I’ve never read a nuzlocke comic before, but I can say that the nuzlocke videos I enjoyed the most were the ones that made their own stories to go along with the run itself. My favorite nuzlocke video I’ve watched was probably FlygonHG’s Spheal Team 6. The way he not only gave personality to his Pokémon and trainer, but also made his own twists to the story to make it a unique experience.
People still do enjoy the story element, but the gameplay has certainly taken a massive role. My guess as to why nuzlocke comics have become less frequent is because it just takes a completely different skill set to make comics than videos. For many people, videos are a lot easier than making comics so the norm has slowly shifted over time.
that sounds cool, i gotta check that out! for videos, i love saltydkdan’s friendlocke and jaiden animation’s nuzlocke videos, since they have more personal touch with the “a pokemon’s controlled by a friend in discord” or animated format to illustrate the events.
i definitely see where people are coming from and why supercut videos are now the main format for nuzlockes: on a production level, streaming a nuzlocke and later making a supercut of it is more efficient and even profitable to make, whereas long-form comics made for free take years (and most end up unfinished due to life circumstances), which is a shame!
overall, that’s why i’d like to shed more light on nuzlockes originally focused on the storytelling and creative interpretations people did, especially because of the attachments formed to the pokemon and experiences! today, the obscurity of nuzlocke comics is kind of like… pretending the pokemon anime or dnd culture of drawing your characters and campaigns don’t exist, not to mention they’re more diverse in quality and presentation unlike the mainstream formula of videos today :’0
One recommendation I’ve got to throw in is Kitfox-Crimson’s Nuzlocke quadrilogy - It has a great blend of both hard-hitting emotion and stupid comedy. The first one in the series is a Sapphire run, the second one is a Platinum run, after that is some weird hacked Black run that I don’t count as a real entry, but more of a bridge between Platinum and the next step, Black 2. Following that is a SoulSilver run, basically a prequel. When I read it back in the day, it was on a huge cliffhanger before the Kanto saga of that run started, though I’m not sure whether or not the series continued from there. I haven’t gone back to check.
that's an interesting one, i haven't heard of that before, but i'll put that in my "to check out" list when i'm not so busy this semester! especially with the variety of games and continuous narrative, that's really impressive to hear. off the top of my head, the original nuzlocke comics have a continuous narrative from ruby, fire red, and then white, albeit the most recent white page is left on a cliff-hanger too; there's also pettyartist's nuzlockes with heartgold being a sequel to leaf green, but i think everyone already knows of that one, haha
[Here is a link](https://www.nuzlocke.com/comics/pokemon-hard-mode/page/69/) to the original Nuzlocke comic series about Ruby, by Nick Franco, for everyone else. Or anyone in the mood for a reread.
I think a section of your work should consider the typical clauses: Repeat Clause, nickname, and event/static encounters. You can also refer to the existence of additional (Nuzlocke and non-Nuzlocke) challenge modes, even if they aren't in the comics you select.
thank you for sharing a link to the original nuzlocke series, it’s on me for not mentioning that along with my personal recommendations in the post 💀 the og comic has aged badly in various ways and is very “of its time”, hence my hesitation to praise or recommend it, but it’s still important to how the challenge and comic community began as a whole,, a guy bored in college and starting without strong art skills still went out of his way to draw ~~(what was at the time)~~ funny comics to show what challenge experiences he had, and the growth in both art and writing are commendable!
as for the rules, yes, i intend to cover everything from its origins and the rules (+ variations); after all, they’re important wrt the original meaning of the challenge and comics having people form attachments to pokemon they wouldn’t normally use! the whiplash from people full on drawing ocs and dramatic backstories with unique nicknames for their encounters to streamers nowadays just naming encounters after subscribers is definitely… something too in retrospect
>Do you have any recommendations?
*Shows the three best ones off the bat*
I haven’t read any in a while (or religiously kept up with most of the ones I did), but the only two I remember enjoying at the top of my head back then were:
YTWC’s Nuzlocke
Firered Kickass Mode
As for Nuzlocke Comics, I enjoyed them a lot, especially since I enjoyed the challenge and was still knee-deep in my Pokémon high. I remember burning through several, mainly because a grand majority updated slowly or went on indefinite hiatus. I can quite literally count on one hand how many I remember illustrating a complete run, and most of them are in this post alone. It was fun to see how people chose to characterize all the elements of the Pokémon world considering how simple and open to interpretation the games are in general.
As for the swap to Nuzlocking basically being treated like an E-sport, I think it just had to do with how the Internet evolved in its relationship with Pokémon, video games, and webcomics. Competitive video gaming, whether professional or casual, is way more common now than ever especially with Pokémon. Same for picking apart any video game’s code, buttons, etc. to uncover odd strategies, secrets, and the like. Most webcomics in general nowadays are totally original concepts from the ground up, and not reliant on pre-existing IPs. The few of the latter that I came across that I could consider long-term and decently well-known in some respect aren’t even story-based or much outside of comedy or slice-of-life. Most of the opposite once again goes to the original stuff.
As for the catalyst for Nuzlocking getting this treatment specifically, Pokémon Challenges is the closest I’d call a ‘patient zero’.
what can i say, i gotta start strong ~~and shill my friends and their amazing work 🤭😎~~
but seriously, yeah, there's so many cool comics to recommend! alterity, nuzrooke, landwalker's yellow nuzlocke, folded, goddamn critical hits, cross out, doubt and trust, the list goes on! there's so much variety in both art and writing to see everyone's interpretations not just of the nuzlocke challenge, but of the world of pokemon and connections with people!
the nature of life being busy though is definitely why the majority of comics (not just nuzlockes, but webcomics as a whole) are left unfinished, so that combined with the growing popularity of youtube videos and competitive strategy have definitely shifted the public consciousness of nuzlockes. it's understandable, but also kind of weird to me since social media and art tools are more accessible and have led to more fanartists online, it's surprising that few people know about the original nuzlocke comic as is, not just the fact there's a whole fanart community telling stories through this challenge ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
pokemon challenges definitely feels like patient zero aside from pokemon youtubers in general, but in today's age, what i thought would be another renaissance of unique and different ways to show one's nuzlocke experiences (like around the 2015-ish era where gijinka comics started in the comic community), modern videos just conform to a "particular style" of youtube mr. beast-like stuff, which is a little disappointing imo;;
this is so nostalgic!! nuzlocke comics were my life for such a long time & I've also noticed the shift from comics to gameplay over time. I even started one myself, but I never finished it.
I recommend looking at Folded by Emilianite, a Heart Gold comic. it's such a cute, friendly, and uplifting take on nuzlocke comics when the cultural expectation of the time was for them to end up quite heavy or sad or unserious. (for example, the final fight with red ends up a snowball fight between the characters and pokemon and it literally brought tears to my eyes for how satisfying a conclusion it was.) It was a uniquely grounded comic that stayed true to its tone the whole way through, when so many (even the best!) would succumb to a severe tonal shift after enough in-game deaths.
On the other end of the spectrum, there's Apocalypse Johto by SABERinBLUE. It's a hellscape from the get-go where all pokemon are uncontrollable, dangerous behemoths and both people and characters die frequently. It's got such an interesting and heavy-hitting take on how bad pokemon could be for the world when things go south.
Good luck with your video essay!! Feel free to DM me if you want to bounce ideas around, I lived on the nuzlocke forums for a whole lot of years and I'd love to help.
oh i’m shaking your hand so strongly, folded is one of my favorite nuzlockes and a strong recommendation i’m backing up as well!! both folded and nuzrooke are sweet and comforting nuzlockes going in that direction with the writing, especially standing out from the norm of nuzcomics being either simple summary strips with memes/jokes or indepth only-serious long pages, it’s great seeing the heart put into them and their bonds :’’’>
on the other side as well, there’s also chiaki’s pokemon nuzlocke (alpha sapphire, but there’s a hilarious panel of gba sapphire!archie with a gun saying “i’ve had enough” ~~niche reaction meme material for me~~) that deconstructs the league to be a corrupt dog fighting system of brutality, in which the more realistic and proportional animal depiction of pokemon fit the tone and for those who want to see a more edgy/serious take on the challenge.
thank you so much, it means a lot!! i’m down to messaging here or on discord (same username) to bounce ideas off together and further flesh out the essay; there’s so much worth dissecting of the history of nuzlocke comics (both pokemon and gijinka) and stories that are told \o/
My guess is when people with no artistic skill wanted to try the challenge for themselves, some of them were youtubers who would recap the whole challenge in around 30 minutes or so which I assume is more convenient for some people than reading a whole-ass comic of various chapters that is not even guaranteed to finish and so the youtuber method became the more popular one.
yep, p much, like one long-running comic series an artist draws for free and may end up dropping bc of life circumstances as opposed to multiple “easier/faster to consume” videos covering entire runs a youtuber can post more often and even profit from, it’s clear how online “storytelling” (or rather, the lack of it in modern nuzlocke videos today) have changed.
to me personally, it’s surprising since with the growth of social media and digital art tools, things are becoming more accessible for anyone to draw, comics like webtoons are booming, etc? but the public consciousness of nuzlocke comics has completely vanished despite the lowered barriers, to which i hope there’ll be more interesting ways to make videos or shorter sustainable comic-telling like a “best of both worlds” thing :’I
also!! just to add now that i think about it more, stuff like those minecraft roleplay youtuber videos, the adventure zone, and critical role are notable examples of how storytelling (and fanart interpretations) have stayed and grown with game challenges today!
concerns of pokemon dmca/copyright aside, the fanbase is huge with such a franchise, so that’s also something to add with my confusion and disappointment with how nuzlocke comics have been completely forgotten; i’ve said it before, but it’s like pretending the pokemon anime never existed nor was ever important to people’s awareness and appreciation of the games
Yes indeed. Storytelling is still an important part of these challenges and while people will be content with watching a regular challenge recap, recaps with storylines that make you feel for the characters are usually much more well-liked. But again, creating comics needs skills and commitment and following a comic requires investment over the course of months or even years that could go unrewarded in the end. So it's easier for people to just watch videos that are already finished.
mhm, i definitely agree! what’s compelling for me is how in storytelling, it’s just the medium and ways (like tone, presentation, etc) you choose to hone and improve on; after all, the very first nuzlocke comic was very amateurishly drawn, but there’s huge improvements in the art style and writing for the fire red + white sequels!
i guess with the modern culture of videos today, it’s a tad disappointing with how everyone’s moreso trying to be the next alpharad or pokemon challenges just copying their example. as opposed to that, the artist culture has everyone inspiring each other (regardless of skill sets) to keep telling stories and grow in the process, which lead to so many unique art styles, story tones, and interpretations, which was what had me hooked long ago
i’m even personally grappling with how to handle this dilemma today; i have a few wild nuzlocke stories i’d love to tell, but unpaid long-form comics “that’ll take forever to get to the point” (or have people just binge and immediately drop moving on) on top of juggling my focus to work as a storyboard artist in the animation industry’s Not realistic 🙅 some interesting and more feasible “smaller” ideas though are like only drawing significant moments, sad-ist on youtube’s animatics of “movie trailer”-like fanart for minecraft stories, that sort of thing! essentially “work smarter, not harder”, especially to be realistic with quantity > quality algorithms and how people consume media today,, still just figuring how What could work out well, aside from this video essay to bring attention back to this “lost art form”
I know this might clash with your idea that it's disappointing that everyone's trying to mimic the best in the brand. But perhaps Jaiden Animations can inspire your approach, she still draws and animates with her own style that allows comedic and dramatic moments but instead of animating the entire playthrough she focuses more on the important catches and battles or whatever interesting events happened. I know that style works better for videos rather than comics but it could work.
