It's like the topic says.

Have you ever had a moment where you were looking though your old artwork or your old version of your comic, and go "WTF? What the heck was I thinking?"

I just had a moment like that, when I was looking though my old artwork to compare with my latest artwork for that thread "How much have your art evolved."

I noticed that when I was 13 years old, I had a tendency to dress my characters in bright, neon colors or in mis-matching colors. If I didn't do any of the following, then I'd basically dress them in kinky outfits. In other words, I basically loved to make my heroes the fashion victims, and dress my villains like they had a fetish for whips and chains.

It sounds funny,but looking at my artwork it seemed to make my old art seem even more horrendous. And looking back, all I can say is this: "Wtf was I thinking back then?!"

And my story back then as opposed to now was even more weird.

Old story:
Meet Camilla Mali-cami Jewell, who's aspiring to be an mad scienist just like her father. And not only that, but she wants to conquer the world with her MAD science. And she has friends who she conidsers her minions. However, the world is always in constant peril from other villans out there... So Camilla is forced to become a magical girl heronie and save the world, with help from her minions--eer, her friends.
Her arch-enemy is an Space Domtartix Lesbain Pirate from Mars, named Ajax. (sadly, I'm not kidding).
Her father is never seen in the series at all, and is just nothing but a nameless, random voice coming from offscreen. (poor kiasun...)

New Story:
It starts in the 18th century, when an Magical girl goes mad with power, and runs amok. This new evil magical girl starts killing and conquering like crazy... and so it takes generations to stop this evil. (in the style of JoJo's bizzare aventure, only with females, I guess). It has elements of the old story in it too, but it's not quite as warped or random.

LOL old story sounds really cool...

I used to think it was cool to give every single character a Japanese name that didn't actually make any sense because I didn't speak Japanese back then. >,>

Today, I have a character called Dave. :3

I stay far far FAR away from Japanese names or any East Asian name in general.
The reason for no Jpnese is obvious.
The reason for no E. Asian names is cuz it just sounds terrible phonetically when translated.

Oh you guys will love this. Here is the story from long ago that Jack first appeared and starred in....let's see how well I can remember it:

Jack the Slayer:
Jack is what is known as a "Demon", Demon being an alien from another planet. (???) However, he is currently on some other planet where he is a fugitive. Jack is very powerful and has killed off most law enforcement, and yet two bounty hunters wearing what look like leotards with belts think he would be an easy catch. Jack kills off one of them, and as the story goes on the other hunter hunts him down through space and beyond seeking vengeance. XD

Meanwhile, Jack meets another girl fugitive named Reelia who decides to hang around him. Then Jack is suddenly confronted by another guy in a leotard and a mask named Vallov (oh my god..) who claims to be his magical creator. He says that his race is actually on another planet, and he is the lost king of it. (Whaaatt?) Vallov transports Jack, and Reelia as she's still there for some reason, to the planet and meets MORE people in leotards. Also a girl named Alice, who I had decided I had liked better than Reelia...thus she would be Jack's new potential girlfriend while Reelia would make funny faces in the background.

Eventually Jack starts showing signs that he is even more unrealistically powerful than one thinks, and we come to discover that when Vallov created him he did something wrong, and eventually he will become too dangerous and evil. So after appointing him king of the planet, Vallov now decides he has to kill him. (Uhhuugh.)

Vallov almost succeeds, but Jack shows off some DBZ-ish hidden powers at the last second and kills him. As the story goes on, Jack becomes more powerful and evil like Vallov said he would. OH and Vallov is eventually revived by another alien race looking to take over the Demon planet. (*facepalm*) Eventually Jack gets such an evil side that it becomes a split personality, torwards the end of the story Jack pukes up this evil side (not kidding) and that's where the story stopped, when they're getting ready to fight.


You know....described, our older stories sound kind of morbidly interesting. XD

One story I started when I was 15 was about a girl named Terra (yeah, spelling...) who was foretold in a prophecy to save the universe from an evil force, so she and her roommate Carmen end up embarking on an interstellar voyage with a boy (Patrick) they met whose family's destiny was to protect her family. Both were the last of their line. Terra's biological family were all dead (as she witnessed) and she also lost a couple sets of foster parents and friends before the beginning of the story. The boy's dad was murdered, and the two girls found him dying in an alley while they are fleeing their apartment after aliens broke in... Oh, and the Terra's brother turns out not to be dead but has been brainwashed and is working for the bad guy. The starship they are on is the size of a large van. The ship's computer's name is Renee, and she is the most competent and dynamic character. Terra has a pet cat she insisted on bringing with her. It acts like a cat (mostly terrified, hides under a chair, growling, for much of the initial space travel) and serves as a plot device now and then. (Cat runs away, stubborn owner insists on remaining on the planet/town until she is found.) Terra is introspective/mopey/angsty as is Patrick (though he also attempts to be in command). Carmen is more grounded and sarcastic/strong -- a much more likable character. Carmen helps to bring Patrick out of his sad slump and serves to buffer (though not very well) the depressing tone of the story. -- That story is 86 pages long, 11 chapters and not even 1/10th into the plotline.

