What, there’s no Laser Magnus fanart yet? Well, I fixed that!
In the UK Transformers comics, Galvatron was an unstoppable tsunami of evil, almost a force of nature. He’d travel back to the 80s from … well, now, actually, to fuck people up. And always, there’d be Ultra Magnus, throwing himself suicidally at Galvatron in futile attempts to stop him. My drawing is a homage to a panel in one of the issues in Target: 2006, drawn by my childhood hero Geoff Senior. Magnus, in his new body, finally comes out on top, triumphant.
Although Geoff Senior was my favorite artist as a kid, I think I appreciate him even more now. His linework is almost Bruce Timm-ish in its simple dynamism. He uses straight lines, abstract shapes, and an isometric attempt at camera angles to convey raw action. If you compare my art to his, mine is weakened by not being abstract enough. On his, Galvatron has this line of motion running across his shoulders up his lifted arm that I’ve pretty much destroyed by drawing more of Magnus’ actual contours. And look how he gets away with drawing Magnus’ right arm from the top down. There’s no way that arm can even connect to his torso that way, but look how striking it makes his pose. If it wasn’t drawn like that, the effect would be lessened.
I’m 26 and I’m still in awe.
There’s a new Shortpacked! today, of course. Next week I’ll be out of town, and so we’ll be running some stand-alones I’ve been building up. Which is too bad, actually, since after completing today’s strip, I suddenly had an urge to have Amber take Robin home for Christmas. But not only do I not have time to draw that before I leave, but it would further delay the end to this Faz story, and I’ve already had enough single-day-gag delays along the way.
I’m having a little trouble balancing the story and the strike-of-the-moment gags. By the end of It’s Walky!, I’d abandoned single-day gags entirely, devoting myself completely to the service of the ongoing story. But I don’t wanna do that here. I like being able to take a break to draw Batman or Aslan or whatever’s in fashion. It’s freeing. But, at the same time, I also lose a lot of story potential. The fact that I only update 3 times a week contributes to that too, but I don’t think I can do full-page color more often than I do already. Damn.
And lastly, have an oldie but a goodie. Don’t cry out loud.
