Parson's Size

[InternetNinja]

Can someone link me to the thread that discusses Parson's seemingly shrinking size? And his tendency to resemble more and more the people of Erfworld? Because such a thread has GOT to exist already. I was willing to write off the fact that his eyes are losing their pupils and coming to resemble Erfworld people eyes as a stylistic difference between the two artists. But this latest page (Bk2 Pg63) has him at barely a head and shoulders taller than regular Erfolk. When he was first summoned, he had to look straight down at Stanley and Wanda! In such a subtle and nuanced comic, I can't help but believe that the tenth panel was an intention comparison -a dropped hint if you will- for later in the comic.

[the_tick_rules]

I know of no such specific thread. It could be artistic oversight. Or it could be that erf people have their appearance change to suit their nature. Perhaps Parson is doing what they do? Course maybe it's jst jojo is a bit tall by erf standards?

[InternetNinja]

My thinking is that the world is changing him to fit it. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the story Parson shrinks all the way down to their size and gains stats, leaving only his mind unaffect. Or maybe not even that.

[bob the 6th]

maybe all sides on erf were started origonaly by humans, they slowly devolved to erfite form. the arkendish might have reawakend charly to his his origonal life.

[InternetNinja]

Hehe, if we're going to start talking abotu Charley, there's a million theories that could pop up. I'm more interested (for now) in finding out people's opinions: differing art styles or an intention shift over time?

[Beeskee]

I think it's just art style, for both size and eyes. Tho I think Wanda may have gotten taller after finding the pliers, plus the perspective shot in Book 1 was to emphasize the difference. And Stanley is REALLY short. Compare him to the decrypted pikers he walks past in the beginning of Book 2.

We haven't seen Parson standing next to anyone except Maggie, Sizemore, and Stanley so far in Book 2, other than Jojo. (and some random pikers when seeing how arrows stick) It looks like Maggie and Sizemore would be a bit shorter than Jojo, and Stanley would only be a little taller than Jojo's waistline.


This close up from early in Book 2 shows Parson's eyes, so the eyes are not too recent a change.

http://www.erfworld.com/book-2-archive/ ... -12-08.jpg

[zilfallon]

Signamancy

[bob the 6th]

ah, as parson is faced with his desire to stay in erf world, he looks more erfish. as he relises his ties to earth a crappy, he seems more erf like. or it might be that he is being more of a "unit" and there fore being more "normal" to erf world.

[The.Healing.Mage]

He's definitely less fat, and I think that as his size becomes less of an issue to him (he's becoming more drawn in to the game and focusing less and less on his booped-up Stupidworld life), his size becomes less of an issue to Xin, and since I'm an amateur artist (mainly in lab notebooks ), I can tell you that it's hard to draw different people of very different sizes together multiple times. Subconsciously you try and make them all look similar.

Obviously Xin is several leagues better than me, but my guess is that over a long time, that pressure nudges everyone. However, this is entirely my personal conjecture on the nature of art and artists since I never actually went down that professional path, and as such is subject to things like the risk of being totally wrong.

[Katana]

As a contributing artist from the summer update series and now in the middle of my Master's on Illustration, I can tell you it is not impossible to make the characters stay on model. In fact, just the opposite. In commercial properties, it is an absolute that one must stay withing the parameters set by the company for the sake of continuity. That's why Mickey Mouse never changes. (or in his case changed very infrequently.) If it's a case of style though, the artist has full reign to illustrate the character within the lines that he or she feel most comfortable with And is recognized for.

For the Summer series, Rob was not concerned about continuity just 'getting the pages done". They developed as more of a fan art series. If the artist chose to draw more in the style of Jamie than so be it. For the regular series though, it should not detour to far from what has already been set into place.

While I was referencing the characters from book 1 for my own work up, I made a page of about 50-60 head shots from all the characters and the differences were staggering. It's going to be the same here in book 2.

The artist changes lines based on the feeling of the day and the creative drive to develop the page. As long as it is recognizable (in this case), then that's all that matters.

In an environment, where food 'pops', it shouldn't be a problem for Parson to get his favorite pizza everyday, but in light of that same environment of Wars, castles and sieges, his weight would be affected.

Personally though, I feel an "Alice in Wonderland" thing for ease of explanation, might be worth exploring.