Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

Again, I apologize if this is the wrong thread to place this topic; it didn't really seem to fit in the "Characters" thread (since I'm speaking of no one specific character), nor in the "Storylines" thread since I'm not talking about a specific strip/overall story.

Anyway...

Well, after several days of on and off reading, I'm finally caught up with all the storylines.

I've got to say that I feel kind of sad reaching the 'end' , after enjoying being able to read through several years worth of storylines one page after the other, to now wait a WHOLE DAY for another page is hard

Since there is so much to go through for me, I think I'll just hit the highlights of each year that stood out (to me anyway).

First of is how I learned of this comic; I am a member of another forum and there we discuss, among other things, the game Dungeons and Dragons, and artwork related to that game. A long while back someone pointed out this comic; I took a short look at it but for whatever reason didn't go back.

Only recently did I take another look, and I was hooked!

What got me first was that it was obviously a DnD related comic, since on the first strip we saw a frickin' Beholder, playing peeping tom to a cute goblin girl!?! (hold on now, goblins are supposed to be neither cute nor sexy!! ).

I will also admit to being a shallow enough bastard to also be attracted to the webcomic by the nudity sprinkled through it (at least the first year or so)

I have noticed that the nudity has dropped off a lot in the past couple of years, and the fact that I am still reading shows the strength of ths storylines.

I do wonder, though; did you, Mr. Morris (on the off chance that you are reading this ^_^) feel the need to move away from liberal use of nudity so as not to be known as a 'porn' comic, like Oglaf is known?

I will say that in the discussion group I am a part of, a member who is a 'true' artist (pencil/paper/ink, not a 'poser' like myself *ahem* ), has mentioned how he likes the big expressive ears you place on the goblins, and has even been inspired to try his take on halflings as well after viewing your work.

It has also inspired me to do my own 'art' as well, and I eventually plan on doing images of Gren, Arachne and Clover (what DnD nerd can resist Hot Drow Chicks? ), and yes, even Wolf [I'm secure enough to do images of a male... so, how about them bears? ^_^].




Now, on to the storylines, beginning with "Year One":

First off, a comic that focuses on the 'bad guys' that the heroes normally knock off, take their treasure, then move on is very interesting. The setting kind of reminds me of the old DnD adventure "Keep on the Borderlands" (the very first module I played, by the way).

A Goblin falling in love with a Beholder!?!

Well, that's new

The Chimera was funny (and yes, you asked a question all of us gamers have had about that particular critter [I also like that the Goat is the brains of the trio]).

Also makes sense that Bob would have a 'wandering eye' (Ouch! ^_^).

Ahhh, Arachne... what's a dungeon setting with hot (seeming lesbian) drow, huh? ^_^

You know, I've always wonderred how could a certain male drow ranger who's name sounds like a sneeze could grow up in a society as totally evil as the Drow, and treats men so poorly, without being killed off early in his life (but then, I was one of the few people I know who never got into Drizzt's story).

Oh, man. You know, there is just SO MUCH to talk about in the first year alone that I'll just do that in a seperate post (and try to make it brief), lets leave this one as my first 'introductory' post to this forum.

Keep up the great work!! Eagerly looking forward to future strips.

"Chup@Cabra"

WOW! Nice intro post, Chup'! I'll try to answer as much of it as I can and yes, indeed, I do read these. I reply when I have time, but I read [almost] everything.



I believe this is an appropriate place to put your post.



Wow...that's dedication!




Yay! Thank you!



Interestingly, I didn't realize Beholders originated with D&D until recently. Shows how much I know. But yes, D&D has been the greatest (but definitely not the only) influence on my own experience of the fantasy genre.



No, not deliberately. Actually, about the nudity, (and anyone who's heard any of my podcast interviews probably already well knows this already), I started doing YAFGC partially as a reaction to having been in the animation industry and drawing preschooler-young teenagers oriented fare for over 18 years. I wanted -- nay, NEEDED -- an outlet for my more adult-oriented humour. Unsure how far to take it, I looked upon Reinder Dijkhuis' Rogues of Clwyd-Rhanhttp://www.rocr.net/ as inspiration. I didnt' want to make PORN, I wanted to make something that wasn't gong to shy away from adult situations. I wasn't sure about how far I would take it, and Rogues had a certain semi-innocent unashamed, matter-of-factness about nudity that I admired. So that's the route I took.
If you look at the first YEAR (the strips that made it into the first book, as it turns out), you'll see how I was exploring characters, humour, style, etc. It starts off far more "cartoony" than it would later become (with Mrs.Bloodhand jogging in a designer tracksuit for example). In the second year's worth of strips (most of which is in Book 2!) you'll see where I'd mostly settled on the story style, but was exploring the 'adultness' of it. Not before or since has it become quite as risque as "Turg's Saga" and all the bits with Clover in Arachne's dungeon.
The reason the nudity has toned down is simply that the nudity isn't required for the kinds of stories I want to tell. If, on the other hand, I decide I'm going to do a story about the Harpys or the kinky side of the Drow, expect there to be lots of bare breasts (I discovered that I won't draw genitals, but boobs and bums ,male or female, are fair game).
Oddly I also draw the line at foul language. I don't like making my characters swear and I don't know why.


REALLY??? COOL! Inspiring others to draw and explore new things in their style is one of my favorite reactions! Please let him know that I'd love to see his stuff sometime!



Please share when you have!


Heheh, mine too.


It could happen!


For varying definitions of "brains".


I think the Drow invented the word "Dungeon".


Yeah, Wolf is my answer to the Drizzt' travesty.



