Javascript Disabled Detected

You currently have javascript disabled. Several functions may not work. Please re-enable javascript to access full functionality.

bwrosas

Member Since 27 Mar 2008
Offline Last Active Dec 09 2014 08:32 AM

Community Stats

Group Fellow FUSer
Active Posts 398
Profile Views 2,988
Member Title Fellow FUSer
Age Age Unknown
Birthday Birthday Unknown
Gender
Not Telling

13 Good

Friends

Latest Visitors

NeonBlack
26 Oct 2014 - 23:14
Prince ByTor
16 Jun 2014 - 21:44
DaddlerTheDalek
24 Feb 2014 - 10:54
Shadow
02 Dec 2013 - 22:28
John Roberts
24 Oct 2013 - 01:39

Topics I've Started

Does Anyone Know Of Any Stop-Motion Or Claymation Where A Woman's Face Changes Into...

02 December 2014 - 06:32 PM

Does Anyone Know of any stop-motion or claymation where a woman's face changes into anything

For example, changes into a fruit face, inmanimate objects, etc.. Does anyone know? I'd appecaite it.

Let me know with a reply or a pm. Thanks and God Bless!

What Is The Lustful Melt Gag?

03 November 2014 - 01:04 PM

What is The Lustful Melt Gag?

With it being November 2014, I thought I'd talk about something that I found quite interesting. And what that is is the fact that the "Lustful melt "gag is still very popular and is used more often then any of us can imagine.

What I mean is the lustful melt gag is still being used in all sorts of animation and even comic book media and yet we don't know what. But thanks to websites like TVtropes's and their various categories of things related to all kinds of media, they can see how much this "Lustful melt "gag has been used in other forms of animation and comic book media.

What I mean is, for years/decades we have seen this melting gag used a variety of times and for some odd reason it never gets old and it just gets funnier. And what I mean by getting funnier, is it all depends on the situation that the writers put the characters that go through with this gag and how it comes about. Take for example in 1944 the Porky pig short Swooner Crooner and if somebody would've told you when you saw this animated short for the first time in theaters back in that time frame or even for the first time on television that one of the female hens would melt into a rippleing/vibrating black puddle with only her red mohawk if you will left on top, nobody would've believed you and furthermore as a kid you wouldn't understand why that scene happened, the only way you could understand and know why that scene happened was if you asked your parents and they told you the meaning behind it even if they didn't really know why that hen in tat animated scene melted.

But this would not be the first time nor the last that this lustful melt gag would be used in animation. The next time it was used and mostly used the most was in the Popeye cartoons, like I was saying the Popeye shorts mostly the late 40s to mid-50s would use his gag not once but twice and the character that did the kustful melt gag in the most shorts was Olive and to correct something that TV tropes put on the website, what I want to correct them on is, yes Olive did melt into butter in the 1940s short but she only melted in a flat kind of way, in other words it's like let's say a steamroller rolled over her what she was trying to step down the stairs and that would be our first lustful melt of Olive, her second one and most prevalent one occurred in one of my personal favorites in 1956 or around that time, it was at the end of this short after Popeye ate another can of spinach turned himself into his version of the International TV personality and kissed Olive on the hand that turned her all red and had steam coming out of her ears that she proceeded to say the same exact line she said in that 1940 short, but this time she melted into a complete puddle of butter with just her face on the puddle in a smiling way and she was flowing down the floor at the end of this short, so to correct TV tropes, Olive did melt into butter twice except the complete meltdown if you Parlaz Vous Woo, that was the short where she completely melted.

But that would not be the end of the lustful melt gag to date, Ono, BC they would continue on but not so visually, I mean it would be seen but not as much as it was before, that is until the 1980s and mostly the 1990s and the 1990s was the decade that the lustful melt tag really came into play especially thanks to two all-time animated great shows and those shows were Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.

BC right off the bat tiny tunes and would reintroduced the lustful melt dag in the pilot episode, space somewhat strangely in the episode Europe in 30 mins., the Acme bowl and Pluck Tracy episodes and at the end or towards the end of their Christmas special. So thanks to tiny tunes a whole new generation was introduced to this gag, but tiny tunes would not be the only show that would continue to use this gag

As I said, Animaniacs would continue this trend as well and it would take characters like Dot Warner in the 11 min. short Space Probed to introduced it to the Animaniacs show and then they would take one character in specific to really embrace the lustful melt gag as her own in Animaniacs and that character was Minveria Mink and Minveria did this not once, but twice.

