Ask the Joker is a Q&A segment here on the PHB where you, dear readers, are invited to send in your Poptropica questions to have them answered, with wit, wisdom, and wisecracks, by one Incredible Joker.
Welcome to the second ATJ where you will be learning about the Joker himself! (Whether you want to or not 😂). These three questions were actually asked by the same person, Pegs. So thanks for taking an interest in me! And if anyone wants to mention their answer to any of these in the comments, go ahead. 😁
What is your favorite island? ~Pegs
That is a bit hard to pick between. You might guess 24 Carrot and yeah that one makes me pretty hoppy to play it, but each has its moments. I like ones with multiple parts like Arabian Nights and PoptropiCon. I liked on Counterfeit having to travel to another island and wish they had expanded on that idea. I did get really spirited about Ghost Story Island, for a few reasons. To be a stereotype, I am from a relatively haunted state and I have heard many, many ghost stories over the years so I like that type of thing already. I was pretty excited when they announced the island.
Who is your favorite villain? ~Pegs
Binary Bard. 😐
How many medallions do you have? ~Pegs
If I counted it up right I would say 48? That is not counting any I may have replayed, or the slightly modified 24 Carrot Island. The two islands that I have not completed are Back Lot Island and Lunar Colony, so maybe if they do add the old ones back then I can bring my count up to a perfect 50. Of course hopefully that count will go up soon anyways with two winners of the Dream Island contest being announced so far! Fairy Tale and Goofball Island! Unless I procrastinate and never finish the new islands. 😅
And that’s it for the second Ask the Joker! Remember to ask more questions and I’ll get to each one when I can. If this gets more popular, I may do more than three per post. More work for me but more fun for you all. 😅👍
How can you send in your questions to Ask the Joker?
That’s a great question! You can use the following methods:
📧 Send an email to justaskthejoker (at) gmail (dot) com. This way, you’ll get to keep your questions a surprise when they get answered on the blog.
💬 Comment on the latest Ask the Joker post. Your questions will be publicly visible before they appear in a Q&A post, but this allows others to interact with your question if they so choose. If you don’t have an email address, you can enter a fake one in the email field when you post your comment.
See you all next time, and remember: You can’t spell Poptropica without letters.
Welcome back to “Pop Places IRL,” Poptropicans! Today, we’re visiting ye olde times and heading to Astro-Knights Island. Enjoying the series? Be sure to check out other Pop Places IRL posts.
Astro-Knights Island takes place in Medieval Europe, but obviously includes a sci-fi twist. Though its exact location is never specified, we’ll assume the kingdom of Arturus has British roots, given its repeated connections to Arthurian legend.
Before we launch our rocket and start soaring through the stars, we get to explore the kingdom a bit to kick off the mysterious story of this island. The Castle is definitely the largest structure in town, and an iconic element of Medieval Europe to say the least.
photo: Dover Castle (historyextra)
Besides the castle, however, we get to see a medieval aesthetic all throughout Arturus, particularly when looking at Main Street. Er… save for those sci-fi elements we talked about earlier. I don’t think we would be able to find a glowing rocket statue in the Middle Ages…
photo: Small Towns in England (planetware)
The Ye Olde Rumour Mille is another major location in town. The name might be a bit of a joke, but the actual structure is pretty similar to its IRL counterpart!
photo: Stembridge Tower Mill (picturesofengland)
General town aside, let’s step back inside the castle. That’s why we’re here, aren’t we? Cool castles!!! Though many castles in Europe have been refurbished in one way or another, it’s nonetheless interesting to still see them standing at all. You can even tour some!
photo: Medieval Castles in the UK (jebiga)
Continuing inside the castle, I think the most important room to talk about is the Throne Room. Gotta have a center piece for the whole castle! The room we have pictured is from France, but you get the idea. Quite ornate!
photo: Throne Room (wikipedia)
On the opposite side of things, however, we have the Dungeon. These sorts of cells, including “oubliettes,” are often associated with with the Medieval era (though its correlation with torture more accurately pairs with the Renaissance period). Too bad there weren’t any mysterious robots IRL to keep prisoners company!
