Whoa-was the good Captain Barometer actually blowing people’s heads off? If so, you weren’t kidding when you said the next episodes would be brutal. And why do I get the feeling Cap himself just bought it when his helmet got shattered? And speaking of shattered, there wen’t JS’ arm in the last panel-ouch.
Very nice fight scenes between Alaric and Tom-didn’t know Alaric was tough enough to not only stand up to Tom like that, but also smack him around.
It does feel that way, doesn’t it. This encounter has been building for years of the comic (our time and their time). This battle changes everything, really.
Good to know that when someone’s head explodes, the sound it makes is ‘sploot’.
But yeah, from what I’m seeing, I’m thinking that Barometer is out, Saturn is hurt bad, and the remaining guys are going to be duking it out, just in time for Symphony to show up in his new black threads and change things.
Hey I said Cpt. Barometer was out to get some heads ! Did Ti Tom just buy the farm ? You did describe him as the Hulk with green bile ranged attack. So just how strong is Alarac with that hammer ?
The hammer is tinanium, as it turns out. Alaric and Tom and pretty evenly matched in terms of shear physicality, but a big ol’ hammer gives Alaric the edge.
As you can imagine, I’m pronouncing anyone dead or alive until “Aftermath,” the next chapter arrives. Well, obviously Subsonic and Dr. Somnombulance are dead…
The lack of background kind of kills the epic feel of this for me. It makes it feels like we’re getting snap shots at a recap rather then being there while this is all happening, at least it does to me anyway. Particularly since we have one character appearing to be in two places at once these don’t seem to really all be happening together at once as part of an epic battle. (Unless of course that is her super power which I hope is the case.)
To me I read this more like:
*click*
And here we have this guys head exploding
*click*
Then this guy.
*Click*
Oh and then he gets taken out from behind.
*CLICK*
Oh and here is one of my kitten mittens. Heh, sorry I guess I forgot to pull that one out.
*click*
Oh but her we have Tom getting beaten down. That hurt pretty bad didn’t it Tom?
Sorry you read it that way, Nick. The sequence is constructed to be read right to left or top to bottom–It all still works chronologically.
My thinking on the use of backgrounds in a case like this is that lack of background puts the focus squarely on the characters. How do you other readers read it? Going backgroundless on this segment was a conscious choice, but I could be wrong in my application of it.
I like it is a real play by play or blow by blow. I liked that it can be read top down. Ouch Greg Ouch! I am really enjoying Captain Barometer and TiTom though.
I see what you’re trying to do, Scott—pluck moments from the confusion that any melee battle generates to let us see the specific points that you think are important towards advancing the story. On the other hand, by doing so, you ‘rob’ us of a chance to see, say, Skorn whirling through the battle like the engine of destruction she is, scrambling Barometer’s brains in one moment before rolling over smoothly to break Saturn’s back. My medium is words, but I’ve written enough melee scenes to understand the problem—if you show everything happening at once, is your audience going to pick up on what you want them to? And if you try to do something more linear, are they going to understand the grand chaos, get the ‘big’ picture?
Personally, I think the solution is to follow one character through the whole thing, in this case, Saturn, and put everything else into the background, letting us ‘catch as catch can.’ (Or perhaps double back and follow the Utopian next and get a different perspective—dammit, though, that could be confusing chronologically) And yet, the last time you did this, I whined about not getting to see Alaric’s arm torn off (more on that below). Doubtless this time someone would say, “But Scoootttt! I wanted to see TiTom’s head bitch-slapped up clooossseee!”
In the end, I think Mr. Nelson express it best: “ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.” If this is what works for you, advances the story you want to tell in the best way you can imagine, then it’s the right way, no matter what we think.
But maybe you could give us another ‘overview shot’ soon? Pretty please?
P.S. I’ve had an irrational hatred of Alaric and Skorn’s oversized guts ever since they first appeared in this comic. I can’t believe it, but I’m actually rooting for that thumping ass Tom. Hopefully, next panel he’ll barf green radiation on Al, and maybe melt him. And maybe someone can peel Skorn of her tats.
Thanks, Rob. You got perfectly what I was trying to do here, although I appear to have extended my reach a bit. In any case, as you said, a more simplified approach would have worked better here.
Wow, gotta say this looks rough, especially for the heroes.
Barometer killed two, but looks to have been permanently injured or killed himself; any blow that can shatter a helmet on top of someone’s head like that has likely killed the person wearing it, if for no other reason than their neck can’t stand that sort of blow and would snap – unless Barometer’s much tougher than we thought…?
