It DOES Matter If You’re Black or White
This comic comes straight out of a conversation Ray and I had where I made that connection between Ikaruga’s polarity and race. Ray loved my observation so much, we decided to make it a comic. However, when you’re dealing with a game that many people aren’t familiar with, it’s hard to know who will get the joke, or how much setup to do in the first panel, etc. We agonized over this one enough that I don’t even know if I’m really sold on the joke anymore. All I know is that I love the way the artwork turned out!
When I realized we had a comic that would use a familiar setting with more than familiar characters, it occurred to me that making a majority of the art from scratch was the least I could do. That couch has been looking for a makeover for quite some time….
I don’t know if I’ve settled on Tim’s new design yet, so it’s possible his outfit will be forever changing. Doing my face from a front view was more difficult than I ever imagined, and I have to ask…. is it strange to cross my legs like that?
No, it isn’t weird to cross your legs like that. From most to least acceptable:
Ankle to Knee (The Tim)
Ankle to Ankle (Extended Leg Cross)
Calf to Shin (Infinity Crossing)
Knee to Knee (The Ray)
————— (The Line)
Thigh to Thigh (Ball-less crossing AKA The Piss Holder)
Also, Ikaruga was probably my favorite Dreamcast game, and I would get it for Wii (Gamecube) if I ever saw it.
What is on the wall behind the couch?
Oh you know me and my Sonic posters……
NCG. Honestly I’m just really happy to see some love for Ikaruga.
BTW, Tim/Ray have you guys heard of the new white Gamecube controls coming out in japan? I’ll probably pick one up if I can find one.
Hey, that looks like one of the new Sega shirts that just came out in japan. I really want the blue one but the website is in Japanese and I don’t think they ship to US T_T…..
I loved this comic; I haven’t even played the game but was able to use the powers of context clues to pick up on the joke AND enjoy it.
That is a really nice looking couch, by the way.
On the subject of Tim’s ever-changing look, as a gag in one comic you should have his clothes change appearance in every panel… [spoiler](Imagines the comic right now… Tim doesn’t seem to mind, it freaks Ray out, Tim just replies “What? That starman cost me five bucks, and I’m making the most of it.” and he pokes Ray defeating him for 100 points….)[/spoiler]
Are you supposed to play Ikaruga on its side? Have I been playing it wrong all these years…?
Oh really!
Bad Copy->Paste? 🙂
I was wondering about that. Is there side scrolling on the xbox version?
I don’t know Ray… the crossed legs make is seem your either really into the game, or you sort-of need to pee but don’t want to get up at the moment.
On a slightly related note, I find myself standing up whenever I get really into a game, and if my brother is watching (which he usually is), he’ll yell at me for blocking the screen or something. Anyone else stand while playing? 🙂
By the way, I like Tim’s new look – it hides some of those nubby elbows and makes him look more dignified (read: older).
I just figured it looked better sideways for the comic and decided not to nit-pick at it. but now that its been said: whats up with that ish?
I STILL cant belive on that comic a few weeks ago that ray used Landmaster, which is Fox’s final smash
[spoiler] or Falco’s final smash, or Wolf’s final smash, Nintendo was real inventive giving them all Landmaster [/spoiler]
But why wasnt it SONIC’s final smash that was used? Why not transform into Super… Ray….? Yeah thats it. Use the chaos emeralds ray
🙂 yay my first comment with a spoiler tag!
Xbox sucks
Xbox sucks balls
Xbox sucks dry donkeyballs
Xbox sucks dry donkeyballs with a straw
What’s with the xbox bashing? This isn’t some kind of fan-boy site afterall (even if sometimes it seems that way
)
[spoiler]
What I want to know is how these xbox bashing sentences are supposed to be parsed.
I mean, the first case is clear with a subject, verb. Xbox is the one doing the sucking.
The second case expands that balls are being sucked.
In the third and fourth cases, it seems clear that xbox is still sucking. What is less clear is if dry donkeyballs are being sucked, or if donkeyballs are being sucked dry. It also is somewhat confusing on what a donkeyball is. Probably A simply mean to refer to donkey balls, but is unable to type, perhaps overcome by a blinding rage at such a great game appearing on a console he so evidently despises.
Most perplexing is the addition of the straw. The pattern in the first three seems to be that the level of insult is increasing. However, does the addition of the straw uphold this pattern, or humorously reverse it?
On the one hand, it is certainly more ridiculous to have the xbox intake vent taped to a straw which it uses to suck the donkeyballs. It means that the xbox probably went to a lot more work to set up this donkeyballs sucking than it would have without the straw.
On the other hand, it removes the direct xbox on donkeyballs contact that A probably finds so distasteful. A must not hate the xbox completely, because he allows it this one concession, probably because A has a level of empathy for the situation of xbox.
I am sure that when A sucks donkeyballs, A prefers to use a straw.[/spoiler]
Heh… should I cause trouble and point out no PS3 was present? Or should I point out Sega confirmed wolf sonic slows down and busts through stuff ala knuckles without the gliding? Or should I say that’s the funkiest TV set I ever saw?
Nah, I’ll just say I’ve been seeing some real improvements over the past few months. Seriously, otherwise I wouldn’t comment and give you guys sh*. I’m hated for that on deviant art. Bad stuff, I won’t even comment but stuff I like, I feel I must be the pretentious art critique (four years of art school “firing squad” critiques does this to you…) and try to push you guys forward.
I’d like to see a comic go up that’s freehand sometime, though.
