Way to throw a flag there, Captain.
More below!
Bobservations
Happy Father’s Day
I swear, Max and I didn’t actually plan for this page to be posted on Father’s Day. That’s just how it worked out. Technically, of course, this is a Monday update. But because of time zones it’ll be going up at 9PM Sunday night here in Los Angeles, so Father’s Day it is. And somebody’s not getting a #1 DAD coffee mug from which to swill their Jack this year.
Since this particular comic is a father-son collaboration, it’s worth at least mentioning the day, despite the current page giving it an unintentionally dark element. My own Father’s Day was slightly subverted this year by it happening to fall on my wife’s birthday, so that of course took precedence. Both boys did send me nice messages, but John lives and works in Seattle, and Max was tending to assignments while getting this page done. So my Father’s Day gift was just knowing that both boys are grown, doing just fine on their own, and wishing me well. And man, when you’re a dad, that’s always the goal you’re shooting for.
Of course Max and I communicate all the time anyway because of this comic. I may have mentioned that we’ve been using gChat to rough out the pages lately, a process which we’ll have to record sometime, because damn he’s good. He can see me in the monitor, and I can see his digital workspace. I say brilliant and insightful things like: “I was thinking something kinda tilty so the kid will look really tiny and frightened and the dad will look all scary and dominant” and he’ll jam out a rough for Panel 2 there. I wave my hands around acting like the police chief and he jams out Panel 3. I swear we can get through a page in 20 minutes. Looks like this:
He tidies it into something like this:
and about all I do is add the balloons and suggest that the gun be a Jimenez JA9 because it fits the situation (cheap, desperate) better. And the final page comes back looking like gangbusters up there.
John used to help me blow stuff up; now Max and I are doing a comic together.
Awesome. Happy Father’s Day to me.
— Bob out
So much blood already. I guess it’s already too late to prevent the murder.
A
and this post was written with the help of my cat, Bonchi, who was sure that it needs more empty lines and took care of that himself.
(Maybe it’s because I’m old(fashioned)… but to me, the revolver looks more brutal than the automatic. Sorry, I’m outspoken like this, even at the single time when I’m not several days late.)
Depends on how you think about it. I agree that revolvers look more intimidating, but if you think about it rationnaly they’ve only got six bullets. The automatic can have twice that. Sure, the revolver can generally use bigger rounds but that guy is drunk, and probably not a marksman. Higher caliber rounds are only scary if they hit, more rounds are scarier because that give him more chances to hit.
I know… If I must, I’d prefer an automatic for myself. but going by the looks… unless it’s a big one… well.
Oh, I love me a wheelgun. But without giving spoilers, we needed more bullets. 🙂
Bob, you got the wheelgun in the second series roughs.
I love how media always makes bipolar or schizophrenic (or bonus, both together!) sound inherently violent.
Well to be fair this dude has got some other issues as well, drugs and alcohol abuse probably weren’t kind on his psyche and refusing to take his treatment means he possibly doesn’t trust society as a whole, so maybe he’s got other problems preventing him from relating to others…
But yeah I see your point… not everybody is going to think about it.
But who knows? Maybe there is a plot twist, thought I don’t see one coming.
Yes. In fact, within our extended family we have people dealing with mild cases of both these issues. Treatable, but just having it on their record makes it difficult for them to even find work. The meds also have undesirable side effects which make it tempting not to take them. Feelings of isolation and resentment because of other people’s judgement and the trouble getting hired make things worse. They handle it, but it hurts.
And in the case of our character Hayes above, with alcohol and anger management issues on top of everything else… well. We’ve been having it easy, giving Countdown deliberately evil people to fight or innocents to rescue. But we felt it was important to do one where the situation is not so black-and-white. Sooner or later we were going to have to face the fact that many real-life hostage situations are more like this rather than, say, Die Hard. So we’re gritting our teeth and doing it now. We do at least think that we’ll at least be able to give it some unique 3MM flavor.
I already hope that Max-the-hero can disarm & incapacitate him without killing him, not only because John isn’t operating at full awareness, but also because of the kid.
And… by chance I know someone with a bipolar disorder. She is taking her meds, and painkillers against some other, more physical problem, and sometimes alcohol on top if the painkillers aren’t enough. Even without the alcohol and with the meds to keep the bipolar disorder in check, there were… rare times when she was… very unpredictable, to the point of being, can I say “involuntarily violent”? Not because she wanted to be violent (which is already too big a word), but because she cared less than a healthy human would. At other times (way more often) she was really brilliant with people, and this could be a real plus for hiring such a person and worth the difficulties. As long as potential mood swings are taken into account… ’nuff said.
