A little harsh? Maybe, but admit it, this is what you’ve been waiting for. Besides, there’s precedent for Blaxploitation heroes tossing heavies out the window established by none other than John Shaft himself. I’ll let my man, Drew Bundini Brown, who played Willy in Shaft (1971) and Shaft’s Big Score! (1972) explain:
“That’s some cold shit.”
I’ll kind of miss Duke, because he was so easy to write, but I couldn’t really have him walking around after what he did to Alicia Patterson. Stick around, folks, ’cause Pastor’s just getting started doling out the punishment. Rest assured, this strip is definitely going to live up to its title.
This week’s strip is respectfully dedicated to the memory of George Tuska, the original artist for Luke Cage: Hero For Hire. He passed away last week at the age of 93.
- JEP
Very nice perspective. Bam! (I kinda want a panel border around the second panel though to contrast with the open space of the sky).
Brian-
I was thinking the same thing about the borders for the very same reason, but then my congenital fear of panel borders kicked in.
- JEP
One of my all time favorite quotes, “That’s some cold shit.”
Great strip today.
Defenestration– now that’s getting medieval on his ass!
Parker-
It’s totally Brown’s delivery that sells that line. The dude is reaching waayy down into his bag of acting tricks to summon all that raw emotion. “Threw my man Leroy out the G**damn window!” I must’ve played that scene back five or six times when I first heard it.
- JEP
I think Duke, like Tony Rocky Horror, is about to develop a speech impediment.
Doug G.-
If only he had just rubbed Alicia’s feet.
- JEP
Mrs. Thor-
Two Pulp Fiction references in one day? I must be doing something right.
Also, I’m sure Pastor could take a lesson or two in toughness from you, Mrs. Thor.
- JEP
The look in Pastor’s eye is so intense. He has no regrets.
What’s he gonna do, he’s Samoan.
I just found out about this strip from the cnn article, and I dig it.
Hey, man! Just found your comic (also thanks to CNN), and it’s just what I’ve been looking for for so long. Awesome, can’t wait to read it through. Mine is actually similar in tone, and the art tries to be like yours, but I’m pretty new to drawing. It’s inspired by exploitation films, though, and will definitely have some ass kickin’ by a strong black brutha!
Scott-
Beautiful! When you get it your comic and running, send me the link so I can share it.
Colin-
Right on! Today has been real exciting for me with the slew of new readers coming by. I’m glad you stopped by, and thanks for leaving a comment.
- JEP
If you click my name, that’s the link. It’s http://dismantlers.thewebcomic.com
Pretty Badassss! I got here from CNN too and went back to read the rest, I like your style and the rawness of the strip. Pastor is not to be f-ed with, any questioning that and he’ll answer you with a fist in your mouth. You’ve got another reader here.
Jay,
I came across your comic today because it was mentioned by @pvponline on twitter. I read through the archive and I love the art and the writing.
One thing, though. You asked a while back why the comics were showing up somewhat fuzzy on some computers. At least on my computer, using Firefox 3.5 on Windows, it’s because the image is being resized in the web browser. It’s being scaled to 960×358px, even though the original image is 1175×438px. In Internet Explorer, it displays full size without scaling. Maybe there’s a change you can make to the page layout to make it work in Firefox too.
Jon-
Thanks for the tech advice. I had never considered that before. I’m such a Luddite, though, that I’ll have to forward the info to resident tech guru and The-Last-Honest-Cop-In-Pointe-Blanc, Andy Haworth, to see if he can make that work for me.
Also, I was very excited about the CNN.com article, but once I saw that Scott Kurtz had Tweeted about it, I got super, super nervous. The dude’s webcomic royalty and a tremendous example for all webcomic artists.
Thanks for dropping by and for dropping me a line.
- JEP
MellM-
I snagged another one! I appreciate you checking out the archives. I wrote Pastor as a guy who is all about action and results, and I’m glad that comes across.
Thanks!
- JEP
this is hands-down one of the most consistently enjoyable crime comics i’ve ever read
Hey, just ran into this comic, yes…thanks to CNN. XD
I don’t know much about the blaxplotation era of the ’70s and the only ones I even remotely remember is old Shaft reruns as a young child and Foxy Brown, but as far as just the comic is concerned, it is definately a great comic. The ‘real’ style of the talk and script , angles, the look of the action, and the artstyle itself is great. You do so much in such a small amount of space and panels.
Keep up the good work!
j.g.-
Aw man, with Brian Azzarello and Ed Brubaker on the stands, that’s sayin’ an awful lot, son! That’s a HUGE compliment. Thanks!
- JEP
Rey-
I love CNN! Given your relative unfamiliarity with the genre, I really appreciate you taking a chance on me. I’m just trying to live up to the legacy of the masters of the old newspaper adventure strips like Al Williamson, Alex Raymond, and Jim Holdaway. What I’m doing is a pale (dark?) imitation, but hearing from folks like you really inspires me to keep striving to improve. I have a link on the front page to a site run by Prof. Mendez that showcases these geniuses during their heyday. The URL is http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/ripk.html
Also, if you want to give some Blaxploitation flicks a try, I would recommend Super Fly, The Mack, Trouble Man, and Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off to get you started. You also can’t go wrong with Truck Turner or anything with Pam Grier in it.
- JEP
First webcomic where I actually hear a cool 70’s groove playing in my when I read it. I love the art as well–definitely suits the genre and period!
I caught your link from CNN.com and wow. Serious love to your story and your art.
Great comic, Jay. I too found it via CNN — but don’t hold that against me
— and have read it through with all the blog comments. I’ll simply say that I’m excited to see that individuals can successfully publish their art-form without having to first quit their day job and move into a studio apartment in NYC, thanks to the internet and WordPress programming. You’ll see me around here some more. Keep up the great work!
Ang-
Thank you so much. I apologize, because I normally respond much quicker to comments, but I’ve been out of town for work, and didn’t have regular e-mail access. First, thanks for dropping by, and secondly, thank you for leaving the kind comment. Make sure to come by tomorrow for the next episode.
- JEP
Kris LK-
Webcomics are a great forum to publish your work, due to the ease of entry and relatively low cost. WordPress makes it so much easier, too, as long as you’re not a neo-Luddite like myself. Thanks for the comment and be sure to check out tomorrow’s strip.
It’s better to move into a studio apartment in a cheap town like Columbia, South Carolina
- JEP
I’ll be sure to stop back by tomorrow.
I had noticed already that you are living in Columbia (where in the summers the only thing that separates it from Hell is a screen door). I’m actually doing my grad studies in the same city (LTSS), but for this year I’m interning in Inglewood, CA. I’ll be back in Columbia in August ‘10, unless my wife’s internship ends up being in a different city, then the return won’t be until ‘11.
Kris LK-
Personally, I think southwest Georgia is hotter. It’s a heat you can taste, and they don’t even bother with the screen doors:) We’ll be glad to have you back in our humid embrace, but until then, good luck with the internship. I take it that it’s a creative endeavor…?
- JEP
Harsh on the 17 people flattened underneath the Duke, maybe.
Brendan-
I didn’t think about the collateral damage. Maybe the tale of some poor news vendor losing his kiosk under Duke’s plummeting bulk would make a good entry in an “untold tales of Pointe Blanc” sort of story.
- JEP