LAJ

[Violet CLM]

LAJ is a JJ2 sprite comic I was toying with back in 2004. I thought I might as well show off what it looked like... I got seventeen strips in, plus some random fillers, so I'll update every day or so until the buffer runs out. Be charitable, since this was 2004, but otherwise, enjoy! :)
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/1.png">

[Suroguner]

Where/how did you get the sprites?

[Violet CLM]

Back then, everything was done through screenshots. Either I'd set up a one-color level and put together my one sheet of various useful-looking poses, or (especially in some of the more actiony strips) I'd just set the area the strip was set it in and take a screenshot of the stuff actually happening. These days it might be simpler to use <a href="http://www.spriters-resource.com/pc_computer/jj2/index.html">Spriters Resource</a>.

[Nonomu198]

Why is it called LAJ?

[Violet CLM]

It'll make sense later.
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/2.png">

[Suroguner]

Nice recap

In sprite related stuff, how would I get Lori's sprites? They aren't on TSR and I have no idea how Dolphman got the Special stage sprites

[Violet CLM]

<a href="http://www.jazz2online.com/J2Ov2/downloads/info.php?levelID=4041">Jazz Sprite Dynamite.</a>

[Violet CLM]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/3.png">
Awkward repeated last panel is awkward.

[Slaz]

Nice work (2004 rules on)! The JJ2 sprite library would be big enough to make comic variations for another 5 years at least.. :p

[Nonomu198]

I know villains like talking to themselves, but why did Devan suddenly scream "MY ARMY!"?

[CrimiClown]

I know villains like talking to themselves, but why did Devan suddenly scream "MY ARMY!"?

Well obviously he bumped his arm and he screamed in pain and Violet just typo'd 'arm'. I know it sounds improbable but Violet has really big fingers.

[Violet CLM]

Eh, villains shout parts of their thoughts sometimes. I think it comes with the job description.
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/4.png">

[Nonomu198]

I think they only suddenly shout when they talk to themselves, not think. I'd usually have more to say about the comics, but, you know, 2004.

[Violet CLM]

2004 does mean that you're not really going to be able to affect upcoming content, but comments are always encouraging.
<img src="http://tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/5.png"
Nowadays I have a more nuanced appreciation of this weapon, because it has so many quirky uses and you can almost kill the last boss in Mike's new episode before you leave the cave with it.

[EvilMike]

With evilice on it actually has a use in multiplayer.

[CrimiClown]

With evilice on it actually has a use in multiplayer.

Not to brag or anything, but in TITLED Deux, you can evilice everyone in the pits and because you did damage, it counts as your kill as well.

These comics are, well, moderately funny. They've got some sort of a punchline, but it's more of a prodline, if you ask me... just doesn't get me on my feet...... (Not that I am one to complain, BrainFart and TGOC have been nothing but slight prods.)

[Violet CLM]

Mmmhmm. It's more of a plot comic, really, but I agree I could have spent more time making individual strips interesting.
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/6.png">

[Bobby aka Dizzy]

ILLEGAL JAZZ SIDEKICK!

[EvilMike]

Not to brag or anything, but in TITLED Deux, you can evilice everyone in the pits and because you did damage, it counts as your kill as well.
Even with evil ice off it counts as your kill, in my experience. It's a cool little feature of JJ2+ that not many people know about.

[Slaz]

I remember something like that from Unreal Tournament. At normal situations where a player fell into a pit or 'hurting' part of an arena, that player had a suicide just dropping a point from the score. But when an opponent player shot that player into the pit or hurting ground, it was stated as an 'envoirment kill' instead.

[Violet CLM]

I am not sure how relevant this discussion is but at least it keeps the thread active!
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/7.png">
We've seen snippets of each rabbit fighting the enemy forces and being more or less successful. Here beginneth the plot!

[Dermo]

I like it so far

[Foly]

Nice comics :)

[CrimiClown]

...that last panel, is it supposed to be some kind of strategy game or something? I don't get it. :(

[Violet CLM]

Crimi: Yes, a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_II">quite notable one</a>. It's not really relevant that you recognize the specific game, though, the point is just that there are a bunch of demon units being brought into the field.
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/8.png">
Oh, publishers. I didn't actually contact Moonblaze about this, because it's arguably just an homage, but I was definitely going to because I think his work makes for a very reasonable expansion of the canon (moreso than the old war tavern days when everyone and their brother lived in Carrotus Castle) and I was interested in incorporating more elements into the comic as time went on, particularly the "wolf rabbit" himself.

[EvilMike]

Also jj2 has enemy sprites and tilesets for hell themed levels which makes it a convenient plot element :P

Really not much you can do with the game in terms of storytelling, when it comes to the antagonists. It's either devan shell's guys, demons, or.... animals I guess? An invasion of crabs?

