Page 14: issues 8 (Fearless) and Special 4 (Sysyphus Part 4)

shastab24 on Aug. 21, 2012

I'm putting together a crossover project for next year that will run through many comics and hopefully benefit the Hero Initiative.  If you're interested in participating, e-mail me at karamesser@hotmail.com or PQ me on this site.
 
Top page: Panel 1 was an experiment.  I wanted to see if I could draw a head that's slightly upturned from the front.  He's looking up at the Runner, but not too much.  But about the story stuff--we do finally get some names bandied about.  The Runner's name is really only something that can be said underwater, but I'm going to give him a proper surface name.  Also, I figured that Humer merfolk would have two names each--one for the surface and one for underwater.  Priflin is his surface name, while his underwater name is one I imagine to be like the girl in Splash--a lot of screeching.  I didn't make the Runner's name into screeching because he's been talking a bit in his native tongue while on the surface, and I wouldn't want that to be screeching, since he wasn't drawing attention when doing it.  Therefore, I figure Flimerrans talk a lot with bubbles (like how, in the original Dr. Dolittle movie, it was said fish talk).  They do have vocal chords, though, so I would imagine some vocalizations in their language, too.
 
Bottom page: I draw this to a close with the remaining eight photos I took, as well as some terrible image editing on Tempore's part.  His side view has consistently been the same picture as on the cover.  However, I didn't want him always looking up, so I had drawn his head in profile, looking level, not realizing how much this drawing would clash with what I already had.  But I do like my subtle mannipulation of the feet when he's flying.  He keeps floating all around the place because I needed him to work with the photos.  Also, the penultimate panel was supposed to be me flicking him into a portal, but it didn't work out that way.  Oh well.  I realize from this that I should not give myself this much photographic facetime.  I'm sensitive about how I look sometimes, and I definitely don't look as feminine as I would like.  The post-issue talk stuff is bad enough sometimes, but this is an extended, story-driven look at myself, for a sequence that seems a tad pointless.  I was hoping to give Tempore further development here, because I know where he's going after the Caper, but realized I had no idea what I could say to him that would push him further down that path.
 
On another note: today, August 21st, is my birthday!  I'd wanted to do a special picture for it, but I'm stretching myself thin with two concurrent issues as well as a couple Drunk Duck Awards pages.  But I'm 28 now and hope to get lots of presents and cake.  Especially the cake.  I have a bit of a sweet tooth.