Color Pallette Swap: Green for Gray
You stupid bastards. I hate you, Marvel Comics. Hate, hate, hate! This is by far the first time something like this has happened to either myself, and it's even more frequently plagued my brother. However, this is a rather devastating and most cruel, years-of-effort dealt blow, so I'm gonna get angry.
Now, I fancy goblins. Gee, who could have thought that? I only named my website after them. Anyhoo, in all my years of studying goblins in fantasy and lore, a strange revelation occurred to me: when did goblins turn green? It was a familiar fact that the foul things commonly took on the shade, but there wasn't an apparent source for the paint job. Normally, it would be a work of Tolkien, as everyone just borrows what he set as fantasy cannon; however, he actually did not make them green. It was most perplexing! So, within the span of one hundred years, their skin color goes from dingy grays and browns to an almost unanimous shade of green. I was looking into it, or, a bit over a year or so ago, and it hit me. The cause was obvious. Why was a goblin green? Hm, "green"... "goblin"... Green Goblin. Much like the common portrayal of the Devil came from the mascot for Deviled Ham (formerly a visage of Pan or other satyr-like wilderness god would serve the role), a popular character set the trend for what it was a different and unique version of. I mean, the descriptor of green was tossed into his name. Goblins weren't green before that, else his name would just be Goblin. It'd be like saying "green lime". Already established.
Anywise, I am always one to preach "classic folklore", so it would be rather hypocritical of me to not use this information. I like my vampires to be tan and feral, my chimaera with one head, and my necromancers to only commune with the dead, not command them. It's how things were pre-bastardizing. Anywise, I went through a lot of deep thought, contemplating what I should do with this, and the decision did not take long (implementing is another story I'll get to): green is out, gray is in. Gray was the color of the old, wizened goblins who lurked in mines. Additionally, it further distanced my persona "Mad Goblin" from "Green Goblin", a similarity I've always hated. The way I've drawn mythical goblins has remained the same since grade school. They had big, pointed ears, jutting, thin jaws, big toothy smiles, beak-like honkers, heavy brows, and the hair that had not been cut let alone washed for months. It was a staple. However, I'm pretty sure its obvious, that some good deal of inspiration came from the Green Goblin, although very loose and not really. Regardless, I always proudly take steps to distance myself from even appearing to be like other things. So, I planned, over the course of several months, to wipe out green from my goblins. In all honesty, I planned to wipe out most occurrences of the word "goblin" from a lot of my characters.
This began with Bimblesnaff Bogg the Lunatic, star of Rumbl-o-Rama and my general waste basket representation for non-direct representation. I had planned originally for him to appear in Idiotic Iteration as gray to serve as an example for how false the tales regarding the first Rumblo were retold. I believe my twin talked me out of doing this, however. The notion was there, though. In addition to dropping the color, Bogg was to not be a goblin but just a mutated freak, a lunatic, plain and simple. About the same time, Bimblesnaff Bogg the Hook Blade Ghobling, star of my RPing at Althanas, was about to receive a facelift. In a solo adventure, a magical mishap was about to rob his skin of pigmentation, reverting his hide to a dull gray. It worked out perfectly, especially since as a "Ghobling", I could stress enough how different he was from that world's portrayal of regular goblins. More devising and scheming went on. I had it planned nearly a year in advance that, for my site's 7th year anniversary, I would debut the new hue, gray, picking lucky seven as a good time to tear down everything and start anew (a process I'm sorta still getting done, right? ... okay, I'm not).
Everything seemed fine and dandy. The big day came, despite several teasers leaked before hand, some months ahead of the date, but it went off without a hitch. Largely, I'd attribute this to no one giving a rat's ass. Regardless, I was happy, and that was what mattered. I didn't make the change so that other people would not associate me with another creation, but so that I would not even think this association could be fathomed. I was content, a rarity. Gray was to stay.
Then, a few weeks later, I get a message from my brother. "Hey, did you hear about the new Green Goblin? ... He's the Gray Goblin. Hrhr." You stupid ass bastards. Over a year a work, planning, and calculating all ruined. I make a profound change, and now it will seem to have all been done in accordance to the character I hoped to be separated from. "Oh, you're gray now? Just like the Green Goblin? Way to be original, douche bag." "No! They copied me! Really! I was first! I was first!!!"
This is some twilight zone shit, for serious. I'm in a dimension where my insignificant progresses are mirrored by larger entities, thus making them lose their novelty. Thanks a lot, Marvel Comics. I'm glad I don't purchase any of your series! And Ultimates suck!
Yeah... that showed them.