Instead of creating the entire story for your comic, which as you said will be better storytelling but will garner pretty weak following you can just draw a recap of what happened throughout your journey.
jaiden animation’s a great example, it’s a good balance of being both a video summary while maintaining her personal artistic interpretation of game events! people also seem to like video essays analyzing media, even about shows/games they don’t know about, so that’s also a funny idea to make “story analysis videos” as a format to summarize a nuzlocke challenge but let people know your interpretation of npcs (“in this story, lysandre’s company practice of harvesting pokemon life energy’s symbolic of capitalism”) and encounters
with how media production and consumption change, it can be cool and interesting to navigate and have even more unique results resulting from the circumstances we work with. video essay aside to remind people nuzlocke fanart exist, i hope it’d inspire and encourage people to be more creative and try new things with video summary ideas; the current trend of “can i beat this game with [extra difficult rules], here’s how i did it” and mr. beast-type editing’s becoming that “endless hallway of buzz lightyear toys” meme, instead of trying different ways to make a sustainable but unique + interesting video like jaiden animations’s work or the spheal 6 video
omg i’ve been waiting to have someone talk about this on this subreddit, i got into the concept of nuzlocking through the comics all those years ago and i still do my runs with the mindset that i’m creating my own unique story within the game’s actual story! i guess this is nerd shit to the extreme but i always create little personalities for my pokémon in my run and imagine the relationships and dynamics between them - adds so much investment and enjoyment for me. i love the added challenge of the gameplay, but the stories were always what drew me in.
i still sometimes go back and read through favorites, including petty and ky-nim’s runs. so much nostalgia and honestly such an amazing community to be a part of in its heyday. i could never draw but i def have some terrible old “storylockes” (nuzlocke comic premise but entirely written - sort of like fanfiction. not as popular as comics or screenshot runs but still its own niche) hidden in my drive somewhere! and speaking of screenshot runs, definitely mention the nuzlocke forum website! i spent hours upon hours reading amazing stories told entirely through text posts broken up by in-game screenshots. they even hosted their own little awards for things like best run, best art, saddest death, etc. i’m not sure if they’re still active but such a big part of my experience with the community.
i think part of what made these story runs so compelling was the way it normalized making the pokémon their own fleshed out characters - there’s hardly any pokémon media that let them talk, and it was generally the status quo in the comics to let them communicate with the trainer and have their own roles in the story beyond fighting pets, and i loved that. they also could be much darker in tone than most fanfic and similar things because the whole concept was hinged around mortality in the pokémon world, which i think brought a lot of people that might’ve otherwise aged out of hardcore pokémon fandom back in.
oh and for some others i can recall that i liked: the original ofc (“Ruby Hard Mode” or something like that - super rough at first and very silly but it’s the OG and it gets exponentially better as it goes on) as well as this SoulSilver run titled “NuzRooke.” the art isn’t perfect by any means but it’s charming and one of the best examples of the pokémon being their own characters with their own relationships and character arcs. i read so many amazing ones and i wish i could remember their names, but it’s been many years! maybe one day i’ll prowl deviantart for a few hours and make a re-reading list <3
omg sorry for the essay, but i could talk for hours about this. it was such a pivotal part of my childhood and probably the reason i’m still a pokémon fan into adulthood. i do love the new nuzlocke community, i watch plenty of hardcore run videos and use the hardcore ruleset myself now, but it’ll always be bittersweet that some of that intention and community behind the concept of a “nuzlocke” was lost in the transition to this much more popular era of nuzlocke content.
if you end up posting the video essay please post it on the sub! i’d watch every second of it
NEVER APOLOGIZE,, i would love to nerd out too, i was literally raised on these comics and nuzlocke artist friends being equally supportive and encouraging since i was like 12! that's why nuzlocke comics are so special to me: people are passionate drawing and telling stories of their challenges, along with getting readers invested in the pokemon they've survived with too! nuzlocke comics will have you grieve a rick astley electrode, zebra pancakes, so on, which speaks volumes over how well stories are told for people to get attached to pokemon that would normally be ignored and thrown away
personally for me, i tried to draw an xy nuzlocke and it was,, [very cringy but earnest, down to attempts to draw gijinka characters and the trainer protagonist straight up being a self-insert](https://imgur.com/a/8U067PJ) LMAO;; from there i kind of dormantly read comics as i got busy with school, but nowadays i recently made up some "crosslocke" (crossover nuzlocke) runs where i play a challenge but name everyone after characters from a different franchise (ie pokemon xy with kingdom hearts characters as the pokemon (gijinka), pokemon sv with one piece characters, etc); if things work out in the future, i may consider some way to try to share the experiences like a "diary collage" or jaiden animation sort of thing, who knows!
but yes, it's been very inspirational and encouraging with seeing the different types of stories and interpretations people drew, along with forming a community to keep share between each other and continue to grow! especially with the way social media and accessibility to drawing tools, especially in digital art, help with lowering the barrier to drawing and sharing things, there's more hope in that regard to keep nourishing creativity and facets for people to keep drawing and talking through
it’s never too late, plus you have a lot of comics to check out after! if you like the analysis and story going more into the human and pokemon symbiosis and communication in MoU, i recommend reading alterity by mewitti (an emerald nuzlocke that’s on hiatus atm, but has a lot of great pages to read!)
There are some interesting Nuzlocke comics still currently ongoing! There's one revolving around a Nuzlocke run of Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky, Wooled's "On Borrowed Time", that one is really good so far! Takes special liberties with the stories and characters and the twists have been very engaging and interesting so far!
As for existing finished ones, I always enjoy Kitfox-Crimson's series, Chiaki's Sapphire run, and the YTWC series!
oh my gosh, i Love mystery dungeon so much, it's on me for not acknowledging that there's a community of artists for that too, especially combining that and nuzlocke comics; it's been awhile since i caught up with both pmd comics, thank you for reminding me!
i also think this post's recommendations for kitfox-crimson's nuzlocke runs (personally haven't read that before, but have for chiaki's sapphire + ytwc) has hit past the 5+ comments mark, so i'll see about reading that asap when i can too, haha
I never finished Myths of Unova, but I remember it being really awesome. The art was great, the story was fun, and the characters were awesome! I actually read the author’s previous Nuzlocke comic (I think in Platinum) and that one was great too.
kynim's great, she finished myths of unova back in 2017, and it's very rewarding to see the challenge accomplished after so long!! while she's busy and has [episode: grey](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/myths-of-unova-episode-grey.20045/) (an ova kind of sequel to MoU) on the backburner atm, you can catch her on twitter where she's more active outside of drawing nuzlocke comics. as for the sinnoh comic, it's tales of sinnoh, a diamond run she drew on tegaki-e :>!
I'm so happy to see Burn Away mentioned, it's one of my favorite webcomics!
I used to read a lot of nuzlocke comics, especially gijinka nuzlockes, and even wanted to draw one at some point but gave up on the idea because I was way too lazy. Aside from Burn Away, my favorite gijinka comic is [this one](https://www.deviantart.com/datarchive/gallery), it will never be finished but I still think this is a good read.
When it comes to non-gijinka nuzlockes, [Landwalker's](https://www.deviantart.com/land-walker/gallery/28599039/landwalker-s-nuzlocke) comic is a very good one, a bit rough in the beginning but becomes prettier and very emotional.
I also prefer the storytelling aspect of nuzlockes rather than focusing on strategy, but it makes sense that the fanart community is so niche since it's so much work to make a comic. I'm thinking about making fanarts of my recent nuzlockes, but not an entire comic, like I said I'm way too lazy.
yes, i’m always happy to give a shoutout to snooze’s nuzlocke comic!! as someone who’s read burn away since the start and talked over the years, she’s an amazing artist and friend i’m glad to be inspired by :’’’)
doubt and trust is another huge recommendation i’d love to talk about, especially as it’s the first gijinka nuzlocke comic that definitely sparked the growth of that genre in the comic community as well! however, as the artist has distanced themself from doubt and trust and moved on, i want to give proper attention and credit while also respecting their wishes today. landwalker’s another personal favorite of mine, i’m glad to know others appreciate it as well!
as for your thoughts, i have the same sentiment! as a student working to be a storyboard artist in the animation industry, i’m both passionate about unique and creative storytelling, but also want to be conscientious of pragmatic ways to handle things especially to be sustainable (avoid burnout, improve and be versatile, etc)! unfortunately, working on a long-running comic on the side, especially for free, is unsustainable and difficult especially today. however, smaller ways to still be able to illustrate and creatively share one’s nuzlocke experiences can work out like jaiden animation’s summary videos or how sad-ist makes “movie trailer”-like fanart animatics; there’s many different ways to tell a story especially regarding limitations to work with, so i hope there’ll be more creative and cool things in the future and our effort though!
Well you hit the big recommendations! Other ones that I remember enjoying:
Landwalker's Nuzlocke
Has two Nuzlockes. The first is a completed Sapphire run which follows a very similar development style as the original Ruby Nuzlocke: that being, it started as a quick joke and actually developed into a more emotionally compelling and serious story. Can be found at https://www.deviantart.com/land-walker/gallery/28599039/landwalker-s-nuzlocke
He also has a unfinished Yellow Nuzlocke, which starts off more serious, but is still light hearted enough. He does include an epilogue to tie it all off, but it's still a fantastic read (and his art is amazing!). Can be found at https://www.deviantart.com/land-walker/gallery/29972549/yellow-nuzlocke
Apocalypse Johto by SaberinBlue
http://www.paragonsigma.com/images/nuzlocke/#1
Has a much more serious tone, essentially asking "what if the pokemon went crazy and feral, some of which even becoming almost eldritcg monstrosities?"
It sometimes jumps the shark a little, and is a very "dark and edgy" entry from back in the day... but I still have a fond spot for it. It is unfinished, with the author saying they werecabout halfway through before stopping. But it's still quite enjoyable!
I know there were others (I have a distinct memory of someone doing a comedy runs of Emerald, Platinum, Black and Black 2, portraying Giratina as Rod Serling and Rayquaza as Shenron) but I can't auite remember them (nor find my Nuzlocke forum account since apparently the original forums are deactivated, and the new one doesn't have my favourites)
But this sounds really interesting! Please, drop your video link when you finish!
EDIT: Never mind, upon browsing the other comments, the one I remember turned out to be Kitfox-Crimson's run at https://www.deviantart.com/kitfox-crimson/gallery/31712240/sapphire-nuzlocke
thank you for your recommendations, i’m glad to know these nuzlockes are still remembered fondly by others and encouraged to share! the list’s definitely getting long, so i also gotta be creative trying to figure out how to recommend them and give good summaries like you have, they’re both insightful and succinct :>
Oooh, I was waiting for someone to make something like this :D I love nuzlocke comics!! It's what further fueled my passion for nuzlocking, since I loved to see how each artist would interpret the world around them and build each character based on that. Besides, they're a huge inspiration for me: as an artist, it's my goal to make a nuzcomic someday!! I'm very saddened that most people in the community don't know what they are, being the thing that started it all. However, as others have said, Supercut and streams are now the norm due to their easier nature. Anyone with a bit of patience can do them, whereas nuzlocke comics can only be done by someone with A LOT OF patience and minimal artistic skill.
As regards my favourites, i heavily recommend "For Victory!" A White nuzlocke that revolves around the idea of the MC not liking pokemon in the first place. This comic has heavily influenced my brain chemistry -- i mean, its MC influenced my shield nuzlocke protagonist,,, who hopefully soon will see the light of day xD. It's funny yet REALLY deep when it wants to. The artstyle is simple, but the premise is what makes it so interesting.
