legmuscle

Ze Spy Page 30

We pick things up weeks later, after the highly classified information gets into the right hands and is leveraged to change the course of events for the better. Of course we all know the story of Sophie Nevers and her heroic, nude, quarter mile streak for freedom, but few of us understand what it was like to experience it, from the ground: all the screaming and jiggling that happened on that bright August day. That's why we honour our heroes. With our time, with our money, and sometimes with ...

Ze Spy Page 29

The goal has been reached, the mission accomplished. Sophie Nevers, Corporal with the Intelligence division of Army Command, has delivered the crucial information that undoubtedly turned the tide of the East Klomp/ Goobervania conflict. As was mentioned in the comic, the actual nature of that information cannot be revealed. Much as I'd love to relay all the intricately plotted details of the intelligence briefing, it is not to be. It's been said, though, that half the fun is getting there, an...

Ze Spy Page 28

Even the most heroic of efforts must sometimes pause to appease the infernal forces of bureaucracy. Appointments must be made, permits acquired, forms must be filled out, signed in four places, initialed in two others, sent for approval, then filed never to be seen again until the next time progress and productivity need to be slowed down. It's an eternal struggle, as ubiquitous as it is extraneous; all one can do is expel a plaintive sigh and pick up the pen or other office approved writing ...

Ze Spy Page 27

We're in ze home stretch now! Ze Spy is on friendly territory and on her way to deliver the information that will decisively change the course of the Klomp/ Goobervania conflict. The fact that she's doing while looking like she's a background dancer in an R-Rated Whitesnake video is notwithstanding. Heroism is heroism, no matter how you're dressed at the time. I may have said that before, but it still applies now.

I managed to get two funny signs on this page, one is kind of blocked by...

Ze Spy Page 26

Now out of enemy territory, but far from out of the woods, our heroine continues her charge towards the accomplishment of her mission. Her heart (among other things) pounds against her chest as she tries in vain to preserve a quantum of modesty. She seems to have her priorities a little out of whack here, but one can't blame her too harshly, she's under a lot of pressure and who among us can say that they get everything right?

I decided to try out a different colouring technique with th...

Ze Spy Page 25

Is there nothing this young lady will not do in service to her country? I don't think so. It seems that the state of her attire (such as it is) is working to her advantage as well, as no one in this quaint village seems to be sounding the alarm. Instead they are content to watch in stunned, grinning silence as she runs by. Inspiring!

I seem do do a lot of poses that are straight on, three quarters, or from behind (that last one is for obvious reasons, but I digress) but I rarely do anyt...

Ze Spy Page 24

Heroism takes many forms, but perhaps none so intriguing as the legendary cross country run of Ze Spy. It was long, it was arduous, and it was more than a little embarrassing for our young espionage agent. Despite it all, she soldiered on: and that is true heroism at its finest!

This page, and the next couple of pages, were a bit of a break for me, background wise. Drawing those Klomp buildings with the same colour scheme for pages and pages was becoming a bit of a drag. Give me rolling...

Ze Spy Page 23

The misunderstanding on the part of Generalwachtmeister Kruffle seems to be (mostly) resolved, although Elka's now seems to have lost access to her towel as well as her uniform. I hope for her sake that's not the only one she had! Worse yet for Elka, Ze Spy has absconded into the deep woods of East Klomp, a place where no one who values their garments dares to venture. Our girl is tough, though, and her determination won't be curtailed by a few pointy twigs. God speed, Ze Spy!

I've been...

Ze Spy Page 22

Now it seems as though it's Frau Elka's turn to suffer a setback as Kruffle makes an (also unsuccessful) attempt to detain her. The only thing that has has been captured at this point is Elka's towel, which probably wasn't the intent. It just seems like this is a bad day for everyone, doesn't it? Except those guys in the background, they're probably forming memories that will last a lifetime.

I don't know if this page works or not, storywise. Because we've already seen Elka in her all t...

Ze Spy Page 21

His lot apparently cast, Generalwachtmeister Kruffle prepares to detain what he thinks is a nefarious spy, but is in reality is his immediate superior. This probably won't be his best decision, but one can't fault his singleminded respect for the Klompian uniform, no matter what shape it's in. A tattered uniform imbues more authority than an undersized towel every time, and you can take that to the bank!

