“Striking Sparks” — Page Thirty-Nine

Aug24
by Bob Forward on 2014-08-24 at 21:40
Chapter:

Because you know that even engineers do some trash-talking on occasion.

 

 

More below!

 

Bobservations

A Bit Of Tweaking

 

This is one of those pages which — while technically following the script and initial thumbnail layout of the overall arc — ended up being much more than was originally intended.

To start with, Max-the-artist didn’t even reference the actual Tesla Roadster the script had called for; he designed this car on his own, and is proud of that fact. To the extent that it resembles a Tesla, that’s more a matter of thinking along similar lines than any actual design duplication. So although we could have gotten away with calling it “extensively modified,” I (as the writer) just decided to remove any direct references to Elon Musk’s baby and instead make this pure Madison.

Or, that was the idea. At first.

But dammit, a brilliant electrical engineer who can build her own lightsaber just wouldn’t let a high-voltage vehicle roll past her toolbox without digging into it herself. And Marissa’s a lot more fun when she’s glowing with personal pride about her contribution. So I started tweaking the dialogue to indicate she’d been a big part of the “Road Reaper’s” actual creation.

I did keep the Tesla stock specs for Marissa to diss in the dialogue; it should be noted that I am well aware that said specs are in fact impressive as hell. Truthfully, Max and I are long-time admirers of Musk, SpaceX, and the whole line of Tesla vehicles. We would totally buy them were they not completely out of our price range.

Hell, I’m even jealous of the Falcon-9 self-destruction. I do stuff on purpose that doesn’t look that good.

Nonetheless, this is a comic, so we have to push the bounds of reality as much as possible. And thus our own Scarlet Dynamo gets to re-establish her geek cred with a bit of flossin’.

But it’s the final exchange that amused me the most. In the script, Marissa just says that six of the eight most critical components in the vehicle are Cicertech patents. Max asks about the other two, and Marissa was just supposed to say with a wicked smile: “Those are special enhancements.” Indicating that the car (still a Tesla in the script) has been “souped up.”

But although the script had called for her to be in a “steampunk outfit,” I didn’t know at the time just what that outfit would look like. And when Max was drawing this page, he hadn’t even bothered to re-read the script. He was just working from his original thumbnail, which only indicated rough human forms.

So when he sends me the inked art, with Marissa in that outfit, and I’m starting to add the dialogue, the line “Those are special enhancements” took on a whole new giggly meaning. I almost left it, but I didn’t want to imply that there was anything other than a bit of bustier boostage to the components in question. So I decided to take the double-entendre in a different direction; still likely referencing some top-secret developments that haven’t even been patented yet, but also indicating that Marissa, while flirtatious, does have her limits.

I hope you enjoy! If so, do give us a boost on TWC! It’s greatly appreciated!

— Bob out

 

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