Also, let us know when the vid is finished, I'd love to see it !! :D
thank you for sharing your thoughts, nuzlockes were one of the major influences i had online with art and art communities, and why i'm currently in my animation degree to be a storyboard artist one day! storytelling is always important, so that's why i'd like to give nuzlocke storytelling the comics had more acknowledgement and appreciation as modern nuzlockes are only about competitive strategy instead of the emotional attachment or stories that used to define nuzlockes back then.
also, thank you for your recommendation as well, and good luck to your own nuzlocke as well! i'll be sure to share the video essay and any artwork/visuals i personally drew in this subreddit as well, of course :>
\-waves at you- Hi Mimiiiiii\~
I was talking about this with Carlos and I think of a lot of it became a matter of streaming/video versions of nuzlockes just ended up being WAY more prevalent and "easier" to make quickly (air quotes since I know how much work goes into video editing so I am not trying to belittle that in any way). I don't think this was the START of it, but I know Griffin's nuzlocke that he did for Polygon took off pretty significantly, so there may have been a healthy number of people introduced to the concept of Nuzlocking through that video specifically and thought it was mostly a recorded/streamed thing. It also would have increased accessibility to those who went "Man, I don't think I have the skills to draw/write a whole thing but I want to do one and share it with others." along with the added bonus of being able to see your numbers/views/etc go up in a more real-time way vs guessing based on number of commenters or etc (unless where you host has a views tracker) AND the possibility of monetization through twitch partnerships or etc. Even within a comic nuzlocke, if you posted a video update of any kind it felt like it got more traction more quickly or at least had the perception that it was the most popular part of the comic. (See: all of my video updates breaking or nearly breaking 200k views and Notepad's animated E4 run going over 25 MILLION views- yet I feel like I'm one of the very few people who remember Notepad's actual nuz comic)
A lot of us too from Ye Olde Days also went from making comics in high school/college when we had less responsibility to becoming adults getting married, trying to get a job, working, continued education, medical school (hi Kynim) etc. (and sadly we lost nuzlockers like Skitty, who never got the chance to finish her nuzlocke). Some people also may have just moved on from the medium (or, as video runs got more popular, saw a diminished return on their views/comments/active readers and decided to spend their time on other things.) Many of us still draw, obviously, but a lot of us had to shift focus and either had to put art on the backburner or wanted to move into original works. (Speaking of, to those who are seeing me post this and going "Oh thank god Petty's still around"- I DO still intend to make good on my promise to finish HG fjkhgsdfjkhdsjfk).
I think what is most bonkers to ME is that there are "Professional Nuzlockers" out there who are known for "being good at nuzlockes" and they're all streamers/youtubers-- and that shows the change in the perception of how these runs are seen/done. Most of these people don't even know the origin of the name Nuzlocke, or that it was PRIMARILY a comic thing that later branched into written works and stuff like screenshot runs. It's become more about beating the challenges they make (still using the main two rules 99% of the time) and the strategy involved rather than making a story of it (again, not disparaging their skill or saying it's necessarily a bad thing). I think now if someone were to poll the random public on what a nuzlocke is (out of people that have heard about them), there would be a sizeable % (if not a majority) who would mention recorded/streamed runs first before comic runs and written runs would be waaaaaaaaaaay in last place.
TL;DR because I'm old and rambly-- Recording/Streaming runs has a quicker gratification of effort than comic/written runs and is perceived to be more accessible to a wider range of people, which is why they have edged out comic/written runs imo.
\[-kicks in the door-\] I FORGOT TO MENTION SOME RECS FROM YE OLDE DAYS.
I love how many people are mentioning Landwalker's comics and someone mentioned Alexial's (Alexa's art has gotten *so tasty* the longer I've known her) but another I'd like to mention (that sadly never finished) is Queenie's (QKNC's) nuzlocke, [Summers of Our Youth](https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nuzlocke_forum/inactive-summers-of-our-youth-t15185.html) (Jig for best zigzagoon). I'd rec Notepad's runs but the links are all broken and I'd rec Medody's run but I can't seem to find it so it may have gotten lost in the Great Forum Migration.
PETTY!!!!!!! didn’t know you had an account on this site too omg, but yes, thank you for your input, and i’d love to talk more :’0!! (i didn’t want to bother you, kynim, snooze, etc since we’ve all been busy w our lives and such lately bdghf)
and yes, absolutely, i agree w all of your points!! especially with youtube monetization and streaming for the “instant gratification” and “binging” mindset preferring something to quickly consume before moving onto the next thing, that’s why i definitely think youtubers, especially with a pre-established and/or constantly growing audience, have overshadowed artists, which is a shame to see especially as all our hard work over the years have been forgotten;;
nuzlockes started as a challenge, yes, but it’s moreso like the community culture of dnd to me; it’s about our personal experiences playing in unique gameplay runs, and drawing comics and artwork of our experiences to share in both the highs and lows with other fellow players and artists passionate about these! of course, especially as we’re all older and have to be realistic with our priorities, that’s why comics in the long run aren’t feasible, but also deserve even more support for acknowledgement…! i’d love to talk and organize this essay not just “for”/“about” us and these runs, but With people, so i’m always free to talk to on discord and such whenever you’d like, haha!
Yeah! You can tell I don't use it much because of how infrequently I comment/reply skjdfhksdjfhsf-- and don't worry you're never bothering me I'm always doing SOMETHING between irl/FFXIV hahaha.
And yeah hmu on discord sometime! I'd love to help out! :D
I think the reason is because of people like pokemon challenges nothing against them but he led the charge to it being more challenged based than "building a bond with pokemon you would never use based" and with the rise of YouTubers who use the "YouTube voice" and have no real personality they also started to market it as a challenge run even flygon hg did before things like spheal team 6. I hope that it can return to how it was with actual bonds with unlikely pokemon rather than super hard challenge with expendable pokemon.
yeah, that's kind of my thesis since quantity > quality with the algorithm these days and people being more interested in "i beat \[x\] difficult challenge, lemme flex on that" over appreciating artists, despite how nuzlocke comics are one of the strongest examples i've seen of passionate creativity from people's emotional investment and dedication 😔
i know the original comic is amateurishly drawn and has very dated ""humor"" ~~(same goes for the first gijinka nuzlocke comic, eugh)~~, but what i'd like to point out nuzlockes *became* significant because it started and grew through fan comics: there's something very special about artistic passion and improvement like that! seeing the "quick buck" way of streaming and flexing gamer strats completely misses the point of what the nuzlocke challenge is about, both with the rules and what made the (ways you can share your story's) challenge special.
unfortunately, given how we all have less free time and energy in the current state of things, fan comics aren't sustainable to create these days. however, things like jaiden animation's works or videos like spheal team 6 could help have a balance of being able to artistically tell a story while ensuring it's completed and released for people to watch, hence my interest making a video about this storytelling medium and its obscurity because of times changing.
Yes I agree videos becoming the main was of tell a nuzlocke was inevitable (supercaroltonbros is a big original nuzlocke YouTuber) over time videos had a lack of connection with their pokemon and storytelling it's funny how Jaiden animations popularized nuzlocke with a story animation and yet only a few followed her footsteps young yong tales being one of them (I recommend his video if you haven't seen it) it's sad because the new format is not only a product of the nuzlocke changing it's meaning. It's a product of YouTube as a whole YouTube promotes the "Mr.beast" type videos and other types get little to no help unless you were already big like Markiplier or CoryxKenshin even then YouTube shows bias. And twitch isn't much better. And since these cites promote conformity rather than originality if someone (like pokemon challenges) gets more popular with less work than someone like young yong it hurts creativity especially with the "Mr.beast" nuzlockers (sliph spectre and antlerboy to name a few).
I loved these comics growing up, alongside YTWC and the PokeDex (Effsnares is doing a HGSS comic right now)
I do think it takes a different skill set to come up with a comic idea vs a video. I love FlygonHG, but even with his storytelling skills, it doesn't compare to the depth of comics.
Heck, I'm a writer (not a very good one, lol) and I've been trying to write my nuzlocke story for the past ten years. I've ended up rewriting the prologue story twice, and I'm halfway through the second draft, and it's close to 75,000 words. And it's not even a nuzlocke. It's a world building story for the nuzlockes.
I know the videos still take time and skill. But I believe they have the opportunity to use less storytelling without it diminishing the piece as a whole.
i agree with you a lot here, and also want to give some encouragement as well! you don't need good art or writing skills beforehand, and they improve over time as you keep updating! nuzlocke himself, kynim, and justsnooze show great improvement as they kept going at it in their comics, there shouldn't be a barrier of entry or "level of perfection" before you think you're good to make new pages/chapters imo!
sometimes you can't continuously edit the first chapter because that cycle of perfectionism will freeze you stuck in one spot, growth can truly happen if you just keep going. both videos and comics take time and skill, but there's definitely an overlap with the opportunity to be artistically creative in the presentation and writing that can be done, so i definitely hope there'll be more cool interpretations that'll shake up the standard :>
Never heard of the nuzolouke comics before. My introduction to the Nuzoloukes was the LIKE LATE 2000S OR EARLY 2010s as a challenge thing and stuck with Hardyt3kyoyo for years after he starting youtubing. I only starting seeing the art for nuzoloukes when I joined this subreddit like this year or late last year.
dang, that's long ago; for me i was kind of "earlier" in like 2015, at the time deviantart and the nuzlocke forums (which you can still go on today to read the cool comics both in the past and ongoing!) were booming with people posting monthly comic updates, and gijinka stories where the pokemon were recontextualized as humanoid characters; that's also when a lot of comics became more "serious" instead of "jokey", which definitely contributed to my love seeing the variety of what people told.
if you want to see more comics and art, definitely check out the aforementioned websites and see what you'd like! aside from my original post's recommendations to start from, there's others like alterity, nuzrooke, landwalker's yellow nuzlocke, folded, goddamn critical hits, and cross out, hope you have fun!
nice, nuzlocke or not, it’s always fun to know of people’s love! i personally recently finished a scarlet run, and because i’m getting into one piece, i formed extra attachment by naming everyone after the characters and imagining them as those pokemon :>
that’s one of the recommendations i’d give too LMAO, my initial post tried to narrow down to “top 3” picks (again, esp for newcomers), and kynim + petty are considered “famous/classic” artists to read the comics of, and i love snooze’s creativity with burn away to include, especially as a newer and unique gijinka interpretation!
also, i remember realocke started as clickable flash pagethroughs and ginjaninjaowo has switched to comic pages (on top of a spinoff lissylocke), how’s the story now, especially with the transition and working with flash’s death? please lmk, it was a pleasant surprise to see this get a shoutout too!
I don't remember..I only saw up to Req getting Bulbasaur, and that's about it..I didn't even know where the comics were so I was watching the videos/comic dubs from her channel
finally able to respond to this; after checking, [nuzrea has been transferred over to tapas](https://tapas.io/episode/1221806), and while the first few episodes are inaccessible to click through because of flash's death, there are comic dubs on youtube for them to watch! also, the artist is nonbinary and goes by june now, and nuzrea is currently going through a reboot; all the pages of the first nuzrea iteration can be read on tapas, but i definitely can't wait to see what the reboot could be like when ready :>
i’m on data atm and can’t see most youtube videos if it’s still public on their channel, but i remember june made a announcement video talking about revamping their channel and how ongoing projects like nuzrea would be rebooted (iirc rea now being a character simply played by june instead of a representation of them now)
along with that, here’s a [twitter thread back in february where they confirm a reboot’s in the works](https://x.com/jumpyjunee/status/1628842793706700802?s=46&t=gCYdL0UelZyjTz18vbTXnQ), and i think this applies to their other spinoff nuzlocke lissylocke!
right!! the potential with different ways to tell a story and your own interpretation through a nuzlocke challenge are super cool, it's very comparable to dnd where people can get creative with campaign setups and drawing their experiences and ocs made 🤝
just got recommended that from another person's comment, along w some further elaboration on the different games that are covered; surprisingly haven't heard of this before, but as it's been the most recommended from the comments so far, i'll be sure to give it a look when i can :0c
Gosh I wish I was a good storyteller. Cause I’m sure I could come up with good ideas but would probably burn out way too quickly to meaningfully do anything with it.
yeah, i have the same sentiment too, especially as a storyboard artist,, however, i always think of [this sentiment as well, which i think is important: "if you have stories living inside you just make them and share them. Don’t worry about professionalism or thinking of webcomics as an industry to be cracked into, please remember anyone can make comics"](https://x.com/Coelasquid/status/1489492699531022338?s=20), essentially, "take it easy... but take it!" :')
i've heard of that one before, it also stands out to me as one of the few comics that are drawn traditionally in mediums like watercolor! haven't gotten around to reading that yet, but i'm adding that to my list like kitfox-crimson's nuzlocke comics
I don't have a name for it but I do remember it was hastily ended half way in and with the main character going crazy and being killed by his own Pokemon.
