Fanmix! "Where They Are Now: Ansom (Special Edition)"

[Scientivore]

A "fanmix" is No Need for Bushido's term for a fan-made remix, which is what you get when you rearrange old art and/or give it new words. Here is my first one for Erfworld! The art, character, setting etc. is copyrighted by Rob Balder and Jamie Noguchi, natch. All I did was crop art, erase old speech bubbles, add new speech bubbles and write captions.

Update! I made a banner for giving proper credit to Rob and Jamie for my derivative work. I think that I've covered everything needed to abide by the Creative Commons License that they're using. If you use it then please make it a hyperlink to the first page of the comic like I did, otherwise I also have a larger version that you can use that displays both URLs.



This illustrated pamphlet is now a Special Edition with Editor's Commentary! It's in the spoiler tags. If this is your first time reading "Where They Are Now: Ansom" then I recommend going all the way through once first before reading any of the new commentary.

Where They Are Now: Ansom (Special Edition)
Prince Ansom is best known for assembling the Royalist alliance that initiated the Battle for Gobwin Knob. What is not as well known is that he was also its original leader, not Archcount Vinnie. Tragically, Prince Ansom's personality began to crack under the combined pressures of leading such a massive, diverse army and hiding his socially unacceptable desire to wed Jillian Zamussles. It wasn't that her rank was too far above his, as you might imagine; back then, she was merely a mercenary barbarian warlord with an inexplicably high Leadership bonus.

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This fanmix is presented as one of the "Where They Are Now" series of illustrated pamphlets, a play on the VH-1 TV series "Where Are They Now?" It's set several campaign scenarios in the future of "Chapter 1: The Battle for Gobwin Knob". Vinnie is now an Archcount and the famous leader of the Royalist alliance in that historic scenario. Even though the target audience of these pamphlets is units with a Veteran bonus, many of them are too recently popped to remember that Prince Ansom was the Royalist alliance's original leader. Jillian is now some unspecified rank that is high enough to intimidate a prince -- at least a queen, possibly an empress.

First, he became increasingly confused about his own gender and ethnic cultural identities...

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In the first panel, Ansom is using a phrase and body language most commonly associated with urban African-American women. I might not have done this fanmix at all if his right hand hadn't been on his hip. It was just too perfect! I couldn't resist.

...then his genre...

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In the second panel, Ansom is using a Bruce Willis catchphrase. As his mental malady progressed, Ansom became convinced that he was really a character from a Die Hard Half-Life mod who mis-popped in a fantasy TBS setting.

...then his species...

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In the third panel, I re-imagined Ansom watching Jillian fly off into the distance as if he'd been watching the orlies instead. The *sigh* in this panel is my favorite part of the whole thing. It turns a bizarre delusion into poignantly tragic longing.

...and finally his profession. The Ansom formerly known as Prince now begs for his upkeep as a street poet, tapping out funky beats in reverse on an upside-down top hat.

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The fourth panel has two specific musical references. In the panel itself, Ansom is saying "Paul is dead" backwards (which I stole shamelessly from The B-Movie Comic) and the caption has a TAFKAP reference.

He's actually riding a flying carpet in this panel. I thought about cropping it or something but it's so far out of context that even I forgot what it was. Besides, utterly nonsensical ridiculousness was the point of the panel.

[Maerad of Pellinor]

Heh. Nice

[Scientivore]

Thanks! I've finished adding the rest so that it's a complete little story, now.

[SteveMB]

That's twisted. I love it.

[Ultimatum479]

Brilliance.

[Scientivore]

Thank you for the compliments! I've gone over 24 hours now without being inspired to change it, so I'm calling that the final version.

[jami]

I really love the Die Hard one! HAHAHA!

[Emperor Demonking]

Their fuuny, I like the Die hard one.

[DemonicPenguin]

This is hilarious!

[jindra34]

Would you do another one sometime... possibly Jillian.

[JohnnyQDoe]

Would you do another one sometime... possibly Jillian.

After you get a bit more art for Vinny, I'd like to see what he's been upto.