As a total departure from the warm tones of my previous Once-ler zine pieces [link] [link], I decided to do a piece with cool tones this time :3

Admittedly I didn't have many ideas, except that I had been wanting to draw a beaten up Once-ler again for YEARS now and I figured this would be a perfect opportunity because this is a SEXYman zine and he's HOT like that...and that I also wanted to make a comfort piece (beyond just beating him up). And what I remembered was how shocking the infamous 2022 Sexyman Tournament poll on twit had been for us in the onceler fandom...because the Once-ler had lost SO early on?? In the very first round, to Megamind!!

We were so sad.

So I thought, what if, instead of pitting characters against each other, they supported each other instead? Let's show some respect for the original, very first tumblr sexyman! So then I drew this self-indulgent piece.

Apart from the Once-ler, I included 5 other sexymen: the 4 from the semifinals of the 2022 poll, and Megamind who was the one who had won directly against Once-ler. You've gotta look very closely to see Bill Cipher.

I gave Once-ler a signet ring, along with the crown and cigar, to make it feel like he's of high status - because he is! He's an important figure in fandom history.

The other sexymen (other than Bill Cipher) were drawn only as their arms as a nod to the original Lorax book where the Once-ler is only shown as a pair of arms. But I still tried to keep everyone in-character! One of my favourite decisions was to make Sans' lighter flame blue, just like how a lot of people like to draw him with a flaming blue eye in fanart ;) The lighter being pink was also a nod to his pink slippers.

And of course, a tumblr brand cigar, to stick with the theme of respecting our origins.

I think there's not much else to say...I played it safe by not being too ambitious this time with my zine piece for the sake of my health haha but I think I still like how it turned out! I was so lucky to have been asked to be a guest artist for this zine, I'm very humbled to have my art be placed alongside so many other amazing creators and all the mods were so lovely too! And I guess this piece has another meaning in that the Once-ler fandom will keep coming back again and again no matter how much we get beaten up. You'll never see the last of us. 😌