Makaroonatiks and Jelly Juggernauts

i'm totally a week behind on the latest issue of MC... that's upsetting.
but it's for a good reason.

i'll talk about that in later post, because it's for something both related and unrelated to MC.

in the mean time... I'm going to post AAAAALL the character designs for the team members that will be playing against team Munch Chunky in the grand gourmet.

i'll definitely post all of those up to the next issue as well as showing the designs i created for all the teams different ships.

a couple members of Team Makaroonatiks

 Name: Precilla Pistachinos
 Team: Makaroonatiks 
 Position: Striker
 Rank: Cinnamon 
 Region: Hard

 Name: Larry Borshtenstien
 Team: Makaroonatiks
 Position: Chef
 Rank: Cinnamon 
 Region: Hard

 two members of Team Jelly Juggernauts

 

 Name: Greggori Javander
 Team: Jelly Juggernauts 
 Position: Mugger
 Rank: Cinnamon 
 Region: Gumi

 Name: Oliver Clovercrest
 Team: Jelly Juggernauts 
 Position: Striker
 Rank: Cinnamon 
 Region: Gumi

  by next week i'll have all the turnaround sheets for every member finished, coloured, and posted to the site and my dA account. and then i will start adding them to the MC databook and fill out more of their personal info. but not too much or it would be a major spoiler.
more characters on the morrow

BACK IN THE SADDLE.

Sorry about all the silence.

sorry.

 the comic returns September 12th

I've been back to working on Munch Chunky for a little while now
i have almost a weeks lead on each issue, which is super duper good.

I've also been working on the last tracks of the OST.

they were left in the cold so long ago, and now i have to dust them off, repair them, and make them awesome.

also... I was working on the Munch Chunky Databook. I'm loving it. it's SO MUCH FUN.

for more on my impromtu hiatus...

check out this video.

Munch Chunky Mondays 00: A new thing starts

a new take on the Enoroo shop scene from the animated Munch Chunky

So, I'm going to start this thing here on the site, called Munch Chunky Mondays.

I'll be talking about news and updates about the different things that will be happening to me, the comic, and within the world of Munch Chunky.

I'll also be adding videos, each week. some of them I may be talking in, while others might just be speed art videos with music I composed like the one below.

beyond that... all I can say is. 

I'm working behind the scenes on the Munch Chunky Databook, 

and that should be launching next week, if all goes well.

that's all for now... see you soon and enjoy the video.

-Smars

Munchy Update: Page count

This past weekend I went to a convention. it was a really good show and a lot of really nice people showed up and came by my table. When I got back from the convention I thought about how much I want Munch Chunky to have a regular update schedule. 

But with the other series I'm doing Goblyn, it makes it almost impossible to be consistent. 

almost...

I figured out a way to publish Munch Chunky along side Goblyn (and possibly a 3rd series) on a weekly basis. I reduce the page count. yup. starting this week I'm bringing the page count down from 55 pages to 25-30 pages. but the benefit to this is that the series will be able  to come out WEEKLY. 

C:

It balances out to the same amount of content as if I was working bi-weekly, but just in smaller chunks.

In all honesty, it's to save my artistic sanity. I've been driving myself mad trying to work on multiple series at the same time, and I'm not willing to give any of them up because I love them all too much. So this is my solution. It's not a sacrifice in story,  just in the amount of content per week. but it balances out since Munch Chunky would come out more often. yay.

see you soon.

Beast Mode!

see those things above? yeah...

If i didn't make this post I knew I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it.

at least temporarily that is.

what am I talking about?

Battle Beasts.

yup.

one of those weird relics from my childhood that has persisted in haunting me and at the same time inspiring me.

even tho it was only a part of said life briefly.

I just caught myself singing the theme song used in the commercial.

it's not the first time, and that got my gears turning.

after some time thinking about it. I came to the conclusion that this is definitely one of the core inspirations for Munch Chunky.

I'll be honest. as a kid i had no idea what the story was with these things. I just knew, they were animals that wore mech armor and had weapons and elemental powers. 

what explanation more does a kid need?!

ultimately there's nothing super special about the Battle Beasts it's a pretty straight forward rock, paper, scissors, kind of deal. 

the thing i found most interesting while looking them up, was that they were originally a part of the Transfomers universe.

i know right!

nuts.

but when Hasbro brought them to the states from Japan, they cut all relations to the robots in disguise.

