my sally pride cosplay for AWA. wasnt able to find any mad max cosplayers today but i found asami who is also fast and gay
This one totally did happen.
my sally pride cosplay for AWA. wasnt able to find any mad max cosplayers today but i found asami who is also fast and gay
This one totally did happen.
what if i did a sally pride cosplay
Did this ever happen? I would like pictures if this ever happened, please!
Superman: American Alien #1 by Max Landis, Matthew Clark and Nick Dragotta (DC Comics)
Center for Otherworld Science #2 by Shing Yin Khor (Sawdust Press)
Tet #1 by Paul Allor and Paul Tucker (Comics Experience)
Josh Doyle-Elmer is comiXology’s Email Marketing Specialist. He is a man of few words.
This fella has excellent taste.
I’m doing a GI JOE comic for IDW with writer Paul Allor. It’s a one-shot that is going to be amazing. Comes out in MARCH and you can read a bit about it here. Also: I need to update my tumblr I got a broken image and stuff hahahahaa SOON IM BUSY!!!!!
I. Am. EXCITED.
Hey there, all you beautiful people. Welcome to the Tet #3 writer’s notes, where I’ll be taking you through this issue page by page, more or less, while feeling wildly uncomfortable talking about my craft! Spoilers for Tet 1-3, obviously.
Main cover
Continuing Paul Tucker’s gorgeous hat/face theme thingie, this time with Minh. This is the only cover that features someone other than our main three characters, and it seems rather appropriate, given the role that Minh plays inside this issue. Also: SCORPIOOOOOOOOOONNNN!!!!!
Variant cover
God, I love this cover. It’s also interesting that a couple of these variant covers feature images that aren’t actually in the issues themselves. Issue #1 featured jets and helicopters, which we never see; this one has this house, which we never see; and the cover of issue #4 (spoiler) is a streetscape that’s pretty clearly in present day, not in the timeline of the book.
Also, the quote that this cover draws from – “I wanted to throw myself from the tallest suburban rooftop and land speared to death on a white picket fence” – is actually something I wrote more than a decade ago, as part of a short story when I was in my early twenties. The story never went anywhere, but the line stayed with me for years, just waiting for its proper home.
Page one
Like all of these first pages, I wrote and rewrote and rewrote these captions, trying to get them right – trying to strike the correct tone, the right rhythms. I wanted Eugene’s captions in this book to feel like poetry. I know I wasn’t always successful, but that was definitely the goal. I also love this third panel, with the repeating pattern of the beds, and the medical staff walking amongst the wounded.
Page two
Oh man, and now I’m starting to remember what a pain this whole opening sequence was. It’s the first six pages of the book. Originally it was 10, and then eight, as I just kept compressing and compressing. A lot happens in it, but I needed to strip it down to the bare bones. For that reason, it also has a lot more narration than I would have liked, particularly on this page. My original plan was that Eugene’s narration would never be used for exposition; it was meant to express his emotions and his inner turmoil, not move the plot along. But that plan almost immediately started to fracture (the investigative scenes in issue one) and by here I’d given up on it completely. But I also think this compression works well thematically, as it was a rather disorienting time in Eugene’s life, so it’s natural for the reader experience to reflect that a bit.
I also worried about the emotional shift of ending issue #2 with Eugene being in so much pain, he no longer even cared that Ha was alive, to him wanting to go find her, at the beginning of this issue. That’s a fairly understandable transition, in real life, but to have them back to back in fiction, I worried that it felt odd. So a lot of my early drafts had Eugene trying to explain his emotional shift, but it just felt so dumb and expository and obvious, so I just let it go.
Page three
Jonesy! Jonesy was fun to write. Also notice that while page two was basically a montage of several different scenes, page three is two scenes, with the transition masked by that mid-page white caption box.
Page four
Another page where I wrote and rewrote the dialogue. In the second and third panels here, Jonesy is basically laying out the main theme of the entire mini-series. That’s a pretty crass movie, but by giving that job to a main character – and one who’s viewed as kind of annoying by our protagonist, it helps mask it a bit. I hope.
Page five
Man, I love Paul’s layout on this page, and his use of color – particularly in that third panel. Also, those first five panels are from three panels of script. For comparison:
PANEL ONE
Back in physical therapy. Eugene is using the walking parallel bars, while Lisa stands in front of him. At this exact moment, he’s just slipped, and is falling forward, as Lisa catches him. A beefy male orderly named PAT is in the background. We don’t necessarily need to see him in this shot, but we should before panel four
1. LISA: Whoa! I’ve got you, Lieutenant. I’ve got you.
PANEL TWO
Eugene is holding himself up again, Lisa looks concerned.
2. LISA: You’re doing great, but why don’t we take a break?
3. EUGENE: No. I can keep going.
4. LISA: Well, there’s “can” and there’s “should.” Push yourself too hard and you could cause permanent damage to--
PANEL THREE
On Eugene, fierce.
