Hey that's some pretty incredible work BMAN. It's been a long time since I have found a comic worth reading. Although I still check the comic section of the newsagency once in a blue moon in a vain hope that there will be comics worth reading like there once was. But Soul Chaser Betty, now that's something I have missed from a long while, a comic that is enjoyable to read and that I can get caught up in. If your ever approached by publishers let me know. I would love to buy comics of it in newsagency's. I would of printed it out to show to my mates, but sadly don't have any black ink, and haven't had for a while. So next time any of them come round, I'll get 'em to take a look and see what they think.
By the way have you considered entering the AnimeVamp TOP 40 Countdown? It'll be some great exposure which will hopefully mean a lot more Soul Chaser Betty fans.
BMan, You know how much I like your work, but seeing a girl that young with her pants off half the time is kind of wierd. How about some semi-nudity from the more um... mature girls?
The next update should be in about 6 weeks, it takes me a little over two months to do a full 24 pages, so doing 12 pages at a time takes 5 to 6 weeks.
Hey, nobody ever said how old Betty is, she's merely a "tomboyish teenage girl." All cartoon models are 18 years or older, record of age available upon request...
I coul dhave made her 21, but the smaller she is and more petite she is the cooler it is when she starts to kick ass.
Besides, there will never be any serious nudity or sex in Betty, but it will be cheeky once in a while...I know what side of the bread my butter's on - i.e. - Cute gitls in knickers sell.
I hate to push the point but the two people I showed Betty to felt that it was slightly 'eww' when Betty is half dressed, she just looks too young. I am only saying this because we do want Betty to be well recieved by folks. BMan, if you think this idea is gonna go with people then I'm behind you, but it could very easily be taken 'the wrong way' if you know what I mean.
I liked the comic. The part where Betty was not so clothed really didnt bother me at all. It was well drawn, though i was a little confused cause I havent read issue number one..
I'm not interested in panding to everyones sense of "what is and isn't allowed" to make a successful comic. If I did that with Septerra you guys wouldn't still be talking about it.
I can't be held responsible for what other people project onto my drawings - which I find interesting anyway - it tells you more about their thoughts and hang ups than it does the authors.
If they don't like it, they don't have to read it.
Do these people also go "eeeeew" over Evangellion, Project A-Ko, Gunbuster, Gunsmith Cats, Video Girl AI, Ranma 1/2, Macross, Gundam, Megazone 23, Battle Angel Alita, Septerra Core, Dawson's Creek, 90210, Party of 5, scream, I know what you did last summer, My so called life, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Porkys, Pretty in Pink etc.
These are all shows, comics, movies or games that have teenage girls between the ages of 13 and 19 in them (the same "age range" as Betty, the teens), and all of them use those characters for sex appeal - from simple cheeky exposure on tv all the way to full blown exploitative T&A.
The kids in Evangellion are 14 you know. Led was only 16.
Perhaps their real problem is that I choose to draw Betty very petite and more realistically proportioned than the balloon chested, barbie doll, muscle bound, playboy looking girls of most "acceptable" comics? Sorry, its what serves the character best, if not my pocket book...
Let me clarify myself, I am talking about Betty's sexual maturity not her age.
Buffy, and dawson's creek are shows about teenagers but everyone can see that the actors are beyond their teens. Anime series can claim a character is 14 years old but if her body suggest she is more like 18 years old, then the audience's sexual attitude will be to that of an 18 year and old sexually mature person.
In other words, Betty does'nt have to be busty (she does'nt have to be anything I say) but her physical appearance seems more pre-pubecent/pubecnt rather than petite. Some shows do reveal the bodies of 13 year old females, but they 'cover' for such exposure by showing the bodies of more mature girls as well. As far as I know, Betty in unprecedented in that all 'cheeky' scenes so far only feature Betty herself.
So, if you want Soul Chaser Betty's sex appeal factor to help 'sell' as you said, you need the audience to believe that Betty is sexually mature. Otherwise the scenes with more skin must be considered (at least legaally) non-sexual scenes, which technically do not contribute to the general sex appeal of the comic.
It's no biggy, it adds to a sense of realism. If you make her were pants 24/7 it's just over censorship as who wears pats all day and night? I mean have you every tried sleeping in jeans? It isn't very comfortable at all, so I can personally relate to Betty. I think it makes her more down to earth. And that's something many people love.
well see, she does look around 14-16, but who's to say they don't really wear that stuff, you guys aren't teenage girls you know :P plus, in my opinion that IS sort of what we wear
Betty being a little cheeky here and there is not really in the book to sell it. If I wanted to sell a book on sex appeal I could. Hell, one of my friends is just waiting for me to break down and start drawing porn!
I put Betty in the clothes she was wearing for three reasons, in this order:
1. In the opening pages I had forgotten to adress the fact that Betty got her pants ripped in the previous episode, so I went BACK into the pages after I had drawn then and changed them so that Betty was in her underwear and Grammy was sowing her pants - originally Grammy was just knitting and Betty was dressed - I thought it was a nice detail.
2. I wanted Betty to seem extra vulnerable when she went back to Nod, so I made her more exposed. I had wanted to introduce her attic room, so the progression to night shirt and Nod scene made sense.
3. I like drawing cute girls in their underwear or less. Anyone who has taken a look at my web site can attest to that. Also, anyone who realizes I am a hetero male artist should have already assumed that I like to draw the females.
