Author   |
Title |
Description |
Date |
Rank |
| kenisu3000 |
Prologue - Page 24: George Knows |
kenisu - #24
I had been looking forward to this page ever since I started the prologue. It's all about the plot buildup!!
|
12/1/06 |
0.00 |
| kenisu3000 |
Prologue - Page 7: Suzannah and Johnny |
kenisu - #07
Here, we get to meet three of my original characters: George and Maria's son, Johnny (I guess if I had to give him an age, I'd say about five), Maria's sister Suzannah, and James, who was mentioned on Page 3.
I knew that since George and Maria had a legacy that HAD to have been laid down BEFORE the abduction, then they must have had a child that had been perhaps overlooked in the kidnapping. To emphasize this, I gave them a son, designed him the way I draw Ninten (just with brown hair and newsie-style clothes), and I made it so that during the abduction, he had been out visiting his aunt Suzannah. Also, note the continued use of British dialect: Johnny refers to his mother as "mum".
At first I wanted the next page after the George-and-Maria scream and the shattering-of-the-eyeglasses to be where Suzannah brings Johnny home, to find the house completely abandoned. Instead, I realized there would need to be some more introduction to these characters, and maybe some interaction with others before they discovered the awful truth. That's how James became more than just a fleeting mention made by George. So, I threw in some more character establishment, and the "Big Discovery" was shifted to Page 8.
I made James to resemble the typical old farmer, jaded by the "young whipper-snappers these days", and I gave him a corn field. Corn fields are great if you want to write something scary. Also, there's a little nuance which I don't think was made clear enough: James' home is the 1906 equivalent of the house in 1988 of the fat guy who says his house was torn apart by a poltergeist.
|
10/8/06 |
0.00 |
| kenisu3000 |
Prologue - Page 1: The Youthful Couple |
kenisu - #01
Well, this is it. This project has been literally years in the making, as it's been brewing in my mind since I first finished the game in 2000 (coherent scenes that I recall to this day didn't start forming until summer of 2002). At any rate, I had been putting it off and putting it off, until finally, just this last April, when I came back to this site after a long absence and discovered that Mother 3 was soon to be released. That brought back the fanboy in me, and I wasted no time in making plans for a comic series of my favorite game in the whole trilogy - Mother 1. The mysterious elements of this game, and the uncanny landscapes which remind me of my childhood, have long held me entranced. So, I present to you what has been on paper only since April, but what has been cooking up in my mind since six years earlier.
To comment on this specific page, I'd like to admit that the introductory narrative was a bad decision on my part. For future reference, the phrase "Little did they know" automatically cheese-ifies ANY piece of fiction. George and Maria needed no formal introduction - they introduce each other. I should have used a single subtitle saying "Outskirts of a rural American town, circa 1906", but I guess it's all water under the bridge now.
|
9/24/06 |
0.00 |
| kenisu3000 |
Prologue - Page 2: The Shadow from Above |
kenisu - #02
This whole bit with George using British dialect ("oh pooh"
, "what a bother")... I'm not too familiar with the EXACT way people spoke back in 1906, but I knew it was more proper and people had much more respect for others and their elders than today, so I subsituted the only proper dialect I'm anywhere near familiar with. You'll see more of this "British" dialect later on in the prologue.
By the way, the game simply states that all this happened in the "beginning of the 1900's", not a specific year. I only chose 1906 because it IS stated that George returned two years later - in this case, that would be 1908 - and EarthBound Zero states that when the game, which IS officially stated to take place in 1988, begins, it is 80 years after George and Maria's time. So in case you were wondering, there is indeed a method to my madness.
|
9/24/06 |
0.00 |
| kenisu3000 |
Prologue - Page 3: Escape into the Woods |
kenisu - #03
For those who haven't played the game, or have a very good memory of it, you'll find out, much MUCH later, exactly WHAT it is that is above George and Maria's house (or you can just play Mother and it'll tell you right there in the two paragraphs in the opening narration).
What I'm most proud of in this page is the fifth panel (the long one that dives under Maria's "What is THAT above our house?!" panel and juts out a bit under the third) - I absolutely nailed what I had in my head for that shot, and it also gives a glimpse at what I love so much about the landscapes of Mother. If you don't pay much attention to the detail anywhere else on this page, study this panel carefully. At the left end you can see George and Maria in the distance entering the forest, and at the right end is a pair of mysterious legs and a tail descending slowly in front of their home.
The dialogue of the panic-stricken couple was quite touch-and-go for me. I wasn't exactly sure what direction I wanted them to escape, but I wanted Mothersday Town to be mentioned, so I made that their planned route (BTW, I found out recently that the holiday Mother's Day didn't even exist in 1906, much less a town named after it...). Then I needed an outlet for the couple, someONE they could run to. So, using the concept of simple names like "George", I had him mention, in passing, some guy named "James". At first, James only existed for the sake of George mentioning someone they could run to, but as I was illustrating page 7, I found a way to use James further as not only as an outlet, but as THE outlet to represent a family friend's reaction to all that's about to happen. Yes, we'll get to see James in person later, and he'll come strongly into play.
|
9/24/06 |
0.00 |
