Here we see two characters in Trondhgeim & Sfar's Dungeon comics, Ormelle and Okto. O is for them.
Ormelle is a dragon lady, the mate of Marvin's son Baal in the Twilight section of the timeline. She's also the lover of Marvin the Red. She has a strong, independent personality, and she seems to know what's what. She's also hell on wings, when it comes to fighting.
I regret to say that I know less about Okto, except that he is a former bearer of the Sword of Destiny, and that he introduces himself like this when summoned from the mists of time:
I also don't have much in the way of notes of false starts this time. This is probably the dullest blog post about a chicken-octopus ninja that you're going to read this week.
"Next week" (in a few minutes): a little bat and a duck-cat.
Amazingly, I guessed which one was Okto even before reading your description.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much Okto's mere existence in the comics was owing to Trondheim/Sfar's desire to perpetrate the phrase "chicken-octopus ninja"? (It's possibly funnier as a phrase than as an image.)
The drawing of Ormelle is really great, too--is that a typical pose of hers, or did you come up with than dance-like stance on an inspiration? The only thing that I find unusual in my viewing of it--because I can't say that there's anything amiss in the drawing per se--is that her wings didn't really register as wings at first. Something about the line of her back, or the way the hair cascades down completely obscuring the join of the wings to her shoulder blades, led me to read her at first just as a lithe lizard woman, not as a winged dragon lady.
But like I say, really nicely drawn. I especially like the calligraphic qualities of your brush line, there.
I can't say this with any certainty, but Okto sure seems to me to be a Trondheim (as opposed to Sfar) creation. And you're right that he seems to exist for reasons sort of similar to those behind ZZ Top Monocle Cactus.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ormelle's wings (and let's add her tail to this problem while we're at it): I'm sure I could have done a better job building them into her, but it's probably sort of a problem with the character's design: she has a full head of flowing hair that covers the spot where her wings should attach; her skirt covers the spot where her tail should attach; both of the "dragony" details seem like afterthoughts. But who's complaining? Even when her wings don't quite seem to attach right, she remains one of the most visually interesting (read: sexy) characters in Dungeon.
As for the pose: it's not swiped, but it's pretty typical of her aerobatics in her initial combat / flirtation with Marvin the Red.
And it's nice of you to compliment my ink line, but I think the curvy tentacular parts of this drawing (incl. Ormelle's tail) really demonstrate that I still need a few years of practice with the brush...
P.S. The character-design problem with Ormelle's skirt is only a problem in about half of her scenes, which is another way of saying that parents should examine these Dungeon books before handing them to their kids.
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