The stuff I write now is less epic in scope and focuses more on character interaction/development than any ultimate goal or purpose. (I found I prefer writing witty dialogue and character development to any kind of mission-based plot.) My "tragic" characters are less tragic. Their pasts are not as extremely bad, and they are far less angsty. I still like to keep an animal or two (acting as animals, not like people) around to serve as a plot device (and because I like them; I'm a biologist). I always include characters that change alliance, have their own purpose that requires switching sides, etc. and are hard to predict. I love both anti-heroes and anti-villains. I've been using them ever since I started writing real stories. I think I write them much more convincingly now, though.

Oh, and I stopped trying to write fantasy/sci-fi stuff -- it was a bad attempt for me, especially considering my dislike of focusing on "the mission."

As far as art, I didn't draw back then. (Well, I drew landscapes and still lifes, but we aren't talking about that. ;) )

mlai
LOL old story sounds really cool...

yeah, I suppose in theory it does. like SarahN said-- "You know....described, our older stories sound kind of morbidly interesting. XD"

But as I stated before, my old story was WAAAY random. Espeically when you threw Camilla's Minion-friends into the picture.
The group consisted of the following:

Dupitica--Hyper, Japanese schoolgirl wannabe who would say random japanese words at random times without any good reason to. Was pretty much useless expect as comedic relief snice she would make funny faces in the background. Was put into the new story, but with some personality changes.

Ranmza-- Cynical girl who's in compete denial. Half of the time when something werid was happening, like Space pirate ships coming to invade... she'd say something like: "Okay, this is NOT happening!! They're not really there... they're just figments of your imagination!!"
if she ever was in moral danger, she would randomly gain all types of superpowers in some kind of weird spilt perosnality transformation. hen after she would fhinsh using one superpower, she would black out and then have no memory of what happened.Was put into the new story, but with some changes.

Choroki-- Werid guy with a werid, vaugely japanese-sounding made-up name. Had the power of transformation... could morph into various objects such as weapons and into various people. Seems to love transforming into Camilla often, much to Camilla's annoyance. He often wore neon-colored buddist monk clothing for some reason. He doesn't appear at all in the new story.

Honan--Yet another guy with a super-random madeup name. He was basically a walking, human time bomb. Every time he ever got angry, he would just litterally expodle... yet when he fhinshed exploding, he would mysteriously still be in one piece while everything else wasn't. He could also breath fire. I dunno why I put him into the old story... like Choroki, he was removed for the new story.

Rani-- Semi-god of love and sex. in the old story, he loved to go around shirtless, and pose randomly with stars and flowers in the background. He served as an plot to get all of Ajax's lesbain pirate army to give up serving Ajax and stop conquering the earth.
He also served as Camilla's love interst.

Crow-- An native-american guy who was under a curse-- by day he was a crow, and by night he reverted to his normal form. He was a thief who loved to steal only the most priceless treausures, but somehow wound up being a part of Camilla's group. (that part was never explained). But I would often draw him as this pure-hearted, robin-hood style type of thief... just in Native-American clothing. And he would often pick fights with Rani, thinking that Rani was only out to corrupt Camilla's "Innocent and pure soul". When Camilla was anything but innocent or pure. ^^;;

Aykura-- An white-haired young priestess who Camilla has a slight crush on. She has telepektic powers and could fly. She would often randomly appear just to save the day when things were looking bad... only to mysteriously disappear again. Ala Tuxdeo Mask style. Only she was more useful than Tuxdeo Mask from the Sailor Moon series.

so when you look at that odd group, you can imagine how convoluted the story could get.

I used to draw magical talking flowers that could grant theirs masters' wish and desire. They even had a pair of wings and loved to fly with their pots and soil still firmly held by their roots. They are vulnerable to electric shocks and when they are evil or angry, they would attack their masters.

Now, that's creativity.

Aurora Moon
Lots of stuff which are making her old story sound cooler and cooler by the minute.

When I was a rugrat, I had a thing for drawing smiling caterpillars made of fruit segments.

