Halloween Filler: Scarlet Night
Happy Halloween everyone!!
Today we’ve got a special treat: the very first filler for Melvin Chronicles 2.0!
Red and Holly really went all out with their costumes this year. Don’t they look great? Holly is dressed as Maria Renard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and Red is dressed as the Succubus boss.
Carlos claims that he would have let Red dress up as Simon Belmont (since they usually share hair colors), but he chose Succubus for Red instead because her Scarlet Avenger outfit is too similar to Simon Belmont’s own. But we all know why he really chose Succubus. 🙂
EDIT: Hey guys, Carlos here with a quick announcement, in case you miss it, we have a new post in the front page, with some important news. Please, give it a read, and it you have any doubts, put them in the post so we can keep track of them more easily!
Holly looks disturbingly similar to a blonde Melvin in drag. Ugh. Pass the brain bleach?
I do like Tiffany’s wings.
Funny you should mention that! When Carlos shared the lineart for this with me, I at first assumed the one on the left was Melvin turned into a girl. lol
Scary, Boy turned girl is the go-to answer.
Which is weird, seeing as Robert is apparently immune to being TGed.
Also, Kattgirl? Perhaps we’re looking at a Susan/Diane storyline coming up at some point.
In my defense, one of the reasons Melvin actually likes Holly to begin with, acording to BJ at least, is that she is just like him, and, depending of who is drawing them, next to each other, they do look quite similar!
I am not psychologist, so I can’t tell what this said about Melvin, but we could have some fun with this in the future.
Also, can someone explain to me the Susan/Diane references? I do get what it may mean, but I do not get the reference.
@Carlos – Susan and Diane are two characters in El Goonish Shive that look like they could be sisters, and for a while there are a few characters who know this and have to decide whether or not to introduce the two of them to each other. I won’t spoil the final reveal (so far) in that storyline, but it’s a rather interesting one.
@Carlos: It’s not just “they look like they could be sisters” … Susan and Diane looks like they could be monozygotic twins. Also, they were born 20 minutes apart.
@HKMaly – right, the time between their births, forgot that. Honestly, I never found them that similar-looking, but my eyes suck (me and two sisters wear glasses, and the other is legally blind), so I might have missed that. I generally assume any time I miss visual details in any of the webcomics I read, it’s because I can barely read an eye test chart from 10 feet away.
@He Who Abides:
As it turns out, any resemblance is somewhat coincidental, because Diane is Susan’s great-great-great-(etc…) aunt, not sister. But, point taken.
@Kattgirl – yeah, that twist surprised me a bit. And confused me, unless Mr. Pompoms isn’t that far removed generationally from the Raven clan; it’s the only reason I can think of that his daughter would look similar to his great-something aunt. By the way, what do you think of the newest development on the Diane front (kinda don’t want to spell it out right now in case some people haven’t read it yet)? I was a little surprised, but I love that it led to Rhoda asserting herself. And cursing, which was funnier than it had any right to be.
Incidentally, thanks for referencing EGS on JB
@He Who Abides:
As to the “latest development”: I was a little surprised… and frankly, rather disappointed that the author took the easy way out, rather than being more… creative. Seeing the same old resolution over and over again gets dull. [Speaking in generalities here, to try to avoid giving too much away…] Basically, every major character winds up behaving the same way. That’s lazy writing.
But yeah, the invective was fun.
And incidentally, I lost a bet – I had guessed that they’d turn out to be cousins, rather than sisters. I still can’t imagine how the author is going to explain that Daddy R has been hanging around in the same small town for many generations without being noticed.
@Kattgirl – I don’t know if Mr. Raven has always been in Moperville, but the space between Mrs. Kitsune/Mr. and Mrs. Verres’ generation and the main cast’s generation can be explained (I think) by his illusions making people think he aged. I believe he came to this country during the Cold War (I’m guessing based on Arthur having planned to deport him to Russia), and I suspect the Pompom clan came to America before that. All guesswork, but it’s all I’ve got.
And yeah, Dan has relied on that one character evolution you’re assumedly referring to a lot.
Raven has definitely NOT been in Moperville for the entire time since he unknowingly fathered Susan’s ancestor–he mentioned that he was in his actual 20s when he would have fathered that particular child, and it’s been heavily implied that Raven himself predates the American Revolution. Moperville would not even have existed yet at the time that Susan’s ancestor was born.
@He Who Abides:
Well, Pandora mentioned that Susan is Raven’s “distant descendant”. Not “granddaughter”, or even “great-granddaughter”, but more distant than that. So that implies at least 4 or more generations away, meaning at LEAST 80 years. Given that this takes place in about 2010 (comic time), that means about 1930 or earlier. Now he could certainly pull the illusory-aging thing, but there’s no way that he could pretend to be 100+ years old and still teaching school. So either he’s changed identities a few times (involved, but possible) or else he’s moved around and back again, though why he’d chance coming back to the same small Midwestern town and getting recognized by a senior citizen is a good question.
Yes, I recall the reference to possible deportation, though I believe Arthur was not specifically mentioned. So that could have been at any time period, not necessarily the 50’s or later.
And ijuinkun makes a good point. So if Susan’s ancestor was born prior to the 18th century, then the fact that Susan and Raven wound up in the same town is QUITE a coincidence!
