Gin's Scars

[Klomonx]

I'm a bit confused on the detail of Gin's scars. How many does he have? 3? 4? 5? I ask because sometimes he's shown with 3, but others 4 - and don't bears' have 5 fingers?
Maybe Yoshi is just THAT bad at consistency, or maybe he's just being a little stylistic at some points, I mean sometimes extra scars would clutter a picture. But I'm curious, as even the realistic image of Gin doesn't give him five scars.
(Images from GB's Image Gallery)
Gin with more than 3 scars
Realistic Gin with 3 scars
Gingasite's Entry page...showing Gin with some weirdo scars? What?

[M-92 Mantis]

The first pic of yours is correct. Gin's fourth scar healed itself (or was just removed) probably because Yoshi liked how the three scars fit perfectly on his forehead. Even so, the style of the scars became very VERY weird later on through GNG and in GDW. The bear Gin fought had a paw bigger than his whole body, so when the scars started out, they were very big and reachd around his skull. As Yoshi got more consistent with them, he took out the third scar and made them smaller and smaller, so they looked less like a bear's scar and more like a scar from a dog's claws.

I've always prefered the first version of the scars, but Yoshi moved them to show more of Gin's face and give him a 'cooler' look with the scars at the center of his forehead. Either one would be correct, like when people recolor GDW Gin with his old GNG manga style with more brindle than white.

[Kit]

Yep, Gin's scars look more realistic when he first receives them, and there were 4 or 5 of them that were a more accurate, large size, and moving in slight zigzags to imply the messiness of the cuts. But of course Yoshi got sick of drawing them with so much detail or something and moved them down to the trademark "three symmetrical lines right down the center" within a few chapters.

Because that's how being directly sliced by a bear paw twice the size of your body while you're both in motion looks in real life!

[Kausza]

The same thing happened to John, Rocket, and his overall style, I guess--it's a shame that he trades realism for efficiency. I can understand it, but his earlier styles are so much better and vastly more interesting because of semi-realism effect that happens versus straight up cartoony.