Minveria would do this the first time in her debut short, space correction her solo debut short Moon Over Minveria when she would see her nerdy friend's alter ego, his werewolf alter ego for the second time and because of that, she would melt into a multi-colored creamed puddle that was only reformed when her friend in his werewolf alter ego character picked her up and ringed her out like a wet towel, in other words if her friend wanted to, he could've walked away for two hours went and saw movie and come back and she'd still be lying there a melted multi-creamed puddle, that we'll get into that meaning in just a little bit. The second time Minveria did this was in her second solo short Meet Minveria and she did this towards the end when she met her best friend's cousin and in one of her expressionly ways she jumps into this male mink's arms and literally melts through his hands. That's right she literally melts through his hands and to top it off she melts by splitting in half, that's right when she melts in his hands she melts and splits in half so one half goes one way melted into a puddle and the other goes the other way melting into the same puddle, yeah I know that doesn't make sense but that's how it was, the only difference was she was able to reform herself without anybody's help

With the help of both Animaniacs and Tiny Toon adventures, the lustful melt gag was reintroduced to a new generation and proved to become very very popular to the point that less than a decade later as soon as the Internet started to take off in the way that it has, a multitude of sites live deviantART and others like it to several Yahoo! Groups would dedicate or would be dedicated to the lustful melt gag or any kind of melting in particular and mostly and I'm not saying this to be offensive I'm not, but most of these groups would dedicated and focused mainly on the females that melt into puddles because of the lustful melt gag and that is how popular this gag got in my opinion thanks to Animaniacs and tiny tunes reintroduceing it to a new generation that excepted it and embraced it.

Now you're probably asking why are females mostly associated with the lustful melt gag and not the males. Well not to say that the male characters in any of the forms of animation that I've talked about have encountered this, they have!, is just that from my personal viewing and I'm sure those that have viewed it throughout the decades and years as well that it seems that the female was always involved in the situation and I think it's because it comes out a little more funnier and is a little more acceptable as I was saying the male characters have also experienced this, but it seems that as I mentioned before the reason the female characters experienced the lustful melt gag more so than the male characters is I guess it's more based around the fact that the writers feel that the viewers will find it more funny if the female goes to the lustful melt gag instead of the male and I guess if you were to go on record and compare how many times a female character in animation or even let's say comic book as gone through the lustful melt gag compared to a male character and you may be these surprised to see or maybe not totally surprised to see the female characters in the lead when it comes to going through the lustful melt gag.

Now some shows may seem like they wouldn't even touch or consider the lustful melt gag, but yet they find a way to work it in and sometimes that's a huge surprise, it really is and when you look at at a show like let's say Capt. Flamingo and you have the main female character there melt into a puddle that the only thing remaining on top of that puddle is her two ponytails and is slowly separating/flowing away from each other because now that she's melted into a puddle she's solo slowly flowing and spreading outwards, you might think or even asked how they could even work that into a show were most of the characters are humans and they just do, they just find a way to make it happen and it's not the first time and as you read earlier it's certainly not the last time.

Now sometimes a lustful melt gag can be interpretative in two ways, 1. The lustful melt dag can be performed by both male and female characters and sometimes that character that goes through the gag can actually reform themselves from the get. As I mentioned earlier with Minveria and in how some of her or should I say in her to solo cartoon shorts, that in the first one she had to be reformed by her friend ringing her out like a wet howl compared to the second time she did it in her second solo short where she was able to reform her self without any help and that's where these two meaning of the lustful melt come into play. 2. The other equivalent of the lustful melt gag as I just mentioned is when a character is so I guess you could say aroused if you will by another that when they perform the lustful melt gag they perform it to a point that it will take another character to reform them. Like I just mentioned with Minveria in her first solo outing she had to have her friend reform her by ringing around like a wet howl, and I used this as an example earlier as well, if that friend of hers wanted to, that friend of hers could have walked off and seen a movie, maybe got something to eat and come back maybe 2 to 4 hours later and Minveria would still be lying on the ground as a melted multi-colored cream puddle and I think it was one person posing as Minveria on Facebook that when I asked Minveria this question or the fan posing as Minveria this question, they basically said that the melting that Minveria went through in Moon over Minveria was the equivalent to taking a nap and that yeah, that's exactly what the person on Facebook posing as Minveria said it was, the equivalent of, and that is taking a nap.