photo: The Castle Dungeon and the Oubliette (exploringcastles)
The last room in the castle is the Library. Art history buffs will certainly be familiar with some illuminated manuscripts from this era, though we don’t have much time to stop and study anything in Poptropica. Gotta love that Old English, right? Unfortunately the library in Poptropica is, er, in a bit disarray…
photo: The Golden Haggadah (khanacademy)
photo: Royal Manuscript (thebritishlibrary)
photo: Medieval Manuscripts (mymodernmet)
While in the castle library, we could also glance at some references Poptropica makes to Arthurian legend (as I mentioned earlier). Though the legend primary features King Arthur, we learn from the Astro-Knights novel that the King of Arturus is actually named Richard. As in Richard the Lionheart!
photo: King Arthur (ancienthistoryencyclopedia)
photo: Richard the Lionheart (historyonthisday)
Similarly, the knights have ties to legend: Pelasus (named similarly to Pelleas, a knight of the round table), Gawain (another knight of the round table with the same name), and Cador (Duke of Cornwall, related to Arthur). Cador may not be a knight of the round table like his comrades, but the ties are there nonetheless! So… have a photo of Sir Lancelot in his place.
RedKnightSirPelasusASG
BlueKnightSirGawainASG
GreenNightSirCadorASG
photo: Pelleas (wikipedia)
photo: Gawain (wikipedia)
photo: Lancelot (everworldwiki)
Another good comparison to legend: Merlin! Other than sharing the name with a wizard, our “feathered” friend also shares his name with a type of falcon.
photo: Merlin Bird (wikipedia)
photo: Merlin (wikipedia)
Last but not least… Binary Bard! Or Mordred, to be clear. There are various depictions of him in legend, but as Modredus, he is Arthur’s traitorous nephew.
photo: Mordred (wikipedia)
Alright, I know we strayed away from “places” for a bit there, leaning more towards “people,” so let’s get back on track! Other than Medieval Europe, the other dominant setting of Astro-Knights is, of course, space! The real moon may not have an AstroZone like the Pewter Moon in Poptropica, but maybe we’ll get to that point someday.
photo: Lunar Surface (interestingengineering)
If you recall, the three main planets we visit on our space adventure include the Ice Planet, Fire Planet, and Jungle Planet. Wellllll, those planets may not be in our solar system, but we can still compare them to what we have IRL! Based on their distance from the sun and atmosphere characteristics, Uranus is our coldest planet while Venus is our hottest. Does that make Earth our Jungle Planet then?
photo: Uranus (wikipedia)
photo: Venus (wikipedia)
photo: Earth (npr)
Phew, now that was a long trip! I guess space is a pretty far off flight, huh? But anyway, it’s no wonder that Astro-Knights won “OG Island We’ll Miss Most” in the 2020 Poppies. It’s quite the adventure!
Aside from the sci-fi elements, how well do you think this island holds up to IRL Medieval Europe? How much do you know about Arthurian legend? And what other islands would you like to see in this series? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in a comment below!
Until next time, Poptropicans, I’m blasting off for now!
Ask the Joker is a Q&A segment here on the PHB where you, dear readers, are invited to send in your Poptropica questions to have them answered, with wit, wisdom, and wisecracks, by one Incredible Joker.
Welcome to the first set of questions in this new PHB series, Ask the Joker! Many of you wrote in with your Poptropica questions, and now— *adjusts goggles* —I shall be offering my sage advice.
If you do not see yours in this post, do not worry — I am saving all submitted questions and they may be answered in the future. Now, onto your pressing questions, and my rambling amazing answers! 😂
Guessing by your name and appearance, are you related to Lucky Joker and/or Dr. Hare? ~Gentle Dolphin
I am not related to Lucky Joker as far as I am aware (unless… long lost relative? 😮). As for Dr. Hare, I guess that would be a hare-y situation to explain. So instead I will just play it by ear and hop onto the next question! 🙃👍
When do you think there will be a new island? ~EvilGirl31
They may release a few old islands first to keep people happy until the new ones are ready. They have the content of their old islands — it’s just a matter of getting them on the new Haxe system. Maybe we’ll get a few in early to mid 2021? Just speculating, though. And Fairy Tale Island, being a brand new island, is probably going to take more time to create — but still in 2021, if all goes as scheduled.
