Personal Challenge:A Fat Superheroine at 11:05 AM

In the next scene she splits a car apart with her fists.

The universe is made of forces clashing. Particles impacting each other,  gravity denying force, survival of the fittest. So too is Democracy.

Whoa, that was a good opener, huh? It makes what I'm about to write seem deeper. Recently some controversy has spilled over, in  the form of this one person tried to get people to hire her as an artist. And then somebody said that her Batwoman looks fat is the short story. I'll let myself steal the image under the veil of context. Sorry.

She must be one of those rap-guys' girlfriends...

I have many opinions on this, in particular. Is Batwoman supposed to be hot? I thought she was supposed to be some kind of Lesbian-ey Lesbian from planet Lesbian. I'm not saying I don't think lesbians aren't hot, just that that isn't the point of the character.

But moving beyond the picture, this has again sparked the debate of depictions of women in the media, particularly comics. I don't know how much I can say about that that hasn't been said, except lately I can't even be bothered to pirate comics.

I think we could have some Superheroeines that aren't extremely geared toward idealistic beauty. Could doesn't mean it'd be successfull, or that people could take to it, but there isn't really  a reason why it can't happen. Then a contest opened up in Deviant Art about the subject of creating  a fat Super Heroine.
In this post, I announce my intention to win the contest(against my own advise), as well the general process in which I  will.

I myself could not defend myself from accusations of being sexist. I Play Strip Fighter IV. FOR FUN. But I also think, much like King David(Or was it Solomon?) there is a time for everything. But never let it be said I don't take challenges seriously. So here is my process.

1)My Superhero has to have more than going for her than being fat.

Feel Empowered yet?

You know, I already made a fat Superheroine, the steel armored Girl-Ephant in my critically acllaimed(hey, one guy liked it!) Celemutant #1. I am not a stranger to reusing my thoughts of the past, but I will do a new one because I am just that awesome. Also, they don't want fat themed  Heroines.

But the point it, If you wanted this to be a character people would willingly give money to(and by definition, to you) it needs something more than being Superman, but a woman and also fat. The market for Superman-But-X is closed, okay?

Your superhero needs to be interesting in and of herself. And well...

2) You can't make the central theme being fat.

Uwe Boll is getting an Oscar someday.

You see, if you're going for the sort of people who read "The Mary Sue" and get outraged at something like this, you can't really make the character's central problem that she's fat.

See, the way I see It, Black people don't want a hero who is getting constantly discriminated by everyone and Gay people probably don't want their heroes to be constantly stopped from getting married and adopting kids, so fat people probably don't want a fat heroine who is constantly obsessed with her girth. If you push too much in that direction, you get into a "Helen Degeneres" effect where neither the  afflicted party and  those that aren't all feel it is too much.

And beside, such a theme can probably not hold interest for very long. Sure the character must deal with it from time to time, like Peter Parker dealt with guilt and being poor. But it can't become a somber study of life as a fat girl, especially since because I am a Man, I do not trust myself with such a topic.

3)The character needs to be visually interesting

For something!

 I cannot emphasize this enough. Comics are a visual medium. Your character(that you pretend sells comics) needs to look good and capture the imagination of the reader, probably while selling whatever gimmick you character has. There is some sort of a color code to character personalities, although it doesn't always follow an exact pattern.

Blue is serious characters, like Superman and Cyclopse and Captain America.

Red and other bright colors are for wilder personalities, like Deadpool, Flash and SPider-Man.

Black and gray is for grimmer, darker characters, such as Spawn, Batman, and Raven.

Normally, we could take some shortcuts by making the character visually attractive. But since we're circumventing convention, our design needs to be at it's strongest. The design needs to sell the idea quickly, lest peoples eyes dart over to whatever whackiness is going on in X-Men(OMG Xavier has WOLVERINE CLAWS NOW and he's using them to STAB BOLIVAR TRASK IN THE JUNK!) or Catwoman (OMG CATWOMAN IS HAVING SEX WITH THOSE CATS AND BATMAN IS CRYING ABOUT IT!) and forget about you. You're gotta have a clear, strong hook, and need to sell it quickly and strongly.

