BWARGH. Coloring this pic caused me too much pain. Here's the rundown: one day, I was in the mood to draw Eagle Satake(the eagle dressed as Uncle Sam). So I drew him right in the middle of a page. I really liked how he came out, so I decided that it was TOO GOOD for a sketchpage. I decided I would make a big group pic of Parodius characters. So a lot of crap happened, with finding references, deciding which character would go where, and the markers. Oh god the markers. Make the hurting end. Damn smudges.

So anyway, if you haven't heard of the Parodius series, it's basically what happens when Konami decides to get goofy. You end up floating through space, a disco, a giant bakery, super-deformed Japan, a chicken-infested speedway and more while classical music plays in the background and you blast the snot out of things with copious amounts of lasers. There's also several references to and Parodies of various other Konami games (especially Gradius), especially Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius. Unfortunately, none of them got released outside Japan except the first one(Which was released in Europe with the subtitle "Nonsense Fantasy"). Seeing as it's not exactly the most famous of series, I'm gonna describe the characters here for your learning pleasure.

PENTARO: The penguin in the jacket. Pentaro's been in the series since the the very beginning, and could be considered the main character. That tiny whale is one of his weapons; it zooms along the ground and destroys whatever's in his path.
TAKOSUKE: The little octopus. Takosuke has also been in the series since the very beginning, and his son(?) Takohiko is playable in Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius. His appearance also seems to change in every game.
UPA: A superpowerful baby from a goofy Famicom game called "Biomiracle! Boku tte Upa." He's got a wide shot that's pretty damn...uh, wide, and can also shoot homing missles.
MAMBO: A goofy-looking sunfish who can shoot some really big lasers. He also has a pink female counterpart named Samba.
SOITSU: One of four paperplane-riding stickmen who shoot craploads of lasers, duplicate themselves to increase their power, and use giant condoms for shields. I kid you not.
TWINBEE: A flying, fist-shooting robot of some kind who also has his own cutesy shooter series.

EAGLE SATAKE: A bald eagle dressed like Uncle Sam who's the second boss of the first game in the series, Parodius Da! (which apparently translates to "It's Parodius!) He's also cited as the reason the game never came to the USA. I dunno, I think the giant half-naked woman you have to fight might be behind that one.
GREAT SEXY BEE: A Twinbee lookalike with huge knockers who's the third boss of Jikkyou Oshaberi. She grabs her breasts and jiggles them at you while charging forward in an attempt to kill you. Yes, this series has a lot of sex jokes.
THE HOT LIPS: The third boss of Parodius Da; A gang of lips who shoot heat-seeking teeth and have "The Can Can" as their battle theme. Friggin' HILARIOUS.
POWER-UP PILLOW: More of a joke than a boss, this gelatinous-looking blue thing bombards you with giant, undodgeable streams of powerups. Appears as a boss in Gokujou Parodius, and several smaller ones appear in Jikkyou Oshaberi.
DANCING PANDA: A panda ballerina who's the first boss in both Gokujou and Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius. However, in her second appearance, she hid inside a giant disco ball, wore a much fancier dress and mainly sung deadly music notes at you.
PENGUINOPHSKY III: A pink pirate penguin who's the first boss in Parodius Da. He surrounds himself with smaller green penguins who shoot at you and has a giant bellybutton.
KAGUYA RABBIT PRINCESS: The boss of the moon stage in Gokujou who assails you with dancing neon rabbits. When you defeat her, she turns out to be a wooden prop whose voice was provided by two penguins with a microphone and loudspeakers who run away when the prop falls over.

All in all, this series is friggin' crazy and should be played the moment you get a chance. *Thumbs up*

EDIT: Argh what the hell I set "parodius" as the only keyword for this, and yet it DOESN'T SHOW UP WHEN I DO AN IMAGE SEARCH FOR PARODIUS. WHY MUST THIS PICTURE CONSTANTLY TORMENT ME?!