Either way, we should have something coming to help our impatience! 😂😛 Of course, even then, I will probably be procrastinating on completing it myself… 😅
What inspired the art and design for Poptropica? ~Shantelle W.
This one was not easy to find, and I’m still researching it a bit, but here’s some stuff you may find fascinating! Here’s a Q&A with Poptropica artist Abigail Grigg, which talks a bit about art styles and inspirations. Abigail’s advice? “Experiment and try new stuff!” You never know where you might dream up the next big idea.
And check out the PHB’s Poptropica Yearbook for 2007, which includes some fun pics of Poptropica’s early concept art before the game was even created. According to Poptropica’s founder, Jeff Kinney, Poptropica’s first concept was “an enormous map of single-scene rooms,” but it took a competitor making a game with a similar name as Poptropica’s working title, “Poptropolis,” for them to switch gears and start thinking about islands, the format we know and love today.
Art for Reality TV: Wild Safari Island
Primitive Poptropicans
That’s it for the very first Ask the Joker! Bring on your questions and I’ll see you in the next one. And quick thanks to Slanted Fish for letting me have the freedom to write 😂😜 and for her editing! 😅
How can you send in your questions to Ask the Joker?
That’s a great question! You can use the following methods:
📧 Send an email to justaskthejoker (at) gmail (dot) com. This way, you’ll get to keep your questions a surprise when they get answered on the blog.
💬 Comment on the latest Ask the Joker post. Your questions will be publicly visible before they appear in a Q&A post, but this allows others to interact with your question if they so choose. If you don’t have an email address, you can enter a fake one in the email field when you post your comment.
See you all next time, and remember: You can’t spell Poptropica without letters.
Howdy, Poptropicans! It’s Lucky Joker here with another sporadic installment of our Pop Fan Artist Spotlights series. The artist featured this time is… well, me! I promise I’m not self-centered. 😅
A few months ago, you may have seen a drawing challenge called Poptober — a list of 31 prompts (one for each day of October) created by MaryannTheConqueror to inspire a month of Poptropica fan art. Well, I decided to take the challenge head-on. Let’s take a look and see how I did. (Click the images to enlarge them!)
For day 1 of Poptober, I wanted to kick off the spooky month by depicting a spooky island. After some thought, I ended up going with the amazing Ghost Story Island by drawing the story’s most prime trio.
For day 2’s carnival theme, I knew I wanted to draw something from Monster Carnival (because duh! lol). I could’ve drawn the fabulous Ringmaster Raven, but instead, I shared the love and picked a couple of more underrepresented characters for my piece.
Due to the ambiguity of the prompt “Game,” I spent a lot of time thinking of what I was going to draw on day 3. Ultimately, I went with drawing Poptropica’s most popular common room game, Sky Dive. Once again, I portrayed two often glossed-over characters: Amelia and Crusoe.
When I read “water” for day 4, somehow the beach from my favorite island, Mythology (Flash edition), immediately came to mind. I think I captured the theme well in this one, and I don’t compliment myself often! Poseidon (the god of the sea) and mermaidsat the beach — how much more water can it get? I suppose if they were underwater, hehe.
On day 5, I couldn’t help being inspired from my favorite island a second time. I drew Medusa in a lair full of her collection of stone victims, including Hercules, to bring more of that special scariness that October entails.
To my surprise, there were plenty of considerations for day 6’s “doctor” prompt. Dr. Hare, Dr. Salerno, Dr. Jupiter, and the ever-so-newly-popular Dr. Beev were all pondered upon. However, I ended up drawing Dr. Lange and a colleague in a lab trialing vaccines (kind of appropriate in these times…).
