UPDATE: The next page has been roughed and worded, but still needs to be inked and colored. As Max-The-Artist explains, this is “Superbowl Season” in the advertising industry, wherein all the pitches for awesome commercial concepts intended for Superbowl display are being created and pitched to clients. He’s currently busy helping put together a half-dozen or so. Not all of them will make it, but right now, each is as viable as the next.
Meantime (speaking of pitches) Bob has posted a writeup he did some years ago for a “Steampunk Transformers” concept. If you’re interested in reading it, click here. And the page will be coming!
The Ward of Protection being put to some impromptu use! That laptop’s had a rough night already.
And congrats to the winner of Max-The-Artist’s original “Bewitched” sketch! That person wishes to remain anonymous, but their prize is on the way!
As other webcomics have mentioned, please no political posts in the comments. That’s what FB, Reddit, and 4chan are for.
New Vote Incentive! (And a high-rez version available here! https://gum.co/DdFd )
And more below!
Bobservations
The Art of Submission
This page was another situation where we had to have our hero fighting with someone who was not, technically, a major threat. Additionally, this particular person is one whose eventual cooperation would be desirable as Max continues his investigation into Sophie’s past.
Fortunately, soldiers in general and members of Special Forces in particular are given training in hand-to-hand combat, including various forms of Aikido. Variations of this are also taught to law enforcement officers, along with training in keeping a calm, concerned, even friendly expression during the process, because in this age of ubiquitous cameraphones, somebody’s going to be recording it. Submission holds are used as “come-alongs” to remove protestors from areas of conflict, but if they are done right, they look for all the world like the LEO is simply helping an injured protester to safety. The protestor may feel like his arm’s about to be torn loose, and is screaming and struggling as much as possible, but the hold itself doesn’t look like much. And if the LEO maintains a calm, concerned expression, the public perception of the photographed scene is not “omg brutality” but: “haha look at that whiny troublemaker, what a wuss.”
Situations like this happen in war zones as well, and while soldiers prefer to keep a hostile populace at rifle-muzzle distance, sometimes non-combatants do have to be cleared from a scene, and there will almost always be photographers. So our hero – who has had such training – has quickly instituted a fun little variation on the Aikido-based move known (in some circles) as a “hammerlock.”
Not claiming to be any sort of expert here, but as mentioned in previous blogs, the artist’s younger brother took seven years of Kenpo, and it was the responsibility of this author to drive him to classes and occasionally participate. All us boys also had some training in close-quarter combat, most of which involved Krav Maga.
Kenpo was mainly a mixture of judo (throws and falls), karate (punches and kicks) and aikido (grips and holds.) I am generalizing, of course. But over the years, I came to agree with my younger son, who summed up the three styles thusly: “Judo hurts. Karate’s okay. And Aikido is fun.”
So for this page, just a polite hammerlock, using a convenient doorframe as a supplemental brace. Technically, our hero should be grinding the side of her face into the door, but in order to assist Max-The-Artist in getting the posing correct, I went out and shot some reference photos of the scene using my wife as a stand-in for Cricket. So naturally I was a little soft on the grind. I explained the scene to my wife beforehand, and I have to say that she did a great job of giving me the angry-anguished expression we were looking for as reference in the scene above. All just acting, of course.
I think.
— Bob out.
Honey? How come you changed all the locks?
That first haymaker kinda took all the fight out of her, least she can be sure she landed one incredible hit………………
Don’t blame her for lashing out, losing a real friend is never easy……
Funnily enough, we were holding on 33 posts on the strip discussing the importance of the Wiccan prime 33 for a long time.
Nice restraint on Max’s part, and you owe your wife another nice dinner for putting up with you.
Well, at least you didn’t have him grab her in the Standard Female Grab Area: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StandardFemaleGrabArea
Huh, the news said he was dead? I missed that. I thought, because the rescue medics (?) found him miraculously alive and all, if anything, Max would be known to be (miraculously) alive. Unless Cicerone pulled some strings real fast & strong.
