Era of the great Failures
At the end of the Golden Ege, Schuschinus began to question his previous work. The comics that were created spontaneously and carefree should be redone, everything better and more thought-out. This led to a continuity gap between the ages of 11 and 13 (approx. 2000 - 2002). The plans for the new comics were over-ambitious, concept drawings were created, but Schuschinus did not dare to go into the actual work. However, productivity did not suffer, other comics were made that deviated from the original canon. As usual, this was done stylistically confident. But then Schuschinus also questioned these new works and wanted to go back to the original canon. The Golden Era was elevated to an ideal, new comics should now closely follow the old ones in terms of content and style. As a result, the style was backward-looking for a while and did not develop any further, instead of new stories a heap of rehashes and sequels emerged, which were largely discarded because they did not meet the high standards of building on the old glamour. In addition, some old comics were reworked and thus damaged. Nevertheless, a few new, independent works were created on the side. The epoch is now a fully accepted part of the development and incorporated into the canon.
previous epoch: Golden Era
next epoch: New Heyday
Artistic Development
Transition Time (1999 - 2000)
The soft and fine forms that prevailed at the height of the Golden Era now became a little more energetic, the style stronger and coarser. The first experiments with digital art also take place at this time. An important work that began here and was expanded over many years is the garbage dump. But this area wasn´t pursued further at the time.
Era of Deviations (2000 - 2001)
Since the beaks have slipped further down over time and the upper line often coincides with the contour of the head, they have been further stylized. Now it was just a single line that represents the lower jaw. The upper jaw is integrated into the head. The stick figure shape is now mostly represented with legs. The lines are generally strong and lively, fluctuating in the degree of precision. Fewer large, elaborate pictures were made, more sketches and quick comics. The pictures are usually not colored, or only partially (blood and fire). On the other hand, the flip books gained in importance during this time. Film effects were imitated and three-dimensional movements were practiced. In addition, the first attempts at modeling with polymer clay were made during this time.
Important sources of inspiration:
- Transformers Beast wars Transmetals
- Gogos, collectible figures that you could throw like a dice. Unfortunately, they were superseded by the next trend far too quickly: Pokemon trading cards. Cardboard cards were not very appealing to Schuschinus compared to 3-dimensional figures.
- During this time, anime series such as Pokemon, Digimon and Dragonball became popular, but Schuschinus only picked up on them through print media due to the limited television reception. He had a Pokemon Game Boy game that influenced his art.
- Bionicle. Although this did not flow into the comics as much as desired, the mystical atmosphere of it was very stimulating.
Era of Continuation (2002)
Since the finer style of the Golden Era was to be resumed, the lineart was tried to be precise on the one hand, which was to the detriment of the dynamic, at other hand it became extra scribbly out of defiance and frustration. The beaks were also set back to 2 clearly recognizable, straight lines.
Historical Events
Table explanation:
partially colored
fully colored
¹ main plot (Comics that advance the story of Hurdelhabadan or the House of Schuschinus)
² side plot (Comics whose actions have little impact on the fate of the Schuschiverse)
³ good old showing comic (Comics that are primarily there to sensually exploit a certain situation without advancing the plot considerably)
| title | year | page count | content | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transition Time | ||||
| 2000 |
Freshly inspired by various scifi films, a new Timefight comic ought to overshadow everything that has come before. For this purpose, many ideas were collected and concept drawings were made. First of all, a small golden head should be the reason for a bridge to be built between the planets Hurdelhabadan and Seipiria Freitan, on which the Timefight would take place. The head should have a big meaning, which was not yet clear. Then everything should get bigger. Schuschinus had magnificent futuristic cities and gigantic space battles in mind. All established characters and new aliens should come together in this epic work. Later machine planets and time travel were also considered. But there was no idea for a real plot apart from the action. So the big plans were always put off and for half a year there were no comics made at all, apart from a few pages without much weight. A lot was made up for in 2008, but the attitude towards life was different then. The vision of this monumental work, implemented with the spirit of the Golden Era, is still a wistful dream today. Unfortunately, this was the first failure that ushered in the Era of great Failures. |
|||
| Era of Deviations | ||||
| Kugelkreuz¹³ | 2000 | 30 | A collection of short stories about the terrorist attacks of the Kugelkreuz. They blow up bridges, raid hospitals and households, or indiscriminately slaughter people on the street. In their hiding places they carry out bloodthirsty experiments on prisoners. They have street battles with the police. | The Kugelkreuz became a recurring main opponent. The events are not related to the previous canon, except for 2 small things: On one picture you can see Juliak, who has joined the Kugelkreuz. This had not been pursued any further. Elsewhere, a member of the Kugelkreuz says he is looking forward to the Timefight. Inspiration: The villains of the Action Man and Max Steel toy lines; Neo-Nazis |
