More Royal Flushing

You can read the full adventure here! I try to update daily.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A strange compulsion

...to draw all the characters of NMC when they were young.


Although DAV's picture is more or less a joke.


And now the only little kid NMC character you really care about.

Psychic Brats, Part II

BROUGHT TO YOU IN MSPAINTOVISION

ohcrap I need to post something

aaaaaaaaaaa

And Rounding Out the Gang

So I'm on an NMC kick again. Sometimes I feel attention deficit.

And yet more children!

Although one is a more refined version of yesterday's kid.

Support

Trying to figure out the supporting cast of NMC, so I'm starting by mapping family trees.


Poor Aleksei. Anna's parents may be dead, but at least she knows who they are.

As You Know, Bob

a.k.a. The Exposition Post!

A few days ago someone told me that they like my blog but they have no idea what I'm talking about most of the time. So it's time I give a nice in-depth discussion of Nightmare City.


I often call Nightmare City NMC, by the way. So when I say "NMC," I am talking about this.

Nightmare City is a 100% fictitious city located in Vermont. In this world technology surged forward very quickly and by 2015 Nightmare City is a retrofuturistic world. The problem with the city, though, is that it grew faster than its law enforcement. As such the place has become a haven for crime.

In the year... let me check my timeline file... 2008, a few superhumans decided that they were going to stand up and fight crime. They formed the Alliance for Superhuman Law Enforcement. Only later did they realize that their organization's acronym was A.S.L.E, and that everyone pronounced that "asshole." Such is life.

A.S.L.E. grew to have six members and one high-functioning robot to help people out, but their initiative corroded over time. Eventually they would only fight crime that directly effected them and the city was left in the exact shape it started in.


Lily Adams was an ordinary girl who always wanted to be a superhero. Unfortunately her one exposure to radioactive material turned her hair pink, which really isn't a useful power. So she moved to Nightmare City and studied Mad Science. Her research into "ways to get superpowers" proved futile every time. It wasn't until crime effected her life directly that she realized that she didn't need superpowers to fight crime. She could be Batman.


To help her on her way to vigilantism was Aleksei Chekhov, a kid who was very, very Russian. He also had a knack for finding unusual weapons for his legitimate business, and even turned out to posess some superpowers. He became Lily's sidekick, taking the name "The Red Menace."


As Lily continued fighting crime, she became ultra-aware of her surroundings and was constantly looking for possible supervillains. One suspicious fellow was her professor, Dr. Harold Monroe. As time went on, she learned more and more about the man, and after lots of dramatic storylines, he came to join Lily in her adventures as "The Professor."


The three fought together for some time but soon they realized they had difficulty taking the initiative and seeking supervillains. They needed a detective. They found one in the form of Anna Langsley, a serious and reserved woman who was a solitary vigilante by night. It took a long time, but eventually they got her--"Mysterie"--to join them.

And together, they fight crime!

Hey Look, They're Done

At least, Mysterie is finally finished.

I'd like to do villains or A.S.L.E. members next, dunno who exactly. A.S.L.E. members actually need to be designed. A few villains, too. But, uh, stay tuned regardless.

Look, a Logo

I like how it came out.

Also:


I also wanted to do Mysterie tonight, but I fell asleep... Ill get her done tomorrow.

D'aww Time Is Now

Look, they've been mini-ified!

The white line I usually do looked really awkward in this style so I dropped it. Hope the black isn't too overpowering.

Simple and Cute

I wanted to try my hand at writing some fast comics featuring the cast of NMC and realized the style I usually use--the most realistic I've used to this date--wouldn't work for the fast n' funny format. So here's a rough draft of a modified 3:1 style. I'lll probably go with this in the end.

...That is all.

Just a Doodle

Of Aleksei scaring children with his horrible mutated self.

Design Tweaking

Today I will tell you about how I've mostly finalized the looks for the four vigilantes of Nightmare City!


This is the colored version of the picture from last night. Before I tweaked anyone else, I made a few changes to Lily. Her design was a bit needlessly complicated. Comparing her here to her reference, You'll notice she's lost her pockets, the piping on the shoulders, and two stripes on each sleeve. The buckled bands on the end of each sleeve have been replaced with piping. Her jacket also closes differently, but that's just a mistake I didn't catch until now. Her jacket should still button the other way.


I've been drawing the Professor with dark hair recently, so I change that. Now, the first big problem I see is that the Red Menace has way more color on him than anyone else and thus sticks out too much. I try and change the coat to white. As you can see, the result is hideous.



I change the coat to black and then change most of the white highlights to red. I like this look, but it has created a new problem: the Professor is the only one with a lot of white in the cast, and now he sticks out.


This sticking out is a big problem; I consider his labcoat to be a pretty important element of his design. Removing the coat would also remove the sort of jackety theme I have here. I could color the labcoat black, but seriously, anyone with a black labcoat is trying too hard. Instead I try to mask the problem by making the coat cover less surface area. My eye isn't fooled.

But Mysterie has a flaw that could be more easily fixed...


Remember what I said about everyone having a sort of jackety/military theme? Well obviously Mysterie doesn't. I realize that by adding that theme I could balance the white better and therefore unify the cast. Unfortunately, the poncho I design hides her characteristic boobs.


So the poncho becomes a form-fitting white jacket. With this, the vigilantes flow.


And right before I make this blog post, I make Lily and Anna's jackets button correctly. So there you have it: the vigilantes of Nightmare City.

Design Tweaking (Coming Soon)

I like to consider myself moderately decent with singular character designs, but I tend to be pretty bad at creating ensembles that mesh well. I'd like to use Nightmare City as an opportunity to strengthen this weakness, so I drew all my characters side by side.


Actual tweaking to come when I color these.

Crappy Post

It was too cold to doodle today and my power's been going in and out so I don't want to take my chances and draw something specifically for the blog. So here is the male half of the vigilante team.

WALLPAPER

At the suggestion of a reader, I made more extreme graphic representations of NMC characters and then made a wallpaper.


It came pretty nicely.

Fast Doodles

Just something I did quickly to get my creative juices flowing today. They've been a little jammed lately.

(Sad face)

I had a really terrible day today, but I also doodled a lot. Here you go.
Writing that isn't ALLCAPS is commentary on a college visit between me and my mom. Kept for your viewing pleasure, sort of.

ALLCAPS writing is monologue for the figures I drew.