I'm okay with that. it would have just confused me as a kid anyway.

my entire obsession with these silly little toys is all based on the commercials.

the brief action packed animation segments in them ignited my imagination back then, and apparently this concept of animals getting all decked out in mech armor and running around with weapons and elemental abilities really stuck with me.

I'm not embarrassed, I mean it's at the heart of Munch Chunky about as much as a lot of stuff I grew up with.

that's the way it works right?

the cycle of inspiration keeps going.

alright... next post. about me making comics, LIVE.
C:

btw... here are some links to BB related stuffs if you're even slightly interested.

BB Complete site      Toy archive  

Munch Chunky Soundtrack...

So back when I was trying to do Munch Chunky as an animated series, all by myself. 

(a foolish endeavor if ever there was one)

I had created an actual musical score to run in the background of the episodes.

Most of them were each of the main characters themes Bojo's theme, Turtles theme, & Diddles theme, or remixed variations of those.

but then I realised i couldn't do the animated series the way I wanted in the time allotted to me.

but I still had the soundtrack, and the need to express Munch Chunky in music.

when I see this art I hear songs, and I've been building a little library of those songs for a few years now.

I'm not proud of them all, but most make me very happy, because they capture the spirit of Munch Chunky 100%

from Munch Chunky issue 2b on, with each new half issue ex. 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, and so on... I will add a new track from the Munch Chunky OST collection on my Mobal Sute Bandcamp page. 

you can listen to them and if you like them, download and collect them.

I've added an original sound track section here to listen to the OST tracks that are being uploaded to Bandcamp.

I just thought it would be fun to share a bit of the music I hear when I work on Munch Chunky.

live, love, & eat fruit.

Trongo Bongo

Trongo Bots.

I've been drawing these goofy looking mech suits for so many years.

I'm a big mech, super giant robot enthusiast. seriously.

I spent a huuuuuge chunk of my childhood reading watching stuff like Voltron, Tranzor Z
(or Mazinger Z if you want to be a purist about it) and yes... of course, Gundam.

 but of all the mechs and robots out there i say that i was most influenced by Shirow Masamune's Appleseed manga series when i was a kid, which was filled with all these wonderful personal sized mechs he called landmates.

Shirow would used these really great organic shapes that often reminded me of insects, and that just pulled me in further into his magic. seeing smaller, one man, personal mechs was a revolution to my mind, and I immediately was drawing personal mechs in everything I created.

with Munch Chunky i wanted to continue with that tradition, but since MC is a lighter more fun story i didn't want the designs of the mechs to be too overwhelming.
Since the series is about things like food and adventure, i wanted them to be very organic and bouncy in shape.

for me, they had to have a look of functionality without being to visually complex. I wanted them to look like they could run around, while still looking funny, but not absolutely cumbersome.
Silly, but still kind of cool. like the G generation SD Gundam model series.
C:

they're also made this way so that i can customize each one for a new rival team at the drop of a dime and without the design really slowing me down.

they all have the same basic shape underneath, and then i start slappin' on all the extra bits that make them fun and flashy, as I go.

i did decide a while back that some teams would customise their mechs to the extent that they would have very specific advanced functions only used by that team.
it's all regulation of course.
ha ha

live love & eat fruit.

cute animals...BIG, BAD, ROBOTS

just sharing a couple of designs for some of the secondary background charas in issue 1b of Munch Chunky.

(they're fairly loose sketches, but still comprehensible i think)

the tryout sequence is full of lots of random animals driving around in big hulking robot suits.

i did think for a while to have everyone's suits reeeeeally customized and unique, but it quickly became a headache. 

i still slip into fantasies about how much fun it would be to have a bunch of cool designs and weird shapes for all the different suit. but then i snap out of it with the reality of how frustrating it would be to keep up with all those varying shapes. so i standardized the base shape of the Trong Bot suits. 

and from there, they can be customized by the individual as they see fit. 

So i still get a good bit of variation, while still being able to not lose myself in the details.

i'll show some of those different yet similar Trong bot designs next post.

till then.

live love & eat fruit.