'Demon Slayer' Comic Book Update · 1:38am Jan 28th, 2014
Starbat, who's working on the comic book adaptation of A Mighty Demon Slayer Grooms Some Ponies, has released two new character sheets, this time of Molly and of Danny. As usual, to encourage you to visit his page, I'll just post teasers and some comments.
First off, let's look at Molly. That's the two versions of her up above, the young G1 version and the teenage G4 version. As with his depiction of Megan, Starbat has done an excellent job of capturing the spirit of the canonical character design while eliminating some of the absurdities. The older version is believable, and the T-shirt is a nice touch.
Amusingly, while most of Starbat's character descriptions are a clever blend of canonical G1 material, his own insights, and content from my story, with Molly his description amounts to, "I got nothin'," which is understandable, since the canon Molly is about as lacking in personality as a character can be. For the rest of the characters, I either worked with canon or deliberately subverted it, but Molly I rebuilt from the ground up, though she still ends up getting overshadowed by her siblings—just like in the show.
That squeal you just heard was me fangirling.
Molly glomping Fluttershy. The subject matter of this picture is so obvious, it's remarkable that no Brony artist has done it before. Even though we know little about Molly, I've no doubt that Fluttershy would be her favorite among the G4 ponies.
Now for Danny. Alas, Starbat did not produce the picture of Danny and Surprise looking longingly at each other that I was hoping for, so I guess we'll have to wait for the comic itself before that scene is forthcoming. He did however give us this awesomeness:
You didn't hear that squeal because it went supersonic.
Danny riding Pinkie is another obvious subject of Brony art that's long overdue.
I like it that Starbat is no slave to his source material. He's already hinted at some alterations to the original; for example, he appears to be working to lighten Demon Slayer's suffocating atmosphere, which is probably a good thing. He also seems to hint at an interpretation of Danny subtly different from mine. I look forward to what he comes up with.
Sorry, you were dropping hints that you wanted something more substantial shown between Danny and Surprise. XD
I guess I just didn't want it to be too obvious or "spoilery".
Anyway, the next big step is just figuring out how exactly to organically adapt the written first chapter into visual form. Wish me luck. ;)
1766680
I wish you luck. And no, the pictures you have of Danny, Surprise, and Pinkie are all great. The cloud-gazing is a good scene for that.
1766680
Oh, an additional question: are you planning to submit the comic to EqD?
The squee is strong with this one.
1766680
Dude, friggin' amazing job. You wouldn't by any chance be open for commissions? I need cover art...
1766685
Possibly. They don't seem to be huge fans of human characters, or of G1 for that matter, but I will probably try my luck.
I was thinking I might wait until three or four installments are completed, so they can clearly see there is a larger story being told that involves the all-important G4 cast.
1766713
I've had pretty good luck with EqD pre-readers, but I don't know if different people handle the comic submissions. There are a few over there who, like me, rebel against a lot of the general trends in the fandom and are quite happy to take well-done HiE or good Flash Sentry stories or, apparently, G1 crossovers. Since the story is already posted there, I don't know if that might help.
EDIT: And you've got a good point there; if you're planning to tell the story in the same order as in the original, the first few scenes don't even contain ponies.
1766711
Thanks very much. ^^
As for commissions, well.....
I'd honestly love to, and I don't like to completely slam the door on the possibility, but generally my answer is no.
You may have noticed I am agonizingly slow at producing material for this comic as it is. I'm also involved in a little side project with the MLP analyst DrWolf right now, so it's hard to find time for the pony art I have on my plate already.
You can always ask, but I make no promises. And if I say no, you'll know why. ^^;
1766718
Exactly. I was playing around with the idea of maybe introducing Rainbow Dash a bit earlier in a flashback or something. I abandoned it because it would have interfered with the continuity of something else I can't remember at this point.
But anyway, that's the stage I'm basically at right now, so I might be able to use such tricks to bring the Mane 4 into the picture a bit earlier, and thus make it more accessible to the average brony. We'll see how it goes. ;)
Marvelous. I admit no small amount of envy. Definitely looking forward to further developments in this project.
1766726
Aw, poo. Well, rushed art is bad art, so I'll look elsewhere for now. But I will be watching you on DA.
1766782
The former. I get no compensation for this, other than general praise, and personal self-satisfaction. ;)
1766813 I don't bother to ink anymore either, or even to shade my sketches (though I probably should).
Most of the "real" work takes place in Photoshop.
But I hear what you're saying. No matter how skilled you get, the honest artist is always uncomfortably aware of the room left to improve. So don't let that feeling discourage you. ;)
Your pony weight is a little heavy, based on my scientific calculations. Especially since in the drawing above, the generic pegasus is within inches of the exemplar height I used. Just thought I'd mention it.
1766970
If I remember rightly, he's using the Shetland pony as a base, same as I do. The ponies would have to weigh significantly more than the kids to be ridden, and in fact we're already pushing things. I'm not sure it's really safe for a girl of 102 pounds to get on the back of a horse that only weighs 300.
1768099
Maybe. A real life Shetland can carry between 20 and 30% of its body weight, putting you in the plausible territory with the weights you've got above. However, if you stick with MLP anatomy, rather than realistic, the MLP pony would have a huge advantage because of short barrel length, in much the same way a short 2x4 is much stronger than a long 2x4.
You can even justify that in canon--look at how big Tom was relative to Rarity. She struggled, sure, but she carried him.
1768315
In that case, if anything my conception of the ponies is too light rather than too heavy. For instance, if Danny rides Pinkie, than that means Pinkie needs to gallop around jovially with pretty well 50% of her body weight riding on her back.
I guess the best I can do is aim for pseudo-realism, and take license from the fact that these are supposed to be "magical" ponies.
1768368
My science experiment proved (for some values of the word 'prove') that a MLP pony mare, if it were 28" high at the withers (which is about what DGD's got up there on his fancy picture) should weigh 40-80kg, assuming that they have the same average density as a real horse. I would speculate that pegasi fall on the light end of that range, and earth ponies the heavy end.
Given their back structure and thick legs, I'd be willing to believe that a MLP pony could potentially carry 50% of its body weight, although not comfortably. It's also worth noting that a Shetland pony can pull twice its own weight comfortably.
The real problem for human riders would be keeping their feet off the ground. Near-scale experiments with an appropriately-sized poseable action figure suggest that a man could straddle a pony and still have his feet touching the ground.
One of these days, I'm going to repeat the experiment for stallions and alicorns, to see what they'd weigh.
1768419
You can see from the picture there that Danny will have to pull his legs up to keep his feet from dragging.
Even in the G1 cartoon, back when the kids were small, their legs hung quite low when they rode. Of course, G1 was not completely consistent with scale.
The story of Demon Slayer assumes a much more realistic-looking pony than what you have in the cartoon, either cartoon. But Caden can do what he likes with the art.