Author notes

Issue 3 Page 31

Dodger

on Feb. 18, 2013

I'm going to break this down panel by panel!
P1: Pixely world.
I AM NOT CUT OUT TO WORK IN PIXEL ART… luckily pixel world is just a small part of what that guy's dream world is like… you can see him in the corner there we totally know him. We might cross through the dream worlds of other people we know as well! That panel took me the longest (most of friday and today!) but over all I'm happy with the result. 
P2: Weird anime anthro world.
This panel is so strange for so many reasons. This is the first time since high school that I've seriously attempted to draw anime and the first time in four years I've drawn furries. Originally I was going to have it look like the game from AN2090, but it felt weird… So this is a similar Asian RPG that's very popular with tumblr ppl in the comic because of it's cutesy avatars.
I planned for Tabbi to be human originally but thought it'd be funnier if they were both furries… Tabbi was a grey/white siamese at first, but that looked too detailed for the character design. So then she was a grey and white tabby cat, but the stripes also looked too detailed for the design, so now she's just a grey and white bobtail. Koji's a black and tan shiba because shibas are adorable. They're not really all that furry, they still have human faces… I've seen the style around a lot recently and I think it's cute. There's also some slight anatomical changes here, Koji's arms are not really that muscular and Tabbi is not really that well-endowed, but lol game designs.
It was REALLY REALLY hard to draw eyes like that. I kept glancing at the panel and feeling a wave of disappointment, like I'm still stuck in the awkward anime phase I worked so hard to get out of… but then I'd remember that I did the eyes like that on purpose and how it took me so long to make them LOOK anime-y in the first place… and then I felt better.
We don't know that girl in the corner yet… but she's posting about her day on tumblr. She has a tardis phone charm. 
I took the screenshot from my phone
P3: BABBIESSSS
In his first speech bubble Koji is saying "I can't see!!"
In the second he's saying "Huh?"
Language barriers! : D
Tabbi is 3 and Koji is 5. Koji didn't move abroad until he was 6, which is about the time they realized that he's not stupid, he just can't see for shit! He didn't complain much because there weren't really any adults to listen to him and Sayomi would just throw things at him.
Tabbi has always had a specific interest in fashion… she's also naturally a redhead if you forgot! 
That person is a nun in the cafeteria, praying for the kids she teaches. If you haven't noticed, all the dreams they're running through belong to people in the school.
P4: Gender Swap'd
Goddamit, Koji.
Male Tabbi's name would be Tyler, female Koji's name would be Kyou(ko.) I don't know, I think those names kind of have the same feel to them as their real names do. Kyou looks like Sayomi with glasses and better hair and, despite the fact that Koji is like 6 feet tall (~183 cm) Kyou is really tiny like 5'0 (~152 cm) Because I think the size difference is funny. Tabbi's small but so is Tyler, proportionately. Tabbi is 5'3 (160 cm) and Tyler is like 5'7 (~170 cm) The O'Malleys are not tall people. The gender swaps are meant to retain their habits, interests and personalities, so Tyler's hair is fabulous and Kyou looks like she doesn't have the time or want to do much with her appearance. 
We don't know that person in the corner yet either, but we'll meet them in Dreamers. You can imagine that some of these dream worlds have much deeper meanings that others. o: 
——
This page is pretty much a small sampling of what Anarchy Dreamers will be like. A lot of going into the strange worlds people create in their heads (though issues will mostly focus on one or two at a time, rather than a different one every panel.) We'll see most of these worlds again and many more. ; )