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I can't even read through an old Marvel Comics drawing book without finding these damn things. I swear this is a curse. And what is it with Culture Brain's character designs? There was a cornucopia of SABs from Super Ninja Boy, and now I found a bunch more from their NES games. I guess it can only mean one thing: It's time for SAB, WTF Edition, because these are some serious WTF's?, and you'll see what I mean... |
 Mad Leader (Infiltrator) |
 Grim Reaper (The Avengers) |
FO's Comment: I had this one all over the front page of my site awhile ago because I was trying to figure out what the deal with this was. I had made fun of a game called "Infiltrator" for the NES on one of the Oddities pages. In particular, I was poking fun at how ridiculous the game's main villain looks and his goofy name ("Mad Leader"). A few weeks later I was going through some of my old drawing books, one of which is a book about drawing Marvel characters. I thumbed through it for the heck of it, and...found this...mystery character who looks exactly like the Mad Leader. I searched all over the internet for information linking Infiltrator to Marvel Comics, but turned up nothing. Site reader Rey Calavera wrote in to inform me that the Marvel character is the Grim Reaper from The Avengers, so it looks like what happened is that the artist of Infiltrator copied that head design from the book.
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 Hoodlum (Wrath of the Black Manta) |
 ??? (Marvel Comics) |
FO's Comment: And then right on the page opposite the Grim Reaper there was this other drawing of a villain's head that looks remarkably like this random hoodlum from Wrath of the Black Manta. I mean, WTF? Did every NES graphic designer own this same book or what?? (No points for mentioning that they also resemble Vincent Price.) |
 Coronya (Magic of Scheherazade) |
 Pero (Puss n Boots) |
 Doraemon . |  Harken (Image Arcane) |
FO's Comment: Here we go again with this! All have similar wide open smiling mouths, similar poses with their arms, and they're all time-traveling cats!! At first I thought some kind of conspiracy was going on here, but then I remembered that I had my own time-traveling cat in my own comics, and I found that picture of Harken in my archives from 20-some years ago (before I would have known of the existence of the other three.) Maybe there's some strange cosmic force in the universe that's implanting subliminal messages into the minds of cartoonists to draw time-traveling cats in "huggy" poses. |
  Jack (Super Ninja Boy/Little Ninja Brothers) |
 Monkey Hero . |
FO's Comment: That's too messed-up for words. I'm finding a lot of Culture Brain stuff... |
 Princess Lana (Captain N) |  Palutena (Kid Icarus) |
FO's Comment: I mentioned this in the Kid Icarus Shrine, but I wanted to include it with the other SAB material, too. To recount what I said there, I am nearly 100% convinced Lana's design was based on Palutena's. Look at all the similarities: The pose, the design of the skirts, the similarities of the scepters, they both have a sleeveless top, both have those things on their wrists, both have a necklace thing, and green eyes. But the real smoking gun is the tiara - they both have that swirly part on the side. Basically, all they did was change her hair color (and shorten it a bit), remove the mirror shield, take away the dress and the longer "star" necklace, and give her different shoes. I'm not sure if they cannibalized Palutena's design while thinking there were enough differences that no one would notice, or if Lana was originally supposed to be Palutena. Heck, she looks more like Palutena than Mega Man looked like Mega Man or Simon Belmont looked like Simon Belmont. |
 Alexander (Final Fantasy 6) |
 Giant of Bab-il (Final Fantasy 4) |
Submitted by Codie Martin, "Alexander is the Giant of Bab-il from Final Fantasy 4. Look at this Amano artwork for the Giant of Bab-il I scanned from my Japanese FF4 guide. Although that's not what the Giant looked like in the game, it IS identical to Alexander."
FO's Comment: I still think it looks like a giant suit of armor with a city on its back, but at least now that I know it's a cameo of the Giant of Bab-il, that makes a lot more sense. |