TiTom’s taken a huge head blow himself (with a Ti sledge hammer no less). Since the hammer didn’t bend or break (and rather than “bong” or similar, the sound effect was “bluudth” which sounds much closer to the fatal “sploot” sound if you ask me), I’m assuming TiTom’s head caved in – but even if it didn’t he’ll be sporting some sort of incapacitating head trauma at the very least, and therefore out of the fight.
JS2 kicks some butt at first and looks like he takes Lacerator and another out the fight himself, but while it might be possible to see that last scene and merely claim a broken arm, I gotta agree with others and say it looks far more to me like his back’s been broken, taking him permanently out of the game even if he survives.
So, two villians dead and two more out of the fight, but at least one hero dead (Iron Claw) and three out of the fight, more probably 2-3 heroes dead and one permanently injured, all of them out of the fight unless Scott pulls a whopping big rabbit out of …somewhere. While the odds might technically still be even, again I say, looks to me like the heroes are taking the worst of it.
BTW Scott, I liked the last scene – it was a great way to show a lot of action happening quickly, which in a static medium like this is really hard to convey. Balanced with more focused closeup shots (like Lacerator vs Iron Claw) I think the combination will work very well. The only critique I might offer is that this combat is supposed to be a very chaotic scene, and you used a very defined square 3×3 matrix to depict the action shots, which suggests something more orderly; instead for the next matrix scene (even if it’s a 3×3), offset the pictures some, perhaps draw 2 or three of the shots a little larger than the others, possibly even use more “camera” angles (like you did on the center shot, showing an overhead of TiTom getting walloped by the hammer).
Last comment – I’m betting you’ve broken JS2′s back, because (and let’s be honest) the whole bit earlier showing JS1 getting better seems to me to be pretty obvious foreshadowing that he’ll likely be taking up the JS mantle again, even if it’s not what the character “planned on” doing.
Great story arc, looking forward to what happens next!
Somehow I’m rooting for Tom here, during the last few pages he’s grown on me. I think we didn’t see enough Tom to be a fair judge of his character. It’s also somewhat surprising that he didn’t use his green energy attack to full effect.
As for JS’s injuries, not completely sure because of the angle but it seems more like a broken pelvis and lower ribs to me. She seems to hit him on the black stripe and that’s the side of his costume.
One interesting sidebar on helmets: Motorcycle helmets are meat to crack apart and disperse the force or a blow. Each helmet is good for only one real impact. This in no way implies that motorcycle helmet will keep a rider from being killed, getting a broken neck, etc., but they are ingeniously designed.
When I was a teenager, I worked at a motorcycle shop, and I got to see first hand the devastating results of bike crashes. Two of the people I went to high school with died on motorcycles at about the same, both right after we graduated. I just mention this to say that I’m not unrealistic about such things.
Just a comment. Titanium is a terrible material for a mellee weapon. It doesn’t hold an edge so it should never be used for blades and it’s very light so it’s use in blunt objects is somewhat limiting. I imagine that someone like Alaric would want something heavy at the end of his hammer to really maximize the kenetic energy delivered. Perhaps a depleted uranium head wrapped in titanium so he doesn’t leave radioactive dust everywhere. That would provide the maximum density and impact. Just like the military uses in it’s anti-tank projectiles. Anyway it TT is anything like the Hulk he may just regerate from that savage blow.
And I’m less worried about the exploding helmet than the blood that’s coming ot of Barometer’s mouth. That screames internal injury though not necessarily fatal it’s problematic.
You’ll notice he already had that blood b4 the last blow and it seems to be streaming from his nose, and around his mouth. Most likely someone punched him in the face and the helmet impacted on his nose.
Although it’s not always easy to see, a lot of the brawler characters already have bloody faces from shots to the nose, smashed or split lips, or a host of other injuries.
Whoa-was the good Captain Barometer actually blowing people’s heads off? If so, you weren’t kidding when you said the next episodes would be brutal. And why do I get the feeling Cap himself just bought it when his helmet got shattered? And speaking of shattered, there wen’t JS’ arm in the last panel-ouch.
Very nice fight scenes between Alaric and Tom-didn’t know Alaric was tough enough to not only stand up to Tom like that, but also smack him around.
Alaric is very tough. He’s not Incredible Hulk tough, but he’s way up there.
Yes, Barometer is blowing peoples heads off. Goodbye, Dr. Somnombulism and Subsonic.
This feels so… so… Kingdom Come final…
It does feel that way, doesn’t it. This encounter has been building for years of the comic (our time and their time). This battle changes everything, really.
Good to know that when someone’s head explodes, the sound it makes is ‘sploot’.
