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fantasy-anatomy-analyst · 3 years

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Real World Inspiration

for additional physical features you can add to dragons! (previous post was an edit of the D&D black dragon. Next post will be some examples of dragon designs I made.)

The classic european dragon design used in a lot of mainstream fantasy is already kind of a mashup of many different animal features. Bat wings, long swan-like neck, lizard scales and tail, feet that look like reptilian lion feet or bird of prey talons, heads that are partway between a horse and a crocodile, horns like a goat or ram. They’re chimeric and that’s fun to work with. But they do often end up being mostly just big scales, a pair of horns, and then a lot of random spikes. And that’s fine, but there are so many weird physical structures that exist on real world animals which could easily be used on dragons. Let’s look at them in a series of specific categories.

(Under a cut cuz it got so very very long sorry)

(Description: a collage titled "spikes", showing real world animals with lots of spiky structures on their bodies. Photos of an iguana and a crocodile are labeled "osteoderms". A photo of an echidna is labeled "modified hair". And a photo of an inflated porcupine fish is labeled "modified scales". End description.)

Since dragons are usually depicted as reptilians, osteoderms and modified scales would be the most common way to add lots of spikes in a realistic manner. Iguanas have a whole crest of tall osteoderms on their spines, and the bumps all along a crocodile's back are also osteoderms.

Osteoderm means "bone skin" and they're basically just calcified skin deposits. Boney, but lightweight, not as sturdy as bones, and not at all connected to the skeleton. Armadillo armor is also a form of osteoderm.

Scales are made of a similar material to fingernails, hair, and feathers, and sometimes they get really spiky without necessarily including osteoderm structures. I used a porcupine fish for that but it turns out science is uncertain what their spines actually are. The thorny devil lizard is a good example though, that thing is nothing but spiky scales (even its big facial horns have no bone underneath)

And of course things like echidna, porcupines, and hedgehogs are covered in spikes that are just really thick sturdy hairs. Evolution is bizarre.

And those are all very effective ways to put lots of spikes on a dragon without adding extra weight from bone spikes that emerge from the skeleton.

(Description: a photo collage titled "dangly bits" showing several animals that have extra flesh hanging from parts of their bodies. Photos of a turkey, rooster, and long wattled umbrella bird are labeled "wattles". A photo of an anole lizard showing its throat display and a photo of a moose are labeled "dewlaps". And a drawing of a catfish is labeled "barbels". End description.)

Wattles are pretty common in many bird species. Extra neck flesh that usually starts by the jaw and may be connected further along the neck but doesnt have to be. The umbrella bird here has a retractable wattle covered in feathers which it can move to make it look like it has a very long pinecone hanging off its neck. I love how weird it is.

A similar structure is the dewlap, which can be found on lizards like anoles and iguanas, but can also be found in birds and even mammals. It's a fleshy protrusion from the neck which can be small and dangly or rather large. Sometimes it's ts flat, but sometimes it's chubby, like on some rabbits.]

And of course we have catfish barbels, which are like thick fleshy whiskers. Lots of asian dragon depictions include barbels because they take inspiration from carp, like the koi fish.

(Description: a collage titled "frills" showing animals which have various flaring body parts. Photos of a frilled lizard, a chameleon, and a photo collection of birds I couldn't identify, are labeled "crests". Photos of a betta fish, a black bass, and a lionfish, are labeled "fins". End description.)

I'm not sure the frilled lizard counts as having a crest but I had to include it somewhere. I did not look hard enough to learn exactly how it raises its frill, but I did find that the frill only has two very thin bones in it, right by the jaw. The rest is just really precise musculature I guess.

Chameleon crests are built on bone structures, like the ceratopsian dinosaurs bony neck frills. And of course, there are countless bird species that have feathery crests of all forms.

I know I said on my posts correcting official dnd dragons that I disliked the neck fins on those, but fins can look like that with sturdy points and scalloped edges. I just dont like the way they're usually drawn on dragons, with a singular lonely neck fin that has thick bones in it. It would be much more fun if it was accompanied by other fin structures to create a more cohesive creature. May as well go all the way if you're going to add any frill, right?

(Description: a collage titled "bizarre extras" showing animals that have really weird and unique physical features. Photos of a bat, a star nosed mole, and a mandril, are labeled "noses". Photos of a sage rouse's mating display and a frog's vocal sac are labeled "ballooning". And a photo of the spider tailed viper is labeled "lures". End description.)

This is the section for the weird miscellaneous stuff I basically never see in dragon art. Which is a shame because the real world is full of the weirdest creatures. Weird noses serve purposes by interacting with scent in complex ways, or in the mandril's case, being a point of display. Noses with weird structures can also create different noises for communication.

Lots of creatures have ballooning display structures. Usually for the purposes of attracting a mate and competing for territory. Sage grouses, prairie chickens, frigate birds, and of course frogs, all have weird throat structures they can inflate for communication, attraction, and intimidation. Dragons could even use it as part of their breath weapons. Why not have an extra sac in the throat to carry a special gas or something?

And lures! Angler fish, snapping turtles with tongues that look like worms, and this absolutely bizarre snake that has evolved modified scales on the tip of its tail to resemble a spider. Many animals use specially adapted body parts to lure prey, which then allows them to hunt without expending too much energy. Being a predator is hard work, and most predators will back away from a fight because they do not want to spend the energy or risk injury when they can find an easier target.

Dragons are huge! They must need so much meat to maintain their energy stores. I think it's sensible for some dragons to live quietly, spending as little energy as possible while they use adapted body parts to lure prey. A dragon in a cave with a modified tail that resembles treasure? A green dragon disguised as a small hill in a field with a long tongue that resembles a delectable plant to lure in cattle? Dragons in dark environments with bioluminescent lures? I know big dramatic dragon battles are fun, but this is just such a good concept I'm sad I don't really see it used.

Anyway theres a lot of real world physical features that I think could be used on dragons more. My method of finding interesting and unique ideas for dragons is usually to just google "weird/cool (insert animal here)".

