For Sky, the outfit is probably reminiscent of Princess Leia’s Hoth outfit. I can’t say I deliberately intended it to be, but that’s sometimes the problem with people like me who grew up on Star Wars. The images become so iconic over time, that you actually start to lose track of what’s “normal” and what’s been burned into your brain by repeated viewings. For instance, when I think “female snow outfit,” I think “quilted pattern.” But I have no idea if that’s actually a common look for real-world snow parkas or if I just think it is because of Leia’s Hoth outfit. The white color is most definitely not inspired by Leia though since I had already decided long ago that all of Sky’s outfits would be predominantly white since I really like that white-on-blue look.

I deliberately wanted the types of fur to be a bit different between characters. So while Roka has a bit longer fur in his hat and collar, Sky has much shorter-hair, fuzzier fur on her outfit. It just seemed like a softer, more feminine look. Of course, Cember has that same soft, fuzzy fur on his outfit as well. Masculine? No. And yet, very Cember.

As I mentioned in a previous post, with Bocce, I wanted his snow outfit to be very similar in style to his regular clothing. So it sticks to the same black and white palette, with the three wraparound bands at the abdomen. I thought the alternating clasps was an interesting look to go with those three bands.

Bocce’s coat collar is a nod to Star Trek, specifically Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I love the uniform designs in that movie and really love the jackets/coats that Kirk, McCoy, and Saavik wear when investigating the space station Regula I. The collar here is directly inspired by the collars on those Regula I jackets.

For the most part, I try to portray characters realistically as far as gun holsters and belts go. Generally, when they’re lounging around the ship, they aren’t armed, since I figure a gun belt has to be a bit clunky to wear all the time. Only when they’re headed for a potentially dangerous situation do they get strapped up with weapons. So a lot of the scenes in The Big Snow Job don’t actually show Bocce fully decked out with his gun belt, as shown here.

For Roka’s snow outfit, I wanted to stick with his established style of elongated vertical shapes, so I gave him a long coat with vertical banding to accentuate the length. The pouches on his belt also have long flaps to continue the motif. I threw in the horizontal bands on the sleeves to break up the verticals a little and also because I just thought it might be an interesting look to have these slight bulges of fabric between each band on the arms.

In order to stay ahead of schedule and transition seamlessly from RUNNERS: The Big Snow Job into the next arc, I have decided to reduce new page posts to once a week, starting with issue #3. Instead of the current Monday and Thursday schedule, new pages of story will post on Mondays.

This was a tough decision, but ultimately, I decided that for a webcomic, consistency in schedule would be crucial to keeping and building a strong readership. At the current 2 pages/week rate, there would have to be a long break online between the end of the current story arc and the beginning of the next one, and I didn’t want the readers to suffer that long a hiatus. So hopefully, the new schedule will result in no interruption between stories.

And the change isn’t necessarily bad news, as I will continue with Thursday posts every week. The second weekly post won’t be story content but will be behind-the-scenes posts. The content will range from character turnarounds, to prop and ship diagrams, to concept sketches, to process documents that show my method of working. This will all be in addition to the commentary I’m still providing with each posted story page. So I hope you’ll check out both posts each week!

Thanks to everyone who voiced their comments and votes on the “Feedback Needed” thread. Your feedback was a great help!

Anyone have a couple hundred bucks and a hankerin’ for a model Brimia? A friend recently introduced me to Randy Cooper, an amazing model maker who occasionally does custom projects. He’s interested in making a limited model run of the Khoruysa Brimia, Roka’s smuggler ship in Runners. Naturally, I would LOVE for this to happen, because (a) it would be cool as hell to have a finished model of my ship design, and (b) I could actually use it for reference in drawing the ship from different angles. 

But is anyone else interested? The process is labor-intensive for Randy, so he’d have to have significant interest before taking it on. He’d be scratch-building a master, from which he’d create molds to produce sets that buyers could then assemble and paint. According to him, a 12”-14″ model set would cost around $200-250 to buy, and he would need at least 20 people interested.

You can check out Randy’s work at his website: http://randycoopermodels.com/

If you think you might be interested in buying a limited $200-250 model of the Khoruysa Brimia, just let me know by posting your comment in this thread. Thanks!