I knew this firefight sequence would involve a lot of tight close-up panels over the next few pages, so I wanted to take the moment right up front to establish the spatial relationships between the characters. It always irks me a bit when that sort of thing isn’t set up properly since it usually then just becomes a confusing mess of action without a sense of grounding.
The other thing I really wanted to get across is the overwhelming firepower of the cattle rustlers. I wasn’t entirely sure the huge guns were going to read from the last page of the previous issue and that they were much more advanced guns than the simple rancher rifles the rustlers had earlier. So to drive that point home, I needed the art to show that Roka and company are very much out-gunned here.
Is it just me or are Roka and co. mainly taking cover behind brick walls in the wilderness?
Great comic btw. I love both the story and the art. Please keep up the good work.
~Jason
Oops my bad. You established that the local stone looked layered and strangely bricklike some time ago.
Never mind.
~J
I like that Bennesaud is yelling “Cover!’ right after the cover page 🙂
I was amused by his exclamation for the same reason, and I thought it was intentional on Sean’s part. (and it reminds me of The Tick saying “Color!” on covers and the like)
Regarding the brick-like look: interesting. Yeah, I meant for the rock to be horizontally banded and layered, but they definitely look a bit too uniform on this page as far as the vertical breaks go. So I can see how they might look like bricks. I’ll have to keep that in mind for future pages and have the staggering look a bit less regular.
As for Bennes’s exclamation: that is pretty funny! Totally unintentional, but funny.
I can totally hear the gunfire in my head. That’s good artwork.
Who taught the bad guys to shoot – The A Team and Mr. T?
The term outgunned is a bit misleading. This is like bringing pistols against artillery.
Sure is lucky for Our Heroes that the rustlers chose a spot with plenty of cover around to do their reverse ambush.
Outgunned? Who need guns when you got a TANK like Sky?!? 😈
I must wonder… are those rock walls significantly tougher than Bennesaud’s hide?
Good question. I don’t think of Bennesaud of being made of “rock” per se. He just has the look of rock but it’s more of a hard shell, like a lobster, although certainly much tougher than a lobster. Unless that lobster has been working out, I guess.
Basically, Bennesaud can withstand smaller arms fire, as he did in “Bad Goods” going up against Hamron’s men, but in this scene, the rustlers are using much heavier weaponry. And even with light arms fire, he still has nerve endings, so to some degree, I imagine he’d be able to feel the blasts. So blasts he might be able to survive might still be extremely painful.