I went out on a bit of a limb with this page, so I trust we can all be mature about this. But every other way I drew this scene just felt like a cop-out against how I originally imagined it, and, well, here we are, then. I don’t know what it is, but this page was just really hard for me to force myself to draw. And I’ve drawn from live nude models, and already in this comic I’ve dealt with drawing lots of things that are far more serious than this. But still, it’s a first for me. And taken with the next page, as a couplet, it’s really the only way to make the scene make sense. In my mind anyway. So let the snickering and snide remarks commence!
Just kidding. I already KNOW that you are all very serious and take me very seriously, so, my own inhibitions aside, I know you’ll all take this the right way. I just couldn’t stand to have one of those scenes with the “fig leaf” though. It felt so ingenuine, when, as a friend told me when I consulted him on the subject, “Man, you showed her without a face.” So I mean, fair enough.
Anyhow, about last week. I landed quite a bit of what my friend Richard would call “conTRAWversy” by leaving those pages of Russian dialogue untranslated. I had no idea, quite literally NO idea, that there was a segment of the readership that so deeply resented my doing that. And they took last week as an opportunity to voice their disapproval, in a polite but still rather insensitive way. However, I also received an enormous amount of support, far outweighing the negative comments (almost 10 to 1 as a matter of fact, comments and emails taken together). So to all of YOU, thank you! It validates my efforts, and those of Hilvon, the gentleman in Russia whose collaboration has made the Russian dialogue possible. In the future, I will probably do a similar thing to what I did last week, and make the subtitles available, but away from the main page. It will be a matter of discretion, though, whether or not they represent “giving too much away.” I don’t want to do that, you see. It’s part of the pain and suffering of a long-form comic that I have deeply-laid plans that I don’t want to ruin by revealing too much too soon.
At any rate, here we are then. I am glad so many of you stuck by me last week. Controversy aside, this chapter has been my most successful so far, artistically, and so I’m glad you can all enjoy it on its own merits. So, until next week, I’m off to the deep sleep, to dream of drawing the next page! All the best!
The Titan god-machine is calling. Stepping (or floating) into the light might be a good idea if you want to livr, Sarah.
Beautiful page. Nice sunlight-breaking-in-water-effect.
Imperius Dictatio is awaiting
The things we do in the aftermath of an atomic war…
–M
The Bringer of Tears will once again take his place in battle.
Tears of [dramaitc pause] beauty!
I don’t really have any Titan related quotes right now so I’ll just give you my favourite bit from Final Liberation
*Ka-chak* “Choose your next words with exceptional care…”
Commissar Holt was a childhood hero and a true role-model. Could have picked worse, eh?
I like to imagine that as soon as that scene ended, Holt threw Governor Puchenka’s worthless, waste of skin carcass off the balcony.
I have… No idea what you guys are talking about. But it sounds very exciting.
–M
The early 1990ties PC adaption of “Epic Warhammer 40.000”.
Notable for it’s cheesy life action cut-scenes. The two Cameron and I quoted from (and many others) can be found on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOi3CzZjV0M
(I should mention Imperial Commissars are political officers with extreme jurisdiction and the power to “remove” any officer or official they found wanting or failing).
And the titan scene (one of my personal favourites):
Depending on just how much damage was done to her during that blast, surviving may be a rather mixed blessing.
Well, still… I guess we’re going to find out!
–M
Hm…
The page IS great. Like Ulrich noticed – the lighting is really cool, and the mood of the scene is really there… but…
I do realise Sarah is Military, so she has to be really fit and all… but I just could not shake a feeling that she came out too musculine. Especially the last panel – if not the long hair I would have thought it was some young man, not a woman. Broad shoulders, (relatively) small hips, and feet they just don’t look feminine.
Still that is just my IMO, and my tradition beint a spoon of tar in barrel of honey. Not that I could draw that better. Or at least that good, for that matter. 🙂
I’ve been considering that myself, to be honest. But I think it’s mainly that she’s just slightly too toned. I might dial it back a bit. But overall I’m very happy with how she turned out.
–M
It’s just fine.
Women used to physical labour or hardship “shape up” depending on their body builds just like men.
