#mpask

[monsterpopcomic]

Hey Maya! Thanks so much for posting the script for the end, I was really curious where the story was going and I love how you resolved the two Frannys! I was just curious for the epilogue if you had planned all of the ships from the start or if they developed along the way?

SPOILERS BELOW! if you haven’t read the end of MP! script, read that first!

originally i only had chapter 1 written, but partway thru that i got the ideas for marina and percy and those romances! at first marina and george were going to end up together, but the further i got into the comic the more it just felt... wrong. i started thinking about george, franny, and percy ending up together around 2015. i always knew i wanted franny and percy to be romantically involved, but the other romances evolved more organically.

the whole ben and sasha romance really evolved organically from a couple things: primarily, it was important for ben and sasha to meet/become friends because it did a lot for the story. first, it was a way to bring ben back into the story while instantly showing character growth on his end (because sasha is so undeniably a monster). second, it gave me a chance to show more of george and sasha’s friendship. and third, having them be friends made ben’s place in the narrative/friend group more solid/lasting, which meant george couldn’t avoid him, which then meant that george would, in a way, be forced to figure her shit out and reach some form of emotional catharsis, which was really important as part of her growth both in general and also for her friendship with marina. 

from there, i just really liked the way ben and sasha treated each other and how supportive they were of each other and, you know, who doesn’t love a nerd/jock pairing? they just seemed like they made each other’s lives much better and i’m a huge sucker for that.

by 2015/2016 i couldn’t escape that i just felt that marina’s and george’s relationship should be a friendship. for a while i was like “well, george doesn’t NEED romance to have a happy ending” and i was OK with that, but rereading what i��d written before chapter 6, i couldn’t shake how well the three of them fit together. franny was george’s first crush, george was franny’s first kiss, george gets really jealous when percy enters the picture and part of the reason that marina liking franny was so upsetting wasn’t just because george liked marina -- but because marina liked franny, rather than someone else. 

as someone who had a very liberal family and gay friends going up but still didn’t realize i was queer until i was 20 or 21, i thought more about franny and how she was raised and how she probably also wouldn’t have realized she wasn’t straight, regardless of george being openly pan right next to her. really one of my biggest regrets about not being able to put in a 7th chapter is that i don’t get to write/draw franny’s queer panic.

i also just always kind of liked the idea of george and percy together because it seemed like a really interesting dynamic where they would challenge each other a lot and both be better for it. so all those thoughts and feelings on my end coalesced into all three of them falling in love and i’m really happy and relieved that so many people have received that idea so positively.

[almostmaya]

Hey, I have a question about lwl and stuff. I'm pansexual and personally I don't have a problem with the q word and often use it to describe myself and those I know are ok wth it. So, naturally when I see a relationship like Franny and Percy, I think of them as a q couple. But since a lot of people find that word offensive, do you know what to call them? Percy identifies as male, I know, but somehow it feels flat to call them a straight couple. What do?

i’m not trans so i can’t say on that front but i do identify as queer. they are in a heterosexual relationship but that doesn’t necessarily mean either of them is heterosexual or -- in percy’s case -- cis. their relationship doesn’t define their identities and classifying a relationship with a trans person differently because the person is trans feels weird to me, but i am not trans so my opinion doesn’t matter.

[klaaajd]

- Gruja Xheloze kur pun sekondash si kthe sms !

- 22:30 : Ku je ? 🤔

- 22:30 : Ca dreqin po bën që skthe sms 🤯😡

-22:30 : Okay, Shko shkruaj me ato Ku*va tn, se e shof sa mpaske dasht 😭

- ✍️ Klajd. 👑

[xcruelshawty]

@sativaeyes mpaske marr borxh bluzen me ngjyren e jetes skgj klm tdsh zmr <33

[adelaidefcblog]

Favorite tweets

Eddie Betts Sublime... #AFLCrowsDons

— Marty Pask (@mpask) April 15, 2017

from http://twitter.com/mpask via IFTTT

[20prill]

mpaske pershku mu gido

Gurl: what dat mouf do?

