#lachtaube

[podartists]

Lachtaube, Streptopelia risoria, und Swergtaube, Chalcopelia afra | Die Vögel (1913) | Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829-1884) | Biodiversity Heritage Library

[growingupneopets]

The Site that Inspired the Comics that Inspired Me

When I first started Growing Up Neopets and was planning out what I'd write for it, somehow this subject hadn't even come to my mind. But last week I was being interviewed for Audrey Rabine's documentary project about comics -- webcomics in particular being a huge passion of mine -- and she asked me how I first got into them. Surprise surprise, memories came flooding in of 10-year-old me reading comic strips on the Neopian Times, the weekly Neopets newspaper with all its content created by users themselves, selected to publish by The Neopets Team. It made me realize that all the really good artists I found on Neo who made the best petpages and inspired me the most had been discovered somehow or another through the NT. So I decided to go back into its archives, and find all my favorites from days long passed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pint Sized by Natasha Soglin, a.k.a. Lachtaube Pint Sized was a gag strip following the shenanigans of aloof, cheeky ghost (ghost being a paintable colour of neopets) lupe Ubuu and tiny, potato-obsessed brown lupe Emsohl. Both are Natasha's actual Neopets, and there were often cameos of her others, especially as the comic went on. It was entirely led by the shenanigans created by these strong personalities colliding, but more often riffed on mid-2000's Neopets. Natasha was just 14 when she started publishing to the NT, and I was probably around 12 when I first found her work. She continued to publish Pint Sized and several collaborative efforts until 2013. Her Neopets characters that she developed outside of the comic were the most interesting to me, however, with grim stories of ghosts and re-animated corpses, and sometimes grotesque artwork to accompany them. Pint Sized often had a sort of wry humor to it, but was definitely the more lighthearted of her work on Neo.

Natasha went on to be a professional illustrator and concept artist, according to her deviantART. As of 2014, she is an asset artist for educational game company Filament Games, and continues to create new characters and stories on her own time.

Some of her post-Neopets work: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And the Meepits Outgrabe by Lin Christianson-Derricks, a.k.a. Kittylin

This comic is just sickeningly cute. And the Meepits Outgrabe seems to have been the one to invent the idea of the Neopets "family," starring a kitty self-insert of Lin as the Neo-momma, toddler-age lupe Miles Foxx, airheaded faerie gelert Suzer, and teen-angst-ridden striped lupe Seth. Lin's drawings have this delightful sensitivity to the lines and coloring which I've always admired, and the treatment of the writing of the family of characters is just too charming not to at least smile at. Outside the comic, all her Neopets have fully customized petpages with their own personal biographies, told through their perspective as toddlers and teens and the like, with accompanying art.

According to her LiveJournal which last updated in 2012, Lin is now a real mom with two babies. Shortly after she married in 2006, she had baby Bina, and these new experiences were reflected in And the Meepits Outgrabe with the arrival of the baby xweetock, "JellyBina," and all the antics that ensue with the coming of a new baby. The comic ended shortly after, but Lin's life as a real mom seems to have just gotten started.

This was one of the last of And the Meepits Outgrabe: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spooky by Victoria "Komori" Alexander, a.k.a. Ghostkomorichu

By far my favorite of all the comics that ran in the Neopian Times, Spooky was everything I loved: cute-as-heck art, silliness, and ghosts. This one in particular holds up very well. I still find myself fawning over the adorable expressions and art style, and the iconic character designs. The cast is a pretty classic mix: the naive, the aloof, and the type-A (and an additional aloof added later on) -- two ghosts and a korbat and their misadventures in the Haunted Woods castle they call home. Like many others of the time, there's lots of riffing on Neopets culture, plots, games, items, etc, but the artwork and writing of the gags is just really top-notch in comparison to the rest.

Komori was 17 when she started Spooky in 2004, and seems to be continuing it to this day, its last update being the four-part 2015 Halloween special. According to her deviantART, she's now now a SCAD alumnus working for Floyd County Productions, having animated and illustrated for the sixth season of Archer. She also has a non-Neopets-related webcomic, Vampire Bites. Komori recently posted a goodbye message to the original Neopets Team after they were laid off when Jumpstart acquired the company. It reads, "Thank you so much... For Looking at my portfolio and giving me pointers at Comic Con for three years. For considering me as a possible hire a couple of times. For a platform of 12 years of Spooky comics. For commonality shared with friends, both online and off. For countless hours of enjoyment and happiness. Neopets has been pretty important to me. Thank you for being a part of that." Though I wasn't at the right age at the right time to have had the same experiences, I can't help but share that senitment. I guess I also just appreciate knowing that I'm not the only one who feels so strongly about this virtual pet website, whose life was shaped so forcefully just for having started playing it at some point, and letting those experiences snowball into who I am now, as a person and artist.

[cals-art-promos]

Smile by Lachtaube