Muscle Building Pencil Comics

About

Muscle Building Pencil Comics or Glow-Up Pencil Comics refers to a viral TikTok trend that involves creating short comics in which characters from various franchises go to the gym and build muscle after getting rejected by their love interest. The comics usually consist of several pencil sketches and are often set to the phonk song "RAVE" by Dxrk ダーク.

Origin

Starting in late January 2022, TikToker and artist @daikiog (Daiki OG) started posting artworks of his followers' profile pictures, creating extremely muscular versions of the characters in the pictures done in pencil. On January 29th, @daikiog posted^[1] the first such video, a drawing of user ukrainian_bimba3's profile picture, which gained over 414,200 views and 53,400 likes in four months. On January 30th, @daikiog uploaded^[2] a drawing of defylt_gd's profile picture (Freddy Fazbear) that gained over 184,600 views and 25,400 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, center). On March 23rd, @daikiog^[3] posted an artwork that gained over 786,300 views and 90,000 likes in two months (shown below, right).

On March 24th, 2022, TikToker^[4] @nebuio posted a video that showed a drawing of a very muscular version of a crewmate from Among Us. The video gained over 2.9 million views and 427,000 likes in two months (shown below, right), posting two more artworks based on the same premise on April 1st and 2nd.^[5][6]

The videos inspired other users to make fanart of muscular Among Us crewmates, with several examples going viral. For example, on April 8th, TikTok^[7] user glixxy_art posted a fanart of a muscular crewmate that received over 1 million views and 214,000 likes in one month (shown below, center).

The format did not achieve viral spread on TikTok^[8] until April 9th, 2022, when @daikog posted a pencil sketch of a muscular version of user @klaustina's profile picture, with the video, set to the phonk song "RAVE" by Dxrk ダーク, gaining over 2.2 million views and 283,000 likes (shown below, right).

Spread

On April 10th, 2022, @nebuio posted^[9] the most an Among Us version set to "RAVE," with the post gaining over 3 million views and 560,000 likes in one month (shown below, left). On April 11th, @nebuio shared^[10] a Shrek version of the meme, with the post gaining over 7.6 million views and 1.9 million likes (shown below, center left).

Also on April 11th, TikTok^[11][12] user @artbybamuel posted a Muppets and a Sesame Street versions of the meme that gained a combined 2 million views in one month (shown below, center-right and right).

Starting in mid-April 2022, the trend achieved a viral presence on TikTok. For example, on April 12th, 2022, TikTok^[13] user @adrian.flores04 posted a Mickey Mouse version that gained over 4.8 million views in one month (shown below, left). On April 16th, TikTok^[14] user @damiansvisualarts posted a The Simspons version that accumulated over 9 million views (shown below, center). A Breaking Bad version by @sillynormalguy garnered^[15] over 4.9 million views and was widely circulated online in the following days (shown below, right).

The format saw major popularity on TikTok in late April 2022, with multiple versions, most often set to "RAVE" by Dxrk ダーク, going viral and being reposted on other social media.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References