Yet sometimes this second equivalent also can be equipped to the end of an animated short, for example in the 1956 Popeye short that I mentioned earlier, when Olvie melts into a flowing puddle of butter with just a face on top of it, she does this right at the end of the short so that when the cartoon fades to black and to the outro for the end of the short, the last thing you see is Olive as melted puddle of butter flowing down the floor and you see little dry spots appearing on her as she's flowing down the floor and that's how the end the short ends.

So in a sense this second equivalent of the lustful melt gag can be interpretative in two different ways, the first way is you have another character being right there to help reform the other character from the melted state or on the other hand the character melts away like that to end the short or to end the cartoon or to end the issue of comic and ironically people find that funny. And once again not to sound offensive or anything but once again it is the female character that goes through it.

Nowadays and I mean in the past four years of this new decade and in the past 14 years of this new century, the lustful melt gag has been used just as much as this as it was when it just began all was the back in the 1940s and 50s. And what I mean by that is there are certain shows here in the United States and around the world that use the lustful melt gag but only when it's necessary and sometimes as I mentioned before they used the lustful melt gag in shows you for one would not expect them to use it in. I know I mentioned Capt. Flamingo earlier as an example of a show that you wouldn't expect this to be used in, but it's not. Recently I read on TVtropes and watched for myself on YouTube that the live action/animated of series from two years ago known it as Groove Hig also invoked the lustful melt gag on the main character Zoe and they used the lustful melt gag on her when her best friend/love interest disguised himself as a new sauve student at groove high and they used the lustful melt gag on Zoe, they used it on her after her best friend under his new alter ego complimented her and after he did that, she turns all blue and falls completely down into a puddle with only her eyes closed and she is fortunate enough to reform on her own. But now here's what's interesting about this lustful melt gag for Zoe and groove high, she melted into a puddle of water, that's right she melted into a puddle of water because she turned into water and splashed down into a puddle, you don't believe me I'll provide the link right here.www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRgMAz…

And to find out recently that a show that's not even that old, I mean for show that just recently turned two years old choosing the lustful melt gag on its main female character, again shows you how popular the lustful melt gag is and why for some odd reason that the female characters are always the ones that are involved with this gag.

Now, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of other shows/animated shows out there that probably have dealt with the lustful melt gag but have yet to be mentioned by anybody as to have it in the series in some shape or form and I along with anybody else can understand that, because here is something that yes it is a funny gag but it's one of those gags that you know is coming if the circumstances that present themselves are right in the animation or the comic book or the story itself but yet you do not see it and you do not see it because sometimes it's overlapped by the other gags or situations that the character that it happens to is involved with.

I know some people want to know why the lustful melt gag is used so much in animation and is done so much by female characters or at least used by the female characters more than the males. While when one looks at it and one kind of starts to understand it, they realize that it's just an animated expression of how that character feels, for example in the comedy sitcom Maj. Dad, there is a scene where the main character is on a hotel bed with his wife making out, and the wife is telling him that she's melting, now of course since Maj. Dad was a live-action prime time sitcom you of course couldn't see the wife melting into a puddle, you could only hear her say that and this is why when a female in animation feels a similar way that depending on the show, that character can physically be seen melting into a puddle, even if the show is focused on human characters like Capt. flamingo and groove high were.

So again this is why the lustful melt gag is used more so in animation and sometimes in comic books because unlike live-action, you can physically see the character melting into a puddle and yes most of the time it is indeed a female character and I think TV tropes kind of said that the reason the female character was the one at the center of it was because it was the animations equivalent of something rises which is the TV tropes category for how a male character reacts to an attractive female character, so yeah that's what the lustful melt gag means when it comes to female characters going through it, is for according to TV tropes.

In closing, I know as I mentioned before that there are probably other animated shows out there with the lustful melt gag involved in them somehow that have yet to be mentioned or talked about, I'm pretty sure that my little pony friendship is magic probably has the lustful melt gag involved somehow but yet nobody has mentioned it and I'm sure there are others out there as well. So let me say this, I do believe we will see more of the lustful melt gag in animation as the years and decades go on and yes we will see it probably involved with CGI animated movies/series and maybe even some future 2D/traditional animated movies or series, and once again in closing I do believe that shows like friendship is magic has lustful melt gag in it or will have it and I do believe other animated shows out there here in the states and all around the world has it as well and they have yet to be brought to the forefront. That's al I have to say, thank you all for reading

Sonic #256 Review

10 January 2014 - 01:39 AM

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

10:34 AM

Well, some folks have been asking me to put my thoughts/review on Sonic issue 256 and the overall Countdown To Chaos 4 part soft retcon/reboot arc in writing. Well, as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it. And that is exactly what is about to happen.

