I'm not knocking anybody's comics, i was just wondering where all this comes from with you crazy kids and your cutie pie demons.
In a lot of DD stories There's always a stereotypical bar filled with demon types causing trouble, or just sitting around being cute, it like people have totally got the wrong end of the stick about what demons actually are. Well they maybe get into a fight or shout abuse or something; the main character is always some sexy or cute demon.
This seems a little silly because (A) demons having basically are just waiting to be thrown into the pit so they're are totally frustrated and angry, possibly even twisting babies heads and stuff, and ( there trying their best to turn people against god so that their side wins and they don't go into the abyss at Armageddon. Which is a battle they couldn't possibly win but are going to try to.
If this is the case what they actually do is seriously mess with people and the world in general right? Well that sort of thing, plus scaring the willies out of people. Not acting like a load of thugs on a night out in Birmingham having brawl or prancing around all cute and sexy like, Which I may be wrong but seems the case in most DD Comics.

Don't get me wrong i am in no way setting out to critic these comics. Just wondering where the hell they come from. Maybe it's just that the realistic way of looking at them is either funny or easy to write and that's the only reason it's like this.

Most ppl are no longer into literal interpretations of everything about religion, so they take old archetypes and twist them to their liking to make a comic they think is fresh. Such as taking traditionally horror/fable characters and making them college comedy.

The "realistic" way?

For there to be a realistic way, you kind of have to believe they're real to begin with. I would think most people depicting demons as cute and/or sexy probably regard them as totally fictitious beings and, as such, legitimate subjects for reinterpretation.

As for where the inspiration comes from, there are many mainstream examples of cute/funny/friendly/sexy supernatural entities - Casper, Ghostbusters' Slimer, Buffy's Anya and Oz, Angel's Loren, the Munsters and the Addams family, even Vampirella.

yeah theres loads of fluffy examples of them, which interestingly if you were to take the actual interpretation of the bible not the also fluffy view of christianity in general that makes a whole loada sensefrom that amgle.


not to bible bash or anything its just interesting.

you seen the usual suspect

the devil greatest trick was to make the world believe he dodsent exsist.
To male them think his a cute harmless babe evan better.

I believe absolutely everything that I've written in HVH. It's like my own little religion. 0_o

Anyway, jokes aside, I try to keep my demons as diverse as possible. Succubus is the woman warrior who despises males, Umbra is the immature Disney-obsessed moron, Em is basically a high-school girl in a demon's body, Lucifer is the stressed out leader, Astaroth is the carefree drug-lord, and Beelzebub is the only demon in my comic who I would really consider "evil". Jim (my current avatar) used to be aligned with Hell, but he quit the demonic lifestyle because it was all a lie and he was under appreciated.

So, as you can see, I have a very diverse group of characters-- and that isn't counting the angels, humans, and rejects.

dosnt look to fresh at the moment theres hundreds of them on DD. put demon into the search you get 131 comics straightaway,

Yeah...I'm not a huge fan of this whole "Culture of cute" we're being bombarded with the last few years. The fact that it's infected demons and similar ilk makes it even worse.

Demons aren't supposed to be cute, people! Anime is full of LIES!

Heresy!

You'll be going straight to Anime Hell, Mr Riot, where you'll have no one for company but demons and monsters and vile spirits. All of which will be terribly cute and fluffy, obviously.

incubus is suposed to be a demon who rape girls in there sleep, but no its a cheesy pop group says it all really.

I'm not afraid of stupid Anime Hell! While they're doing their 45 minute transformation sequences, I'll just walk out! Then they'll be too busy whining in really high-pitched voices while frantically waving their arms in chibi-mode to come after me.

"Anime Hell"...more like "Six Flags Over Wussland".

well most manga comics are like...



I did not make that. Hawk did. Full credit to him...

Conversely, anime is where you see the most Old Testamental of current demons/devils interpretations. Jpnese ppl aren't limited.

At first I figured it had a lot to do with people reading the Gaiman/Pratchett book Good Omens. Or maybe Snake Agent. Or Practical Demonkeeping.

Then I thought maybe it was just something to do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

But finally I just chalk it up to DMX. It's Dark and Hell is Hot.

The devils in my story (MAG-ISA) behave the way I learned about them in Religion class. Always plotting to send as much souls into hell and doing all sorts of conspiracies involving humans.

The drawings I have which I try to mix up various animals or mutant forms for demons... and the stereotypical cute and sexy people for angels... is just there to give it artistic value. Otherwise I might as well be drawing abstract forms or just putting that damn lens flare everytime there's a scene with an angel or devil.

Because in the religious sense, demons and angels and GOD are so superior to people that they CANNOT be drawn.

Because if you draw something, that means you are greater than the object you draw in one way... since you are able to use your sense of sight to get the figure of the object... then transcribe it into a piece of paper or a computer screen.

I guess people just like drawing cutesy demons? I dunno, I don't really see the attraction personally...but then, I don't get why so many of my fellow manga fans seem to like cats so much.
I combined my hatred of cats and my belief that devilish beings should look freaky to make this monstrosity:
http://www.drunkduck.com/FanDanGo/index.php?p=162104

Now THAT was fun to design. There's a difference in my comic between devils and demons. Devils tend to look more impressive, freaky and twisted, like that cat-devil, since they're fallen, corrupted, tortured angels, while the demons are corrupted or malign or angry nature spirits, so tend to be less distinct, like the ones in the comic at the moment, they're just kind of humanoid big blobs of goo with these ring-shaped eyes (which I only just noticed kind of look like googly eyes, don't they?)
Still, I guess cute tends to be more popular than ugly...

I think the reason why most comics in this genre (devils-angels-heaven-hell... religious themed... whatever you wanna call it ) like the "cute" is because:

1) Aesthetic value
- Already mentioned. Cute guys/girls or animals drive up readership.


