Legacy LD5

Hi folks, RipRoarRex here with the second of two new pieces of artwork.

Now here's a character I should've drawn a long time ago.

When I was a kid, I remember reading the story inside the instruction manual for Donkey Kong Country. There were two lines in that story that kinda stuck with me - one being the thought of Diddy being "quickly overcome by the weight of many scaly assailants", and the other was the image of banana peels "trampled into the dirt by hundreds of reptilian feet, judging from the many three-toed footprints that covered the damp cavern floor."

Yeah. What's an impressionable kid like me supposed to think...



Of all the Kremling characters in that first Donkey Kong Country game, there were two I used to have certain 'thoughts' about. One was the simple Kritter, and the other was Krusha. And come on, it's hard not to like a scaly character with a name like Krusha.

(For the record, Klump and King K Rool never did much for me, and I never really became familiar with any of the later ones. To me, K Rool's basically an imitation of King Koopa. And I don't need no imitations of King Koopa.)



In the spirit of nominative determinism, and in keeping with those nice images I had in my twisted childhood mind, I decided it was time to draw a big, stomplusty Krusha doing what he does best. And who better to target than Diddy in the same inexplicably shrunken form that featured in my last Donkey Kong themed picture!

I've never drawn any of the Kremlings before, but drawing Krusha proved much easier than I'd expected - perhaps because admittedly I did draw him with a distinctly Rexar-ish look, though I think it suits him. Unlike most representations of Krusha, I didn't go for his usual top-heavy body with massive muscular arms, preferring instead to keep his proportions a bit more even. Nor did I give him his usual camo outfit, because it was rather more fun to see him wearing very little at all. And I decided to give him slightly paler soles, because... well... you know me.



Drawing this project was actually surprisingly enjoyable too. While I normally find POVs quite tricky and spend considerable time tweaking the shape of the foot, this time I worked much more instinctively and settled on the first foot shape I liked. The other panels were relatively simple to draw too. Perhaps the most demanding part of the whole project was actually the background on panel 4, which I wanted to keep relatively faithful to the traditional Donkey Kong backgrounds of yore. This took over two hours on its own, but I think it was worth it.

This is ultimately a crush comic, though the violence is largely implied only. There's no blood, though there is a gratuitous amount of 'crack' and 'snap' text going on - so if you'd prefer to imagine it without any of that, there is an alternative 'no text' version: click here

And before you ask, I certainly plan to draw more Kremlings in time to come. How could I possibly resist?




Just to add, I have also done several more instalments in the Rexar & Mike: Snapshots series since my last visit. I won't be uploading any more of these here unless they are more directly relevant to LD5's themes. But if you do wish to see them, I have created a new page on my website which features a full list of every episode in the series so far. You can find it from Rexar and Mike's character pages, or by clicking here.


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Diddy by name, diddy by nature.
Krusha by name, crusher by nature...


[Direct Link]





(Alternative 'no text' version available - click here)


RRRex

Hot-DAMN that is pawsome.

That's some delicious looking paw, and a sexy reptile too! Out the way monkey boy, I'm next!

Rexar-ish? More like Rexar painted Gantu-blue with a different snout and spikes.
Not as faithful to the source material as your other offerings, but at least you cop to it.
You're still faithful to the fetish, and that's what matters to me!
Even what you consider "off-model" is still way more accurate than most fanart out there. Sturgeon's Law, but whatever!

I think it's faithful up to the point where being more faithful would be less sexy. And I'm okay with that.

Because it's really really sexy. Like holy shit.

I have a bit of a weakness for -ahem- tight bulging shorts.

Damn.

It's funny, I was just thinking the other day about Kremlings because I was toying around with the idea of buying Donkey Kong 64 of all things, because I never really spent that much time with the Donkey Kong games back in the day. I don't know remember having any particular reactions to them, but strangely I do very clearly remember the lines you quoted from the manual that I have not read in some time. Whatever you want to make of that.

A scant few years later, however, I do have one of the first video game incidents that seemed to get to me in some kind of special way.



This guy, from Mischief Makers on N64. No stomping involved (feet under lava), but he did eat a guy. And he looked cool. For whatever reason, I recall it being a key moment in the love of large scaly things.

Really now? Hurrah for Mischief Makers! I was more fond of Lunar and Cerberus Alpha myself. Through fire, justice is served!
I've heard that's a standard boss monster template these days. Battling a big demon's lower half simply doesn't convey enough weight in terms of challenge or accomplishment, which is a shame.
In any case, have you seen the Old Iron King from Dark Souls II? I think he's right up your alley...

Well, bigness was certainly a factor in this equation. As for that style of boss...I think part of it is just there are only so many things a boss can do to someone at foot level. Granted they're all something *I'd* be interested in seeing, but I suppose from a gameplay variety standpoint somehow making it so the player is a little higher up and can see the head of what they're fighting is desirable.

On the other hand, since you bring up Dark Souls, I don't remember if I ever brought up this monster, which very much made me think of LD5.



An entire enemy that's only the lower half of a dragon. All they can do is jump and stomp on you, which they do with much gusto.

Good god yes, that's just brilliant. THIS is how the reptile-primate balance should be (fuck you, King Kong).

I don't think it's possible to make a plantigrade reptilian foot look any better - very nicely done

MAI GAWD Krusha was my sexual dream as a kid

Thank you for another boner-fide moment of how big he should be!

And if only Krusha could display like this http://quadpod.lavadomefive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=448&p=4114&hilit=krusha#p4114 more often. I even forgot the size modifier code!

Heh! It's been alarmingly long since I last drew any proper reptilian stompage. I was worried for my health!



Thanks Dino!





Ah, don't worry. He won't take long to finish off Diddy...






Thanks Sprotchymon! I generally like the challenge of drawing well-known characters as faithfully as possible, but sometimes I just like to tweak a few things here and there to suit my preferences. In any case, the Kremlings have always been more like 3D characters instead of drawings, so I don't feel so much motivation to try and replicate the 'style'.




Interesting. Never seen that before. But then reptilian types always make awesome bosses.



Thanks Selendro! I didn't want to make the shorts too ostentatious when it's ultimately a stomp comic, but it's always nice to know there's... something reasonable there.






Thank you very much, Diablo! It's funny because I didn't actually spend as long on the foot here as I usually do on POVs, so I'm glad it still came out well!





Lol! That's the right personality for Krusha... but not quite the look I was going for!



Anyway, thank you very much!

So much reptile rawrsome!

Lol - that's weird. I thought you'd already replied to this thread, then I realised I'd somehow gotten you and Selendro mixed up!



Apologies to both of you! And thanks!

I replied on FA I think.

Did you draw the foliage background on panel 4 and used your software to blur the background image?

And did you put the Krusha layer over that layer?

I imagine this took a lot of layers.