“Striking Sparks” — Page Sixty-Three
Detective Letoa arrives in a suitably bad-ass fashion! I think it’s safe to say that the commandeered motorcycle isn’t going to be returned intact. For that matter, neither is our hero.
Oh, and let me be the first to confess that I myself have, in the past, been a stern critic of people touching down in that “three-point landing” seen in Panel Two. I know full well it’s a lousy way to actually absorb an impact. Especially in heels. However, there can be no denying that it looks cool as hell, reads well even in silhouette, and nicely flaunts a woman’s figure if she has one, which Letoa does. So three-point landing it is.
Not that Chief Polacek is appreciating it at the moment. Poor guy. Not only does he have a raging building fire to deal with, but the sky keeps raining maniacs. And this one seems intent, for some damn reason, on arresting Max’s corpse!
More below!
Bobservations
Collaring Credit
I once worked on an animated series whose lead character was most notable for having a green mullet. It did fairly well. However, one of the producers on the show was infamous for trying to claim credit for almost everything on which they gave input. Most producers know that the title “Producer” means that giving input is all part of the job description, but this producer – possibly fairly inexperienced at the time – wanted shared credit on everything. I’m sure that no matter what field you’re in, you’ve experienced people like this.
I mention this only because lately, Max-The-Artist and I have been using videoconferencing to work out the details of upcoming pages. We sit in our respective offices and fire up the G-whatever — GChat or Google Hangout or whatever the cool kids are calling it these days — and try to pin down the best way to translate the script into images. This means that I get to see whatever Max is sketching on his Cintiq, and he sees a webcam image of me, or occasionally Shiva’s butt, cats being what they are. It may be debated which image he prefers.
However, in the case of this particular page, the ability to have video was particularly useful. Because it allowed me to exercise my own creative genius to the fullest. The video conference went something like this:
______________________
Max: So, did you have anything particular in mind for this page?
Me: Actually, yeah. I was thinking like one big panel with a couple of smaller insets where Letoa does her entrance. (I flip over the script and scribble on the back with a Sharpie and then hold up the result to the webcamera.) Kinda like this, y’know?
Max: (tired voice) Okay, yeah. I’ll see what I can do.
___________________________
That was, I swear, the sum total of the conference. And that scribble above is an actual scan of what I held up to the camera. Judging from the final page, you can clearly see that the quintessential aesthetic of the work was indisputably a result of my own efforts. I mean, Max helped polish it up a little, but let’s face it, this one’s all me.
Right? Right?
I think it’s time to update the credits.
— Bob out
And cut to strike gate control with our dynamic team wondering why Max is taking a sit down break.
Honestly I’m not sure why they have yet to bring max back yet, being able to see his “spirit”, as such they have been front and center watching his physical reactions and can clearly see that he has been sitting in that position for some time.
I can only assume that as does happen in comics that the last few panels have occurred almost simultaneously and that they are about to extract our hero.
That being said great work on this page, love the smoldering max and the the explosions in the back ground, My only question is on the seemingly strange trajectory of the bike as the fire chief and his associates positioning seem to indicate that the bike has done a 180 in mid air after dismount, landing behind them while they maintain the same positions with Leyota landing between them, otherwise the explosion should not be visable from this angle.
Justified concerns. The viewing angle is… a bit of an artistic indulgence. I’ve cheated Max’s profile towards the camera considerably, and lets just say a strong gust of wind handled the rest. Hey, it looks cool.
I sorta figured Letoa pushed off the bike in a way that allowed her to turn around as she dropped.
Max, I totally agree it looks awesome.
mental note: I do not want to ever get in a fist fight with Leota.
are you kidding? getting into ANY kind of fight with her (including just words) seems to be a bad idea.
Well, the egg’s going to be on her face when she realizes that she’s arresting a dead man.
Actually. it hit me awhile back that Max is totally immune from prosecution for anything he does through the strike gate. He has no pulse and I assume very little or no measurable brain activity while he’s ‘dead’.
