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Katu Zoy Raiders

« "Thirsty Coin" Grady‹ JisounBizaKel ›Wayne Molly »

Page 19

z02_019

Weaving his way into the industrial and port district of Katu down in southern Sil, Murray is about to have an encounter with a gang of big rig hijackers known as the Katu Zoy Raiders. “That’s where the cattle prod comes in,” notes Murray in retrospect. And should every story have a point in which the cattle prod comes in? Well, thankfully not. But, it’s too late for this one. Here indeed is where it comes in.

The Schnockerbox craze is based on a similar consumer craze that I recall from my formative years, that being the fights that erupted in the aisles of toy stores between parents desperate to purchase the highly-coveted Cabbage Patch Kids circa 1983.

Fortunately, they weren’t something I really wanted as a child, but I remember seeing shaky cam video on national news broadcasts about the incidents. The nature of the Schnockerbox is intentionally nebulous here – it’s just something inherently worthless that people inexplicably have to have. What it actually is is of little importance, as what it really is remains the same – only its form and its brand changes over the successive shopping seasons.

Although Murray notes that Wayne might be too young to remember, the craze – having taken place in the early ’20s, was at most 11 years prior to the present day in 3331. More likely, Wayne wouldn’t remember or have been concerned having grown up without enough money for his grandmother, who primarily raised him, to afford one for him.

Page 20

z02_020

Is this the pivotal moment that derailed Murray’s songwriting ambitions? One minute he’s working out the meter of “a-rollin’ fo’ that thar pay-check” and the next, the muse is chased away with a resounding WHUMMPF!! I guess we’ve all been there, one way or another.

There aren’t many pages in Zoonbats that break from a standard panel layout, but this one does with the oval inset panel. The panel arrangements are intentionally bland, and primarily based upon the layout of Carl Barks’s Uncle Scrooge McDuck comics, although I don’t claim to have any degree of that artist’s mastery of the form.

Mainly I just didn’t want any of my readers, many of whom I expected read no other comic books, to have to think for a moment about which panel to go to next. Although I’m impressed with the way panel layouts and page designs have evolved over the decades in this literary form, this particular comic is in many ways a throwback to earlier times. Like the early decision to shade via hatching, the page design has resulted in a mixed bag of more and less effective pages. But for an artist who still has a lot to learn about the form, it still offers ample challenges with a small variety of possible panel shapes in which to compose shots.

Page 21

z02_021

For the most part, each cast member of Zoonbats is a fictional creation who shares at most only a few traits of specific people I’ve known (including myself, naturally). Murray Sepulveda is an exception, though, because he’s primarily based on a real person I knew quite a while back. Occasionally, for various personal projects, I interview some of the people I know, and this particular tale that Murray is sharing is in fact based on a presumably true tale that was told to me by the person who inspired him. The dialog is all just transcribed… with the exception of “FNAR!”, which I simply inferred.

The bandit on the receiving end of this zap also happens to look like a good friend of mine, but as I peruse these pages to compose these textual accompaniments, I can’t really remember if that was intentional. I can say that I wouldn’t mind having that jacket he’s wearing.

The practice of inserting narrative panels with a little circular portrait of the person speaking is something that I’ve heard other comics artists of the present day speaking poorly of, but I enjoy them. It’s not a particularly sophisticated narrative technique, but it gets the job done. A lot of people would say I shouldn’t write a story that’s ninety-percent composed of flashbacks either, but, well, here we are.

Page 22

z02_022

Judging by the architecture, Katu once knew much better days. But now there’s just a bunch of beautiful old empty buildings for lease, gradually deteriorating. How many beautiful cities are like that in the United States? The underdog cities, perpetually plunged into the losing end of the economics of scarcity.