Sounds good! I'll be watching for your follow-up posts! Thanks for reading and sharing your reactions and welcome to the forum!!
-Rich Morris (The Beholder King)

Hello Rich, and hello again Chup!
Then I suppose that I should jump in, if only to avoid prolonging your disappointment --you may not be so happy to inspire me when you learn that much of my work is even more risqué than yours. My online presence centers on nude pin-ups--tame for the internet, I've been told, but still smutty. Even though I did sketch a fully-clothed halfing chatting with a goblin, that pic is unlikely to appear online anytime soon, and anything that does appear under this name will be at least a nude. I know that you're a member of deviantArt, so you can check out my gallery there, or you can see my more complete gallery on WWOEC.

That aside, I can move on to the well-deserved praise: like Chup, I became interested in your story due to its naughty visuals and humor, but am continuing to read it for its narrative. I consider myself to be a "monster sympathizer", so the focus on classically antagonistic characters and societies was engaging for me, and I had no problem understanding why they would find each other appealing too. You do a good job both of playing the stereotypes relatively straight (e.g. goblins) and inverting them (e.g. Cuddles the cloaker). It's amusing to hear that Wolf is your response to the Drizzt character--I believe that you've played that race straighter than the official material did.

On both a narrative and visual level, you've found inspiring ways of expressing (or creating) the appeal of several races. As Chup mentioned, your goblin ears and faces are very emotionally communicative, and they make me embarrassed to have omitted ears from the sole goblin in my online gallery (clearly a squandered opportunity!).

As for halflings, well ... through Clover Firelight, you've done what JRR Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons, and Peter Jackson all failed to do for me: make the race attractive. It has inspired me to take another run at distinguishing them from dwarves and gnomes, which are too visually similar for my tastes. On that subject, I quite approve of your using the Hairfoot variety, since that's a trait that the other two short races never have. I'm aware that artists from a cartooning background usually use a higher head-to-body ratio, so I'll tend to shrink the relative size of their heads a bit, but I think that you're right to give halflings nonhuman proportions.

On a purely practical level, you deserve a lot of praise for maintaining a daily release schedule. I plowed through the years of work that you put into this comic within a few days after Chup told me about it and now it's uncomfortable to wait for the next strip, so we're lucky that you update so frequently. And, because you've been so prolific, we can also check out some of the other stories that you've crafted over the years. YAFGC is still my favorite of yours, but I'm enjoying House of Paulus too.

Thank you for sharing your talent with us, and for all of the effort that went into it!

Thank you for reading!
I'll reply more completely to this post later on when I'm not rushing out the door to work!

-BK

I'm not sure if I've ever said this before, but I find it very flattering to get praised by an artist as succesful and talented as Rich.

You may be happily ignoring this thread or simply have forgotten about it, but I thought that I should still link you to an image that wouldn't have happened without your art as inspiration, as I would have put off drawing a halfling for ... pretty much ever. It's a nude, but no nuder than one can find in some installments of YAFGC.

Elf & Halfling [NSFW]
A nude elf and halfling frolic in a forest.
http://malcolmdouglas.wwoec.com/elf_&_halfling_01.htm

.

Ignoring: no. Forgotten: A little bit, yeah, sorry. I've just been a little crazy busy with all kinds of work and family stuff going on.

Thanks fore posting this and I"ve got to say I'm hugely flattered! That I was able to inspire this kind of exploration and a change of interest in a race is awesome. Beautiful artwork, I've got to say.

A faceoff between Balkar and Clover would be rather interesting, wouldn't it? Should approach Rich Burlew about that someday.

Incidently, Tolkien's Hobbits are totally beardless according to the description in the book. They closest they get is soft curly sideburns. I base my Halflings *generally* on the Tolkien description, though keeping the D&D heights, generally a foot shorter than their Tolkien counterparts.

I understand your dislike for the Hobbit psychology, but my reaction was the opposite to yours. I was drawn to them because they reminded me so much of my own relatives in England. (Who live, for the most part, in Bristol, close to the region that the Shire is modeled after)

For my part I was *not* drawn to Gnomes. I never really grasped their personality until very recently, so they always seemed to me like less-interesting Halflings. Gummer Groundpounder is my initial exploration (which is a bit of a cheat since he's mostly based on Burt Gummer from the "Tremors" series), and do intend to someday introduce more and explore some Gnomish culture in YAFGC.

No worries: I can't praise your incredible output and then criticize you for not dropping everything to respond to my message. Perhaps it could go without saying, but you need respond to this message only if you have the time and you really want to.

I'm glad to hear that my post was worthwhile, and that you found the pic beautiful. Reinder was right, praise coming from an artist as accomplished as you is particularly flattering.

A Belkar vs. Clover match would indeed be interesting. Of course, in both cases, the characters that you two have written are more interesting for their personalities and story arcs than they are for their raw fighting skills. It's important that your treatment of halflings was so close to the source, because enjoying halflings because one likes Belkar would be a little like enjoying drow because one likes Drizzt.

Regarding hobbit beards, I was working from the explanation on Wikipedia that attempts to draw together various descriptions from Tolkien's letters and books, and it says, "For the most part, they cannot grow beards, but a few of the race of Stoor can." Basically the same as what you're saying, but I hope that you understand why I digested it the way that I did.

Your reaction to gnomes (vs. halflings) is interesting. As you may have read, I too have a hard time finding the distinctive appeal of each of the little races, and gnomes are a puzzle for me too. Perhaps your treatment of gnome culture and the Gummer character will help me work that out, so I'll definitely keep an eye open for that.

Once again, thank you, and keep up the good work!