But yeah, from what I’m seeing, I’m thinking that Barometer is out, Saturn is hurt bad, and the remaining guys are going to be duking it out, just in time for Symphony to show up in his new black threads and change things.
Yeah, it’s “Sploot.” Well, I’m not sure if an exploding head makes a specific noise, but Sploot sound reasonable to me.
Now that is some nasty butt kicking. Looks like Johnny is going to need a long break after this, that is if he makes it.
Yeah. There’s never any guarantees in this comic that any one character will survive. If JS dies, then it’s on to Johnny Saturn III.
Or back to JS I now that his back is feeling better…..which is kind of ironic seeing where JS II got hurt here. I’m sure that wasnt planned
Hey I said Cpt. Barometer was out to get some heads ! Did Ti Tom just buy the farm ? You did describe him as the Hulk with green bile ranged attack. So just how strong is Alarac with that hammer ?
The hammer is tinanium, as it turns out. Alaric and Tom and pretty evenly matched in terms of shear physicality, but a big ol’ hammer gives Alaric the edge.
As you can imagine, I’m pronouncing anyone dead or alive until “Aftermath,” the next chapter arrives. Well, obviously Subsonic and Dr. Somnombulance are dead…
The lack of background kind of kills the epic feel of this for me. It makes it feels like we’re getting snap shots at a recap rather then being there while this is all happening, at least it does to me anyway. Particularly since we have one character appearing to be in two places at once these don’t seem to really all be happening together at once as part of an epic battle. (Unless of course that is her super power which I hope is the case.)
To me I read this more like:
*click*
And here we have this guys head exploding
*click*
Then this guy.
*Click*
Oh and then he gets taken out from behind.
*CLICK*
Oh and here is one of my kitten mittens. Heh, sorry I guess I forgot to pull that one out.
*click*
Oh but her we have Tom getting beaten down. That hurt pretty bad didn’t it Tom?
Sorry you read it that way, Nick. The sequence is constructed to be read right to left or top to bottom–It all still works chronologically.
My thinking on the use of backgrounds in a case like this is that lack of background puts the focus squarely on the characters. How do you other readers read it? Going backgroundless on this segment was a conscious choice, but I could be wrong in my application of it.
I like it is a real play by play or blow by blow. I liked that it can be read top down. Ouch Greg Ouch! I am really enjoying Captain Barometer and TiTom though.
Keep it up!!
Also JSIII could be a Johnny Saturn clone hahaha!
Hi, Dustin! Yeah, JS pays the price of being a non-powered human in this one.
Johnny Saturn–The Clone Wars… The Johnny Saturn Clone Saga?…
JS II has had his back broken it looks like to me, and Damn she is very dispassonate kind of like a butcher……
Skorn is as hard as they get. She’s all brutal business.
please not a clone saga…
Worry not. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the last clone saga I read.
Some people refuse to die out of sheer stubbornness.
Some refuse to die out of spite.
Some refuse because they think that they still have things to do.
Some people don’t die because they’re the Almighty’s way of letting us know that he is here and has a twisted sense of humor.
Ti Tom is a little bit of all of those, so I’m not that worried about him. Alas, Capt. Barometer, we hardly knew ye.
Wow–Excellent summary!
I see what you’re trying to do, Scott—pluck moments from the confusion that any melee battle generates to let us see the specific points that you think are important towards advancing the story. On the other hand, by doing so, you ‘rob’ us of a chance to see, say, Skorn whirling through the battle like the engine of destruction she is, scrambling Barometer’s brains in one moment before rolling over smoothly to break Saturn’s back. My medium is words, but I’ve written enough melee scenes to understand the problem—if you show everything happening at once, is your audience going to pick up on what you want them to? And if you try to do something more linear, are they going to understand the grand chaos, get the ‘big’ picture?
Personally, I think the solution is to follow one character through the whole thing, in this case, Saturn, and put everything else into the background, letting us ‘catch as catch can.’ (Or perhaps double back and follow the Utopian next and get a different perspective—dammit, though, that could be confusing chronologically) And yet, the last time you did this, I whined about not getting to see Alaric’s arm torn off (more on that below). Doubtless this time someone would say, “But Scoootttt! I wanted to see TiTom’s head bitch-slapped up clooossseee!”
In the end, I think Mr. Nelson express it best: “ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.” If this is what works for you, advances the story you want to tell in the best way you can imagine, then it’s the right way, no matter what we think.
But maybe you could give us another ‘overview shot’ soon? Pretty please?
P.S. I’ve had an irrational hatred of Alaric and Skorn’s oversized guts ever since they first appeared in this comic. I can’t believe it, but I’m actually rooting for that thumping ass Tom. Hopefully, next panel he’ll barf green radiation on Al, and maybe melt him. And maybe someone can peel Skorn of her tats.
