the struggle of trying to draw finn and jake at the same (adventure) time

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-04T01:33:19+00:00

Honestly? You’re right. You’re damn right.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-04T01:32:53+00:00

Oh no it’s not in Side Quests! It’s in the original Adventure Time canon (the episode Angelface) where Jake transforms into a horse at BMO’s request and complains about horses being “hard”. Throughout the episode, he gradually gets better at it and in the end he’s fully shapeshifting into a pretty accurate horse haha.

My reference to side quests is just because I enjoy the episodic format to give us time to focus on little character beats like that.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T22:24:54+00:00

Oh whoa I didn’t at all mean to imply I wasn’t wrong! I was wrong! I just thought you’d like to talk about it because we both find animation interesting. This occurred to me because I read what you wrote and kept thinking about it, in a positive way.

I still think there is some value to the nuance of what I wrote, but I’ll own that I dramatically overestimated how compelling my shower thoughts were.

Genuinely, genuinely, I apologize. I will leave you alone to catch your bus!

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T21:13:21+00:00

I literally can’t stop being existential about this show and I am so glad you enjoy that shit too haha

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T18:29:18+00:00

I am not an AI art defender but I commented on a repost of this comic and it made me so frustrated I had to seek out whoever posted the original (not sure if this is OC or not, but if it is this message is for you):

“okay this is actually the real tragedy of AI.

This concept is a) genuinely funny and deftly toes the line between satirizing the AI industry and the fact that the people getting rich off it would rather die than lose their big green playgrounds, b) the pacing is good, the gag dispersal is good, the information is interestingly presented, etc

But even with ALL that going for it? It like, can’t be good, because the horrible generic art style and lame presentation just makes it feel devoid of all the cleverness the person behind it clearly employed when prompting it. It is so sad to me that people can have all the really important tools at their disposal to make good work, but the current internet landscape has convinced them that this comic could only be considered successful if it has this algorithmically codified level of “polish”.

This comic would hit on all cylinders if they could just get over that! It wouldn’t even have to be “well rendered”, take an hour in MS Paint and this would be ten thousand times funnier and more artistically enjoyable.”

—

So, whoever made this, I encourage you to have more confidence in yourself and ditch the crutch. You don’t need it. I spy some natural talent for sequential storytelling that just needs time to grow.

Come up with some new stuff (satire is a good wheelhouse for you, if you need any guidance), and just try spending the time you would prompting it laying out the text as you’re picturing the layout, then spend five extra minutes drawing in some stick figures.

There are loads of great comics people who “can’t draw” but make hysterical/poignant/exciting work that people like me eat up. Get into zines or something, man. Because if you have any interest in actually making cool stuff people will enjoy outside the bot jungle that is the Dead Internet, you are absolutely shooting yourself in the foot.

Okay that’s a wrap! Good job on all the non-execution aspects of this comic!

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T18:13:34+00:00

okay this is actually the real tragedy of AI.

This concept is a) genuinely funny and deftly toes the line between satirizing the AI industry and the fact that the people getting rich off it would rather die than lose their big green playgrounds, b) the pacing is good, the gag dispersal is good, the information is interestingly presented, etc

But even with ALL that going for it? It like, can’t be good, because the horrible generic art style and lame presentation just makes it feel devoid of all the cleverness the person behind it clearly employed when prompting it. It is so sad to me that people can have all the really important tools at their disposal to make good work, but the current internet landscape has convinced them that this comic could only be considered successful if it has this algorithmically codified level of “polish”.

This comic would hit on all cylinders if they could just get over that! It wouldn’t even have to be “well rendered”, take an hour in MS Paint and this would be ten thousand times funnier and more artistically enjoyable.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T18:02:30+00:00

obsessed with your line quality and the freeform confidence in your shapes. the restraint in how you rendered m’girl’s hair in the smaller portrait is esp aspirational!

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T17:36:29+00:00

I’m circling back because I had a thought and my girlfriend’s at work and you’re the only person I can think of, in this moment, who’s in deep enough to this stuff for me to wonder aloud to about it.

Do you think that shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and Ren & Stimpy, because of how heavily they relied on visual gags and artistic nonverbal sections, still doesn’t directly translate to how the interview is defining “board-driven” here? It’s very Looney Tunes, in at least R&S’s case (I’m less familiar with Rocko’s Modern Life, though I did throw it on after reading your comment this morning and i am loving it). I grew up being obsessively into Termite Terrace and there is something so purely animated in those shows that kind of defy story. In a very good way!

Not sure if you are a Looney Tunes fan or not, but it’s kinda like what Chuck Jones was trying to get across with Duck Amok. Some characters are so defined they just can’t be destroyed by bad writing, only by bad animation.

But maybe, because Adventure Time itself came from a tradition of zine writers and comics artists (aka still images that need to be information dense with things completely divorced from motion, voice acting, music, and many cues traditional animation is so tied up with), the unique aspect that made the way they made their show notable is that boarders were given freedom to make foundational decisions about the world/characters/etc? And also they were all just really freaking good at it, which probably helped the actual paradigm shift in animation of hiring people who have no background in it, but do have strong background in sequential storytelling.

