Hey, everyone!
This is the first strip I completed as a married man!
I spent a long time thinking about how I was going to off each of my villains. For each of them, it had to be something appropriate to moving the story along and appropriate to the character. When it came to Charles, I remembered a moment in Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s classic comic book series, Nexus. Nexus is an intergalactic executioner who hunts down mass murderers. At one point, Nexus corners a much-feared villain who mewls, cowers, and begs for his life, and Nexus sees him for the coward that he is. So Nexus, who has all the power in the universe at his disposal, merely touches the man’s forehead and ends his life, with the line, “Then let your death be a small thing.” That’s the kind of moment I wanted for Charles.
- JEP
Congrats on the marriage!
Also, the strip is as awesome as ever. Way to wrap this one up, Jay… looking forward to more!
wooooow. i like the third panel especially. i can’t believe it’s over.
Nothing I like more than flipping someone’s words back on them and letting them fully realize that stick and stones, would have been their preferred method of HURT.
Nice.
I miss Nexus sometimes.
A fitting end indeed.
Bravo!
And way to prove wrong all those who feared marriage would be the undoing of World of Hurt!
That’s a good way for Pastor handle them. Makes him more complex than just a gun toting thug. Thats good stuff.
What goes around comes around, Chuck! Love it.
Dorian-
Thank you on both counts. I think there’ll be just 3-4 strips left in “The Thrill-Seekers” after this. I wanted a short denouement to wrap up some loose ends.
- JEP
A’Omare-
It ain’t over yet! I hear Samuel L. Jackson has a scene with Pastor after the closing credits!
- JEP
“dollar” Bill-
I was pretty pleased with the resolution, too. Tuck literally went out with a bang, but the hands-off, grisly inevitability of Charles’ drowning aboard his own yacht – - the yacht where Alicia Patterson died – was poetic justice.
- JEP
Mistah Pete-
I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Rude a couple years back with some great guys from the sadly, now defunct Acme Comics of Columbia, SC. He was a really nice guy and even revealed his idea for what the final fate of Nexus should be. You can still find the podcast on the Acme Comics site: http://theacmecomics.com/escapepod/files/3f19a9681d681b00a1ec959b1875eaf5-19.html.
- JEP
Summey-
I’m a little sad.
- JEP
Jay Kelley-
I won’t take my final bow yet. There’s always room to screw it up. Wait ’til Zombie Tuck rises up out of the water like Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction!”
- JEP
Guess Who-
Marriage is like butter. It just makes everything BETTER, baby!
- JEP
Jamaal-
Thanks! Working around my self-imposed limitations on the use of handguns in the strip has been challenging, so it’s rewarding to know that you guys appreciate the pay-off.
- JEP
Joe-
Charles was really my favorite character to draw. Too bad he’s irredeemable, or I’d be tempted to bring him back.
- JEP
Great! Congrats on the wedding and I have to say, I rarely am pleased with the way water–waves and such–are done in comic books. I love the inking done on the water here! The first two panels with Bouchier sinking into the water with the translucency between above and below…great!
Yeah, I agree with “dollar” bill, that’s a nice circular element bringing back why he’s doing the job into the closing narrative.
Hey Jay, how do feel about Pastor hanging around to watch? Is that him making sure the job is done or is there a bit more of a deeper psychological flavour here where Pastor is showing a little of his darker side? Even in this kind of justice, watching a man die infers a particular troubled mind perhaps??
MAS-
Good question! I really think there’s a little bit of both. Pastor’s modus operandi seems to be adaptability/improvisation, practicality and efficiency. Ned and Tuck both died relatively quickly with the weapons Pastor acquired at the scene, so it fit all three criteria. Charles’ drowning death while strapped to a chair saved Pastor the additional time and effort of offing him in another way. With the water rising around Pastor, too, it may not be the most practical, because Pastor is also in a bad spot. Charles was the one who set everything in motion, so Pastor made sure he suffered a little more than the others and he stuck around to see it.
I think you struck at something interesting with your diagnosis of Pastor’s “troubled mind.” I largely agree with that idea, which is part of what drives Pastor. I think he’s a guy who has seen and done terrible things, but at some point in his recent past a series of events occurred that made him re-channel his energies. While the events did not happen to him, they made him realize there was no need for “decent” people to endure tragedy, loss, or face a long fight against impossible odds or a rigged, corrupt system when there was someone like him who could cut through to the heart of the matter and get results. The key is that Pastor’s not haunted by his past. He embraces it, because while it changed him, it also gave him the tools to help other people escape their own dire circumstances. Pastor’s mindset is the reason for the tagline I use on my promotional materials, including my Twitter page: “Sometimes Good People Need A Bad Man. In 1972, Isaiah ‘Pastor’ Hurt Was The BADDEST Man Alive!”
- JEP
Josh-
Thank you for the kind words about the wedding and the inking.
These past few strips were the first time I had inked water, so I was nervous abou how it would turn out. I think using a brush helps capture the organic, amorphous feel of liquid, but studying the greats like the late Al Williamson was also a wonderful primer.
- JEP
I really like the way you handled the figures body underwater in panel 1 and 2. I’m gonna have to save this strip for future reference.
I GOT A 2ND AUNT! UNCLE”S NOW A MARRIED MAN!
Way to keep it rollin’, Jay. I love how you depict the rising water and Bouchier’s last gasp of bubbles. I can feel the burn in my own lungs and the saltwater enveloping my own body through this strip.
Also, warmest congratulations on your marriage!
Ed-
Thank you, sir. Those two panels are two of the few that I didn’t feel compelled to re-draw in the pencil stage. I thought I really nailed Charles’ expressions, but I was concerned about how the water would turn out. Stumbling into a satisfying solution was a great relief.
- JEP
RPD-
I know, and a heckuvan aunt she’ll be!
- Tio
Doc Walter-
From what I’ve read, a saltwater drowning is particularly gruesome. Charles deserved nothing less.
Thanks for the congratulations, too.
- JEP
This particular one is amazing…..I cant stress that enough. What a cool way to turn it back on the villain and end the chapter, if you will.