winstein-nin

[winstein-nin]

Evenly Matched

I don't know if anyone asks for it, but I wish more Mario games allow you to pick the same character. Only Mario Kart embraces this fully, while other series have restrictions (such as Mario Tennis Aces only allowing this in 1 vs 1).

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

[winstein-nin]

Genie - Fascination

This is an attempt to go full on watercolour brushes, where I used two of them from Krita. I do not remember if they were built-in or were imported, but I decided to play around with it to see if I can draw something satisfactory out of it.

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

A Villain's Dejection

For reference, the title is the opposite of "A Hero's Welcome". This comic was made for a Paper Mario themed event last year.

Bowser has received a lot of humiliation in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, didn't he? Not only is he often one step behind, but he's not even the final boss! Usually in Mario RPGs, Bowser is either in at least one phase of the final boss, or he's fighting against the final boss (and in one game's case, it's both). In fact, there are pretty much only two Mario RPGs where he is neither; this is one such game. In fact, I imagined Bowser as being humiliated at the thought of not even getting to fight the final boss or be one.

The most interesting challenge with this piece is to imitate the line art of the Paper Mario games, especially this game where there's no white outline. I think the linework turned out fine, all things considered, given the limitations I am working from here.

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

I am a bit nervous about writing this because I am not completely confident on the writing for these games to imitate when writing the comic. I hope this works out fine.

[winstein-nin]

Happy Mother's Day - From the Mario Bros.

When it comes to Mario, it's typically Rosalina that gets the Mother's Day treatment. I think more mothers should be celebrated, because there are more of them other than Rosalina.

I should point out that the dish Mario prepared is pizza lasagna, which is as its name implies, a pizza and lasagna hybrid, fitting for an Italian family (and because I like the idea that Mario loves Italian food instead of mushrooms).

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Answer to the Name of Pat- I mean, Partrick

Seeing someone mispronouncing the Brick Block's name as Patrick (his actual name is Partrick) inspired me to make a reference to the joke where Patrick Star received calls at the Krusty Krab and insisting that his name is Patrick, basically being oblivious about the job.

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Losing A Bone Head

Dry Bones might be known for misplacing their heads when an injury is inflicted upon them, but can they keep their heads?

Silent (speechless) comics are something that I really like, so to do one now is something I love to take the opportunity to do. It's not wordless however, due to some text on the comic.

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

Sometimes I wonder if Dry Bones recalling their heads have no limit, and if it does... would the repercussions be serious.

[winstein-nin]

Fashionably Late

This comic is partially inspired by The Plumber's Closet, basically a fan art depicting Mario with a closet full of suits related to his powerups like the Frog Suit, or clothes he might wear like his doctor's outfit. Unfortunately, time constraints meant that his wardrobe weren't drawn and coloured in more detail to facilitate the joke.

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

[winstein-nin]

Dichotomy of the Elements

Coming up with the actual elements are easy and difficult. Some, they were easy like Fire, Ice, and Bubble because they were obvious, but I had to crack my head for the next two, Electric especially. Spring was one of the ideas I had, but I didn't use it because of time constraints, and I noticed that Mario probably didn't enjoy being bound by a coil.

I did not intend to have Mario and Wario have indirect interactions, yet the cartoon very clearly makes it easy to assume that the interacted. So, like Mario looked like he's blowing bubbles and then Wario's caught in one of the bubbles. If I were to make them interact, things would've looked different, like maybe Wario facing the other way when he's burned, and Mario's perspective wouldn't be viewed as an above shot. I guess the outcome is a happy accident, since it makes the cartoon better that way. 

Thank you for reading.

Bonus panel:

Originally, the sequence was reversed. As in, it was originally Wario asking Mario if he could allow him to be in his games before fainting. This is one instance where I found that the other way around fits the sequence better, but there is a remnant where you might be able to see the original flow, which is basically Mario's posing. Were I to originally plan this sequence from the start, Mario would've faced Wario.

[winstein-nin]

Big Red Secret Exposed

The original idea for the comic was for the Mario characters to take place in a photoshoot, but I decided that the bonus panel's idea should be the primary idea mainly because when I first made this comic, Mario Day was already over, so what better way to make a comic about the after math about it?

