‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 477

Colors by Audrey. Everything else is by me.

Someone's a bit happy.

I don't have final times yet, but I'll be doing meetups in the Seattle, WA area on April 9th and Portland, OR area on April 16th. Several people have asked if they can bring friends/partners/etc. The answer is YES! The more, the merrier!

I'll announce again when I've finalized the times. Thanks everyone!

59 Comments

Ok… That face looks all the creepy.

Probably intentional. I’ve only ever seen that type of paint-splotches background used for cartoons in which the character has become criminally insane.

It doesn’t help the expression itself is a juxtaposition: the slanted eyebrows is typically used to express sadness; the squinted eyes (raised cheeks) is typically used for either overwhelming joy or skepticism; and of course, the universal unambiguous smile.

I don’t think it’s creepy at all. It’s showing more than one emotion, a little astonishment in the eyebrows rising up toward the middle mixed with worry for Danni’s condition, rising hope that she has an ally and potential friend, happiness that Danni’s relatively okay and fighting back, just totally blown away that she’s able to fight at all, AND is doing what Kat asked her to do, finding a non-lethal way to fight, all while hurt-as-heck. It’s a very complex scene with very complex emotions…and frankly, Kleya is NOT used to being happy these days.

You’re forgetting the most important emotion of all: Kat is happy that Danni is still alive.

Oh. I failed to read your comment properly. Never mind then, sorry.

I agree completely with you.

Except that all of these emotions put together gives her the desperate hysterical face of someone who’s just finished putting an arm in the blender. It’s also because the paint splotched background is reminiscent of blood, the center of the paint has what looks like explosions coming out from where her human ears would be, and that the first people to go crazy are generally the cat people.

Likely this is just because she’s feeling complex emotions, but what’s funny is that she might actually have been criminally insane (or in hysterics) in the past.

yea I think your right she’s super surprised and happy that Dani is not dead.

The tree?

yep Creepy. shes not used to being happy.

That look on her face. 😀 Kat is a Yandere!

Btw: In the first dozen pages Mina and Danni have really pretty smiles. Is it just because back then you used to draw bigger pupils? Because my impression is that pupils which don’t touch the eye borders anywhere make a character look psycho when they smile and terrified when they don’t.

Could Kat’s eye sockets be bigger than on the channel-member-wallpaper? I’m not sure with Kat, but Kleya’s are definitely smaller.

Speaking of eyes….

Panel 1:
The forest is watching intently, and does NOT seem pleased!

and in panel 2:
OMG that face! Look out Danni, incoming hugs! (post fight I assume)

[Insert Smiley Hero Here]

omg i totally missed that tree 0o

Check out those background splotches. Definitely going for psycho here.

Hmmm… hey, if Danni manages to steal one of that guy’s cards, she can knock off two quests!

Hmmm, knock him round a bit with a branch, pin him under a bigger branch, steal the cards (disarming the guy possibly), yeah, looks like 2 quests covered in 1 go…

Omg.
That…

…

…would be the scariest face Kat ever had.

I expected Kat to have more of a subtle Mona Lisa type smile.

And I know I would be closing my eyes, like how Danni is, if I had a bright flashing light in them.

I have to agree, she looks rather odd with that smile. I feel like it is the teeth, but I could be wrong.

It’s probably the eyes. Cover her mouth with your hand and it still looks creepy. Cover the eyes and the smile looks more normal.

I covered each separately (mouth, eyes, and eyebrows) and I found that it’s the eyebrows, which look sad on their own, are causing the creepy.

Upon further inspection of the eyes, I see that the size of the irises and pupils are each unsettlingly too small. Irises not reaching the tops or bottoms of the eyes. Pupils, just generally too small for sane happiness.

Glad to see such relief and happiness on your face, Kat. But now you are the distracted one in the middle of a fight.

Lovely! 🙂

That is one angry tree in the background.

I didnt notice it until now. LOL!

Is it just me, or does that smile come across as very, very creepy?

I don’t like Kat happy. It scares me. Make it stop, please.

Oh, WOW. o.O
I don’t think we have EVER seen her that excited.
Don’t ever let anyone say that she doesn’t care about anyone else.

On the plus side, now that she knows Danni isn’t dead, she won’t have to figure out how to kill the other team, without actually killing them. Bonus!

oh my g-d that’s a freaky face

i think yeah natural smile requires huge irises and pupils (i did facial expression studies a bunch of time ago and basically widened irises and pupils mean you are taking in what you are seeing and focused on that, while shrunk irises and pupils mean you are processing what you’ve seen and aren’t actually looking at what’s in front of you)

so this doesn’t look like Kat who’s looking at Danni and being happy, this looks like Kat who’s taken in Danni being alive and is now thinking about the implications of this and making plans and sh** and isn’t actually looking at Danni now

sorry

Wow, thanks a lot for the explanation! My subconsciousness has sort of been aware of the big vs. small pupils thing, but now my brain knows what’s going on as well! 🙂

So this is why small pupils and a smile are creepy. You know that the person in front of you is barely looking at you and isn’t really there anymore, so communication with that person might be difficult, because s/he has snapped and plans on doing… things to you.