4)Your character needs to be explainable

Cannot be summarized in less than 5 sentences.

Your character can be some sort of deconstruction of jungian archetypes present in preclassic litterature and mysticism as juxtaposed by the postmodernist ideals of Generation X. But you can't put that in writting in a comic cover. You gotta cake the pretentiousness in simplism. You need  a fast sell, but a good sell, too. There needs to be some element that's recognizable in there for modern audiences. If you can make people think of Harry Potter, or Jason Statham by glancing at the cover quickly, you're already won their attention, which is what you want. Now, I'm not saying your character needs to be a rip-off of The Last Airbender to win. Just that, if your character gives the impression "Like a  mix between The Last Air Bender and  300 with some Battlestar Galactica thrown in", the character is more likely to gain adherents, who will think it's somewhat original since they've never seen all those elements together(or if they have, not like yours).

Since your character is new, you don't have to tie it down to any pre-existing franchise and you can therefore create your own mythology, your own world. But remember, that the audience DOESN'T  know what's in your head, and has to be guided into the world. You lay the rules out to them, and never assume they know what the hell is going on. They don't.

But most of all, you can't JUST think of your character. You gotta give it a little backstory, maybe a  quick supporting cast. You may not use all of it or may change it. Or maybe neither. Bottom line is, no character operates on a vacuum. Fat or no fat, your character needs setting to execute her amazing adventures in. Otherwise, what's the point?

So I'm somewhat ahead in my creation and hopefully I'll get some scanner soon and show you my work. Stay tuned!

Personal Challenge:A Fat Superheroine at 11:05 AM

In the next scene she splits a car apart with her fists.

The universe is made of forces clashing. Particles impacting each other,  gravity denying force, survival of the fittest. So too is Democracy.

Whoa, that was a good opener, huh? It makes what I'm about to write seem deeper. Recently some controversy has spilled over, in  the form of this one person tried to get people to hire her as an artist. And then somebody said that her Batwoman looks fat is the short story. I'll let myself steal the image under the veil of context. Sorry.

She must be one of those rap-guys' girlfriends...

I have many opinions on this, in particular. Is Batwoman supposed to be hot? I thought she was supposed to be some kind of Lesbian-ey Lesbian from planet Lesbian. I'm not saying I don't think lesbians aren't hot, just that that isn't the point of the character.

But moving beyond the picture, this has again sparked the debate of depictions of women in the media, particularly comics. I don't know how much I can say about that that hasn't been said, except lately I can't even be bothered to pirate comics.

I think we could have some Superheroeines that aren't extremely geared toward idealistic beauty. Could doesn't mean it'd be successfull, or that people could take to it, but there isn't really  a reason why it can't happen. Then a contest opened up in Deviant Art about the subject of creating  a fat Super Heroine.
In this post, I announce my intention to win the contest(against my own advise), as well the general process in which I  will.

I myself could not defend myself from accusations of being sexist. I Play Strip Fighter IV. FOR FUN. But I also think, much like King David(Or was it Solomon?) there is a time for everything. But never let it be said I don't take challenges seriously. So here is my process.

1)My Superhero has to have more than going for her than being fat.

Feel Empowered yet?

You know, I already made a fat Superheroine, the steel armored Girl-Ephant in my critically acllaimed(hey, one guy liked it!) Celemutant #1. I am not a stranger to reusing my thoughts of the past, but I will do a new one because I am just that awesome. Also, they don't want fat themed  Heroines.

But the point it, If you wanted this to be a character people would willingly give money to(and by definition, to you) it needs something more than being Superman, but a woman and also fat. The market for Superman-But-X is closed, okay?

Your superhero needs to be interesting in and of herself. And well...

2) You can't make the central theme being fat.

Uwe Boll is getting an Oscar someday.

You see, if you're going for the sort of people who read "The Mary Sue" and get outraged at something like this, you can't really make the character's central problem that she's fat.

See, the way I see It, Black people don't want a hero who is getting constantly discriminated by everyone and Gay people probably don't want their heroes to be constantly stopped from getting married and adopting kids, so fat people probably don't want a fat heroine who is constantly obsessed with her girth. If you push too much in that direction, you get into a "Helen Degeneres" effect where neither the  afflicted party and  those that aren't all feel it is too much.