#He Who Abides, ijuinkun:
It’s worse than we thought; I just did some checking. Magic stated that the last major magic change was before the “dawn of Man“. Meaning, at the very least, several thousand years ago. Since Pandora was around at that time, and Raven was born when Pandora was maybe 200 or so, we can safely say that Raven is at least a couple of thousand years old. Which means that Susan’s ancestor is from at least Biblical times, if not earlier. The chances against Susan and Raven ending up in the same town by coincidence – astronomical.
So how the hell Dan is going to retcon his way out of this one, I don’t know.
@Kattgirl & ijuinkun – yeah, those odds are astronomical. I always figured (well, not always, but you get it) that Susan’s biological connection to Raven came through Ellis Island during the 1800s, hence the name “Pompoms”; names getting butchered there was a thing, by the way.
Also, Kattgirl? Death Sentence part 2 has Mr. Verres tell Raven that Arthur is in charge of the Department of DGB, at which point Raven says he won’t talk to “the man who tried to deport me to Russia”. Just checked, which is not easy to do without an individual page search system or tags. Robert really does spoil us, doesn’t he?
@Kattgirl, HKMaly, He Who Abides & ijuinkun
Okay guys, what I getting of all of this is that…I can in theory go bonkers with my plot, and you guys will still read the MC? cause I was a little scared for some of my ideas for the future being to crazy, but a this point I think I may not be thinking crazy enough!
But in all honestly, I think I am more lost now that I asked than before… should I give El Goonish Shive a read? Right now it sound kind of intimidating!
@Carlos – yes to both questions. We’ll still read MC, and EGS is worth the read.
@Carlos:
MC is good, and well worth reading – as to plotting, it’s always good to plan ahead as far as possible, and try to minimize inconsistencies.
EGS is interesting, (and very convoluted) but it’s been running for like 16 years, so reading your way through it from the beginning is a major effort. Fortunately, it does have chapter indices, which helps a bit, but no character tags [bummer]. The approach to magic is interesting (though somewhat inconsistent) and the story is a little slow-moving because of the large number of principle characters and corresponding multiple interlocking story arcs.
Where this discussion all started, was the visual resemblance between Melvin and Holly, and He Who Abides was suggesting that perhaps there might be some familial relationship there, that could be revealed in the future (for example, they turn out to be distant cousins, etc.) – which is the sort of thing that seems to crop up in EGS numerous times. It’s a bit like watching a soap opera in that respect – and somewhat similar to SailorSun, in that it can be a little hard to follow.
So if you decide to give EGS a try, my advice is to have a scorecard handy to keep track of the characters and who’s who.
Kinda wish Red was dressed as Sypha since they went with a Castlevania theme.
Yeah, a “Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard” with Melvin, Red and BJ would be cool.
So, to be honest, this little filler was a last minute thing for me, I am currently really busy and with the recent Castlevania hype, I decide to come with this instead of rushing the page. The biggest problem when you are drawing original characters dressing as other recognizable characters, is find a balance so both parties get well represented.
Holly could have pass perfectly as any of the blonde Castlevania girls, Melvin could have been a good Ritcher or a good Charlotte Aluin, with Liam as a crappy Jonathan Morris, so far I don’t have anybody in the cast besides Lorion or “human” Kazom to pull off a Alucard costume, and again, my options for Red where either Bishonen Simon or the Succubus, and with both Maria and the Succubus being in Syphony of the Night the decision was made.
Red does not look happy, does she?
No, she does not look happy. It’s as if she’s wondering how she got talked into this costume, or maybe somebody “poofed” her into it unexpectedly. Not cool if it was the latter. That outfit is a bit more exposure than she’s used to.
@ranck, well, we technically miss that time she modeled swimsuits during the summer. Though, again, we did miss all of her summer jobs.
@He Who Abides Red is upset about a looot of things, but CD actually come up right about one of the many things going through her mind at the moment. Quoting the man himself:
“Maybe Red is questioning why she would have liked seeing girls wear that costume before her change.”
And indeed, filler or not, I can tell you guys, during the last few months Red has been questioning a lot of her previous views in regard women.
Yes, there a lot of difference is seeing women and giving cat call at the ones you like and being the girl everybody else is giving the cat call at or for.
Besides modeling swim suit in the summer time, there are also hint at her modeling close too and walking down the run way in a live performance that we haven’t seen either and would would be a neat addition if it done right.
@Carlos You mean like Carlos reevaluating how he treated women in the past?
For a filler, the idea she is questioning his/her former attitudes and thoughts about girls in such costumes is a deeper interpretation than I would expect. But, I like that idea. More nuanced than I had thought.
Awesome filler. Nice trick-or-treat goodie.
BTW guys, in case you miss it, we have an important post in the front page at the moment, in high sight we should have added the link in the description. Please, give it a read, and it you have any doubts, put them in the post so we can keep track of them more easily!
No update on Tuesday, right?
We SHOULD have a page update this Thursday, and from there all updates would be on Thursday until mid Fabruary at most.
This week this past week have been a little messy for me, and I haven’t been hable to work as much as I wanted on the pages, but at worst this week page could be delayed to friday, but from there everything should start to work out.