Electric Team

Page 250 is here! Read it, if you haven’t already.

 

1. I can’t believe we’ve reached page 250—that sounds like such an impressive number. That’s more than 14 issues of a 24-page comic book. Watchmen was only 12 issues! Okay, page counts don’t actually equate to merit, I know that, but we should get some points for perseverance.

2. Look, it’s Skelman the Sorcerer! He’s a character that Abi and I created at the same time as Jason Occult, both of whom predate the Electric Team. He’s not a major character in our story, but I’m happy he’s finally made it in.

3. Most of our characters were based on toys. Skelman started life as an Adam Warlock toy. Here’s the picture I sent Sam as reference:

As you can see, she put her own spin on it.

4. I would say that Adam Warlock is my favorite non-Kirby Marvel Comics character, except that Jack Kirby kind of did create him. Kirby created Him, the golden artificial being who debuted in Fantastic Four, but it was Roy Thomas who renamed Him Adam Warlock, and gave him a new personality and a new mission, and Gil Kane who redesigned his look. Then it was Jim Starlin who took over and made Adam Warlock into the character we know and love today, to the point where most people think of Warlock as a Starlin character. Is Adam Warlock really the same character as Him? I don’t know, I can see both sides of the argument, but either way it’s the Jim Starlin stuff I love.

5. Most comic book characters were created by one or two people; the really complicated ones are the exception. Probably the big name character with the most ambiguous set of creators is Wolverine. Roy Thomas, who was editor at the time, had the idea for a Canadian super-hero named Wolverine. John Romita, who was the art director, designed the costume. Len Wein wrote the Hulk comic that Wolverine first appeared in, and Herb Trimpe drew it. But that version of the character is only vaguely recognizable; Wolverine didn’t become popular until they put him in the X-Men, where he was written by Len Wein again and drawn by Dave Cockrum, but Wein left and Chris Claremont took over, and it’s Claremont and Cockrum who really defined the character. So it seems like you’d almost have to say that Wolverine was created by Thomas/Romita/Wein/Trimpe/Cockrum/Claremont. Of course, Wolverine didn’t get really popular until John Byrne started drawing him . . .

6. Whoa, were we supposed to be talking about the Electric Team here?  Sorry. Just one more Marvel Comics related tangent, you can get the whole Jim Starlin Warlock series in one book, reasonably priced, and I highly recommend it. According to the blurb, “Starlin evolved Warlock to the next level, imbuing the character with the inner demons of a man-god on the brink of insanity. Forced to confront an evil version of himself and the nihilistic menace Thanos, Warlock’s conflicts weren’t just knuckle-grinding throw-downs; they were epic, existential struggles for his very soul.”

7. Okay, back to page 250. The script called for Jason to turn Skelman to stone. I thought that might be hard to pull off, and I didn’t know how Sam would choose to illustrate it, but I’m very pleased with the way she did.

8. I have a story in mind that I’ve wanted to write for years, about Skelman the Sorcerer’s childhood, back when he was little Sebastian Skelman. It’s a gothic horror story. I imagine it being black-and-white, in the style of a 70’s magazine like Creepy or Eerie. Maybe someday.

9. There’s some important character stuff going on here on page 250. We’re moving fast, in this story, and there’s lots of summarizing, so I thought it was important to stop for a moment and check in on the characters. As we can see, Brianna was happy with their carefree criminal lifestyle, running around having adventures, and has no interest in accumulating power. Jason, on the other hand, seems to have some sort of hunger for power, and apparently he’s been planning this all along.

10. As you may have noticed, this story has changed its color scheme every few pages, with each color scheme representing a new phase of Brianna’s life. We’re due for another color change on our next page, as we move into our final phase. That will be here in two weeks! Get ready!