~kh

Back when AIII was actually called AIII, we were hitting the very height of our activeness. Sadly enough (though probably not really surprising), they mostly died later. But they're still canon, and so they're here. We've linked to basically all the ICCanon comic series here that we can think of, but there's always more things to look out for, so stay tuned.Format: Comic Series Title, Alternate Title | Season Names | Nicknames, {Link to the topic in the Archive Board}General:Mask of Existence, {Archive}Noob War, {Archive}Kahinuva:Live, Learn and Lawsuits, (3L)2: Live, Learn and Lawsuits | Live, Learn and Lawsuits: Revived | LLL {Archive}ForesightPhilbert:The Comics That May Or May Not Be Made By Involve Philbert, TCTMOMNBMBIP | V1, V2, V3, {Archive}The Time Before Time, {Archive}Gavla:Gavla's Comics, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, V, VI {Archive}Legends of the Shadow Lords, {Archive}Tavakai/VakamaTK:TavKorp, Room With a Mahi/RWAM, VakamaTK's Comics, {Archive}Bladeran/Blazanax/BladeTitan74:Rising Suns, BladeTitan974's Comics, Quest for the Meta Sword/QFTMS, {Archive}Gerlicky:That's Messed Up: The Series, TMUTS, {Archive}That's Messed Up: Creator's Wrath, TMUCWThat's Messed Up: The Legendary Gerlicky, TMUTLGSpoofQuest!, Does Choking on BIONICLE Make You Think of BIONICLE?, {Archive}Turaga Dlakii:The Newsroom, Turaga Dlakii's Comic Emporium, {Archive}Ayel/Aquatic Lewa:City in the Sky, {Archive}Zakitano:The Pirogi Vampire, The Pirogi Vampire Revamped, {Archive}Coleanuva:Coleanuva's Ski Resort, {Archive}Janaro:Janaro's Café, {Archive}Tapika:II Made This, IIMT | I Made This II | {Archive}Private Eye Tapika, {Archive}Nuparurocks/Ennar:Nuparurocks' Comics, Alpha, Beta, {Archive}Jin/Fried Ingenuity:This Brick Wall, {Archive}Sukid/Superkid11:SK Inn, {Archive}Takuma Nuva:Takuma Nuva's MNOLG-Style Comics, {Archive}TNToran Revolution, {Archive}

The International Comic Continuity We are the International Comic Continuity.We are an ensemble of fifteen teenagers that have wasted the majority of our lives making multiple Story Arcs detailing the lives of our renamed author avatars and other created characters represented by colored squares which in turn represent characters in another universe inspired by a dead toyline about storyline-centric plastic buildible action figures placed in outlined boxes and hosted on the largest internet-based forum dedicated to said dead toyline of children's construction toys.......okay, let's try that again.A while back, about nine comic makers joined together all of their comic series and wove them into one cohesive universe. And from there, it just kind of grew. 2012 marked our second anniversary, and pretty much all of the major series there are even older. We wanted to make this compilation topic in order to both have a one-stop place for anything you guys might want to know about us, or for whenever we need to look up something and are too lazy can't find the time to go look it up in the archive.There's two facts you need to know about us:1. We don't do and/or finish a lot of stuff we start because we are extremely lazy bums.2.We have about fifteen members at the moment, but that changes mostly whenever we want it to. We disbanded back in 2010, but then said "April Fools!" rebanded soon after. You'll find that we take our cues from many inspirations, from Earthbound to Homestuck and back again. Some of our jokes and memes and whatnot even predate this current Comics age and go way, way back to when too many rhipsters The Group were actually a thing and when Dark709 was actually sort of a thing and when the NGC was ripping us off just getting off the ground.Good times.Of course, we aren't just going to leave you guys hanging with just some dusty old library topic. See, even though we're lazy bums, we do get into a comic kick now and again. But sometimes, we get ideas that are just too small to make a new topic for, or too long to keep a regular series going. So, what's the solution? ------------------------ Launchpad is where we do all the little ideas that we want to do but don't have the time to fully commit to. See, one of the founding philosophies behind the ICC is that we are a continuity. We're not just a group of guys (and one girl) that just wanted a fancy title so that we could PGS in everyone else's series. We're a universe, and we want to do stuff specifically with that universe.Launchpad will mostly consist of one shot comics, with either established characters or new ones altogether. They'll all take place in the MultICCverse, with the majority of them taking place in the ICCverse itself. Generally, the idea will be that these comics are just for the fun of making them. They might be just for experimentation, or to just utilize a story idea. But what they will do is flesh out our own universe without the pressure of keeping up an actual series.Launchpad. Comics, what you want, when we want them. =P Hero Factory: Taone Division Comic 01 by Gerlicky ICCLandComic 01 by Gerlicky Survival of the Noobish Comic 01 by Gerlicky Antihero Factory Comic 01 by Tavakai And then there's just the MASes you know and love. Noob War, Mask of Existence, even the Newsroom. They're all going to be hosted here, alongside whatever else we decide to do. Because we can. The Newsroom Comic 13,217 So yeah.Discuss, I guess.

