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Character Neon Lights (MLP)Character Silver Shill
Description
Oh don't worry; I'll track down the pony I sold that worthless tonic to and give 'em another bit to replace this one! Honest.
Where to begin with this? I guess you can say this is the result of about three months on-and-off with distractions getting in the way, particularly emotionally-related ones like I mentioned here. Every so often I'd preview different parts of this (outside of DeviantArt, anyhow) in the way of individual images of the characters in panels and say they were part of a work in-progress, but I'd never state what that work in-progress actually was, at least wholly or publicly. The first thing worked on was at the end of October, but actual comic stuff didn't start until November.
I wanted to expand on the seemingly untouched concept of Silver Shill and Neon Lights (separately or together, or at least different from any popular fan-depiction, which includes go-to shipping) after the latter purchased a (fake) tonic in "Leap of Faith" (MLPFiM S04E20). Coincidentally, the next time that both appear simultaneously is in "Equestria Games" four episodes later, though they are never shown interacting (which was kinda expected, considering they are secondary characters at best).
Why this thing, might you ask?

If you've followed me in the past year, you might've seen my previous work centered around this particular episode, or how I wanted to depict stuff that could have happened, but just wasn't shown.


This was no exception.
For one, Neon Lights "officially" appears as an athlete in the Equestria Games episode, even if he got used in crowd shots at other various times (see: Lucky Clover), though I've never seen any fan art of him in this way (at least, among the SFW I routinely limit myself to, just because). Most depictions of him involve him being associated with music or that other music pony, whether Neon appeared with his signature shades and shirt or not. The silver medal I gave him began as more of a bonus and an extra thing, maybe just to give him a little more recognition, but I'd later intend it to also play into the bit about the tonic, too. I just wasn't sure how to express that idea in the comic a bit more blatantly.
Silver Shill appears in a crowd shot during the opening ceremony scene in the episode, selling popcorn in the same outfit and glasses as in his episode debut, but is never really seen again until the season finale. Mr. Shill in particular seemed to have little to no fan recognition among many or compared to other oneshot secondary characters with speaking roles, and I mostly wanted to contribute particularly to something that's at least based on something canon, or at least nothing to do with shipping.
Initially, this began as just the two-character piece that makes up panel 7, which didn't originally have a background either; in fact I didn't even get into vectoring backdrops yet. But before long, it grew to four panels, then I had to learn how to properly and neatly lay out a comic, including how text should be written on both ends of it. But of course, by then I had to get used to vectoring backgrounds, then the thing grew to nine panels total since I wanted to go big and all-out with an idea like this.
All the while, I couldn't find a reference for absolutely everything in the show to use, so I had to make some stuff on my own, like the various angles of Neon's athletic uniform and Silver's shirt, Neon's medal (in which the ribbon loops the same way through it no matter which way it is mirrored, I should note), Silver's head at a head-on angle (at least without his glasses), and other things, such as those stallion-specific trotting frames, as opposed to the scaled-up mare trotting frames that appear more commonly in the show and in show-styled art. All of which turned out much more fun than in any way frustrating or difficult, fortunately!
I also opted not to use or write any dialogue on purpose, but then again I still used speech bubbles with more visuals, I guess as my way of...illustrating the story, or to see if people could understand or get what was being expressed or referenced without any actual words, or even if English is not in their fluent languages.
There's also the stuff I worked on that was ultimately cut off from the edges, particularly much of the backdrop in the first and third panel, and the trotting cycles in the final panel, but I felt was totally worth that effort anyhow. Eeyup.

So, here's what became of all that after three months or so and now at the tail end of January. After this, comics seem a bit more doable in the future, I think.

Since this is the first time I've thrown a comic together, I'm generally more open to feedback.
Time: A lot of it





Pointy pony templates used to make part of panel 2 were by

Featured on Equestria Daily on February 7th, 2015




You may share this or parts of this almost anywhere outside of DeviantArt, I just ask that you link back here.
If you want to comic dub it (even if there's no dialogue, but not like that's stopped people in the past) you may, but also link back to here.
The typeface is "Hey Gorgeous", also known for being the main typeface in the last three Paper Mario games.
Made as fan art for the Neon Lights and Silver Shill characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which is owned by and copyright Hasbro and produced by DHX Media.
Image size
1600x8141px 2.8 MB
Comments31
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Impressive. Most impressive.
The quality of the show's art style is accurate and on par with <img class="avatar" src="a.deviantart.net/avatars/t/r/t…" alt="

Very original premise. I haven't seen many comics that pull off stories with this much of a connection between the episodes. It never occurred to me that Silver had yet to repay that bit back to Neon until now. In addition, doing such during the games was fitting; it also shows, as you mentioned, Neon participated in the games and got to where he was through his own merit, not some half-assed tonic.
The story was to the point without being excessive in length or shoddy in dialogue. Well, no dialogue per se, but the pantomime and facial expressions helped tell the story without difficulty and flawlessly drove the message home. Simple, to put it simply <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="


Overall, for a first time gander at making a comic, you've pulled it off admirably. This is definitely a venture that suits your talents and something to consider doing more often, so long as it's not too strenuous.
Cheers!