#image description #accessible art #accessible images #fantasy anatomy #real world inspiration #dragons

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jackhkeynes · 3 years

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Glossary of Terms: from A to Z in the Boralverse

The full list of Boralverse jargon may be found under the cut.

adamant | titanium

aeronaut | airship

air-steeple | telegraphy post on a balloon

alchemick | chemical, relating to chemistry

alchemist | chemist

alchemy | chemistry

aldreman | mayor, municipal leader

alluning | moon landing

aphlox | carbon dioxide, also carbonic acid as a liquid

aquifex | hydrogen

arithmat | computing

astrapic | electric, electromagnetic

aumond | almond

autonome | autonomous, unauthorised

autune | sparkling wine, esp. from the Autun region

bdella | virus

billrod | cochineal, a crimson dye produced from the shell of an insect and imported from Lower Mendeva

bit-sheet | tabloid, cheap newspaper

blacklair | horror, media intent to scare

blankpine | white pine, Weymouth pine

bookhouse | library

brimstone | sulfur

caddar | to distil, purify, extract

calamine | zinc oxide

case | cell

casting | publishing

chain substance | polymer

chimer | chimera, hybrid

christmas pie | savoury pie eating on Revillon across Northern Europe but especially in Borland

circular function | trigonometric function

clavier | keyboard, piano

cmm disk | vinyl record

cmm | "chain muriac mitigor", polyvinyl chloride, PVC

codnere | kidney

collocker | interviewer, investigator

collock | chat, dialogue, interview, conversation

collusion | collaboration, confederation

concord | treaty, agreement

concrescence | instantiation, model, prototype

concurrence history | history of a particular time period

conjure | to conspire, to collude

connit | disguise, inconspicuousness, secretiveness; hiding place

connock | ice skating

console | leader of merchant republic, esp. Genoa

convoker | representive, PR person

convoy | troop, division, band of soldier

copperplate | right-wing

coppers | cheap seats, nose-bleeds, lowest-quality product

copysheet | study notes

coronal | helium

corporal quillsam | periodic table, set of chemical elements

coshow | rubber, esp. natural rubber, latex

costumery | clothing catalogue

coswer | cousin

counter-zoic | antimicrobial

covring | (maths) surjection, surjective map

dackin | indigo

daily gyre | circadian rhythm, body clock

daplight | LED

davarn | grand hotel, resort

deficient | positively charged

deixism | approach to research focused on collecting primary sources and references

deixist | researcher, archivist

detaxion | synthesis, combining, esp. in chemistry

dominium | region of control, domain, demesne

druckdue | the silver screen, cinema

drypepper | peppercorns, black peppercorns

edition | publishing, publication

ersteigung | apex, crest, sforzando, peak, climax

excourse | competition, tournament, quiz, game

extent | field (physics)

fecundation | fertilisation

fendle | fennel

filmic | cinematic

geoscopic | exploratory, cartographic, intending to see the world

giftale | media set in or taking aesthetic inspiration from Italy

grade | separate, sort in categories

green snowfall | first snowfall of the new year (after the first of March)

guild | corporation, company

gum | rubber, esp. synthetic rubber

gyre | orbit, cycle; to orbit, to ring around-

herdtale | agricultural stories and songs of mid-19C Gulf Mendeva

heredian acid | DNA (also shortened to heredian)

hereditarian | genetic

hereditature | genome, DNA

heredity | genetics

heverrath | bicycle, velocipede

hever | lever, pedal, also the verb

hourchain | rosary, armilla

hydromotor light | microwave radiation

iamb 5' | iambic pentameter

icon | photo, photgraph

igniac | oxide

ignifex | oxygen

indreck | nonprofit, charity

in peripatetico | abroad, on an exchange, on a sabbatical

in tesquo | in the wild, in practice, in real life

Iscovalian variation | evolution by natural selection

jalick | tuxedo, high formalwear

jast | zinc

kenonaut | spaceship

kernel | cell nucleus

kester | beggar, panhandle

lacker | veneer, false surface

laic | secular, irreligious, oecumenical

lampfire | naked flame used as a light source

leavingstore | gift shop, shop for trinkets

lencorve | line of credit, tab

limmon | lemon

lineball | team ballgame, resembling (soccer) football or rugby

lithing | account, list, enumeration

lodginghouse | waystop, inn, traveller's rest

longform light | radio waves

lorrer leaf | bay leaf

lovetale | romance writing

luetic pox | syphilis

lux | radiation, elementary particle

machinal | automatic, by rote

machovine | strontium

manner | property, nature

mapbook | atlas

masquira | genre of stories typically featuring vigilante characters and plots driven by hidden identities, high society and complicated schemes. It has some overlap with the later spycraft genre, especially in modern works.

matching | (maths) bijection, bijective map

mechanics | dynamics, physics of motion and collision

mecon | metre (length of pendulum with halfperiod 1 second

melee | high society, the gentry (old-fashioned), the ton, the activities of the gentry

meshforum | online community

mesh | network

methodics | computer science, programming

ministry | department, ministry, bureau

mitigor | ethene, ethylene, C2H4

modest | socially conservative, with respect to family, children and gender relations

moneypurse | wallet, purse

mozardisto | member of a populist faction involved in the Second German War primarily made up of Andalusian Christians but expanding in scope, especially towards the end of the war.

mozard | populist, antiestablishment

muriac | chloride

muria | chlorine

myton | type of merchant ship in wide use during the late fifteenth century

namecard | ID, nametag

narjill | coconut

natron | sodium

normal nawat | Classical Nahuatl

normal speed | lightspeed, œ

nucalic acid | DNA (see heredian acid)

odyssey | cinema, movie theatre

oeculux | electromagnetic radiation

oecumen | landscape, outlook, overview, universe

one-case | single-celled

one-zeffre | binary, one-bit, digital

onyx lace | shell pasta, conchiglie

ostracon | lottery, sortition

parachthon | speculative, science fiction and fantasy (of stories)

penetrating light | X-ray radiation

petersly | parsley

plenty | electric charge

poise | currency of Britain as of 1950 N

prase | administrative head of ancient and modern Borlish government

propagant | wave-like

prosequent | descendant, progeny, something proceeding from a source, accompaniment

pseudogum | synthetic rubber

quanga | butler, esp in East Asian context; secretary, PA

quasipolitic guild | multinational megacorporation

quasipolitic | resembling a nation or polity

quaterno | textbook, handbook, primer

quill | source, spring, basis, foundation, (maths) domain

quire | reference book, textbook

quister | phone, telephone

quist | to call, to phone

raincatcher | gazebo, free-standing roofed structure without walls

rath | bike

reckoning | arithmetic, counting

redirection bank | switchboard

refettorio | refectory, cafeteria, mess hall

replacement code | substitution cipher

revillon | christmas eve

romance | story, tale, fiction

sam | set, group of things, (maths) set

sandrine | vitamin C, ascorbic acid

scattering light | ionising radiation

scattering | ionising

scitation | examination, test, exam

scole | school, college

scratcher | (colloq.) journalist, reporter, writer

sevring | (maths) injection, injective map

shadome | tomato

shortform light | gamma radiation

signum | macron, long diacritic

sithing | (in mathematics) function, assignment

slate | display, screen

sodality | group, club, association

sodal | member, element

solarium | sunroom, seaside resort

songcraft | music, composition, music theory

sorty | party, get-together, do

spycraft | espionage, spywork; also a genre of fiction

staddomain | trade colony, colony for the purposes of resource production, esp. those colonies of the Stadbund in Cappatia and Africa

