PAGE THIRTY THREE. Interior MAP crawler. Medical bay.
I know not everyone is gonna agree with me (and why should they), but I love pages like this. Now, that may sound slightly self-serving because there’s a lot of dialogue on this page, which I wrote, but I like reading dialogue in other comics too. It is a huge challenge to make these characters interesting and even endearing when you only have one page a week in which to do it. A page like this, where Vikki and Kessler aren’t “on” (rocking or shooting), is not as common as I’d like.
I think the awkwardness is great. Nic draws a great embarrassed Vikki in the first panel, though I think the final panel is actually full of subtle expression. And we get a little sense of Kessler’s motivation; he’s a warrior who doesn’t like being the front man.
Thanks again to everyone who supported the comic at C2E2. It was a great show and I am certain we will be back next year. If only for the delicious churros!
The next stop on the ‘Free Mars’ Naff’d Up Tour is Adepticon next weekend. Nic has done a lot of the promotional art for the convention, including a very cool version of Hannah Valerus (more on her later). The print compilation of the comic will be available there as well. And, of course, Dan Abnett himself will be in attendance. Personally, I’m gonna ask him to sign a copy of Annihilators #1. If you haven’t picked it up, it is my favorite new series:
http://marvel.com/comic_books/issue/36644/annihilators_2010_1
The Hannah Valerus Chronicles. Starting next week, we’ll be posting the first installment of our sure-to-be-irregularly-updated spin-off series. The format will be a little different: 3-5 page short stories with a few illustrations per episode. I won’t say too much about Captain Valerus, though she already has a 28mm miniature version of herself. I think of her as the Boba Fett action figure* of the ‘Free Mars’ universe. You don’t know who she is yet, but she looks pretty naffing cool.
Finally, I want to acknowledge those suggestions and emails about having actual original music. Believe me, I am all over it. And I hope to have more news for you in the coming weeks.
Wow, sorry for the long post. See you next week.
Dave
As a writer myself I know the importance of dialogue (and how fuqing hard it can be to write) in establishing a character’s persona. I really like where this is headed.
I’m really looking forward to this HVC side project. Good luck with it.
Great page, really.
I was about to post the following after reading the comic page but I read Dave´s post first… Now I know that we share something else besides knowing Nic and loving his work.
What I was going to post was that I think this is a lovely page, not cute lovely but story and pace lovely. I think this page is great and that it says a lot about the characters and the world they live in.
I enjoyed this one Nico and Dave.
Isnt the how it always go some snake acts all gallant and says um hey your nipple is showing but on another note your song is awesome care to be the new face of our army?
Original music sounds awesome! I would love to see if my band could put anything together, though I’m not sure if I could possibly do justice to the epic space-punk that the comic suggests.
Is there a tune for the lyrics of Anthem?
Annihilators is amazing
Wow, this comic is rather awesome. I’m pretty sure I got here by way of an ad from Locus, & if not, in any case here’s a new reader as result of advertising! Is this all done with pen and marker? Impressive! Love the style, the story, and I agree with what you say about the importance of dialogue. Just as important is how it’s staged, which you lot are pulling off brilliantly. Added this to my RSS feed, I look forward to tagging along for the ride.
The comments are very much appreciated this week. kaet- thanks for the kind words. I hope we continue to entertain and please always feel free to post comments/feedback.
fourthingsandalizard- I recently heard a demo of Anthem, done by a songwriter I know here in Chicago. There’s still a lot of work between the demo and recording a track with a female singer, but things are progressing on that front. The tune and style of his version is exactly what i had in mind. It’s got a low-fi quality, like Elastica or early Hole, but there’s also some room for some Butch Vig-esque production.
That said, if anyone out there has a band or just a guitar and wants to send me any ‘Free Mars’ related music, it is definitely an avenue I’d like to see visited. Maybe we even put together a compilation album at some point.
Me king. You queen?
Heh, Vikki looked so pissed off on the previous page that I was half convinced she wouldn’t care in the slightest.
And Kessler continues to be the single most interesting thing in the story.