'Not A Villain' Webcomic - Bandit has memories. Danni discovers she's tall.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 253

First half is up! Hopefully everyone will realize you're supposed to read down first, then go back up to read the right side...

Also, Extras now has the fan comic of Osaaru. The Deletables will go up probably when I finish doing those. And this:

is now available as a wallpaper.

Thanks everyone for reading!

EDIT: Full page is now up!

The normal height range is about 5'5'' in the Game. Kat is just an inch shorter than that. L.i.F.e., on the other hand, offers no alternatives to height. Everyone is the exact same in that area.

I also received fan art! Inuneechan did an awesome rendition of a happy, dancing Danni. 😀

42 Comments

The reading direction felt natural to me. However, the marks by Kleya(Kat)’s eye in panel 5 looks like an arrow to me, and I feel it might cause some confusion.

First thought, woaaaaaaa, that first panel is way to close to Kleya’s face, lol. The eyes are so big here.

After that? Well, the page is a bit weird with the thick line down the middle. It made me feel that it might be two pages for a moment. Perhaps some arrows should be added though, as knowing where you should read next doesn’t feel intuitive to me. It might seem better though when the bottom is added in. I can’t properly judge an unfinished page.

So, she was staring at Bandit this whole time? I thought she was looking at how happy Danni was. So she was smiling at BANDIT? *frowny face* Ignore him Kleya! Go find some other love interest. Also… His name is Jake? Not sure if that came up before or not. I hope she didn’t say that in the game, cause being able to call out his true name would pretty much remove all doubt he has as to her actual identity.

She seems to be humming a tune on the bottom left panel, as well. Is there some significance to that? I don’t recall her being musical before now. Is it something she does when happy?

I have to admit I’m liking the ears more in this page then I did on the previous. Having them move around to reflect Kleya’s emotional state was something that wasn’t available before and the upgrade is making me rethink my earlier position on them. Her startled look after saying “Jake” is my favorite of the page, so far.

She wasn’t staring at The Bandit (Jake) the whole time. Jake was staring at her the whole time. She noticed his stare in panel 5 and then immediately shut down. Jake was remembering a better time when Kleya would smile.

Oh, right, current Kleya has braids. Thank you for clarifying. All is well with the world then, since there is no progress in the Kleya/Bandit front! We need to get on a new love interest for her though so that this pairing can never happen.

Seeing it as a flashback wasn’t terribly intuitive to me though. I assumed it was moving to Kleya because her eyes are covered. How would she know Jake was there if she is immersed in the game?

Bandit -Jake- struck by lightning,
memories old, spring back to life,
Dieing coals spark new fire.
his love for life once more…
*CRACK*

Then Kat ran over his heart with a mecha.

That’s about how I read the above comic.

That is pretty much how I read it too. Well, I think she misinterpreted his intense gaze. Or didn’t like the attention. Whatever the case, he let his guard down and she noticed. Kleya is real smart, but I don’t think she is good at reading other people. Prodigy at things in electronics and programming, not in understanding other human beings.

Wonderful page, Aneeka!

Cat-Kleya has mood-ears! Great! Cute! Adorable!!!

So Bandit’s real name is Jake! Or did we already know that and I just forgot?

Yeah, we already knew that. It was back on a page when Brandon (The Dude) and Jake (The Bandit) were talking. We still don’t know Jane’s real name (unless it really is Jane) and Kleya’s real name (though everyone else seems to know her name). Maybe everyone refers to Kleya as “You-Know-Who” or “She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” 🙂

Yay for “She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”! 😉

Took me a second to figure out the panel-order, but once I followed the chat bubbles it was easy.

I’d also like to add that Reality Kleya is extremely cute. And that shading… nice. *Realism envy*

Am I the only one who can’t wait for Kat and Bandit to get together?

Won’t happen soon. No matter the strength of the feelings, I think their mutual egos will make things go very slow XD

“Miss Dude.” Pfft! 😉

I love the silent interaction between Jake and Kleya… And I’m especially interested in how Kleya’s ears seem to react to her emotions. I wonder if the feedback system tells her what her ears are doing? I suppose Paddy may have just rigged the ears to match her facial expressions….

Actually, I find it especially interesting that Jake seems to recognize that fond smile at someone else’s pleasure. Kleya seems to have had some softer moments in her past after all. 🙂

Kleya’s ears move like a cat! That makes me happy! 🙂 Although I wonder if this is Paddy’s doing or Kleya’s. Or is it a cooperative effort?

I noticed the ears moving too and made a happy squeal. I wonder if she’s got any cat-like moves (like maybe disarming an opponent – it wouldn’t be an attack move – or being good at stealth).

I don’t know why, but I love Kleya’s facial expressions so much 🙂

THEY MOVE!! The ears move! I don’t know, why am I getting so excited over this, but this is incredible!

Still cute 🙂 the only problem is that it isnt clear whether the top-right panel is “now, real world only”, or “now, voiced in game as well”, or “flashback from Jake’s past”

I’m kinda leaning towards flashback, but it would be nice to know for sure.