My big sis is totally into horse sports and those equestrian folks are tough as nails and incredibly strong. Build like a blacksmith and a grip like a vice, no kidding. When I was younger I always feared her (oh god she could cuff my ears when I wasn’t playing nice.
The muscle gain from “working”-kind of activity bulks people up, the gain from all kinds of sports which require “fast” or endurance kind of work makes them gaunt but firm.
So I guess as a pilot she’d fall in the first category. I dated a fire fighter woman for a time and she had a similar build.
And yeah, Mjr. Bronniford isn’t a young whippersnapper anymore. As a Major how old would she be? Early thirties?
It’s fine and adds to her boyish charm.
instantly reminded me of this page from Romantically Apocalyptic: http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/113
Nice scene! I met the RA people an NYCC, and they’re pretty all right. And they do one heck of a comic, for sure.
–M
I’m sensing a Birth of Venus moment coming. I don’t really have that much to comment on, just that I’m getting a vibe very much like that of Rennasance Italian art… Thankfully not that of Spainish Rennasance art, which is just utterly depressing and shows an unhealthy obsession with Martyrdom and the many ways Catholic saints have been horribly killed
I think we’ll soon learn what kind of apotheosis MIKE went through.
Not terribly Botticellian, I don’t predict, but I.do hope people will find the second story arc here interesting, at least.
–M
People sometimes tells me im crazy because I ask them which is a beatiful way to die. Cause there are some horrible ways but indeed some deaths are an exapmle of life or living this strip (and the comic Alighierian’s linked) just reminded me that.
I hope this is not her end thouh. Ratter a new beggining.
I wrote a response to your comment that gave away a huge chunk of story by mistake, so I deleted it. But rest assured, things will be revealed soon!
–M
DONT! O_O …
A part of me whises to have seen that comment…
but then…the story..the suspense…would be gone.
soo… thanks for that 😀
Excellent job on the artwork, and can’t wait to see how it progresses from where we left Tom and Sarah off at last chapter.
Thanks! The fact that there was a major story arc break has given me a lot more latitude there, but I do hope it will carry off well.
–M
Could Mike be on a first name basis with her now?
One wonders…
Actually, part of their command system, when they give mike orders, officers like Col. Haulley refer to themselves by their first names. It activates Mike’s command confirmation program. “This is Colonel Conrad” and “This is Major Sarah” mean “I am in authority, listen to what I say.” Although that human element seems to have failed them here.
–M
“I trust we can all be mature about this”
Fine, let me be the first to say HUR HUR HUR HUR, BOOBS.
In seriousness, I feel like something about her crotch is really off. I think the weight of the lines might be wrong both for this perspective and articulation? The left “hip pocket” seems to press too deeply into the skin and too long. That’s the best I can offer.
Allow ME: “Hyugh, heyuk, hyaw… ‘CROTCH.'”
ut SER-iously. You point directly to a few errors that are probably the result of my hesitancy about showing genitalia, so her pubic bone isn’t properly drawn, or, for that matter, drawn at ALL, though it should be from this perspective. That and the aforementioned issue with overdrawn muscle tone are issues I’m revising at the moment.
By the way, thanks for giving me a serious treatment of the subject here.
–M
[Insert comment about shaved armpits here]
[Followed by comment about how Québécois could technically considered to be French]
[Obvious reference to French stereotypes]
It’ll spiral downward from there fast… xp
Let’s nit follow that line of reasoning any farther, for the sake of international unity.
–M
Total agreement!
I think this is a very classy page! very nice lighting effect and there is just enough nudity to make it work, make it believable. Unlike some comics I have on my shelves, where the artist grasps every opportunity with both hands to draw any woman character full monty.
Thanks, Joost. Know you, of all my fellow artists, understand properly the difficulty of tackling something like this. One of the big issues, which I discussed elsewhere with some other cartoonists, is the danger of linking anything sexual with violence, which happens ALL the time in American comics and is REALLY inappropriate. So I was trying to be very circumspect about my approach here – I’m glad it seems to have come off properly.
–M
I know what kind of comics you mean, not really my taste. There is by the way no way in the world that your work can be mistaken for such a comic.
The problem is that without translation the page is wanting. The least you could have done was to repeat it with the translations. Is that too much to ask?
–
So her soul is going to the light? Not Christian but I don’t care I think it is beautiful.