Thanks, Rob. You got perfectly what I was trying to do here, although I appear to have extended my reach a bit. In any case, as you said, a more simplified approach would have worked better here.
Wow, gotta say this looks rough, especially for the heroes.
Barometer killed two, but looks to have been permanently injured or killed himself; any blow that can shatter a helmet on top of someone’s head like that has likely killed the person wearing it, if for no other reason than their neck can’t stand that sort of blow and would snap – unless Barometer’s much tougher than we thought…?
TiTom’s taken a huge head blow himself (with a Ti sledge hammer no less). Since the hammer didn’t bend or break (and rather than “bong” or similar, the sound effect was “bluudth” which sounds much closer to the fatal “sploot” sound if you ask me), I’m assuming TiTom’s head caved in – but even if it didn’t he’ll be sporting some sort of incapacitating head trauma at the very least, and therefore out of the fight.
JS2 kicks some butt at first and looks like he takes Lacerator and another out the fight himself, but while it might be possible to see that last scene and merely claim a broken arm, I gotta agree with others and say it looks far more to me like his back’s been broken, taking him permanently out of the game even if he survives.
So, two villians dead and two more out of the fight, but at least one hero dead (Iron Claw) and three out of the fight, more probably 2-3 heroes dead and one permanently injured, all of them out of the fight unless Scott pulls a whopping big rabbit out of …somewhere. While the odds might technically still be even, again I say, looks to me like the heroes are taking the worst of it.
BTW Scott, I liked the last scene – it was a great way to show a lot of action happening quickly, which in a static medium like this is really hard to convey. Balanced with more focused closeup shots (like Lacerator vs Iron Claw) I think the combination will work very well. The only critique I might offer is that this combat is supposed to be a very chaotic scene, and you used a very defined square 3×3 matrix to depict the action shots, which suggests something more orderly; instead for the next matrix scene (even if it’s a 3×3), offset the pictures some, perhaps draw 2 or three of the shots a little larger than the others, possibly even use more “camera” angles (like you did on the center shot, showing an overhead of TiTom getting walloped by the hammer).
Last comment – I’m betting you’ve broken JS2′s back, because (and let’s be honest) the whole bit earlier showing JS1 getting better seems to me to be pretty obvious foreshadowing that he’ll likely be taking up the JS mantle again, even if it’s not what the character “planned on” doing.
Great story arc, looking forward to what happens next!
Somehow I’m rooting for Tom here, during the last few pages he’s grown on me. I think we didn’t see enough Tom to be a fair judge of his character. It’s also somewhat surprising that he didn’t use his green energy attack to full effect.
As for JS’s injuries, not completely sure because of the angle but it seems more like a broken pelvis and lower ribs to me. She seems to hit him on the black stripe and that’s the side of his costume.
One interesting sidebar on helmets: Motorcycle helmets are meat to crack apart and disperse the force or a blow. Each helmet is good for only one real impact. This in no way implies that motorcycle helmet will keep a rider from being killed, getting a broken neck, etc., but they are ingeniously designed.
When I was a teenager, I worked at a motorcycle shop, and I got to see first hand the devastating results of bike crashes. Two of the people I went to high school with died on motorcycles at about the same, both right after we graduated. I just mention this to say that I’m not unrealistic about such things.
Just a comment. Titanium is a terrible material for a mellee weapon. It doesn’t hold an edge so it should never be used for blades and it’s very light so it’s use in blunt objects is somewhat limiting. I imagine that someone like Alaric would want something heavy at the end of his hammer to really maximize the kenetic energy delivered. Perhaps a depleted uranium head wrapped in titanium so he doesn’t leave radioactive dust everywhere. That would provide the maximum density and impact. Just like the military uses in it’s anti-tank projectiles. Anyway it TT is anything like the Hulk he may just regerate from that savage blow.
And I’m less worried about the exploding helmet than the blood that’s coming ot of Barometer’s mouth. That screames internal injury though not necessarily fatal it’s problematic.
You’ll notice he already had that blood b4 the last blow and it seems to be streaming from his nose, and around his mouth. Most likely someone punched him in the face and the helmet impacted on his nose.
Although it’s not always easy to see, a lot of the brawler characters already have bloody faces from shots to the nose, smashed or split lips, or a host of other injuries.
I honestly didn’t know that about titanium–Thanks! You’ve given me some ideas for the future.
That fight between Titanium Tom and Alaric is a bit weird. It’s up very close and personal and yet, Alaric’s swinging a great big long-handled hammer…