Poor Bubblegum is having to fight for her very identity in court, over the strenuous objections of her helicopter mother. Super powers, a great bod and freedom, but at the cost of family and possibly even her legal identity. Modern problems for modern superheroes, all backed by the same old human behaviors.
ED’S NOTES
Now we move on to a little more emotion.
Sure, it’s common to draw anger, fighting, guns shooting, explosions.
We’ve done two guys in a diner, a Tiki Lounge, and flashbacks.
So drawing this emotional, debate-inspiring, heart-string plucking interlude?
Kinda caused me to ease up off the throttle and combine a few things that I’d learned for the sake of being well-rounded and understanding character work in the panels.
It’s sometimes not enough to help the readers see and read the story progressing. Sometimes, I’ll need to help them feel it, as well.
]]>As Ed has worked on this book, the challenges change with every page. But sometimes we go back to something he’s done previously, and he gets to revisit it with new skills.
As Hawkins walks along the classic Fremont Street strip in Las Vegas to collect his thoughts, we are there, wondering where this is all going and why. I watched Ed develop a number of techniques to illustrate this page, and I’m so impressed.
Crowd work. It’s good for ya!
ED’S NOTES
It’s no secret that this first issue of Danger Team is a proving ground and classroom for my skill and knowledge as a comic book artist. I THOUGHT I knew a bunch, and there’s a lot of truth in the old adage that when someone realizes that they don’t know much, they begin to learn more.
The crowd scene in Panel 2 was a callback to one of the earlier pages, where Hawkins was going into the Diner. Sabrina and I like to refer to the guy that drew this page, as Page 4 Ed.
Page 4 Ed had no idea that he could make a crowd scene like Page 41 Ed could. So, my advice here is to be patient with yourself, don’t be afraid to try new things and learn new things.
Page 4 is a REALLY far distance from Page 41, but you’ll never get there if you don’t pick up your pencil and try.
]]>So Meteor Man might still be alive, and that’s the real takeaway. Other than the mysteries which the former Cold Knight acknowledges, but realizes he might never recieve any answers.
You will, and it’s not that long in coming, now.
The pattern has been laid out, and with one or two pieces missing, we’ll start bringing this story home now. While the webcomic format isn’t a friend to my style of storytelling, hopefully when the entire story is laid out, it will hopefully make more sense.
ED’S NOTES I’m of the mind that superhero comics without character development and obstacles to overcome are just bland. Sure, a well-drawn fight page looks great, and a bunch of them peppered in drama and introspection can turn into a great book. I’m trying to push myself over and shove myself outside of my comfort zone in order to draw some guys in a booth, dialoguing about the main parts of the overall storyline. THIS page, I wanted to focus on and show just how much Linwood keeps under wraps and to give the readers just how deeply affected he was by his team’s mission. I hope that I gave you readers some insight into his mind and maybe even some hints about things that may or may not be discussed and revealed in the future. Also? That Tiki Lounge is just REALLY fun to draw. Beats the diner.
Orbiter blowed up, no engines, falling out of control to earth below. Cold Knight passed out, and the Contortion saves the day after Major Catastrophe did his bit.
Which ends in partial tragedy, as both of them perish saving their teammates.
In comics, it is often the story that the heroic actions of the characters combine to save them all, nobody suffers any losses, and they all live to tell the tale. Real life tends not to work that way, so I thought the Danger Team might be much the same. Not unlike Danger Team 1999, they do everything right, as superheroes- but it doesn’t save them.
Yet it does save countless civilian lives- which is the overall theme of superheroes- those with power helping the powerless.
It’s a theme, that is hopefully reverberating throughout the story.
Again, sorry we're late, but we're getting back on schedule slowly but surely.
ED’S NOTES
So. Did Sabrina deliver, or what? I mean, team effort all the way sure, but our illustrious Writer/Editor really went hard with the feels, yeah?
In this page, there was a LOT of emotion and gestures that just flew under the radar. Panel 1 for example, the Contortion more or less looking at his best friend in a really vulnerable spot and steeling himself to try and save them. Then not making it, so that panel becomes two friends saying goodbye in a pretty emotional way.
The Major suffocating on the back of the shuttle debris, but still guiding it all to safety.
Then a happy ending, right?
WRONG.
I’d like to think that I did some fine work here emoting through gestures and facial expressions. If you felt it in any of those panels, then yes. I did.
]]>Orbiter blowed up, no engines, falling out of control to earth below.
It’s hero time.
Major Catastrophe is out there, keeping the orbiter upright and on course. He’s doing his part to save his friends, even though we get the feeling he’s prepared for the worst. Inside the cabin we can see the Contortion leaving his spacesuit- a bold move on the stretchy guy’s part, but clearly he has a plan in mind as well.
Meanwhile, the prettiest girl he’s ever met is counting on the Cold Knight to get them home safely.
