Page 8: issues 9 (Marooned) and Halloween Special (Cluster One)

shastab24 on Sept. 13, 2012

I'm putting together a crossover project for next year to run through multiple comics and hopefully benefit the Hero Initiative. If you want to participate, e-mail me at karamesser@hotmail.com or PQ me on this site.

I've also started an IndieGoGo campaign to help me pay for artists for my projects. Please go to the campaign site and donate some money. I would appreciate it if you could give money. There are some fun perks involved. The site is here: http://igg.me/p/213480?a=408482

Before everything, I want to give an addendum to yesterday's special issue page: I forgot the tattoos on Chad. I showed the page to the bar's owner and that was what he mentioned. Chad has some nifty tattoos, and I can't believe I didn't at least indicate them.

Top page: By now, I'm sure people know exactly what I mean when I say this is a different type of story for this comic. It really could be seen as a horror story, which works well along with the special issue. And it needs the special issue while online, because it's a slow starter, so there is some incentive to keep reading if there's something below that's more immediate.

Bottom page: First things first–the image in Keith's mask is of the Outworlder, whose webcomic I'll list in the comments (since if I do a link down here, I lose all my text past my IndieGoGo link). I liked doing the panel transition between panels 1 and 2, though. I know it's similar to what I've done before, but this one works, I think, because it's actually shaped. Plus, it shows Keith doesn't have a “superhero” build, which I always want to get across when I make that part of a character. Sadly, I haven't done such a good job on Eiderdown, who is supposed to be a little thicker (more like the modelling world version of “full figured”, maybe a tad bigger, actually). Not every character should be rail-thin or rippling pecs. The only characters to fit the superhero build to their gender are the Swimmer (she's tall and thin), Astral (because his astral form is supposed to be an idealistic superhero) and Tempore (though he isn't a superhero). Sparkle does have a superhero build, but it doesn't conform to the femininity that she wishes to express. Meanwhile, Fractal constantly changes (and can be superheroic in build, but often isn't), Eiderdown is (as stated) more full-figured, Astral's physical form is feminine when he wants to present masculine, and the Runner has a short and more feminine form (he's supposed to have feminine hips, but that's been inconsistent from me–he is female-bodied). The Swimmer's masculinity can be seen in panel 2 here, though. It's something that I have wanted to indicate without being obvious, but she and Eiderdown are so obviously pre-operative. Eiderdown just wears modesty shorts and so can cover up better.
The mercenary is a villain I created with the intent of entering a contest that the short-lived TV show The Cape was running. Though I never watched the show (I still want to, but I need to find it now), I heard they were running a “create a villain” contest, so I came up with the Gunman. He's got a very 90s aesthetic, hence the huge amount of hair (since I was thinking of Shatterstar in that aesthetic). He's a fun villain, and my contribution to the murder mystery storyline for the 2012 Halloween Cameo Caper. He was never entered into that contest, because I had to register on the website to submit, and wasn't ready to get another website membership I probably wouldn't use.