Although you can see the alt. text on what Bowser and Bowser Jr. are arguing, I will put it here just in case, bracketed text is obscured text:

Bowser Jr.: You never (let me) do anything (fun outside!) Bowser: Do you know (how) angry (I get when nobody involves me in anything fun without my permission?)

And finally, Happy Mario Day!

Thank you for reading.

Bonus Panel:

[winstein-nin]

Zatannario

A pun I just thought of, since I feel that Mario's name is very pun-friendly.

Mario (or rather, Zatannario) might be saying gibberish, but he might actually be secretly chanting some magic words!

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Flowers Don't Tell, They Show

Coming from great praise for the previous comic about the tall tower of Goombas, I decided to utilise the energy for another comic strip because that was what was liked about the previous cartoon. Indeed, it's structured like a Sunday comic strip which is more ambitious.

The general theme for this cartoon is flowers, inspired by how February is Valentine's Day, so that's why it's kinda "flowery", even including a Mario species associated with flowers, Wiggler. The title of this strip is a result of finding idioms related to flowers, and I decided on this one in the end because it is somewhat related to the subject about Wiggler's seemingly hidden presence. 

Thank you for reading.

Bonus panel:

I do not know how many of you know about this, but Nintendo of America once made a blunder on Twitter where they spelled "Wiggler" wrong, in a post about Waluigi riding Wiggler. Given how the word "wigger" doesn't seem like something appropriate for Mario, naturally it was deleted but this is the type of blunder that gets remembered and brought up at times, so we might never hear the end of it.

[winstein-nin]

Malorax & Wahnce-ler

Had this idea not long ago, because one thing I would love to see more often are character interactions between Mario and Waluigi. It's not very popular one, I'm sure, but since I like both of these characters, seeing them interact would be a treat.

Lorax is probably one angle where I have an excuse to not only make them interact but attempt a new art style. Initially, I didn't think of using a new art style, but I decided to do it the further I drew the image.

Besides, with how tall & lanky Once-ler is and short & pudgy Mario is, they certainly fit Waluigi and Mario quite well, don't they?

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Mario Characters as Batman Villains 55 - Camelot Tennis Players & Golfers + Court of Owls

The following characters are represented as Talons, from left to right:

Kate (Mario Tennis GBC)

Ella (Mario Golf Advance Tour)

Plum (Mario Golf N64)

Clay (Mario Tennis Power Tour)

Joe (Mario Golf GBC)

Certain visible characters are represented as the ones wearing the owl masks in the background. They are, in no particular order: Shawn, Willy, Lime, Bud, Headmaster (Tennis), Kevin, Micki, Sean, Dweezil, Sammi (mostly obscured), Bean, Tiny, Elf, Rozary, and Kyoko

The owl masks are based on the Hootz from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which was a result of conducting a poll to see which owl from the Mario series should get represented (or use the original Court of Owls masks). The votes are in slight favour of Hootz, but Hoot from Super Mario 64 got some votes which I think could work due to its sad face.

This one. It took a long time to finish mainly because of the need to not only draw the Court of Owls represented by the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf original characters, but also the different Talons to represent the diversity of the assassins.

Essentially, the player characters were given the role of Talons, but with the golf and tennis twist where their weapons of choice are from golf and tennis, since they came from those games. Since these characters can level up (except Plum), they can be quite deadly after they are well-trained!

I think this is probably not perfect, especially the background where the shading isn't consistent (especially the left side). But I hope that it does the job in showing off this villain team.

After ten individual drawings starting from Boom Boom + Blockbuster, that's it for this batch! It will be a while before the next batch appears, in which it would include the Koopalings as one of them.

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Mario Characters as Batman Villains 54 - Edison + Ratcatcher

I didn't think that this would be my most ambitious art yet, but I wouldn't rule out that this would be the last.

The choice of character for Ratcatcher was originally Mouser but after I abandoned the idea of using Super Mario Bros. 2 bosses, I still would've liked to use Ratcatcher. Edison is the first one that comes to mind, because he seems like someone who spends a lot of time underground.

But I had second thoughts, which is why I checked if there are other characters who has the same characteristics as Edison. Basically, narrowing down the choices led to Edison again, just as I wanted. Given how I want to include a Super Mario Bros. Super Show creation Ratagator, I felt that there is no issue here. Besides, I kind of like Edison and Ratagator so I didn't regret doing something for them.

