Evil Jim: Week Fifty-Seven
04-19-04 through 04-23-04
Artist's Commentary:
162
This chapter's logo is a direct ripoff of the on-screen frame used in the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, only I've replaced the four rotating roses with Evil Jim logos.
Parts II and III are very heavily influenced by Utena. There are a few reasons I did such an elaborate spoof. First, this part was about Jim fighting students who stole his college. Utena is a big favorite among the Anime Society of Ithaca College (from now on abbreviated as ASIC cuz I'm lazy), so it was only natural to adapt the series' Student Council with the real-life Executive Board of ASIC. The idea was basically: Evil Penguin's "Plan B" was to give control of the college to ASIC while Jim was away, then have them fight him in an elaborate duel. (And what a duel it is.) The second reason I used Utena as a backdrop was because the series is full of symbolism and apocolyptic ideas. These could be modified for my own purposes as I take the Evil Jim character through his first (and only) character evolution. Thus, we have Ithaca transformed into the series' Ohtori Academy. My lab is now above-ground in the form of Utena's two-girl dormitory. (This was also a clever way of me explaining why I have a box-shaped above-ground lab in the Evil Penguin comics.)
Jim's first phase of character evolution: Not giving a shit about the girl who just saved his life. Watch how this plays out. I didn't mean in any way to deface Betsy's legacy...this is just my way of showing how much of a self-centered jerk Evil Jim really is.
163
The "Warning: Unwashed Otaku" sign is an homage to the greatest anime fan-parody dub of all time, This is Otakudom.
Yes, that's Evil Tiny in Secretary Heather's arms. Why? Well, funny story. The running premise was that Evil Tiny has been hanging out with the bad guys from the beginning. (Having formed a bond with Pat while he was still working for Jim in Year One, and switching to Evil Penguin after Pat's megadeath.) However, this plot point was shortly dropped and forgotten about. I remembered Tiny around strip 195 or so, but by then it was obviously far too late to do anything about. So, it's never really established why Evil Tiny is where she is.
The moving chalkboards thing was used in the Utena movie. The meeting room of ASIC does, indeed, have those moving chalkboards you see in this strip. Just a funny paralell I wanted to point out.
Eric is about to eat a Cadbury Creme Egg, (don't ask) Peter's typing on his laptop, now emblazened with the Rose Crest, and Art is copying files on the computer. And President Jim (Jim Classic, as we lovingly call him--because I showed up at ASIC and screwed everything up by having the same name) is writing "Lefty." This strip had many non-ASIC readers scratching their heads. Don't sweat it...these are all in-jokes you're not supposed to know.
Utena has a phallic tower. Nuff said.
164
Again...TONS more in-jokes. I basically made strips featuring the crazy classes I had that year. In panel one, you may remember EJ129's Medieval World joke. This is just another one of those crazy classes taught by Prof. Clancy. Love that guy. Here, I transcribe a paraphrased--yet almost 100% accurate--Clancyism from the actual class. I decided to take another class with him in the fall of 2004, and from that spawned the next evolution (or regression) of my webcomic mastery...Mid-Evil Jim!
Panel 2: Okay...this is Prof. Zimmermann's crazy-ass Non-Fiction Film Theory class. This is why film students are so screwed up in the head. The babble she's spouting is real words that really mean things. Really. And I'm too scared. That's all I'm gonna say. The picture on the screen? The "eye of the camera," or "panopticon," if you will.
Advanced Screenwriting was a blast. Everybody there was cool and fun. The conversations in panel 3 can only be appreciated by me, Juli, and everyone else who took the class...and those who watch The West Wing. Yes, CJ does say "crazy-go-nuts." Panel 4's conversation was fabricated by me in order to give Evil Jim the robot army idea. Even an in-joke ridden filler strip can serve a purpose.
165
Old-style Star Trek wall-intercom unit next to TNG door.
"Chu-chu" are the only words spoken by Utena character Anthy's pet mouse, named (you guessed it) Chu Chu.
"I hate that hedgehog!" was one of my favorite classic villain lines, spoken by Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog Saturday morning cartoon on ABC.