johnSonder.bsky.social

@johnsonder.bsky.social

509 Followers 398 Following

A Cabbage of a Man. Making my own comic! 🌀GREENHORN🌀 [COMMISSION OPEN! *DM for Sheet] 🚫 No GenAI or LLM will be tolerated 🚫

Writer P.N. Aminchi: "Oda-sensei. I have a request. Please draw the face of Barto Club's Gambia's "Grandma at Home"!! She surely has a pleasant face.

Oda:"Yes, the grandma. To be honest, she isn't related to anyone of the Barto Club. The Barto Club has come to be a large gang, but they were originally a group of rascals who grew up as childhood friends in rural areas, and increased in size later on. Among them, the elite that loves the "Straw Hats" so much to leave home and go to sea is made up of the current members. Also, she is the grandma from the small-time candy store that was visited a lot by Bartolomeo and--"

Granny: "Only kill people in moderation."

It's terrible because I had a very long and poignant comic that I scrapped for something being "done", which is more important.

Original comic character Hugo Greenhorn eating a very messy cheeseburger. Captain Pastuzo the Smile Knight has a napkin to help clean him up.

A lonely goomba, stuck between two pipes.

Cleftin Twain, the Skeletal Oathbreaker

Hugo contemplates.
Hugo: "I know... I don't know much about anything, really."
"But I wanna know things! A lotta things!"
"I hate the feeling of not knowing."
"It makes me feel helpless..."
"... and scared."
"So I keep thinking..."
"... but I can't think of what I don't know!"
"There's so much to learn..."
"... and, even if it's hard..."
Hugo perks up.
"Well, then maybe there's something in this world that only I can know!"
"Something only I can do!"

The wisp is quiet.

Captain Pastuzo walking the halls of the dark and dreary library.
[Title] GREENHORN
[Subtitle] J.M. Sonder
♫The World Library♫

Hugo Greenhorn is in a heated debate with the wisp.
Hugo: "You?!" I don't wanna talk to you! You're why we're in this mess!"
Wisp: [Am I?]
Hugo: "YOU ARE!"
Wisp: [Could a wisp write on a map?]
[Can it lead against one's will?]
Hugo is quiet.
He lifts up the map to look at the scribbles he had made on it.
The wisp continues.
Wisp: [Does a wisp lead to great fortune?]
[... or to one's early doom?]
[Why is it that you follow, despite not truly knowing?]

Cover depicts a clown wearing a big top hood and wielding a giant mallet, playfully chasing the little clown Hugo Greenhorn. This is a song for the original webcomic 'Greenhorn' by J.M. Sonder. Titled, 'Smile Knights'.

A tear drops and lands on Hugo's sandwich.
Hugo: "You can't eat this... how could you?"
"Now with this... this big lump in your throat!!"

"How could I eat?!"
"After everything?!"
"This isn't funny! I can't do anything but eat!"
"I HATE THIS!!"

Hugo is downtrodden.
Hugo: "I... wanna fix this... but I'm just... too weak... too stupid..."
He pauses.
His stomach growls.
"... and still hungry..."

[Do you get strong by hurting yourself?]
Hugo looks surprised. He looks towards a light.
Hugo: "You...?"
It is the wisp from before. It speaks to Hugo.
[Don't you know muscles will strengthen under stress, but a bone will be weaker once broken?]

Pastuzo climbs the bookshelf upwards, thinking of a plan.
Pastuzo: "The lad's sharper than most people give him credit for..."
"... I have no doubt in my mind that he left these items for a reason!"

The Hydra rises behind the captain as he climbs.
Hydra: "You dare try to scuttle away? you are a sad little insect!"

The Hydra unleashes an attack that blindsides Pastuzo. It is a direct hit.
Hugo watches in shock!
Pastuzo falls down.

Pastuzo: "Gah! What did that thing do?! It was too small and sharp to be its head! Like a whip!"
"My bag took the brunt of it, but it still hurts like the dickens!"