2) An attempt to be original
- Some of these authors are not necessarily religious... and are even atheist. They just read their share of the bible and religious texts but they don't really buy the idea that Jesus is God or something.

Instead of making demons horrifying they try to draw them as attractive guys or gals. Sometimes drawing them that way can add to the humor factor.


3) Lack of knowledge
- Sure... you're a manga fan and you just read some comic with oh-so-kawaii demon guys or gals... then you decide to make your own. Of course... your ideas will be based on the stuff you already read.

That's how comics are made in the first place. There has to be SOMETHING to inspire it.

Especially now when teaching christianity in schools is frowned upon because of so-called political correctness. How can you expect the average 15-20 year old to KNOW about religion? Religion consisted of at least 30% of my school time in highschool and elementary and about 10% of college time (in the Philippines where 90% of the country is Catholic or any Christian variant.)


Just my 2-cents. :D

I wouldn't know about that. I've gone to Private School all my life.

My demons are little pitch black, translucent things that lurk around Orlock's castle. (Though there are actually other bigger, much uglier demons that haven't made an appearance yet.) People have described them as cute due to their bug-eyes at times...but that was unintentional. XP
http://sarahn.deviantart.com/art/Demon-Room-22871575 (Gore in this page.)
http://sarahn.deviantart.com/art/Woke-Up-In-Hell-15072798

They pick up...um...."scraps".

but isn't there other interpretations of demons in other cultures and religions? It sounds from this description to be more of a western christian paradigm which defines demons in this light.

As to any use of demons as characters in their stories, it would appear many use them because they relate to what they represent. Wicked. Forsaken. Sensual. Liars. Sounds like ex-girlfriends to me! HA!!

But seriously though there is a underlying pull to juxtapose demon with forsaken man. Most of us...and I know this is a generalization...don't identify with the angelic and the divine. So we relate to the other end of the so-called spiritual spectrum (if we are talking in a duality framework) and its devilish appeal. If anything I find that to be more interesting, not how these said demons are portrayed, but rather why do we innately lean towards this side over the other.

To address the topic though more squarely, lets just say for the sake of discussion a cow was the embodiment of evil and not demons. And the evil one...we'll call him "Bill"...used said evil cows as his minion to do his bidding. And then lets say a cartoonist used cows in his comic in various ways; cute, sexy, likable, hanging out at night club, action hero, police detective...etc. Would the representation of cows in said comic, knowing the truth... if you will... about how evil they truely were in reality, be irritating to you or others? Now I know my example is quite rediculous and is not meant to mock. But to show we do that all the time with other shtuff...like when God is humanized or portrayed as a hippie or senile. Why is it any different when it comes to demons? Humans are good at ruining things.

We need to make a new word for that. seriously. north americans use it too much...

Topics like this come up not when things are done but when they are overdone. The only thing worse than a typical stereotype is when a contrasting/unexpected combination becomes done so much that it becomes cliche.

If one or two comics produced demons that were over-cute, it would be interesting, original, and unexpected. Frankly, something that is super cute already frightens me, so something cute and feasting on living, screaming human flesh -- that works. (Or even when you expect to see a terrifying monster and it turns out to be a harmless cutie...) But once a theme is done to death, it loses impact, and if you wanted to surprise readers with it, you can't.

I think this is a bigger danger for the "new" cliches than the old ones (like a supervillain who wants to destroy the world for no apparent reason) because using an old cliche is a tribute to the classics, but using a new one is succumbing to a fad.

A theme gets done to death in the first place... if it gets accepted by the general webcomic community as something "cool".

So true. It is inevitable. If you come up with a great new/original idea, it leads to imitators, which leads to it becoming cliche -- which makes you the source of the evil new annoyance and therefore open to scorn and loathing. You just can't win.

So moral of the story:

Don't try so hard to be original.

Webcomics are an art form and its bound to imitators. Just like music. (offtopic: that 'crank dat' is gonna spinoff a whole new bunch of rappers who just repeat stuff the whole song and do a few dance steps that was pulled out of their asses. And all that rock music be it emo, punk, goth, hardcore, or whatever... originally came from the beatles.)

But in webcomics, even if your popularity doesnt become at the overrated level, there will be imitators or partial imitators.

The internet calls them weeaboo's or oataku's and they're the scourge of the earth.

Now... what was this topic about? I got completely lost in the religious banter and cliche/original mess.

That's what it is about...

cute = cliche
demons = religious

Okay, how about a German word for cute?

.....HUBSCH!!

What about the TAGALOG word for cute?

'ANGKYUT'

Ironically if you change it to ANGHIT it will mean 'stink'

Well, since when did cute become a cliche? Generally, I associate cute with anything that has a young, innocent appearance and not the big eyes, big mouth found in chibi anime or the glistening eyes finger-over-mouth of western art. You can't really pin-point cute to a specific genre because it's more of a style of art than it is something people use for the sake of using it. If I want cute puppy dogs in my comic, that doesn't mean I'm deliberately ripping someone off... although I'm still lost in most of these posts so I'm sure someone has already addressed this.

And demons aren't specific to any one religion. By definition, it's a word used for someone who's vigorous or mischievous and when used in a spiritual form they're (generally) evil or mischievous creatures. Almost every religion or faith has demons of some form. What you create is your own work; if you want cute demons, then there should be no rule or law denying you that right and it doesn't make you wrong for doing so. When you create fiction, it's your world. Just because your version of Baphomet is a slug with wings doesn't mean it's wrong because it's not based on THE Baphomet.

Maybe I picked out the wrong words...

Topic title:
"all this" = cliche

It is "cute devils" that are being called cliche, not "cute" in general. (Though cutsifying all kinds of things can be seen as a fad too.)