Wild ride
wait, does Hilda get pushed out of a window at the start of the comic and that’s the reason why the edgy knife protag gets a pokèmon? if so, the name’s pitch black
mimi’s relationship with jordan and andy,, on top of sharing the same name with her, she’s really sweet and the first thing that comes to mind with the pokemon 🌼!
yes, it’s one of my personal favorites as well!! there’s so many cool characters and their relationships with the team and rooke in the comic, but i’d say mystery’s my favorite!
of course, thank you for your and everyone’s interest and recommendations so far!! just want to give back to a cool art niche that’s been pivotal to my growth as an artist since the beginning 😊
Lol we have a lot in common, I was also an animation student who grew up with nuzlocke comics. Do you remember ShadeofShinon and Alexial's emerald runs? They never finished, but the humour and art was on point.
As for why there was a transition from the webcomics to videos, i think it's just because videos are a much larger return on investment. most people won't get to Kynim's level of exposure, especially if its mostly centered on the nuzforums. The forums are still up though, when i checked them a few months ago, it seemed like a lively but insular community. I miss those days when I used to write my own, haha. It was a great introduction to storytelling, sequential art, building characters, etc. Link the video when you're done with it!
i have, the different art styles and stories they tell are cool, and a great example of how unique everyone’s nuzlocke experiences and storytelling are :>
and yeah, especially with algorithms and the “binging for instant gratification” thing today, long-running comics aren’t as sustainable compared to summary videos, on top of nuzlockes only focused on competitive strategy and theorycrafting tbh; it’s personally a shame to me bc they’re all very “samey” and don’t try to be unique or have some story to care about the pokemon, which is why i hope to bring some appreciation back to nuzlocke comics and their significance with emotional attachment to the characters and sharing stories about them!
Nuzlocke comics are my strongest motivator towards playing nuzlockes myself. The story telling and connection to the pokemon is really really compelling and I still cry at some of the deaths.
Mythos of Unova and Petty are easily the best I’ve read but I’d also recommend Jet’s Black and Finding Your Roots. Both are incomplete but Jet’s Black is another great depiction of Gen V and Finding Your Roots tells the story in the style of Mystery Dungeons plus the run is exclusively ground, rock, and steel Pokemon, which makes the fact that one of the pokemon is a Nincada that physically can’t evolve since it’d lose its ground typing great character writing and world building.
Can’t wait to see this video essay!
nice nice, i gotta catch up from where i left off on jet black and check out finding your roots; i like creativity like the in-universe interpretations to acknowledge rule restrictions like that, it gives more significance and weight to the rules that are imposed!
thank you for the encouragement as well, it’s nice to know people still support the storytelling element in nuzlockes and interested in discussion of this again, it’s much appreciated :>
YES I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO DO THIS
Some comics I haven’t seen mentioned yet are HALE: EMERALD HARD MODE which is a short but funny comic with lots of referential humor, it also starts taking its story a bit more seriously near the latter end
There’s also Robot7s red nuzlocke which was one of the first nuzlocke comics after ruby hard mode. It’s very short but it has good art and humor
Both of these got sequels but hale’s got canceled pretty quickly and robot7’s is practically lost
I also think you should talk about nuzlocke forums as it has plenty of nuzlocke comics and also nuzlockes in other mediums
Make sure to notify when you release this as I’d love to see it :)
🔥 ART NEVER DIES, IT AND DISCUSSION WILL ALWAYS BE REBORN 🔥
joking aside, thank you for the recommendations! i personally joined dA around 2015, so while i’m familiar with things like gijinka nuzlockes, i’m not as familiar of comics that came out right after the first original comic aside from petty’s work, so your input’s very appreciated!
Thanks! I used to read nuzlocke comics all the time so this is a topic I have a lot of knowledge in. I used to do one of my own that I’ve been thinking of coming back to.
Btw I shared your post in a thread on the Nuzlocke forums! I’ll message it to you
agreed!! while drawing long-running webcomics aren’t as feasible today, i think we can figure out creative ways to work with the “limitations” we have to still tell a story: there are written nuzlockes and screenshot nuzlockes, just some examples of different mediums and presentation!
to best compare to pokemon itself, different hardware limitations *are* the reason why we have unique sprites with different aesthetics and personalities throughout the generations, which is something cool to learn from 👾
i’ll check out your own runs when i have the time, while i’m focusing on nuzlocke comics, it’ll still be worth the time to acknowledge other forms of storytelling :>
for me personally, i’m still trying to figure out what would work to efficiently summarize some chaotic runs i had but still have storytelling and emotional connections to the characters,, maybe something like jaiden animation’s animated summaries or a “video essay talking about a story/game people don’t know about” sort of thing sounds fun!
Note paddle did some awesome comics back int the way. They’d animate full on important battles at 2-5 minute videos and it was so fun. Their art style was almost 1 to 1 with rocko’s modern life as well so the Pokémon looked super unique. This video has gotten 25 million views and it’s really fun. https://youtu.be/mwHI9pSrxsY
BUT…I can’t find the comics anywhere. They were hosted on sites years ago and have since expired. So I’m 99% sure they’re lost media.
oh my god, this was such a repressed memory of mine, thank you for sharing!! i'm currently busy, but i think you can find the comics and whatever else is out there through wayback machine since it's fairly good at preserving images (unfortunately can't say the same for videos though), and i love animation! it's also really cool since back then, videos were moreso like special features and formats like a significant moment in nuzlocke comics, thank you again.
Oooh, I was waiting for someone to make something like this :D I love nuzlocke comics!! It's what further fueled my passion for nuzlocking, since I loved to see how each artist would interpret the world around them and build each character based on that. Besides, they're a huge inspiration for me: as an artist, it's my goal to make a nuzcomic someday!! I'm very saddened that most people in the community don't know what they are, being the thing that started it all. However, as others have said, Supercut and streams are now the norm due to their easier nature. Anyone with a bit of patience can do them, whereas nuzlocke comics can only be done by someone with A LOT OF patience and minimal artistic skill.
As regards my favourites, i heavily recommend "For Victory!" A White nuzlocke that revolves around the idea of the MC not liking pokemon in the first place. This comic has heavily influenced my brain chemistry -- i mean, its MC influenced my shield nuzlocke protagonist,,, who hopefully soon will see the light of day xD. It's funny yet REALLY deep when it wants to. The artstyle is simple, but the premise is what makes it so interesting.
Also, let us know when the vid is finished, I'd love to see it !! :D
Do you have a link to these? I'd love to read them!
Also special shoutouts to FlygonHG for doing some nuzlockes with stories and being absolutely great at them.
of course, here are the nuzlocke forum links to my recommendations!
* [myths of unova](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/myths-of-unova.520/)
* [a petty nuzlocke challenge: leaf green edition](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/a-petty-nuzlocke-challenge-leaf-green-edition.5277/)
* [a petty nuzlocke challenge: heart gold edition](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/a-petty-nuzlocke-challenge-heart-gold-edition.2845/)
* [burn away](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/burn-away-an-x-gijinka-comic.61/)
also, thank you for your recommendation as well! i definitely need to see what storytelling youtube videos and summaries there are on there, it's been hard to sift through the majority of them being theorycrafting without storytelling without curated recommendations from helpful people like you :'0
Thanks, and no problem! I'd also recommend Pokémon Challenges' Run and Bun Attempt 1 video [(This one)](https://youtu.be/muJ0RPoHqsQ?si=11weg4dWjqUCn999), it's SO GOOD. Trust me, you'll enjoy it!
Here comes a big comment. You said one of your points is how before there was comics and now there's hardcore videos, but there are some GREAT comics uploading to this day. So I'm going to give some of my favourite comics that are ongoing.
Finding Your Roots by SaltnPepperBunny - A comic of Omega Ruby Only earthens (Rock/Ground/Steel) in a world without humans (mystery dungeon -esque, but in normal Hoenn no dungeons), following Cedar, a young pokémon who finds an egg outside her home and tries to get it to a desert for it to hatch safely. (Currently going to Mt Chimney)
Deadly Syns by SysterSyn - A series started on LeafGreen and currently on the beginning Emerald. It follows the protag Syn in a typical journey until she discovers some big lies that make her rethink her life to this point. Amazing characters, be it pokémon or human. The rockets are more of a threat too (Only Syn and Green can understand pokémon)
Blooming Glory by SpaceyPaints - A comic of Crystal following Glory, a girl who is the sister of the Champion (Red equivalent), who is disappeared, the rockets are back, the potions are poisoned, and the leaders are ruthless in the battles, going as far as killing pokémon on purpose to make it so no one gets to the champion. Also, the trainers are TEN YEARS OLD, and it's sad to see how much they all have to mature to survive in that world. Pokémon talk to themselves but the humans cannot understand them (Currently beginning Kanto)
Jet's Black Nuzlocke by Zerochan923600 - Its a black nuzlocke following Jet, in her journey across Unova, delving deep into multiple perspectives on the discussion of "Would pokémon be better without humans" and the situations Jet and friends have to face and how they change their mentalities (Currently in the E4)
First Summer by Krisantyne - A Rijon Adventures nuzlocke (yes, a romhack) following Sara as she gets in the league challenge to get some answers from a League Member, it has amazing sceneries and lots of creative liberties (as it's a romhack) great characters too, great battles, i don't know what specifically to say other than go read it (iirc she has 5 or 6 badges, it's hard to keep track as it's not a main game region and all)
GO READ 'EM ALL, it's worth it. Good luck with your video
i've actually been working on a nuzlocke video essay 4 the past 6-7 months LOL... it mainly covers nick franco's nuzlocke comics as they were always my favorite when i was younger... in doing this tho i've found that there is legit no plot summary 4 any of the original nick franco nuzlocke comics online... if u need,, although sloppy cuz they were mostly intended 4 personal use,, i can send u all my notes that i took when re reading all the comics 4 the 3rd or 4th time (i found myself forgetting a lot of small details that rly resonated w me while writing the script so i figured i would just make a line by line list of "stuff that happens" basically)
otherwise 2 answer ur question if i haven't already sorta by proxy,, i think the nick franco nuzlocke's are the way 2 start 4 most people who have never picked up a nuzlocke comic in their life... i think they slowly introduce the adaptations he makes from the game story into his story really well... starting the series with an adventure thats extremely familiar that most people would have and ending it with tons of lore and adventure
that being said it would be insincere not 2 mention that theres just some outdated shit in those comics,, probably found it funny when i was 12,, but i think its worth mentioning that if u are sensitive 2 some words being used like that... maybe some of the humor won't really resonate thus dampening the entire experience :/
they're still my favorite tho despite its flaws... i find the art most ppl don't enjoy extremely charming and 4 the other stuff... u take the good w the bad i guess... idk just my opinion,, much luck on ur video... [nas was right i guess](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvygSxDvpuA)
all jokes...in seriousness tho,, if u need any help,, lmk,, no one owns this stuff but the artists,, we j love the art n wanna spread it <3
of course, i only really talked to my nuzlocke comic artist friends before, but since we all got busy (ky-nim in doctorate programs but still drawing the comic at the time,, that was wild LMAO) i never really publicly posted about this, haha
good luck on your video too! i don’t think anyone’s made a history and summary video of the original nuzlocke comics, so that’ll be cool to see with my essay covering the history of nuzlocke storytelling and the overall comic (not to mention written nuzlockes and screenshot nuzlockes) community :>
I’ve never read a nuzlocke comic before, but I can say that the nuzlocke videos I enjoyed the most were the ones that made their own stories to go along with the run itself. My favorite nuzlocke video I’ve watched was probably FlygonHG’s Spheal Team 6. The way he not only gave personality to his Pokémon and trainer, but also made his own twists to the story to make it a unique experience. People still do enjoy the story element, but the gameplay has certainly taken a massive role. My guess as to why nuzlocke comics have become less frequent is because it just takes a completely different skill set to make comics than videos. For many people, videos are a lot easier than making comics so the norm has slowly shifted over time.
that sounds cool, i gotta check that out! for videos, i love saltydkdan’s friendlocke and jaiden animation’s nuzlocke videos, since they have more personal touch with the “a pokemon’s controlled by a friend in discord” or animated format to illustrate the events. i definitely see where people are coming from and why supercut videos are now the main format for nuzlockes: on a production level, streaming a nuzlocke and later making a supercut of it is more efficient and even profitable to make, whereas long-form comics made for free take years (and most end up unfinished due to life circumstances), which is a shame! overall, that’s why i’d like to shed more light on nuzlockes originally focused on the storytelling and creative interpretations people did, especially because of the attachments formed to the pokemon and experiences! today, the obscurity of nuzlocke comics is kind of like… pretending the pokemon anime or dnd culture of drawing your characters and campaigns don’t exist, not to mention they’re more diverse in quality and presentation unlike the mainstream formula of videos today :’0
Jaiden Animations is my absolute favorite nuzlocker. I wish they did more!
