Here’s the cover to kick off the next majory story arc – Chapter 6: Lock(e)down. Locke Island is the location for the maxi-security prison housing the worst of the Magellan-verse’s most dangerous villains. It has been referenced in passing on a number of occasions and was introduced during the Bad Karma story on this page – as noted there, it is located 20km south of Magellan Island where the Academy and Force Magellan HQ are sited.
The name was derived from the character Locke, a master thief in Tim Demeter’s awesome webcomic Reckless Life (no longer online, that I know of anyway) – at the time we were both on Graphic Smash and I thought it would be amusing to use that name – as it turns out it also ultimately gave me a nice title for this chapter. So anyway, as you may be deducing, this chapter will be based around Locke Island and it will be an opportunity for you and the cadets to become uncomfortably familiar the many dangerous fiends that are incarcerated within the facility.
The cover shows a number of the characters we’ll be meeting – some of them you will probably already be familiar with from the last chapter Worst Field Trip Ever but some have only been glimpsed in dreams and day dreams (for example page 1.09 – Evil Weevil; or pages 3.01 and 3.02 – the Baxter Gang’s Fireball, Vanishing Vanessa, Stretch and Clobber) or have been name dropped in passing in the main comic (see the aforementioned page 4.92 – Vlax and Brainspike; or Redux – the Anti-President), or introduced in other material (see Charisma’s Kiss Me Concert – Sista Superior, which also mentions Assault and Battery; Charisma’s E-Tweets which mentions Gator Maid; and Crossoverkill – the Master Assassin). All of them and one more are included in the cover above – see if you can guess/pick them!
As for the cadets – they’ve finally moved into their second year and this story will mostly take place some months into that year. You may notice they’re now wearing the blue colour coded uniforms first seen being modelled by second year cadets Janice Blake and Hamish Bashir in Bad Karma see page 4.184. Three of the cadets have a new hair-style… Bill Banks, Maya Applecross and Jemima Castlemain. There are also two familiar faces in the purple colour coded first year cadet uniforms… yes, Brelvis Lonsdog and Gol… uh… Olga Beh!
I’m not going to give an expected page count for this chapter, that usually goes awry anyway! While I am hoping to keep it trim and taut it should still be a meaty entry into the pantheon of Magellan epics!
Is Bill Banks’ new haircut a response to learning of his incipient baldness?
ha! mayyyyybe! I’m sure Charisma will have something to say about it at some point!
It’s also the funniest thing on this page
So, on the villains’ side: from top to bottom we see the tendrils of whatever Mr Lonsdale is these days, as well as Malice and Grey; Sista Superior; an unknown in a blue turtleneck and another unknown in a black coat and magenta dress (one of these might be Vlax, but which…?); Vanishing Vanessa, a two-headed unknown (Assault and Battery?), the Evil Weevil, an unknown with an oddly-shaped cranium (Brainspike?), the Master Assassin, a reptilian-looking unknown (Gator Maid?), Stretch, an unknown in stars and stripes (the Anti-President?), Clobber, Fireball, and a psammomorphic unknown (can’t quite tell… but is that Cassie?).
On the Magellan side, Mudge has lost a fair bit of weight, as has Maya. Is there any significance to Chiq’s un-blue uniform coloration? And- uh-oh, what has Montana-Rose spotted off-panel?
Gotta say, I do so love your character development and storytelling…
Wow, awesome deductive work there – every single guess was right, and just to confirm, the one in the black & magenta ensemble is indeed Vlax. The one in the turtle neck is an as yet unnamed villain I might keep the name of a secret for the time being, And yes, we have Cassie the psammomorphic former security guard in there as well, There’s no specific reason behind Chiq’s colour coding… that’s just the colour of his enviro suit, a kind of silver (and yes, I said “his”…!).
Thanks, glad you like the comic and characters! D
Wait… HIS… That only makes me want to know MORE!!! Tell me MORE of this mystery character of wonder!!! Please please please!
A number of cadets’ backgrounds will be peeked into during this arc… and just maybe one of them will be Chiq!
Chiq is like the Slenderman of this comic, only without any creepy… He’s just there and I wanta know more!
From about page 10(ish) you should get your wish…
I love seeing my personal background character on this cover page!!! The Big Tall Thin Spacewoman whose name I forget… *looks on the cast page* Oh yeah it’s: chiq! I really hope we get to learn about this character in this chapture! Don’t care how just hoping that’s what we get! :3
Chiq is about as background a character as you can get… has been there since the start but is yet to speak a word! Chiq isn’t the only such cadet of course but he certainly stands out the most!
Adn that fact that he stands out makes me want to know more about him… He’s just such a cool Mystory to me!
WOW, impressive! Not just the amount of characters, but also how they’re all clearly visible and display different personalities. Nothing muddled about this cover. WOW, just … WOW.
Charisma approaches likability here. She seems at least serious about her task as a superhero, which is laudable. The presence of Sista Superior might have something to do with that.
I’m also very curious how you drew this extravaganza. Was this done entirely on the computer? Or did you create an actual ink-on-paper version of this? Either way, it’s an impressive piece of work!
thanks! It’s all hand drawn on paper, scanned in and coloured in Photoshop. The colouring took almost as long as the drawing!
I’d be very interested in seeing what your artwork looks like in reality. Would you like to show us your original art for this piece?
Sure, I’ll put it up next weekend.
That would be super awesome!
Wait… Charisma’s not just frowning upon Bill’s massive fro, is she? No, that can’t be it. She’s poised for battle and looking intense. I really like her pose!
So many of them simply look confused! I’m sure that’s on purpose… but I wanna know WHY!
Also, Bill’s hair was the first thing to jump out at me, too. Awesome.
I figured not all of them would be in agressive, fight ready poses… so based on the nature of the character I mixed it up a bit and tried to reveal how they might be feeling in the moment.
Nice cover! How many pages do you think/predict this chapter will be?
Thanks! Well, my predictions about page length are invariably wrong (except for Redux), often by a factor of three… I’m going to aim for 60-90… let’s see how I fare!
I bet this story hits 200 pages before it’s over.
haha… I sure hope not!
POOR SIDONE have we ever seen him be useful and he looks like he’s freaking out Im wondering if he’s really super hero material…
You mean Sioni? Well, he did almost lose his head to Lyta’s sword… that was the freak out I was trying to imply through his reaction…
Damn this page blew my mind. it is so awesome and i enjoy to look at both bad and good guys. so many expressions.
so, if that isn’t “attila the nun” I will be sad…
Ha, are you talking about the onenear the top? Sorry, but that’s Sista Superior!
man, a perfect monty python refrance ruined…
she at least get a razor sharp ruler?
She has atomic fists…!
Nice cover! And a great gaggle of bad guys!
thanks!