THE EXAGGERATED FIGHT STYLINGS OF THE GENETICALLY SUPERIOR MALE

THE EXAGGERATED FIGHT STYLINGS OF THE GENETICALLY SUPERIOR MALE

DISCLAIMER! ALL art shown in this long ass post belongs to MAGNOZZART and his wonderful team! Go read 'The Tomato Can' on WEBTOON! Also there are huge, massive, TREMEMDOUS spoilers. Finish your reading first!

this post is a work of appriciation

Fun fact: this was supposed to have been posted on December 5th! Time flies, doesn't it? Ha ha...

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Centered around 15 professional MMA fighters and several deadly men in the roster, the Tomato Can is jam-packed with action. As of the date of this post, readers have gone through six complete fights and are eagerly awaiting the seventh. (This original paragraph was written on December 5th, where we had just concluded Elijah vs Zach. Ever since then, there has been two more fights!)

Being the center point of the entire comic, the action sequences are well-drawn with interesting palette themes, aesthetics and especially presentation. The author and artists are able to create exciting yet grounded fights in the realistic setting The Tomato Can is set in by using artistic exaggerations, fun visuals and the thing I wish to fixate on today: setting an atmosphere.

See, the reason I made this glorified text post is to demonstrate how the author uses atmosphere to create tension and to orient the reader, as well as appriciaTE HOW BAT-SHIT THEY WENT FOR...

...Joe Rumsfield vs. Donovan Day, the fifth match in the series and the precursor fight to the main character, Elijah Zelenoff's, battle against his long-time enemy Zach Hartley.

It's vital mentioning this fact because it's the main match I want to compare with Rumsfield vs. Day. Zelenoff and Hartley is are an extremely-plot heavy pairing, what with Hartley and Zelenoff having fought six times in the past as well as being the first few introduced characters in the beginning. Not only plot, but there's a lot of emotion behind the match too: Hartley had recently incited a fight with Zelenoff by insulting his late father and missing mother, adding to the fuel of their already fuming hatred of eachother. Because of this, the audience is expecting THE most important fight by far in the series. And boy, does the art not disappoint.

You'll notice the gritty, muted tones and a lot of cool shades. You'll notice how desaturated all the characters look, especially if you compare them to previous episodes. For me, this really does set the tone the author's wishing for; this isn't some show for audiences, this isn't something they're doing as a job, this. is. WAR!

Reading forward, the stakes are high. You can see our main protagonist slipping clearly, you can see Hartley get the upper hand, and the framing only accentuates the emotion. With every connecting strike of Hartley's, the art is cold and unfeeling. It's all muted, almost as if the atmosphere has given up completely.

That is, until the first blood spills.

While I can go on about Zelenoff vs. Hartley, it's not his name on the title. It's Joe Rumsfield's, and by golly is it my god-given duty to praise just how much insanity this man packs into him.

Joe Rumsfield was the first character to be introduced once Elijah Zelenoff joined the show way back in the first three episodes, and immediately set the course of his character with:

He's Doctor Disrespect with the alpha male mentality and legitimately called himself the 'genetically superior male' as his official fight nickname. Keep in mind, these things are PERSONALIZED. So, you can expect this man has a thing for funny. Silly, even. Flamboyance.

And by god, is he flamboyant.

Let's open up episode 36, Rumsfield vs. Day. And it hurts my eyes.

Not because the art is bad! God no! It's because I've spent so much time with the nitty-gritty of Zelenoff vs. Hartley! The lights are currently on, and the characters shine in it. The saturation is up, and there's color all over. How pretty!

Rumsfield vs. Day doesn't have 'plot' behind it. It's not a high-stakes emotional journey between two men who loathe eachother, it's about Donovan Day and Joe Rumsfield. It's about the sheer amount of COMEDY Joe brings to the table, and how our old unlucky friend Donovan Day has to take the brunt of that COMEDY. Granted, there's some emotion on Joe's part, but unfortunately Joe has no time for sadness.

LOOK. AT. THIS.

A walkout is designed to 'introduce' yourself. The way you walk, the music you choose, the attire you were, it's a way of showcasing who you are before you duke it out in a cage.

Can you tell who's going to command this entire fight? Can you tell who's going to absolutely rock a man's shit for one round?

Compare the mentioned fights to each other, especially since they come back to back. The colors, the ambiance, the atmosphere, it's sheer contrast and it's pure awesome. The gritty tones compared to vibrant saturation. The total loss of hope compared to the fun painted on comic panels. It's great!

And that's kind of the point I want to make here; Joe DICTATES his entire fights, all the way down to the art. Look at these panels:

(panels)

It's comedic relief, but I like to take it as a sign. All of these panels SCREAM Rumsfield, and who he is as a person. This isn't Day vs Rumsfield, this is JOE'S fight, completely and utterly. This is essentially Joe's version of a warning: "Don't fuck with me."

For me, it was pretty important to have this dynamic. Zelenoff vs. Hartley's outcome would change the course of the webcomic completely with its high stakes. It was one of the biggest fights of the season, what with its tumultuous history and heavy revelations behind it.

I don't think this would have been communicated so well without Joe vs Donovan's existence. Or, well, Joe's fight.

It's the calm before the storm, essentially. Both fights communicate emotions without heavy dialogue with just their art alone, and it's a wonderful skill to have. These contrasts help each other. When we see the peppy, bright colors and humor of Joe vs. Donovan, it makes Zelenoff vs. Hartley's overall tone more jarring. It lets us feel with the story, which I feel like can be very difficult to communicate with comic books where the story has to be purely visually expressed. Both sides of the coin give off the correct visuals to tell a compelling story that sticks with the readers, which is really fun to read!

It's also great for character!

I mentioned being able to 'feel' with the story, and that's the main point I wanted to make. But, let's go off the deep end now. If you've stuck for this long, thank you! Anyway, the safety bar is lowering now. What? This wasn't in the pamphlet for the ride? You want to get off?

TOO BAD.

WELCOME TO THE SPLASH ZONE.

I mentioned earlier that I feel like the art shift really feels like Rumsfield as a character. Its his fight, and he's taken control of the narrative.

(he does have deadpool potential...)

Who else had these vibes?

to those who are just entering the scene of The Tomato Can, this guy will consume all media relating to it.

This is Kublai Khan. He's banned from Japan and a master of subtraction.

This may be a stretch (don't go), but upon rereading his fight, you can feel a sense of dread to him. It's said by Dejaun that the fight was him "trying to send a message", which sounds about right. The panels charged by Jason Hardwood, his opponent, are brash, loud, and self-righteous. But above them all, Kublai's overall vibe leaks through like a parasite, everywhere. Despite Kublai's undying respect for the man, from the looks of it Jason was just another step to his staircase of bodies. Once again, Kublai conducts the narrative of his fights, by pure skill and madness.

Doesn't that sound familiar?

Joe vs Kublai is going to be two forces of nature against each other. A very wise commentator once described the two as "two cartoon characters in a world of serious folks". It's going to SHAKE THE DAMN PLANET, and I. Am. WAITING!

I don't know how to end this. I've been working on this for an undescriable amount of time and several things have been happening on the backburner. The webcomic actually ENDED IT'S FIRST SEASON WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS .

So...read Tomato Can, and support artists. Yeah.

...if there are any factual errors I am tOO TIRED TO FIX ANY PLEASE I JUST GOT OFF A 3 HOUR FLIGHT AND I KNOW JAMIES VERSUS ELIJAH HAPPENED I ALREAYD HAD TO REWRITE THIS TO INCORPORATE IZOVS OSCAR JUST PLEAS ELET ME POST THIS-

*End post*

thanks for reading.