Yep, it is. Warlords served me well, but I thought it was high time to change to a more retro look for the series' logo.Since my activity here has been so low, though, here's a look on a project I've been working on for a while...

Actually, it's going back to the original title: Live, Learn and Lawsuits. s(L)=logLL3 is just a subtitle. Unlike (3L)2, which became the actual name of the series, this one's just there because I dislike using "Season 3.0" and I said something to Jin a while ago about making the next title a logarithm.For those who don't know what it means, s(L)=logLL3 basically shortens down to s(L)=3, which references the season number and all that jazz.In the meantime, I've finished up the new look for the old Kahi spritesheet. It'll be up when I'm done fixing the Calix.

Interesting take on a usually formulalic type of review. But to really imitate Stan The Man, it needed some more Added Alliterative Appeal. Bold or italics would've made a better read than caps; not sure if the way the news articles are written makes that possible, but I would assume it wouldn't be too hard. "True Believers" fit in with the theme pretty well, but "Superfans" was a little pushing it.I was disappointed not to hear a no references to "No-Prizes!" or a finishing "Until next time, Make Mine MOCable", though. Those were two parts of the ol' Stan Soapbox that I really remember from when I was a kid, pouring over my old issues of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man.Anyhow, looks interesting, but I'm not interested in the set. Iron Man's red parts might come through for me, though.

It's been a while, but I thought I should clue you guys in on the next season:Comic 50 is being worked on and will be released soon, alongside the conclusion of Foresight. Then I'll get to work on starting my buffer and making more backgrounds and adding in some new characters for the remainder of the series.

So, I just finished this game a few days ago.

I've gotta admit, bro, you've really inspired me. Making songs off problems with the BIONICLE toyline and fanbase...that really got to me, you know? That whole thing with the "blasphemy" and how people are leaving it behind...that's what I'm talking about؟ So I decided to make my own little song to do just that. How I'll never give up BIONICLE, no matter what. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart؟ To the tune of "Whatcha Say" by Jason Derulo (listening to it while you're reading might help seal in the impact): ------------------------- Wha- wha- what did he say? Mmmmm, what he saaaaaaaid? Oh, that Star Trek came back? Well of course it did Mmm, what he saaaaaid? That we could bring it back too? Of course we can I was a fan, so I can Played with 'em everyday (re-day) Man, I was caught up in the sets Rebuilt them in every way (re-way) That story couldn't have been any bet-ter The toyline was just meant to last forev-ver So sign my pe-ti-tion Give it another chance You don't know whatcha doin' (do-in') 'Cause when the news came out and line was dead I just didn't know what to do C'mon now LEGO Group, please just bring it back I'll do aaaanything for yoooou! Mmmmm, what they saaaaaaaid? Oh, that sales were not good? Well of course they weren't Mmm, what they saaaaaid? That it was just for the best? Of course it was Mmmmm, what they saaaaaid? That they cancelled the toyline? Let's storm their place Mmmmm, what they saaaaaid? Wha- wha- what did they saaaaay? How could I live with myself? Without all my big plastic toys? (tic-toys) And ooh, when I get that one chance They'll wish they hadn't been so coy (so-coy) Oh, 'cause what I'll do is pretty clever I'll get all these sigs into a letter So sign my pe-ti-tion Give it another chance You don't know whatcha doin' (do-in') 'Cause LEGO ended it and replaced it with Some corny hero factory You betrayed all my trust, your busness is a bust You won't get aaaany sales from meeeee! Mmmmm, what he saaaaaaaid? Oh, that Star Trek came back? Well of course it did Mmm, what he saaaaaid? That we can bring it back too? Of course we can Mmmmm, what he saaaaaid? We should keep it alive? Well of course we should Mmmmm, what he saaaaaid? Wha- wha- what did he saaaaay? Oh, follow what he saaaaid (saaaid) If we say "no, they won't bring it back" Then they'll never bring it back Oh, follow what he saaaaid (saaaid) I really want those toys right now I don't care why, I don't care how Oh, follow what he saaaaid (saaaid) Keep the discussion alive Don't let it take a nosedive Oh, follow what he saaaid (saaaid) Don't care 'bout sales and business That toyline just was the best Someday you'll really see why you don't mess with me And you'll wish you weren't so bold! Cause' I just want play with those toys all day Even when I'm twenty-one years old! Mmmmm, what you saaaaaaay? Oh, that you're starting some club? Well of course you are Mmm, what you saaaaay? That your petition failed? Of course it did Mmmmm, what they saaaaaid? That you should just live with it? Of course you won't Mmmmm, what they saaaaaid Wha- wha- what did they saaaaay?

