SDF:
There's a lot of folks on this Page. I went through all my old issues of SDF to try to find as many members of the Community as I could. Most of them didn't really have names. In front you'll see Arrowhead I (who was at the funeral earlier this issue). Off to his right, you'll see the Orphans of the Community, including Tommy Hawk as well as the kid who gave the Mystery Man the Baseball Bat in Bad Rapture Alpha. You might notice one kid is missing. We'll get back to that later. In the deep background on the right you'll see a couple of the refugees that Razorfish and Sally Mander (RIP) brought to the Community. On the left hand side are the Geek Couple from SDF 3 & 4. Perhaps most interesting is that you can see Walt & Sped, Frimpy, and Penny Platypus (who, unfortunately, just missed seeing her cousins). Walt and the others weren't actually living in the Community. They lived on a small farm within the forest, a few miles away. They routinely delivered fresh fruits and vegetables to the Community. I feel like I hinted at this in an earlier issue, but I may have never gotten around to it.
The two ladies growing out of the large leaves in the mid-ground are Queen Shal-ra and her sister, Rakka the Witchdoctor. The last time we saw them was in SDF #6, although they actually debuted way back in SDF: Pulp Special. Rakka was a regular in the later issues of Monster King. Queen Shal-ra is the ruler of the Verdant Kingdom, which exists in a Pocket Dimension. She is also one of the two Locaii (the other being aliceislost) who represent the Life Force Energy that flows throughout reality. Because of this, the two women are highly coveted by Dr. Dendull, who believes that he can rewrite Reality itself if he absorbs them into himself. I know, I know, that's a lot of backstory for a character that's only appeared in a handful of issues. Try living in my brain for awhile. It's a mess in there.
Anyway, Priest Shiki, who is kneeling, was originally only supposed to be the Community's resident Priest/Shaman/Holy Man. His job was simply to spiritually purify people entering the Community to ensure they weren't demon possessed. If they were Demon Possessed, Shiki had the potential to exorcise the demon as well, although that didn't really come up much. That was really all I had on the guy. He was just another refugee fleeing the Ortex Corporation (seriously, Ortex would kill a guy who could exorcise demons without a second thought. In fact, if you were a massive corporation that was a really a front for demons from hell conquering the world, Holy Men would be your first targets of elimination). Anyway, I'm not sure if it was by accident, confusion, or design, but Boolah seemed to think that Priest Shiki was a part of the Verdant Kingdom. But then I got to thinking about it, and I was like, y'know, that makes sense. Queen Shal-ra's Magics maintained the Last Forest on Earth, so it would make sense that she would have an emissary hidden in the Community. So that's how Shiki became a servant of the Verdant Kingdom, which is why he is bowing.
Skull Mob:
Jeez, the Death Moth is having a bad day. I'll probably use that last panel for the Cover.
HFSAC:
This version of Tea Cup has been around for a few years now, and he's had a fair amount of screen time. We've seen his strength, his heart, his guts, his compassion, and his power. But I'm not sure if we've seen how clever Tea Cup is before now. With the Clown being the flagship of the TORCverse, there's that compulsion to have him figure out the path to victory all the time (ever notice how the more popular Wolverine got, the more likely he was to be clever and figure out the answer to riddles and whatnot? Wasn't Wolverine just a Slashy-Claw Berzerker Guy?). Actually, I've never really portrayed the Clown as being overly clever. He's more the Smashy-Smash Type. More often than not, it's Pengy Penguin who figures things out. Still, I like this scene, as it not only shows Tea Cup using his head to come up with the solution, but it also shows how Tea Cup and the Clown tend to operate on the same wavelength, as the Clown immediately knows Tea Cup's solution without the Big Red Robot having to explain it.
Also, I like the Colors on the Bottom Panel.
No comments:
Post a Comment