Post by Jeff on Aug 18, 2007 1:00:08 GMT -5
Ep 19: A Brief Respite
After only two episodes, Phil was already beginning to annoy me as a character. How far could you go with an overly effeminate not-so-bad guy whose sole motivation was to kill a character that clearly wasn't going to die? I had a lot of better ideas waiting in the wing, so I bumped Phil off without any real tact nor explanation, only to introduce a conflict I found more interesting.
As mentioned earlier, I'd been wanting to do the Not Even Close to a Unicron Wanna-Be idea way back in the early planning stages of ACT, and the Shogun Warriors Mazinga robot seemed like a perfect choice for a ridiculously large, cheap-looking nemesis that clearly wasn't Unicron. He really echoed the feeling set out in the first episode of rag-tag toys being thrown together to tell this story. Using a more polished looking robot would have ruined this effect. This particular Mazinga toy was an ebay bargain find -- scuffed up, missing stickers, broken in places, and having the wrong left arm. I kid you not. His left arm belongs to another robot named Raideen. That's why it looks disproportionate in far shots. You just can't intentionally customize toys to look this rag-tag. Absolutely priceless.
Some notes on the episode, itself:
The title parodies an episode of Robotech (which my wife and I were really into at the time) called "Farewell, Big Brother," in which a major character dies. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Who the heck is going to get a Robotech reference? Absolutely no one is who.
The "Lemon Tree" reference in panel two still embarrasses me to this day. When I was growing up in New York, Lemon Tree was a discount barbershop chain synonymous with terribly awful haircuts. I naturally assumed Lemon Trees were nationwide and, thus, that the reference was universal. My mistake. No one gets this reference.
I believe the third panel marks the first and only time I (or the narrator of the comic) speaks directly to a character, though it's a bit confusing. Only in hindsight have I realized that one could easily think The NECTBA Unicron Wanna-Be is saying this. I liked the comic effect of the author directly telling a character that he's about to be killed off because he isn't cutting it as an antagonist. Believing that the Unicron Wanna-Be is saying this ruins some of the effect. It also makes the next panel, in which Phil tries to explain that the "box thing" (narrative box) talked to him, seem thoroughly unclear.
I love the way the action came across between panels four and five. That "thunk" was such a gratifying effect.
In the process of lettering and resizing this episode before posting to the web, I suddenly realized that I'd neglected to put a cave backdrop behind the NECTBA Unicron. Then I began to wonder how the heck a robot that tall would fit in a cave in the first place? Instead of spending another hour doing another terrible job of cutting and pasting cave backdrop behind the Unicron Wanna-Be, I just decided to turn it into part of the gag. "Where'd the cave go?" Still makes me laugh...
Episodes 19 and 20 were posted on February 10th, 2003.
After only two episodes, Phil was already beginning to annoy me as a character. How far could you go with an overly effeminate not-so-bad guy whose sole motivation was to kill a character that clearly wasn't going to die? I had a lot of better ideas waiting in the wing, so I bumped Phil off without any real tact nor explanation, only to introduce a conflict I found more interesting.
As mentioned earlier, I'd been wanting to do the Not Even Close to a Unicron Wanna-Be idea way back in the early planning stages of ACT, and the Shogun Warriors Mazinga robot seemed like a perfect choice for a ridiculously large, cheap-looking nemesis that clearly wasn't Unicron. He really echoed the feeling set out in the first episode of rag-tag toys being thrown together to tell this story. Using a more polished looking robot would have ruined this effect. This particular Mazinga toy was an ebay bargain find -- scuffed up, missing stickers, broken in places, and having the wrong left arm. I kid you not. His left arm belongs to another robot named Raideen. That's why it looks disproportionate in far shots. You just can't intentionally customize toys to look this rag-tag. Absolutely priceless.
Some notes on the episode, itself:
The title parodies an episode of Robotech (which my wife and I were really into at the time) called "Farewell, Big Brother," in which a major character dies. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Who the heck is going to get a Robotech reference? Absolutely no one is who.
The "Lemon Tree" reference in panel two still embarrasses me to this day. When I was growing up in New York, Lemon Tree was a discount barbershop chain synonymous with terribly awful haircuts. I naturally assumed Lemon Trees were nationwide and, thus, that the reference was universal. My mistake. No one gets this reference.
I believe the third panel marks the first and only time I (or the narrator of the comic) speaks directly to a character, though it's a bit confusing. Only in hindsight have I realized that one could easily think The NECTBA Unicron Wanna-Be is saying this. I liked the comic effect of the author directly telling a character that he's about to be killed off because he isn't cutting it as an antagonist. Believing that the Unicron Wanna-Be is saying this ruins some of the effect. It also makes the next panel, in which Phil tries to explain that the "box thing" (narrative box) talked to him, seem thoroughly unclear.
I love the way the action came across between panels four and five. That "thunk" was such a gratifying effect.
In the process of lettering and resizing this episode before posting to the web, I suddenly realized that I'd neglected to put a cave backdrop behind the NECTBA Unicron. Then I began to wonder how the heck a robot that tall would fit in a cave in the first place? Instead of spending another hour doing another terrible job of cutting and pasting cave backdrop behind the Unicron Wanna-Be, I just decided to turn it into part of the gag. "Where'd the cave go?" Still makes me laugh...
Episodes 19 and 20 were posted on February 10th, 2003.