starce | coin used in mediæval Borland

stauron retainer | intra-uterine device

steeplecard | telegram

steeplemesh | telegraph network

steeplepost | telegraphy

steeplescript | analogous to Morse Code, with four symbols

steward | deputy, second-in-command

sticket | label, tag

subcase construct | organelle

subrussic light | infrared light

sufficient | negatively charged

surblavic light | UV light

switcher | one working at a redirection bank

tachslate | touchscreen device

tachygraph | typewriter

tallath | province, region (esp. of Britain)

tapestry | big screen, billboard, film screen

tapper | telegraph operator

tartoffer | potato

technic | technical, scientific

Tellard book | atlas (archaic)

tender | barman, bartender

tenyear | decade

the hex hours | the small hours, the middle of the night

threepoint method | triangulation

threshold force | nuclear fission power

threshold mill | nuclear power plant

timehold | marine chronometer

tinplate | left-wing

Tiong loom | Jacquard loom

toriot | large wind instrument with roughly the range of the bassoon

totalism | absolute monarchy

totalist | absolute, authoritarian

tovarick | homosexual

tovarism | homosexuality

trevold | novel, story

trone | currency of Provence as of 1950 N

ubiquity | cultural supremacy, totalist ideology

veck | bus

vectory | bus, omnibus

veldsvindung | global economic recession, depression

viker | steward, affairs manager, right-hand man

vittles | diet, food intake

voidtale | story set in space

void | outer spaceship

walkway | pedestrian footpath, esp in urban context

wares | ingredients, apparatus

wayport | supply point along the coast for long naval voyages

weekly | a weekly newspaper

well-mint | well-off, prosperous, wealthy

whitefish | white fish

workshop manufacture | industrial production

xanthal | neon

xenic | alien, extraterrestrial

xenozone | alien, extraterrestrial being

yacht | cult, secret society

yatherpot | casserole, one-pot dish

yearturning | the New Year

zest | vibe, morsel, speculation, suspicion

zetter | note, memo

zoia | microorganism

#conlang #conlanging #conworld #boralverse #alternate history

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tyrantisterror · 7 years

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THE ATOM Create A Kaiju Contest Masterpost

It’s done! After nearly two months, the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest has finally come to a close! Now it’s time for the part of the contest that actually requires significant effort on my part: picking winners and giving out prizes. This will be an incredibly difficult task because they’re all so fucking good. You guys submitted dozens of original monsters to me, creating a bizarre and wonderful menagerie. I wish they could ALL be winners, but I don’t have time to make 79(!!!) different kaiju files in a timely manner, so we’re gonna have to narrow it down a bit.

Of course, if you remember the rules of the contest, you know that every entry gets a prize by default: a sketch of each kaiju by me, with a few sentences or so of commentary as well. So here, below the cut, are the 79 (!!!) different monsters made for the world of ATOM by viewers like you!

Two special notes before we begin:

First, for the written entries: I tried to interpret everything as faithfully as I could. All the descriptions were wonderfully detailed, but as we all know, two people can read the same description and get two entirely different images in their head. There are more than a few written entries where I wasn’t 100% certain my interpretation was correct - like, where I realized it could mean something very different than what I thought it meant. So apologies if I got your vision a teensy bit wrong - I am a fallible man.

Second, for the illustrated entries: while I mostly tried to preserve your designs as they were presented, every now and then I threw out modifications - whether it was about translating between one artistic style or another, or because the concept you pitched for your monster reminded me of some things I have planned in my little fictional and haven’t thought of yet. In short, any changes made were to make your monsters fit in the ATOM universe just a little better. Again, apologies - I am a fallible man.

@raffleupagus‘s entries:

Engineered by a mad scientist to kill other kaiju with its single, enormous leg, Pogo Tomiyama is one of the weirdest concepts this contest threw out, and as you’ll soon see, that is saying something! Mixing a giant bug with one of the most iconic toys of the 1950′s is such a strange idea, but also totally in line with the aesthetic of ATOM - it’s all about that atom age nostalgia.

Pogo’s nemesis, the heroic Kaerugon, isn’t quite as bizarre, but the fact that a big toad with an even more preposterously long tongue is the “hero” of this tale is still pretty excellent (and fitting, given Pogo’s status as a great big gnat). Kareugon also reminds me, intentionally or not, of the heroic toad from The Magic Serpent, an obscure and weird little fantasy movie from Japan that ends in a pretty decent low budget kaiju battle, so props there.

@bugcthulhu‘s Entries:

Bloated and slimy, Bocagran is a prehistoric amphibian that floats because of his gassy innards. He’s got a nice Rat Fink vibe to him, mixing creepy, pathetic, and cute vibes in a way I absolutely love. His creator mentioned The Giant Claw as an inspiration, and despite one being a giant salamander and the other being a vulture, I can see it - both manage to blend “goofy” and “creepy” together into one lovable package.

A perfect companion to the Writhing Flesh and Pathogen, Dreg plays with the idea of nuclear strikes making kaiju more monstrous in an entirely new way. Having been hit by a nuclear bomb while still in his mother’s womb (well, technically still in the egg that was still in his mother but whateves), Dreg’s kaiju physiology is dangerously and uniquely unstable. He shifts between a pathetic fetal form and a mangy but dangerous fighting form depending on how well fed he is - which means he constantly has to devour flesh to maintain any semblance of power and security as a monster. Monstrous in appearance and deed, but not necessarily by nature, Dreg is as pitable as he is terrifying.

@takingturnsatrandom‘s Entries:

An enormous echinoderm even by kaiju standards (it towers over Tyrantis by 50 feet!), Blasteroid gets around in an ingenious way that would make Godzilla and Gamera proud: it flies via a pressurized jet of water! It’s one of the cooler kaiju powers I’ve ever heard of, and it’s made even cooler by the fact that Blasteroid is unambiguously heroic - continuing the ATOM tradition of non-humanoid monster being sympathetic despite their inhuman appearance.

Looking much like a modern day chupacabra sighting, Sibuan is the second (and far from the last) mangy monster in our list. As you may know, I’m slightly afraid of/repulsed by dogs, so I kinda love that the first canine monster entered into the contest is so scuzzy. Sibuan is definitely a tragic monster, though still a fearsome one with her toothy jaws and bristle-y fur.