Hugo is at his limit.
Hugo: "No... Cap'n.... I-- you..."

Pastuzo: "Leavin' the flour sacks makes sense... the thing weighs quite a bit!"
"More than the lad is able to hammerspace... but what about the flasks?"

[Earlier that day...]
Image depicts Hugo trying to pick up the flour sack but is having difficulty. Pastuzo is sleeping under a tree.

Suddenly, a hydra head slams into the bookshelf Pastuzo is holding onto.

Captain Pastuzo scurries up the bookshelf as the Hydra chases him.

Hydra: "Do not be so... hasty!!"
The beast slams down its tail.
Pastuzo rolls up a ramp off the plank the Hydra breaks.
The captain grabs onto the high end of a grand bookshelf.
Pastuzo: "Ooog... I'm too old for all that spinnin'..."
"Let's see... don't have my battle items, so I gotta make do with what I have."
[Item slot visualizes Pastuzo's base stats. Equipped Weapon: Balloon Sword. Flour sack: used. Flask: 2. Box of Matches: Unknown]

Hydra: "Grr... how irksome!"
"You are just like..."
"A PESKY GNAT!!"

Pastuzo dodges an attack.
Pastuzo: "WAH!!"

He rolls away as a ball of a man.

Hugo: "Okay! The exit is just around here!"
Skrrt!
"Ooog... I'm real hungry... but I thought I ate a good breakfast!"
"What time is it, anyway?"

The sounds of fighting are happening below. Hugo looks over the balcony.

Hugo: "Oh! There's Pastuzo!"
"He looks... okay, I guess?"
"Good thing I put this here instead of my bindle!"

Hugo eats a sandwich as Pastuzo fights the Hydra.

Hugo: "I wonder if pastuzo's eaten yet?"
"... Should I really be eating right now?"

Hugo Greenhorn at a low angle, like the Frieren meme.

Hydra: "It doesn't take a genuis to conclude that your powers are limited, fool! And yet here I-- 'WE' are!
Pastuzo: "R-right... that was rhetorical. But I won't tell ye exactly why I can do that, so..."
Hydra: "No need. We can figure it out. This is what smart people do."
Pastuzo: "Oh. I-- uh..."
"If ya actually do, could you... tell me?"
Hydra: "Obviously not!!!"

Pastuzo: "H-Hey!! At least listen when I'm goading you!"
Hydra: "Ah. Yes. The clown."
"... yay"
Pastuzo: "At least act invested! Did ya forget the feelin' of flying through the air?"
Hydra: "Yes, about that..."
"I suppose you should feel proud of yourself."
"You know something we do not."
"How can a silly human have such power?"
"Yet you still run. Why?"

Pastuzo: "HA! The inner machinations of my mind aren't for ya to poke n' prod! You wanna know somethin'? Good! Goes to show that not everything's in those books of yours! Come down here and I'll teach ya a lesson!"

The Hydra goes on a monologue whilst looking for Pastuzo's decoy, believing it to be Hugo.

"That horned Gamin was propelled within this general vicinity... and yet..."
"... We cannot detect the electric field that emits from all living organism! Why?!"
"Though purely conjecture, we have developed three viable theories..."
" Unum! (Latin for 'one') Those fools somehow surmised the nature of our abilities, and have hatched an elaborate scheme in response!"
(Note: unlikely)
"Duo! (Latin for 'two') Idiot junior landed on its neck in the fall, and thus is no longer qualifying as a living organism! Fu-fu-fu!"
"Tria! (Latin for 'three' Our talents in electro-receptivity are weakening considerably."
(Note: Completely inconceivable!"
"..."
"... Tria-beta! (Beta is the second letter in the greek alphabet, which is not latin but still in character.) Our OWN field is intensifying, therefore overpowering their own feeble emissions!"
(Note: Completely conceivable!)
"Fu-fu-fu!"

"Try as the might! Those fools cannot match our brains AND brawn!"