You cannot legally hold a dead body responsible for anything in a legal sense- it is an object, not a person and the law has no zombie provisions in it. However, the law may be able to attach the blame for his actions to the _strike team_ (!), since they control the property in a very real sense, somewhat like a police dog is the property of the police and they answer for its’ actions if they control it badly.
This has some serious drawbacks for Max. If he is legally dead it puts him in an interesting position according to the law. His body is property, not an actual person, while he’s dead. The government could seize it. People could destroy it and it would be a property crime, not murder. The government has some legal rights to damage or even destroy any body they want. If they want to do an autopsy or cremate him, Max had better hope the gate team is paying attention or not arrested.
“Not my fault, I was dead at the time,” would certainly set an interesting precedent!
I believe the correct phrase is “I was spending a year dead for tax purposes.”
HHGTTG! Classic!
Actually, Max has a very active brain during these events. That’s why he needs an oxygen injection, which only lasts him three minutes. And if I’m not entirely mistaken, the legal definition of dead is irreversible cessation of brain function. So Max is not actually dead, legally or in any other objective way: he’s clearly acting volitionally (not to say volatilely 😛 ), so he’s responsible and accountable for those actions.
P.S.
What CaptEndo said.
Lots of people get declared dead who turn out not to be.
It’s pretty much a monthly/yearly phenomenon, and causes no end of problems. But in Max’s case it could happen daily!
Just occurred to me now- “Dead on Arrival” would be an awesome alternate title to this comic
All those other declared dead but later alive people, as far as anyone can tell, still had souls in their bodies – Max’s soul is scientifically verifiably, testably, provably, in a teleport cage on the other side of town. “Your honor, the court cannot imprison my client’s soul for a crime for which it has a solid alibi!” I don’t think there’s any real-life precedent that applies to Max’s case – this one’s going all the way to the Supreme Court for sure.
And the egg-on-face-worthy ‘You arrested a dead man.. and he got away’
rofl
Helluva entrance, and she’s ignoring the explosion like a true bad-ass.
When she went to college for her criminal justice degree, she took a few performing arts electives for ‘dramatic entrances’
Oh sure, blame the dead guy because he can’t defend himself. >:/ lool
…yes, sir, your motorcycle was totaled so ‘former’ detective Letoa could arrest a dead man. If you sign here, here, and… here, your claim with the city can begin to be processed.
I think that he may not be considered “dead” in some jurisdictions so long as his brain hasn’t given up yet. And he most assuredly has plenty of brain function going on in order to function. Primary reason for the oxy injection to the carotid artery is to keep the brain alive. Of course the rest of his body is building up lactic acid and other wastes and burning through ATP and other fuels. Luckily he is a Ranger. Their training involves running on fumes and near hallucinatory levels of exhaustion and starvation (RIP and Ranger School).
Please note, I am not in any way denying that other elite forces both here and around the world do not have training just as or in a number of cases, more demanding. Just throwing that out there before someone pipes up with ” But the SEALs in BUD/S…” or ” but the SAS…” or ” but the Nth Spetznaz…” Yes, yes and yes, and loads of professional respect for them all.
“near hallucinatory”?
I’d say he passes that “near” line quite often.
Alt text FTW!
I didn’t check it until you noted it. wonderfull!!!
They Do tend to come in threes so between the building, Max’s dive, and her entrance, you Should be at quota now.
This question just occurred to me… kinda creepy, but anyway. We know what happens to metal when he ports back. Which means he will be getting out of cuffs, but what would happen to someone touching him or if he is holding onto them when he returns? would it pull their body back though killing them by leaving their soul in the non-grid/belljar protected world? Then they could port the body back and it would stay dead since the soul had left having no body.
of course if you wanted to to get rid of the body another way you could tell a Cruel Lye.
On Valentines day they could port it back over the ocean near the Isle of View.
Not quite. Only matter that is teleported in by the gate returns to the gate. There is no “beam me up Scotty” potential for area of affect. Not yet at least. So anyone giving Max a hug when he went back would stay behind and be left holding a Max shaped vacuum. Which is dangerous for a variety of other reasons.
“Crule lye”, not “Cruel lye”. Get your Xanth quotes correct.
That is “Crewel Lye”.