Me: 4 foreign languages, pergjigje nseminare and i bite cakes 🍑🍰

[regliprenci]

ku ishe dje nga ora 8-9 se me duket te kam par ahahah 😝

Kam qen ne dtl te la rosa, ku mpaske pa ti

[queenmothermp]

❛ ever since i was a kid, i wanted to protect people that can't protect themselves.❜

A tender smile traced her lips upon hearing that. "How noble," she replied with a nod of approval. "Are you a police officer then?" she asked curiously, her tone warm and inviting. "A bodyguard perhaps?"

[mayakern]

wait are franny george and percy all DATING????? maya ur mind

yes they actually get married in the epilogue!

[monsterpopcomic]

Hi, I loved seeing Monsterpop art pop up on my dash but I’m sorry to admit I haven’t followed it as closely as I would have liked because of some visual processing issues that sometimes make it hard for me to follow webcomics. Any chance of Monsterpop coming out in a hard copy format? Or is there a digital version that I can click through chapters? Is that something available on your patreon? Or do you have a website that doesn’t have the Tumblr scrolling to the beginning format?

volumes one and two are in my store! i don’t think i’ll be printing the last volume since i didn’t draw the end of chapter 6 or the epilogue and tbh i don’t have room for more books in my house.

otherwise, you can read the entirety of monsterpop here or on tapas. 

i don’t know how you would be able to read the comic on tumblr? since i usually never posted full pages or full updates here lol... so that’s probably part of what’s not working for you haha

[vitasmp]

Tag placeholder!

[mayakern]

Do you ever miss Monster Pop?

if you’d asked me a couple years ago, i definitely would have said no.

and now idk if i quite miss it bc mp is still so heavily tied to my burnout as a comic artist/human, but i do have a lot of nostalgia for the characters, especially for george and franny, and for a few of the jokes.

monsterpop is very of its era, both in time (2012-2019) and in my life (ages 20-27) and it really has its roots in my early 20s, so for me looking back at it now it’s quite clumsy and juvenile, especially since it was something i started on a whim, initially with no plans past the first chapter, and that really shows. but it also has a lot of heart and tbh i still think a lot of the jokes are pretty funny, but no one’s ever accused me of having a good sense of humor. 😘

[mayakern]

Hello, I was revisiting Your Monster Pop comic, and just recently read your doc with the ending, which I adored. Sasha was always my favorite. If you don't mind, I just wondered if their pronouns changed by the end of the series? I apologize if I missed it, if the answer is already out there!

it’s been a few years but iirc sasha started using he/they pronouns some time between chapters 3 and 4, after the halloween party makeover but before thanksgiving.

i think post-series, sasha would eventually use he/they/she and would be very fluid in how they presented themselves.

[mayakern]

now i’m curious what were ur fav MP goofs !!! :0

ok i have a 10 image limit and some of these are multi-image jokes so i’ll try to distill these as best i can. also these jokes are all from i think chapter 4 and later, where i really flourished my sense of humor more

1. marina’s high school crush/bff sharkwanda being a highly contentious contestant on a spoof of top model

this is specifically a spoof of the early seasons, which usually had an assessment within the first 2 or 3 episodes, including a weigh in. as much as i loved trashy tv, i always hated these moments so i thought it would be funny to have a literal shark and to have her be weighed against mostly average-sized humanoids because it would be ridiculous for anyone to expect a healthy shark to weigh the same amount as a human.

there were a couple other layers to this: george idolizing her as a strong, independent woman. george’s brother freaking out because sharkwanda just ate a man on camera and no one’s overly bothered by this. george chastising him for not realizing it was obviously fake/over dramatized for the ratings (and not examining that then this moment of “self empowerment” would also be fake). and then also i named her after a fish named wanda. except she’s a shark named wanda. she’s also the most beautiful and popular girl in the world and she wins her season and becomes a very successful model.

2. the tinsley family thanksgiving outfits. actually their themed outfits in general. i think shit like this is super cute and funny. i also just enjoy writing siblings who rib each other lovingly.

also the part of this where george’s mom has three eyes (she’s psychic) and her dad has no eyes, so her brother has two eyes and for all intents and purposes looks human, but he is a full blooded monster. early on i had some ideas for an off shoot chapter about eli and his struggles with his identity (being a monster but not looking like one and not feeling at home in either community), but it got scrapped for time and also because it felt like too close a parallel to mixed race people who pass as white and that’s not my story to tell.