Maybe in a healthier, better-managed economy, different areas could take turns at being winners and losers, establishing some sort of healthy circulation if we’re to believe that money is really “energy” – but there are places like this that have had the invisible boot heel of Adam Smith on their necks for generations. New Orleans. Memphis. Tacoma. Oakland. Detroit. Such is the case in Katu specifically, and currently on the moon of Shinma in general. Of course, I’ll have to cook up some different sort of name for the alien version of Adam Smith, if it ever comes up in conversation among the cast.

Meanwhile, the nascent draftsman in me must endure gazing in retrospect upon the ever-changing size and shape of the roof of Murray’s cab-over rig, which on this page expands to the proportions of a generous sleeper cab. Pay no attention to that sort of thing, please – focus instead on the well-rendered motion blur on the FZZZHNN! sound effect.

Page 23

z02_023

Boozy like to cut things! Well, it is an ideal situation if you can find enjoyment in your chosen line of work. Upon reflection, I feel that this is an interesting page in that the proportion of words in English to onomatopoeia seems to be getting close to leveling out.

There’s also a rare proliferation of expository thought balloons from Murray – I’ll have to ask him to dial that sort of thing back in future pages. But which of us could do better in such a situation, with the maniacal laughter, the SXAXK and XORNX of it all swirling around?

The final panel looks as though I’ve completed the time traveling effort back to the days of late 1960s-early 1970s underground comics, with the heavily hatched profile of Murray emitting a thought-bubble escape plan. Something about that excessive amount of hatching seems to put me in touch with the mounting paranoia of that era, even though it was a handful of years before I came into my current form. Unfortunately, I’ve mostly read only excerpts of the comics of those days – very rarely have I been able to read complete ones.

Page 24

z02_024

As Murray bemoans the challenging condition of his manual window roller – a feeling I reckon at least one generation of human Americans has never known – my thoughts turn to his apparel. This will be discussed within the story in later pages, but I wonder if Zoonbats ever catches on, would merchandise like Murray’s tank top CATFISH shirt possibly find a receptive market? I’m almost certain his BEER trucker hat would, if it hasn’t already – it’s just that its market in all likelihood wouldn’t even need members of the Zoonbats readership in its ranks to sell steadily. These are the sorts of thoughts going through my mind as I sit here, sipping a beer and typing these dubiously enlightening artist’s statements. Let’s see if I can work my way back around to something relevant to the artistic process.

The word “UGGA!” originates from the printed lyrics in Ice-T’s album, “O.G. Original Gangster.” The actual exclamation in the song is something that I would normally spell “Uh,” or “Ugh,” maybe “Ungh”… but whoever was tasked with typesetting this hip-hop double album’s worth of lyrics chose the spelling UGGA, and this was a source of tremendous amusement for me at the time. (And, come to think of it, continues to be.) The song, incidentally, is “Mind Over Matter” and could be Ice-T’s finest ever.

Presently, I feel sentimental for the days when I could pass hours by listening to music while reading a lyrics sheet. They were these pieces of paper that were included in a vinyl record or compact disc or cassette, and you could look at them and they’d have pictures and liner notes… well, I guess there is “album art” embedded in MP3s now, and you can just look up some hack’s attempt at interpreting the lyrics on the myriad of sketchy lyrics sites on the web.

I guess I didn’t really succeed at getting back to the artistic process on this page, after all. It’s more like I’m about to warn someone to stay off my lawn here.

 

Page 25

z03_025

Unfortunately, Murray’s early success in wielding the cattle prod seemed to be the peak of his prowess. “Sparky” is game to keep trying, though.

Maybe if Murray didn’t take the time to announce, “Looks like the last laugh is on you and your nefarious cronies!” before striking… These are the kinds of things we can discuss with a calm and rational mind as distant observers from the relative safety of a flashback, though – Murray was there in the heat of the moment and did the best he could.

Actually the timing of this panel would seem to be right at home in a mainstream superhero comic fight, in which the action is supposed to happen in the blink of an eye, but some sort of slow motion time warp enables the combatants to threaten and taunt each other with excessive verbosity. Unfortunately, though I had the book, I’m not capable of drawing action sequences “the Marvel way,” as the next several pages will prove at excruciating length… as if that hasn’t already become abundantly clear.