[Dermo]

The evil PIE MONSTER

This is the random and unfunny things that takes something funny like that last comic strip and ruins it.

If you were funny i'd be like "no way! ha ha ha ha!" but you're not funny so i'm just like "(sarcastic)ha ha ha ha! (/sarcastic) no!"

[CrimiClown]

If you were funny i'd be like "no way! ha ha ha ha!" but you're not funny so i'm just like "(sarcastic)ha ha ha ha! (/sarcastic) no!"

you stalking cooba or something?

[cooba]

you stalking cooba or something?If you were funny i'd be like "no way! ha ha ha ha!" but you're not funny so i'm just like "(sarcastic)ha ha ha ha! (/sarcastic) no!"

[Violet CLM]

:rolleyes: be nice to Rag, folks, people talked that way all the time in 2004 and it's nostalgic.
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/9.png">
Anyway, it's true, JJ2 only has so many enemy types. I had plans to convert JJ1 enemies to the JJ2 shading style when necessary, but for the most part, it's a bad idea to theme comics (particularly sprite comics) around battles anyway. In this draft LAJ does start with one because it's important to the plot, but even this I was considering redoing as a flashback and starting in medias res instead.

[Dermo]

you stalking cooba or something?

I came up with that quote ORIGINALLY... Cooba took it from me...

[Nonomu198]

Why is Lori such a wimp in your comics?

[Violet CLM]

Because Lori doesn't have the combat experience that Jazz and Spaz do. Jazz was a galactic soldier of fortune who had saved countless planets before JJ1 even happened. Spaz doesn't have the same extensive background, but he doesn't really feel fear the same way most other rabbits do, and he did go through countless wormholes and planets in search of Devan and his time machine in JJ2. Lori did go on the search for Valhalla, but she's been through far fewer combat environments, has never tackled a "boss," and doesn't even know how to use a copter. I'll admit that this is somewhat at odds with the extremely confident persona her sound effects express, but another feature of the quest for Valhalla was that there really wasn't any antagonist, they were just fighting creatures that were already there. Here there is a direct threat from an <i>approaching</i> force who want her dead, and if things go badly, retreating is much less of a viable option because Devan will presumably want to cause destruction if he's not being directly opposed. The pressure is a lot higher.
...anyway, tell don't show aside:
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/10.png">

[Violet CLM]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/11.png">

[Violet CLM]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/12.png">

[Ragnarok!]

NOOOO :(!

[LittleFreak]

This is getting pretty interesting. Also very well done, artistically.

[CrimiClown]

Finally, the good guy gets it.

[Nonomu198]

No worries, I'm sure he will respawn in a savepoint someplace near.

...Right?

[Ragnarok!]

What if he ran out of lives? :(

[Violet CLM]

Oooh, you people are clever. But wait for it!
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/13.png">
Here we can see that the ideal background for these things is green. I couldn't figure out how to get the laser shield to be over a transparent background, alpha-channel style, because it's not a sprite effect. If I did it again today I would just imitate the effect rather than using actual screenshots for that part.

[Violet CLM]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/14.png">
This, as would later be clear, is the lizard who bombed his way into Carrotus Castle in the JJ2 comic. He's Devan's wacky, stupid sidekick. I call him "Reggie" because it looks like "Reggae" and people are named after music sometimes.

[Ragnarok!]

Bop bop doo dop

[Dermo]

I made a new dance

lulz

[plunK]

Lori's Firin' her lazor XD

[Violet CLM]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/15.png">

[Ragnarok!]

Feisty ;o

[Dermo]

Lori's Firin' her lazor XD

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l30/drmooismyname/chishio-heki.gif

[Violet CLM]

Heh, got more than a bit off schedule there. Posting some hours early...
<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/16.png">

[Unhit]

According to my timezones, there's no comic from July 9th! :D

[cooba]

That edit of Thermal looks boss.

[Violet CLM]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/17.png">

[Violet CLM]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/Filler1.png">
Aaaand a filler which will probably only make sense if you're familiar with the source material.

Anyway, that's the run of Life After Jazz as it was actually produced. Future plans... Jazz was going to crash into the lizard we just saw, who was killed in Lori's laser blast, and get knocked backwards into the continue grave, ensuring permanence. He would get into Heaven (the tileset), which was ruled by Queen Agama, although he'd have to content with all the Doggy Doggs ever roasted because all doggs go to heaven. Spaz and Lori would find their way back to Carrotus Castle, where they would break the sad news. A funeral would be held, which would be an easy way to meet some more characters, including Queen Earlong, Razz, and DrJones if I could get him, although I would have settled for some random other rabbit figure. Eva would be distraught (and eventually, if I recall correctly, banish Spaz and Lori from the castle, viewing them as partially responsible for her husband's death and in no way actual royalty) and -- again, if I could secure character rights -- would visit her friend the Wolf Rabbit, who would help her recover.

