While Ril’s story is mostly comedic and fun, it does take a dark turn here when he flushes them all into space. I like keeping the tone a bit unpredictable and it seemed necessary to have some real stakes involved. Another idea I had was to have Ril find Jayd’s bombs and then fight the Tedeskian salvagers USING those bombs. Since the Brimia had no engines, I thought it might be interesting for him to plant the bombs on the Brimia itself, using the explosions to propel the ship into the salvager vessel, wrecking it. But (a) I’m not sure that’s how the science works in space, and (b) that would have caused too much damage to the Brimia, and I didn’t want that to happen. So I opted for the emergency venting idea.
I’m never sure if action lines are a good thing or not. Sometimes they can feel a bit cartoony, but they also do help make scenes a bit more dynamic. Case in point, I originally drew this page without any action lines and it just felt a bit lacking. You could tell the scrap was flying out the hatch, but it didn’t feel forceful. I do think the lines really give it more of a sucking vacuum feel.
In the first panel in particular, without the action lines, it just felt wrong, as if the hatch was opening and then things started getting sucked out in the next panel. That hatch opening just felt too static. But I think we all know that as soon as the door cracks open a tiny bit, the suction begins, so adding the lines really helped sell the idea that the danger is immediate as soon as the hatch starts to open.
Eep. An entire issue without Roka, Bocce, Cember, or Bennesaud! I didn’t intend for that originally but when the arc started to run really long and I decided to cut it into 7 issues instead of 5, this is how the issue shook out. My hope is that the Ril and Sky/Jayd scenes are engaging enough, that you don’t even miss the other guys.
Definitely didn’t miss the rest of the Runners. I read it weekly and was tempted a few times to take a peek on Patreon. So the engagement was there. No doubt. It does feel like the rescue team’s arc ends like a joke. The rescue that wasn’t needed. I think if we did cut away to their scenes we would have gotten some more back and forth between Roka and Grissom.
Funny enough I did wonder a few times what’s happening with Azarek and Hiura’s crew. I think that’s a good sign that these characters or at least the situation have/has been engaging too.
To me the suction force looks the strongest in the second panel. So that was a good addition. In sequence it looks great. If I look at the last panel on it’s own I do feel the stream could go either way. But because of the direction that most of the Tedeskians are looking towards, it does work.
While Ril’s scene was mostly comedic, the dark undertones were present with the Tedeskians shooting to kill. I’ve read scenes like this where “I didn’t have a choice” didn’t fly, but here it most certainly does.
Thanks for all the comments! I like the suction lines but still think it needs a tiny bit more. I was a bit pressed for time, so I just had to settle on something. But for the graphic novel, I might play around a little more. I know some artists use a blur effect for fast-moving objects, but I don’t think that kind of effect fits the cartoony look of RUNNERS. I might add a semi-transparent bit of white to the entire trail in the last panel, where it’s a little more white at the hatch, and more transparent further out. I think that sort of thing usually works well in conveying (a) a direction and (b) an intensity, that is lacking with just the lines by themselves.
And the space hobbits hastily cobbled together a jalopy junker craft to float themselves to safety? No?
Ha ha. I do occasionally for freelance work for LEGO, so the idea of constructing vehicles out of bits and pieces would be a nice tie-in!
I suppose it also turned off artificial gravity in the ship, to allow depressurization to carry all that scrap.
Hmmm. Hadn’t thought about that. But I would imagine the strength of the vacuum is stronger than the artificial gravity in this case. But if that sounds implausible, then yes, Ril also cut the gravity! 🙂
Cember may be my favorite character, but the two events going on really benefit from focusing on the characters who matter to them (Sky & Jayd bonding and Ril trying to save the ship alone). Cutting back to the others would just come off as “hey, we’re still in this series”, and take focus away from the important moments. I’m sure they’ll be back in the story when it’s time.
Cool. That’s how I feel too. And it’s something I really loved about Game of Thrones, which remains my favorite series despite so many other people really hating how it ended. I generally found the many stories and characters so engaging that I never really “missed” seeing any particular story for an episode or two, since I was just fully engaged with everything that was being presented. So if I can make that happen with my series, that would be the goal!