Pokémon can evolve into scary realistic things when put into the hands of the right artists, and a cabal of creators including Meredith Gran of "Octopus Pie" and Aaron Diaz of "Dresden Codak" has unleashed a Tumblr account full of original creature entries imagining themselves as Water, Poison and Dark types with cartoonist-appropriate abilities.


The Pokémon self-portraits outline their evolutionary stages in the Portrait-Dex, originally brought to life by Steve Wolfhard, creator of webcomic "Cat Rackham." As for which them look like they would be the most useful, Graham Annable's fully-evolved Grunkle looks like a pretty effective brawler, and Diaz's Codak seems like it could take down a small army. Emily Carroll's Emlar, meanwhile, could be of some help, but you'll have to be familiar with "Dune" in order to get anywhere with it.

Lucy Knisley's Knizo contribution may be a gamble, as its most powerful ability involves pondering its opponent to death, though you may want to research further to see which types it fights against best. Catch 'em all on the Tumblr account or a few of ComicsAlliance's favorites below.