Hidden Details: Mind Trucks (Patreon)

In the midst of the Avengers-maelstrom that's blazing right now, I thought I'd be a nice change of pace to write a Hidden Details-blog about a Pokémon comic! So here's an in-depth look into the references and jokes made in the Mind Trucks comic!

First of all: this blog will almost completely be about the last panel, since there's not much happening in the first two. I do want to give a shoutout to the backgrounds made by Arnold Berssenbrugge. He made sure the location of the comic was accurate by drawing Vermilion City as it appears in Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen in the background:

Moving on to the last frame (and staying there)! 

The camera crew who is present on the scene are Gabby and Ty, who appeared as trainers in Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. They also reappeared in Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire and I think they're pretty iconic, so naturally I included them. This isn't the first time they made an appearance in our comics by the way! They're seen interviewing Red in Alola in Young Adult Red episode 8! They are also the only non-gen 1 trainers appearing in this comic.

There's a little Diglett inside the truck, referencing the mystery surrounding Diglett's body and the fact that he often doesn't make any sense.

The fact that the Hiker is shouting to his Golem is no coincidence. I specifically remember an "official" Pokémon magazine writing about how to catch Mew, back in the day. They told hundreds of kids to bring a level 100 Golem with Fissure, Earthquake, Strength and a fourth move I can't remember to the truck. This Golem would be able to move the truck and you'd see some footsteps. If you would step in these footsteps, you'd be transported to the pond/foutain in the Silph Co. headquarters where you'd be able to catch Mew. Complete bullshit, of course, but in hindsight pretty funny.

Speaking of shit: there's a little turd lying next to the Golem. There's also some footsteps, referencing the magazine-theory again. If you look all the way to the right of the panel though, you'll notice a Meowth is responsible for both the turd and the footsteps.

The Grimer in the back of the truck is a direct copy of Grimer's... weird sprite from Pokémon Red/Blue. I've seen some people say the zealot next to Grimer is Heimskr, the screaming dude in Whiterun in Skyrim. I can see why people would think that, but I wasn't deliberately making him look like Heimskr.

The Super Nerd with the bulletin board functions as a "summary" of all the theories and mysteries surrounding the truck. The level 100 Golem is referenced again, as well as the moves he should have. The final move is "???" since I can't remember which move it was supposed to be. I threw in missingno. and the ghost from Pokémon Tower as well. Those two are part of OTHER (unrelated) Pokémon-mysteries, but I thought I'd be fun to have the obsessed Super Nerd make a connection between the truck and missingno. and the ghosts. Also, conspiracy theories are often pretty crazy, so I threw in Agumon, just for the fun of it. Lastly, I made the Super Nerd's pose look a bit similar to Charlie's pose in the famous scene from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia:

There's a Tauros "surfing" in the water in the bottom right corner of the last panel. This is a reference to Taurus being able to learn Surf in Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal.

And, of course, I couldn't make a Pokémon-comic without including arguably our most popular character: Young Adult Pikachu. Seems like he's back in Kanto after his holiday in Alola! Doesn't look like he's happy to be home though. And I can't blame him, with all the craziness he needs to deal with as soon as he got off SS Anne.

And last but not least: every one of the trainers appearing in this comic (except for the zealots, the truck driver and the dock worker) is based off a trainer class from the Pokémon games!

While we're on the subject: I think it's hilarious there was a trainer class called "Super Nerd" in the first generation Pokémon games. Also, what is a "Cooltrainer" supposed to be? Glad they changed them to Ace Trainers, they make a lot more sense.

And that's a wrap! Hope you enjoyed this Pokémon-intermezzo :) See you next week!

- Abel