Hammerbeak gives me a specific sort of Ultraman monster vibe - like, you can see the base animal (cassowary) in the design, but it goes down a lot of strange paths before it finishes its journey from beast to monster. The long tail tipped with a thagomizer is a particularly fun touch - it’s not often you see a bird monster take after an ankylosaur.

I tried my best not to make Vermamand’s moth look inappropriate, but Planarians work the way they work, you know? Since Planarians literally look like cheap, googly eyed monster toys, using one as a basis for an ATOM-verse monster is pretty ingenious - this fella would fit in well alongside Karamtor and Googora. The ribbon-like body also gives this worm a very distinct visual presence.

There are a lot of ways you could make an arboreal creature like a chameleon into a kaiju, but making their tree-climbing adaptations suited for an aquatic lifestyle has to be one of the nuttier ones. Turning those clasping oven mitts into flippers is such a weird idea, but it works so well!

@cerothenull‘s Entries:

A flying retrosaur that traded speed in flight for the ability to swim as well (and thus becoming triphibian), Aiguan ended up looking like the lovechild of Gamera and Gyaos. I’m not sure if that was intentional or just a lucky accident of how I read the description, but its a point in her favor regardless. I love how this takes retrosaurs - a fairly well explored monster type in ATOM - in an entirely different direction than we’ve seen in the canon monsters.

Osteogre is a strange blend of retrosaur, placoderm, and just a little bit of Creature of the Black Lagoon - ok, maybe more than a little in my rendering, but it couldn’t be helped. As soon as you say “humanoid fish” my brain goes pretty hard on the Gill Man imagery. I like that Osteogre’s chimeric build is left as a mystery - how did such different creatures get crossed together? The world may never know.

Centipedes are generally considered pretty ominous animals, so of course an ATOM-verse centipede monster would be a giant sweet heart. Scutlgor’s description had just enough specific details to set her apart from normal centipedes, allowing her to fit in with the other arthropod monsters in ATOM just fine. I also like that personality-wise she’s basically the experienced nanny to Bobo’s teenaged babysitter - those two would get along really welly.

One of the missed opportunities of ATOM was the inclusion of one Japanese mythology inspired monster in the Japan arc - a King Shisa/Manda equivalent, basically. I tried a couple of designs (both Kappa and Baku inspired kaiju were considered), but nothing gelled. So it’s kind of awesome to see a monster filling that niche pop up here in the contest, and the idea of blending an Oni’s features with a sasquatch’s is pretty inspired. Onigoro’s face was particularly fun to figure out - and yes, I worked just a little bit of Aku in there.

Cerothenull’s final entry also hits upon another monster I briefly considered but dropped from ATOM’s final lineup: the Jersey Devil. The Frankenstein-style origin for Ublen is pretty inspired, and the manic personality caused by his hybrid brain would make for some pretty awesome and scary scenes of kaiju havoc. He also maintains the idea that the scariest monsters in ATOM are also generally pitiable, which is important to me.

@skarmorysilver‘s Entries:

ATOM has been on the internet for over a decade now, albeit under different titles (from “Tyrantis’s Saga” to “The Second Age of Monsters” and on and on), and many kaiju have been added and cut from the story in that long stretch of time. Skarmorysilver chose to take a couple concepts that had been dropped and rework them a bit, and one of the monsters he rescued was this lovely blue sabre tooth cat. I’m surprised there aren’t more sabre tooth cat monsters, honestly - it’s such an iconic prehistoric predator, which you think would make it excellent kaiju fodder. Julkath here is a solid take on the concept, mixing in bits of snow leopard and a hulking, almost bear-like physique as well as a lovably grumpy disposition.

ATOM shares a universe with a few other stories that belong to somewhat different genres, and has made a few winking references to them throughout its 50 canon kaiju files. So it was to be expected that at least a few monsters entered in this contest would continue that idea. Bamutan here, while considered just a weird long fish in ATOM’s modern (well, 1950′s) world, is actually a leviathan, i.e. a big sea serpent that survived the purge of magic in the world (it’s a whole thing, don’t worry about it). Bamutan is specifically descended from the Jasconius breed of leviathans, and thus has a friendly disposition - which makes her sort of the “good” counterpart of Old Meg as far as ATOM’s sea monsters go.

Another monster saved from the scrapheap, Oz is reinvented here as a prehistoric flying marsupial - one with a whole litter of babies (not pictured here) at that! We got a lot of weird Australian kaiju from this contest, and Oz makes for a Aussie good counterpart/foil for Ahuul. Plus she adds another weird monster to the “prehistoric mammal” roster, which is always welcome.

While kaiju are defined as organic beings in ATOM, a lot of entrants tried to push the limits of that definition as much as possible, and Gnashphalt here is a pretty successful example of how far it could stretch. A rotting heap of tar and garbage animated by kaiju-fied bacteria, Gnashphalt is a grisly looking monstrosity driven by an insatiable hunger for both oil and the Yamaneon that powers its fellow kaiju. It is suitably revolting for a Hedorah/Blob expy, an archetype that ATOM doesn’t quite fill on its own.

@dinosaurana‘s Entries:

Karamtor used to have a lot of fellow Venusian monsters to keep her company, but their designs were a little redundant. Barusstrakk avoids that pitfall by being really fuckin’ weird looking, with a body described as looking like a meteor and tons of “craters” that hide little secret tentacles. Its most obvious physical trait, though are its hammer and sickle arms, which give it a sort of USSR vibe. This is particularly appropriate given Barusstrakk’s chief opponent is:

Yeah that’s a rock-robot made out of Mt. Rushmore. While not quite a kaiju per ATOM’s definition, it is powered by yamaneon, and also look at this crazy fucking thing. President Rushmore reminds me of that one episode of Dexter’s Lab where Dexter and Mandark turn the Washington and Lincoln heads into robots to battle it out, only for the Rushmore bots to realize they’re both super honest dudes and bond as friends over it. What a crazy show. What a crazy monster.

@theload‘s Entries:

ATOM’s world is an alternate universe for a lot of reasons, one of which is that its mesozoic era was a lot different than ours - instead of being ruled by prehistoric birds, it was dominated by weird crocodile descendants called retrosaurs. Birds still evolved during this period, but they didn’t dominate the world the way they did in our Mesozoic era. Pengku fleshes out that alternate evolutionary path for birds by presenting a very different sort of ancestral bird than the ones we know existed - specifically one based on very old and outdated ideas on what the ancestral bird may have looked like. Essentially a feathered, flying lizard, Pengku is as adorable as she is intriguing, and helps flesh out the alternate prehistory of ATOM.

