“Striking Sparks” — Page Twenty

Apr13
by Bob Forward on 2014-04-13 at 21:00
Chapter:

Fynch was always supposed to be a “scary little ice-cold psycho.” Originally, I had suggested that he should look like Tim Roth. Max did a few early sketches that way, then started messing with a Gabriel Byrne look that I also liked. He ended up combining the two into our own character.

but lose the accent

Artist’s Notes:  Character design, for me, is a really tough thing.  In my mind, the character has to look and fit physically in the roll that the story requires- except at the outset, we didn’t really know what in the heck the characters would end up doing, and in that, it was a bit of a catch-22 situation.  Form, for me, follows function, but the function is still being revealed as we go.   So I never really “modeled” the characters officially, and everybody’s look is kinda nebulous, even now.  They’ll continue to change and evolve as things progress.  

Fynch, however, and to the same extent, Roland (RIP), are pretty clear in my head.  They are based on Dad.  Sorry Dad 🙂 I basically took the image of my father, circa 1982-1989, split into two extremes, and skewed them way evil, and there you have it.  Fynch got the Dad’s clever, stop-at-nothing, lawbreaking, evil genius, criminal mastermind, psychotic look; Roland got Dad’s sheer massive brutality and twisted sense of humor… and I threw in his old ponytail too.   I figured Dad was playing along subconsciously as he was writing them anyway… how else can you explain the puns?  

I also styled Fynch to be a kind of anti-Max, I wanted them to have a similar height, build, ethnicity, even wardrobe.  A relatively even matchup, should it come down to it.  

Fynch is as real to me as my father or myself.  I even saw him once, at our farmers market.  I had just finished coloring the final page of Chapter 3 when there he was, clear as day, same wardrobe and haircut and everything, walking towards me… with a smiling little girl on his shoulders.  Maybe there’s some good in him after all.  

Nah.

-Max

Bobservations

Problems of Disposal

 

The boys and I have long held the belief that there are three ways to solve any problem: 1) the right way, 2) the wrong way, and 3) the Detonation Films way. You may have noticed some of this philosophy creeping into earlier blog posts, most specifically about dealing with wasps via flamethrower.

So when I completely clogged the sink drain pipe because of my grinding raw artichoke debris down the disposal, I knew it was time for drastic action. I had a sink full of sludge. Soap didn’t loosen it. Hot water didn’t work. And a standard plunger let me down. So the way I look at it, I had three choices.

Option 1: Clear out everything from under the sink, get a large bucket, unplug the disposal, carefully detach the pipe, collect the draining water in the bucket, snake the U-bend, and then put everything back together.

Option 2: Start pouring increasingly dangerous caustic chemicals into the water that would probably do nothing but wreck the disposal mechanism.

So naturally, I went with:

Option 3:  Go to the garage and pull out my trusty 120PSI pneumatic effects cannon with the 2.5″ barrel which — as it happens — turned out to fit the disposal perfectly. Charge it up, shove the business end down through the water and into the clogged disposal, and hit the thunder button. As you do.

Sure, soapy slime and artichoke fibers got blasted all over me, all over the ceiling, all over the windows, the cabinets, and the floor. But it cleared that pipe!

Booyah, baby.

 GarbageDisposalClog