Dragon Ball Phoenix (fan-comic)

[Sayo-chan]

This a little project I started working on a few months ago, with the first page being inked yesterday. I'm not sure what it is, but I have a really, really hard time drawing DBZ (or maybe it's just muscly men). What's more is, I have an even harder time drawing Perfect Cell (it also doesn't help Toriyama is painfully inconsistent with his anatomy). Imperfect Cell was never difficult to sketch, so maybe I should've just made the comic about him; although it has gotten easier with the rote rehearsal that comes with making a comic.

My motivation for making this is simple, I've been discontent with the new Dragon Ball content since the release of Battle of the Gods. With the recent Freeza movie travesty, I finally gave in. The story takes place just after Cell returns to Earth from self-destructing. Why? Even as a kid, I felt the ending to the Cell arc was a huge cop out. Instead of the two actually fighting, it turned into a one-sided beam struggle. Until the end that is, when Vegeta comes out of fucking nowhere and gives Gohan an opportunity to win, because shonen plot. It would've been nice to see a battle like Majin Vegeta and Goku had, but maybe that's just me. Cell was hyped to be the perfect warrior, but never actually met those expectations. I feel this is just poor execution. Taking the best parts of the greatest on Earth and beyond, synthesizing them into the superior fighter, should be a bit more meaningful. They're fighting against themselves but better in every conceivable way. This was kinda touched on a bit with Goku versus Cell, but like with Trunks, it was still superficial. The two times we see him give it his all, there's too big of a power difference, on both occasions. After returning to Earth, it was the perfect opportunity for an equal battle.

Now, this isn't going to be a story about how I think Dragon Ball should've gone from that point on (I might do that later), but rather a what if story.

Reads right to left.
Cover
Chapter 1
PG1
PG2

[VintageSaiyan]

Excited

[Lord Beerus]

Hmm, not a fan of the art style, but I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[Sayo-chan]

This would've been out a lot sooner, but I ended up losing a bit of progress and lost motivation. I've been experimenting a bit with art styles, and I don't know if the way Cell looks will be just a stylistic choice for the panel or not. I've been a little burnt out on drawing in general, so page 3 may not be out for awhile. Also, fuck Goku and his hair.

Spoiler:

I also slightly edited page 1, which is updated in the table of contents above.

[FoolsGil]

It's a start.