Trainer Wants to Fight!: A Pokémon comic

tkarispe

A while back, I created a Pokémon webcomic and hosted it on SmackJeeves. That site's gone the way of the dodo, so I thought I'd post the comics here for people to enjoy. It's basically me playing through Blue Version and Silver Version and reacting (through the player character) to the somewhat wacky things NPCs say sometimes. 🙂

Here's the title page!

I'll post new comics here a few times a week!

Darren

Oh this is wonderful! I look forward to reading them when you share them 🙂

tkarispe

And here we go on a slightly unhinged adventure! Who decided it was a good idea to send 10-year-olds on a region-spanning quest, fraught with danger, with no adult supervision? Although, to be fair, that kind of thing sounds awesome when you're 10.

BlueMoonFalls

I love the way you draw expressions, they're super exaggerated and funny lol. Looking forward to more pages!

tkarispe

BlueMoonFalls Thank you! The expressions get so unhinged in this comic. I had way too much fun just being over-the-top.

Here's another one!

Oak's gotta give the same introductory speech every time. It's a contractual thing.

MissingnoMaster

Nidorino's just vibing there LMAO. Loving this so far!

tkarispe

MissingnoMaster I had fun making the Pokemon in this comic really derpy.

The early intro screens in the Pokémon core series are actually pretty terrifying. You're in this featureless void, and suddenly someone comes out of nowhere and starts indoctrinating you into a world of monster fights, and I've probably thought way too much about this.

Also I thought Oak's face in the third panel turned out pretty great.

MissingnoMaster

tkarispe Loving Oak in the third panel there LMAO. Reminds me of an old Pokémon webcomic, Super-Effective, I think it was called, and in one comic, a Team Rocket Grunt pulled this intense face while describing Team Rocket as a super threatening criminal syndicate or some such, and then in the next panel he's all smiles and sends out a level 11 Zubat. Similar vibe to that, like, and I like how it works.

KomodoZero

These are all great, super expressive, and really exaggerating stuff for laughs.
It actually kinda reminds me of the hiimdaisy comics from way back, turning games like Metal Gear Solid 3 and Persona 4 into complete farces.

tkarispe

MissingnoMaster Oak is probably the most unhinged character in this comic. And yes, just wait until I get to Team Rocket. I can't take them seriously at all anymore after drawing this comic series.

The more I overthink old Pokémon core series intros, the weirder they seem. Like, your character is Oak's next-door neighbor in a miniscule town with an apparent population of 9, and he has no idea who you are? And then has to consult you for the name of his own grandson? What is wrong with this man.

MissingnoMaster

Absolutely wild, yeah. When I made my romhack of Red, I remember I fixed that bit, I framed it like Oak was saying you knew his grandson better than even he did. "In fact, to drive that point home, I'll let YOU tell ME what his name is."

But yeah, looking forward to seeing more. If you got this much material out of just the "welcome to the world of Pokémon" speech, this is gonna be good.

tkarispe

MissingnoMaster Haha, I like that! I think it works a lot better than "I don't know my own grandson's name and we live in the same house lol". RBY certainly had its quirks. And thank you! I hope the rest is just as enjoyable. I had a lot of fun playing through the games and writing down comic scripts as I went.

Yeah, I really find myself questioning a lot of things Oak says in this game.

MissingnoMaster

I love how the man has a gigantic photo album dedicated to the literal lifelong rivalry between his grandson and his next-door neighbor, and doesn't remember either of their names. XD

tkarispe

MissingnoMaster Oak is a strange, strange man. This next comic is surprisingly not about him at all!

One thing that amuses me about fictional settings with more advanced technology than the era in which the fiction was created is how they almost always get the direction of technological progress completely wrong.

tkarispe

Just wanted to let everybody know that I'm taking a bit of a break from the forum, but I'm still posting these comics on my blog; you can see them here.

Take care, everybody.