“Blimp” — I feel like there are an infinite amount of options for this one. Here, you can see Mystery of the Map’s Mya, Oliver, and Jorge discovering the lands of Poptropica in the iconic aircraft (along with a cameo from a certain someone with his own balloon!).
For day 8, I drew some of the crew from one of our largest adventures, Skullduggery Island, standing proudly on deck. Pretty adventure-y if you ask me!
On day 9, there was nothing else I could bring myself to draw for “forest” other than the Elf Queen and the woodland creatures surrounding the magic orb inside their shady habitation. This one was very fun to draw, as was the next one.
Day 10’s prompt was “berry.” I think everyone who participated in this challenge drew something Zomberry-related and I’m no exception. I wanted to depict a feeling that was both equally spooky and amusing, so I drew DJ Saturday Nite partying it up with a number of blueberry zombies in the karaoke bar.
It took me a little while to come to a decision for what I was going to do for day 11. The theme was “bubble” and I eventually came up with Violet Beauregarde blowing a bubble with the chewing gum Mr. Wonka warned her not to taste. Tsk tsk…
When I saw that day 12 was “sneak,” I immediately thought a scene from the classic Spy Island would be perfect. Here you see a secret agent escaping the B.A.D. guys’ captivity at the docks.
For day 13’s “night” prompt, I had originally wanted to do a piece featuring a scene from Night Watch, but instead went with two of the forty thieves burglarizing the bazaar from Arabian Nights, and I’m not mad about it.
Day 14 was a lot of fun! What I did was combine the two Poptropica space-related islands, Lunar Colony and Astro Knights (which is one of my favorites). I drew Dr. Salerno accomplishing her long devoted mission of discovering alien life on the moon by depicting her greeting a couple of the Pewter Moon aliens.
On day 15, I couldn’t not draw this trio of some of Poptropica’s most popular villains. I mean, come on. The only villain possibly more iconic than these three is Dr. Hare.
At first, I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to draw for “beach” on day 16, but I decided to show poor unfortunate Greg Heffley standing with his empty ice cream cone at the (wimpy) boardwalk. Just his luck!
My immediate thought for day 17‘s theme “machine” was to depict something from Steamworks Island. I wanted to be a little more outside the box and stretch the theme just a little bit, though. What I came up with was Shrink Ray’s CJ meeting her future self and being rewarded the medallion for Time Tangled Island. I mean, hey, she had to use a time machine to get there, right? And check out her little robot concierge in the background!
There were so many possibilities for “pet” that I was unsure what to choose. After brainstorming through many ideas, I wound up choosing quite possibly Poptropica’s most adorable little derpy companion… the Narf! And a whole bunch of them too! RIP medallion kid.
“Ship” was the prompt for day 19 and there were so many considerations! (This happens a lot, huh? Lol) Yet again, I went with a pair of characters you don’t see get very much attention in the community, and that was Beatrice and Hazel from Crisis Caverns. I can see these two ladies being a cute couple.
For day 20, I rendered up a piece of the Chthonian scaring away the mole people. I was actually quite puzzled on what I wanted to draw for this one, but I’m proud of what I chose.
I definitely knew that I wanted to take inspiration from the amazing Escape From Pelican Rock when I saw that the prompt for day 21 was “prison.” Here you see Big Tuna being provoked by Flashy Fosbury as he’s being dragged away by one of Pelican Rock’s security guards.
What better island represents the theme “wild” than Wild West? Little Miss Annie Oakley is definitely unleashing her wild side as she shows off her skills in a shooting contest. The others are quite impressed.
Day 23 was one of my favorite days of the Poptober challenge. I drew Annie and Jack in their clubhouse reading a book about old Japan for the theme “story.”
I had a lot of fun with day 24 as well! I wanted to create something super fun and exciting for the theme “music,” so I decided to draw up a couple characters from Reality TV Island rocking out on stage.
The prompt for day 25 was “past,” and I’m sure you could imagine how many different scenarios from Poptropica would work perfectly for this theme. I wanted to focus on an island (or a mini game, rather) I hadn’t highlighted before. Here you have a greeting scene from D.C. Diner, ca. 1893!