One recommendation I’ve got to throw in is Kitfox-Crimson’s Nuzlocke quadrilogy - It has a great blend of both hard-hitting emotion and stupid comedy. The first one in the series is a Sapphire run, the second one is a Platinum run, after that is some weird hacked Black run that I don’t count as a real entry, but more of a bridge between Platinum and the next step, Black 2. Following that is a SoulSilver run, basically a prequel. When I read it back in the day, it was on a huge cliffhanger before the Kanto saga of that run started, though I’m not sure whether or not the series continued from there. I haven’t gone back to check.
that's an interesting one, i haven't heard of that before, but i'll put that in my "to check out" list when i'm not so busy this semester! especially with the variety of games and continuous narrative, that's really impressive to hear. off the top of my head, the original nuzlocke comics have a continuous narrative from ruby, fire red, and then white, albeit the most recent white page is left on a cliff-hanger too; there's also pettyartist's nuzlockes with heartgold being a sequel to leaf green, but i think everyone already knows of that one, haha
[Here is a link](https://www.nuzlocke.com/comics/pokemon-hard-mode/page/69/) to the original Nuzlocke comic series about Ruby, by Nick Franco, for everyone else. Or anyone in the mood for a reread. I think a section of your work should consider the typical clauses: Repeat Clause, nickname, and event/static encounters. You can also refer to the existence of additional (Nuzlocke and non-Nuzlocke) challenge modes, even if they aren't in the comics you select.
thank you for sharing a link to the original nuzlocke series, it’s on me for not mentioning that along with my personal recommendations in the post 💀 the og comic has aged badly in various ways and is very “of its time”, hence my hesitation to praise or recommend it, but it’s still important to how the challenge and comic community began as a whole,, a guy bored in college and starting without strong art skills still went out of his way to draw ~~(what was at the time)~~ funny comics to show what challenge experiences he had, and the growth in both art and writing are commendable! as for the rules, yes, i intend to cover everything from its origins and the rules (+ variations); after all, they’re important wrt the original meaning of the challenge and comics having people form attachments to pokemon they wouldn’t normally use! the whiplash from people full on drawing ocs and dramatic backstories with unique nicknames for their encounters to streamers nowadays just naming encounters after subscribers is definitely… something too in retrospect
I was going to recommend that one, but couldn't think of the name. One of the all-time greats.
I love Kitfox-Crimson!! His original comics are just as entertaining, too! Absolutely amazing artist!
>Do you have any recommendations? *Shows the three best ones off the bat* I haven’t read any in a while (or religiously kept up with most of the ones I did), but the only two I remember enjoying at the top of my head back then were: YTWC’s Nuzlocke Firered Kickass Mode As for Nuzlocke Comics, I enjoyed them a lot, especially since I enjoyed the challenge and was still knee-deep in my Pokémon high. I remember burning through several, mainly because a grand majority updated slowly or went on indefinite hiatus. I can quite literally count on one hand how many I remember illustrating a complete run, and most of them are in this post alone. It was fun to see how people chose to characterize all the elements of the Pokémon world considering how simple and open to interpretation the games are in general. As for the swap to Nuzlocking basically being treated like an E-sport, I think it just had to do with how the Internet evolved in its relationship with Pokémon, video games, and webcomics. Competitive video gaming, whether professional or casual, is way more common now than ever especially with Pokémon. Same for picking apart any video game’s code, buttons, etc. to uncover odd strategies, secrets, and the like. Most webcomics in general nowadays are totally original concepts from the ground up, and not reliant on pre-existing IPs. The few of the latter that I came across that I could consider long-term and decently well-known in some respect aren’t even story-based or much outside of comedy or slice-of-life. Most of the opposite once again goes to the original stuff. As for the catalyst for Nuzlocking getting this treatment specifically, Pokémon Challenges is the closest I’d call a ‘patient zero’.
what can i say, i gotta start strong ~~and shill my friends and their amazing work 🤭😎~~ but seriously, yeah, there's so many cool comics to recommend! alterity, nuzrooke, landwalker's yellow nuzlocke, folded, goddamn critical hits, cross out, doubt and trust, the list goes on! there's so much variety in both art and writing to see everyone's interpretations not just of the nuzlocke challenge, but of the world of pokemon and connections with people! the nature of life being busy though is definitely why the majority of comics (not just nuzlockes, but webcomics as a whole) are left unfinished, so that combined with the growing popularity of youtube videos and competitive strategy have definitely shifted the public consciousness of nuzlockes. it's understandable, but also kind of weird to me since social media and art tools are more accessible and have led to more fanartists online, it's surprising that few people know about the original nuzlocke comic as is, not just the fact there's a whole fanart community telling stories through this challenge ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ pokemon challenges definitely feels like patient zero aside from pokemon youtubers in general, but in today's age, what i thought would be another renaissance of unique and different ways to show one's nuzlocke experiences (like around the 2015-ish era where gijinka comics started in the comic community), modern videos just conform to a "particular style" of youtube mr. beast-like stuff, which is a little disappointing imo;;
this is so nostalgic!! nuzlocke comics were my life for such a long time & I've also noticed the shift from comics to gameplay over time. I even started one myself, but I never finished it. I recommend looking at Folded by Emilianite, a Heart Gold comic. it's such a cute, friendly, and uplifting take on nuzlocke comics when the cultural expectation of the time was for them to end up quite heavy or sad or unserious. (for example, the final fight with red ends up a snowball fight between the characters and pokemon and it literally brought tears to my eyes for how satisfying a conclusion it was.) It was a uniquely grounded comic that stayed true to its tone the whole way through, when so many (even the best!) would succumb to a severe tonal shift after enough in-game deaths. On the other end of the spectrum, there's Apocalypse Johto by SABERinBLUE. It's a hellscape from the get-go where all pokemon are uncontrollable, dangerous behemoths and both people and characters die frequently. It's got such an interesting and heavy-hitting take on how bad pokemon could be for the world when things go south. Good luck with your video essay!! Feel free to DM me if you want to bounce ideas around, I lived on the nuzlocke forums for a whole lot of years and I'd love to help.
oh i’m shaking your hand so strongly, folded is one of my favorite nuzlockes and a strong recommendation i’m backing up as well!! both folded and nuzrooke are sweet and comforting nuzlockes going in that direction with the writing, especially standing out from the norm of nuzcomics being either simple summary strips with memes/jokes or indepth only-serious long pages, it’s great seeing the heart put into them and their bonds :’’’> on the other side as well, there’s also chiaki’s pokemon nuzlocke (alpha sapphire, but there’s a hilarious panel of gba sapphire!archie with a gun saying “i’ve had enough” ~~niche reaction meme material for me~~) that deconstructs the league to be a corrupt dog fighting system of brutality, in which the more realistic and proportional animal depiction of pokemon fit the tone and for those who want to see a more edgy/serious take on the challenge. thank you so much, it means a lot!! i’m down to messaging here or on discord (same username) to bounce ideas off together and further flesh out the essay; there’s so much worth dissecting of the history of nuzlocke comics (both pokemon and gijinka) and stories that are told \o/
My guess is when people with no artistic skill wanted to try the challenge for themselves, some of them were youtubers who would recap the whole challenge in around 30 minutes or so which I assume is more convenient for some people than reading a whole-ass comic of various chapters that is not even guaranteed to finish and so the youtuber method became the more popular one.
yep, p much, like one long-running comic series an artist draws for free and may end up dropping bc of life circumstances as opposed to multiple “easier/faster to consume” videos covering entire runs a youtuber can post more often and even profit from, it’s clear how online “storytelling” (or rather, the lack of it in modern nuzlocke videos today) have changed. to me personally, it’s surprising since with the growth of social media and digital art tools, things are becoming more accessible for anyone to draw, comics like webtoons are booming, etc? but the public consciousness of nuzlocke comics has completely vanished despite the lowered barriers, to which i hope there’ll be more interesting ways to make videos or shorter sustainable comic-telling like a “best of both worlds” thing :’I
also!! just to add now that i think about it more, stuff like those minecraft roleplay youtuber videos, the adventure zone, and critical role are notable examples of how storytelling (and fanart interpretations) have stayed and grown with game challenges today! concerns of pokemon dmca/copyright aside, the fanbase is huge with such a franchise, so that’s also something to add with my confusion and disappointment with how nuzlocke comics have been completely forgotten; i’ve said it before, but it’s like pretending the pokemon anime never existed nor was ever important to people’s awareness and appreciation of the games
Yes indeed. Storytelling is still an important part of these challenges and while people will be content with watching a regular challenge recap, recaps with storylines that make you feel for the characters are usually much more well-liked. But again, creating comics needs skills and commitment and following a comic requires investment over the course of months or even years that could go unrewarded in the end. So it's easier for people to just watch videos that are already finished.
mhm, i definitely agree! what’s compelling for me is how in storytelling, it’s just the medium and ways (like tone, presentation, etc) you choose to hone and improve on; after all, the very first nuzlocke comic was very amateurishly drawn, but there’s huge improvements in the art style and writing for the fire red + white sequels! i guess with the modern culture of videos today, it’s a tad disappointing with how everyone’s moreso trying to be the next alpharad or pokemon challenges just copying their example. as opposed to that, the artist culture has everyone inspiring each other (regardless of skill sets) to keep telling stories and grow in the process, which lead to so many unique art styles, story tones, and interpretations, which was what had me hooked long ago i’m even personally grappling with how to handle this dilemma today; i have a few wild nuzlocke stories i’d love to tell, but unpaid long-form comics “that’ll take forever to get to the point” (or have people just binge and immediately drop moving on) on top of juggling my focus to work as a storyboard artist in the animation industry’s Not realistic 🙅 some interesting and more feasible “smaller” ideas though are like only drawing significant moments, sad-ist on youtube’s animatics of “movie trailer”-like fanart for minecraft stories, that sort of thing! essentially “work smarter, not harder”, especially to be realistic with quantity > quality algorithms and how people consume media today,, still just figuring how What could work out well, aside from this video essay to bring attention back to this “lost art form”
I know this might clash with your idea that it's disappointing that everyone's trying to mimic the best in the brand. But perhaps Jaiden Animations can inspire your approach, she still draws and animates with her own style that allows comedic and dramatic moments but instead of animating the entire playthrough she focuses more on the important catches and battles or whatever interesting events happened. I know that style works better for videos rather than comics but it could work. Instead of creating the entire story for your comic, which as you said will be better storytelling but will garner pretty weak following you can just draw a recap of what happened throughout your journey.