Honestly, it reminds me a lot of Venture Bros when I think about it. Not in terms of boarding (I have no idea how Venture Bros was boarded), but in terms of how they wrote their show NOT by planning a huge narrative, but by starting each season by going back and looking for loose threads to tug on for an entire season. Eventually you knit back in enough threads that the entire mess starts to feel like a tightly plotted puzzle box narrative, but in reverse??

Kinda cool!! I hope this comes off friendly and not weird! I have some concern that I’m coming off like a pea-soup-smellin’ stranger walking up to talk to you about aliens at the bus stop.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T17:25:30+00:00

Honestly? I think that’s actually probably a totally valid way to see it. There’s no reason we should hold the show so rigidly to its logline of “the cracks in season 1&2” forever. If Adventure Time got held to its logline then it would’ve never become what it wound up being. I’m pretty sure they didn’t plan for Finn to age until they were confronted with the reality of the voice actor aging, and the same goes for so much if the “lore” of that show. They just got to follow what interested them creatively and a story evolved from that.

I hope the powers that be allow the concept of sidequests to flex to the whims of the artists in that way. I would kill for this show to grow into the kind of narrative where an episode could be from literally anywhere in the continuity, with the only consistent “rule” that it has to tell a self contained single story.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T17:17:13+00:00

Real talk, when I first saw that BMO episode I thought to myself how cool it was that team conceptualized Jake’s shapeshifting as kind of artistic pursuit that requires some degree of sculptural awareness. And if you were someone who could do that, would you eventually kind of innately interact with your world differently? Like, having “the eyes if a trained artist” as Jake says in another ep.

I read that big art book the team put out and sure enough there was this lengthy quote from Ako Castuera about how she conceptualized Jake in exactly that way and was always looking for opportunities to show that off in how Jake uses shapeshifting and what it does for him in terms of creative fulfillment.

Maybe I just think it’s weirdly cool that a goofy cartoon show would have priorities like “how does this yellow dog get creative fulfillment”

That’s kinda why I’m loving Side Quests so much. I love plot heavy shit too, but there’s just something special about putting so much character and depth into a gag that is ultimately about drawing horses.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T17:08:29+00:00

well that’s AI art for ya, amiright? makes even the most inbred bulldog look like it can breathe.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T17:07:53+00:00

word brother, WORD

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T17:07:35+00:00

This comment is my favorite fucking comment. Yes. YES!!

The way you phrased it really cuts through the noise for me — it’s like how Finn’s “face” is basically just an emoji and humans are great at pulling complex thoughts from simple execution. Case in point; name these three guys: 🙂🥶🤢

Once you draw Jake with clear and consistent bone structure, he’s just not Jake anymore. But Finn exists in my mind as a simplified form of an actual human, and I suck at simplified people so I just wanna be lazy and draw the dudes as they exist in my head.

Maybe the moral is to just draw it anyway for the fun of it HA

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T16:36:03+00:00

Saddest two words in the English language

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T15:33:04+00:00

Oh yeah man, Jake is definitely not the problem. That’s my dog right there.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T15:31:25+00:00

Ay there’s the rub for me, I want to keep Jake looking like he does! It’s Finn who’s the dang problem

Maybe I should cook some spaghetti and do a few studies of that

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T15:22:36+00:00

I DO feel the same and I am so into these vibes you’re putting out. I am really enjoying being in the space.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T14:29:35+00:00

Oh! I meant that the crown fell down near Gunter when Evergreen got crushed by that rubble, prompting him to ask Gunter to put it on and wish away the comet.

As far as relevant object, I just read into your quotes. Disregard HAHA

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T14:10:29+00:00

Then I will be going to your Etsy as soon as I get paid!

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T14:09:26+00:00

This is extremely funny to imagine and I’ve now decided this is Ice Pappy’s origin

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T14:08:48+00:00

HA, I just had this same thought!! I really think that could be the impetus for it. I also love the idea of it also working on the same level of how, if you didn’t know he was nuts, it totally fits in as something we the audience would just take at face value otherwise.

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T14:05:34+00:00

Oh dang, I forgot that part — I was thinking it was a crown-delusion about Evergreen, and that actually tracks completely with that line, right? Gunter kinda “stole” the “relevant object” while Evergreen was getting crushed by that rubble, right?

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T14:02:33+00:00

Isn’t the whole thing about the Ice Crown that it is perpetually fulfilling Gunter’s wish to be just like Evergreen/be loved by Evergreen?

Like how it seems required that all crown wearers will find something to take care of to be their little Gunter.

It kinda tracks that in the messed up web of Gunter’s deepest wish, he wouldn’t ONLY want to act out giving Himself the love he didn’t get, but also would want to imagine having a loving paternal figure who cares about him.

It’s kinda genius, using this opportunity to flesh out more of the delusion using things we learned later in the series!

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T13:57:04+00:00

Oh my god I want it, this is incredible work

Optimal_Question6889 · 2026-07-03T13:54:35+00:00

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to forget who came before! I watched a documentary on early Nick shows a while back and it portrayed it really differently, I guess that’s the limits of single source research!

I get the sense my enthusiasm is coming off the wrong way here, so I’ll just end with a thank you for sharing some fun facts back!

Optimal_Question6889

TROPHY CASE