Underborough Vault: Alt Angela (Patreon)

Another relic from 2004 and pre-production on The Underburbs. This is another nugget that displays Angela's videogamey roots. Yes, long ago, I thought to myself, what if I made a video game about my unnamed witch character? Never mind that to this day I have zero programming skills. It's even more of a pipe dream than my current comic book project, but it was a good idea on paper. Those of you who have read the extra stuff in Underburbs Volume 1 may have seen Angela's ability to adopt different forms via Halloween costumes. There was a Frankenstein's monster and werewolf form. The former became Shelley, while the latter became landfill. 

The video game version of The Underburbs, or whatever 20-something me would have called it, had a twist. You could find alternate costumes as power-ups through environmental means. Getting struck by lightning would turn you into... Shelley, I guess. Getting bitten by a wolf or picking wolfsbane would activate the werewolf form. Stealing a sheet from someone's clothesline would make you a ghost.

But it would also have a Trick Meter. As in "trick-or-treat," get it? You could fill this meter by playing tricks, like throwing toilet paper in trees or ringing doorbells and running. Filling the meter would make Angela a more powerful, but unchangeable (as in, she can't pick up costumes) version of her base witch form. And that's what you see here.

Like most of the Vault posts, this wouldn't really work in the context of the comic. Even so, I always liked Trick Meter Angela's design. I might adapt it someday, if I can find a good reason for her to dress more like a witch. She just tends to wear regular, albeit pumkin-themed, clothes these days.