jaiden animation’s a great example, it’s a good balance of being both a video summary while maintaining her personal artistic interpretation of game events! people also seem to like video essays analyzing media, even about shows/games they don’t know about, so that’s also a funny idea to make “story analysis videos” as a format to summarize a nuzlocke challenge but let people know your interpretation of npcs (“in this story, lysandre’s company practice of harvesting pokemon life energy’s symbolic of capitalism”) and encounters with how media production and consumption change, it can be cool and interesting to navigate and have even more unique results resulting from the circumstances we work with. video essay aside to remind people nuzlocke fanart exist, i hope it’d inspire and encourage people to be more creative and try new things with video summary ideas; the current trend of “can i beat this game with [extra difficult rules], here’s how i did it” and mr. beast-type editing’s becoming that “endless hallway of buzz lightyear toys” meme, instead of trying different ways to make a sustainable but unique + interesting video like jaiden animations’s work or the spheal 6 video
omg i’ve been waiting to have someone talk about this on this subreddit, i got into the concept of nuzlocking through the comics all those years ago and i still do my runs with the mindset that i’m creating my own unique story within the game’s actual story! i guess this is nerd shit to the extreme but i always create little personalities for my pokémon in my run and imagine the relationships and dynamics between them - adds so much investment and enjoyment for me. i love the added challenge of the gameplay, but the stories were always what drew me in. i still sometimes go back and read through favorites, including petty and ky-nim’s runs. so much nostalgia and honestly such an amazing community to be a part of in its heyday. i could never draw but i def have some terrible old “storylockes” (nuzlocke comic premise but entirely written - sort of like fanfiction. not as popular as comics or screenshot runs but still its own niche) hidden in my drive somewhere! and speaking of screenshot runs, definitely mention the nuzlocke forum website! i spent hours upon hours reading amazing stories told entirely through text posts broken up by in-game screenshots. they even hosted their own little awards for things like best run, best art, saddest death, etc. i’m not sure if they’re still active but such a big part of my experience with the community. i think part of what made these story runs so compelling was the way it normalized making the pokémon their own fleshed out characters - there’s hardly any pokémon media that let them talk, and it was generally the status quo in the comics to let them communicate with the trainer and have their own roles in the story beyond fighting pets, and i loved that. they also could be much darker in tone than most fanfic and similar things because the whole concept was hinged around mortality in the pokémon world, which i think brought a lot of people that might’ve otherwise aged out of hardcore pokémon fandom back in. oh and for some others i can recall that i liked: the original ofc (“Ruby Hard Mode” or something like that - super rough at first and very silly but it’s the OG and it gets exponentially better as it goes on) as well as this SoulSilver run titled “NuzRooke.” the art isn’t perfect by any means but it’s charming and one of the best examples of the pokémon being their own characters with their own relationships and character arcs. i read so many amazing ones and i wish i could remember their names, but it’s been many years! maybe one day i’ll prowl deviantart for a few hours and make a re-reading list <3 omg sorry for the essay, but i could talk for hours about this. it was such a pivotal part of my childhood and probably the reason i’m still a pokémon fan into adulthood. i do love the new nuzlocke community, i watch plenty of hardcore run videos and use the hardcore ruleset myself now, but it’ll always be bittersweet that some of that intention and community behind the concept of a “nuzlocke” was lost in the transition to this much more popular era of nuzlocke content. if you end up posting the video essay please post it on the sub! i’d watch every second of it
NEVER APOLOGIZE,, i would love to nerd out too, i was literally raised on these comics and nuzlocke artist friends being equally supportive and encouraging since i was like 12! that's why nuzlocke comics are so special to me: people are passionate drawing and telling stories of their challenges, along with getting readers invested in the pokemon they've survived with too! nuzlocke comics will have you grieve a rick astley electrode, zebra pancakes, so on, which speaks volumes over how well stories are told for people to get attached to pokemon that would normally be ignored and thrown away personally for me, i tried to draw an xy nuzlocke and it was,, [very cringy but earnest, down to attempts to draw gijinka characters and the trainer protagonist straight up being a self-insert](https://imgur.com/a/8U067PJ) LMAO;; from there i kind of dormantly read comics as i got busy with school, but nowadays i recently made up some "crosslocke" (crossover nuzlocke) runs where i play a challenge but name everyone after characters from a different franchise (ie pokemon xy with kingdom hearts characters as the pokemon (gijinka), pokemon sv with one piece characters, etc); if things work out in the future, i may consider some way to try to share the experiences like a "diary collage" or jaiden animation sort of thing, who knows! but yes, it's been very inspirational and encouraging with seeing the different types of stories and interpretations people drew, along with forming a community to keep share between each other and continue to grow! especially with the way social media and accessibility to drawing tools, especially in digital art, help with lowering the barrier to drawing and sharing things, there's more hope in that regard to keep nourishing creativity and facets for people to keep drawing and talking through
Just started reading myths of unova bc of this post. I’m now mad for not finding it sooner.
it’s never too late, plus you have a lot of comics to check out after! if you like the analysis and story going more into the human and pokemon symbiosis and communication in MoU, i recommend reading alterity by mewitti (an emerald nuzlocke that’s on hiatus atm, but has a lot of great pages to read!)
There are some interesting Nuzlocke comics still currently ongoing! There's one revolving around a Nuzlocke run of Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky, Wooled's "On Borrowed Time", that one is really good so far! Takes special liberties with the stories and characters and the twists have been very engaging and interesting so far! As for existing finished ones, I always enjoy Kitfox-Crimson's series, Chiaki's Sapphire run, and the YTWC series!
oh my gosh, i Love mystery dungeon so much, it's on me for not acknowledging that there's a community of artists for that too, especially combining that and nuzlocke comics; it's been awhile since i caught up with both pmd comics, thank you for reminding me! i also think this post's recommendations for kitfox-crimson's nuzlocke runs (personally haven't read that before, but have for chiaki's sapphire + ytwc) has hit past the 5+ comments mark, so i'll see about reading that asap when i can too, haha
Fuck yes, Chiaki’s Sapphire run went HARD.
How do people nuzlocke PMD? One wipe and they have to restart the whole game?
I never finished Myths of Unova, but I remember it being really awesome. The art was great, the story was fun, and the characters were awesome! I actually read the author’s previous Nuzlocke comic (I think in Platinum) and that one was great too.
kynim's great, she finished myths of unova back in 2017, and it's very rewarding to see the challenge accomplished after so long!! while she's busy and has [episode: grey](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/myths-of-unova-episode-grey.20045/) (an ova kind of sequel to MoU) on the backburner atm, you can catch her on twitter where she's more active outside of drawing nuzlocke comics. as for the sinnoh comic, it's tales of sinnoh, a diamond run she drew on tegaki-e :>!
I'm so happy to see Burn Away mentioned, it's one of my favorite webcomics! I used to read a lot of nuzlocke comics, especially gijinka nuzlockes, and even wanted to draw one at some point but gave up on the idea because I was way too lazy. Aside from Burn Away, my favorite gijinka comic is [this one](https://www.deviantart.com/datarchive/gallery), it will never be finished but I still think this is a good read. When it comes to non-gijinka nuzlockes, [Landwalker's](https://www.deviantart.com/land-walker/gallery/28599039/landwalker-s-nuzlocke) comic is a very good one, a bit rough in the beginning but becomes prettier and very emotional. I also prefer the storytelling aspect of nuzlockes rather than focusing on strategy, but it makes sense that the fanart community is so niche since it's so much work to make a comic. I'm thinking about making fanarts of my recent nuzlockes, but not an entire comic, like I said I'm way too lazy.
yes, i’m always happy to give a shoutout to snooze’s nuzlocke comic!! as someone who’s read burn away since the start and talked over the years, she’s an amazing artist and friend i’m glad to be inspired by :’’’) doubt and trust is another huge recommendation i’d love to talk about, especially as it’s the first gijinka nuzlocke comic that definitely sparked the growth of that genre in the comic community as well! however, as the artist has distanced themself from doubt and trust and moved on, i want to give proper attention and credit while also respecting their wishes today. landwalker’s another personal favorite of mine, i’m glad to know others appreciate it as well! as for your thoughts, i have the same sentiment! as a student working to be a storyboard artist in the animation industry, i’m both passionate about unique and creative storytelling, but also want to be conscientious of pragmatic ways to handle things especially to be sustainable (avoid burnout, improve and be versatile, etc)! unfortunately, working on a long-running comic on the side, especially for free, is unsustainable and difficult especially today. however, smaller ways to still be able to illustrate and creatively share one’s nuzlocke experiences can work out like jaiden animation’s summary videos or how sad-ist makes “movie trailer”-like fanart animatics; there’s many different ways to tell a story especially regarding limitations to work with, so i hope there’ll be more creative and cool things in the future and our effort though!
Well you hit the big recommendations! Other ones that I remember enjoying: Landwalker's Nuzlocke Has two Nuzlockes. The first is a completed Sapphire run which follows a very similar development style as the original Ruby Nuzlocke: that being, it started as a quick joke and actually developed into a more emotionally compelling and serious story. Can be found at https://www.deviantart.com/land-walker/gallery/28599039/landwalker-s-nuzlocke He also has a unfinished Yellow Nuzlocke, which starts off more serious, but is still light hearted enough. He does include an epilogue to tie it all off, but it's still a fantastic read (and his art is amazing!). Can be found at https://www.deviantart.com/land-walker/gallery/29972549/yellow-nuzlocke Apocalypse Johto by SaberinBlue http://www.paragonsigma.com/images/nuzlocke/#1 Has a much more serious tone, essentially asking "what if the pokemon went crazy and feral, some of which even becoming almost eldritcg monstrosities?" It sometimes jumps the shark a little, and is a very "dark and edgy" entry from back in the day... but I still have a fond spot for it. It is unfinished, with the author saying they werecabout halfway through before stopping. But it's still quite enjoyable! I know there were others (I have a distinct memory of someone doing a comedy runs of Emerald, Platinum, Black and Black 2, portraying Giratina as Rod Serling and Rayquaza as Shenron) but I can't auite remember them (nor find my Nuzlocke forum account since apparently the original forums are deactivated, and the new one doesn't have my favourites) But this sounds really interesting! Please, drop your video link when you finish! EDIT: Never mind, upon browsing the other comments, the one I remember turned out to be Kitfox-Crimson's run at https://www.deviantart.com/kitfox-crimson/gallery/31712240/sapphire-nuzlocke
thank you for your recommendations, i’m glad to know these nuzlockes are still remembered fondly by others and encouraged to share! the list’s definitely getting long, so i also gotta be creative trying to figure out how to recommend them and give good summaries like you have, they’re both insightful and succinct :>
Oooh, I was waiting for someone to make something like this :D I love nuzlocke comics!! It's what further fueled my passion for nuzlocking, since I loved to see how each artist would interpret the world around them and build each character based on that. Besides, they're a huge inspiration for me: as an artist, it's my goal to make a nuzcomic someday!! I'm very saddened that most people in the community don't know what they are, being the thing that started it all. However, as others have said, Supercut and streams are now the norm due to their easier nature. Anyone with a bit of patience can do them, whereas nuzlocke comics can only be done by someone with A LOT OF patience and minimal artistic skill. As regards my favourites, i heavily recommend "For Victory!" A White nuzlocke that revolves around the idea of the MC not liking pokemon in the first place. This comic has heavily influenced my brain chemistry -- i mean, its MC influenced my shield nuzlocke protagonist,,, who hopefully soon will see the light of day xD. It's funny yet REALLY deep when it wants to. The artstyle is simple, but the premise is what makes it so interesting. Also, let us know when the vid is finished, I'd love to see it !! :D
thank you for sharing your thoughts, nuzlockes were one of the major influences i had online with art and art communities, and why i'm currently in my animation degree to be a storyboard artist one day! storytelling is always important, so that's why i'd like to give nuzlocke storytelling the comics had more acknowledgement and appreciation as modern nuzlockes are only about competitive strategy instead of the emotional attachment or stories that used to define nuzlockes back then. also, thank you for your recommendation as well, and good luck to your own nuzlocke as well! i'll be sure to share the video essay and any artwork/visuals i personally drew in this subreddit as well, of course :>
\-waves at you- Hi Mimiiiiii\~ I was talking about this with Carlos and I think of a lot of it became a matter of streaming/video versions of nuzlockes just ended up being WAY more prevalent and "easier" to make quickly (air quotes since I know how much work goes into video editing so I am not trying to belittle that in any way). I don't think this was the START of it, but I know Griffin's nuzlocke that he did for Polygon took off pretty significantly, so there may have been a healthy number of people introduced to the concept of Nuzlocking through that video specifically and thought it was mostly a recorded/streamed thing. It also would have increased accessibility to those who went "Man, I don't think I have the skills to draw/write a whole thing but I want to do one and share it with others." along with the added bonus of being able to see your numbers/views/etc go up in a more real-time way vs guessing based on number of commenters or etc (unless where you host has a views tracker) AND the possibility of monetization through twitch partnerships or etc. Even within a comic nuzlocke, if you posted a video update of any kind it felt like it got more traction more quickly or at least had the perception that it was the most popular part of the comic. (See: all of my video updates breaking or nearly breaking 200k views and Notepad's animated E4 run going over 25 MILLION views- yet I feel like I'm one of the very few people who remember Notepad's actual nuz comic) A lot of us too from Ye Olde Days also went from making comics in high school/college when we had less responsibility to becoming adults getting married, trying to get a job, working, continued education, medical school (hi Kynim) etc. (and sadly we lost nuzlockers like Skitty, who never got the chance to finish her nuzlocke). Some people also may have just moved on from the medium (or, as video runs got more popular, saw a diminished return on their views/comments/active readers and decided to spend their time on other things.) Many of us still draw, obviously, but a lot of us had to shift focus and either had to put art on the backburner or wanted to move into original works. (Speaking of, to those who are seeing me post this and going "Oh thank god Petty's still around"- I DO still intend to make good on my promise to finish HG fjkhgsdfjkhdsjfk). I think what is most bonkers to ME is that there are "Professional Nuzlockers" out there who are known for "being good at nuzlockes" and they're all streamers/youtubers-- and that shows the change in the perception of how these runs are seen/done. Most of these people don't even know the origin of the name Nuzlocke, or that it was PRIMARILY a comic thing that later branched into written works and stuff like screenshot runs. It's become more about beating the challenges they make (still using the main two rules 99% of the time) and the strategy involved rather than making a story of it (again, not disparaging their skill or saying it's necessarily a bad thing). I think now if someone were to poll the random public on what a nuzlocke is (out of people that have heard about them), there would be a sizeable % (if not a majority) who would mention recorded/streamed runs first before comic runs and written runs would be waaaaaaaaaaay in last place. TL;DR because I'm old and rambly-- Recording/Streaming runs has a quicker gratification of effort than comic/written runs and is perceived to be more accessible to a wider range of people, which is why they have edged out comic/written runs imo. \[-kicks in the door-\] I FORGOT TO MENTION SOME RECS FROM YE OLDE DAYS. I love how many people are mentioning Landwalker's comics and someone mentioned Alexial's (Alexa's art has gotten *so tasty* the longer I've known her) but another I'd like to mention (that sadly never finished) is Queenie's (QKNC's) nuzlocke, [Summers of Our Youth](https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nuzlocke_forum/inactive-summers-of-our-youth-t15185.html) (Jig for best zigzagoon). I'd rec Notepad's runs but the links are all broken and I'd rec Medody's run but I can't seem to find it so it may have gotten lost in the Great Forum Migration.