I must say, I read this and thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. It's not just the superb artwork and the dramatic storyline style, it's the one thing that no other comic in the contest ever really got down: atmosphere. This comic is just full of atmosphere, reminding me a bit of Frank Millar's Sin City and just had a heavy old-school noir feel to it. The heavy blacks and the moody lighting just reek of that atmosphere, and I loved and relished every single bit of it.Amazing job.

OOC:Oh wow. I can't believe that this slipped my mind. Its been so long that...wow.Sorry to leave whoever my partner was hanging. Anyone mind catching me up on what has happened since then?

Wait. We are talking about Orde, right? You know, the guy who's powerset involves moving things with his mind? Why is the notion that he could lift something heavy so out of place that it results in you theorizing that he has to have a Pakari to perform it?

Thanks for the kind words, Kodrak.Anyhow, guess I'll just link the original version of Chapter III here and then continue on.

Thanks for the feedback. I had a lot of high hopes for this project, but it didn't really come together for a while. I actually nearly did the usual "narrator" bit, but after viewing the others, I realized that there needed to be something more rooted in the characters. That being said, this is the one with the most revision/editing; the others will need some work before they're actually done. My hopes for this was that people could see that sprite comics were not always the slapstick happy cut and paste jobs of years past, but could also have a decent story to go along with it. Although it may not reach the intended audience, maybe more people will get into arms and follow up with more series like that. This forum does need more diversity, and with luck the contest will inspire people to start doing that more. The sci-fi setting was another approach that I felt wasn't' being used too much in the other entries, and one I wanted to convey throughout.With that being said, here is the original Chapter II. There's a lot of things with this Chapter that I'm not really happy with (the lighting at the end of it, for one), but I'll be editing/extending it more later on. One thing you'll notice as this goes on is that the story does slowly veer off the characters and into a story based narrative. It is something I noticed while touching them up, and will be remedied in the revisions.

Aw, man, I can't tell you how much I hate that message...