Now let's start with issue 256. Basically we start off this issue with Amy and Cream successfully arriving back in the prime universe. Now of course their happy to be back, and of course Amy hopes that Sonic missed her as much as she missed him, and Cream can't wait to tell her mother about their adventures in Blaze's world. However that gets interrupted by Sally returning to the city in the escape pod that she stole from the Death Egg, while at the same time being pursued by Metal Sonic.

After a brief exchange with Amy, both Sally and Amy start to take the fight to Metal Sonic, and it seems that Metal Sonic is getting the upper hand on both ladies. Even the newly redesigned Secret Service is no match for Metal Sonic. True they try to fight Metal Sonic to protect Sally, even though she told them to get the people to safety. Now throughout all this, Sally wonders why Amy didn't bring back up with her, of course Amy goes onto explain where she and Cream had been the entire time. Which makes Sally realize that it's just them against Metal Sonic. But of course when Amy ask about the distress signal that Sally sent out, and Sally goes on to explain where she sent it to, that's just about the time that the backup she was hoping for arrives in the form of Sonic.

Which basically leads into a classic Metal Sonic versus Sonic race, that lures Metal Sonic away from the city. Amy of course is a bit annoyed, because she and Sally did most of the work and now here comes Sonic to hog all the glory, yet Sally explains that although that's true, the primary goal is to get the people to safety first then have glory last.

Sonic along with Tails do manage to defeat Metal Sonic and this allows Sonic to go back to the city and embrace Sally in a tight hug, and complement her on how she looks and how much he missed her, and then of course to cover all the bases, he tells Amy he missed her too and wonders where she went off to.

So basically with the entire freedom fighter team reunited back on sky patrol, which I guess is going to be the home away from home. Sonic finally decides to tell Sally and Amy what's going on, basically bring them up-to-date as to not only why he and everybody else is acting so strangely, but to explain why they are and why the planet is acting the way it is. Long story short, after the explanations are given, Sally and Amy both agree to touch Nicole's portable console, even though everyone had try to talk them out of it, they touch together and together have their memories of the old timeline/world restored to them. And of course, Sally starts to tear up at the memories that had been restored to her and what she had seen in her previous life. She of course apologizes for her actions, as Bunnie is comforting her, and as many predicted, Bunnie, I guess representing them all, tells Sally that what she did in her robot form was not her. So yeah, pretty much a majority of fans predicted that that was exactly what was going to happen, and even though it was just Bunnie that said it, it did

And we end the issue with Nicole not only materializing to her full anamorphic form, but she goes on to explain simultaneously at the same time the Dr. is explaining to his henchmen (Cubot and Orbot), that because of the fact that every facet of reality fell in on itself it was then re-created, and that the excess energy from the Dr.'s more recent attempt to rewrite and re-create reality in his image has been applied to the planet which is too fragile to contain all that energy and thus is causing itself to tear apart, which both Nicole and the Dr. basically say simultaneously at the same time, that it's too late to fix it or stop it.

We then get a 2 part splash page of the planet breaking apart. And thus ends and concludes issue 256 and the Countdown to Chaos arc.

Overall 256 was a nice little issue, and a decent conclusion to the soft reboot/retcon of the comic.

I did like seeing the fact, that Sally now has a way of fighting, besides using her martial arts and fists. I liked how both her and Amy were portrayed as being able to handle their own against the likes of Metal Sonic. And I will give them credit, by having the other freedom fighters try to explain to Sally and Amy that if they go through with restoring their memories of the previous lives that it was not going to be in easy trip/trek and that it might be wiser for them not to. So I will give the creative team credit on that.

All in all, a decent conclusion to a nice decent arc.

11:16am

_________________________________________________________________________________________

11:18 AM, 1/8/14

Countdown To Chaos, overall was a decent 4 part story arc. True it did come about because of what was going on behind the scenes at Archie comics from a legal standpoint. But, in my opinion for a story arc that was put together on the fly, I have to say it did a decent job.