I seem to recall that King Earlong was planned as a shadowy figure who was never seen in public but secretly ruled the kingdom, but I don't remember anything about the storyline in which he'd be revealed. Lori would eventually develop a romance with DrJones (or, again, whomever) and would feature in some takeoff of the play The Glass Menagerie, except with an Ice menagerie instead because there are sprites for that. Spaz would wander a lot and at some point (fairly early on, I think) meet a red-headed white rabbit named Claire Snowbunny, who lived at a farm (despite also singing and using computers), and he would welcome this way of distancing himself from the castle life and spend a lot of time there.

I forget exactly how it got started, but there was to be a lengthy storyline set in the future, with DrJones or Moonblaze or some other side character sent into the future for some reason, where he'd be surprised to meet Jazz, in JJA-style. A flashback would reveal that back in JJ1, when Jazz went off to break Devan's Gene Machine, he actually brought Spaz along for the ride, who wanted to get into the turtle-stopping business even earlier than JJ2 suggested. The Gene Machine, located on the planet Nippius, was turned on the two rabbits before being destroyed, and the clones ended up being frozen in the ice of Nippius. Spaz would then go home again until JJ2 and Jazz would continue his JJ1 adventures. In the future, Nippius' orbit would change and it would thaw greatly, resulting in the Jazz and Spaz clones being unfrozen, and they would find a way off-planet and became the characters seen in JJA. (Which would also, I guess, explain Spaz' character there, if he doesn't have the combat background.)

The other main storyline I remember was sort of a continuation of the very opening, and started with Devan sitting around somewhere with a demon standing beside him, grinning evilly. Devan asks for a glass of water or something, and then freezes as the devil's grin grows much wider. It turns out that Devan's control over the demon population extended to a series of three commands: the first being JJ2 (specifically the power to transform himself into Devil Devan), the second the Demon Invasion (which is why he waited so long to command them to attack), and then the third this innocuous glass of water. With Devan no longer in control, the demons would begin a deadlier assault on life in general, I suppose working their way out from Jungle, and Spaz and Lori and some other characters would go in to try to stop them. At this point Claire Snowbunny would be revealed actually to be an angel (the audience would have seen her angel sprites in the Jazz-in-Heaven sequence but presumably wouldn't have made the connection between the two white rabbits) and would be a key player in fighting off the hellspawn, and the battle would eventually be won by someone else (forget who) gaining control of whatever artifact (probably a golden crown) allowed Devan to give the devils orders in the first place. And presumably I'd have come up with more as I went on, but that never happened.


I have no intention to continue LAJ... I thought I might when I started posting, so I posted them one at a time in case I wanted to start building a buffer, but sprite comics don't seem to be something I'm too good at making at any speed (my main one has been stalled at #39 for years), even though it'd be easier now with all the various ripping tools. But I hope I've maybe encouraged some others of you to do something more mainstream than levels and tilesets with the Jazz universe and get it out into the public eye a little more. I'd have posted LAJ on other forums had it gone on longer, and you can do the same with your projects. Keep the community going.

[plunK]

<img src="http://www.tachyonlabs.com/sam/LAJ/17.png">

Maybe the deep hole secretly skipped all levels right the the end with devan.........but everyone always picked the countryside......

[Nonomu198]

turtle-stopping

More like turtle stumping. Ha, ha.

[Nonomu198]

Oh, also. I guess this partly applies to some sprite comics, but LAJ's plot really reminds me of Bob and George with the whole clone, time travel, to multiple games motifs.

[Dermo]

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l30/drmooismyname/m13317621er4.gif

Hurry up and release the next comic I'm psyched to see how this plays out.

[Violet CLM]

If you could, umm, read my previous post.

[Dermo]

If you could, umm, read my previous post.

I saw that. I'm saying somebody hurry up and create the next one and keep this going sorry I should've stated that a little more clearly.

[Puffie40]

How about a jazz comic, period?

[Dermo]

How about a jazz comic, PERIOD

How about a jazz comic, QUESTION MARK

[mikeejimbo]

The thing that controls demons should have been a ring, of course, if you had gotten around to it.

[Violet CLM]

The whole thing was an homage to the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz, so it was going to be a golden crown. I didn't have an intricate mythology of gems and rings worked out at the time.

anyway I do like the idea of other people making comics publicity for JJ2 is good yes