hey its been almost an entire year since i made these but im finally remembering to post the undersider stickers designs! irl pictures are i belieeeeve before i fixed the color profile and dpi? and printed off of redbubble.
full resolution images are in this google drive folder (along with the keychain designs) for free so you can print your own! but if you like my work i always appreciate a ko-fi :]
Inspired by that one post about how Worm feels like a long-running comic book canon- The UnderSiders issue #3 comic cover sketch! More details about the design under the cut
I think that the UnderSiders first two issues would be about the heist that they pulled, and Lung deciding to get revenge for it. This issue, #3, would be the introduction of Skitter (who would quickly become a fan favorite, giving her the leading role in the remainder of the UnderSiders run and her own spinoff series, Weaver- as well as the starring role in the Golden Morning crossover event), and issue #4 would be a flashback to the first arc or so of Worm the webserial.
I've put Lung's name in the sort of stylized font characteristic of titles, implying that he has his own comic, but I haven't designed anything for that. I also feel like he came out more 'demon' than 'dragon', but I had a tough time with him so I'm not doing more on that.
The Undersiders themselves are up on top of the roof, although they're partially obscured by the title, so they may be hard to see. In issues #1 and #2, that cockroach on the second R wasn't there- adding it was a way of indicating that Skitter is going to join the team.
I love wormblr because people will just call Taylor "Taylor" and then posts will escape containment and people will think a Swiftie just declared that Taylor Swift did nothing wrong when she gouged that guy's eyes out with bugs
Got a Worm meta question for you. I'm starting on the early parts of Taylor's warlord era - I'm about to leap into Arc 13 - and the general concept of a ravaged American city being divided up by various supervillain groups is reminding me a lot of that Batman story arc No Man's Land from the late 1990s. Unfortunately my comics knowledge is rudimentary at best, and I haven't been able to any discussion comparing the two stories, so I was wondering if I could pick your brain on the subject. Was it just convergent evolution, or was Wildbow engaging with the Batman story in some way?
I myself have only read about half of No Man's Land- and several years ago to boot- so I've got limited ability to do a direct compare and contrast. No Man's Land is absolutely the sort of status-quo-shattering, history-book-making upset that, within Marvel and DC, nonetheless always inexplicably heals and loses salience until you can barely tell that it's still in continuity. Worm is heavily informed by Wildbow's irritation with that sort of thing, so I think it's totally reasonable to view the warlord era through the lens of "What if No Mans Land had no editorial escape hatch." Alternatively, I think it kind of makes sense to view it through the lens that it's working backwards from the premise of No Man's Land- In what kind of setting would it be plausible for the Federal Government to write off a sufficiently-damaged American City? In what context would the legal infrastructure have been established for that, in what context would that even fall within the Overton Window?
What muddies my opinion on this is that the general concept of a ravaged, atmospherically-apocalyptic American city torn up by superpowered gang warfare is something that's kind of just been in the water in superhero comics since the mid-eighties at least, and it was a relatively common thing to see during the Dark Age- they were choice prey for all those overpouched musclemen with their poorly rendered firearms. I'd be surprised if Wildbow wasn't at least aware of No Man's Land, but it's definitely not the only cape book from the late 90s or early oughts where you could pick up that idea from. Ultimately this leaves me unsure if No Man's Land is the specific referent or if it's just part-and-parcel with trying to do an involved, thoughtful take on what cape comics were like at the time.
Taylor's bugs actually developed a complete society parallel to humanity's thanks to their prolonged contact with her, it was never mentioned because it wasn't important to Taylor's story
Reading worm! I love it so far, I’m on colony 15.2 (just after the slaughterhouse nine arc) so no spoilers, but I’ll be joining the fandom as soon as I’m done!