Surrounded on all sides

That is O'neil who is in his office, in a stylised pose

surrounded by machinery... (and dialogue)

and with Gun in hand....

But who is O'Neil gunning for?

Find out the beginnings of a answer - tomorrow

Halfway to paradise

Halfway to paradise

As I mentioned yesterday I have now finished part 2 of the Jim Sternakos serialised adaptation of Outland as originally published in Heavy Metal magazine

and at 22 pages out of 44 it is exactly half way through

I started on Friday 10th September 2010, around about 24 weeks ago so I have slipped a bit on 1 page a week overall, but have been making up for this recently with a page and bit a week

So I thought I would have a bit of a look back, but rather than say anything specific, I will let you decide the answers to the following:-

1. Has my interoperation of this material been improving as i go along
2. Has the blog been entertaining or irritating
3. Will you be around to see the project finished, which i estimate roughly as being 14th May 2011?

Just comment below or email me, it will be great to hear from you - Thank you all for visiting this blog regularly

Now, without further ado here is all the drawings so far to date together

I hope you like them

Confession on a squash court

So okay I have been saving the explanation as to what is going on in these pages for the finished two page spread as it makes more sense that way

so heres the page finished

and the double spread

So in a rather rare off duty moment O'neil and Monotone decide to slug it out on the squash court, a great place to work out stress for sure

But despite appearances O'neil's eye is figuratively not on the ball or the game as he uses this as a opportunity to ask those tough questions of Monotone

Monotone is immediately forthcoming and matter of fact there is no hint of any real regret or attempt to mislead, Montone basically says it's straight "I am being paid to look the other way"

Its clear from O'Neil's spoken reaction to this that he thinks this basically means Montone is a coward lacking backbone and on that basis decides he is not worth bothering about in terms of any real punishment

as he is more interested in the bigger fish in the shape of Shepherd

But like a few other things this does not seem to really make sense given what happens subsequently…

This aside for a moment the game of squash is being used to introduce drama to a moment where not much really exists as such, I mean when is the last time you saw a cutting edge cop tv show that had such questioning?

Quite interestingly (and this says probably a lot about the failings of the movie and by inferral what the adaptation has to try and deal with) there is no good cop / bad cop here its a plain matter of fact discussion little emotion here, almost as it the confession didn't matter and the game did

but as we have clearly seen the game is more or less meaningless - it seem to exist just to inject some variety and a change of pace into the movie..

anyway O'neil's decision to leave Montone does not seem to really make sense given what happens subsequently…

As we will find out starting next week

Tomorrow we will have a bit of a breather as I have made it around half way through the Outland project, so I will spend a little time to have a look back and reflect and see if I have progressed

Carried away by a moonlight shadow

Sorry I could not resist quoting the title of Mike Oldfield's song - after all it has connotations that fit Outland perfectly..

for example...

Just take a look at O'Neil's shadow in the drawing above - okay you might have to look closely as it has yet to receive a liberal pouring of ink

It actually spans the width of more than one page and aside from the planet sized squash ball completely dominates the whole panel

So you would think that O'Neil clearly being bigger the Monotone and "dominating" O'Neil would be wining the game?

This is where the analogy mentioned yesterday falls apart as its Monotone is winning the game...

But perhaps O'Neil is playing a different game and for different odds?

I will wrap this all up for the conclusion of part 2 of the serialised Outland tomorrow

"We are going to need a bigger court"

Yes it's that infamous line from "Jaws" paraphrased for this drawing here...

This in reaction to the Steranako's stylistic depiction of a squash ball which even accounting for the perspective is almost looming like a planet, especially compared to the tiny figure of Monotone (who one wonders if he would be knocked clean through the wall wrecking ball style when the ball comes his way... )

Perhaps this is slightly deliberate, the ball representing Outland itself (90% shadow) and the two opposing forces fighting over it "as if their lives depended on the outcome"

Well - okay this analogy almost completely falls apart - why? Find out more tomorrow

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Meanwhile in some weird parallel dimension is this - what relevance does this have to this blog?

Have I sold out? Does this mean any faithful reader now will see lots of adverts?

Well If anyone wants to know the answers to any of these questions (yes it does have some relevance to this blog), just ask - post a comment or zap a email... in the meantime..

Logo-a go go

So here we go on a Squash court...

But this Outland after all, so let's go down the check list:-

1. Lots of Shadow - Check - But it has to be said this page has the contrast between a fine lined background and oversized thick lined characters
2. Pipes - yep - Even though this is a squash court, somehow the pipes get in
3. Company name / Logo - Absolutely!

The Company name / Logo is not something I think I have mentioned that much before, but it is fairly ubiquitous throughout Sterankos adaptation.

For example in the page above alone - behind O'Neil are what must be 3 foot high letters spelling out "CON - AM" all the way down the length wall of the court, Followed by "27"and the company logo itself on the next page

A lot more subtle use appears on the T-shirt of the other person playing Squash - the number "27"...

Still add this all up and its enough to make wonder where the Merchandising outlet is - where you would probably get the CON AM 27 Flamethrower (and possibly even Toilet paper) (a prize for anyone who remembers which movie infamously featured both)

Anyway shameless internal product placement aside - the other person playing O'Neil at squash "as if his life depended on it" - is none other than Monotone..

Could this be the strangest place for a confession ever?

Maybe - find out more - next week

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Speaking of logos..

Meanwhile in some weird parallel dimension is this - what relevance does this have to this blog?

Have I sold out? Does this mean any faithful reader now will see lots of adverts?

Well If anyone wants to know the answers to any of these questions (yes it does have some relevance to this blog), just ask - post a comment or zap a email... in the meantime..

"As though their lives depended on the outcome"

You might have noticed that yesterday I was poking a bit of fun?

Well that was in part because "As though their lives depended on the outcome" is directly from Steranko's dialogue for this page...

Well to my mind that sentence seemed, well possibly a bit over dramatic...

In the movie it's just a game with a bit more edge to its competitiveness, but here Steranko wants to lead the reader into something deeper and more dramatic

Again its both the text and the images almost using the movie as a frame of reference to make something a lot more interesting and compelling

But what is the context of this game...?

Find out a bit more, tomorrow