Brilliant use of cross-out.

Much thanks for your kind words, Nick! You’ve got an easy to read style matching quite well with Andy’s words. 2 Kudos, brother!

CREATOR COMMENTARY Week Four

A: Here we go again…

N: Hurling our thoughts into the void and seeing what comes back.

A: First, I want to note that Sharpe’s Potato Chips got a mention on The Potato Chip Resource page of Spudsy.com. This tickles me immensely. Now I find myself wanting to do Sharpe’s Potato Chip merchandise…I wonder how much it would cost to create customized bags of chips…

N: Yes! We finally hit the big time, just like you said, Andrew! I’m gonna go buy me an Escalade.

A: Getting to this week’s actual installment–I’m really proud of this one. It’s got two of my favourite comedy bits of the whole opening episode in it: the “Reasons Not To Feel Sorry for These Guys” captions and the Kid Who Gets It. The latter’s been part of the story since very early on; the former was a last minute addition, written after the artwork was completed.
Canadian television creator (writer/director/actor/producer) Ken Finkleman is an idol of mine–even when I’m not enthused over a particular direction he’s chosen to go with in his latest project, I’m always impressed with the way he sticks to his guns and does what he wants to, rather than what others want him to. Anyway, I recall reading an interview with him a few years back, where he was talking about a plane crash, and commenting on the way the people on-board the plane were being presented as saints by the media, when there were probably people who were glad they were dead. Someone on the plane probably beat their spouse, or something, and someone was going, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead.”
When I originally wrote this bit, with no text, I envisioned the panels as being quite a bit smaller–actually, I was thinking of all six panels going onto one tier, they were just going to be very quick “blips”. When I saw how you’d chosen to execute the sequence (if you’ll pardon the phrasing), I decided we were running the risk of making our good guys look worse than the bad guys. Where six small panels of people getting shot could be skimmed over, become an abstract concept that readers wouldn’t hook into emotionally, by presenting the deaths in the scale and detail you did, I thought we needed to do something to, uh, lighten up the murders.
And then, of course, there was the point where I started going, well, what would be funny here (other than another in a line of cheap shots at Celine Dion)? And, I don’t know why, but the “He was a good guy, you can feel a little sorry for him” bit still tickles me, even though it’s kind of awful, when you think about it. Of course, thinking about stuff isn’t really an issue for me…

N: As I was drawing this I was really starting to feel sorry for those faceless O’Mega soldiers. Especially seeing as how most of them get it in the back of the head. The joke you added on was brilliant. Another awesome benefit of having Tiina doing the lettering is that it gives you the ability to change things last minute. And when I first read the script, I was extremely excited to draw this scene, as it feels like there’s tons of build-up to Val in the air, ready to rain hell on those below. But when I actually got to drawing the thing, I found myself thinking: “How the hell do you draw six different people getting shot in the head and keep it original and interesting?” And then on the next page, the Mayor himself gets it in the head. Ah well. I think it worked out pretty good.

A: Agreed.
Next up, we’ve got Val’s “Fact Sheet.” Pretty explanatory, I reckon. The thing that’s catching my eye now is the difference between the stark black in Val’s headband and the greyer black of the infofeed text box. I suspect Tiina did this because the stark black would’ve overwhelmed the text onscreen, but I’m actually going to have to talk to her about it to see. Originally, she had a dark pink, almost red border around the text box–I asked for that to be removed believing that the border of the panel would bleed into the text box, but instead the box seems to be “floating” above the image plane. The more I look at it, the more distracting it becomes…

N: Never noticed that until now. I don’t think it’s bad.

A: It’s the little things that eat at me…
And then, just in case the readers didn’t catch it, we come to our thematic statement. At first I just thought having the kid spout off this ridiculously long, perceptive statement re: the H-Men’s intents was just a funny bit (and I still think it’s funny), but looking at it now, I can see the potential for insult to the readership: “Even a kid understands what we’re getting at. Are you dumber than a dumb kid?” Talk about biting the hand that feeds you…
Of course, that assumes that someone actually didn’t get what we were going for, which I have a hard time believing. Especially when it comes to the fabulously beautiful and intelligent people that comprise the H-Men’s loyal readership base…

N: Beautiful, sexy people. I had fun drawing the kid. And his mom. And the extras in the background. Character design is quickly becoming my favorite part of the whole process and this comic requires tons of it.

A: Yeah. Too bad the average character has a life expectancy of about two and a half panels…

N: I have so many shots with crowds throughout this comic and I keep trying different methods of drawing the crowd without drawing the crowd, if you get what I’m saying. I’m trying out different tricks to imply a large group of people without actually drawing a large group of people.

A: I try and avoid putting more effort into stuff than I have to, too.
I don’t really have a whole lot more to say on the rest of this installment. You’ve got another brutal murder tied to a bit of a gag with the crossed-out identifier, you’ve got the mostly irrelevant Maximanzinine/Minimazinine joke ad…I think I originally had that in the panels of the mayor getting shot in the head, but moved it down at some point because it wasn’t going to work, space-wise (man, that grey-black on the infofeed’s really starting to distract me, now…).
I love the way you executed the last panel. There’s something faintly amusing about having a wake-up call word balloon right next to a guy who’s lying down…

N: Heeeey. That worked out great! I remember the script originally calling for the Mayor’s body showing up in the previous panel, as a reflection in the rifle scope. But I couldn’t do it so I settled on a shot of a satisfied Val, and instead of just doing another full face shot of Nick, I put the dead body lying under it, hoping it would add weight to his words, make him look more intense. Worked out nice.

A: Bit of a short commentary on my end this week–sorry folks, but I’m finally getting into the swing of writing THE HOLIDAY MEN, Episode Three: “A Town Called Beta”, and that’s gotta take priority over the creator tracks, I think. Nick, any closing thoughts?

N: Can’t wait to read the next script, Andrew. And I can’t wait for the next strip to be released. Lots of Bunny action. Oh and I started up an art blog if anyone would like to see some more of my work or get even more creator insight and sneak peeks. It’s at nicksoup.blogspot.com. Well… I guess I should go finish up page 12. My four week buffer took less time to disappear than that rash on my–

A: Oh, come ON! How many times do I have to say I’m sorry about that before you let it go? Sheesh!
Bye, folks. See you in a couple days for “There’s Something in The Air (and It’s Heavily Armed)”!