Speaking of uniforms, Ze Spy's is hanging on by a thread, but you can't deny she's ...

Ze Spy Page 20

The outlook for our heroine continues to dim as the Supreme Grand General, undeterred by a lack of proper attire, has appeared to pursue Ze Spy personally. The only hope for salvation lies in the gullibility of Generalwachtmeister Kruffle: which actually, based on what we know about him, makes her chances are pretty good.

Artist's note: I don't know if a speech balloon containing the person speaking, saying what would normally be in the speech balloon has ever been done before, but if i...

Ze Spy Page 19

It looks as though Kruffle's lack of observational skills does have a limit, and that limit is six pages after his introduction to the story. He still thinks he's talking to Frau Elka, of course, but Rome wasn't built in a day. Ze Spy, for her part, is still thinking on her feet, even as her uniform continues to fail her. She cleverly cooks up a story about a spy who attacked her and tried to steal her uniform. Will she succeed? Will she fail? Hey, how should I know, I only work here!

M...

Ze Spy Page 18

If you really think about it, our heroine has been pretty lucky overall. Sure she's suffered a few malfunctions and mishaps related to her uniform; but with regard to being captured everything has been breaking her way. It's almost as if there was some unknown force, powerful and ancient, that wants to keep her running around in her all together. But as we all know the universe works in mysterious ways, so much so that even bothering to speculate on it would be a massive waste of tim...

Ze Spy Page 17

The casual banter between Kruffle and our heroine continues, as does her subtle efforts to extricate herself from what is becoming an increasingly tense situation: at least as far as she's concerned. Kruffle just seems to like having someone to talk to about the minutiae of daily life in the oppressive land of Klomp. The simple act of folding her arms seems to be too much for her pilfered uniform, causing what seems to be a catastrophic failure in the back region. Oh well, at least it's facin...

Ze Spy Page 16

Realization dawns on our heroine as the full enormity of the situation sinks in. She's talking to one bigwig who thinks that she's an even bigger bigwig because she has stolen said bigwig's uniform. Of course she's concerned, the conditions of her current freedom are too fragile to withstand any scrutiny whatsoever. Everything is moments from falling apart. What will she do? Still, this Kruffle guy's lack of situational awareness is off the charts, so maybe there's some hope after all.

...

Ze Spy Page 15

Our heroine's situation continues to teeter between good luck and abject disaster. Kruffle, the man who has approached her, not only seems not to notice the precarious state of her pilfered uniform, but furthermore seems to have mistaken her for a high ranking official in the Klump military hierarchy. The bad luck is the aforementioned state of said pilfered uniform, which seems to be rapidly transforming itself from a smart, intimidating symbol of authority to shreds of expensive cloth that ...

Now You Know!

I thought that today's update was a little too similar to last week's in terms of content and composition, so to make up for it I present this image I did to try out some new markers I bought recently.

As you can see it's thematically similar to the current story: both feature military redheads who are having wardrobe issues while attempting to complete a mission. Scarlett is one of my favourite characters to draw, and I don't often get as many excuses to depict her as I'd like. Happily...

Ze Spy page 14

Of course the "stolen uniform" trope has been more than adequately explored in popular fiction, and even its metatextual cousin "stolen uniform that doesn't quite fit" has had its share of exposure over the years. But what about the "stolen uniform that doesn't quite fit and begins to rip apart at the seams?" Has anyone bothered with that?

There are some gaps in my contemporary media knowledge, so there's every chance that this has already been addressed, and if that's the case then co...

Ze Spy Page 13

It seems to be two steps forward one step back for our heroine as she is just barely able to squeeze her generous frame into the much smaller uniform she's stolen. She hasn't clued in to the rank associated with said uniform just yet, but it seems like she's about to. Meanwhile, Frau Elka is having issues of her own, it just goes to show that no matter how high on the ladder you get, there will always be hassles no matter what.

Ze Spy Page 12

Through quick thinking on her part, Ze Spy has barely evaded capture yet again. It also appears that the uniform she has stolen has some rank associated with it, so it's not all bad luck today. As for her pursuers, it's more of a mixed bag: on the one hand they have lost the trail and interrupted a high ranking official's personal time; but on the other they have seen her out of uniform, which is a fond memory that they can take with them into their retirement.