I was also deeply into dinosaurs, to the point of obsession. Every creative work I did in elementary school was about dinosaurs. Eventually, my teacher got annoyed and told me to do something different.

So I wrote a story about mechanical dinosaurs. Who played football.
She was not impressed, to say the least.
/facepalm

I drew a long story involving 3 little magic-using dinosaurs (think A Land Before Time + Harry Potter) saving the world (of dinosaurs) from an invasion of alien bat demons (think evil teletubbies with bat wings). They gain friends along the way, including a big burly female Tyrannosaurus, her little sister who the main character has the hots for, and an alien dinosaur starchild who came after the bat demon sovereign.

It was actually a damn good story... I finished the first arc. Then I stopped drawing it because I realized that the crude character designs ceased providing artistic challenge/fun for me. I was in middle school(?).

Merrywhite Jenkins
I used to think it was cool to give every single character a Japanese name that didn't actually make any sense because I didn't speak Japanese back then. >,>

Today, I have a character called Dave. :3

Pfha, well, I thought it was cool to give my characters random names I got from the top of my head or from mashing different words together.

...Oh wait, I still do that. XD

The worst I can actually say, as I don't quite have a comic per say,(lolpracticethingisshooort), is that I always came up with terribly cliched ideas.

Well, this is the first comic I ever drew, but when I look back at the anime drawings I did, I always think to myself, "what was I thinking... trying to be like DBZ?"

Priest_Revan
Well, this is the first comic I ever drew, but when I look back at the anime drawings I did, I always think to myself, "what was I thinking... trying to be like DBZ?"

My first comic had the exact same outlook.
Oh, the old days.

Don't even get me started.
I think the way that my brain works currently is thanks to years and years of embarrassing myself. Through the art of writing and drawing. Eck. I won't even speak of some of the things that I came up with.

I think everyone looks back at old stuff and cringe. My old comic makes me wish I was never creative in the first place. Which may well be why I'm taking so long starting again.

Although I do take pride in the fact that I never had a crappy anime stage.

I started drawing comics when I was 10, so I guess it's not terribly surprising that I wrote initial characters based on myself and a friend and that "my" superhero character liked using his superpowers to do terrible things to the school bus...without actually harming anybody. I didn't like the school bus driver at the time. :/

About a year later, I went through a lot of personal stuff, major surgery, and kept myself sane by drawing. So, from that point forward, my stories were deeper and more serious, with occasional outbursts of humor. :)

By the time I got into my angst-filled teen years, my superhero stories took a considerable turn for the darker, with fascinations with vampires, demons, incubi and succubi. It took till my college years to get past that stage...

Custard Trout
I think everyone looks back at old stuff and cringe. My old comic makes me wish I was never creative in the first place. Which may well be why I'm taking so long starting again.

Although I do take pride in the fact that I never had a crappy anime stage.

Lucky.

I look back at my old writing and go...ARGH, did I write that?

*shudder*

There were a few abortive attempts at something comic-styled many years ago, never did bother to follow up on them. It wasn't until I'd written Fate's Hand that I actually sat back and saw the world would actually fit a comic.

I suppose as I've been writing for a long time, then writing professionally for a while the style evolves. This however is my first proper foray into the comic side of things, the world itself is already designed and created with a World Bible so I can keep an eye on characters/people/places and so on.

It's good fun going back over old things though.

All of my characters used to have japanese names as well. It had nothing to do with Japanese customs. At all. Which is why I have changed them. It's slightly weird, considering that I'm so used to their original names.

I was also fascinated by magical girl anime in my early childhood. That same story turned into a bloody massacre. Silly, no?

Hm... I have yet to turn that into a comic. But I still can't draw action scenes, so I'll have to keep practicing.

I get that feeling too. WTF was I thinking back then?

It seems that the more I accumulate knowledge, the more stupid (in my opinion) my old comics start to look like. Reading back at Brood Knight and KATROPA, I am embarrassed and at the same time amazed.

When I say stupid it isnt more of the art. I'm more of a storywriter than an artist.

Around high school I drew a comic about a genetically engineered, superhuman, katana-wielding assassin-guy. At the time I thought it was an awesome idea but now both the story-telling and art makes me cringe. I'm also the sort of person who's mascocistic enough to post embarrassing art online, but this is just too bad to inflict on anyone. Seriously it looks like it was drawn by someone who skim-read one "How to Draw Manga" book. ughh...

When I wrote a fantasy parody story, which turned out pretty well if I may say so, I did it by taking one of the stories I made as a kid and removing the few good stuff and magnifying the stupid stuff. Results!
Honestly, I could not come up with those things now if I tried...