IAN JONES-QUARTEY
animator/cartoonist/supervising director for Steven Universe/Bravest Warriors voice of Wallow/ i also used to work on Cartoon Network's Adventure Time and Venture Brothers... and i drew webcomics like a million years ago
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I know that the Gems are sexless agendered, etc. And that they use female pronouns, but are their any masculine gems? They seem to have no problem referring to Steven as a He. And they understand it. Or is it just a simple language deal?
Ok, i’m gonna try to explain this as simply as I can(apologies in advance if I screw up any gender terminology):
Steven on the other hand was created by mixing human and gem DNA so he’s a completely new kind of being. He is the only gem to be born thru biological reproductive means(Rose shapeshifted a womb for him to be born from). In Earth terms, he identifies as male so the Crystal Gems have no problem using he/him pronouns with him. (Jasper, who has no concept of this, refers to Steven as if he is Rose)
This is similar to how all Smurfs were “male” before Smurfette was created by Gargamel.
That said, Gems have the ability to take on gendered forms if they choose to. You’ve seen Amethyst do this.
Steven Universe hour-long episode “Change Your Mind”! Airs January 21 @ 7pm! I’ve been very busy making my cartoon OK KO! but I made time to rejoin the Crewniverse for this one! Don’t miss it!
I also did revisions on this I’m super proud of! (the heavy gas stomp, e-brake, crash and jump out of the car stuff at the end. I was super excited to draw the Rad Van flipping around like that)
A recent episode of my show OK KO!, “A Hero’s Fate” is a fully-absorbed finale of my old comic RPG World. RPG World was a comic that I made when I was a teenager(Starting in August 2000). A lot of people ended up liking the comic and I was a little too young to take that fact seriously. I never finished the comic’s story because… I was a flighty teenager and I ended up going to animation school. After a fruitful decade-plus of working in animation, I was thrilled to return to my old characters.
If you were a fan of RPG World, please seek out this episode and watch it! It’s a special treat just for you!
Originally the story wasn’t going to have any specific call-outs to the comic but the storyboard team for the episode, Ryann Shannon and Parker Simmons crafted a narrative around Hero and KO learning to value the people in their lives AND their heroic ambitions.
Ryann created an epilogue to the episode which showed Hero returning to comic form to finish his story. I felt very embarrassed by this but it made so much sense in the story’s context. I leaned into it and using her rough version as a guide, drew the full ending page myself. I rummaged thru my supplies and broke out the same set of pens I used to ink the comic with, and scanned it on my same old scanner. I tried to emulate my coloring style from back then(MAN ALIVE I was SO into gradients)… I used to do the comic three times a week so doing it again was a surreal experience.
The whole thing has ended up being very cathartic. Knowing that Hero and Cherry will live on in endless worldwide repeats of this episode is mindblowing.
p.s. If this post inspires you to go look up and read RPG World, I pre-emptively apologize for my clumsy and possibly offensive teenage writing and artistic skills. I barely knew what I was doing! I’m shocked that people even liked it!
As mentioned by Toby Jones in this post, “My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad” is one of the oldest OK KO! stories, dating all the way back to 2012! I wrote it right after I finished the pilot and it survived, mostly unscathed, until today!
Above is my original rough (very rough!) premise, and Chameleon Jr.’s original design, Drawn by myself and Danny Hynes, based off of a drawing by Lamar Abrams!
Steven Universe’s “G.U.Y.S.” and OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes
When I was a Storyboard Supervisor on Adventure Time, I came up with a silly joke pitch called “Infinite Guy Generator”! The idea was gonna be about a kid who found a mystical object that let him create all kinds of action heroes- Ninja Guys, Construction Guys, Invisible Guys, etc etc. There would be a villain who had an alternate version of the same widget that would let him create evil guys- Demon Guys, Monster Guys, Goblin Guys, etc. Every episode would be about the main kid summoning a different Guy to help him with a problem, and eventually destroying the Evil Guy Generator.
Once I came up with the idea for my 2013 pilot “Lakewood Plaza Turbo” I folded in this idea and made it set in a world based off of that old pitch. But instead of a Guy generator, the world was already populated by crazy powerful heroes!
Eventually, Rebecca Sugar enlisted me to work on Steven Universe as Co-Executive Producer and when we were writing the episode Onion Trade, I re-used the Guy concept as a series of collectible toys that Steven and Onion were obsessed with. Storyboarder Lamar Abrams reinterpreted the idea as “G.U.Y.S.: Guys Under Your Supervision” and it was hilarious. People really liked the idea, and not long after the episode a creative fan even 3D Printed a model of Ranger Guy! It really made me think more about the concept and how fun it was.
As I continued to redevelop my show into a mobile game, shorts and eventually a new show, the world of G.U.Y.S. in Steven Universe expanded to include “G.A.L.S.” and “P.A.L.S.”!
I even considered retitling my show “G.U.Y.S. G.A.L.S. and P.A.L.S.” but it was too long and confusing(I ended up choosing the name “OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes” which is maybe also long and confusing too hehe 😅)
If you’ve ever wondered what a show based on Steven’s favorite toy would be like, please tune into OK KO! this month! I think you’ll like it!
This is your one-stop shop for behind-the-scenes info on OK KO! We’re excited to post up model sheets, animatics, crew art and more!
We also hope to find some cool fan art to reblog here from time to time. Use the “#ok ko” or “#ok ko let’s be heroes” tags and we’re sure to see it! We encourage you to use the materials posted here to create your own art & draw the characters any way you want to!
We’re excited to share our show with you. Welcome to the weird world of heroes- OK KO!