The Hydra continues to overlook the dust cloud of flour, which billows from Pastuzo's decoy: a burlap sack of flour with Hugo's face crudely drawn on it.

Pastuzo looks down.

Pastuzo: "Listen, lad... Mistakes... it's a part of learnin'. That's what kids do best. It's the grown-ups who know to clean up after. Got it?"

Hugo, holding a map as Pastuzo hides him from behind his back:
"... yes, sir."

Hugo darts off towards the library's exit.
[I won't let you down, Cap'n!]
[No more fooling around!]

[But one day...]
[I'll show you!]
[I can clean after myself!]

Pastuzo, in deep thought:
[I felt it, Hugo. Holdin' you... your heart...it was pounding!]
[... That good cheer amidst the darkness wasn't out of childishness or just bein' oblivious...

Pastuzo raises his fists.
Pastuzo: "That's the courage of a real Smile Knight!

"It's about time I acted my age! C'mon, fiend!"

The Hydra wraps its large tail around the duo, trapping the Captain and the Greenhorn from escaping.

Hydra: "Fu fu fu..."
"Fools!"
"All those who bear witness to these forbidden tomes shall perish!"

The captain reaches for his pack for something that will help them flee.

Pastuzo: [I'm gonna need something with more weight...]
[What's the heaviest thing in here?]

Captain Pastuzo lifts Hugo up as he would hold an iron ball in shot putting. Hugo, bewildered, crosses his arms as a safety precaution.

[This'll hafta do!]
"Just like we've practiced a thousant times! You know what to do, lad!!"

Pastuzo chucks the small child over the Hydra and several yards away.

sfx:CHOMP!
Pastuzo: "Ye gotta stay sharp, lad! I dunno how... but there's no shaking this beastie!"
"Ye gotta leave this to me! Head to the exit!"
Hugo: "What!? Now way! I still gotta--"
sfx:WHAM!

Hugo:
[Well! Since I'm already in trouble...]
[...Might as well follow that wisp!]
[It almost looks like it has somewhere--]
[... to go?]

"HUZZAH!"
"Hey Cap'n! Look at this! You can slide down its neck!"
"It's easy as long as you go down this spiky fur!"
"WAH!"
"Why doesn't this one have a--?!"
"--snoot?"

Hydra: "You truly intend to abscond? Surely, you jest!"
Hugo: "We ARE leaving! We DO jest!"
"... and my name's Hugo, actually--"
"OH SHOOT! CAP'N!!"

Pastuzo: "Sorry lad! Keep an eye on me and stay close!"

Hugo: [It's that flame again? Where's it goin'?]
Pastuzo: "Eh?! What did I JUST say??"
Hugo: "Oop! Sorry!"

Hugo and Pastuzo look at a paper in awe!

Captain Pastuzo quickly throws the lead pipe, only to show that the Hydra has already spotted them.
The pipe falls below to the second floor of the library.
Hugo, unaware that they have been caught, asks:
"Psst! Cap'n! What was the word we were gonna use?"
Pastuzo is speechless.
"...Cap'n?"

Pastuzo, pressing against the bookshelf:
"It's fine, lad. We can still make this work. But ye gotta follow my lead!"
"Here's the plan..."
[I throw the pipe down to the second floor...]
[The sound will distract the beastie and give us time to slip through!]
[When I say the word, we run!]
[Ye got it?]
Hugo: "Got it!"
Pastuzo winds up to throw the pipe.
Pastuzo: "Alright! We need to make this count!"

Hugo remembers where he had put all of Pastuzo's important items:
his bindle, which was left outside as it basks under the shade of a tree. There is a hole where a stake would be, as Hugo dug out a hole around the stake.
Pastuzo is at his limit. Hugo apologizes.
Hugo: "...sorry, Cap'n."

