Not too long ago Zarbon told us about how Vegeta really only does his ass-rating gimmick for the cameras, so here he is in front of the cameras. Al’s gotten some quick action already since his debut, but where he got to top his brother he’s now experiencing the other end. He doesn’t seem to mind it.
The first Near Hentai Monthly Lady of 2026 is Nita from Brother Bear 2. I saw both of the Brother Bear movies back when they came out, but barely remember them. Looking into Nita, it seems most of her art is in her bear form, which I get, but I decided to go human with her for this pic. Specifically I decided to draw her with her aunts, two characters I don’t really remember but who I saw a clip of on YouTube. I think they’re really fun, and they’re voiced by Kathy Najimy (Peggy Hill) and Wendie Malick (Eva Clawthorne) respectively, which I think is fun.
With this post, NHML nominations for the month of February are now open. For those who don’t know, I’ll run down the rules real quick. Nominations are limited to one per person. You can nominate any female character you want, provided I have not drawn her within the past calendar year (though I prefer characters I’ve never drawn, period). Previous NHML winners are not eligible for a second time. Nominees must also not be from the same franchise as this month’s winner, Brother Bear. If you violate any of those rules, I’ll let you know, and you can nominate someone else. I know it can be hard to keep track of these things. You may nominate by either commenting in the cBox, commenting on this post, or emailing me (Nearphotison2010@yahoo.com). I’ll compile a list of the nominees in the sidebar of this site, and then on February 1st I will use a randomizer to select the winning character who I will proceed to draw sometime that month. I look forward to seeing who you all nominate this time around!
Shannon Valentino is another design I was kinda itching to draw, sort of a similar situation to Corinne Crane and her debut pic. Unlike Corinne I have a little bit of an idea who Shannon is and what I might like to do with her eventually. I have a Bio page planned for her, though it may be a bit before you see it as I have a couple others I intend to do first. For now I wanted to see her design fleshed out in a finished pic, from a more flattering/interesting angle than I’d usually use for a bio page.
Here’s our second page of Tongue-Tied Birthday Boy, our new straight ongoing comic. Deku’s definitely catching onto something here, but the girls aren’t really giving him any time to think with a clear head.
So two years ago I introduced another annual holiday pin-up series for New Year’s, in which a randomly-selected Studio resident would have the new year painted on their ass. Noelle from Black Clover got the first one, but then I just kind of forgot about it for 2025. I want to try again, though, so I did a randomizer for 2026 and Terry McGinnis from Batman Beyond got the spot. I believe in his canon timeline Terry would turn three in late 2026, but here in the Studio he’s on our time.
The winning One-Shot comic that’ll close out 2025 featured Dandadan, which I think is quite appropriate. Dandadan was a newer anime that I really took to, but I’ve only done a handful of pics with it so far (aside from one side project comic). This comic brings in most of the main cast that I hadn’t drawn yet, with a focus on Okarun and Jiji. The script made no mention of Turbo Granny, but I threw her in purely of my own volition.
For a bit now we’ve had a little tradition around here, a way to look back at the past year’s art and spotlight some relevant characters. I run a few polls on SubscribeStar, while also running some numbers to come up with a few awards to hand out. First, we have the popular vote results:
And now we get to the stat-based awards. Each category here is based on appearances from the year, specifically the SubscribeStar posts. This means some of these winners may not make sense for non-Subscribers, as it’s based on content that may be months away from going public. Most of these awards are based purely on their number of appearances, but I’ll mention when that’s not the case. In the past we did awards for the most appearances in One-Shots or Asks, but I decided to drop those categories this year. Instead we just have a handful of winners.
This reward spotlights the characters (male and female) who returned after the longest absence. Charlotte’s comeback pic, which you get a preview of here, won’t be public for a while yet. She was a last-minute winner of the female half of this twofer reward. On the male side, both Mello and Near made return pics this year, with their last appearances being a mutual debut in a very old commission. Since Mello’s return Ask happened after Near’s, by default that gave him the edge for the longest gap return between them.
This one surprised me a bit, as I hadn’t realized how much I’d drawn Sero since his debut in the U.A. Wall series. Part of why he snuck up on me is one of his appearances being an anon-type situation, but both he and Al had four pics this year, tying. Only a bit of Al’s content has gone public currently, but it’s fun to see him win this award since his brother won it last year.
Seiko got a lot of love in the polls this year, too, and it’s not hard to see why. I’m quite fond of her, so even though I was slow to draw her initially it doesn’t shock me that I ended up using her a fair bit once she got into the Studio. I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty of Seiko in 2026 as well.
We had a tie in this category this year, and just barely. Goku was the winner of this award last year, and it’s not hard to see how he keeps coming ahead. Besides being popular in his own right, he’s one of a handful of characters I’ll default to for a top when one’s needed in Asks or the like, and he also had some appearances in different forms this year. Yuji tying with him is actually a bit of a miracle, as he doesn’t have the same advantages. He has appeared often as a partner for different folks in Asks, however, and he’s also had a lot of commission appearances this year, including in the Hot Yoga comic.
Speaking of ties, we had a bit of a shocker here with the ladies, too. Bulma had two ongoing comics that helped to bolster her numbers, while Kanamori’s comic wrapped and Butt Witch’s had very few updates. Still, we got a three-way tie here. Last year Kanamori was the Newcomer of the Year, but I mentioned then that she actually had the most appearances overall as well. With her taking the Newcomer spot, however, Butt Witch took this award last year, which lead to them doing a pic together. With that history, it’s a bit fun to see them both come out as winners this year, and alongside a woman they’ve both worked with in the past, too.
So Hange and Ilse never got to meet in the actual canon of Attack on Titan, which is sort of the basis for this Ask. Hange finds and studies Ilse’s journal, which has valuable information on the only recorded instance of a titan talking, so I think it’s natural to assume she’d seek Ilse out for more info as soon as she heard she was in the Studio. Hange may not have to deal with titans in the Studio ever, but I doubt her fascination would die any with the separation.
Lost in the Fright Zone is the next comic returning in my rotation schedule. I’m planning to do four pages of it before moving on, including this one. For now, we pick up right where we left off five years ago.
