Page 10 and the Zealot

As promised, more torture. Hopefully not torture for the reader. Alex is a bit too comfortable at writing the words of a mad man if you ask me (You should have read the original extended scene). That Redemption is quite a nutter! Poor Arthur looks pretty beat up and mentally abused here.

Again, this was a pretty quick page to draw. I’m happy with how it turned out. I recently told Alex, if nothing else I think my art is always quite striking. He thought it was a funny comment, but agreed. Then he agreed that it was better to be striking then common. Pretty much everyone who has ever taken the time to really critique my stuff has echoed some kind of sentiment about it being unique. So I’ve got that going for me.

I knew I found something special with the Redemption character design even before the nice compliments from Alex and Rawr, it was when I had just drawn his outline in his first panel and ask my wife what she thought. She made a shocked/slightly disgusted sound. It was quite a reaction from a woman who often seems somewhat disinterested in my drawing (she prefers to look at the completed stories).

I mentioned that Redemption’s look was heavily influenced by the knights of the crusades. I did not mention his mask was also inspired by the looks of luchadore masks, which often contain crosses and christian imagery, Rey Mysterio being the most famous of these. They often dress in the manner of super heroes and villains, so why not look to them?

And in case you didn’t see the comments, Rawr correctly guessed that Redemption is a replacement for the Jester. An improvement? I certainly think so, and I bet the fans agree since they bemoaned what they considered an out of place, unoriginal Joker parody. We listened, hope you’re all happy.

Speaking of happy, have a happy Independence Day! I’ll be spending the 4th watching the spectacular fireworks at Lake Tahoe, for the first time (Everyone always goes on about how amazing it is. Guess I’ll see for myself). For all our non-American fans, go about your normal business.