When this story was sugge...

Ze Spy Page 11

In her haste to rid herself of the incriminating hat, Ze Spy hurls it away, causing it to land in the nearby shower where it is picked up by its occupant. Who she is we do not yet know, but we know a lot of other things about her, which is pretty good for an initial introduction. We can also surmise from other context clues that her day is about to get significantly worse.

Nor much to say about this page: clothes-less lady, standing in a shower, a pretty easy day at the office as far as...

Ze Spy Page 10

...and she finally figures it out. Don't be too hard on her, she's under a lot of stress, and who among us hasn't looked all around the house for a pair of glasses or a cell phone that we eventually realized was on our person the whole time?

This page is another case of "Legmuscle puts a decent amount of effort into a background element that subsequently gets covered with word balloons because he never learns from his mistakes." For all those interested, the sign on the wall there says...

Ze Spy Page 9

Our heroine slips into the Ze Lady Officer Showers unnoticed, but her plans to rub off the scent are foiled when she discovers that someone is already there. Luckily her elite training kicks in and she's able to formulate another plan. The ability to think on one's feet and change tactics at a moment's notice is essential in espionage.

This page has kind of an R-Rated 80s comedy vibe about it that I think works for this story. I think Bob Clark (of Porky's fame) probably could have dire...

April's Easter Emergency

I'm calling this one an "Easter doodle" because I came up with the idea literally yesterday but didn't have a lot of time to do my usual shadings and fussings that I normally like to do. But when inspiration hits, even if it's at an inopportune time, the ENF artist must rise to the occasion and do whatever they can to bring it to the public in the best form possible given the circumstances. Please attempt to enjoy it for what it is, not what it could have been.

It did occur to me that I...

Ze Spy Page 8

There are days when your best seems like it isn't enough, when you do everything in your power to get ahead, you put in 110%, you go that extra mile, and still end up falling behind. It's frustrating for sure, but sometimes- if you look close enough- you'll find there's something getting in your way, that your problem was all in your head the whole time...

Or maybe it's been on your head the whole time.

The preceding inspirational message was brought to you by Leg Industr...

Ze Spy Page 7

Ze Spy darts towards the officer's barracks, even as sheds what she believes is the last of the trackable garments. She laments the necessity of her actions, but surely now her problems are over...right?

This is another page where I expended some effort on the background that was made redundant when I turned the character layer on. Directly behind Ze Spy here is a small pine tree (you can see some of it sticking out from behind her left forearm and just below her right shoulder) I didn'...

Ze Spy Page 6

Ze Spy makes more sacrifices for freedom and democracy, and all while not using swears: just because you're stripping down in enemy territory doesn't give you permission to have a potty mouth.

Some readers (those brave few who take time read the captions, anyway 😉) may notice that I avoid using swear words in my work and might be curious why this is, given the nature of my subject matter. There's a couple of reasons for it, the first being that I want the ENF in my stories to seem li...

Ze Spy Page 5

Our heroine, having dodged the dog so far by shedding her uniform and its incriminating scent, believes she's out of the woods. Sadly there's no such luck as the undergarments she's chosen still bear a whiff of fabric softener, which Comandante Woofers is very well acquainted. Bad luck for her, but that's the spy game!

I promise this is the last page before the underwear goes, after which we'll get a little bit of that N from ENF. I know there are underwear fans out there, and I wanted ...

Michi Shimura (Trixie from Speed Racer)

For my money, the funniest anime adaptation ever made is Speed Racer. Between the hasty early era Anime aesthetic, the bizarre plots, the motormouthed English dub, and the groovy 60s-ness of it all, there's something laughably ridiculous happening at least once a minute.

Michi Shimura, (Trixie in the English version) isn't the best drawn anime girl, but it doesn't take much to see the potential behind the goofy rendering style. At least I think so. Fun Fact, Michi's shirt (not pictured)...

Ze Spy Page 4

If you've ever tried to take trousers off with your boots still on, you'll know that (unless you're wearing bell bottoms) you've set yourself a pretty difficult task. Doing it while running is another matter entirely, and doing it while also being chased by an amusingly named but probably fairly bitey dog is tantamount to impossible. Still our heroine carries on in the name of her vaguely defined but no doubt very important mission.

I wanted to make sure everyone got a good front and ba...