Previously on Marooned…
While attempting to send a message to Earth, John fell ill. Ugo brought him to the Volotrum (also called The Dark Ones), his only remaining chance to be healed. The Listener, an apprentice of the Dark Ones – a human woman named Lian Fisher who crashed on Mars years ago – agreed to heal John. In doing so, she fell into some kind of coma – but returned in the nick of time with miraculous powers to help defeat the lizard-like Krosa. In the battle, Ugo’s wounds have revealed him as some kind of robot or machine, making Captain John more confused than ever!
New Readers
The current storyline starts right here, or you can read from the beginning. Be sure to check out the about page, which explains the story and the main characters.
Oh touche, nice joke about the silverware.
What’s with the running water in the background of panel 1, was that always there?
Nice. Altho, I think the new method of coloring has robbed Ril of some personality. Earlier strips, where you colored by hand added some texture to Ril which I really liked. That being said, I like the eyelashes being on one side.
Heheh.. silverware. Nice.
The water is a feature of Lian’s cave that has always been there. I haven’t really changed anything on Ril, not sure exactly what you mean. I did some texture way back when – but that was probably over a year ago.
Silverware, ha! . . . yeah, that was a good one. Nice work with Ugo’s facial expression in last panel also.
Yes, everyone’s fine – Lian’s a superhero, Ugo’s a robot, John’s a pistol-packin’ action hero… everyone’s fine, just fine… heh heh…
Meanwhile…
Heh, nice summary! I didn’t think of it that way
The line work in your last couple of strips has been really great (this one especially). Simple, but very deliberate. Have you been using the tablet or are you still inking by hand (or I guess I should say by pen, since you always use your hand).
Hey thanks Tony
I am still inking by hand, with the caveat that there are always little corrections done after scanning with the tablet. But yeah the bulk is done with Staedtler pens. I have been trying to pay more attention to my inking, I’m glad it shows a little.
I’m one of the many artists that suffers from losing something from pencil to ink. I do certain drawings that I really like, and then I ink them and they lose something. It just comes with experience.
On this particular strip, panel #5 came out really off – I had made both Ril and Ugo’s heads too oblong and tall for whatever reason. So I had to fix that with the tablet.
Losing something going from pencil to ink is a problem faced by almost every artist I know. It’s definitely something I deal with.
Maybe we should just all use our pencils as inks like Kazu did for Amulet.
Yep. I’ve thought about Kazu’s method, but I really think for me it would be way more work. My pencils are loose and messy to a point, and it would require a lot of cleanup. Might try it one day though, just to see.
I figure that Ugo’s construction has something to do with the Dark Ones.