Oops! These are not the weapons they were expecting!
In order to set up for this reveal, I felt I really had to establish the lighter weapons Roka and crew were expecting the rustlers to have. So they comment on the light rancher weapons while spying on them at the border patrol, and Roka brings it up again on the previous page. It’s one of those tricky things where you’re trying to give information to readers without making it look really obvious that you’re giving them info that’s going to play out later. The idea is always to make it sound as natural as possible, since the more natural it sounds, the less attention it calls to itself.
Hopefully, it wasn’t too obvious that this was going to happen. In general, I don’t like withholding information in the artwork in order to reveal it completely as a surprise later. I think it’s much more fun to include that info in a very subtle way ahead of time, so that readers can come back later and discover that it was there the whole time. Back at the lockbox, when the rustlers pick up their supplies, I actually drew one of them holding one of these heavy guns. The idea was to obscure it visually with snow as much as possible so that it just looks like something random. But it’s there.
See you in issue #3!
So the rustlers’ plan for dealing with an ambush is to allow the ambushers to get the drop on them and then surprise them with their superior firepower — WITHOUT firing off their big guns immediately?!? Very stupid plan. Pure dumb luck that the ambushers were not ruthless killers with hair-trigger reflexes. To startle people who’re pointing guns at you is risky, and you’re just as dead if you’re killed by small wimpy guns as if you’re killed by big scary guns.
Perhaps I’m wrong Rancke but to me these last two panels seem to be ‘frozen’ in time for dramatic effect.
What moves slowly for us could be a split second for the rustlers and Rokka & his crew.
Well, I do assume they’re not going to blast the heroes of the story to doll rags, and I also assume that the heroes are not going to shoot the rustlers and end the adventure.
Awesome page. 🙂
I wasn’t able to see the weapons clearly at the lockbox, but i’d assumed that’s what they were getting when I read it, and so read the “lightly armed” comment with a “oooh, they don’t know what they’re getting into.” It worked fine for me, though – setting up tension between what the readers and the protagonists know; I wouldn’t have realized that wasn’t the intent without the note here.
I’m with Colin on this one. I weapons came as no surprise at all, but it still worked nicely for dramatic tension because you could see the trap that the main characters were going to walk into blindly.
“To be continued”
Man! What a way to leave a cliffhanger at the end of this issue 😮
At the exactly same time, I’m looking forward to and dreading the cover pages for the next issue. I don’t know if I’m more interested in what the cover pages would show (like how’s Bocce doing?) or more interested in skipping the cover pages to see what happens with the gunfight, heheh….
Cool comments, everybody! I love hearing from everyone, so keep them coming.
Regarding the rustlers letting Roka’s crew get close to them, I’ll certainly concede that in a perfect tactical situation, maybe that wouldn’t happen, but sometimes I’ll forego that sort of thing for dramatic effect. For me, as long as it’s a BELIEVABLE situation, it can work. It may not be the OPTIMAL situation, but if it’s believable, I can live with it if it enhances the story.
In this case, I think everyone is underestimating each other. Roka’s crew underestimates the rustlers, so they aren’t quite as covert in their tailing as they should be. That leads the rustlers to think their stalkers are less capable than they actually are. So I could see the rustlers thinking they could get the best of them in a fair fight, especially with heavy weaponry. Plus, by luring them in close, they can get a better shot at them.
And yes, the two panels are supposed to be in quick succession to show a split second that is “frozen in time.” The rustlers actually do start firing immediately just as Roka’s crew dives for cover immediately. Sorry if that gives anything away, but at least you now know that there is indeed a big shootout coming…. 🙂
gotten enogh time to read through. and a bit forward, too. 😉
keep up the good work!
on the sidenote, roka means fox in hungarian. (http://3.ly/TFja)
Cool to know about “roka” in Hungarian! It’s pretty fitting since Roka can be pretty sly and crafty when he needs to be. Hmmm…maybe I should have made the fur on his snow outfit orange…
These aren’t the guns you’re looking for . . .