Day 26 was the total opposite of past. The theme was “future,” and below, in a dystopian time coming, Poptropicans are servants to the superior reigning robots.
“Storm” was the theme given for day 27 and my mind went straight to Super Villain Island. I drew Crusher — one of the inmates being held at Erewhon Prison — looking disturbed by the thunder and lightning outside his cell window.
Day 28‘s theme was “costume,” which was perfect considering it was so close to Halloween. Take a look at this spooktacular costume party scene taken from the classic Haunted House special! I really like how this one turned out.
For the “hero” prompt on day 29, I drew a cutscene that used to annoy me so much when I was a kid — Ned Noodlehead taking credit for “saving the day” after our Poptropicans did all the work. That darn Ned!
As Poptober began wrapping up on day 30, I was pretty worn out but determined to finish! The theme was computer, so I illustrated a tired employee, in front of his screen, working for Poptropica Worldwide Headquarters who looks pretty much like I felt at this point. Haha!
And finally, day 31 — ghost. Another perfect theme for Poptober and I’m actually very fond of how this one turned out. I finished off the month with a gloomy picture of Count Bram mourning the loss of his dearly beloved Annabelle as her ghost sits beside him.
Wowie, that was a lot! Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed doing this challenge. There were times I would lose motivation and fall behind, and I would get pretty bummed about it. In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t be so hard on myself, though, since it’s all in good fun. I’m just glad I have a ton of Poptropica art in my portfolio now. You can view more of my Poptropica-related work (and more) on my DeviantArt page.
Thank you all for reading. I’ll talk to you guys in the next one. Take care, stay safe, and pop on!
Hey Poptropicans—this is a guest post by Incredible Joker, who is piloting a new series here on the PHB. Got a Poptropica question? Ask the Joker!
Ice cubes! Now that I have gotten your attention with something as cool as I am, let me start explaining what this is all about…
Hello there, I am Incredible Joker and I will be trying out a new old idea. Back in the day, the PHB published a Poptropica fan magazine known as POPCORN or formerly The Poptropican’s 911 (you can read the archives here!). One of the segments in the earlier issues was “Ask PHB,” where the PHB team would answer your Poptropica-related questions.
And now, I’d like to bring that back—with a new flavor. As the PHB team is busy creating other amazing things on this blog, I have taken it into my own hands, or whatever it is we Poptropicans have, to host a Q&A segment here on the PHB. It’s called “Ask the Joker.”
This is where I invite all of you, dear readers, to send in your questions, anything at all — as long as it’s related to Poptropica! It can be about the game or the fandom surrounding it—from island help to glitches to crafting a fashionable seasonal outfit to fan-made art, stories, and so much more—I will try and answer what I can, helpfully and humorously (after all, you are asking a joker!). 😜
As this is just the pilot, we are still working out the structure of these Q&As, like how often it will be and how many questions we will answer in each post. It does depend on how popular this gets (or how little 😅)—so go ahead and share a question (or two or three) with me before you forget what popped to mind!
How can you send in your questions to Ask the Joker?
That’s a great question! You can use the following methods:
📧 Send an email to justaskthejoker (at) gmail (dot) com. This way, you’ll get to keep your questions a surprise when they get answered on the blog.
💬 Comment on the latest Ask the Joker post. Your questions will be publicly visible before they appear in a Q&A post, but this allows others to interact with your question if they so choose. If you don’t have an email address, you can enter a fake one in the email field when you post your comment.
I look forward to receiving and answering your questions in the next Ask the Joker! And for anyone still trying to get some inspiration for their questions, how about checking out the old PHB fan magazines?
Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Incredible Joker. If you’ve got a burning Poptropica question or two, Ask the Joker for a fresh perspective!
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our page on how to Write for the PHB, and share blog posts on the PHC, our Discord server.
📰 If you have an idea for a PHB post, send it in! ✨
🦄 Ponytropica 🦄 