Hugo and Pastuzo are talking about Hammerspacing from the previous page.
Hugo: "Of course! I use my bindle to store stuff! Easy peasy!"
Pastuzo: "It's easy, but there's a lot to it! Someday, it'll be like you're not carrying anything at all!"
Pastuzo thinks for a moment.
Pastuzo: "Still..."
He checks his backpack.
Pastuzo: "My bag feels much lighter than it should..."
"...Wait! My battle items!!"
"Where'd they all go!?"
Hugo gets sheepish.
Embarrased, he overexplains what happens.
Pastuzo stops him with a death glare.
Pastuzo: "Hugo."
Hugo, thinking: "Eep! Twice in one day?"
Pastuzo, giving the boy a paralyzing glare.
Pastuzo: Where did you put ym very important battle items? The ones I use for battle? The items to which our very survival depends on?"
Hugo is sweating bullets.

A rough draft of page three in the second part of Greenhorn. Hugo and Pastuzo go back and forth in a dialogue. The captain realizes something and Hugo tries to explain. Captain Pastuzo cuts through the charade and asks a profusely sweating Hugo a question...

The Hydra looks for Hugo and Pastuzo.
Hydra: "We can sense you are here..."
"No matter where you try to hide... it is futile!"
"Your presence is dim... but we will find you!"

Pastuzo Digs around in his backpack.
Pastuzo: "I think this calls for a distraction..."
Hugo: "It's fun, watching you do magic!"

Pastuzo pulls out a lead pipe.
Pastuzo: "What Magic?"
"You should already know about Hammerspacing, lad!"

A book detailing the definition of Hammerspacing.
Noun. An ancient technique founded by the Smile Knights; Allows the average human to carry objects beyond human limits with relative ease.

The practice of arrange held items in a manner that minimizes the amount of space taken, as well as utilizing leverage to optimally reduce the weight of what is carried.

See Figure 1.3

Figure 1.3 Depicts a travel backpack on a scale, carrying a ladder, tiny elephant and a fried emu leg. The bag is outweighed by a 100lb feather.

Note: Objects stored using the Hammerspace Method can be stored regardless of weight or size (within reason).

Hydra: "Oog... is... is he daft!?"
"Lifting with the *knees*!? Are you kidding?!"
"That's... ridiculous!! Ridiculous!!! RIDICULOUS!!!"
"Such... such.. FALLACIES have no right to live!"
[The story presses on! Until next time!]

Cover art for the second chapter of Greenhorn. Hugo holds up a large stick and a light beams down as though it is a holy weapon. The clown knight Captain Pastuzo drinks coffee as he is propped against a tree.

Character portrait in an NES JRPG style of origibal comic character Hugo Greenhorn by J.M. O'Barr

Timelapse of an illustration depicting Hugo Greenhorn eating a burger.

Hugo Greenhorn eating a cheeseburger. The burger has a weather vane toothpick holding it together. As he bites into it, the contents of the burger spill out onto the wrapper. On the side are fries and a soda labeled, "World of Appetite". Captain Pastuzo is ready to wipe Hugo's face with a napkin.

Miku in her Bug type design in Project Voltage, sleeping as she holds a Venonat. Specs of dust float around them.
In the background, there is obscured text that reads, "Sleep Powder"

Natwick licks ice cream off of the ground, with Finn the Potbelly Pig watching.

Natwick: "Your will is WEAK, swine! Now this iced creams is mine!!"

Character Sheet for Prince Natwick

Captions:
Hugo & Natwick are kindred spirits

Natwick is a cat-like Friend
"Hot DOG!"

He hides his ears to look cooler
"Damn... I hope Greenhorn didn't catch that."

Character Sheet for Rudy the Scarecrow.
Original Design by John "Misc." Sonder

(Top Left) Two corvids talk to Rudy:
Raven A: "One of us only speaks in truths..."
Raven B: "... and the other is actually a reptile!"
Rudy: "These two aren't very helpful at all..."

(Middle Left) Rudy is being shot at.
Human: "Dance, FREAK!"

(Bottom Left) Rudy takes off their mask but their true face is concealed.
Rudy: "My real name, huh?"
"We all earn a number of names in life, Greenhorn..."
"... and some bear a heavy weight."

