HFSAC 23-14

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #23/ Bad Rapture Chapter 2.  Page 14.

One of the things I like about working with a partner is that occasionally you get an interesting challenge thrown at you.  Today's page, for example, is a 10 panel page, which, in general, is not something I've done in awhile.  Typically, I don't usually go over 9 panels on a page, and a 9 panel page is typically reserved for a page involving a lot of dialogue and close ups of people's faces.  This page on the other hand, is a full on action sequence.  And it turned out to be a lot of fun, so it was cool that I got the opportunity to try it.

Other than that, the line "Nice and Smooth" is a reference to King Mob from Grant Morrison's "Invisibles" (Ha!  Betcha thought I wouldn't remember, did ya, Boolah?), while "Put On Your Pants, It's Time to Dance!" is, in fact, one of my more common catch phrases, which I stole from an episode of "The Amazing Race" of all places.

HFSAC 23-13

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #23/ Bad Rapture Chapter 2.  Page 13.

And then things start to go really wrong.

HFSAC 23-12

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #23/ Bad Rapture Chapter 2.  Page 12.

First off, it was Boolah's idea to give PlatOmega missiles, and it was a good one.  Gives the character a wider array of offensive options.

Second off, I screwed up Panel 4.  PlatO should be facing to the Right so it looks like the Missiles are traveling towards the Vertionce.  Instead it looks like he's inexplicably taking a shot at Cactus Joe.  If I magically could, I would spin the positioning of the characters in Panel 4 and 5.  Bad storytelling on my part.  Sorry.

HFSAC 23-11

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #23/ Bad Rapture Chapter 2.  Page 11.

Welp, we've officially checked in with all of our "Teams" back on Earth, so it's time to get back to the Moon and check back in with the Anti-Vertionce Squad.  It's uncommon for me to break panel barriers and let the image bleed all the way out, but I feel like it works here.  I really like the image at the bottom.  It's very COMIX.

HFSAC 23-10

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #23/ Bad Rapture Chapter 2.  Page 10.

Let's break this one down panel by panel:

Panel 1:  In SDF #8 we revealed that the person currently masquerading as El Exclamation Point! is, in fact, former HFSAC member Agent D (Darlene Munroe).  We also hinted that she had some Armor stashed somewhere.  We've also repeatedly mentioned that it is common knowledge that El Exclamation Point! is Dead, so this has led to a little confusion for poor Death Moth.  Boolah came up for the idea for the EEP! armor (cool idea, given Darlene Munroe's penchant for creating cool technological wonders), and he also had an Armor Design, but because I'm a putz I lost it somewhere in the piles and piles of paper in my house.  My design on the armor is loosely based on my memories of Boolah's design, mixed with my own sensibilities.  Other than that, in Boolah's thumbnails he wrote "Liefeldish" next to EEP!  Not sure if I Liefelded it up enough or not.

Panel 2-3:  Because this is technically an issue of HFSAC, I wanted to try to shoehorn all of the Fudgeheads into the Issue for at least a Panel or two.  Electric Cherry got a cameo on the previous page, while Los Super Hip Bros, Eyemo, Eyemi, and @byss get cameos on this page.  Of course, the Hip Bros and the Eyes have a full compliment of Element Powers (Fire, Ice/Water, Earth, Air), which they get to show off, while @byss, as usual, is content to simply crack Angelic Skulls.

Panel 4 & 6:  This is the Forcefield that has been erected around The Community's Medical Tent.  It is the absolute last line of defense against the invading Angels.  The Forcefield Team consists of Tei Harlequin, Pengy Penguin, Priest Shiki, and the good Angel Scout. 

Panel 5:  Bad Rapture as a whole is essentially a story about Octopus Jones and Cheryl.  But this particular chapter is about HFSAC vs. the Vertionce, so this is, somewhat ironically, the only appearance of OJ and Cheryl in this particular comic.  Note that Octopus Jones is not "In Costume" and has reverted to his normal Jonar Lloz form.

HFSAC 23-9

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #23/ Bad Rapture Chapter 2.  Page 9.

So, when me n' Boolah sat down to Plot Out this Issue of HFSAC, I figured we needed to check in on the Earth Battle for a page or two.  In case you've gotten lost (easy enough to do), the fight with the Vertionce is currently being waged on two fronts:  The Heavy Hitters are on the Moon trying to take out the Vertionce himself, while just about everyone else is down on the Last Forest on Earth trying to stop his Army of Evil Angels that look like Robots for some reason even I don't fully understand and why do I even try to make each one look different, seriously?  So, when I get the Script in, Boolah wrote something like, "Grand Melee, think Frank Quitely." and he included all of the characters and dialogue he wanted crammed onto the page.  Awhile later, Boolah sent in the thumbnails for the book.  Now, I love the Layouts Boolah's been sending me.  For the most part I've been sticking to them fairly closely and they look really good.  But there was something different about this page.

The big panel on this page was BLANK.

So I had a mild heart attack and pulled my newly grown hair out, before I came to realize that this page was one of those challenges I relish.  One of the cool things about working with someone else is that every so often they're gonna throw something at you that you don't think you could possibly pull off, and then you have no choice but to rise to the challenge.  And the end result is a pretty darn cool page like this.

So, not only did I get all of the characters on the page Boolah wanted, I also managed to cram in a few Angels, Dust (the chick in blue with the skull face), and virtually all of the dialogue (that part was the hardest, I cut one line of dialogue for space reasons, there's an extra Doom Eagle line where he says, "This is Unreal!"  Sorry.)

Anyway, instead of approaching the page like Frank Quitely (which would have involved an extreme long shot with characters that were drawn tiny yet with inexplicably intricate detail, all in a perfect simulacrum of motion), I decided to do the page Kirby style, where everything is a mad jumble, yet almost perfectly symmetrical, with varying fields of vision.

Anyway, anyway, I'm very pleased with today's page.

Took forever to finish, though.

HFSAC 23-8

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #23/ Bad Rapture Chapter 2.  Page 8.

Woo.  That's a BIIIIIG Fist.  So, of my many weaknesses, Perspective has always been one of my biggest.  That's somewhat problematic, because if I am working in a "Kirby Style" on this book, then making Excessive and Exaggerated Use of Perspective is a Central Key to the Kirby style (admittedly, having a strong grasp of perspective is key to Art in general, but that's never stopped me before).  So I decided to go for some rather extreme, over-the-top Perspectiving on this page, with the Fist Exploding Out of the Panel, hopefully drawing the Reader's Eye inexorably into the Impact on the Page.  I admit, I overdid it a bit, but it's still a nice Experiment. 

Another Experiment, which I've been using a Lot in this issue so far, is the "Impact Starburst", another Kirby Creation.  The Impact Starburst is that explosion of light that occurs in a Kirby style comic when one character punches another really hard.  I'm still working on getting the logistics right, but I like the technique, and in this case it highlights the Chupacabra's small, disappearing body as he rockets off the surface of the Moon.

(Side Note:  If there are any Chupacabra fans out there, don't worry, he's fine.  He's Unconscious and Floating Around in the Depths of Space right now, murmuring the word "goat" very quietly, but otherwise, he's fine.)

Other than that, I also intentionally went overboard with the Spot Blacks on the Chest of the Vertionce in the Lower Big Panel.  Kirby was never excessively concerned about "Proper" Lighting.  He always lit his comics for maximum impact, and Proper Lighting be damned!  I've never worried about proper lighting because... honestly I can never keep track of light sources.  But, again, because I'm working on my "Kirby Style", I decided to experiment with some Dynamic Lighting on this Panel.

So there you go.