Dungeons, talking brains, and mutant Martian pro wrestlers (Preview edition)
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Hello friends. I am currently procrastinating updating my laptop for fear that this will be the Update That Breaks Everything, even though that has never happened, and everything important is backed up. But just in case everything goes kaput: it’s been an honor (salute emoji).
Smash cut to…
Next Comic Now
I don’t have a great title for this one, so it’s just called “No think” for now until I come up with a better one:
![](https://assets.buttondown.email/images/100ff59e-7813-40d2-b857-e9b510845d74.jpg?w=960&fit=max)
Let’s get a closer look at this lil guy:
![LIl' Brain](https://assets.buttondown.email/images/30df2700-dbed-4921-a952-d7c865ac64f4.jpg?w=960&fit=max)
And this BIG guy:
![Bon apetit!](https://assets.buttondown.email/images/cbf49d59-cca2-4350-a69c-1973553b9e04.jpg?w=960&fit=max)
Stick around for my upcoming spin-off comic, “Internal Organ Pals” (they’re roommates). Although I think Neil Simon did it better.
Redraw! “Non-player characters”
A recent discussion about wrangling your D&D players reminded me that I wanted to redraw parts of this 2018 comic about players that shy away from risks. Here’s the updated comic:
![NPCs redraw](https://assets.buttondown.email/images/183812d8-ac6c-4507-b4bd-4700cd1b2291.jpg?w=960&fit=max)
Here’s the original comic if you want to play Spot the Differences. Mostly, I wanted to correct that grammatically awful phrase “with a tip of a spear.” WTF does that even mean? I don’t know why I didn’t catch that early but it’s haunted me for years. Fixed!
Conventional wisdom says you’re not supposed to go back and redraw old comics. But I think if you can make an old gag comic better you should go for it, especially if you have a better grasp on the punchline or premise. If you’re just starting out, who’s gonna know?
The Animation Report, Part 3
I didn’t make as much progress on “Continuity” as I wanted this week, but I did manage to do the following:
Panel 1: Improved Grumpy Friend’s arm animation and his head now turns to face Blonde Guy at the end.
Also Panel 1: added a bit of deformed stretching when Blonde Guy slides back out. (This makes more sense when you watch it).
Panel 3: Animated Blonde Guy’s arms where he reveals the action figure and toy.
!["Continuity" animated at YouTube](https://assets.buttondown.email/images/5d2b0ac4-81e3-4ebc-9cfe-52eca7b45484.png?w=960&fit=max)
Here’s a direct link to the latest video.
I spent the rest of the week on the hunt for Looney Tunes/Hanna-Barbera-style sound effect clips that didn’t cost me a car payment in royalties. And I also composed some background music which is not in the video yet. So I guess I did get a lot done after all!
I’m basically doing everything I can to save mouth/dialogue animations for last, because that’s gonna be hardcore. The next update will be major, YOU’LL SEE.
Parting shot
When I was digging the original “NPCs” file on my old Surface computer, I found a bunch of images I’d forgotten about, including this guy who I guess is some kind of mutant Martian pro wrestler:
![Think fast!](https://assets.buttondown.email/images/dcd36dc1-cc6d-4b48-988c-21df735e51d8.jpg?w=960&fit=max)
I think this was a doodle I made to test out a type of brush. Trust me, there are a LOT more doodles on that old computer that are far more embarrassing.
Hit me back
Do you have a question? A complaint? A bug report? Unabashed praise? Reply to this email and tell me, I’ll take all of it!
‘Til next time!
Scott Andrew
Reluctant Dungeon Master, Neat Hobby!
https://neathobby.com
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