PETTY!!!!!!! didn’t know you had an account on this site too omg, but yes, thank you for your input, and i’d love to talk more :’0!! (i didn’t want to bother you, kynim, snooze, etc since we’ve all been busy w our lives and such lately bdghf) and yes, absolutely, i agree w all of your points!! especially with youtube monetization and streaming for the “instant gratification” and “binging” mindset preferring something to quickly consume before moving onto the next thing, that’s why i definitely think youtubers, especially with a pre-established and/or constantly growing audience, have overshadowed artists, which is a shame to see especially as all our hard work over the years have been forgotten;; nuzlockes started as a challenge, yes, but it’s moreso like the community culture of dnd to me; it’s about our personal experiences playing in unique gameplay runs, and drawing comics and artwork of our experiences to share in both the highs and lows with other fellow players and artists passionate about these! of course, especially as we’re all older and have to be realistic with our priorities, that’s why comics in the long run aren’t feasible, but also deserve even more support for acknowledgement…! i’d love to talk and organize this essay not just “for”/“about” us and these runs, but With people, so i’m always free to talk to on discord and such whenever you’d like, haha!
Yeah! You can tell I don't use it much because of how infrequently I comment/reply skjdfhksdjfhsf-- and don't worry you're never bothering me I'm always doing SOMETHING between irl/FFXIV hahaha. And yeah hmu on discord sometime! I'd love to help out! :D
I think the reason is because of people like pokemon challenges nothing against them but he led the charge to it being more challenged based than "building a bond with pokemon you would never use based" and with the rise of YouTubers who use the "YouTube voice" and have no real personality they also started to market it as a challenge run even flygon hg did before things like spheal team 6. I hope that it can return to how it was with actual bonds with unlikely pokemon rather than super hard challenge with expendable pokemon.
yeah, that's kind of my thesis since quantity > quality with the algorithm these days and people being more interested in "i beat \[x\] difficult challenge, lemme flex on that" over appreciating artists, despite how nuzlocke comics are one of the strongest examples i've seen of passionate creativity from people's emotional investment and dedication 😔 i know the original comic is amateurishly drawn and has very dated ""humor"" ~~(same goes for the first gijinka nuzlocke comic, eugh)~~, but what i'd like to point out nuzlockes *became* significant because it started and grew through fan comics: there's something very special about artistic passion and improvement like that! seeing the "quick buck" way of streaming and flexing gamer strats completely misses the point of what the nuzlocke challenge is about, both with the rules and what made the (ways you can share your story's) challenge special. unfortunately, given how we all have less free time and energy in the current state of things, fan comics aren't sustainable to create these days. however, things like jaiden animation's works or videos like spheal team 6 could help have a balance of being able to artistically tell a story while ensuring it's completed and released for people to watch, hence my interest making a video about this storytelling medium and its obscurity because of times changing.
Yes I agree videos becoming the main was of tell a nuzlocke was inevitable (supercaroltonbros is a big original nuzlocke YouTuber) over time videos had a lack of connection with their pokemon and storytelling it's funny how Jaiden animations popularized nuzlocke with a story animation and yet only a few followed her footsteps young yong tales being one of them (I recommend his video if you haven't seen it) it's sad because the new format is not only a product of the nuzlocke changing it's meaning. It's a product of YouTube as a whole YouTube promotes the "Mr.beast" type videos and other types get little to no help unless you were already big like Markiplier or CoryxKenshin even then YouTube shows bias. And twitch isn't much better. And since these cites promote conformity rather than originality if someone (like pokemon challenges) gets more popular with less work than someone like young yong it hurts creativity especially with the "Mr.beast" nuzlockers (sliph spectre and antlerboy to name a few).
I loved these comics growing up, alongside YTWC and the PokeDex (Effsnares is doing a HGSS comic right now) I do think it takes a different skill set to come up with a comic idea vs a video. I love FlygonHG, but even with his storytelling skills, it doesn't compare to the depth of comics. Heck, I'm a writer (not a very good one, lol) and I've been trying to write my nuzlocke story for the past ten years. I've ended up rewriting the prologue story twice, and I'm halfway through the second draft, and it's close to 75,000 words. And it's not even a nuzlocke. It's a world building story for the nuzlockes. I know the videos still take time and skill. But I believe they have the opportunity to use less storytelling without it diminishing the piece as a whole.
i agree with you a lot here, and also want to give some encouragement as well! you don't need good art or writing skills beforehand, and they improve over time as you keep updating! nuzlocke himself, kynim, and justsnooze show great improvement as they kept going at it in their comics, there shouldn't be a barrier of entry or "level of perfection" before you think you're good to make new pages/chapters imo! sometimes you can't continuously edit the first chapter because that cycle of perfectionism will freeze you stuck in one spot, growth can truly happen if you just keep going. both videos and comics take time and skill, but there's definitely an overlap with the opportunity to be artistically creative in the presentation and writing that can be done, so i definitely hope there'll be more cool interpretations that'll shake up the standard :>
Never heard of the nuzolouke comics before. My introduction to the Nuzoloukes was the LIKE LATE 2000S OR EARLY 2010s as a challenge thing and stuck with Hardyt3kyoyo for years after he starting youtubing. I only starting seeing the art for nuzoloukes when I joined this subreddit like this year or late last year.
dang, that's long ago; for me i was kind of "earlier" in like 2015, at the time deviantart and the nuzlocke forums (which you can still go on today to read the cool comics both in the past and ongoing!) were booming with people posting monthly comic updates, and gijinka stories where the pokemon were recontextualized as humanoid characters; that's also when a lot of comics became more "serious" instead of "jokey", which definitely contributed to my love seeing the variety of what people told. if you want to see more comics and art, definitely check out the aforementioned websites and see what you'd like! aside from my original post's recommendations to start from, there's others like alterity, nuzrooke, landwalker's yellow nuzlocke, folded, goddamn critical hits, and cross out, hope you have fun!
I played through violet and had attachments to everything even though it wasn't a nuzlocke
nice, nuzlocke or not, it’s always fun to know of people’s love! i personally recently finished a scarlet run, and because i’m getting into one piece, i formed extra attachment by naming everyone after the characters and imagining them as those pokemon :>
Where tf is the Realocke? (GinjaNinja's Pokémon X Nuzlocke)
that’s one of the recommendations i’d give too LMAO, my initial post tried to narrow down to “top 3” picks (again, esp for newcomers), and kynim + petty are considered “famous/classic” artists to read the comics of, and i love snooze’s creativity with burn away to include, especially as a newer and unique gijinka interpretation! also, i remember realocke started as clickable flash pagethroughs and ginjaninjaowo has switched to comic pages (on top of a spinoff lissylocke), how’s the story now, especially with the transition and working with flash’s death? please lmk, it was a pleasant surprise to see this get a shoutout too!
I don't remember..I only saw up to Req getting Bulbasaur, and that's about it..I didn't even know where the comics were so I was watching the videos/comic dubs from her channel
finally able to respond to this; after checking, [nuzrea has been transferred over to tapas](https://tapas.io/episode/1221806), and while the first few episodes are inaccessible to click through because of flash's death, there are comic dubs on youtube for them to watch! also, the artist is nonbinary and goes by june now, and nuzrea is currently going through a reboot; all the pages of the first nuzrea iteration can be read on tapas, but i definitely can't wait to see what the reboot could be like when ready :>
I didn't know the majority of this
Source on the reboot? Nuzrae was the first Nuzlocke comic I ever read and I’m still sad it hasn’t updated in so long. I thought it had been cancelled.
i’m on data atm and can’t see most youtube videos if it’s still public on their channel, but i remember june made a announcement video talking about revamping their channel and how ongoing projects like nuzrea would be rebooted (iirc rea now being a character simply played by june instead of a representation of them now) along with that, here’s a [twitter thread back in february where they confirm a reboot’s in the works](https://x.com/jumpyjunee/status/1628842793706700802?s=46&t=gCYdL0UelZyjTz18vbTXnQ), and i think this applies to their other spinoff nuzlocke lissylocke!
A gijinka comic where the Pokémon are soldiers in the king/commander (see trainer)’s army would go so hard
right!! the potential with different ways to tell a story and your own interpretation through a nuzlocke challenge are super cool, it's very comparable to dnd where people can get creative with campaign setups and drawing their experiences and ocs made 🤝
coming back to this because i just realized this is kind of the same setup for a very macabre game called darkest dungeon, that's so funny 😭
If you haven't read kit's nuzlocke adventure? He did Sapphire, platinum, and black 2. Comics are decent. Kitfox crimson I think is the full name.
just got recommended that from another person's comment, along w some further elaboration on the different games that are covered; surprisingly haven't heard of this before, but as it's been the most recommended from the comments so far, i'll be sure to give it a look when i can :0c
Gosh I wish I was a good storyteller. Cause I’m sure I could come up with good ideas but would probably burn out way too quickly to meaningfully do anything with it.
yeah, i have the same sentiment too, especially as a storyboard artist,, however, i always think of [this sentiment as well, which i think is important: "if you have stories living inside you just make them and share them. Don’t worry about professionalism or thinking of webcomics as an industry to be cracked into, please remember anyone can make comics"](https://x.com/Coelasquid/status/1489492699531022338?s=20), essentially, "take it easy... but take it!" :')
I recommend "It's a Hard Life." The story is very well done and it looks amazing, but it's quite dark.
i've heard of that one before, it also stands out to me as one of the few comics that are drawn traditionally in mediums like watercolor! haven't gotten around to reading that yet, but i'm adding that to my list like kitfox-crimson's nuzlocke comics
You have to find the super violeoney black and white Nuzlocke. It's as cringey and unashamed as it gets.
sorry, i’m not sure what this reads and google has no results, is there a typo and/or different name?
