Environment Concept Art 12
Glen: “So…we need to figure out what to put on today’s blog post. I can’t think of anything to say about this image that wouldn’t spoil the story.”
Adam: “I dunno, maybe we could just ramble about what went into making the image?”
Glen: “Meh. I always do that.”
Adam: “Or we can just make crap up.”
Glen: “Hmmm… Okay. 
”
One of the concepts we had for the ninjas in this world is to show how they were displaced. They currently live in the desert but originated from a mountainous temperate climate. This image is just of simple living quarters, but the larger (and slightly nicer) buildings have a mix between Native-American and Japanese interior design.
So how were the ninjas displaced? Let me explain.
First they ran into the intergalactic empire, lead by the evil Lord…uh, evil Dark Cy-Lord. He and Captain Hiroyuki had an epic battle, at which point the trash receptacle robots swooped in to save the day but not before creating a huge mess. That naturally angered the Squirrel Gods (representatives of all forest critters), and their wrath caused Captain Hiroyuki and his ninja allies to…move, and…uh…now they sell polished rocks and arrowhead necklaces, which…they can write symbols on to make them blow up. (Best party poppers ever!)
Janell says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:52 pm
Is there are a reason you chose to use the character “strength” instead of “mountain,” some asian-like scribbles, or some native to the Hackberry world?
I like the your attention to detail by including the plastic water dispenser in the background 🙂
Adam Weber says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:30 pm
You must be strong. Like mountain.
Glen Moyes says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:33 pm
In all honesty I didn’t put much thought into the poster. 🙂 So, no reason for the strength symbol except that I felt something should be on the wall that communicates a connection to Japanese-like culture and that someone actually lives there. Last year we came up with a gag that involved kanji on posters, so that’s where the idea for this poster came from.
One topic of discussion is should there be Japanese characters in this world even though there is no Japan? We’ve made a point to make sure that there’s no anachronisms in the comic (within reason anyway; the characters do speak English), but a ninja is a Japanese concept, and we call them as such because that’s the only word we have to describe them (we don’t like fantasy novels that make up words for things we already have in reality).
So, the use of Japanese characters is still something we are thinking about. We have English signage in the story, and many design cues from cultures that are inspired from places like Japan where we just come up with a different name for that country in the comic. So, we have English being spoken, people have English, Welsh, German, Greek, and Japanese names (to name a few). Can we go the next step with having the Japanese language shown, or any other language for that matter? My opinion is probably, so long as we are consistent and don’t mention things that would be pop-culture.
BUT! The story is still being written, so that could change (not the pop-culture part, those are definitely not going to be in the comic).
Sir Smithy says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Why do we all speak with British accents when we are from outer space and there is no Britain?
William says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Is it because the BBC produced the program? (Dr. Who, HHGTTG, Red Dwarf) Or is it because Lord British was involed?
Janell says:
February 4th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
You also could just modify japanese/chinese characters to hint at the language but otherwise be illegible.
Environment Concept Art (Lucky) 13 @ Hackberry Hollow says:
February 9th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
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