In terms of the writing, this is a big moment, a standoff starting to defuse, but at the same time there are some little moments, little throw-away bits of dialog that I think I live for. This was a fun strip. In terms of the art… this one took way too long. Sometimes they do.
Security Agent Captain Cassandra Quinn is on assignment to the mining outpost Luna Seven amid rumors of pirates near the outpost. On her approach to the complex, she saw something moving around on the surface of the moon that shouldn’t have been. During her attempts to verify her visual sighting, a mysterious ship blasted her out of the sky. Her story starts HERE.
Meanwhile, on miner Simon Tripline’s morning commute to work, he sees something strange through a porthole. Shortly thereafter, Simon’s suspicions are aroused concerning Vin Sinclair, who became separated from the mining party. Simon took off to find him, but found Cassandra instead. He rescued her, but she woke up confused, angry and armed.
For a run-down on all the characters, see the NEW READERS page.
Look forward to the next strip! Really makes my day reading it. Thanks again, love it!
“Shoot you on principle.” Good one. Really like the detail in cabin interior. For some reason, ever since she pulled the gun I’ve been thinking about how Sigourny Weaver’s character blew the hatch at the end of the movie “Alien.” But that would kind of kill the Cassandra/Simon part of the storyline real quick. Besides being out of character for Simon. Tho’ Flagg may already have thought of it . . .
‘Yeah, he has that effect on people.’
rofl right on target..great line:)
“Tripline, what did you do?” I just love how Falgg passes her animosity right off on Simon
I love the last panel. It looks as if Cassie leans back to be as far away as possible because she’s so appalled from finding out that Simon’s with Flagg.
And I agree with Mike, awesome dashboard. It looks like there are panels for a co-pil… driver.
I love that last panel too. Good stuff Steve. Man Flagg is like salt in a wound.
Wow. Ya sleep in til 10:15 ONE SATURDAY and everyone comments on your strip! heh heh… Nice to wake up to. Man I was tired.
Kev – thanks for coming out of seclusion to say hi! It’s always great to add to our little band.
Mike – where do you get your crazy ideas? heh heh. Yeah, Cassie’s a bit ticked off, and I have a feeling, not quite fully awake yet.
Nixon – That’s that little throwaway stuff I love so much. I giggle every time I think about it.
Ed – That may be my favorite part of today’s strip. It sums up everything about Flagg in one sentence. heh heh…
Sardtok – Yup. She’s holding him at arm’s distance the same way Simon was holding her at arm’s length before, but for different reasons. Tells you a lot about them. Thanks for weighing in!
Tom – I know, right? He’s a real winner. (Thanks for the typo find earlier…)
Geez. She gets shot out of the sky and left for dead ONE TIME and goes totally off the deep end because of it. Over-reacting much?
I’m glad to see you list it out that way. I was worried she’d look like she was overreacting, but I think she’s acting about right. She definitely woke up hot, and shoot-first-ask-questions-later isn’t her usual mode, but she did just get shot down and left for dead as you say, and I think she’s a little groggy. I think we’re seeing the True Cassie here, no layer of professionalism, no BS. This is her, scared, tired, disoriented, probably in a fair amount of pain, and “held captive” by a stranger. BOOM! heh heh…
Thanks for the note.
Your characters sure have ‘personality’, and Flagg’s is pretty much all done with dialog. Well done. Kudos!
Thanks, Uther. I’m very pleased to hear you say that because my decision on handling Flagg was exactly that – his character is delivered mainly through voice. Most of the time you don’t even see his face – not that he has too many expressions; what, annoyed and angry, eh? – so I knew it would come down to the writing on him. Luckily, he’s fun to write for. His idiotic little zingers always amuse me.
Cassie’s looking great. I like her look better in this chapter as opposed the the first chapter. Details I’m digging: Her eyes in panel one. That little line underneath, and the curled eyebrow help form a perfect expression of anger, but her right eye has a more questioning look. Her face in that one shot summarizes what happens in this entire sequence. Also, her all leg standoff pose is awesome.
Thanks, Mark. Yeah, I went back and re-designed Cassie. If you go back and look at the first strips of Chapter One, I adjusted her closer to the updated design. However, I didn’t “get” her until now. Ugh. Turns out 8 months of drawing this strip have had a big positive effect on my hand. You guys are seeing me learn to draw on the job.
I like the look of everything better now – I cringe at some of the early stuff, and although I corrected the worst of it for the book, there comes a time when you just have to shrug and say, “That is a record of where I was as an artist at that time,” and move on.
Glad you like it. That pose of Cassie is one of my favorites, and I must confess, my wife (6 feet tall, 38 inch inseam) posed for it.
Okay, since you said you changed Cassie, I’ll stick my head out, did you change her hair color? After her long absence when she returned I was shocked to see she was blond. I thought she was a dark brunette.
Nope. She’s always been white blonde. Again, the wife…
My characters have been changing like crazy over my time drawing my strip too. It’s amazing; You think you have a character solidified, but your hand slowly lets you know that you were doing it wrong the whole time.
I love the posing in the last frame.
Simon’s deadpan comments, and the general banter… really great stuff, sir.
Thanks, everybody. It’s nice that we’ve got some character stuff happening in the middle of a tense standoff scene, and people are responding so well to the character stuff.
I kind of like that there’s some development in the look of the characters.
It’s one of the things that makes long running comics a lot of fun. You can go back and look at how the characters have changed over the years.
There will probably be lots more little changes over the coming episodes.
I’m glad you sort of like it, Sardtok. I’m sort of annoyed by it, actually. What you are seeing is me gradually getting my hand back. When I first began back in May of last year, I hadn’t been drawing much at all, so what you’re seeing is as good as I was able to do. I still have a long way to go, but drawing every week for the past 9 months has been good for my hand, and I’m getting back some of the talent I had in my 20s.
I’m sure you will see things change over the next few years as I go. I wish I could go back and redo all the strips, but there’s little point in it.