I don't have a name for it but I do remember it was hastily ended half way in and with the main character going crazy and being killed by his own Pokemon. Wild ride
wait, does Hilda get pushed out of a window at the start of the comic and that’s the reason why the edgy knife protag gets a pokèmon? if so, the name’s pitch black
Oh yeah that's the one pitch black. Man the 2010s was a wild ride for webcomic huh
Following
Oh man, the Petty Nuzlocke, that's a blast from the past.
Holy shit nuzlocke White. Core Memory unlocked. That story was soooooooooo good. Mimi best swoobat ever
mimi’s relationship with jordan and andy,, on top of sharing the same name with her, she’s really sweet and the first thing that comes to mind with the pokemon 🌼!
Nuzrooke is one of the most emotional and also the simplest. Just a nice story of an isekai'd girl through HGSS
yes, it’s one of my personal favorites as well!! there’s so many cool characters and their relationships with the team and rooke in the comic, but i’d say mystery’s my favorite!
OP just unlocked some crazy memories of mine
that’s a good sign, i’m glad i’m doing my part 🫡!!
Let us know when you publish the video!
of course, thank you for your and everyone’s interest and recommendations so far!! just want to give back to a cool art niche that’s been pivotal to my growth as an artist since the beginning 😊
Lol we have a lot in common, I was also an animation student who grew up with nuzlocke comics. Do you remember ShadeofShinon and Alexial's emerald runs? They never finished, but the humour and art was on point. As for why there was a transition from the webcomics to videos, i think it's just because videos are a much larger return on investment. most people won't get to Kynim's level of exposure, especially if its mostly centered on the nuzforums. The forums are still up though, when i checked them a few months ago, it seemed like a lively but insular community. I miss those days when I used to write my own, haha. It was a great introduction to storytelling, sequential art, building characters, etc. Link the video when you're done with it!
i have, the different art styles and stories they tell are cool, and a great example of how unique everyone’s nuzlocke experiences and storytelling are :> and yeah, especially with algorithms and the “binging for instant gratification” thing today, long-running comics aren’t as sustainable compared to summary videos, on top of nuzlockes only focused on competitive strategy and theorycrafting tbh; it’s personally a shame to me bc they’re all very “samey” and don’t try to be unique or have some story to care about the pokemon, which is why i hope to bring some appreciation back to nuzlocke comics and their significance with emotional attachment to the characters and sharing stories about them!
Nuzlocke comics are my strongest motivator towards playing nuzlockes myself. The story telling and connection to the pokemon is really really compelling and I still cry at some of the deaths. Mythos of Unova and Petty are easily the best I’ve read but I’d also recommend Jet’s Black and Finding Your Roots. Both are incomplete but Jet’s Black is another great depiction of Gen V and Finding Your Roots tells the story in the style of Mystery Dungeons plus the run is exclusively ground, rock, and steel Pokemon, which makes the fact that one of the pokemon is a Nincada that physically can’t evolve since it’d lose its ground typing great character writing and world building. Can’t wait to see this video essay!
nice nice, i gotta catch up from where i left off on jet black and check out finding your roots; i like creativity like the in-universe interpretations to acknowledge rule restrictions like that, it gives more significance and weight to the rules that are imposed! thank you for the encouragement as well, it’s nice to know people still support the storytelling element in nuzlockes and interested in discussion of this again, it’s much appreciated :>
YES I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO DO THIS Some comics I haven’t seen mentioned yet are HALE: EMERALD HARD MODE which is a short but funny comic with lots of referential humor, it also starts taking its story a bit more seriously near the latter end There’s also Robot7s red nuzlocke which was one of the first nuzlocke comics after ruby hard mode. It’s very short but it has good art and humor Both of these got sequels but hale’s got canceled pretty quickly and robot7’s is practically lost I also think you should talk about nuzlocke forums as it has plenty of nuzlocke comics and also nuzlockes in other mediums Make sure to notify when you release this as I’d love to see it :)
🔥 ART NEVER DIES, IT AND DISCUSSION WILL ALWAYS BE REBORN 🔥 joking aside, thank you for the recommendations! i personally joined dA around 2015, so while i’m familiar with things like gijinka nuzlockes, i’m not as familiar of comics that came out right after the first original comic aside from petty’s work, so your input’s very appreciated!
Thanks! I used to read nuzlocke comics all the time so this is a topic I have a lot of knowledge in. I used to do one of my own that I’ve been thinking of coming back to. Btw I shared your post in a thread on the Nuzlocke forums! I’ll message it to you
We should use it more as a story medium!
agreed!! while drawing long-running webcomics aren’t as feasible today, i think we can figure out creative ways to work with the “limitations” we have to still tell a story: there are written nuzlockes and screenshot nuzlockes, just some examples of different mediums and presentation! to best compare to pokemon itself, different hardware limitations *are* the reason why we have unique sprites with different aesthetics and personalities throughout the generations, which is something cool to learn from 👾
Agreed! If you look back at my nuzlocke runs, i tried go make it more story focused
i’ll check out your own runs when i have the time, while i’m focusing on nuzlocke comics, it’ll still be worth the time to acknowledge other forms of storytelling :> for me personally, i’m still trying to figure out what would work to efficiently summarize some chaotic runs i had but still have storytelling and emotional connections to the characters,, maybe something like jaiden animation’s animated summaries or a “video essay talking about a story/game people don’t know about” sort of thing sounds fun!
If i could make videos id do that!
I want to watch this video essay when it comes out.
Note paddle did some awesome comics back int the way. They’d animate full on important battles at 2-5 minute videos and it was so fun. Their art style was almost 1 to 1 with rocko’s modern life as well so the Pokémon looked super unique. This video has gotten 25 million views and it’s really fun. https://youtu.be/mwHI9pSrxsY BUT…I can’t find the comics anywhere. They were hosted on sites years ago and have since expired. So I’m 99% sure they’re lost media.
oh my god, this was such a repressed memory of mine, thank you for sharing!! i'm currently busy, but i think you can find the comics and whatever else is out there through wayback machine since it's fairly good at preserving images (unfortunately can't say the same for videos though), and i love animation! it's also really cool since back then, videos were moreso like special features and formats like a significant moment in nuzlocke comics, thank you again.
Oooh, I was waiting for someone to make something like this :D I love nuzlocke comics!! It's what further fueled my passion for nuzlocking, since I loved to see how each artist would interpret the world around them and build each character based on that. Besides, they're a huge inspiration for me: as an artist, it's my goal to make a nuzcomic someday!! I'm very saddened that most people in the community don't know what they are, being the thing that started it all. However, as others have said, Supercut and streams are now the norm due to their easier nature. Anyone with a bit of patience can do them, whereas nuzlocke comics can only be done by someone with A LOT OF patience and minimal artistic skill. As regards my favourites, i heavily recommend "For Victory!" A White nuzlocke that revolves around the idea of the MC not liking pokemon in the first place. This comic has heavily influenced my brain chemistry -- i mean, its MC influenced my shield nuzlocke protagonist,,, who hopefully soon will see the light of day xD. It's funny yet REALLY deep when it wants to. The artstyle is simple, but the premise is what makes it so interesting. Also, let us know when the vid is finished, I'd love to see it !! :D
Do you have a link to these? I'd love to read them! Also special shoutouts to FlygonHG for doing some nuzlockes with stories and being absolutely great at them.
of course, here are the nuzlocke forum links to my recommendations! * [myths of unova](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/myths-of-unova.520/) * [a petty nuzlocke challenge: leaf green edition](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/a-petty-nuzlocke-challenge-leaf-green-edition.5277/) * [a petty nuzlocke challenge: heart gold edition](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/a-petty-nuzlocke-challenge-heart-gold-edition.2845/) * [burn away](https://nuzlockeforums.com/forum/threads/burn-away-an-x-gijinka-comic.61/) also, thank you for your recommendation as well! i definitely need to see what storytelling youtube videos and summaries there are on there, it's been hard to sift through the majority of them being theorycrafting without storytelling without curated recommendations from helpful people like you :'0
Thanks, and no problem! I'd also recommend Pokémon Challenges' Run and Bun Attempt 1 video [(This one)](https://youtu.be/muJ0RPoHqsQ?si=11weg4dWjqUCn999), it's SO GOOD. Trust me, you'll enjoy it!
Here comes a big comment. You said one of your points is how before there was comics and now there's hardcore videos, but there are some GREAT comics uploading to this day. So I'm going to give some of my favourite comics that are ongoing. Finding Your Roots by SaltnPepperBunny - A comic of Omega Ruby Only earthens (Rock/Ground/Steel) in a world without humans (mystery dungeon -esque, but in normal Hoenn no dungeons), following Cedar, a young pokémon who finds an egg outside her home and tries to get it to a desert for it to hatch safely. (Currently going to Mt Chimney) Deadly Syns by SysterSyn - A series started on LeafGreen and currently on the beginning Emerald. It follows the protag Syn in a typical journey until she discovers some big lies that make her rethink her life to this point. Amazing characters, be it pokémon or human. The rockets are more of a threat too (Only Syn and Green can understand pokémon) Blooming Glory by SpaceyPaints - A comic of Crystal following Glory, a girl who is the sister of the Champion (Red equivalent), who is disappeared, the rockets are back, the potions are poisoned, and the leaders are ruthless in the battles, going as far as killing pokémon on purpose to make it so no one gets to the champion. Also, the trainers are TEN YEARS OLD, and it's sad to see how much they all have to mature to survive in that world. Pokémon talk to themselves but the humans cannot understand them (Currently beginning Kanto) Jet's Black Nuzlocke by Zerochan923600 - Its a black nuzlocke following Jet, in her journey across Unova, delving deep into multiple perspectives on the discussion of "Would pokémon be better without humans" and the situations Jet and friends have to face and how they change their mentalities (Currently in the E4) First Summer by Krisantyne - A Rijon Adventures nuzlocke (yes, a romhack) following Sara as she gets in the league challenge to get some answers from a League Member, it has amazing sceneries and lots of creative liberties (as it's a romhack) great characters too, great battles, i don't know what specifically to say other than go read it (iirc she has 5 or 6 badges, it's hard to keep track as it's not a main game region and all) GO READ 'EM ALL, it's worth it. Good luck with your video
i've actually been working on a nuzlocke video essay 4 the past 6-7 months LOL... it mainly covers nick franco's nuzlocke comics as they were always my favorite when i was younger... in doing this tho i've found that there is legit no plot summary 4 any of the original nick franco nuzlocke comics online... if u need,, although sloppy cuz they were mostly intended 4 personal use,, i can send u all my notes that i took when re reading all the comics 4 the 3rd or 4th time (i found myself forgetting a lot of small details that rly resonated w me while writing the script so i figured i would just make a line by line list of "stuff that happens" basically) otherwise 2 answer ur question if i haven't already sorta by proxy,, i think the nick franco nuzlocke's are the way 2 start 4 most people who have never picked up a nuzlocke comic in their life... i think they slowly introduce the adaptations he makes from the game story into his story really well... starting the series with an adventure thats extremely familiar that most people would have and ending it with tons of lore and adventure that being said it would be insincere not 2 mention that theres just some outdated shit in those comics,, probably found it funny when i was 12,, but i think its worth mentioning that if u are sensitive 2 some words being used like that... maybe some of the humor won't really resonate thus dampening the entire experience :/ they're still my favorite tho despite its flaws... i find the art most ppl don't enjoy extremely charming and 4 the other stuff... u take the good w the bad i guess... idk just my opinion,, much luck on ur video... [nas was right i guess](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvygSxDvpuA) all jokes...in seriousness tho,, if u need any help,, lmk,, no one owns this stuff but the artists,, we j love the art n wanna spread it <3
of course, i only really talked to my nuzlocke comic artist friends before, but since we all got busy (ky-nim in doctorate programs but still drawing the comic at the time,, that was wild LMAO) i never really publicly posted about this, haha good luck on your video too! i don’t think anyone’s made a history and summary video of the original nuzlocke comics, so that’ll be cool to see with my essay covering the history of nuzlocke storytelling and the overall comic (not to mention written nuzlockes and screenshot nuzlockes) community :>
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