But wait! Didn't Ratcatcher only deal with rats? Well, I thought so too, but when I checked with some people, there's enough interest to see mice in the group, so I felt that there shouldn't be a problem including them.

The list of rats and mice included here, excluding actual rats, are:

Ratagator

Mouser

Pipsy

Little Mouser & Little Skull Mouser

Scaredy Rat

Skipsqueak & Spiny Skipsqueak

Neek

Sneek

Cheesy Chester

Rappy (Donkey Kong)

Sewer rat from Super Mario Land 2

Rat Funk / Alley Rat (Super Mario RPG)

Ratooey (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door)

Karikari & Kamikami (Donkey Kong Jungle Beat)

The mice from Wario: Master of Disguise

The mice from Luigi's Mansion 3

Ratso

Even if this should've been the last one to end a high note on for this batch, there's one more to complete for this batch, but I am yet to finish it as I need more time to complete that, so please be patient.

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Mario Characters as Batman Villains 53 - Elite Trio + Terrible Trio

The pairings are as follows:

Corporal Paraplonk + Vulture (Klepto)

Private Goomp + Fox (Cat Goomba)

Sergeant Guy + Shark (Sushi)

The Super Scope is used for the vulture (Corporal Paraplonk), the Prey of Kitsune is used for the fox (Private Goomp), and a makeshift Bullet Bill Blaster turned bazooka is used for the shark (Sergeant Guy).

Researching character trios in the Mario series is not easy, because the number of trios are not very plentiful within the Mario series, compared to duos which are more plentiful. Ultimately, I was convinced to use the Elite Trio, even though one of my restrictions is not to use generic species (especially enemies) unless they are identifiable as a character, as is the case for Toad, Yoshi, Birdo, and recently Boom Boom. Just because I relented and used generic enemies for this batch, doesn't mean the floodgates are open for more generic enemies to be cast.

Another thing is the choice of animals. The Terrible Trio consists of Fox, Vulture, and Shark. The problem is, there are two viable characters to use as the base for Vulture and Shark thanks to Klepto and Sushi respectively, but none for Fox. There are no fox characters similar to Klepto and Sushi, as the existing fox characters are either generic enemies or clothed characters (or characters dressed as foxes), so there is unfortunately going to be an inconsistency here. Therefore, Private Goomp is going to be based on the Cat Goomba, but fox. You know, if there were a fox character like Klepto/Sushi, I could use them as the basis of Terrible Trio instead.

On a positive note, I think I am getting the hang of using the 0.5 pen to create a striking outline to allow the characters to stand out, which was retroactively done for Hisstocrat.

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Mario Characters as Batman Villains 52 - Hisstocrat + Kobra Cult

For the Year of the Snake, I wanted to do a snake-themed villain to coincide with the event. While I have already completed this image above earlier, I didn't have time to submit it here on time, so the submission is late. Hope you don't mind!

One of the biggest difficulties I have had with doing this artwork is the amount of thought that goes into how to design the snakes. That is not to mention how with 16 of them in the picture, the each were given attention. Even if the other snakes were generic, the fact that they have an intricate design added up the amount of time to complete it.

Group art is something that's always time-consuming compared to doing a single character, but it felt like the effort is worth it when I see how much it is enjoyed.

Thank you for reading.

[winstein-nin]

Mario Characters as Batman Villains 51 - Tiny Kong + Baby Doll

When I planned the initial run of character, I didn't think much of Baby Doll because with her design in the animated series, I presume that she remains exclusively in the animated series due to looking like a Tiny Toons character. Thus I was surprised to learn that her appearances carried over to the comics.

As to the idea of who she should be, Toadette was thrown in but because of the aforementioned assumption, I dismissed it. Ashley was also considered, but Tiny Kong was suggested, and I can't help but fee that she is a much better candidate for Baby Doll, here showing her two versions where she's, well, tiny, and where she's definitely not tiny.

It's not immediately obvious, but the doll is supposed to be Mad Jack, which is originally a jack-in-a-box boss with one eye replaced with a red mechanical right eye. The idea is carried over here where, like Baby Doll's doll, the doll has the same eye missing. Another thing is Mad Jack has normal feet here except they are springy legs.

Thank you for reading.