Kill Six Billion Demons

I already said that Kingdom was one of my favourite characters, and the actual comics are shaping up to be just as good, with the first entry being one of my absolute favourites of round 1.

So the lava angel fight I teased last time happened and it has probably the artstyle closest to the actual KSBD comic. beyond the art I also really like the characters and how they play off each other, with Killstar being a repentant Thorn knight and Cresting Magma being forcibly conscripted by jagganoth in exchange for sparing his shrine. Cresting Magma is smaller than his itnro comic made it seem, but that seemed to be the case in CM's own entry as well, so maybe it was just me reading his size wrong?

But why go for art similar to KSBD when you could have art that's even better than KSBD? One of the absolute best matchups was the Buried King (massive zombie who's really just a front for a massive parasitic fungus colony) vs Queen Panguroidea (warlord who hunts down stronger and stronger creatures so she can wear their bodies for more power). The Queen's artist is an actual professional webcomic writer, and it absolutely shows, with multiple shots that are just straight out of this world. And he didn't even win this round, losing to the King's delightfully creepy entry.

Speaking about matchups where both sides ar ejust absolutely killing it, the funniest matchup in the torunament so far ended up being Aubrey Chamberlain (straight man Pyre bureaucrat who doesn't get paid enough for this shit) and Escher (sadistic warlord who escaped from a cartoon and runs on Looney Tunes logic). Escher's entry is absolutely hilarious in it's own right, but special mention goes to Aubrey's artist for animating every single panel of their entry.

Another comedy homerun is The King's Players. If you want theater antics, adorable woodland critters, and hilarious anticlimaxes, this is the comic for you.

Greenhorn is a devilskin warrior where the human and devil have started to disagree with each other, fititngly made by an artist and writer duo (the artist being the one behind Effie in the last tournament) and they both do amazing work. Their round 1 entry has some of the most detailed yet clear artwork of any webcomic I've seen period, with writing to match.

Speaking of absolutely ridiculously detailed artwork, heres's Grandmoter Silence (insectoid ninja wearing a human mask) versus the cartoonish Sishigeshiji in a nentry that would make michael Bay proud. Surprisingly, this didn't actually win, with victory going to this opposing entry instead.

This entry about an old war veteran meeting an exiled space princess is one of the most touching entries in the tournament so far, and the art is great too. The opposing entry is also pretty fun.

Speaking of touching, Temurin was a character I cut from my character preview because "her artist makes me feel things" wasn't grounds enough for inclusion, and I correctly suspected that I would be able to bring her up when it came to the actual comics instead. This first entry is perfect and one of my absolute favourites.

One thing I forgot to mention last round is that Abaddon has appointed two co-judges this time around, and all three judges have their own characters to represent them. And since everyone involved in this is fucking crazy, both the co-judges made their own intro comics. Of these two I have to give special mention to NINN AN AK, who might be my actual favourite character in this entire thing. I have no words to describe this intor comic, just read it for yourself.

Grail is an amalgamation of the spirits of countless fallen warriors, coalesced into a shadowy, skeletal spectre that can form countless spears from its body. Easily one of the coolest fighters in all of Bastion.

Leslie is yet another winner from the same guy who gave us The Jolly King in Ro P. His deal is that he can't remember people's faces, which is represented by in-comic by everyone's faces being covered by huge red X's. I tihnk the best part about him though is simply his attitude, as showcased in his intro comic.

If I had a nickel for every Pyre character who's basically just a twisting mass of arms beneath a cloak and mask, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's wierd that it happened twice. Probably the most bizarre design of the mall, Elsa Bee◊ also has a bunch of eel-like tendrils emerging from a crack in he rmask, and her "coat" is really four woolly wings covered in eyes. Her backstory is that she's an attempt at doing the devil-mask-binding-schtick on angelic white flame instead of demonic black flame.

Shoota is an enormous mutant shark tied to a cannon, using his giant mutant hands to push himself around on the cannon's wheels. Oh, and he watns to become a gun witch. One of the top four coolest Bastion characters together with Kingdom, Grail and the Dreadnaught. Shoota and Leslie also faced off against each in the Grand Battle, and both of their entries were among the best comics to come out of it.

Technique of Relief (TOR for short) is the next creation of Magistelle, who won the previous tournament with Ra'akshi, and he looks absolutely amazing. This multi-armed monstrosity can turn the area 10m around him into an instant death-punching zone, but prefers to just use this to keep people away from him, since he doesn't like it when people touch him or get too close.

To round things off ,let's mention Gene Fauntleroy the university teacher,◊ and Pitty the possum,◊ and the evil tree,◊ and finally, A Cool Rock I Found On The Ground (ACRIFOTG).