Oh boy. Octogus has an interesting story.
It started when I first drew an eight-armed vaguely humanoid/dinosaur looking thing. A friend suggested the name.
I’m fairly sure this one is the very first drawing (enhanced, of course, with the “compact disc” gradient for a background. 90’s! )
I liked the character so much, I dedicated much of my artistic effort to scenes involving him and all the myriad ways one can take advantage of so many arms.
Meanwhile, I stumbled across a place called EnterVoid. Original characters battle and stuff? Rock on! I’ma enter Octy and see how he does.
So I do a few modifications and end up posting a reference sheet… which I don’t seem to have. But what I basically learned from it is that “over-originality” should be avoided. Octogus wasn’t a mary-sue, but something completely unfamiliar – just as bad if not worse. Weird alien powers with no rational explanation and no character development.
But I didn’t learn this easily. The folks there are harsh. I’ve got to give them credit though; they gave speedy, solid critiques, where I would have to plead people at DeviantArt to even say one thing that I could improve on one piece.
So I developed him into a human with a superpower: having an octopus attached to him.
Win and lose poses were one of the several things required to even AUDITION to be a part of Entervoid.
The most important of which was an intro story.
Brace yourself for narrative genius.
You read all that? I’m impressed.
Well, the people at Entervoid certainly weren’t. Octy was rejected and they told me what to work on. I spent maybe two hours rushing said improvement and then submitted again. I’ll never forget the response I got:
“This is a job interview. Don’t come in here with your face half-shaved and no pants on.”
So I stewed in my anger and complained on my DeviantArt page, and I hold a grudge against them to this day.
…Nah, I don’t blame them for setting the bar so high. They make excellence a thing to strive for, instead of something everybody already has. There’s something to be said for both an inviting atmosphere and a competitive one. I percieved them to be elitists, but they’re just trying their best to deal with all the other mary-sue characters that land on their doorstep. I decided it was time to move on.
But THEN… he made his comeback.
The Working Man’s Original Character Tournament, hosted by MyNameIsMad, was Octogus’ perfect opportunity to redeem his past failures. The goal of the tournament was to make the worst characters and artwork possible.
He made it in. :D I couldn’t tell whether to be pleased or embarrassed that there was so few changes I had to make.
Here was his first faceoff against another entrant, a wheel of cheese.
(It’s huge on purpose)
My opponent didn’t even make an entry, so I thought I had this first round in the bag.
BUT THEN MyNameIsMad went and changed the rules. The 64 worst entries overall moved on. I must have been #65. I complained even more than ever before, as only this OC tournament could encourage.
So it’s best that we forget this character ever happened, but I will always treasure the gifts and trades that resulted. :)