Page 26

z03_026

So much for Murray’s cattle prod-wielding prowess. The ominous KLATTER of “Sparky” on the Katu pavement is followed by Wayne and Murray’s ruminations on the nature of luck… the impartial wheel of Fortuna keeps turning. Sometimes you’re the fish, and sometimes you’re the bait. Wait… I’m not sure either of those is a good option.

The brief commentary by Murray and Wayne is a good example of a time that I’ve transcribed, more or less verbatim, an actual conversation I’ve had with someone. Usually these wonderful exchanges have happened in difficult workplace situations. In order to make personally meaningful (and enjoyable) art in a society that generally regards art as only decorations or background noise, artists who aren’t independently wealthy must find paycheck work and set aside whatever time is left over for their artwork. I’ve worked in food service, factories that manufacture cinder blocks, demolition, farms, driving delivery trucks… these jobs have ranged from exhausting to seriously dangerous. But I’ve met so many wonderful people, and expressing certain parts of my interactions and impressions of them through my artwork is one way that I kind of pay tribute to these honorable souls. Most characters aren’t based on any single person. Murray actually is, more than most of the others, but he’s still a fictional character and not just a representation of a real person. In this case, the dialog was with a different person, but the spirit of it matched with Murray’s character, so there you have it.

Page 27

z03_027

Boozy the mallard’s efforts to provide a homemade access portal to the shipment of Schnockerboxes awaiting within the trailer have proven successful. The riches await within. Originally intended as an homage to my friend Asher Dudley’s comic character Humphrey Duck, I now view Boozy with the eyes of a father whose toddler daughter’s fascination with ducks has afforded me the opportunity to learn much more about them. Specifically in this case that, judging by Boozy’s coloring, she is a female mallard. I’m also pleased to note that the way she wields the chainsaw is technically accurate.

The first panel of this page, with Murray remarking “*Ulp!* This don’t bode particularly well…!” strikes me now as a great example of the influence of the underground comix of the 60s and 70s on my work. The abstract background connotes, to me at least, the aesthetic of a religious illustration. The droplets of sweat bursting from Murray’s head, the BEER hat, the heavy and labored detailing and shading of Murray’s underarm… it all would have fit in so well with the mounting paranoia that followed in the wake of the Summer of Love. It’s an image that could have become a cultural icon, most likely through theft and bootlegging, like “Keep on Truckin’.” In lieu of that notoriety, though, at least I’ve amused myself without shopping or watching TV.

As for the meaning of the term “Zoy,” it’s a Silnai cuss word that could roughly translate to “fuck yeah.” “BLARG!!” and “BUH?!” I believe are universal and self-explanatory.

Page 28

z03_028

Encircled in shimmering rings of energy, we get our first sight of Cerene Symfonia and her steed, Jisoun. We can also see ads for YOMP (tagline: “Yes!”), which appears to be a chewing gum and/or breath mint, and Blatherbrau Beer (“Get some.”). I could have fit right in in the ad game! But everyone’s better off with me not doing that sort of work.

Cerene Symfonia and Jisoun are more supernatural than superheroic, but sometimes even spirits like to dress in personalized athletic gear. I don’t think I’ve put a whole lot of video game homages into Zoonbats, but Jisoun is, of course, pretty much directly borrowed from the ostrich in Joust by Williams Electronics. I’ve always loved the simplicity and intensity of Joust. It’s a game that, once you learn its basic controls, you can play with style.

I’d almost rather spend the next several pages writing about Joust than the fight scene that’s about to occur… mainly I wish I could reorganize the story of Zoonbats into more of a novel format than what it really is, a serial. Because I think the presence of a fight scene so early in this story probably gives people the impression that this is going to be a comic that’s full of fights… when in actuality it’s mostly just about people chatting and enjoying being on the road in a slightly bizarre world.

On the upside, any page in which the only dialog is “What th-?!” is a fun page to draw.

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