Alright, then. Here's to some actual decent debate, no? My main "problem" with this argument is that it seems to take on this one approach: that sprite comic makers seem to think themselves "better" than hand-drawn comic artists. This not only isn't true, its actually quite the opposite. I often see that this debate is started and argued not by proving their superiority, but on their equality. In fact, if you switched the words "sprite comics" and "draw one by hand" in most of the arguments you gave below, you basically have all of the basic made against sprite comics, not for them. "It takes a lot more time to make a sprite comic than to draw one by hand!" In fact, I actually totally agree with you on this point. The time spent making a comic does not automatically guarentee an actual good piece of work. The problem is, it is never a sprite comic maker that pulls up this argument. In fact, they usually bring up this one to counter it. There is this sort of assumption made here that the more time something takes, the better it is, and that simply isn't true. But this is a common defense taken up by many hand drawn artists, in which it is assumed that since they took more time (or at least, they think they took more time; how long it actually takes varies on what they're comparing it to) they have put in much more effort and their final product is much better. "How can you know, or compare? You don't even make sprite comics!" No, you don't need to walk the moon to know what it looks like. But you do if you're going to say that nothing's special about walking on the moon to astronauts, they'll likely put this argument up to you. There are some things that people often overlook when thinking about making a sprite comic that actually take a lot more time than people think. For instance, in my own (former) contest entry, it seems pretty simple to do. Just take a picture, slap on a sprite, and you have that comic, right? But there is a lot of detail that went into it that made it longer to make. For instance, the lighting on the sprites had to be altered to match the light sources, the shadows had to line up with the directional light/distance, the sprites' colors had to be evenly saturated so as to not contrast too much with the backgrounds, the eyes all had to had some sort of outer glow, many of the backgrounds all had to be altered in terms of color balance to have a blue tint in order to fit in with the others or just to be leveled, several of them had to be turned from day scenes into night, several of them had to be blurred to give the illusion of perspective for a close-up shot, etc., etc. Alright, so its not the most strenuous activity in the world, but what I'm basically trying to say is that many people still have this old "MSPaint" era view of comic work, in which you just copy and paste the sprite onto a poorly made background and called it done. The work does pile up, and its not just a simple cut-and-paste job. Now, that's not to say that no one in the forum still does that, but in terms of argument and from the perspective of a more experienced comic maker, I have to say that this point of view that its just a simple thing to do kind of irks me to a point. I don't mind if people don't like the style or even the comic itself, but don't knock down or demean the amount of effort that went into it by saying I just Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. "It takes a lot more time to make a sprite comic than to draw one by hand!" This is another one of those arguments that are actually flipped around most if not all of the time. I've seen this argument used countless times by hand-drawn artists. Quite honestly, it goes back to the point that time doesn't mean that its a good work, and that some comics take more work than meets the eye. It depends on the comics you are comparing, really. Not only that, but just because something is simpler doesn't also mean that its worse off. For instance, Jim Lee's work probably takes more time to do than, say, Sean Galloway's work, but that doesn't mean that one is a lesser style than the other. "Its easier to make a hand-drawn comic than a sprite comic." "But Sumiki, the time and effort that it takes to make a sprite comic far outdoes the work put into hand-drawn comics!" These two really bother me because I've never heard these used against hand-drawn comics. Against sprite comics, yes, but never against hand-drawn comics. Simply put, sprite comic artists, as opposed to maybe a popular opinion, don't think that they're better than hand drawn artists. They don't. They think that they can contend with hand-drawn artists and that they actually do more work than everyone thinks, but at no point did this mentality that they're better than hand-drawn artists ever come into the general populace. In fact, that's again mostly my biggest problem with this post. These arguments are usually never used by sprite comics artists, but in fact against them. Its almost as if you took all of the arguments that are generally made against them, switched the words "hand drawn" and "sprite comics", and then based this post off that. In fact, this argument is only brought up when others say look down on them and that sprite comics are either have no effort at all put into them or not actually "true" comics and cannot come close to what hand-drawn comics can do. Which brings me back to this point: "But Sumiki, they're both comics! Why can't we compare?" I disagree on this point on the basis on what I believe comics are. Comics as I see them are, in the infamous words of Scott McCloud, "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer". I do not believe the styles of a comic to being factors as to whether they can be compared or not in the same way I think you can compare a 2D animated film to a 3D animated, or pop music in the '60s as compared to pop music in the '90s. This isn't a matter of apples and oranges, but instead of apple pie and apple cobbler. They both use the same base ingredient and end up looking up very similar to each other, but each one has both its own strengths and weaknesses. Honestly, the best analogy I can give to these as opposed to something on BZPower is a MOC. Think about it: all the pieces are already premade by another artist (in this case, the artists/designers at the LEGO Group), but MOCists take those pieces and make them into something that is their own work. This argument here is sort of like saying that if I modeled a Kanohi out of clay, because it is handmade out of scratch, it outclasses any MOC because the MOCs are "unoriginal". That's basically what I have to say. If you tl;dr'ed, well, can't say I really blame you, but yeah. As an artist, I guess I'm pretty quick to be on the defense about my work, so sorry if this is just too long-winded for anyone to pay attention to.

So, I was working on my comic for the entry, but I ran out of time to finish it. To that end, I've decided to release it here. I'll be doing it one part at a time while I finish up that last part I was supposed to be finished on, as well as add some extra scenes here and there that were originally cut for the sake of time and size. Think of this as the "extended edition", I guess, of what could have been. Banner, thumbnail, more organization and whatnot are forthcoming. --- Chapter I: Gifted Chapter II: Warning Chapter III: Deduction --- Enjoy, -Kahi

This is me hypocritically chiming in with Venom here after I said not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I've literally got one last scene to finish before its over with, but there's no time for me to do so. A little grace time, even as short as a few hours, would be great, but we've already had an extension, so yeah.Anyhow, good luck to the other entrants. I've been especially impressed with a lot of those others here, and I wish the best to all of you.

I don't think we should look the gift horse in the mouth more than once. That being said, here's hoping I get mine finished in time.