Ikaruga CAN be played sideways, but the controls don’t follow suit, meaning you either have to rotate your TV 90 degrees or lay on the couch (rotate yourself 90 degrees). Ray must be showing off his skillz (notice the ‘z’) because he’s playing the game sideways without rotating anything, NOT an easy task.
As far as the TV goes, yes, it’s the funkiest TV I’ve ever seen too. When it first appeared (second comic, I believe), I was a little weirded out by it (it was even funkier, so I made Ray change it a little). We’ll talk about it in the upcoming podcast.
That is awesome! You don’t have to waste 75% of your widescreen when you play.
LOOK!!! Tim and Ray have Wavebird’s! Lucky >_> …..BTW nice detail on the consoles; I’m a bit of a detail nut myself
.
@Tustin: Oddly when I was little and would get into a game I would stand up and start hopping in place. It always annoyed everybody I played with. Glad I outgrew that
.
wasn’t tim supposed [spoiler] to have blue baby eyes???????????????????????????????????[/spoiler]
I stand when I do just about everything, especially a rousing game of Smash Bros. It’s a commonly accepted law of nature between all people who know me well. Sometimes when the gloves are off and I’m in for a really intense game, I’ll crouch. Does that make me weird? Probably.
In other news, I love the fact that you guys are playing Ikaruga. That was one game that my dad and I could never get enough of. Another being Super Metroid. But I’m glad you guys saw fit to mention it. Anyway, NCG!
Oh god, this comic makes me feel inadequate. XKCD I can understand but this is out of my league. 🙁
Ikaruga’s already been on the Dreamcast, Gamecube, and the 360. You really should stop reading obscure webcomics if you haven’t played it by now.
BTW, very nicely done, adding a login feature for those of us who visit the site daily. Personally, I didn’t have to add in info each time I wanted to comment because Firefox stored it for me, but logging in is cooler. Might this lead to other things on the website? 🙂
This comic was awesome.
This was a nice comic.. except i have a random question… do you really have a TV that looks like that?
Sorry guys but this has to be the first comic I don’t get.
I blame Tim!
I joke, I guess the joke kinda relies heavily on knowing the game and I haven’t even heard of it.
Sorry if it’s a really awesome popular game that I’ve totally missed ’cause I’ve been out of touch, playing on the Mega Drive (that’s the Sega Genesis to you) until the early hours of the morning…I should really buy a new console…
So, this was pretty surprising, but in a good way. I’m not even sure exactly what the joke is, but I loved that you used Ikaruga… I’ve been wanting to get that for Gamecube for a long time.
Oh, and nah, I think the legs thing is fine Ray.
Oh, and I just noticed the Wavebird receiver sticking out of the Wii… haha. That’s a little more realistic than Nintendo likes to portray their system in a home environment. Seriously, mine always has the receiver in it, and usually a cord or two as well.
NCG
(I haven’t read any other comments, so…)
Wow, I went back and read all the comments, and I kind of want to comment on a lot of them, but most importantly…
@ Andrew; Do you know if the Dreamcast version is better in anyway to the Gamecube version (besides controllers)? I only have Wii and Dreamcast, so that would be my options. I think I’ll probably have an easier/cheaper time finding it for Gamecube, but I could be wrong. I still want to know if there’s quality differences. Technically the Gamecube is more powerful, but the Wii has proven power doesn’t equal pretty ports. (The Wii being more powerful than GC, but still looking like PS1 at times.)
I think that the gamecube version is missing some japanese text, adds two modes that aren’t that helpful, and supports widescreen/prog. scan. The dreamcast could be played through a VGA box for higher quality graphics.
To add to this comic’s idea. Resident Evil 5. Enough said.
But even then, I was watching a movie which I didn’t learn the name to where a boyfriend was white and marrying the daughter of a black family. It all points to how most younger Americans precieve racism and why it’s still so pertinent in our culture even though it’s supposed to be dead. It’s even unconciously in the minds of most everyone solely because of the media and movie’s way of racial stereotyping.
Just wanted to add that because I think this is the first time I saw Ikaruga (after playing the DC game and owning the GCN version) associated w/ race. It was a new concept.
By the way, do you guys play it sideways because that’s the default or you set it up like that? The reason I’m saying it is because it’s not a horizontal shooter and things fall down and your ship is shown from the top-down view which makes it really weird to not see it from the side view when switching to a horizontal playing method and having everything fall leftwards rather than down. Know what I mean?
Gravity goes
<——
That way
Is Tim’s soda of choice a Dr Pepper per chance?
Dr. Pepper is my lifeblood.
I though we all went over that already, but just in case someone doesn’t know, Tim loves Dr.Pepper like Ray loves Smash bros. Maybe even more so
AMEN, neext time I go to the hospital i’m hook my iv up to a bottle of that holy liquid.
Nice comic.Funny you mention MLK.
in other news I don’t know if you guys read my post on the podcast so i shall repost that I found the black doom awards music in sonic the hedgehog 2 at the mystic cave zone. cool huh?
I didn’t ever play the game, but I got the joke.
Quite funny, liked it a lot. You made me go youtube the game after I saw this as well. =P
Neat… Never played it, might look for it later…
I only know it because of the strategy guide Tips & Tricks did for the GCN version back in… I think it was their 100th issue, June 03…
And now we’re having these same issues with the Gen5 Pokemon games!
More elaboration on this idea: Pokemon Black and White. If White Sells more, it’s Racism. If Black Sells more, It’s affirmative action.