Marooned Classics: #33

This was an interesting time in the strip. My buddy Steve Ogden had begun helping me out with working through some artistic and color issues, and this strip was one that he helped me out with. I didn’t actually do much to this one at all, other than add a sound effect and adjust the light by Asimov, as well as the speech bubbles. The light and shadow was pretty much fine.

It’s another strip where there are some weird drawings of John, I still was having some trouble working out certain poses, and his head again gets real thin in some spots.

One reason why I picked this one was that it was the introduction of Ril, one of my favorite characters, and one of the most popular characters in the strip. At the time, I felt the strip was far too male dominated and it needed at least one female. But I knew it had to be someone who could stand up to the stronger personalities of John and Asimov. Thus we get the hardened orphan, Ril. (And later, we got Atha as well – so now there’s two.)

Have you ever heard a creator (whether it be a writer or a cartoonist) talk like he doesn’t know why a character did something? Well, I’m about to do that now. I think it’s because we like to think that partly the stories and characters evolve on their own, and we’re just telling those stories as they come to us. It’s interesting. I’ve heard/read Tolkien and Charles Schultz reminisce about why one of their characters did something.

Anyway, I’ve often thought about why Ril decides to attempt to break John’s kneecap here. My initial thought was that maybe some other alien had done her harm. But Mars troubles are self made. I think now that the problem is she probably felt as though John were talking down to her like she was stupid, or a young toddler – which she is of course neither. She wasn’t going to bother explaining that to him, she just decided to let him know right away that she wasn’t some helpless little kid.

I think John got the point. Later they have their “orphan” discussion (where she calls him a “huge nerd”) and somehow they make a connection. Ever since then, John has had a real soft spot in his heart for this little girl. And certainly this is somewhat drawn from my own life, because I have two daughters, and I have two real soft spots in my heart for them

In the future, we will see more of Vita. It’s a pretty important place, actually.

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