Parakon isa Hoogah, i.e. a member of a group of dragon-like reptiles from the more fantasy-inspired part of ATOM’s universe. I hadn’t quite nailed the design philosphy of Hoogahs yet when Parakon was entered in the contest, so I took the liberty of tweaking his design just a tad to better fit with his peers. Like the magical monsters he’s related to, Parakon is sweet natured and friendly. His dimetrodon sail styled wings make him just plausible enough to fit within the sci-fi aesthetic of ATOM, too!

@connorricks‘s Entries:

Dangalar’s entry is absolutely hilarious, as his pitch is basically “what if a giant monster actually looked like a giant marionetter puppet that was poorly composited into reality?” He moves in a strange, jerky fashion, he’s held aloft by string connected to some invisible puppeteer, and no one knows what the hell he’s supposed to be. It’s absolutely eerie and yet also incredibly hilarious - and somehow manages to be even more meta than is usual for ATOM.

If nothing else, this contest made a lot of great friends fro The Writhing Flesh. Normus’s design was inspired by a picture of a half-dressed Godzilla suit actor - human above the waster, dinosaur below. In story, he’s basically what would happen if someone tried to fuse a human with three different retrosaur monsters and kaijufied the result - the kind of mad science that’s horrifyingly common in ATOM’s world. Normus is a pitable monster, but I like to think he’d eventually get used to his situation and find a way to enjoy being a giant freakish retrosaur-man.

@titleknown‘s Entries:

Our first monster designed to be ATOM’s equivalent of Ultraman, Malorel is also the strangest – and again, that’s pretty strange considering how this contest goes. Part of Malorel’s weirdness comes from the fact that she also homages The Monolith Monsters as well as characters from a couple of shows I haven’t watched yet. Like President Rushmore, Malorel isn’t a traditional kaiju, as she is mostly composed of inorganic matter. The bulk of Malorel’s body is made of Yamaneon crystals and a second substance that’s sort of the anti-Yamaneon (implied by titleknown to be Magic), while only the chewy center of the being is made of a flesh and blood human. Said human also directs Malorel’s actions, which is why she ends up fighting kaiju to defend mankind. I took a few liberties with Malorel’s design – Yamaneon crystals have a very distinct shape, and if ATOM-verse Magic were to manifest physically it would be as a gas instead of a solid – but I tried to keep the spirit in tact.

Jimmy Neutron was a pretty fun show. Panku is basically a kaiju-scaled version of the mech-suit wearing egg monsters from it, and since both Jimmy Neutron and ATOM are built on atom age sci-fi tropes, it meshes pretty well.

Based on a famous non-giant monster from the 1950’s, Jan in the Pan from The Brain that Wouldn’t Die, The Head is possibly the most explicitly villainous monster entered in the contest. A megalomaniacal supervillain whose machinations affect the storyline of every monster Titleknown entered in the contest, The Head is a force to be reckoned with even before she kaiju-fies herself. The visual of a big giant floating head battling giant monsters is pretty surreal, and the creepy neck tendrils make for a grisly visual that’s quite appropriate for such a sinister villain.

Javellaro forms an important bridge between the “humanity learns to live with monsters” story of ATOM and the “human hero kills monsters of the week” story of Titleknown’s entries. A pig whose artificial kaijufication was botched by The Head, Javellaro’s healing factor is degraded enough to not work fully, yet powerful enough to keep her going despite how painful her should-be-lethal wounds are. Her pitiable condition draws audience sympathy while still making us comfortable with Malorel putting her down – it’s honestly a mercy in this pig’s case. Tragic and haunting, Javellaro poignantly illustrates how a kaiju can invoke pathos.

A second pseudo-mecha, Playboy Rumble is similar to President Rushmore in that she’s neither a traditional mech nor a true kaiju. Instead, she’s a super powered human piloted a hard light construct (which would probably be called a hologram in ATOM’s time period) via mad science. Her human form was created to be a minion and eventual replacement body for the Head, but, in true mad science fashion, turned against her master and joined with Malorel. Playboy Rumble is also sort of our third Ultraman homage, being a human with a thing in her chest that lets her turn into a giant to fight monsters for a period of time. Also she’s a giant bunny bot, and you gotta love that.

@canadian-tuxedo-mask‘s Entries:

A hybrid of a giant ground sloth and literally the entire audience of a drive in movie theater (or their ghosts?), X-Nertha is another monster that I’m gonna label one of the weirdest ideas submitted to this contest - though, like Pogo, that weirdness is totally in line with ATOM’s aesthetic principles of mixing kaiju with 1950′s nostalgia. X-Nertha’s personality is as unique as its design, as it is a perennial spectator of other kaiju fights, rather than a combatant itself. I did my best to work in 1950′s car elements to the design, though I’m not particularly good at drawing cars in general.

Ok, nothing in Butch’s description said he was a Greaser, but nothing said he wasn’t a Greaser, and his name is Butch, so here we are. Captain Sensation’s supernatural elements aren’t apparent in an isolated black and white sketch - you need color to see the green parts of him and another monster to realize he’s kaiju-sized. I also didn’t realize until re-reading his entry that he’s got a superhero costume I could have drawn instead - look, some part of me just wanted to draw a giant Greaser, ok? Is that ok? I’m pretty fond of Butch. He’s a giant dude who shoots hot sauce (well if you want to get technical it’s just the acid from peppers but shush) out his eyes like a horned lizard and punches monsters to save the world. He’s our second or third (depending on how you count) Ultraman homage, and a damn good one at that.

An homage to the Wasp Woman (one of my favorite 1950′s monster concepts that sadly had a lackluster execution), Malzzang is an insidious Korean crime boss who uses kaiju-fied giant hornets to further her schemes, only to become one of them herself via a strange turn of events! She’s wicked and sinister even before she becomes a monster, and is an excellent “heel” kaiju. Also she gave me an excuse to draw a giant hornet with a woman’s head, and that’s always great.

Lance is another monster that takes its base animal in some weird directions, from his name-worthy pointy snoot to his slug-like eyestalks. He’s also got a dog’s brain, which somehow just makes everything weirder. He’s still got a lot of what makes an oppossum adorable though, and his personality is utterly charming.

This is one of the monsters where I felt I had a good feel of what they were going for until, like, the last sentence of the description that made me doubt the whole thing, but I liked how it turned out anyway. There should probably be a moray eel head in there somewhere - let's say it's hiding behind the seaweed. I love the idea of this giant heap of a sea monster made out of all these disparate parts - he's like the better aspects of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 rolled into one giant monster.

