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EIDKIK EXTRAS

welcome to the behind-the-scenes something something of EIDKIK!
as you may know, this project was, uh... huge. definitely the biggest thing ive ever done- it was only supposed to be about 20 pages long, but then i wanted judge to talk more, and then i wanted the flashback scenes, and then i wanted the hell scene, and then it was suddenly 40 pages and a fully painted cover and epilogue.
so this is mostly just a dump of references, warmup sketches, concept art and shitposts. im personally a huge fan of concept work, so i decided to toss these out there for anyone curious!
just a quick warning: this does have references and sketches of the angels without their robes. *gasp* OH NO THERES nothing there, they just look like the in-game seraphs really. just didnt wanna jumpscare anyone. however, there is also body horror and general grossness, cause the all is also in here.
another warning: images are big. i'd encourage clicking on them to see the fullsize, since i crammed a ton of sketches into single canvases. enjoy!

Pazelius

took a lot of work to figure out how his body shape should look...

paz was the only design i really didn't have to mess with, thankfully. since we get to see his angel form in game, my only task was to make him easy to draw over and over. one fun thing about paz was his... expressiveness? despite his in-game demeanor (calm, cool, collected), i made him a little more anxious. reasons for that being that he seems to get a little tense when heaven gets involved (most notably around gehenna, when he openly states that hes worried about seeing angels and kinda just shit-talks em the whole time). surely those feelings come from somewhere. i imagine he didn't really wanna stir up a one-man rebellion, but judge wasnt nearly as afraid. which is sort of terrifying for him, because that means at some point, he's gonna have to come face to face with his feelings becoming reality.
all this to say, paz's whole arc in the comic is about letting go of the need for control. change terrifies him, because he doesnt know what happens next. he cant control how the situation plays out, so he avoids it entirely, sacrificing his own happiness to exist in a place that doesnt care about him. he learns to let go of that, and put his faith in judge, who he knows he can trust.

███████ (The Red Judge)

judge was interesting. i had to figure out a way to translate her in-game design (scary skeleton wife) into an angel that sort of reads the same way. but, i kinda got sidetracked and gave her her own story, so now she looks the way she does. basically, the gist of it is:

███████ is a guardian angel of sorts. as a protector of life, she also embodies it. her horns don't look like the rest of the seraphs, but are more like tree branches, and her face markings resemble waterfalls. they also look like tears, staining her face after witnessing so many deaths of people she was to protect. she guides humans to the afterlife, so she looks more human than other angels (yknow, to look more approachable). her red dress and sleeves match her horns, and as she becomes the Judge, are the only remnants of her past life.
her personality was fun to work with. i wanted to keep her similar to her in-game self, but show her softer side towards the unknown who she is meant to protect, as well as her genuine love for paz, who is her closest friend. i pretty much took her final monologue from the last cutscene to be her truest self- one that didnt have to be the devil. she speaks softly and thoroughly, but isnt afraid to raise her voice and be commanding when necessary.
also, i wanted her to make fun of paz as much as possible, as pals do.
she does have a name, but i thought it would be neat to keep it censored. only paz knows it, and also calls her many nicknames throughout the comic (which are also censored.)

THE ALL

the all. the body horror disaster that is this worlds god. ow, the edge.
anyway, the all was designed after things i really dont like looking at. its head is fashioned after an elephant skull (stylized to hell and back, of course), its body is rotting, and its single eye is intimidating enough to make me look away during the panels where its looking right at us. coupled with its short temper, the all is a very unpredictable and scary being. i debated giving the all a design at all- since its both referred to as god, but also all of existence and everything in space-time. in the end, i wanted the comic to have a clear antag, so i decided to make it corporeal. pretty happy i pulled off that animated reveal, too :3c
the all is also covered in gold, and sits upon a high throne, something to do with showing off its authority and greed. material worth and status matters more to it now than the souls it creates and the angels that surround it- and youre in for a world of hurt if you dare question it.
the last thing i added was the key thing- to be honest, i still dont know why i did that. the first reason is probably that it looked cool. really though, it shows how the angels are bound to the all- you cant leave, you cant question it, you just worship. there is no escape other than hell or death. also, the concept art of judge where shes got shackles around her ankles gave me some ideas.

The Lost Soul (Unknown)

the lost soul, the unknown, unfortunately doesnt show up in this comic a lot. of course shes as important as the angels, but its more of a story about the angels. unknown was innocent in all this, just a horrible 'wrong place wrong time' situation- something that ive turned into a reocurring theme with her.
something i like about this comic is how strangely out-of-character the unknown seems- she's timid, kinda shy, and barely talks. this is long before she was imprisoned in hell- the rage she feels for the judge hasnt built up inside her yet. this is just a person who, freshly dead and confused, is being tossed around heaven because no one really knows what to do with her. on top of that, her guardian angel and that angels friend seem to know something about her that she doesnt even know. which is probably scary. the music inside her is so powerful, and she doesnt even know it.

writing eidkik was weird. it started out around 17-20 pages. i was just doing exercises in comic stuff, since ive never done a comic before (or one that i really stuck with, tbh). it was a short story about the angels that was floating around my head and wouldnt leave me alone, so that was my practice... except, i really liked it. i liked it enough to do concept art for judge, and move paz's features around enough to be easier to draw. i liked it enough to add an entire design- the All- and a few extra pages. first, i added the throne room scene with judge (the first one, where she follows paz out). then, i added the scene where he runs after her from the indoor pond, because i didnt want it to just end there. then, i added the flashback scenes. then i decided, i wanted the judge to talk more about heaven during their walk. then i decided, i wanted to show off hell and how unknowns voice got to heaven. then the twist... the judge knew about the prophecy the entire time, and thats why paz was so drawn to unknowns song. THAT'S when i was satisfied... 40 pages. a nice, even number (not counting the epilogue...). when the 'twist' of the comic came to me, thats when i knew i could wrap all this up in a pretty pink bow and give it to yall. from january 16th til june 28th, i worked every single day on EIDKIK (except toonfest days of course). and that makes me feel crazy. but it also makes me feel incredibly proud, and it makes my heart swell when people tell me theyve read it and enjoyed it. so, if youve read this far- the comic, or even just this blog post- thank you. from the bottom of my heart, i wanna thank each and every one of you. art should always be for yourself first and foremost, but i wont lie- other people enjoying EIDKIK is what pushed me into completing it. it was hard, and it took so, so long. there are some days i hated working on it- but then id remember the love i put into the concept, and the love i received in return. every comment, every DM, my friends telling me how cool it was, random people who found it on tumblr or twitter- people who i dont really know, but i ended up getting excited to post because their usernames would always show up on update days. thank all of you.

and, of course, the biggest thank you to the outsiders. this comic was my love letter to one of my favorite games, one i INSTANTLY fell in love with. the art, the characters and their designs, the writing, the music, the overall love poured into that game. it just overflows, its infectious. not sure how many of yall are gonna make it to my blog, but if youre here: metal hellsinger is fucking awesome.

now, as i said in the beginning, here's some concept art, along with shitposts and dumb doodles. also, for anyone who wants the entire comic- in its ginormous fullsize- it'll be up on my ko-fi shop! for free, of course.

the first concepts vs. their newer ones, some notes and paz's tattoos up close. also, the only concept i did of unknown. nailed her design first try!

first screenshot of the site, before i even had a proper title for the comic.

and of course, the shitposts.