Welcome to Atop the Fourth Wall, where bad comics burn. In this episode, Linkara looks at the final Thing from Another World comics!
atopthefourthwa...
Originally uploaded October 20th, 2014.
ORIGINAL INFO: It’s less that the research is questionable and more that the intellects of those DOING the research is questionable.
RUMINATIONS: This one only had one additional edit by the Game Show Reviewer, adding the portal effects next to Linksano’s body (which I originally deemed as unnecessary since you couldn’t see the portal that clearly in the shot). However, this gave me an opportunity to correct a BIG mistake - namely that the King of Worm’s reflective little mask meant that it was constantly showing me in the reflection reading off lines to Will Wolfgram, who of course once again stepped into the suit role as he had done before for Lord Vyce. I took some time to blur out the reflection in as many shots as I could. In some it’s not very clear and in others, due to the nature of getting this done with quickly, there wasn’t A LOT I could do to fix it, but I think it’s definitely a marked improvement and it’s less noticeable that I’m standing there reading the lines.
The King of Worms’ look was inspired by a number of things, although the big thing motivating him was time. Even up to filming I wasn’t entirely certain what the hell he was going to look like. I knew I was going to use the platinum masks in some variety, but what his actual face was going to look like took some doing. I conceived of maybe a big, single eyeball in the dead center of it, or just a hole that would SERVE as an eye but not look like it. I wanted this guy to look creepy in some variety, but I just wasn’t sure how to make it happen… until I decided to go back to the well with the Entity. The Entity had been inspired by MissingNo., so if this thing was related to it, maybe go for another Pokémon-themed thing? In this case, his face is designed to resemble the sprite of ghosts from Lavender Town if you don’t have a Silph Scope - the creepy-ass grin and eyes. Thematically, it doesn’t match, of course, since the Entity was a being of pure data and the King of Worms is themed around robots, but it’s scary, which is what’s important.
The other inspiration actually came from Alien, which I had been watching while I edited some of the other reviews. H.R. Giger is famous for inventing the look of the xenomorph, but of course that look itself was taken from some of Giger’s other works. I figured if they could draw inspiration from his works, maybe I could do the same? And the thing I took away from checking out some of his other paintings… was that the dude loved himself some ribbed tubes. As it happened, I had some leftover ribbed tubes that I had purchased in the hopes of someday making a proton pack prop, but that never went anywhere, so I decided to incorporate the tubes into the designs.
Originally, I constructed a quick little chestpiece for him to wear with some blinking lights on it (finishing it just before Will arrives) inspired by the Cybermen’s chestpiece, figuring that since cybermats had played such a big role in the storyline, maybe he could resemble one in some ways, but it just looked awful. Instead, that chestpiece ended up being a piece of equipment on a desk that you can see in the next episode. What he wore instead was a bunch of football armor padding that I had purchased as part of a Borg costume, as I discussed in the Star Trek: First Contact review. It also had some ribbed tubing as part of it, so it helped with the aesthetic. I then added on the netting to give the idea that despite being the youngest of the Techno Gods, he was still old and decrepit and had been here a long time (netting equals old, I guess). The gauntlets were the only “kingly” thing about him, having bought them at a party city much in the same way I had bought Vyce’s original gauntlets at a Target. They looked good and that was what was important: making him look cool.
He’s voiced by Suede, who had eagerly told me he wanted to be a part of a storyline at some point, so I asked him to use his voice he had used for an Obstacle in Suburban Knights. After adding a bit of an echo and a Flanger effect to it, it gives it a very cool effect. You can also hear some odd creaking noises. That’s actually the sound of leather moving from my own leather jacket, which I thought could make for an organic sound of the King’s body moving in odd manners. It didn’t really work all that well, so I stopped using it after this episode, but the other failing in his appearance is that he’s supposed to be wormlike - no legs, just a single body, but it didn’t really convey that very well.