Ten Notes on Page 268
Make sure you’ve read page 268, then join us below for the notes.
Let’s start off with some comments from the artist, the illustrious Mr. Joshua Burnett . . .
Notes from Josh
1. When drawing Beowulf, I always channel Brian Blessed, which is why he always looks so boisterously happy while beating people up.
2. I enjoyed making the Nazi goons just straight-up panic-stricken at the thought of fighting the King of the Geats.
3. The guy in the bottom corner of the second panel is a clear reference to the “running away guy” on the cover of Action Comics #1.
4. It should be obvious by now, but I really enjoy using op-art pattern backgrounds to highlight action scenes. Characters and SFX bursting out of panel boundaries is also a trope.
Thanks, Josh! And now we continue on with . . .
Notes from Leighton
5. To follow up Josh’s reference from #2, this is young Beowulf, whose dad is alive, so he’s still the Prince of the Geats.
6. I really enjoy how Josh does sound effects that are, like, just the thing that’s happening, like “Taze!” and “Shake!” and, best of all, “Socket!” Josh messaged me earlier today to tell me that he just realized his original inspiration for doing this was Ben Edlund, creator of The Tick.
7. The credits at the beginning of this story say that the words are by Abi and me, and the pictures by Josh, but Josh went above and beyond and wrote some of the words for today’s comic. In the first four panels, the only words we wrote were, “General Bose-Hosen! Save us!” That line’s in there so you’ll know the General’s name. All the other words in those panels are Josh’s. He tells me that the Nazi in panel 4 is saying, “I will shoot you with this Luger!” I don’t know German at all, I just use Google Translate for the Nazi dialogue.
8. Speaking of Google Translate, you can use it to learn just how goofy the name Bose-Hosen is.
9. I love the coloring in the last panel, particularly the hand. Something about it is just really ominous.
10. This story’s called “Ubermensch Unleashed,” and now it looks like that’s happened . . . the ubermensch has indeed been unleashed. But just who is he? We’ll find out next week!