And beside, such a theme can probably not hold interest for very long. Sure the character must deal with it from time to time, like Peter Parker dealt with guilt and being poor. But it can't become a somber study of life as a fat girl, especially since because I am a Man, I do not trust myself with such a topic.

3)The character needs to be visually interesting

For something!

 I cannot emphasize this enough. Comics are a visual medium. Your character(that you pretend sells comics) needs to look good and capture the imagination of the reader, probably while selling whatever gimmick you character has. There is some sort of a color code to character personalities, although it doesn't always follow an exact pattern.

Blue is serious characters, like Superman and Cyclopse and Captain America.

Red and other bright colors are for wilder personalities, like Deadpool, Flash and SPider-Man.

Black and gray is for grimmer, darker characters, such as Spawn, Batman, and Raven.

Normally, we could take some shortcuts by making the character visually attractive. But since we're circumventing convention, our design needs to be at it's strongest. The design needs to sell the idea quickly, lest peoples eyes dart over to whatever whackiness is going on in X-Men(OMG Xavier has WOLVERINE CLAWS NOW and he's using them to STAB BOLIVAR TRASK IN THE JUNK!) or Catwoman (OMG CATWOMAN IS HAVING SEX WITH THOSE CATS AND BATMAN IS CRYING ABOUT IT!) and forget about you. You're gotta have a clear, strong hook, and need to sell it quickly and strongly.

4)Your character needs to be explainable

Cannot be summarized in less than 5 sentences.

Your character can be some sort of deconstruction of jungian archetypes present in preclassic litterature and mysticism as juxtaposed by the postmodernist ideals of Generation X. But you can't put that in writting in a comic cover. You gotta cake the pretentiousness in simplism. You need  a fast sell, but a good sell, too. There needs to be some element that's recognizable in there for modern audiences. If you can make people think of Harry Potter, or Jason Statham by glancing at the cover quickly, you're already won their attention, which is what you want. Now, I'm not saying your character needs to be a rip-off of The Last Airbender to win. Just that, if your character gives the impression "Like a  mix between The Last Air Bender and  300 with some Battlestar Galactica thrown in", the character is more likely to gain adherents, who will think it's somewhat original since they've never seen all those elements together(or if they have, not like yours).

Since your character is new, you don't have to tie it down to any pre-existing franchise and you can therefore create your own mythology, your own world. But remember, that the audience DOESN'T  know what's in your head, and has to be guided into the world. You lay the rules out to them, and never assume they know what the hell is going on. They don't.

But most of all, you can't JUST think of your character. You gotta give it a little backstory, maybe a  quick supporting cast. You may not use all of it or may change it. Or maybe neither. Bottom line is, no character operates on a vacuum. Fat or no fat, your character needs setting to execute her amazing adventures in. Otherwise, what's the point?

So I'm somewhat ahead in my creation and hopefully I'll get some scanner soon and show you my work. Stay tuned!

Don't Fear the Rip-off: Travesty and Roll Out at 10:32 AM

There is another world.

Under the glitzy, gajillion dollar hollywood super-blockbuster, but over the current of indie documentaries about dying of dyphteria in New Equatorial Guinea, it lies. Tiptoing the line between riding a recognizable product's coat-tales, and just straight up infringing them, knowing full well WB execs don't usually walk into Always 99.

In this world, you get shit like this.

The T-Bots Coloring activity book. Unafraid of any legal proceeding from Hasbro (after all, the concept of shape-shifting androids has already been copied several times without much consequence.)  the distributors burst right in. This is how you do it. Catch the confused step parents right before they can ask which one is Bumblebee.

But you may have some questions, seeing this cover. What exactly is inside? How do they expect kids to know what colors their ravenously plagiarized  characters are? Are there even characters in this? Why don't we let Schoolzone.com fill us in?

