Heheh.... Abrupt, much? ^^ Sorry, folks, but that's the topper on this chapter. Don't worry, the next chapter'll explain who this guy is and what's going on before showing the kids fight him. Consider this an early look at the next chapter's main villain. ^^
But yeah, just re-enforcing the lesson of this chapter; the kids need to step up and start handling things themselves. The first step of that would be to keep fighting crime despite it being illegal, just to show that they've got what it takes to keep going.
Given the comics have been a bit close to the edge at this point in terms of production, I'm super proud I was able to get that casino floor looking as good as it does. I mean, LOOK at that main room of the casino. It's clearly designed to have super-heroes fight each other in it. Just before uploading this, Martin pointed out, "I dunno how you can go into that casino without expecting a boss fight."
Speaking of good art, God, look at that explosion! Me and Martin have been meaning to work on how we draw them for a bit, and after a little sit-down this was a really great result. ^^ Just KA-BOOM!
If you're curious, that guy in the last panel is Rick, the guy who writes the Blueblog fillers. If you've been keeping up with those... you probably know what's going on in that last panel. ^^
Speaking of, that line he as... "Shortstop" it turns out is a gambling term for people who only make small bets. I actually wrote up a lot of alternate lines for him to say in that last panel, some of which were things I knew I couldn't post on a PG comic.... A few of the ones that aren't were....
"THIS MONTE CARLO?! 'CAUSE I'M HERE TO BREAK THE BANK!"
"HERE'S YOUR HOT TIP, BITCHES! BET ON ME AND LET IT RIDE!"
"BRING OUT THE BOSS MAN! DICE AIN'T ALL I FEEL LIKE SHOOTING!"
"THIS WHALE IS GONNA... Uhh.... Something to... Crap, I thought of a line in the car and now I have no clue what it was...."
"THAT EXPLOSION WAS LOUD! I CAN'T HEAR! IS ANYONE A DOCTOR?!"
"IS THIS CHAPTER NOT OVER YET?!"
Okay, so this'll probably take enough explaining that we'll need to do a separate filler just to make sure it gets seen, but the broad strokes of it - the next chapter is going to be very, very different from the norm for us.
A big part of why the ending to this chapter is so abrupt is that the next one will be rewinding a bit and showing what's going on with Rick to have led to this point - to that end it'll probably be a fair while into the chapter before the kids actually show up and Rick will be taking center stage throughout it. Really hoping everyone is going to enjoy what's coming on that front, though we still have one more Rick filler to get through first. .... Which as scripted is super long so be prepared for that I guess.
We'll be giving some follow-through to the lingering hooks of this chapter, like the Peacekeepers seeing the kids, in that one, given it'll eventually resume right from where this one is leaving off. Kind of a consequence of how we wanted to do this story but hopefully the wait will be worth it.
Explosions were something we've been wanting to experiment with for a long time now. I tried it on my own time but just wasn't finding anything I was satisfied with; when this page was about done we pretty much did a sudden cram session to see if we could nail down a decent way to do it. I think there's still a little room for refinement here but think this is definitely on the right track, certainly beats the grey one we saw a few pages ago. Bonus points for the way it's positioned making it look like the entryway is breathing fire, which Adam didn't intend but I think is pretty cool.
Quick roundup on everything we've seen with Rick so far in Blues (don't really want to round up his WaR stuff at the moment, will get that on the last filler since it's more relevant there anyway), for anyone wanting to try and speculate on what the deal with him is before we really get into it.
I'm guessing most people didn't see this but it feels like a good time to bring up that we recently went back and edited one of the Blueblog pages due to a decision to change something retroactively. The original version of the page is in the comments and we have a quick explanation for it.
We'll be going on the usual filler break from here and then starting up chapter 24, Now You've Hit the Blue Time. Really hoping everyone enjoys that one, it's gonna get weird.
...My love of Spencer and Shinobu only grows...as they definitely do NOT qualify as ‘mature responsible grown-ups’. They are immature morally bankrupt adults! And that is just part of why I love them.
And if it’s as easy as tempting fate by saying stuff like that, they’ll build up street crew in no time! Just keep saying random flag raising phrases kids! It can’t possibly be worse! That has to be the last of them! Them and what army!
As aren’t shortstops also a baseball thing?
And if it’s as easy as tempting fate by saying stuff like that, they’ll build up street crew in no time! Just keep saying random flag raising phrases kids! It can’t possibly be worse! That has to be the last of them! Them and what army!