawn every time someone thinks of something. But just because it’s unique it doesn’t mean that it’s good (this bit is a tease and doesn't lead in to anything).
Inspiration for writing comes almost mostly from 8-Bit Theatre, however the sprite art inspiration comes heavily from the Disgaea franchise of games developed by NI software, not just from Disgaea however, but from Pokemon, the old 8-Bit Final Fantasy games, Zelda Franchise (which I have not actually played, but I love the sprites), Dungeon Fighter Online, heck, just sprite art in general, not only sprite art from games. Although there is a direct link with my comic and my love of sprites in games, I recall buying Street Fighter Alpha 3 for my PSP just because I was sick of Street Fighter 4 and its lack of sprites.
Personal interests and influences make for a unique product; I’ve said that a paragraph ago, but I felt like re-iterating that idea to whoever may be reading this.
Inspiration is different from a reference, a reference is like a reference to anatomy; someone’s anatomy can’t be inspiration to someone! Unless they’re drawing some sort of messed up nudie picture on a big boat or whatever. But a reference is still a reference and not inspiration, I mean, they’re both similar; if you’re drawing from a reference then you’re not necessarily drawing the reference picture in question, but you’re drawing something based off it (like the sports wheel for the design methods module I'm doing at Uni). It’s sort of similar with inspiration; however with a reference the end product will be a lot less unique, with inspiration it will be a lot more personal and unique.
It’s like a class of students all writing about e-commerce and they’re all using Wikipedia for reference. It’ll be the same thing basically just with different skins, however if they were made to find some inspiration for writing about e-commerce, then they would each come up with something different, personal and interesting to read.
In our group project we throw around the word “Inspiration” a lot, and as an artist I am being told what my inspiration is; and I don’t particularly like it. I understand that the group means “reference” and this isn’t a formal complaint because it’s just me, but I don’t like being told what is inspiring me to draw for the game. I know what is inspiring me and influencing my drawing style for the game, and likewise I know what my references are. My references are there for me to go to so I can find out what my drawings should look like to be more friendly to KS1 children (and are constantly found for me as well, I have a fantastic team. Just saying.), and my inspiration and influence already comes from my years of experience of reading comic books, web-comics, watching obscure Japanese anime cartoons, watching American cartoons and all that.
But I take criticism like a man, as Garry mentioned a week back - or something, my drawings needs to be a bit more appealing to children, and I can manage to do that, but I can’t change what I like and what makes me draw like myself and not the man who did the graphics for Discworld or KS1 Shapes Lab on the BBC website.
Rant Over.
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