Take on the world with “T” Bots Morphing Robots. Give your child a pair of coloring books with a fun techno-twist. They offer a great break from more focused learning activities, plus, perforated, tear-out pages make for on-the-go coloring action and easy-to-display masterpieces

You got all that? This is a break from more focused activities, like eating paste and staring at their own noses. Don't be asking no dumb questions and buy or get out! Also, haha, you already bought it. But if you must know, this is what 55 Cents to 4 bucks get you...

Give me your face! Mine sort of sucks.

I call this guys Bestimus Primo. Presumably the leader of the T-Bots, Bestimus is clearly wondering about where Shia Lebouf  Michael Arangano is gone off to. Say what you will about him having a little Cylon in him, but they sure where commited to ripping of Transformer's motiff of them actually transforming into things, with the details like the wheels intact.(although with no actuall transformation as far as I could see) The could have just gone with some random, Transformer-ish robots and called it a day.

Of course, they gotta have some alternate forms, too. Otherwise it doesn't work.

The turbines are for flying, as penguins are known to do.

Yes! A Robot Penguin. We're clearly skipping right past Beastwars into Transmetals, because Iceborg here would not fool anyone if he apeared at your local zoo, trying to tap dance his way into freedom.

My skimming through the book showed me plenty of pages which uncluded animal forms, including a robot wasp and a robot whale.  Those things have happened, and probably could happen, respectively. But in all honestly, how do you color that? Do you color it off-color, like the kind of bad Waspinator knock off it presumably is? Is the robot whale the color of an actual whale?  

One thing's  for sure: the Tbots has trimmed a lot of the more obvious violence of the original, and instead opted more for characters posing and never doing anything more specific than that. While the parents are probably a little relieved that no one is getting his exaust port blown to pieces, perhaps you need to look at the other cover.

"Only one of my arms is guns...I'm such a failiure..."

"Gunblebee" here isn't to become your pet.  He's coming out of the war explosions with his hand out asking if you're perhaps join him in his dance with death. The T-Bot! It's exactly what meets the eyes!

Don't Fear the Rip-off: Travesty and Roll Out at 10:32 AM

There is another world.

Under the glitzy, gajillion dollar hollywood super-blockbuster, but over the current of indie documentaries about dying of dyphteria in New Equatorial Guinea, it lies. Tiptoing the line between riding a recognizable product's coat-tales, and just straight up infringing them, knowing full well WB execs don't usually walk into Always 99.

In this world, you get shit like this.

The T-Bots Coloring activity book. Unafraid of any legal proceeding from Hasbro (after all, the concept of shape-shifting androids has already been copied several times without much consequence.)  the distributors burst right in. This is how you do it. Catch the confused step parents right before they can ask which one is Bumblebee.

But you may have some questions, seeing this cover. What exactly is inside? How do they expect kids to know what colors their ravenously plagiarized  characters are? Are there even characters in this? Why don't we let Schoolzone.com fill us in?

Take on the world with “T” Bots Morphing Robots. Give your child a pair of coloring books with a fun techno-twist. They offer a great break from more focused learning activities, plus, perforated, tear-out pages make for on-the-go coloring action and easy-to-display masterpieces

You got all that? This is a break from more focused activities, like eating paste and staring at their own noses. Don't be asking no dumb questions and buy or get out! Also, haha, you already bought it. But if you must know, this is what 55 Cents to 4 bucks get you...

Give me your face! Mine sort of sucks.

I call this guys Bestimus Primo. Presumably the leader of the T-Bots, Bestimus is clearly wondering about where Shia Lebouf  Michael Arangano is gone off to. Say what you will about him having a little Cylon in him, but they sure where commited to ripping of Transformer's motiff of them actually transforming into things, with the details like the wheels intact.(although with no actuall transformation as far as I could see) The could have just gone with some random, Transformer-ish robots and called it a day.

Of course, they gotta have some alternate forms, too. Otherwise it doesn't work.

The turbines are for flying, as penguins are known to do.

Yes! A Robot Penguin. We're clearly skipping right past Beastwars into Transmetals, because Iceborg here would not fool anyone if he apeared at your local zoo, trying to tap dance his way into freedom.

My skimming through the book showed me plenty of pages which uncluded animal forms, including a robot wasp and a robot whale.  Those things have happened, and probably could happen, respectively. But in all honestly, how do you color that? Do you color it off-color, like the kind of bad Waspinator knock off it presumably is? Is the robot whale the color of an actual whale?  

