Post by Nightcall on Jun 25, 2021 18:45:11 GMT -6
(OOC: This is the base comic script for "gonzoland" written, mouse-drawn, and pieced together by me for Hardcore Revolution. P stands for panel. Everything in EWC Segment Color: font color="#747575" is my author's note meant to point out any reference, visual pun, etc. that may be overlooked.
Also just in case my comic gets taken down or becomes broken like images wont to do, I wanted to at least write something down.
Leaving it in CD instead of OOC because I wanted later competitors who may not understand the comic to still use it against me if they feel fit to. Hope you enjoy.)
P1: "We're all mad here." Alice in Wonderland
Title reference meant to establish using the classic story's characters.
Also got the idea from reading A Serious House on Serious Earth, a Batman graphic novel that opens the same way.
NC going inside the house is also a reference to that particular Batman comic.
P2-P7: Colors open to NC in a restaurant
A Clockwork Orange opening credits reference. The inner monologue is nearly the same in the movie.
The color red and yellow are a perfect match for Brawl's logo. The pink is the same for NC's dialogue used in The Dial Tone Diaries.
The Radio Habana (Social Club) is a real place with random ornaments all over the walls and ceiling, including dolls.
P8-P9: Panda briefly runs down NC's success compared to his competitors and their previous run-ins with Hazel Overton
"Batti Lives" graffiti'd in the background is a reference to an old e-fed character maybe 1 or 2 people would understand. I'm a silly boy.
P10-P12: "It's maddening how far down this rabbit hole goes
P10 is a close-up on Effie in her stroller, the next stage in NC's bizarre fatherly care. Our boy has gone public.
NC compares The Gauntlet to the normal chaos of TV title matches, as it was established last RP he's feeling a surge of mania from the influx of competitors on short notice.
P13-P15: Aquarius's Uncle is home
Established last RP NC's Dammit Doll shenanigans didn't help his mood with mouthy competitors and Aquarius went along with Panda and our champ to see her uncle in San Francisco who could help.
Her speech bubble is more like thought bubbles because she's a super-airheaded hippie stereotype. NC's speech is a little wavy as I imagine him sounding only a little more incoherent than her. Panda's is boxy as he's more grounded than the other two. A lot of thought went into minor details, my guy.
P16-P18: The Uncle
His speech bubble mildly resembles basic cartoony marijuana shapes.
The uncle is meant to look like Tommy Chong, legendary stoner from Cheech and Chong fame.
The obscure references bit is meta. I wrote this fearing nobody would know who anybody from my 70s trippy wonderland were.
The cloud beanbag chairs are what it looks like when I don't color images in. Every scene, person, etc. was hand-drawn, snapped from camera, downloaded from Google Drive, and then colored in by mouse from Gimp 2.0. All except the clouds and The Mad Hatter's smoke.
P19-P21: NC tokes
NC gives hippie culture some respect, as it was for sure a giant ass party. Also intended to get readers in mind that references and the like would be mostly in the 60's-70s decade.
He smokes from a hookah and there's a butterfly poster, cha-ching Wonderland reference.
Super small visual, the colors of the hookah are the exact same as The Queen of Hearts's wardrobe. In the end I wanted to give her like 3 Wonderland character nods. Caterpillar, Queen, and later on she's wearing The Mad Hatter's hat complete with the colors from the Disney cartoon.
P22-P24: He's going on a trip in his favorite rocket ship
Blatant trippy visuals pertaining to the acid wave.
P25: Graphic Hardcore Revolution
Visual pun as graphic means violent like pro-wrestling/hardcore, but it also means cartoon.
"Graphic" is dripping pink mist in the I. Worth noting that the same exact color dialogue I use for NC talking is this color and it's also used for Effie's stroller and is in the wavy bits of NC's trip.
"Hardcore Revolution" is in Brawl's colors.
P26-P30: Heads on into the house
The stairs are fubar so he has to use the dumbwaiter later in the story.
P31-P33: Mad Hatter says hi
"We've been expecting you" is a weak nod to a "Welcome back, Alice" quote.