I think the “real world” images of Kleya are flashbacks, she is much younger and isn’t wearing the game suit she has on in pages 202-209. We had one other glimpse of young Kleya, although I can’t find it.

Brandon’s never seen ballet? I take it recordings of the Nutcracker didn’t survive the hacker hunts.

The people Brandon associated with, including his family, never had any interest in the Nutcracker or ballet. Thus, his exposure to it was extremely limited.

The kitty mood ears are really cute….

*Some* people can actually do that in Reality, with special shoes, after their toes stop bleeding and form callouses. (A family friend used to be a ballerina)
I really envy people who are able to hum while they work, I’m really terrible at multitasking and have to stop typing or reading in order to remember any tunes to hum. Kleya looks like she’d be fun to be around when she’s happy.
I think Miss Dude might actually be a worse nickname.
(It’s been way too long since I’ve commented, sorry)

Some people can do it without overly special shoes, but only for 1 second.
Doing it longer, or actually walking “on point”, is what takes the special shoes, permenant foot deformities, etc.

This melts my heart. She looks so sweet, and the way he half-smiles at her… your expressions are perfect. (they always are.)

Glad you put the reality panels back in; I think they really add a lot to the history of both Kleya and the Bandit and how it relates to this brief but meaningful scene. An extremely well-done page!

Firstly the interplay of feelings and how they’re drawn are nicely rendered!
Secondly, what sort of interface does Danni use with LIFE? We all know she loves dancing, but given that the way she is crippled is unspecified we don’t know if she is using a finger based interface or something that allows her to use her full training (such as a full suit or something that captures neural signals to missing limbs).

She uses a Kido which enables a neural connection. Finger based interfaces aren’t fast* enough for the Game.

*unless you’re a ninja that can type 300+ wpm

I don’t know if this has already been voiced, but oh! how I want to see Kleya flashbacks of Jake/Bandit…

He’s so cute when he’s happy to see her smile again XD

Full page is up!

… to defeat the Huns?

The lineup in the vote incentive is cool– nice job on the dreaded feet! I’m surprised to see Kat so short, though. The bobble-head version was short, but the last version Kleya made with Danni’s help was tall, wasn’t it?

I suspect Brandon is forgetting his mission slightly… and Danni is forgetting that she despises him. 😉

Danni, Kat V7, and Kat V8 were all the same height: 5’5” (the default height). Considering what country you’re from, that could be considered normal, tall, or short. Height is really just relative 🙂

I guess KatV8 just looked taller than V7 due to proportions.

Did Paddy deliberately make Danni taller than she is/was in Reality?

5’5″ is the average female height in the US, not that it matters to this story. 😉

Here’s the latest Kats in their respective heights:

V7’s ears are taller/straighter so that could make her seem taller.

Paddy was aiming for elegance in Danni’s design and tallness tends to go hand-in-hand with that. He aimed for cute and innocent for Kat which is why she ended up much shorter than the rest.

“It’s called being a baller.” That’s how I read Danni’s statement. Its interesting to see what parts of culture has been forgotten and lost in the Hacker Hunts, like even knowing how to dance like Danni does or what she is called. How long ago were they again and how old does that make some of the characters during the events?

Dream/flashback sequences can be hard. If the black-and-white isn’t enough tip for some readers, you can try some other techniques: for example, Lackadaisy Cats is pretty much all in sepia tones, so to show dreams and things she not only tries to change the tint (hard) but the edges of the dream/flashback panels have non-straight edges. Some comic artists do “bubble” edges like clouds or hazy edges.

Obviously the Dude is either making a tactical decision in trying to woo Danni, or the love story everyone’s waiting to see from Kleya and Jake are instead unfolding with Dude and Danni.

When they get together we can give them a sickening nickname, like Dannidude. Dudanni. Dudenanni. Jockerina… 😀

I like your webcomic, just thought I’d add that it’s ballet not balle 🙂 a ballerina probably shouldn’t get that wrong herself. maybe if the dude misspoke.

oh, she got cut off. I missed that, sorry 😀

“normal height range is about 5’5” ”

Wut? About 1.65 m? That seems rather small, 1.78m (5’10”) is the average height of woman here…
I’m 1.79 myself, and that is below average for a male, I already feel small when I’m around my colleagues who are all 1.85-1.90 m (6′ – 6’2″) tall.

Then considering that adventure games with character customization often have slightly taller than average protagonists (more ‘heroic’ appearance) 5’5″ as the ‘normal’ range feels like they are a bunch of second year high-school kids.

Alternatively, I might live in a country with exceptional tall people (Netherlands).

Wolfram Alpha saves the day:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=average+human+height

Average is 5’4″ worldwide (5’5″ for males).

I should move abroad, to flatter my ego.

Considering that Netherlands is known for its higher than average height (Scandinavian nations, too), you should definitely move abroad to feel taller 😉

Also, the Game is Asian-based and their average height, male and female, is around 164.5 cm (about 5’4”). The average height for a female is 158.7 (about 5’2”) so Kat is actually taller than Reality average.

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 253