3. sharkwanda’s cover (up) girl ad campaign during the superb owl half time show. some of this stuff was a bit on the nose, but there’s a line about sharkwanda finally having makeup that doesn’t melt off her face like hot cheese that i still like

4. this multi-strip joke where franny’s dad pulls a turkey out of a hat. just read it there’s nothing to explain lol

5. basically every part of the magic shop scene, but especially the part where percy meets franny’s dad for the first time during a very tense situation and franny’s dad is wearing a skeleton (this is a reference to ranma 1/2). and then also percy sits and there’s a whoopee cushion. it’s incredibly awkward and not exactly haha funny, but it simultaneously cuts and adds to the tension in a way that is very monsterpop.

6. human!franny getting ben a dog toy as his secret santa gift (he doesn’t own a dog) and then dropping it and then it making a horrific, shrill squeak when it bounces

7. the whole situation with chadler, his horrible christmas outfit, the marshmallow gun, and him taking sexy santa ben as prisoner.

8. ben, killed by glitter, soon to be avenged by his crush comrade (or not)

9. george being gifted a framed painting of a photo of herself, asleep during class, which she later carries into an actual museum and gets in trouble for because a guard thinks she stole a piece of art

10. the brotebook

this has been very long but i hope u enjoyed it

[mayakern]

at first I was a George/Maria shipper but I understood that Maria is not a prize for George to "win", I still hope they're good friends in the end of the story though! and maybe in another universe they could've been more than friends but I'm also pretty happy with George/Franny/Percy cuz I'm a sucker for childhood friends too 😭😭

when i first introduced marina i didnt really have a concrete plan for whether or not she’d end up with george, just that she’d have a crush on franny and this would set off george’s jealousy (on both fronts) and her feelings of inferiority towards franny

but the longer i kept writing monsterpop the more they just didn’t really feel right for each other. george’s feelings felt pretty shallow so i think even if they had ended up dating, it wouldn’t have lasted terribly long.

marina does end up happy tho! she reconciles (as friends) with her childhood best friend/crush sharkwanda and has a fun and fulfilling career as an author. her and barbie eventually get together.

[mayakern]

does this mean percy and george also eventually fall in love too so its a big love puddle. ; w ;

yep!! chapter 6 is the beginnings of this—at first it’s just a mutual respect/friendship that forms after they stop being competitive about franny’s attention (this is MOSTLY on george’s side) and have to cooperate in order to help franny.

i had actually started planning one last chapter after this—one where george and percy start to catch feelings and percy and franny have to have a conversation about how they both have feelings for george, etc, and then eventually they all start dating. bc the whole thing between star franny and george? yeah that was more than just star franny being flirty in general—she had specific interest in george, and george rebuffing her is what made her extra angry. if it had been someone else she would have been like WHATEVER, YOUR LOSS, LOSER and left. but george? yeah, that hurt. this chapter would deal with franny having to reconcile all the different, conflicting feelings within her, especially the “bad” ones that she always tried to repress to be a good friend, a good daughter, a good sister, a good student, a good person. how she can be callous and possessive and overbearing and dismissive, and how that’s not always a bad thing. how she can live with that and grow.

this was also going to be a chapter that showed the beginnings of ben and sasha dating. the christmas party scene had already hinted at ben’s crush on sasha, and the hospital scene had given sasha closure on their feelings for george. ben was going to transfer to UU and become roommates with riley and ben and sasha would spend a lot of time together in that dorm room, to the point where they eventually move in together. there was going to be pining (on ben’s part), video games, streaming together on twitch or youtube, and some healing as they both dealt with their shitty dads and supported each other. it wasn’t meant to be something hugely eventful or climactic, just a slow coming together as ben came to terms with his feelings (while also probably being heckled/egged on by george) and sasha eventually having that “oh” moment while they’re hanging out. like, oh. this person really cares about me. likes me, even. and i think i feel the same way. that sort of thing!