| no title (Borg)³ | 2000 | 15 | A collection of short stories about Borg attacks. | It's a good old showing comic, so the plot is extremely thin. It's about showing the Borg because they're so aesthetic. |
| Hnpik Eip Ikstrim DadaNo² | 2000 | 50 | The comic is conceived as a series of 2-page episodes. The conflicts between two factions, the dotted good guys and the checked bad guys, are dealt with, which are based on the style of the first Timefight comic, but do not play in the original canon. Each faction has a castle, a leader and an inexhaustible supply of standard warriors. They hire special warriors and fight each other with a different thematic focus each episode. | The comic discontinued originally and was supplemented by a few episodes and a grand finale in 2005. Inspiration: 1. Timefight Comic; Masked Rider; Zelda |
| no title (salesman)²³ | 2001 | 8 | A vacuum cleaner rep rings the doorbell. He is extremely persistent and tries to sell the customer a lot of useless products. | |
| Expedition to the cube planet²³ | 2001 | 7 | A research spaceship discovers a planet full of optical illusions. Above and below alternate and spatial distortions occur. The researchers leave the confusing environment, but the planet splits into many small cubes that surround the spaceship and also break it down into cubes. The entire home planet of the researchers is cubed. | Inspiration was a Saturn TV commercial, as well as optical illusions such as impossible figures and reversible figures. |
| The three children at School² | 2001 | 4 | The 3 children only go to school to defy all the rules and riot. | While this comic isn't particularly significant, it revisits characters from the original canon after a long time. There is also a single page related to Dumpling. |
| Invasion of the Puke Ball¹ | 2001 | 24 |
The planet earth, home of depraved humanity, is being infiltrated by the Maschinensäcke. They build an underground base. The base is discovered by 2 Earthlings, but they get lost and are rendered harmless. Schuschinus monitors all processes via the Snek, which maintains a permanent connection to Hurdelhabadan. Then the invasion starts. Masses of Maschinensäcke are storming the entire planet and subjugating backward humanity. They also use "the other method". The flagship of the Maschinensäcke, based on the cube technology from the previous comic, appears in the sky. It is immune to all earthly weapons and can cut dimensions. The fighting rages on in the underground base as well. Schuschinus decides to incorporate the Puke Ball invasion into the Timefight. With that, Sneks open up everywhere and aliens from all over the universe join the battle. The plot changes to different combat areas in the middle of the Timefight and becomes a good old showing comic. This is also the first time that the Moschers appear. The comic originally discontinued, and continues to discontinue after the merger. But that is irrelevant because the Timefight extends into the entire universe anyway. There is no end to be expected at this point, that will be told in other comics. |
This comic originally consisted of 2 separate stories, which were merged and supplemented in 2009 in order to incorporate them into the canon. It tells of a possible future. A single previous comic page was made while on vacation. It is inspired by a Max Steel comic and Dragonball Z. |
| Baby Banane vs Fiesling¹ | 2001 | 18 | The Kugelkreuz has fought grueling battles against the city Banania. Schorschi "Fiesling" Dunniker, leader of the Kugelkreuz, decides to send his entire force into a final battle. Fiesling is injured in the battle, but returns as a cyborg and begins using the other method to subjugate the trapped residents of Banania. Baby Banane invades his base, destroys the equipment and defeats Fiesling in a duel. The weakened Kugelkreuz withdraws, but Fiesling is still alive. In the following days he sends out his remaining vassals to kidnap people with whom he wants to replenish his army. After a few skirmishes, Baby Banane is kidnapped, but has another duel with Fiesling, who escapes again. However, his army seems to have been destroyed. Fiesling returns to his abandoned base and activates a secret submarine. In Banania, a captured Kugelkreuz warrior escapes with a missile whose course is programmed for Jagori Nedagor (added in 2014). Baby Banane goes out on his yacht to relax after the hard fighting. But the submarine appears, the yacht is destroyed and Baby Banane is kidnapped again. Again he fights his way free and warns his friends of the new danger. Comic discontinues. | At that time, several Gogo campaigns were being held on Omchen's living room table with the note box base. |
| Era of Continuations | ||||
