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A Fictional Show About A Fictional Band [not a comic]
🕑 Added 2020-05-25 22:18:19 +0000 UTCAfter watching plenty of Metalocalypse, I wanted to design a fictional band of my own, as a sort of character design exercise. It spun a little out of hand, and I ended up spending more time than I meant, creating a little story and personalities to go with it. Real comics coming soon, I promise! Until then, I will go a little into the my design thought process below, if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Keroki-tan
This was a very quick design that I didn't want to spend much time on. Animal hat, an old standard I go back to, with speakers for the frog's eyes. I think having a fly for a bow is a nice touch, though. I just wanted something to stand in for a vocaloid type character.
Mysterious Benefactor
A musical version of the mysterious antagonist from 20th Century Boys. That's all there is to it.
Helena Selle
Hell in a cell, get it? Ha. I wanted a girl manager to have some diversity, and she would have to be pretty serious and no-nonsense to balance out the band members wild personalities. I based the character off an old photo of some Japanese fashion model- slicked back hair, to show you she's serious, slender, high cheekbones, stern look- but with some sort of tight mesh top thing? I originally was going to give her a jacket with no shirt or bra underneath, but that would be very unprofessional. I wanted her to look tough, but still someone who cares about looking cool and stylish. The sort of person twitter lesbians quote tweet with "UMMM I CAN'T???" The influence of my anime wife, Pakunoda, is also there.
Kiljet Maelstrom
Death metal/black metal aesthetic is probably the coolest music aesthetic in theory-- in practice, the musicians often have awful goatees and chicken legs, and the music is often laughable gobbledegook. But here, it is idealized: broad shouldered, stern faced, booted feet planted like an unholy warrior: the music, technical, intense, unforgiving. Not for the faint of heart. Kiljet's hair is a sort of combo of Rando from Yu Yu Hakusho and Link. It obviously has some anime spikeage going on, and he has those weird side bang things Link has. I tried to just make him look really badass, but I wish I could have done some better detail work, maybe adding some muscle definition, a more silhouette and face, and maybe some clothing details. But the outline is there. I like the belt, too- the skull emblem is so lame at this point, but an upside down face, wailing in agony? That's pretty metal, in a non-corny way.
Sam Deckard
Sam's main real life inspiration is Beck, who I am not a fan of, but is most analogous in terms of music and personality, I think (except not a huge dick, maybe). Appearance wise-- well, just google "Kurt Cobain Glasses". I wanted to give him long, unkempt hair. He's a free spirit, after all, even if he's old. The mismatched glasses and crazy patterned suit show that he's quirky, an out of the box musician. He might be a fame-obsessed druggie, but he genuinely cares about creating wacky and crazy shit. I made sure to add a bit of a jawline and some stubble to show his age, since pretty much the whole rest of the cast just look sorta ageless, in the way that most cartoony characters do.
No Name Dent
I tried my best to capture the platonic ideal of a drummer here (specifically a punk-adjacent drummer). Extremely lean, usually shirtless, and if they're good, just an absolute machine. Zach Hill certainly comes to mind. I tried to emphasize this with the simple, determined look that he has, and the hair that juts out in uniform, repeating spikes-- he's tough, full of energy, but uniform, focused. The anime look also emphasizes his youth and shonen protagonist energy-- he's the only band member who reached out and fought for his spot. I took design inspiration from Jo Tetsuma (Eyeshiled 21) and Ryohei Sasagawa (Reborn!). The bandages are just extra flair, that I guess a drummer or punk could have? His design is also one I would have liked to improve a little bit, and make a little more distinct.
Virgil Bugstunt-Weevis
My least favorite design. Since he is a sort of leader, and also a nervous outsider, I wanted to give him a bit of a shonen protagonist look as well, which I think ended up being too close to No Name, and not distinct enough. I obviously tried to give him a bit of a bug-ish theme, since he is sort of reclusive and nerdy, but it never quite felt right. The hair is just sort of sitting there- it feels like a wig, it doesn't feel like part of his design. I would probably want to redesign his whole character from the ground up, give him a different silhouette, maybe give him glasses. The main real life inspiration, music and design wise, was AG Cook. His middle name comes from the iconic Mega64 'Bug Stunt'.
Winona Buckets
There's something pure about the beautiful voice of a woman over simple acoustic music, like well-made plain bread. Her design is influenced by some of Guinevere Reilly (pibmo)'s characters, big, round, full-cheeked head with little dongle braids to show that she's 'country' or whatever (plus, almost every other character has short hair, and it just looks good). Plus, a big puffy fur coat. She's a very 'soft' character, pure hearted and cherub-like, but she's also got those slender legs and stylish boots because she's not just a country girl anymore, she's a pop star. I like this design.
Ted W. Kaczynski
It wouldn't be a Beany production without at least 1 'goblin' type character, would it? So classic, the characters design themselves. Ward occupies the 'Murderface' role of the group, just a wretched little fucker that the others beat up on. His design is a sort of inspired by Murderface and Little Slugger, but spikier, and more toad-like. The suit and shorts look I actually like, and I'm sure its the sort of thing he also thinks looks cool, but professional, since he's a session musician. I originally thought that was a young Axl Rose thing, but I guess some guy named Angus Young popularized it. Whatever. Go blow your little horn, you catholic schoolboy-looking-head-ass!!!
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