True, not many are going to agree on how it came about, and even those that had a disdain for the previous arc, would've rather preferred a decent conclusion to that over this, which I agree we should at least of had a decent conclusion in some way/form or fashion, but again due to the legal issues behind-the-scenes that did not occur.

The silver lining if you will, is that whether you like Ian Flynn on not, he is at least willing for free, going to try and give you an inside look on what he had originally planned for the previous arc, which would've ran all the way up to either issue 275 or issue 300. And another silver lining, is you also have some fans that are willing to come together and create a web comic similar to that of the Sonic Season 3 comic, but this time focusing on what originally would have been in the previous story arc. Heck, you even have one fan that is rewriting previous issues including this one to coincide with what Ian Flynn had originally planned. So there are those silver linings to look at and possibly appreciate.

Now, as I said at the beginning, Countdown To Chaos was a decent 4 part story arc and in a sense a decent soft reboot.

I give it credit for presenting the non-game characters, like Sally, Antoine and Bunnie as if they were from the games, by giving them special powers/abilities. Sally with energy blades coming out of her blue ring bracelets, Antoine with his sword spindash, and Bunnie with what I believe is her new shield or something like that. Overall good presentation of the nongame characters as if they were from the games. Which of course was the point of them been redesigned in this matter, whether any of us liked it or not.

The setup for this arc, was good. It definitely played into the aftermath of not just World's Collide but of Eggman's meddling with both the original Genesis wave and the Super Genesis wave, and it's effect overall on all of their multi-verse and all of reality. This definitely helps set up the next few issues, quite possibly the next 19 issues or so of story.

Again credit where credit is due, they said the characters would remain who they are and they did, personality wise that is. I did like the premise on how the old continuity/world/timeline was brought into play, by having Nicole (who I along with a few others called and said would be the key) restoring the freedom fighters memories, and by having her be the one that I guess was non-affected by the shift in the timeline and reality, the way I see it. But again I did like the premise, because it does acknowledge that the old continuity/timeline/world still counts in some shape or fashion, it's still counts.

Now the way the freedom fighters were presented in each issue, that was pretty good as well. Because overall the way they were presented here, and in any future issues will be presented were more as a action team. Sort of along the lines if you will, as crazy as this sounds, but almost along the lines of the Justice League and X-Men and maybe the Avengers. That's the way I see them being presented not just in this arc but in future issues as well.

Overall, for a soft reboot story arc of 4 issues, that in my opinion was done on the fly, I have to say it was a decent and a recommendable read.

I give it an 8/10.

And that's all I'm going to say.

God bless and take care, comments are welcomed.

Ian Flynn To Release Orginal Plans Of The Mecha Sally Arc Stroyline From 2012-2013

20 December 2013 - 12:20 AM

http://www.bumblekin....php?f=4&t=7231

We're fast approaching Christmas - it practically blindsided me this year. I like to try to do something each year - an "Ask Ian" or something. This year, I'm asking for y'alls' help to organize a little project - one you've all wanted for a while now.

What is the project?

Lost Hedgehog Tales will be a write-up of all my original plans for the 2012-2013 period, along with my original scrapped ideas for the Road to #275 and Road to #300.

What will it specifically contain?

An informal overview of storylines I pitched or was planning to pitch before things got all... dramatic. There will not be any manuscript material, nor any original documents sent to Archie. Think of it as me pulling a box out of the attic, going through its contents, and telling you about each thing. Those "things" will include:
- the original ending to the King Naugus Arc
- Mecha Sally's fate
- both versions of "Endangered Species"
- the aforementioned plans that would've taken us through STH#300
- Hershey's role
- ...and more!

What do you need our help for?

Prompting my memory, mostly. This thread is for folks to request follow-up on stuff that slipped through the cracks. Ever since the shake-up, all my time and effort has been focused on the current state of the comics. All my old plans had to be tossed out, so I've not devoted any thought to them. And while I have my notes, I had a lot of plates spinning, so I'm going to be rusty. Everyone had a subplot or character they were invested in. Now's your chance to get a small form of closure.

I will not be covering such things as:
- confirmation of cut content
- commentary on the legal proceedings or individuals involved
- other potential hot-button topics I can't think of immediately

When will this be done?