When I worked for the state of Oregon, I was a direct caregiver in the mental health field. Over 8 years of service, and one of the things I learned while working for DHS was how to perform a PPI.
A PPI, or a protective physical intervention, was a last resort intervention used to prevent the client from hurting himself or herself, or to prevent them from hurting someone else. All interventions start with least intrusive, to most intrusive. Before a PPI is initiated, we have programs to help accommodate the client, and if that fails we attempt redirection. If that doesn’t work we try to talk the client down. If all else fails, and the client is trying to hurt anyone, then we intervene.
(It’s important to mention that physical intervention is NEVER used as a form of punishment. If nobody is at risk of being hurt, then a hold is never used.)
The PPI’s we learned ranged from belt restraints, arm restraints, two-person arm restraints, seated two-person arm restraints, and so on. Any PPI used on any client must first be approved by the board of administrators. If it ain’t in that clients plans, we don’t use it on them.
The restraint that Max is using here would never ever be used in the Stabilization and Crisis Unit. It’s too intrusive, and runs the risk of injury. Her face could get a scrape, and that’s more paperwork for injuries that would need to be tracked, pictures that would need to be taken, etc.
That aside, it looks like a good, temporary restraint. Not one that I would use, but seeing as Max doesn’t want to drop that laptop, it works in a pinch.
It’s also worth mentioning that Sophie’s friend here, I presume, isn’t mentally disabled or developmentally delayed in any way, so her fighting skills are likely to be much more adept than any of the clients I’ve ever had. (Skills, but in terms of raw strength…)
I figure that hold is the least violent one in Max repertuare. And as some one who does security, any move that makes your opponent feel pressure or is uncofrtable make sthe more agressive ones more willing to listen. If not, more pressure needs to be aplied.
And we were thought to communicate while doing it, asking the person to calm down and explain why I’m using force.
I’m guessing Sophie’s friend here was perhaps a former lover? Just making a guess! 😀
Could just be friendship, some people take loss harder than other. I did think that the pictures on Sophie’s laptop seemed to indicate that she was rather close to some of her friends but that doesn’t neccesarily mean something was happening… then again depending on what form of witchcraft they practice they might have been closer than normal friend even without being lovers.
I don’t think that’s the case but it’s a possibility.
It could also be that Ms. Rickett read more into the relationship (or, more likely, hoped for more) than Sophie.
“Brown eyes”? Really? Come on, Max.
Thrilled to see an update. I just discovered this comic last month, power-read through all of it, but was kind of disappointed when I saw there was almost a one-month gap after the last page. Thought it might have been discontinued, so glad to see that it’s still in production.
That’s the thing about a comic done by professionals. The upside is that the writing and visuals rock. The downside is that they are professionals, and thus have other obligations on occasion.
Maybe Bob can use the downtime to write another story (hint, hint).
It does indeed suck when you reach the end after a binge read and have to wait. Been a reader for a since start of 2013 and I can definitely say they are always worth the wait. As Prairie Son stated this the upside and downside of it being done by professionals. Upside being the story and art work is stunning, the downside is they have a business and life to run as well 🙂 One thing I know would be awesome is if they could pitch the comics idea to a network to be produced as its a pretty unique superhero concept.
That would be awesome but pitch it as animated because between you and me Hollywood has a “unique” view of anything not produced internally.
They tend to personalize anything they get their claws into and make a real mess of it with their “interpretations”.
For example The Punisher, leather god of Denver, or the attempt at Evangellion the live action movie where the director and writer had zero clue about the story or casting – don’t look it up since it was worse than Avatar: The last air bender.
True for the most part I guess. Though I am looking forward to Ghost in the Shell live version, especially as it seems some of it (like the fight with the guy in the trailer taken directly from the anime) has come through ok. I am surprised they haven’t tried to do Akira but they would seriously ruin that in Hollywood. Having the Forwards do the animation or at least be on as overall say for an Adult rated (due to the gore elements) animated series on say Netflix or Amazon prime would be awesome. Not sure what the leather god of Denver is though? I haven’t ever seen any of the punisher film material as from a comic perspective I found him to be rather clichéd and dull but that’s just me.