An illustration of Deltarune Chapter On, depicting Kris, Susie, Ralsei, and Lancer in the foreground. The King and Roulx Kaard stand behind a dark fountain in the background, and Jevil loom ominously in the extreme background. Barely visible in the extreme background is light world Kris holding a soul and a knife,.

Commission Details for the artist J.M. Sonder.
Please check my bio to see if I'm open to requests.
Payments are upfront via PayPal or Venmo.

Prince Natwick playing with dolls of a hero and a damsel. They sit on a rug of other toys and trinkets.
Natwick: "Nya-ha ha!! I'm so evil, I give myself nightmares!"
Caption: (... Don't eat a whole wheel of cheese before bed.)

Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece.
Quote: "I don't want to conquer anything. I just think the guy with the most freedom in this whole ocean... is the Pirate King!"

Jotaro Kujo and Star Platinum. Jotaro quotes, "You truly are the lowest scum in history. You can't pay back what you owe... with money!"

Old hermit Guy Makiuchi plays the Famicom while Hugo Greenhorn watches in confusion.

A little wooden automaton shaped after a toy soldier. It marches its path and Captain Pastuzo trips over it.

An anthropomorphic Dorcus Beetle is chastising Hugo, who towers over him in a cast shadow.

A clown executioner that is part of the band of Smile Knights.
She is playfully chasing Hugo.

Kahl, a griffin-like Fiend, carries a sword and pins Natwick to the ground. No matter how much he throws a tantrum, Natwick is unable to break free.

Hugo Greenhorn in a Pokemon battle with Prince Natwick.
He throws out Politoed and Mime Jr. while Natwick has a Luxio and Johtonian Sneasel.

Pastuzo: "This is no accident! A good Smile Knight thrives on errors in judgement!"
"Appear weak when you are strong, appear strong when you are weak!"

A Greenhorn mini comic.
Hugo: "Hey Pastuzo?"
Pastuzo: "Mh-hm."
Hugo: "I was wonderin'..."

Captain Pastuzo trains Hugo's balance with a tightrope walk. Additionally, he has an egg to balance on his head while very sweet dogs nip at him.

#oc #illustration #art #comic #retroaesthetic #webcomic #greenhorn #characterdesign #funny #manga #cartoon #retro #original #clown #jester #circus

Natwick the self-proclaimed demon prince teases young Hugo Greenhorn for being shorter than he is.

#oc #art #illustration #comic #manga #greenhorn #cute #demon #fiend #cartoon #characterdesign #cat #worldbuilding

Hugo Greenhorn, the Boy Enigma!

My name is John Michael O'Barr, a comic artist under the pen name of J.M. Sonder. I spend my free time developing, writing and illustrating an original graphic novel of mine titled Greenhorn. It is my senior thesis turned passion project and has helped me develop many skills as an artist, under the guidance of the amazing artists I've met on my journey. It's an adaptation of The Fool's Journey, told through the tarot's major arcana deck, which aims to be a universal story of the human experience.
If you are looking for the timeless feel of classic comics and manga, or you just love philosophy and good humor, then I am making this story for you!

#clipstudiopaint #art #oc #digitalart #portfolioday #greenhorn #webcomic #conceptart #retroaesthetic #characterdesign #fantasy #adventure #comedy #tarot #majorarcana #fool #magician #illustration #worldbuilding #dnd

1981 Donkey Kong playfully facing off against Mario as he holds Pauline and a barrel.
•
•
With the Donkey Kong Bananza game coming out, I've just been gushing over the new design, which is really adjusting the proprtions to be more like the original design I love. I do know some people who prefer the Rare design better though.
Who's to say? All I know is that I'm impressed with how something as simple as a cartoon gorilla can be drawn in such a way to be THE cartoon gorilla. That's just great design.
•
•
#donkeykong #dk #nintendo #mario #pauline #fanart #videogame #arcade #retroaesthetic #cartoon #gorilla #clipstudio #digitalart #