When it's done, really. My work and life take priority, so this will be picked over when I have time. I also don't want to stealing the thunder of "Countdown to Chaos," so it certainly won't be out before STH#256. I'll try to have it done before the summer, though.

I've had my wallet open for a while now. How much?

This will be released for free when it's done. I briefly considered charging a little fee, or asking for good faith donations - this is a lot of work I did that's going to be for nothing - but I've ultimately ruled against it. I can't afford a lawyer to navigate the legalities of this, and I'm concerned certain parties would take me to court regardless of whether or not I was in the clear.

But I know my First Amendment rights, and casually writing about "what would've been a neat idea" is safe enough. Expect a big, beefy disclaimer at the very beginning, tho'.

Along that line... Archie is cool with this?

I don't know - I haven't asked. This is all me. Since this material isn't being used by them, and a fair bit of it was never shown to them, they're not really involved. This is just me doing something for the fans. An informal, unlicensed, non-profit, unofficial thing for fun.

So let me know what y'all are interested in me following up on.

NOTE: I'm seeing some questions being phrased as "Will we see..." or "Will this happen?" No, no they will not. These things will never happen. The write-up will simply cover what I wanted to happen. This is without editorial or license-holder input or oversight. So when this comes out, keep in mind everything could've been very different in the end.

Ben Bates Explains Mecha Sally Design And Sally's Redesign

16 December 2013 - 05:47 PM

Ben Bates Explains Mecha Sally design and Sally Redesign :

Mecha Sally

With some recent activity regarding Sally's redesign I thought it might be fun to go through the development process and show some production stuff.

In early 2011 editor Paul Kaminski asked if I would be interested in redesigning Sally and I jumped eagerly at the opportunity. I was intimidated but honored to mess around with such a prominent character.

The idea was to do a three stage process, she would be roboticized, weaponized, and (due to Eggman's tinkering) restored with a new design. At the time I believe the plan was already in motion to do a huge story arc with her, keeping her roboticized until 250 or somewhere around there. I recall thinking it was going to be a year or two with her as a robot, and that it could be pretty cool. Knowing that I was going to do so much with the character right from the start allowed me to make certain design decisions during each stage that would eventually be reflected in her new "normal" design (the closed vest for example).

Stage 1- Roboticization

This is where I spent the least amount of time. The only specific direction I was given was to use Patrick Spaziante's design from the cover of issue 29, which was totally fine with me.

Issue 29 is one of the comic's I purchased as a kid and I recall being bitterly disappointed by her interior design. Spaz's cover made her look cool! I don't recall what the story was about at all, I guess it wasn't very good, but I spent a lot of time admiring that cover.

I wanted to capture its essence as much as possible, but also ensure it fit into the current look and feel of the videogame's visual robotic presentation. I've stated this before, but the videogames are what I like. They're what inspired me to read and eventually draw Sonic comics. I want comics that fit perfectly with the games, and I think all of my design choices and philosophy come from that interest. I don't care what's been done in the comic, or how things look in the comic. It's gotta be like the games!

So decisions had to be made to flesh out this full design-

Removed the tech patterns across her body, along with additional muscular bumps and bits. Too much detail and incongruous with the games.

Removed the shoulder pads. I knew I was going to design a second form of Mecha Sally and those shoulder pads were looking pretty wicked. I wanted to bring those in later to help sell the idea of her upgrade making her tougher.

Solve the problem of her hair. What Spaz drew on the original cover looks neat, but it unfortunately covers the bulk of her hair and just what happens up there. How do those pieces connect and what does it look like as a 3D shape? I drew this a lot, you can see tiny little Sally heads from different views trying to figure out exactly how she works, and eventually managed to get a basic idea for the layered bangs and at least one of Spaz's downward spikes in the back too!

Keep the blue eyes! At least for this form, I think there's something more unsettling about her blue eyes. Like she's so close to being the close friend you've known for the last 15 years, the similarities highlight losing her.

After settling on a general direction, I did the 01 and 02 sketches and sent off to Paul and writer Ian Flynn for review. The only difference between the two is the dark red band of metal at the base of her hair on option 02. Paul and Ian decided to go with 01, but I got really into this band of darker red and brought it back for the weaponized stage, which I'll post later.

