Angry Carrot vs. Quirky Bastards: Bonus material

Here is all the bonus material and errata related to the comic, presented mostly unchanged from its origins on the QB website.

What was used to make the comic?

Games

  • Tribes. Episodes 1-4 feature Scarabrae (CTF) and Temple of Doom (C&H)
  • Tribes 2. Episode 5 features Archipelago (CTF)
  • Unreal Tournament. Episodes 4-5 feature Twin Valley (CTF), Facing Worlds (CTF), Fetid Sewers (DM), Koos Galleon (DM), Peak Monastery (DM), Worst (DM), HiSpeed (Assault) and Oceanbase (Assault)

Paint software

  • Painter Classic
  • Paint Shop Pro 6.0
  • Photoshop 5.0
  • Photo-Paint 9.0

Play graphics geek and see if you can figure out which episode used which paint program.

Hardware

  • Wacom PenPartner USB 4×5 graphics tablet
  • My trusty mouse (duh)

You like pop culture references, don’t you?
Yes. Each episode features a few, although Part 4 is especially top-heavy with them. See if you can spot them all. You don’t win a prize or anything, but if you figure most of them out, you’re probably a keen Trivial Pursuit player.

Why is Angry Carrot angry?
In truth, I think this strip (done a good while back) is pretty crappy, but what the hey, you don’t have to pay to look. 😛

Original tiny version made in 1889:

Resized (same art, new font) for the 21st century:

Any other one-off strips featuring Angry Carrot?
Just this one.

Original tiny version made when a 17″ monitor was the height of luxury:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is ac_retail_full.jpg

Resized for the 21st century (click to get the full resolution version). I changed the font and also resized the balloon in the first panel, which meant having to add to Angry Carrot’s leafy green head. Basically, I put more work into this than I should have1Both strips were made bigger by using Pixelmator Pro’s “super resolution” option.

This is probably the closest Angry Carrot comes to representing me. I no longer work in computer retail.

Where did Angry Carrot come from?
He was originally supposed to be a villain in my Super Spud comic strip. As with many things done in college, Super Spud got abandoned. However, here’s a look at the super tuber:

Are there other QB comics?
Yes! Be sure to check out the super-keen Fuzzy Logic, penned by jackrabbit (NOTE: Link removed, as the comic does not appear to exist on the internet anymore.)

Character sketches ‘n stuff

The many shapes of Angry Carrot
Naturally, you can’t hope to capture the look of a character the first time out. Look back at most comic strips and you’ll see the appearance of the characters evolve. Usually it involves the size of a body part getting bigger or smaller. For example, early Peanuts strips featured the gang with heads the size of watermelons. Concerned that people might think these kids were hosting large tumours in their craniums, the heads were adjusted down to a smaller size. Conversely, the first Garfield strips depicted the famous feline as having tiny, beady eyes and small, cat-like feet. Today, his eyes are shaped like giant eggs and his feet are bigger than the average NFL linebacker’s. Really. Have a look.

One of the first pics of Angry Carrot. As you will notice, the characters look most like veggies in their earliest form. Here, AC is lookin’ lean ‘n mean.

By Part 2, Angry Carrot is a little more substantial. His face has grown, too and covers most of his body.

By Part 4, Angry Carrot has assumed his present form, although in this particular shot, he’s a little too plump and his legs are too short. His leafy green plume is full, but the stalks have been shortened, to make it easier to fit him into panels.

From Episode 5, Angry Carrot’s top is bigger than ever, showing I just haven’t learned! On the plus side, this is one of my favorite shots of AC, as I got the shape and proportions pretty much just the way I wanted. He looks less like a carrot now, but for me, has more of that personality thing.

Would you care for some carrot legs?

I posted these two shots on the QB forum, asking if I should give Angry Carrot “real” arms and legs. People unanimously said to keep the original look. Thank lord, because it’s way easier to draw and I’m lazy as all get-out.

The evolution of a Rutabaga

This is the first drawing I did of Lenny, using Painter Classic. Like all the vegetable characters, he looks most like a real vegetable in his initial design. I was happy with the leafy top, the red eyes and teeth, but the shape was too flat.

Version 2.0 of Lenny was a rough B&W sketch. Here you see longer legs, fewer teeth and a more tapered body shape. I felt I was pretty close now. Side note: Jackrabbit is the one who came up with the name Leonard for the rutabaga. It works, I dunno why.

Voilà! The stalk on top is unchanged, but the body shape has been refined. The legs are long and thin, and the skin color has been lightened. The signature crooked grin is in place. Here we have a vegetable ready to commit nefarious acts on behalf of his master.

How green is my celery?

Original celery: big face, light green. I will note here that this is, by far, the toughest character for me to draw. I hate the celery.

New celery: smaller face, darker color. The original color is actually closer to real celery, it just didn’t seem right.