Monday, November 2, 2009

"How I Became Yours"

Trying to stay neutral and objective about "How I Became Yours" (or HIBY for short) is almost impossible. It does have a fan base, and about as many (if not a whole lot more) detractors. It has earned the dubious honor of being one of the most well known fancomics out there, perhaps not for the best reasons.

The story is set a few years after the end of the serie and mostly deals with the main characters' relationships and much drama.

First time I saw the pages, it had a home on Deviant Art. A first glance at little preview thumbnails looked impressive: fully colored detailed pages, characters that looked on model. A lot of work went into these pages.

You know what? Little thumbnails can be tricky.

I want to put HIBY in a cross over Alternate Universe. The author seemed to have wanted to do a straight, future continuation of the Avatar world, yet mixes the oriental influence of the show with unmistakable european elements. This is most evident in the characters' dress and environments. There is heavy use of photographs for the backgrounds.




I dare not even thread upon the subject of the story or the cast. An author can have fun with characters' personalities or their powers, but this story reached new heights in doing that. I may go as far as saying that a lot of things get twisted.

I'll never bash someone for their artistic abilities, but the blatant abuse of cut and paste is impossible to ignore. A lot of images look traced; it could be forgivable if only the author didn't keep denying it. It is hard to believe, especially since a lot of screen grabbed images from the serie fit almost line for line over some of the art.
Here is one example of overuse of cut and paste that can reach ridiculous levels.
You can see only one drawing was done for all the panels on one page (or for multiple pages!). All that was done was resizing Sokka, Zuko and Aang as needed, plus tilting Aang. Their expressions or eye directions never change, even in panel 4 where Aang is in a very uncomfortable position (what are you looking at, Sokka?)
It's still my favourite bad page.
Artists, please take note: this is NOT how you should do comics (unless you have a project like Dinosaur Comics http://www.qwantz.com/index.php ).
The multiple grammatical mistake can either hinder your reading or make you laugh.
Forgive me for stopping here, my brain needs a rest. HIBY overdose.
If you're interested in knowing more about the comic, you can read the TV Trope here:
If you would want to see more (admit it, you are curious now), the original pages used to be hosted on Deviant Art. Unfortunately, the artist got banned and her gallery is no longer available. A bit of search on DA can still unearth some of the pages. The rest of the story can be found here:
Deep down, I hope it never disappears from the web. Not necessarily for the right reasons.
All art and story by Jackie Diaz.
Avatar, its world and characters, belong to Mike, Bryan, Nickelodeon, Viacom, Paramount.



18 comments:

  1. XD Oh for the love of Pete.

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  2. Newsflash: Diaz restricted her whole gallery to private. That means no more reading HIBY or her other art stuff.

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  3. Awww, just as I feared: HIBY is harder to access. Sad news.
    Here's hoping someone saved all the pages somewhere, for posterity.

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  4. HIBY: So bad it's good.

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  5. Rufftoon: Someone did! :D
    http://s762.photobucket.com/albums/xx265/ReneeLuvsZutara/

    Found on glorious TV Tropes.

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  6. OMG, the writing is sooo bad, but the images are beautiful and the suki/servamt is very obvious

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  7. why the fuck are you moaning about a fan comic that somebody so painstakingly created. you dont even have the decency to respect another persons right to self expression. you are a little bitch. No! you are worse. you are a fucking nazi. go drown in your own piss you motherfucking ignorant cunt.

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    Replies
    1. GO TO BED JACKIE. STOP MAKING TERRIBLE FANCOMICS PLS.

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    2. very late but. i have to call out godwin's law here i'm sorry.

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  8. As an Avatar fan I found the Comic to be a little OTT not to mention OUT OF CHARACTER. Fine Azula lost her memory- I actually really liked New Azula and Sokka togther. What I found rather disconcerting was the fact that Mai was somehow warped into a baby killing Psychopath. Don't get me wrong I'm not to fond of Mai as a character not just as a Zutarian, however Mai would NEVER Kill an unborn child- she is a bit frosty but she isnt evil! And also Toph.....OMG she was unrecognisable no fire and Wit she was almost a wallflower. I love TAang....becuase it's FIESTY toph with Aang having banter and finding a softer side. The whole paring dosent work if Toph is soft ALL THE TIME there is no Taang in that case...becuase there is no Toph.

    Also Zuko constantly declaring his undying love for Katara 2/4 (the only thing they really honestly talk about) is OOC. Yes Zuko changes at the end of book 3 but he never told the girl he does love (Mai) that he loves her...so why would he go starry eyed with Katara in every scene? I think that Katara is much better for Zuko than Mai but that is preceisly my point: Katara is good with Zuko not alien living in Zuko's body.

    However I loved Sokka and Azula (which was not cannon villian Azula) I just loved the girl the authour molded her into and the way she fitted harmoniously with Sokka. The new Azula reminded me totally of Yue actually, which is ironic as she actually ended up looking like her twin by the end. Also the names of a couple of the next gen characters... Miracle and Lillith they arent Cannon/orientally influenced. However I suppuse there was a baby named Hope in cannon so.....


    Apart from all of theese issues I did enjoy the comic but not as an ATLA fanfiction....as a more Oringinal piece of Fiction. If the authour had set it in her own fantasy world and changed the names...nobody would had guessed much about ATLA. Though saying that the WHOLE POINT of HIBY was to give Zutarians and the like their *cough* my *cough* fantasy ending. The illustrations although apparntly traced where beautiful....epecially more erm 'intimate scenes'. And it did have me in tears when Katara and Zuko were talking about poor little Kuzon. I also cried at the Zuko/ Azula with their mother part....so touching. Although I do think she is dead myself....Ozai was an evil man he wouldnt have taken the risk. Overall I will say well done to the author.

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  9. Lol, you chard monster!

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  10. @Anonymous: Fucking Zutaran babies. That comic is bad, and you should feel bad.

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  11. Narutos better than avatar nuff said

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  12. Yeah I agree with that too

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  13. I've read some of it before and it is a really horrible comic. Some parts were okay but not as good as it could've been. Some of the reasons why I thought the comic was bad is:

    1: There's misspelled words

    2: The grammer isn't proper in some scenes

    3: Everyone is out of charecter

    4: Everything confused me when it wasn't showing who was talking

    I could go on but I'm not going to waste my comment listing why the comic was horrible.

    The only part that I liked was the Sokka and Azula thing. Sokkla I believe the so called "ship" is. It was really interesting to read about it and the relationships but it was, as I said before, a really horrible comic. Azula lost her memory so she wasn't out of charecter because she doesn't know who she truly was. But, besides that, everything was bad and I hope never to read it again.

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  14. Naruto sucks, the two Anonymous who like that garbage are losers.

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  15. Naruto sucks, the two Anonymous who like that garbage are losers.

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