One thing's  for sure: the Tbots has trimmed a lot of the more obvious violence of the original, and instead opted more for characters posing and never doing anything more specific than that. While the parents are probably a little relieved that no one is getting his exaust port blown to pieces, perhaps you need to look at the other cover.

"Only one of my arms is guns...I'm such a failiure..."

"Gunblebee" here isn't to become your pet.  He's coming out of the war explosions with his hand out asking if you're perhaps join him in his dance with death. The T-Bot! It's exactly what meets the eyes!

Son of a Pitch: Street Fighter 4 M.U.G.E.N. edition at 12:38 PM

Wat Stwengt! Bot Dun Fohgut dea many guyslike ew oll over dewowld.

You know, I've always wanted to make a fighting game. You have no idea. And when I first learned of M.U.G.E.N more than 10 years ago, I thought I'd finally be able to. Well, turns out it was a lot more complicated than I'd thought.



Still, I 've always had M.U.G.E.N. in my mind one way or another. It's been kept alive by a community that is as vibrant as it is overzealous, and even the makers of M.U.G.E.N going into Odinsleep couldn't kill the dream. Some truly amazing games and characters have been made by the community. But I think there's been a huge oversight.





Street Fighter IV. I don't think anyone has made stages, or chars of Street Fighter IV. But why? It's got cool characters and It wouldn't be any more work than any other M.U.G.E.N sprite ripped character. Hell, it's be even less, with the small amount of moves and frames the game has. It's just a Nes game for crying out loud!

Wait, you thought I meant THE Street Fighter IV made by Capcom in 2009? Silly me! I should have been more specific. I meant Gouder Co,'s 1993 Bootleg Street Fighter 4 for the NES.

They put the name on the character select screen just to fuck with you.

Mr Gouder must have known that making a fighting game for the NES was a bad idea. The system didn't have the input speed or graphic capabilities for something as complex as a fighting game. However, he must have liked money and facing legal charges for copyright infringement, because he chose to name his game Street Fighter IV, despite Street Fighter III not existing until several years later. I can just imagine being a kid in 1993 that has spent hours with Ryu, Ken and the rest of the gang from Street Fighter 2, suddenly being faced with a game that promises to skip over a whole sequel. However, the game is, unlike the Kart Fighter Nes Bootleg, only barely related to Street Fighter. This Bootleg went all the way, forging new ground into derivative plagiarism.

Shameku...Shoddyuken!

The cast consists of Shoto ripoff Goho Li, and his identical twin Cliff, Playboy Kitty Tracy and her doppleganger Bunny, Buddhist monk Moon and his smirking duplicate Chunfo, Twin Shotos Rober and Pasta, and tough army guys Ranboo and Stanlong.

They ruled out "Cobro", "Racky" and "Stepormamomwilshootyu" early on.

So what am I asking of the M.U.G.E.N. community? To remake a Nes game that had 4 Ryus and a Erin ripoff? Somewhat. I mean, I know you guys like frankenspriting and shotos. Well, how about if instead of making yet another version of Ryu, we frankensprite a new Street Fighter IV? We could figure all new ways to make Pasta different from Rober. I mean, honestly, there's less Shotos in Bootleg SFIV than there where in actual SFIV, and you guys still can't live without that Akuma.

It is dan all over again...

I, as I said, am no good at M.U.G.E.N. At any part of it. And what I learnt is that what the community most needs is coders. Which is part of what I'm terrible at. But maybe, if more than one of us gets their shit together, we can finally bring Tracy back. Who's with me?

Son of a Pitch: Street Fighter 4 M.U.G.E.N. edition at 12:38 PM

Wat Stwengt! Bot Dun Fohgut dea many guyslike ew oll over dewowld.

You know, I've always wanted to make a fighting game. You have no idea. And when I first learned of M.U.G.E.N more than 10 years ago, I thought I'd finally be able to. Well, turns out it was a lot more complicated than I'd thought.