Now, I'm sorry, but the girls in Evangellion LOOK 14. So does the main male character. Ako, Bko and Cko are all 15 or 16, get naked and they have LESBIAN overtones. My so Called Life had a 15 year old character who was a nympho alcoholic. 90210 and Dawsons and That 70s Show have teenage characters drinking, doing drugs and having sex - often just because its fun or realistic NOT to have some deep after school message. (and Mila Kunis on the 70s show was 15 when she got the part of Jackie in the first season). MOST of the main characters in the orignal Gunsam were 15 or 16, including the ones that have nude scenes and panty shots, etc, etc, etc.
I put a teenage girl in her underwear, NOT in a sexual situation, NOT doing anything illegal, NOT showing anything other than rated PG images and its NOT RIGHT?
Betty is obviously highly influenced by Japanese Anime, and one of the staples of Anime and Japanese culture is that teenage boys and girls run around half naked fighting monsters and each other. Its a cartoon. Its not real. Westerners, especially Americans, are so over sensitive to sexuality - and they mistake nudity for eroticism.
PS - I put more clothes on Betty than I see real high school students wearing these days..
PSS - And I don't WANT mainstream readership gained by trying NOT to offend anyone. I'd rather have an eclectic readership that has more taste.
PSSS - Betty is NOT pre-pubescent. She's just petite, becuase It adds to her character. Its actually EASIER to draw large busts than it is to do what I'm doing with her. And she's not THAT petite in the chest. Look at page 2.9:
Since everybody else is fine with it, then it should'nt be a problem. But I can't help it if Betty looks like a little girl to me, an that's not only because of her bust.
Haha, Jeez, this has gone on for a while now hasn't it? That's a very good and logical reason behind drawing Betty without her jeans on BMAN, I mean I would of just settled for it was really hot. I myself go around on hot summer days topples :p You know age really doesn't have any effect on what we wear (although I fell much older people should always cover up). But hell, it's just nickers, go to the beach in the summer time and you see people of all ages young and old in less, skimpier things. Besides it's more than some people sleep in.
Maybe I've become a bit insensitive after seeing a lot of crazy stuff on some of the Japanese anime fanart sites, but this is piddly in comparison (the age/sexuality topic, not the quality, quality is great, IMO).
I'm quite glad that you're staying away from sex. Really, I wish most things out there (movies, tv, etc.) had a lot less of it.
Now, on the other hand, what we need more of is really cute characters. ^_^
Well, I would rather make a name for myself with good stories and art, with a little sex appeal once in a while - which there will be - than by having the "comic babe flavor of the month."
Betty will definatley be showing her knickers again, so don't worry. And her attraction and relationship to Rolf will be pretty funny and cute.
Right now I'm looking forward to getting Issue 2 done, which finishes the "set up" or "origin" story and getting to the meat of the story and mythology.
Hmmm, screw it. I think next issue she'll get sexually attacked by a tentacle monster while doing cocain...
Actually, dose any one know what the big obsession with tentacles is with the Japanese?
I use to run Dream Factor, the worlds biggest and only (at the time anyway) SEGA character shrines dedicated to SEGA character and characters that had appeared on SEGA consoles. Along with many image galleys for each character (there were a lot trust me, this was back in the days Tripod gave ya 50MB and this site was using 3 accounts) and later on there was also hentai galleys for some of the female characters too also making the site the biggest SEGA hentai resource on the web. And I get a lot of what they do, but the whole tentacle thing seemed very recurring. There's also other stuff in hentai that I just flat out ignored and wouldn't let anywhere near the site, but I didn't have anything against the whole tentacle thing, just didn't understand the massive obsession over it.
The most likely reason for the whole tentacle thing is b/c it's illegal to show genitals in public in Japan (and since print/tv/movies/etc is public, it's not shown their, either). Thus they started using tentacles as a euphemism for male genitals.
Wow, hey, I think that's probably it Derelict. That's a great reason, and undoubtedly the the truth. I bet even a year of looking into the history a japanimation would of revealed just that. And from that it became the obsession it is now.
Derelict: "it's illegal to show genitals in public in Japan"
Do you mean male genitals? (I'm pretty sure you also mean on TV because I'm sure it's illegal to show any genitals out in public) Besides you can plainly see the female genitals in a 'tentacle attack'. How do I know? because I played Cobra's game!
No, both genders'. Even today, if you watch a new adult title from Japan, odds are it will have mosaic censorship. With computer related stuff, the censorship seems to be relaxed a bit (especially with anime/manga since it's not really a person, just an illustration). There has also been software developed that uses a reversable method for mosaic-esque censorship (only seen it on pictures, not videos). The whole subject is pretty complicated (e.g., the subject of hair nudes; also I believe it's still illegal to show hair nudes in Korea).
looks all innocent like I forgot all about that. Yeah I tried finding the most gory and disturbing images possible for the intro of Vampire Hunter III : Nightmare in the year 2012. I hope I was able to achieve my goal. While Vampire Hunter II : Revenge has a very different style of intro, while not as powerful it's more story based. That's how I've set the Vampire Hunter games up, it starts off very story driven, but as the final battle closes in it's more fast passed and full of action. That's why I haven't made Vampire Hunter I : Forbidden Love yet. It's very story driven, and will be an RPG despite it's sequels being 2D beat 'em ups. As far as I know the whole censorship is still very much in force, the uncensoring of images and games usually come into play once it leaves Japan.
Not sure how the movies and hentai films work really, I'd say probably the same, I did extract a lot of midis from whatever games I could however for the AnimeVamp MIDI Enhancer, and noticed it seems to be the way of their games.
. Seriously though, sex appeal does'nt have to be overdone, there are some nice subtle ways to insert sexual appeal.