@highly-radioactive-nerd‘s Entries:

It’s a well-known fact that the original Baragon costume – one of the best monster suits ever made in the Showa movies – was used and reused to make so many different monsters that it was barely functional by the time Toho wanted to make Destroy All Monsters. There are so many pseudo-Baragons out there, so it’s only fitting that ATOM got one of its own. It already has a Baragon homage of course, but Blastra here is specifically designed to be a reused Baragon suit, complete with a new head and some extra doodads.

I love this guy because he does something fairly difficult: he makes me interested in duckbilled dinosaurs. Sibelisaurus takes the idea that hadrosaurs had musical horns and runs with it, making a dinosaur whose body is designed to resemble a variety of musical instruments and even has some markings that look like musical notes and rests. It’s a very clever idea that works way better than you’d think, and takes what could have been a plain retrosaur and instead makes it very interesting.

While there are lots of King Kong homages out there, surprisingly few use baboons as a base, which is shame because they’re utterly vicious and weird looking animals. King Solomon takes that savage inspiration and adds an interesting layer of greed to it – he’s not just called King because he’s big and strong, but because he hoards shiny objects. It’s like if King Kong was significantly more literal about his title.

Salagara captures the feel of a 1970’s Hanna Barbara monster perfectly, looking as if he just stepped out of the Godzilla Power Hour or The Herculoids. He’d have good company in that regard, as many of the Beyonders’ monsters were also designed to fit that vibe. His design is simple but effective, and I never tire of aliens with eyestalks.

A mummy, a landshark, AND a retrosaur, Tutandra blends three very different things into one well rounded whole. He pulls in the “archaeology adventure” story that’s also common in atom age sci-fi and mixes it with ATOM’s giant monster narrative, and the result is pretty great. Also, again, this is a giant mummified retrosaur that swims through sand like a shark. What’s not to love?

@glarnboudin‘s Entries:

Salikor is a loose homage to the primary monster of one of my favorite obscure kaiju movies, The Legendof Dinosaurs and Killer Birds. Like the plesiosaur in that film, Salikor emerges from a lake and proceeds to wreak bloody havoc upon the human populace, leaving a trail of blood and carnage in his wake until he finally has a fateful encounter with a flying retrosaur. His design is suitably vicious looking, with lipless crocodile-style exposed teeth and an armored hide.

Terravia emerges around the same time as Salikor, but unlike the monsters that inspired them, the two end up becoming lovers despite being wildly different species. It’s a pretty weird turn for a kaiju story, but not an unheard of one (more than a few lost Godzilla movie projects have similar premises). Terravia mellows Salikor out a bit, and their story has a sort of sweet “make love, not war” theme that fits ATOM well enough.

A lot of people like the idea of making retrosaurs fill niches that dinosaurs eventually filled when they became full on birds, and Tabbaogen here is an answer to the question of what a retrosaur penguin might look like. The answer is “pretty ridiculous and fun.” As his name suggests, he uses his body as a sled, much as penguins do. He’s also a lot more dangerous than he appears, which is always fun – he’d make a good tag team partner for Gorale.

@akitymh‘s Entries:

A vampiric newt from another world, Kabold’s head gives me a nice Wayne Barlowe vibe. It also reminds me a bit of Irys from Gamera 3, which is pretty neat. Its six limbed body is simple while still distinctly alien, and it has a nice collection of little tuber-thingies on its body. I love those little tuber thingies.

King Horn reminds me of all the space gorillas from Silver Age comics despite not actually being a gorilla. He’s very definitely alien, yet also unmistakably ape-y, and that’s pretty cool. Also, like a certain Ultraman monster, his name is slightly misleading, as his horns aren’t particularly prominent. I don’t know if that was intentional, but I like it.

Going with the Ultraman vibe of the last entry, Rampart here feels like a monster who was designed for a specific fight scene. Those two enormous armored plates would make for some very unique battles, with the retrosaur in between them providing just enough normalcy to ground the design. I also like how the taxonomic placement of this guy is unclear in-universe – it’s a nice touch.

I figured I took Martian anatomy about as weird as it could go with Podritak, but Sevarahz here might top that. His phallic head section is wonderfully gross, and his pelvic section, while recognizably Martian, is distorted into a really weird shape. The “tail” should probably have more limited joints since it’s technically a third leg (and Martian legs have a distinct bone structure and all), but it looks better as a serpentine tail, so we’ll let that anatomy slide a bit.

Akitymh’s final entry is Awkwas, and he’s basically a what you see is what you get monster: a great big retrosaur with a bearded dragon style frill, ready to fight other monsters and have a fun rowdy time. He doesn’t have a lot of frills to him, but in a way that’s kind of refreshing – we’ve got a lot of weirdoes in this contest, so it’s nice to have a few simple monsters for contrast.

@quinnred‘s Entries:

The most Ultraman-looking of our Ultraman homages, Odinokiy Soldat still manages to be a very weird and unique take on the “human hero who fights kaiju” concept, with his jet black skin and bone-white armored plates. The turtle-like beak is a particularly wonderful and unsettling touch. I love that, despite his grotesque mad scientist origins, he’s unambiguously a heroic monster, protecting the USSR from kaiju threats just as Tyrantis protects the US. It’s important to me that ATOM doesn’t demonize the USSR, even though a lot of what they did with nuclear testing is great monster origin fuel. I feel Odinokiy Soldat tows that line really well – his origin is horrifying, but at heart he’s a good person who happens to be loyal to his mother country, Russia.

I love plant monsters even though they’re often frustratingly hard to make – it’s so hard not to just make a new flavor of Audrey II, y’know? Papaver Magnus here not only manages to feel entirely unique in design, but also brings an interesting story hook: she intoxicates other kaiju. Sometimes this puts them to sleep, while other times it drives them into a rage. She could be a useful tool for kaiju control, or manage to make a kaiju attack even more violent than normal. A great design with a great story concept!

I didn’t expect to see an homage to my favorite sandsverse vendor in this contest, but here we are. Even if you don’t get the joke, King Bekantan is a great spin on the giant ape monster archetype in his own right. Instead of being a rough and tumble warlord, King Bekantan is a peaceful farmer who cultivates the earth (fruits in particular) and basically tries to protect the environment. There’s something eerie and beautiful about the idea of some giant ape striding the land only to spend all its time farming – it’d be such a beautiful yet surreal sight.

A collection of massive crustaceans that pretend to be islands, the Humarr Petram take the medieval folktale of a living creature that’s mistaken for an island and give it a sinister atomic age spin. These would be one of the scariest kaiju to encounter, and could make for one kickass standalone story in the ATOM universe.

