Panel 1 is probably my favorite shot of the Brimia from the first story arc. I think it’s because it was the first time I drew the ship where it actually REALLY felt like a real object to me. I guess the foreshortened angle and surface details just brought out the different parts of the ship in a way that made it feel more three-dimensional, whereas all the previous images felt just a tad flat.
It was important for me to establish the Mosquito as both a shuttle (as seen in issue #1) and as a fighter, which is what prompted this scene. Plus, a little ship-to-ship dogfight action never hurts!
Well, of course you had to show it as a fighter. I think it’s some law of science fiction that you can’t show a ship with a neat-looking gun like the one on the Mosquito and then never use it.
I forget if I covered this elsewhere (probably), but I really loved the idea of the Mosquito. At the time, I only knew of big ships in sci-fi having shuttles and complements of fighters. But I thought it would be very cool to have a small freighter like the Brimia have it’s own shuttle that could also double as a fighter escort/defender. Plus, it made a lot of sense for their kind of work. After doing this issue, Firefly came out, and they topped me with not one but TWO shuttles on a similarly-sized ship. But no fighter. So I guess I’m still up on them there!
Star Wars Rebels did it pretty well with the Ghost and the Phantom, which was a light starfighter/shuttle hybrid, as well as the Ghost’s rear cannons when docked.
Looking forward to checking out Rebels. I’m still slowly making my way through Clone Wars!