winstein

Gloves Make the Men

I have drawn a lot of Mario doing Wario expressions, so now it's Waluigi's turn! Inspired by that The Looney Tunes Show episode.

Toys Don't Work Like the Real Deal

The Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake on the Nintendo Switch changed a lot of details from the original, such as the music (mostly for the better, I felt). There is one minor thing I noticed when watching videos, and that is the Mini Mario assembly line.

This is the original:

And this is the remake:

Of note, the way the caps are outfitted on Mini Mario is different, where the remake shows that they are meant to be detachable. That's where the inspiration for this comic comes from.

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

The Mental Weight of the Toads' Civil Unrest

In the Popeye comic strips, King Blozo is the king of Spinachovia, and one of his core traits is that he's in constant worry about the kingdom, which is why he tends to resort to Popeye for help.

Because Princess Peach is also the monarch of a kingdom named after the power up food (in her case, The Mushroom Kingdom), I drew the connection between King Blozo and Princess Peach, by putting her in a worrying expression for a similar reason.

I don't know how many expect Peach to be only in a cheery disposition, but I find it boring that nothing disrespectful tends to happen to her (narratively).

The Cycle of Fright

Based roughly on the original script I had for Chekhov's Amulet, it's turned into a full comic with a "twist".

Paldea's Sandwich Artist

This comic is based on the Blondie's 1st April 1997 comic strip, but you might be wondering: if it's a Blondie comic strip, why does it look like a Garfield comic strip? That's because on that day, multiple cartoonists participated in the Comic Strip Switcheroo, where they would swap places with each other in an effort to do a different comic strip in their styling. In this case, Jim Davis did the Blondie comic strip on that day.

When I saw the original comic, I knew I wanted to redraw it with a Pokemon flavour. Initially I wanted to use the same version for Arven and the dragon ride, but since the original comic is a swap, and Dagwood had an initial confusion, I mixed the versions, so instead of Miraidon (who Violet's Arven would've recognised), I used Koraidon instead.

MarioWare Rip It Apart

It's Mario, doing that famous WarioWare Wario face! Specifically, it's this one, but I have no idea what the source of this image is.

Chekhov's Amulet

The idea undergone a couple of revisions, and Mario Kart World is partially the reason it went into this direction (because of one of Waluigi's costumes).

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

You Picked Mario! In Mario Party

A continuation of this piece on Mario Kart 64, now it's Mario Party time! The first game in particular has animated emotions, which makes it quite memorable. In fact, not only are there the neutral, winning, and losing states, I added their "shocked" states, where they react with horror before they dramatically take the loss badly.

The next one, and probably last for this "Mario dressed as other characters" idea, would be another Mario Party game.

The Burden of the Sole Female Rep.

When it comes to female representation, Peach is pretty much still the only female character in the Mario series that is considered "main", while the rest are male, including both Toad and Yoshi.

While it's true that there are others like Daisy, Birdo, Toadette, etc., they are probably not quite at the level of the primary character. Of the female characters, I think Daisy is probably the best representative, given how much she appeared as a secondary female character, such as most of the Mario Party series.

Oh, and Starlow. The reason for Starlow's inclusion comes down to how she's like the biggest recurring female character in the RPGs (helps that she's easier to draw).

Antler Joker

It basically started when that Jimmy Neutron quote on the fathers spotting Jimmy and mistaking him for something to hunt.

The Many Models of a Mario Mobile

For the month of Mario Day last year, I did something different, something akin to a children's book, because I wanted to do something different. Certainly, a silly idea based on a random thought I had, but I hope this is fine.

Teed Off

That one specific line in Mario Golf: Super Rush was the basis of inspiration for this cartoon. The Mii is based on the Mii I usually pick.

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

Flying Free with the Cranes

Initially I wanted to use the canvas to draw a comic, but since I wanted but hardly got a chance to paint scenery, the canvas just turned into the picture above. I might have drawn this picture in landscape view if knew I wanted to draw this, but it is what it is.

Super Snozzios

I am on a roll with Mario dressing up as other characters, which means that I drew another picture of Mario dressing up as Birdo! But this time, I made Birdo dress as Mario. The title is named after the Mario Party 8 team title (the only Mario Party game where Birdo has team titles).

You Picked Mario! In Mario Kart 64

The idea is born out of thinking how funny it is for Mario to say various other characters' lines (e.g.: Mario yelling the Toad line), and that morphed into him dressing up as various characters. I picked Mario Kart 64's lineup due to the iconic character select and the various reactions from the characters, though I do like the idea of certain other games' character reactions, like the first Mario Party.

Daisy's Shoulder Morality

I am inspired to do angel Daisy and devil Daisy from this Supper Mario Broth post. I suspect that Daisy's depictions as an angel and devil are in other artwork not part of the comic, given its colour (I don't think the manga itself is in colour).

Anyway, I have already seen someone done this before, but after some encouragement, it was suggested the shoulder angel/devil concept is pursued, to differentiate from the other art. Also, I decided to pursue the "children's book illustration" look after the sketch.

Somehow lineless art is something I wasn't fully satisfied before (the two notable ones are Mariachi Festivity and Winter Pastime at the Toad Residence), but this one seems all right, albeit a bit cluttered. I felt that it's a result of sticking to one brush (Gouache-03) for most parts, using a chalk brush for some shading and a pen brush for some lines.

Outside of the art, one thing I like about Kodansha Mario is how it has Daisy as a regular character, long before Mario Tennis established the modern Mario roster that adds back Daisy to the fold as a regular. I think this is pretty impressive because before that, Daisy appearances are pretty rare.

Spectrum of Faces

In practicing drawing hair, there are times where it felt constraining because I follow references, because I just felt the urge to draw freely, and thus, these were the results. Some references were used, though for rough ideas instead of a more direct copy.

I only decided that they would be coloured later, and later still, each face gets a different colour for each component (hair, skin, clothing, eyes). The result is kind of colourful, though I am not certain if certain combinations look good.