Finally, we come to the Slickener, an organic giant monster who may not technically be a kaiju, as its powers seem to have a negative effect on most Yamaneon-rich organisms. While you can identify the different terrestrial animals who inspired its design, the Slickener’s design nonetheless feels incredibly alien and off putting. It’s delightfully unsettling.

@godzillakiryu91‘s Entry:

Rayken takes a monster I’ve wanted to homage for a while - the titular beast from The Giant Gila Monster – and mixes it with the mythological amphisbaena to make a wonderfully lumpy monstrosity. The fact that you could also call this a “Beast with Two Heads” adds to the delightful B-Movie vibe, and that false second head could definitely produce a lot of fun scenes, both with human victims and fellow kaiju. Imagine a human shrieking as they think the monster’s about to eat them, only to realize they were looking at the wrong end! Hilarious.

@bowlofgabe‘s Entries:

A heroic pair of conjoined twin crabs. Hell. Fucking. Yes. Clawdia is the hero kaiju of Mexico, and as far as I’m concerned she’s just as fit for the job as Nastadyne and Tyrantis. Between her light psychic powers and love of luchadores, she has more than enough personality to carry her own series of adventures, and her sisterly bond with herself (Clawdia is technically two monsters in one) provides a nice emotional center for whatever those adventures may be.

Mixing a kaiju story with the darker sides of the space race, Eldritch Ed’s haunting origin story is paired with an oddly touching relationship between him and humankind. Despite being turned into a horrific monstrosity because of a botched experiment with Yamaneon and cosmic radiation, Ed devotes his life to protecting Earth from extraterrestrial threats, turning his accidental exile in earth’s orbit into guard duty. It’s hard to get more heroic than that.

@iamthekaijuking‘s Entries:

Plume is about as “realistic dinosaur”ish as an ATOM kaiju can get, exploiting the loophole within ATOM’s prehistory that states that a small lineage of dinosaurs who were direct ancestors of birds did exist alongside the Retrosaurs. She’s a pretty addition as well, a vibrant songbird of a monster who completes the trio of maternal monsters started by Bobo and Scutlgor.

Baby kaiju are adorable and I would have added more of them to ATOM if I wasn’t worried about their safety. Bubblor is basically an infant of a species very similar to Zillser, and takes everything cute about the later and amps it up a bit. That’s a lot of cute, even in such a big package.

Shēnghuó tǎ (my Godzilla font doesn’t have symbols with the little marks) hails from Ugugular’s planet and inexplicably resembles Chinese architecture, which is pretty rad. It’s the second of a trio of monsters that serve as “good” counterparts to the other Beyonder monsters. They probably defected almost immediately when the Invasion started.

Dhyandogen completes that trio, being a peaceful counterpart to The Great Beyonder and a stoic counterpart to Pleprah. His golden coloration gives him an almost angelic feel, and he makes for a good leader for this trio of extraterrestrial pacifists.

Essentially the Biollante to Tyrantis’s Godzilla, Unit 01 has one of the most tragic backstories of any kaiju submitted to the contest. Created to kill other monsters and then forced into stasis when not in use, her life is even more miserable and battle-heavy than those of the Beyonder’s kaiju, and her story culminates in a vicious rampage that humanity frankly deserves to suffer from.

@virovac’s Entries:

Themed around its power, Artileron is basically a wholly organic dinosaur tank. The heavily armored long necked goliath has head armor that coincidentally resembles a soldier’s helmet and shoots gastroliths at its enemies like tank shells, creating a pretty fun spin on the retrosaur concept. I imagine this guy talking like the Soldier from TF2 and it makes me happy.

A synapsid that evolved to coincidentally resemble paleo tyrant retrosaurs (which in turn are crocodiles that evolved to coincidentally resemble therapod dinosaurs), it’s my head canon that Bajingis is a member of the same species that Dreg’s mother belonged to. The idea of a big furry version of a retrosaur running around is cute, and could cause an interesting bit of confusion for the kaiju-ologists in ATOM’s world. Also, Bajingis is a fun name to say.

This is one where I’m pretty sure I misinterpreted the description, as a friend of mine pointed out that it was probably an homage to the ratbatcrabspider from Angry Red Planet, but I liked what I came up with so I’m sticking with it. Regardless of how off my drawing may be, Pomogitan is a crazy looking monstrosity of a kaiju, and definitely makes the extraterrestrial side of ATOM just a little crazier.

We’ve got more than a few apes in this contest already, but they’re kind of a male dominated archetype, aren’t they? It’s nice to have a lady or two to even things out, and Hagayag’s lumpy, hideous appearance definitely keeps things monstrous in the process. Since she’s described as being close to an orangutan, and since sasquatches are distant descendants of orangutans in ATOM’s world, I gave her a few sasquatch touches as well.

@plebeiantologist‘s Entries:

Mixing the vicious savagery of a hummingbird with the suave charm of a vampire, Nosferatu is an excellent solution to ATOM’s lack of bird monsters, as well as a clever and unexpected homage to Count Dracula. I love the serrated beak that evokes fangs without actually being them, and feel the same about how the interior markings of his wings resemble a scalloped opera cape without actually being one. He’s also not an evil monster – he needs to drink blood, sure, but that’s not lethal to most kaiju (just annoying), and he’s intelligent enough to smooth things over and even make deals with other monsters to get his sustenance. Overall, a cool and clever take on the idea of a kaiju Dracula.

We’ve got a lot of sad stories and a lot of silly stories in the contest so far, but none mix the two together as thoroughly as poor Dromeo here. A normal bee that was kaijufied, Dromeo wants nothing more than to find true love, mate, and die as a result of mating. However, as the only kaijufied bee of his species, he can’t find said mate, which means he lives in a perpetual state of longing. In addition to being extremely relatable, his situation is both hilarious and tragic.

I-Am-Fish-Mage’s Entries:

Another entry that plays with some of the more occult parts of ATOM’s universe, Gurt is what would happen if Pathogen used a dog instead of a retrosaur and the naturally occurring vampire virus instead of an artificial hybrid of different degraded strains of it. Or, more simply, a great big vampiric doggo. Gurt has the telltale signs of higher functioning vampirism, from the scar-like neck markings to the growth of bat wings. Very interestingly, Gurt’s kaiju physiology keeps him from fully exploiting the malleable nature of a strigoi vampire – instead of being able to turn into mist, Gurt can only become a sort of vampiric sludge, as his kaiju physiology refuses to transform into a gaseous state (Yamaneon can only exist as a mineral). It’s a really fun and well thought out cross of two very different monster types in ATOM’s universe.