Turns out re-entry is fascinating if you look into the science of it all. Doing it in just the cockpit of a shuttle orbiter makes it extra exciting, as we see chunks of the ship ripping off and hurtling away, even as death Moth’s glove gives us a good idea of just what happened to the living dead girl.
This one is a dramatic tension page, and Ed really came through on it. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am!
ED’S NOTES
I’m not sure about the learning itinerary in your grade school when you were growing up, but mine had a slight home economics slant to it.(Please bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this.)
We were taught at an early age, how to make simple recipes, like oatmeal cookies, or even scrambled eggs. The intent was to start small, show us how to follow simple instructions and build up to more difficult and delicious meals.
Drawing Danger Team is exactly like this for me.
Sure, you might look at this page and think to yourself; “Wow, Ed’s doing a pretty good job on this story. It looks good and he’s really getting across Sabrina’s script in a pretty decent visual manner.” All the while forgetting how Page 1 looked. It’s ok. I needed to start there, to arrive here.
Each new and interesting page, even when we were in the diner, is a class I undertake in pushing myself outside of my comfort zone artistically, for the sake of growth.
Even if it costs us a few superhero teams.
Enjoy! Leave your comments. Good, bad, or indifferent. I love to read them.
]]>Carve up the orbiter, set off an explosion that throws everything at the planet in deathspins?
EXCITING!
The astronaut in the superpowered armor is once again coming to the rescue- shades of Major Catastrophe 2 back in 1969 (GGA Issue 9, page 6). Love the classic 80’s gridwork!
ED’S NOTES
You know, you’d think that the more experience you gain as an artist, the easier it becomes to rest on your laurels. I say thee NAY!
I’m finding that the more I learn, experience and use? The more opportunities I get to learn more about drawing comic books.
This week I wound up learning how to properly use a Canadarm for EVA missions on a space shuttle. Something I never thought I would need or want to learn practically in my lifetime.
I learned that when things fall through the upper atmosphere at 32 feet per second, they burn up from the air pressure in front of them becoming so super heated at over 7000 degrees Fahrenheit, making whatever is re entering the atmosphere so superheated that it goes from a solid state of matter, directly to a gas.
As a comic book artist, time management still is a struggle, because the tasks get a little more detail intensive, with the results becoming greater and greater. I learned to take a few seconds to breathe and really look at your page, in order to figure out if there might be better directions that a panel or a page can take.
It’s honestly a labor of love that I enjoy.
]]>It is a trope of superhero teams to go to space. You hang out on the outer skin of the atmosphere or further, and it changes your perspective on the world, it is said. It might benefit the rest of us considerably if these people with powers and abilities greater than most should perhaps see it thusly.
So sending them to space is seldom a bad idea.
Except in this case. There is a reason for L.A.M.A.R.’s malfunction, which will come out- the webcomic format is ill-suited to this pacing, I think.
Have to hand it to Ed, he knocked it out into space for this one. His roughs are coming in strong and he’s getting good at this now, able to handle anything. You get to see his progress from page 1, and what a change, eh?
Bravo, Ed. You’re late as hell, but it is a hell of a page.
ED’S NOTES
Not only is space the final frontier, it’s also a great place to build some incredible drama and let a robot go haywire!
Lots of drama on this page. LOTS of research. LOTS of shadows versus highlighting. I’m enjoying making each page more detailed and intricate than the last.
I hope you brought your helmet, because it's about to get pretty dangerous!!
]]>All of the DT 22 team must be introduced- after all we’re getting to know them as we get to know the teams of the past, and what befell them all. So you need the new team introduced as well, as ostensibly this book is about them.
Or is it?
Cyberninja reveals himself to be an agent of Neuromantique, a villain from the DT 7 days, and here we see him come in conflict with some of Steampunk Rock’s steam spiders, vultures and troopers. Clearly Steampunk Rock wasn’t serious, as he didn’t send Sergeant Major Steam and the Battling Bot Brigade!
ED’S NOTES
When you set out to draw a page that’s mostly in the shadows, you think to yourself; ‘Well, it can’t be too difficult. I mean, it’s almost all black, right?’
Wrong.
There’s a LOT of thought that goes into simple darkness and shadow filled pages, that gets overlooked by folks that just have a passing glance at how comics gets made.
I learned a LOT of respect for the folks that have come before me and mastered the use of mostly black pages and definitely learned the respect for time management and martial arts that I haven’t shown in the past.
Enjoy this page, it is a preview of things to come!
And apologies for the late page, this one is on me!
]]>When you get loaded into a C-130 and flown across the world to an island in the middle of the Pacific, you really start to feel like you’ve hit the big time. When that’s the launchpad for your team to go into space, you’ve REALLY hit the big-time as superheroes.
Particularly if you’re the farm team from New Jersey.
ED’S NOTES
Two panels?
Yup.
A lot of establishment and a damn fine splash panel of Action Atoll at the bottom, if you ask me.
So, now Hawkins gets an idea of this onion having a bunch more layers and how he might have to do a bit more digging to get his answers. How far down does this rabbit hole go?
As always, Keep reading!
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