On page 61, Leeta and Amazing are making their way through the labyrinth . . . but what’s that Leeta sees in the last panel? If you’re unsure, you might want to go back to page 3 and refresh your memory.
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I have a new illustration up at the Seeing Calvino tumblr. It looks like this:
But you should click through to get a better look at it.
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On page 60 our heroes enter into Major Ager’s labyrinth. At this point one member of the Electric Team is turned into a tree, one is a powerless human captive, two are too old to do anything, and the only two left to face the labyrinth have been turned into children. You know what I like? Stories where the odds are really stacked against the heroes. If heroes want to win, they should have to work for it.
When I was a kid I got so frustrated with the action/adventure cartoons on TV, like He-Man or GI Joe. Probably because of the restrictions on children’s television at the time, the villains were never presented as a serious threat. Skeletor never stood a chance against He-Man; GI Joe always mopped the floor with Cobra. After awhile it became sadly inevitable, and I started to feel sorry for the bad guys. It’s human nature to root for the underdog. When you’re writing action/adventure stories, the hero needs to be the underdog. And the more they’re outclassed, the more exciting the story. Which is why Die Hard is such a satisfying movie.
Action and adventure aside, we all face challenges in our daily lives. And sometimes we need a hero to show us that, as tough as mundane life can be, you just have to keep trying. A hero like Charlie Brown. Yesterday I posted a blog post, hopefully the first of many, about Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. If you haven’t already, I urge you to check it out.
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