While I haven’t made a file for them yet, between Promythigor’s file and various asks people have cleaned roughly how sasquatches work in ATOM. Ignorilla takes one of the weirder aspects of ATOMverse sasquatches – the fact that they’re mildly psychic and make people forget about them as a defense mechanism – and runs with it. The result is a giant monster that people have trouble seeing or remembering, which proves to be quite the hassle when it accidentally strolls on a collision course with mankind. It’s a great hook for a story, since it makes an otherwise fairly benign monster extremely dangerous through no fault of its own. Ignorilla also has plants growing in its fur, which is a nice nod to some other obscure sasquatch myths.

@bonelessnerd‘s Entries:

I couldn’t resist. Look, it was either this or drawing essentially the same pose as the original sketch – there are only so many ways to pose a hand that keep all of this glorious monstrosity’s anatomical quirks on display. Manoamano not only fills a niche ATOM didn’t manage to cover – i.e. the living body part monster – but does so in a unique and scary way, with the implication being that it’s merely a part of a much larger kaiju drifting out in the cosmos. It’s such a creepy plot that you almost forget it’s basically a giant hand with crab claw fingers and googly eyes. But you don’t, because a giant hand with crab claw fingers and googly eyes is awesome.

Like Humarr Petram, Nogad updates the “this island is secretly a monster” myth, although in this case the twist is a lot more sad than scary. Like the Writhing Flesh, Nogad’s bulk isn’t actually a positive, as the massive kaiju is stuck in a comatose state. It would die if its kaijufied parasites weren’t keeping it alive, and instead spends its life in a state of suspended animation, providing humans the rare opportunity to explore the internal workings of a kaiju without (too much) threat of harm. Nogad is spooky, sad, and intriguing, and would be a marvelously odd addition to ATOM’s kaiju ecosystem.

A size shifting dog with plastic skin, Rizablitz is basically Frankenweenie with an even bigger kaiju twist (and also less racism). The resurrected pupper can size shift from a normal sized dog to a kaiju-sized monster, and together with his owner he protects humanity. It’s a fun take on the “kid and their dog” story, and a nice light counterpoint to the previous two entries.

@polygonfighter‘s Entries:

A kaijufied personification of the La Brea Tar pits, Index is a mass of tar animated by kaijufied bacteria and wearing fossilized bones as armor. Its powers have a vaguely ghostly vibe, and it preys on its fellow kaiju with the aims of decorating its lair with their corpses even as they slowly turn into clusters of Yamaneon. Altogether it has a nice ghoulish vibe – the kind of monster that would make other monsters scared.

Another monster that has a great Hanna Barbara vibe, Volcanus’s bug-like appearance is mixed with some strangely human features to make it extra creepy (and also hard to place taxonomically). While he’s posed as a rival for Index, he definitely isn’t the heroic part of the duo, as Volcanus is noted to hate everyone, kaiju and human alike, with explosive intensity. Creepy and vicious, Volcanus is an excellent antagonist monster.

SirKaijuOfVaudeville’s Entry:

A great big subterranean monster, Torgong’s story is another one that brings in some Archaeological Adventure tropes to ATOM’s universe, providing a villainous contrast to the Reptodites with its society of subterranean mole people (mole in the “they live underground” sense, not the literal sense). Torgong’s owners are wicked race of rock eating cave dwellers who have enslaved another race of more peaceful, slightly insectoid cave dwellers. Torgong is of course their bestial god, and looks nice and freaky as a mole monster should.

@scatha5‘s Entry:

Being a mammal, Cervere brings some diversity to ATOM’s pantheon of monsters basically by default, but his powers are what truly make him shine. Cervere is designed to be a kaiju-repellant, with a scent designed to drive other kaiju away. That’s right: it weaponizes the odorous nature of mammals. Cervere releases this smell through a colored gas emitted by its mouth and ears, providing a nice visual for its power as well. Unfortunately for the lazy cat, the power can attract and repel in equal measure, and sometimes Cervere is forced to fight against monsters it was supposed to scare off. It’s a really clever power that makes ties this punk rock kitty together quite nicely.

@cstalli‘s Entry:

As beautiful as they are alien in appearance, the Trifitan Arum are a gorgeous entry in the contest (make sure to check out the original drawing, which is a lot prettier than anything I can manage). Though they appear humanoid, they’re entirely made of terrestrial (albeit hybridized and heavily mutated) plants. They’re also a swarming monster – weak individually, but strong when collected in a large group, making them sort of a benevolent counterpart to the Heisei Gyaos.

@profcene‘s Entry:

A prehistoric aquartic hyena, Gevlek is yet another monster that feels sort of like a Hanna Barbara design (and that is always a compliment here as far as monsters go). Contrary to stereotypes, Gevlek isn’t a malicious bully or a cowardly predator, but rather a social creature that wants a clan. Like most ATOM-verse monsters, though, he’s also kind of socially awkward, so finding that clan is harder than it seems – especially since he’s the only member of his species around. Still, he’s a clever creature, and, again like many of his peers, he proves a valuable ally once you get past his rough edges.

@ask-drakos‘s Entries:

There were far less birds than I was expecting in this contest, but on the plus side the ones we have are all varied and solid designs. Okhalee is a victim of quick kaijufication, much like the Myrmidants and Girtabane, which means he resembles a normal animal with some sudden and extreme mutations. Most notably, he takes the vocalizations that make songbirds so interesting and weaponizes them into a sonic scream – a power that’s strangely absent from ATOM’s lineup of kaiju given how prevalent it is in kaiju media. Kinda fills a couple missing niches at once, huh?

We end with Crab Voltron. Well, ok, technically Crustacean Voltron since they’re not all crabs, but Crab Voltron is more fun to write. It’s an appropriately weird idea to end with, I think, and like so many lunatic things in ATOM, this one is the fault of a mad scientist. And y’know what? It’s honestly not the weirdest thing mad scientists have done in this world. In fact, Crab Voltron is almost a logical response, and I love that.

And that’s it! That’s all 79 entries! I cannot overstate my satisfaction with the results of this contest. The amount of creativity on display her is astounding, and I absolutely adore how game you guys were for playing with my little monster story. Make sure to check out the originals, as linked to in this post, and stay tuned for the announcement of the winners and the presentation of prizes and all that! It should take me… oh, maybe a week or two?

“Why so long?” you ask. Well… look, this contest got roughly 4 times as many entries as I expected, and all of them are so high quality. I can’t limit myself to five winners - there have to be more, which means more work for me, which means I need some time to pull it off. So savor these sketches while you wait, because this might take a while.

#ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest #Atomic Time of Monsters #kaiju #giant monsters

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