Guy. Brush.

[Kaio]

I don't like the "new" look of Guybrush (and with "new" I mean ever since Monkey Island 3). The Monkey Island 2 version is by far the best, imho. To protest against Monkey Island 3, 4 and the new Tales, I did this sketch:



I'll colour it later, maybe.
Tell me what you think if you want.

edit: now with colours, too:

[Babar]

Hahahahah...Liam Neeson as Guybrush .

I also like the hairy chest.

[Kaio]

Hahahahah...Liam Neeson as Guybrush .

That's what I thought when drawing him, too!

[Ghost]

I share your opinion on Guybrush's declining looks, and declare your version a very god sketch. LucasArts won't buy it though. His hair is not even remotely three times as high as his head. That's how you can tell it's Guy.Brush these days

Plus, the ability to rest a cocktail on your beard *must* be useful.

[Phemar]

I think you got Guybrush's look down. That's how he should've looked throughout 3, 4 and Tales. He always struck me as having a more squarish face rather than the long, thin face he currently sports.

[Secret Fawful]

A set of conceptual sketches for Tales of Monkey Island had the MI2 style square faced look among the sketches of possible looks. But they decided not to do it in the end. The thin Guybrush is here to stay. Get over it and move on.

[Bensch]

first of: nice sketch, a worthy tribut to what he looked like.

althought i think non of the sprite- or background styles of any monkey island chapter produced an atmosphere equal to MI2 (it took weeks till i finished it because i cant but to gaze every single background or animation) but his "new look" fairly supports his character in my opinion.

[markbilly]

Your sketch is very nice, but I have to agree the "thin" new Guybrush look supports the nature of the character a lot better. It's all about the sarcastic, geeky character that's been established. I reckon Monkey Island 1 did this the best with 2 then moving away from the weedy geek to show the character's progression to "proper pirate". I like the way that from there they went back to thin and geeky but kept the beard. That worked nicely as a compromise to show he'd come along in pirating since the first game...

nice sketch, though. Very Liam Neeson!

[Kaio]

Thank you for your comments!  

When playing Monkey Island I and II, I always had the impression, that this world it was playing in was dirty and scary. And Guybrush took himself quite serious, but ended up being goofy unintended.
In Monkey Island 3+, they changed his character a bit. And so they changed the look of the games. Not quite as dark as the first two games had been, if you know what I mean. Just...weird and comic-like...funny of course, but not the same strange humour the first 2 games had. Might be all because of Ron Gilbert I hope he'll get his chance to do a 'real' part 3, because the true secret never has been revealed, as far as I know.

btw, I did some more alterations of Guybrush:




Feel free to comment

[Matti]

I don't like the "new" look of Guybrush (and with "new" I mean ever since Monkey Island 3). The Monkey Island 2 version is by far the best, imho.

I couldn't agree more!

Overall I like your sketches and I think the new one is the best. But the beard is way too 'horizontal' imo which makes him look a bit goofy. I'd really change that.

[monkey0506]

I don't know about everybody else but the first thing I thought when I saw the first sketch was "Too old, should not want."

To me you made him look like he's in his late 30's, early 40's at least, possibly even older than that.

Without the beard and chest hair I could concede to late 20's, early 30's; but this is still far too old for Guybrush as we know him...in SMI he was just a boy...and from what I've always imagined him no more than about 16 years old.

This is of course just my opinion, but to me it doesn't seem fitting with the age/personality/character of Guybrush from any of the games.

[Ghost]

In CMI he tells his age when he shows his "LucasArts employee" card to the dog-guy in the carnival scene... 24, wasn't it? Don't quite remember...
Funny though, I always thought of him being MY EXACT AGE each time I played the game(s). So far it has worked.

[Kaio]

Yeah, the first one looks very old, indeed. I tried to make the 2 new versions look a bit younger, though. I always imagined him being around 30 years in Monkey Island 2... his fight against Le Chuck was legendary (or so he thought) by then, so I thought that quite a time has passed. It would be interesting to find out his true age

Edit: I started to make a sprite out of this sketch:



The last one, of course. I tried to make him look like a Monkey Island 1.5 version.

[Phemar]

I like the new version, it works best without the beard

Although I think with the outfit you gave him he looks a bit like a jedi...

(btw, if you want to give him a beard, you should make it less horizontal.)

[monkey0506]

Guybrush's age is a matter of debate. He is suspected of being somewhere between the ages of 18-21 in all of his appearances. Since the time-gap between each game is noticeably ambiguous, it is impossible to say how much Guybrush ages throughout the series. When trying to get a library card in MI2 in one of the dialogue options he almost accidentally admits to being nineteen. The Scumm Actors' Guild membership card which Guybrush uses in the third game to prove his age, states that he is 20. These are the only occasions where Guybrush's age has been documented.

Based on this Guybrush is 19 in MI2. If he was about 16-17 in SMI then I feel certain that 2-3 years would be plenty of time for the fight between Guybrush and LeChuck to have spread. Especially given the fact that LeChuck was supposed to be the most feared pirate in the Caribbean...

As stated in the wiki his age is ambiguous, however I've never thought he was that old...at any point. Personally...

[Bensch]

while reading all this i get the faintest idea even the staff of lucas art had given this problem rather less thoughts so, why bother?

dont like the new pixel version that much btw. looks like a jedi as phemar said and in my opinion looks much older, as he loses hair allready.. (but technically well done althought)

[Kaio]

I made this sprite for a friend of mine who wants to do a little MI-game.. He wanted Guybrush to look a bit like Jack Sparrow...well the clothes. Strange thing that it turned out Jedi-like . Anyway, I'm just into Monkey Island right now:

[Jared]

Obviously Guybrush is a young fellow, otherwise he wouldn't get asked for his I.D all the time.

I like the finished sprite, though I'm not quite sold on the colours. My first thoughts were also Jedi I have to say.

[Tuomas]

As far as I can remember, Guybrush didn't really have a beard, but he was trying to grow one. I always thought of him as one who's over 20 and without proper facial hair, hence getting asked for ID.

Your Guybrush is great imo, but to make him younger, you might want to probably bring his posture a bit forward (perhaps not, maybe it's just the manly big jaw that the sprite has), maybe make his neck a bit thinner, as it's quite thick in the sprite as well. And perhaps try something of a mroe light hearted appearance. He looks all grumpy like an old timer would.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I think the thing with Guybrush is he's a bit of an attention hound.  He doesn't just want to be a pirate, he wants to be a FAMOUS pirate, and after Monkey Island 1 we learn he's been going all around the Caribbean telling the LeChuck story to build his fame (and by MI 2 it seems everyone has heard it).  To me, a game in between Monkey Island 1 and 2 would have Guybrush trying to find his own 'style' to make himself appear piratey enough to people.  I've also always looked at Guybrush as something of a comic Errol Flynn wannabe, so with that in mind I reworked his costume to be something more daring:






He's got 'the root beer bottle that destroyed LeChuck's evil soul' in a sheathe at his belt to show off (and perhaps use on other nasty ghosts) and a thin mustache to make himself appear more mature.  He's ditched the cabin boy outfit in favor of something more dashing that will help convince people that he's a real pirate!  I'd consider this his 'sailor' phase and MI 2 to be the 'captain' phase, with his pirate coat and all those pieces o' eight that he promptly loses to Largo.