Monday, March 19, 2012

Author's Reflections- Comic #90








#90

I realized I was close to strip 100 so I decided to bring this story to a close so I could do something big for it. I thought it would be funny that the leaders couldn’t really come up with any ideas to resolve their current dilemma, but Hot Shot was insightful enough to remember the little blue holes sent all over whenever the main one exploded. The little blue holes being scattered wasn’t I noticed at this point and utilized, it was a conscious decision from the very first explosion. At that time I thought I’d keep the holes scattered and have new Knockoffs come and go from the strip. In the end I thought keeping just one hole open would serve the same purpose so I scrapped that idea. The last exchange between Rodimus and Optimus would certainly have sounded better as “Who died and made you leader?” “YOU did.”, but really Optimus never died in my strip so I added the ‘in this universe’ tagline and it hurt the punchline from my perspective.

Author's Reflections- Comic #89










#89

I wanted some sort of interaction between the Commentary Trio and the main characters of the strip asking why they never warn anyone about what they see the Decepticons doing. I’m glad I didn’t try to make a long drawn out conversation about it and kept it pretty brief as seen in the first few panels here. This is really where I started to take Optimus’ jerk persona to a new level. Optimus has never been one of my all time favorite characters so I have no problem not portraying him as a one-dimensional John Wayne-esque character, though I can’t say the same for many Transformers fans. Personally I happen to like Optimus plan!

Author's Reflections- Comic #88











#88

I could be very wrong, but I think every male at some point in their lives have been caught looking at something embarrassing…whether it be at work, home or elsewhere. I think I summed up my personal reaction when that has happened to me pretty nicely with Optimus here. Theres really nothing mindblowing about this strip and it didn’t do much to forward the storyline much beyond bringing Optimus back in to interact with the other characters, but things flowed pretty well from beginning to end, something that sadly doesn’t happen as often as I wish they would from a writing standpoint. I definitely still like the back and forth between Optimus and Hot Shot here.

Author's Reflections- Comic #87







#87

The main point of this short strip was to set up Hound and Cliffjumper filling in Rodimus Prime about the Knockoffs, but I didn’t want to waste a strip just straight up retelling what had recently happened so I decided I’d just write a strip saying they’d do it offscreen. I still think its funny that the characters were really only concerned about being annoyed rather than anything else that could happen.

Author's Reflections- Comic #86










#86

Hound and Cliffjumper fighting is probably one of my favorite parts of this entire storyline. The words they were shouting to each other that aren’t in word bubbles weren’t in the script, I just flew by the cuff so to speak. At this point Rodimus/ Hot Rod still worshipped the ground Optimus walked on. It seems like even the most iconic figureheads still have appreciation of Jenna Jameson…

Author's Reflections- Comic #85









#85

Hound, Cliffjumper and Hot Shot needed more screen time in this adventure so I added them in again. I actually really like this strip, especially the trio laughing about doing something beyond their typical job for moral gain rather than a reward. It doesn’t really fit Hound’s personality, but I still think its pretty funny. Hot Shot blaming Hound and Cliffjumper for ‘making him be bad’ is another nod to Futurama. The line isn’t exactly the same as the one spoken by Bender but it has the same intent.

Author's Reflections- Comics #82-84

#82







#83









#84












#82-84
The background in this strip turned out better than it had in the past (in my opinion anyway). The Mortal Kombat screenshot there is one I had taken a few weeks prior after I had made a custom character based on the Transformers character Bludgeon (on the left of the screen). I liked that the Champions’ annoyance level was what was messing up Teletraan’s systems. It set up the next few strips pretty well. As soon as I decided on a definitive characterization for the Champions, their names came surprisingly easy. Azlan is obviously from the Narnia stories, and Toro is a strong sounding name connected to bullfighting. Crimson Wing and Packhunter are my own brainchild, and admittedly two of my favorite names I’ve come up with for new characters. I haven’t given them much character development outside of their Biography cards so they really come off as being too similar in the strip. Hopefully that’s something I can fix at some point. I was really excited when I came up with the idea of Optimus turning Hot Rod into Rodimus Prime just to get out of dealing with the Champions.