In the case of John Warren Hayes, I’d assume that the alcohol alone could be bad enough, a lot of people outside of comics don’t need anything else to create a scenario like the one on this page…
You’re assuming I’m not speaking from personal experience. Again.
You don’t say he’s self-medicating. You don’t mention anything but the mental illness and in such a way that it’s being blamed for him being a murderous psychopath. I realize there’s limited space in a comic, but it’s the line we hear over and over.. schizoprhenics are killers. Bipolars are out of control. I was unmedicated for years, y’know who I hurt? Myself.
Here’s the thing – you chose the easy line. Instead of not specifying the reason, you portrayed is as blaming mental health issues that incredibly rarely cause the problems portrayed in your comic. That was your choice as the author.
That’s fine. If you want to portray mental health in such a manner and continue the misinformation, the hatred, and the fear, that’s your choice.
It’s also my choice to be fairly disgusted.
I won’t bother you with my presence again.
So, Letoa is about to renew her career of random property destruction. How long until Natanje is sorry he hired her?
I’m not so sure he hired her so much as she demanded employment.
There are many aspects of this that are difficult to fathom… for those who wish to sleep.
Seems you forgot to complete the cliche’. You forgot to give him a military and/or police background and a history of PTSD. You also forgot to make him clergy. Now-a-days, making the insane psychopath a catholic priest is the thing to do.
There must be a couple more tags you forgot to throw in here. After all, you have a truly realistic situation here. It is gut-wrenching, but not the sort of stupid indoctrination the media loves to inject.
I’d like to know why UD3 is interested in this. Could it be the dead/dying wife/mother made a ‘plea’? Does the son has a ‘link’ or familiar? It can’t have anything to do with our hero… yet… and LA has enough domestic squabbles of their own without Max and company needing to look to any other city… much less one 2800 miles away.
I’m thinking UD3 is interested in using the situation as bait. They’ll probably find a way to relay the info nationwide, maybe by the news. Then when “Countdown” show up to save the day they arrest him.
by the time it hit the news, the situation would be over.
I don’t care how fast any governmental agency wants it, there are certain wheels in any bureaucracy that simply do not turn faster than a certain speed.
My wife shares the birthday with yours, Bob! Obviously such things aren’t determinant, but if yours is anything like mine, a true gem!!
Yep, and Summer Solstice too. Longest day of the year!
*Especially* if you forgot the birthday.
I seem to remember some scientific research stating married men live longer than single men.
I also remember a commentator saying it only seems longer.
As some of the more seasoned fans of the comic pointed out a few strips back, people have alot of blood in them, and it all comes out when they get shot. Judging by the lack of a sizeable pool, the wife may still be alive, and in shock.
by total visible blood, I’d agree. But the blood splatter on the far wall tells me a bullet went thru her and took quite a bit of her to that wall.
But that’s the thing, the spatter on the wall doesn’t look like it came from a high velocity gunshot. It’s not fine enough, and it’s distributed too widely. From the look of it, I would say it was made by the cast-off of a melee weapon, but I can’t think of anything that would make drops that large, and not have more blood drip down the walls.
To be honest, it looks almost as if the blood was smeared on the walls in places. That’s the only thing I can think of.
Yeah there are some smeared splatter on the wall, given the trail of blood I think the wife was hit there, probably slided down the wall and then crawled to the front of the appartment.
Also interrestingly he barricaded himself in before he fought his wife (blood splatters on the fridge are consistent with the rest of the room). That could mean a lot…
What tipped him over the edge? One too many notes on the fridge.
It would be very interesting to observe someone who can only say the phrase ‘it can’t get any worse.’ or related, preferably from a nation away, but Interesting.
The problem with this comic is that the action is very intense, the story line fabulous, and the cliffhangers irritating so I read it in large clumps so I have less frustration with reaching the latest page at the time. Just finished the last episode and it was marvelous. Not sure where you are going, but I am definitely along for the ride.
We’ll consider that a compliment and we are glad to have you join us whenever you can drop in, Nealberk!
the problem?
Some people have little patience. Imagine what it must have been like dealing with them back in the days when novels were serialized in monthly magazines.
Can’t you guys work faster? 🙂 Seriously, that is jost a joking complaintn but then I binge watch TV shows all the time. The storyline is intriguing and the artwork is gorgeous. And i like your commentary notes. It lets us know more about the creative process. What more could a person really want?