But I just know imagined panel 2 with big pupils and it looked really weird. 😀 Maybe smaller eye-sockets? Or giving the lower boundary a stronger bend, like on page 389? I’d be interested in hearing your opinion on that.

In addition to irises and pupils, a bigger body language indicator is they eyelids and eyebrows. When someone is surprised or amazed their eyelids/eyebrows face opens up they are taking in as much as possible. Oppositely, have you ever heard the saying or experienced of someone “looking through you”? Also similar to the look of grim determination because the person is focusing on what is needed to be done instead of what is in front of them. This is when someone’s eyelids are very low, static eye-focus, but their eyebrows are relaxed.

I think Kat is happy because she has access to rare plants, she probably already knew Danni would be alright. In my experience, serious gamers tend to be a little bit overenthusiastic when they find some cool overpowered thing in their game. And also busy making new plans, etc, hence the small pupils.

Irises (the colored part of the eye) don’t change size. But you’re right, pupil size is an indication of interest (or glare, but let’s leave that aside for now). Large irises are drawn as an artistic convention, at least in anime, to indicate the person is a sympathetic character. Irises that don’t touch the lids at all usually indicate a psycho in artistic convention– in real life, the upper eyelid generally trims a bit off the iris regardless of how wide open the eyes are, or what direction the character is looking.

I also agree with Suzi’s post, further down, that Kat’s ear position doesn’t indicate happiness, but her ears might be coming up from being flattened, so they could indicate the changing state of her mood.

Possibly the smile would work better without the teeth showing. In manga/anime, female characters almost never show teeth, but this is a really wide smile. (I realize this isn’t strictly a manga style comic, but it seems to follow a lot of the conventions, so I think it’s a fair point of comparison.)

Look at that second panel! Who could possibly call her a monster after seeing that face? She’s adorable.

Yayyyy! So glad I was right on this one, and that Danni is (somewhat) back in. And I love the Danni panel

You might wanna tone down the crazy when drawing Kat happy, less is more and all that. To me, she doesn’t look so much happy as insane, and that takes a bit away from the moment. Great page overall though! Keep up the good work.

I think you broke her….that face can’t be a sign of good health O_O

In all seriousness, I love it! It’s like some mix of worry and relief at the same time with a touch of insanity bordering hysterical XD it’s amazing!

Well, I guess Danni’s ratings are about to skyrocket after that sequence.

Now she just needs a one liner.

D’aww…I think that second panel is adorable… although the eyes may need a little adjusting.

Don’t look directly at HappyKat! It’s like when the nazis opened the Ark of the Covenant! D:

Hee, but yeah. That was great. ^_^

And then they break out into song!

Funny enough, I think the biggest thing might be her cat ears are still laying down. I think that suggests fear and sadness, not happiness, and is throwing a screw in the otherwise pretty happy/emotional face.

I see that creepy tree in the background, I see it! *glares suspiciously*

OH. MY. WORD.
That last panel with that awkward smile would make the PERFECT reaction image for when “the lesser of two evils” gets elected president.

Kat is secretly Scarlet Flandre!

This comic presents so many opportunities to make lame memes!

https://imgflip.com/i/11n6kt

Never allowed to smile again.

her face, its like a Cheshire Cat from wonderland

“Drawing Kat happy is weird.”
Agreed

I can’t tell if Kat is supposed to be relieved and suprized that Danni is alright, or if she’s gone mad. It’s probably the former, but the small pupils and squinted eyes put together with the unnatural smile is very misgiving.

D’awwww!

Gah too much grin:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WoaNC6X4qDo/maxresdefault.jpg

I noticed something:
Look at what was thrown in the previous strip,
then look at what’s in Danny’s right hand.

Yes, Kat is happy that Danni is alive and almost standing, but the maniacal happiness is from the fact that she now can win her quest for Dude with the rare card in her hand and their opposing Kardista has nothing up his sleeve to hit them with anymore. Also Kat no longer has to “cheat” to win as her team now out-numbers the others in able-bodied players.

Woot! Danni is still in the fight! You go, girl!

[…] up because Kat’s happiness was too strong Well I guess at least it’s kinda funny… Tuesday Fake […]

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 477