| Maschinensäcke - Snek¹ | 2001-2002 | 103 | The 5 Maschinensäcke from the very first comic meet and decide to go on new adventures. They meet an aggressive mummy. They defeat it and sell its death mask to an antique dealer. The mask attacks too, because it contains the spirit of the fireman. After he fell into space at the end of the first comic, he was picked up by the Seki and buried. Now he has awakened again and has help from the Seki, who consider him a god. The Maschinensäcke manage to extinguish him and convince the Seki that he is not a god. The Seki give them a spaceship. But the fireman has backup candles from whose flame he can regenerate. The fighting continues until the spaceship is destroyed. (2014 added: Schuschinus assigns the previously undefined 5 Maschinensäcke to the identities of the classic characters Baby Banane, Befan, Kartoffelsack, Muckelfatz and Tefan using the Weriwerität and creates an association for the imagined series "Baby Banane") The Msäcke get new equipment and continue their journey. From here everything gets chaotic, because the comic was canceled and started over countless times. | It is the first of the continuations that tries to build on the Golden Era. The first attempt was still halfway successful. The scattered pages of the further attempts were scraped together in 2014, but it is impossible to put them into context. It was decided to include only the first half and leave the rest as it is. |
| no title (Fs and Zs)²³ | 2002 | 4 | Inspiration: Donkey Kong Game Boy game | |
| Hnpik Eip Seim DadaNo² | 2002 | 6 | Spin-off from Hnpik Eip Ikstrim DadaNo. Here visually updated good guys fight against Seimi and the Pilzkes. But the whole thing was never done in detail and coherently. | When Schuschinus saw the first Lord of the Rings film, he was ill, the DVD had poor image quality and the film is rather lengthy for an impatient young mind. Therefore, the first impression was not so overwhelming, Schuschinus' appreciation for it only matured after seeing it several times. But the orcs inspired the Pilzkes in this comic. |
| no title (big city)³ | 2002 | 7 | A guy named Tuajp wins at the casino, buys a flying car and flies to his apartment in a skyscraper. A group of aliens are chatting, then one of them falls off the platform. He lands on a truck. The others look for and find him. They go out to eat. Then they take the elevator down, go shopping, do a city tour and bungee jumping. | Inspiration: the Coruscant Level from the PC game for Star Wars Episode I, in which skyscrapers feel very high. You elevate a lot in the elevator. This was intended as a continuation of the casino comics from the Golden Era, but was separated again in the course of the "old-remains-untouched-policy" of the New Heyday. |
| 1. Timefight (failed continuation) | 2002 | There were also attempts to make continuations to the comics "The first Timefight" and "Power Bubis". From the outset, however, these ended in endless discards, which are scattered all over the third box. They have not yet been processed and are only part of the canon as an alternative time-dead-end. | ||
| Power Bubis (failed continuation) | 2002 | |||
Slave Status
Due to the inadequate education caste system, Schuschinus ended up at the lowest of the three secondary schools. He could still have changed, but as mentioned, changes in the environment were stressful, and so he decided to stay there. We don't want to make it appear that we share the view that a higher graduation equals a better person and a higher school means usually just more boring work. But it is indicative of the school system that only looks at grades, as it failed to recognize Schuschinus' potential.
The lessons were usually tideous and boring, so Schuschinus occupied himself with drawing, much to the displeasure of the teachers. The pubescent classmates turned into wild cavemen. Some were funny, others bullied Schuschinus. But Schuschinus also found someone here, who came closest to his definition of friend so far. Apart from the fact that he was from Jehovah's Witnesses, he was not yet that senile and had interests similar to Schuschinus. You could draw, play and talk about films together. This lasted into the New Heyday. The art class was treated as an orphan. At first it was accompanied by incompetent teachers as usual, later he was removed from the timetable. But of course the hideous sport was never canceled. The brain-amputated machos even got a stage at numerous sporting events, while the refined culture was never promoted.
At home it ran smoothly, just like in the Golden Era. Already then we complained that everything was better in the past, playing and drawing, but looking back, the time was very lively, there was still a lot of play.
Philosophical Development
The constraints of school and the lack of understanding of his fellows caused Schuschinus a lot of trouble. He was still inclined to play and imagination, while the others, blinded by puberty, mocked and despised all childlike things. Careless and sometimes exaggerated remarks by adults about the horror of the big, bad world spoiled Schuschinus the prospect of growing up. In protest against this world, he resolutely distanced himself from humanity and declared himself an alien from Hurdelhabadan. He lived this out in his comics in the form of fantasies about the destruction of mankind. The imagination became more than ever the ideal world that promised security. The beef book was now used more intensively, in addition to anger, fears were also described, but without research into the cause. It was always the other's fault, and increasingly institutions, that were suitable as a faceless, overpowering bogeyman.
The artistic self-portrayal changed somewhat. The hero role of Schuschinus moved into the background. Instead of getting involved in the front, he kept the strings in the background and enjoyed the security. His characterization was much more vulnerable than in the Golden Era. The Frms were neglected in the Era of Deviations. Instead, humanity emerged directly as the enemy. In the Era of Continuations, the Frms were brought back again and redefined. Now they were assigned more evil character traits, they became more powerful and more dangerous. This is due to greater fear of the outside world and the future.