"Madhouse" is a tad punny for it's a house of the mind. Also a mad callback from the start of the comic.
Eat Me/Drink Me, back at it with Wonderland.
That giant orange fruit is a grapefruit, one of Hunter S. Thompson's favorite foods. What? I didn't say these notes were vital, did I?
In Freud's psychoanalysis, The Id is the distinct part of our minds that represent our instincts, sexual urges, hunger, etc. Think of it like the baby, wanting this and that. Hunter S. Thompson was a notorious partier and inspiration for NC. Figured he'd be a stand-in. He also wore hats all the time.
P34-P35: Not even on the poster
Hatter plays Devil's Advocate here. I wanted NC to be confronted by the fact he's opening the PPV when this cycle he beat the headliners. Show that he's above that pettiness and is here for Effie and Effie alone.
P36: You are not you
Hatter quotes Hatter from Alice Through The Looking Glass. Also meant to be meta since NC is made up. Too meta? Eh I'm just here for a good time.
P37-P41: Zack Tyler is a nut, trust me
Last RP NC had reservations about signing up for X-Division, citing how he didn't want to hurt people he admired. Very much hinting at a future in that division. Zack Tyler is on that list, and Hatter teases NC how he could be even more of a threat if he just acted on his Id. This will be an ongoing struggle for him in later RPs.
P42: Rain down a fiery pink hell, Night Dude
Lisa Frank is an artist who started in the 70s but would later blow up in the 80s-90s due to her cutesy rainbow decor featuring on children's lunchboxes and trapper keepers, hence why Effie would like it.
P43-P44: You know you wanna
Was going for comedic timing. The Id may be the impish side of NC's mind, but he's still Nightcall's Id.
P45-P48: Hatter leaves
Like mentioned with Uncle's cloud beanbag chairs, the smoke and flames are not colored in, not even in the panel...that's just what the paper looks like from where I drew it all.
P49-P56: You’re a cool cat
Get it? Because Fritz went to college. HA.
P57-59: NC strokes his ego
Fritz being a horny asshole in the movie/comics made this funnier to me. Works on, like, three levels.
P60-P61: Twisted
Literal representation of the Ego and NC being one in the same. The Ego is there to balance The Id, childlike impulse, and The Superego, the ethical mind. It's presumably the part that thinks rationally.
P62-65: Heartbirds Gotta Fly
Fritz's nose turns into a white dove to symbolize absolutely nothing. Just wanted to make a transition.
P66: Man In The Mirror
Maybe too easy an allusion to make with NC dealing with his mind's manifestations.
The green sheet is a shawl, something Stevie wears so often that it's become her trademark look.
P67-80: Live Performance
Everything Stevie Nicks says is a song lyric from some of her greatest hits:
"Just like the white-winged dove sings a song sounds like she's singing" = Edge of Seventeen
"All your life you've never seen a woman taken by the wind" = Rhiannon
"Oh mirror in the sky, what is love?" = Landslide
"Peacekeeper, take your time" = Peacekeeper
"Rulers make bad lovers, you better put your kingdom up for sale" = Gold Dust Woman
"Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies" = Little Lies
"Now here you go again, you say you want your freedom" = Dreams
"Back to the gypsy that I was" = Gypsy
The attic window is the same as from the outside shot before NC goes inside the house.
The dumbwaiter arrow pointing upwards is intentional. Tried going for that wild dream logic Wonderland has, where NC climbed a dumbwaiter and even the reader should feel a sense of going downwards as they're scrolling down. But the attic is the opposite of the basement. Crazy.
P81-P84: Coming Down
NC fell down a pattern of waviness. He's going up the reverse of that to come down. I did the dumbwaiter arrow again, bazinga.
P85-87: NC has the smoke
NC exhales pink vapor a la pink mist. It's like he held in the sticky icky this whole time. Dude's bonkers.
P88-P89: NC is fine again
"I was cured all right" is the final quote from A Clockwork Orange movie and served as a bookend to NC's inner monologue from the start.
Fritz aka Ego is there to reveal NC has let his ego show and will continue to do so in future RPs.
