Electric Team

Page 275 is here! Review it so that the details are fresh in your mind, then read the notes below. 

1. This is Kaylah’s first full page of comics, as opposed to last time’s page, which had the big title at the top.  I enjoy how she interprets the characters with her expressive style, and her Dr. February looks great.

2. Lots of exposition here, but it’s been a couple of years since we last saw these guys, so I thought it was important to refresh the readers’ memories and make it crystal clear what’s going on with Jaxula and February.

3. In retrospect, what’s going on with the second panel would be clearer if panel 1 and 3 were laid out the same way, with the characters in the same position. That way you would get more of a sense that, for a moment, the characters disappeared, replaced by the swirl–which is the impression you’re supposed to get. That’s on me, since I came up with the breakdowns for the panels when I wrote the script. Still, given the script, Kaylah did a good job executing it.

4. For panel 2, the script just said there should be some kind of abstract swirls. I was curious to see what Kaylah would draw. I like what she did, spreading the cloud-like blobs throughout the page. And I love the way she colored them.

5. Dr. February calls Jaxula a “do-gooder” for the same reason she previously called the Electric Team “looters.” All she believes in is making money, and she assumes other people are the same. She genuinely does not believe that others are capable of having altruistic motivations, so when they say they are acting for the greater good, they must be lying to cover up something. When the Electric Team shows up and says that her machine is destroying reality, then they must be angling for a cut of the profits.

6. I leave it to the reader to decide if Dr. February is similar to any people in the real world.

7. Despite her deeply-ingrained selfishness and lack of compassion, Dr. February is not a total sociopath. She genuinely loves her husband. This is something Abi and I talked about long ago, when we were writing the Dr. February/Larzipan story. It would be easy enough to say, “They’re evil, they don’t actually love anyone, they just work together out of convenience.” But it seemed much more interesting to imagine them as an actual married couple, with a relationship that, while not perfect, is still based on mutual love.

8. Years ago when we were writing the February story, I had the idea that while February finds Larzipan attractive, Larzipan loves February for her mind, in spite of her hideous mammalian appearance. This was a nice twist on the old pulp science-fiction trope that aliens and monsters and whatever other creatures were always attracted to beautiful human women. I kept this detail in my head as some background knowledge about the characters, even though I didn’t expect to work it into the comic.

Then, when I was writing the script for this page, I thought, “Hey, why not?” It shows Februrary in a slightly different light.

9. I really like that bright red dress. It pops off the page.

10. I’ll be honest, there’s going to be some more exposition on the next page, but only a little, and then things are going to starting happening! Big action coming soon!

“Ubermensch Unleashed” reached its conclusion a couple of months ago, but I forgot to post the notes. Check out the final page, then read the notes below.

Let’s start off with some comments from the artist, the illustrious Mr. Joshua Burnett . . .

Notes from Josh

1. The Faerie Fountain is back up and running, and all the faeries are up and around. So the color palette has shifted to nice bright pastels and there’s butterflies everywhere to show that faerie magic is alive and well.

2. I think the faerie guard lady I drew in panel 1 is pretty cool looking.

3. Doesn’t embarrassed Beowulf in panel 4 look adorable? Love that guy!

Thanks, Josh! And now we continue on with . . .

Notes from Leighton

4. I’d already planned on mentioning how much I liked the guard in panel 1, and look, Josh mentioned her, too. I’d like to see her again someday.

5. I’ve mentioned before that Abi is taking a more active role in writing dialogue. On this page, she wrote the Fairy Queen’s dialogue in panel 2, and Chrysanthemum’s in panel 4. I point this out because I am proud of her.

6. When Chrysanthemum says “I’ve got to go home with my daddy,” she’s not talking about going back to the castle, where they’ve been saying; she means that they’re going back to their world, which is also the Electric Team’s world. When the Electric Team returns home, in the near future, Chrysanthemum will be with them, and she will be a character in the comic. So aren’t you glad you spent some time getting to know her?

7. I’m pleased that this story not only let us get to know Chrysanthemum better, but also tied up the Nazi plotline from The Electric Team #8. It’s looking back to the past AND toward the future, while also fleshing out some more details of the setting, like the Fairy Fountain.

8. But aside from tying up a plotline and setting up a future character, this story needed to be about something. There needed to be some kind of character arc. Since the story’s about Beowulf, a warrior from old-timey times, and Chrysanthemum, a young inventor, it seemed it could be about the conflict between their ideologies, and perhaps them learning to respect each other. Except that Josh and I already did that, in our story “Swords & Serpents,” which was about Druuj, a barbarian warrior, and Mr. Amazing, a guy who loves science, and the conflicts between their belief systems. So that was out.

I decided the conflict would be more about Beowulf not thinking that Chrysanthemum could handle the danger, and eventually learning to trust and respect her. On a realistic level, this is insane–of course you don’t take an 11-year-old girl out to fight Nazis, that’s a terrible idea! But on a more abstract level, I think that “Hey, man, the kids are alright!” is a positive message (and is also the theme of many of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World stories.) So while he had his doubts at the beginning of the story, at the end Beowulf is offering Chrysanthemum a job as a castle guard.   

9. This is Josh’s last page, at least for now. The thing about Josh is that if he couldn’t draw, he’d still be a good friend of mine, and if I didn’t know him personally, I’d still be a fan of his work. I love that guy as a person AND as an artist. So working with him is a delight. He contributed a ton of ideas to this story and brought it to life in a fun and dynamic way. I’d do comics with him all the time, except that he has a million ideas and projects of his own. He recently ran a successful Kickstarter campaign, and is working on making his eagerly anticipated zine Draugr & Draculas. Josh is not only a good artist, but a good writer, so he doesn’t actually need me to write scripts for him. Despite that, he generously carved time out of his schedule to draw these nine pages, and I greatly appreciate it.

Just today, Josh launched his very own Patreon page, which is going to include his original gaming content, so be sure to check that out!

10. Say good-bye to Josh, and get ready to say hello to Kaylah, who will be drawing our next Electric Team story, starring Jaxula Laserbeam. It’s coming soon!