Still, I 've always had M.U.G.E.N. in my mind one way or another. It's been kept alive by a community that is as vibrant as it is overzealous, and even the makers of M.U.G.E.N going into Odinsleep couldn't kill the dream. Some truly amazing games and characters have been made by the community. But I think there's been a huge oversight.





Street Fighter IV. I don't think anyone has made stages, or chars of Street Fighter IV. But why? It's got cool characters and It wouldn't be any more work than any other M.U.G.E.N sprite ripped character. Hell, it's be even less, with the small amount of moves and frames the game has. It's just a Nes game for crying out loud!

Wait, you thought I meant THE Street Fighter IV made by Capcom in 2009? Silly me! I should have been more specific. I meant Gouder Co,'s 1993 Bootleg Street Fighter 4 for the NES.

They put the name on the character select screen just to fuck with you.

Barely Legal at 9:59 AM

Don't fear the rip-off.

Once Capcom sued another company that made a fighting game. The game, they claimed, followed  the archetypes of Street Fighter characters a little too closely and attempted to infringe on Capcom's intellectual property. In the end, the ruling was made that basically Capcom doesn't own concepts like "karate man", or "Russian strongman", and that anyone could make fighting games with those archetypes as long as those can't be confused with Street Fighter's characters.

So, how close is too close? See, during the early days of Fighting Female February I showed this pic of Seifuku Desetsu Pretty Fighter's schoolgirl having defeated someone at her stage, a beach.

The Suuuuuuuuuun goes doooooooooown...

And I made a joke, and we all laughed. Maybe. Then I went ahead and reviewed Super Strip Fighter 4: Hymen Fighting, I mean, the Whore Warriors, I mean no subtitle, and showed you this similar screen.

Okay, the skirt is short enough, but where is the long jacket?

And I had some more laughs at the expense of a Sailor Moon fighting game that's actually pretty solid. After all, it was pretty amusing that 2 fighting games had a schoolgirl whose stage was the a rocky shore and whose  winpose was similar.

I didn't think much of it. After all,  Japan IS an island, and I've heard girls in sailor outfits are a thing over there.  But then someone in Youtube said that Mari from Strip Fighter was similar to a fighter from  Pretty Fighter. Called Marin.

I couldn't read the kanji Pretty Fighter threw at me, but  further investigation shed light that Marin was, in fact the schoolgirl of that series. This was no coincidence. Amazed, I rushed to my, er...Super Famicon, and put on my, uh...import cartridge, to give  Marin a spin. 

Marin has a spin attack, a projectile called a "Blue Sailor Punch" and an uppercut. Basically she's the Shoto  of the series and an obvious sendoff to Sailor Senshi AKA Sailor Moon(the series, not the titular character.)



  
 Meanwhile, Mari, has those exact 3 things.

  

Of course,  it's easy to see where most new SSFIV(. x .) characters come from. Ran is basically Mai Shiranui from the  chest up, and Rana is Hakan as a girl. Ai and Bell are apparently Abel concept art.
 

Are they sued yet?

But that's kind of what you do in fighting games. You pick and choose characters from other, more known fighting games and give them a twist. Meanwhile, the difference in design is so non-existent between this two girls, that it could pass for a redesign.

StudioS doesn't have the hardest to google publisher name for nothing.

And then there's Mari's B Strip Hyper. Called F.I.S.T. Like the terrible 3D sequel to Seifuku D.  Where this happens:
 
Good one, Strip Fighter. That'll show that dead series from more than 10 years ago who's boss...

So  here's two characters who are similarly called, have the same attack moves, and  have  slight strips of clothing to claim as difference, and with not-so-thinly-veiled-references to the other work. It's obvious. Super Strip Fighter IV ripped off Seifuku Desetsu Pretty Fighter, the obscure girls only fighting game that no one likes for it's own sequel to an obscure fighting game no one liked. 

I mean, I get why one would rip off Street Fighter. People like that game. and buy it and know it. They've made movies about it. However, ripping off Hakufu Indecentsu Puta Fighter  I mean Seifuku Desentsu Pretty Fighter can only be for one of several weird reasons. Which include actually liking that piece of shit.

You are a weird, weird game, Super Strip Fighter IV. Lucky for you...I happen to like weird.