Wanted to insert this here: this actually does go on in mainstream comic book publishing quite a bit. There are some artists that specialize in subjects/poses and others that do backgrounds. Sometimes, the artist will do the panel layout and then pencil in the subjects and outline the backgrounds, and then another artist will go in and flesh out the backgrounds. In fact, oftentimes another artist will layout a page while another one handles the rest of the book, simply because of time constraints. Very, very rarely do you have a comic artist that writes, draws, letters and colors a normal-length comic book within the timeframe that a comic issue is supposed to come out. Also, very rarely do you see most of these people credited or held in high regard. This especially holds true for colorists and letterists. Most of the fame and glory goes to the writers and the main artists.Also, several comics, specifically several issues of Vertigo's The Sandman, also use the "model/cut and paste" method to further realize their own art style. That being said, we're not mainstream comic artists by any stretch of the imagination and we're on a time limit, so I understand that something had to be sacrificed for it to come into completion. I guess, from a personal point of view, I see "graphics/art style" and "story/pacing" as two sides of the same coin, in which its not necessarily how good one is compared to the other, but how each one instead amplifies and strengthens the other.Edit: Wanted to address this here: Well, that's the thing. This entire contest is based on judgement on skill. Some people here have very good handdrawn skill, others are good with Photoshop. If you're going to say "we shouldn't vote for someone because of their skill", then really, voting for anyone is really kind of pointless. Now, if you're only going to vote for people because they only have good graphics, then you should probably reconsider.

Always have to stay loyal to the home forum, y'know? Comics all the way for me. Couldn't have it anyway else.

Whoa, thanks for the MOC, man. Even though my colors aren't actually red and blue =P

You're right. I'd like to see those stuck up haters of Batman and Robin to try and make a better movie. How dare they try and compare King Schumacher to the likes of half-baked directors like Christopher Nolan. http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif Actually, I think you've hit it right on the nose. Greg bases his style off the older superhero comic books, and it shows quite profusely.For me, originally I was a big fan of the whole "shift to sci-fi" thing, but later on it just seemed too generic. The earliest years had a "feel" to it that every other year since then tried to emulate. It was based on a clash of genres, the "steampunk robots on a tribal island", and the SchizoTech/AnachronismStew really worked for it.Also there was the fact that when Greg started writing it, I always thought that he stopped looking at it as a world. True, the storyline should be on the main characters, but 2001-2003 did a good job by not just establishing the characters, but also establishing the world where they lived. Its why Mata Nui is probably the most popular island that BIONICLE was ever set in: none of the other islands were ever expounded on enough for them to make them worthwhile.Speaking of unpopular opinions, that's one of the main reasons why I also actually like MNOG II. Sure, it was nowhere near a perfect game, but for what it set out to do, I felt that it had some merits. It got glitched up later on, but that wasn't really the fault of the game itself as it was the release method. I loved how they focused on the island and the Matoran, how you got to see them function as a society. I loved how the game evolved from just being a flash based visual novel into basically a RPG. You didn't do much with what skills you had except for those poorly handled Kolhii matches, but I appreciate the effort and the atmosphere in terms of basically being an online game for kids. I value something like that more than I value moving into a "third person 3D shooter" like Hero Factory: Breakout tried to do.I did liked a few of the alternate dimensions, though. I'm actually not too far set against them as other people were, as I find it interesting how different they are from one another. And I also ironically enjoyed 2006 as well, even though the entire year was advertised with rock bands, chain fences, and other "modern" things.

Yeah, that border could be a little thinner. I made it that way mostly to match the thickness of the border at the websites' top as a whole. Don't know if it'd work better thinner or not; I'll have to try that out sometime.But the backdrop is actually transparent, so adding a "lighter blue" would just make it look out of place and ugly, unless you want to change the forum skin as a whole, but that would rid the whole blue-contrast thing this skin has going on and instead make the entire site a pale blue which isn't the best way to go.And the silver thing, as InnerRayg put it, isn't there on the skin and would probably clash more than mesh.(then again yellow really isn't on the skin either but it matches the gears and its small enough and does make it pop out more without clashing so w/e)

Really glad to see that we have a much better method of hosting our podcasts now. This way is a lot easier for both the viewers and us. Rebrick is quite honestly an ingenious service.

I'm liking the banner being back; Tohu's reintegration into the logo was a good idea.But something's bugging me a little about the position of it...it seems a little off to me. I dunno, maybe an darker blue shaded outline around the logo or something would help?Something like this, maybe. Its an extremely slight edit, but still. (edges around the outline are a little blurry because I don't have that layer/font).