I recall Paul wanted to give her thicker thighs and he may have sent a quick doodle my way for the additional metal plates added to her legs in the turnaround at the bottom. It's been two and half years so I can't be certain, but I think that was his idea. If they weren't then I guess I came up with it but either way I liked how weird and slightly difficult they were to draw. I didn't want to just thicken those parts of her legs, I wanted this piece of metal coming off and acting as a type of guard.

Ideas that didn't get used-

Up top in the sketches you can make out a quick doodle where I toyed around with the idea of including an actual saw at the base of her hair. That could have been fun.

Next to the cover for 29, you'll see a doodle for a potential body design with boots that widen at the bottom. I think that looks pretty cool and might have been a good path to go down.

And finally the examples of Mecha Sonic doing wild stuff with his robot mouth. I always liked how imaginative Spaz was and would have loved to see Mecha Sally do more stuff with her mouth.

My favorite details-

The wrist detail from Spaz's original design.

Her little tail spike.

And those buckles(?) on her boots!

Weaponized Mecha Sally

This one took a lot more time and a lot more doodling. When I started the design I didn't know what "weaponizing" her actually meant, all I knew was she transformed into a stronger robot. I suppose I thought there was some very specific plans for what she would do and how it would relate to the story, and those details would eventually influence the design decisions. While I waited to find that out I had a vibe in my mind I wanted to explore, which is what all the top sketches are.

The dark red trim/band around the bottom of her hair with the low pointed bangs gave me an idea to imply the shape as a sort of hat, giving her a potential evil military officer vibe.

Looking through the sketches there I guess I started toying around with a big arm cannon, which looks cool, and it didn't take long to start messing around with a powerful laser cannon inside her head/hair (which I'm happy to say become one of her actual weapons used in the comic).

As you can see in the color sketches, Sally has very few pieces of metal with her fur tone. Knowing that this design would influence her deroboticized design down the road, gave me the opportunity to start familiarizing the reader with a Sally baring less fur.

I sent these ideas off and was given the direction to try a sleeker body design. Editor Paul Kaminski also stated an interest in designing signature weapons for her, and I'm pretty sure he specified the idea of arm blades, which were super tough to figure out!

I wanted something simple, something that could conceivably be used by an actual enemy in the games.  Although it can vary throughout the last twenty years, Sonic badguys usually fall into a fun and cartoony design approach, they attack with lightbulbs or launch spikes at you. More lethal threats tend to be laser beams, missiles, and bombs.

Getting away from Eggman's robots, the character's powers and attacks tend to also be simple and unique. Curling up into balls, or a big hammer, or maybe throwing a giant shuriken. I wanted to bend these arm blades over into that kind of thinking as much as I could. Just because I could do anything I wanted to didn't mean I wanted to go for the easy solutions, I wanted it to fit in and be right.

What would it look like if Metal Sonic had arm blades?

Unfortunately I don't think Metal Sonic's blades would look anything like what I came up with. These are too straightforward, too generic. The energy blades are kind of fun I suppose, but they're still not "there".

I did these drawings two and half years ago, and I can see what I might do differently now to come up with a better idea but I don't want to beat myself up too much about it. I was designing three forms of Sally all at the same time after all, my mind was thinking about a lot of stuff.

So from there I did the turnaround and right at the end Paul had the idea to use power rings as her power source and add a compartment to her back. Her chest is very small and I wasn't sure how big power rings were supposed to be, but you can see my suggested solution if there was a size discrepancy.

To be totally honest, when I was working on the Sonic comics I read every issue to stay up to date but around the time Sally was weaponized I started doing work on Mega Man and then eventually for other comic companies and put the story on hold. I've got all the issues stacked up for any future reference, but I really haven't read anything after issue 232. Was the power ring backpack ever shown in an issue?

Oh yeah, and if you didn't notice her backpack is a slightly modified Dreamcast.

So because I jumped over to Mega Man I never got the chance to draw a Weaponized Mecha Sally story! It was something I really felt I missed out on. Luckily, during the Worlds Collide arc I got to spend at least one little moment with her.

The last few images are some of my favorite stuff, her attacks and powers! It was a pleasant surprise to learn that I could design her weapons. Aside from Pauls suggestion about the arm blades, I thought it would be cool if she used lightning and tried to think what attacks she would have in a game.

The first image is her using a Lightening Shield to block attacks. I don't know if the Lightening Shield has even been used in the comics before, but if not, more game elements added, haha! I thought she could also capture other characters in the shield.