5. EUGENE: I need to keep going.
Page six
And the final page of this sequence. The reveal of Bao’s and Ha’s wedding photo was a bit tricky. We already know from issue two that they’re married, so this moment is more about how Eugene found out, and his emotional reaction to it. For that reason, I tried not to play this photo up as a big surprise. If anything, the most important part of this scene is the several pages leading up to it; by showing Eugene’s current condition and state of mind, the reader will hopefully understand what this photo means to him, and how it impacts him, without us having to do much to help them along.
And that’s it for the 1968 scenes in this issue. In issues one and two we focused mainly on 1968 with just a few pages set in 1984, but in this issue we flip that patter around.
Page seven
I love everything about this first panel. Especially Eugene’s cane propped up on the edge of the table.
The last bit on this page is one of my favorite Bao moments in the story – “I was re-educated.” But I went back and forth on this dialogue, because the fact of the matter is, Bao would almost certainly not have called it a “re-education camp.” That was North Vietnamese propaganda, and the truth is, they were just straight-up prisons. The people who were there, that’s what they call them: prison. But I felt like saying Bao was in prison would require more exposition and explanation, and I really wanted to avoid that. My purpose with these scenes is that the characters would never feel like they were saying things just for the audience to understand them; that they would only say what they would actually say. What I finally decided is that I could see Bao using the propaganda term, if he was doing so in a sardonic way; part of the black streak of humor that runs through so much of what he says. I’m not 100 percent comfortable with that explanation, but it’s the choice I made.
Page eight
Again, here, after Bao says he fought with the Viet Minh, I initially had Eugene’s follow-up line be, “you fought with the Communists? I had no idea.” But that felt like Eugene telling the audience what the Viet Minh were (for those who didn’t know) instead of it just being what he would naturally say. So I cut it.
Page nine
Bit of a weird lettering tick, here, having Bao’s narration in panel five be in balloons instead of boxes. But I wanted to reserve the boxes for Eugene – this is the first time we’ve had this type of flashback, rather than a time-shift, and I didn’t want it to get all muddy. I also wanted to keep the white caption boxes for just Eugene’s text but as you’ll see a bit later, that also fell by the wayside.
Page ten
I like this third panel. Showing a motorcycle pulling over to the side of the road feels like it’d be tricky to do, and Paul handled it really well, here. Also, if we ever do a sequel to Tet, it’s going to be about Bao and Minh zooming around Hue City on Bao’s motorcycle, solving crimes together.
Page eleven
Scorpiooooooooooon! Also, the coloring in this whole scene. Paul Motherfucking Tucker, ladies and gentlemen.
Page twelve
Another mid-page scene shift masked by a caption panel. Also, Paul added this third panel to remind people of who Minh was. I didn’t think it was necessary, because I am not always terribly bright.
I know that these writer’s notes always teeter on the edge of being just me listing my own shortcomings; having said that, one thing that bothers me about Tet, as a whole, is how little time we have for the actual investigation. As a result of that, I worry that it all feels incredibly easy for Bao and Eugene. And that’s something that bugs the crap out of me in other detective fiction, so… yeah. On the other hand, of all the threads running through Tet, the murder mystery is the least important, so if something had to get short shrift, this was going to be it.
Page thirteen
I like the little mindfuck that Bao plays on this guy, though. And this bit with Eugene looking at the toys, and trying to buy one. I’m glad we had space in the story for those little character moments. And for this guy’s mustache. This guy’s mustache is fucking glorious.
Page fourteen
One thing I love about Paul’s work in these Bao/Eugene scenes is how well he brings home the fact that Bao is the much healthier, more vital, younger-seeming man, despite having a good 20 years of age on Eugene. Their physique and body language in this first panel is great.
Also, my original script had Eugene saying (in page five) that Bao was “quitting at 1 a.m.” Which made no sense since it looks like dusk, and the streets are busy, and the merchant was still on the sidewalk. So I changed it at almost literally the last minute before going to pring to “quitting before 1 a.m.” (at least I think that’s what I changed it to – I’m looking at a .pdf from before the change was made).
Page fifteen
Okay, I absolutely love, love, love this moment in the third panel when Eugene looks up the stairs. It’s pretty subtle, and maybe completely unobvious to anyone but me and Paul, but he’s checking to make sure Bao isn’t coming down before he starts to make his move on Ha. And I don’t think he’s doing it intentionally. It’s just… instinct. Male shitheel instinct.
And then he almost doesn’t bother. They’re alone, he tells Ha that he wanted to say something to her… and then it almost fizzles, before he takes a different tack on the next page.
Page sixteen
Confession time? Confession time. When I first got this page from Paul, that last panel made me very uncomfortable, and my initial – and very strong – instinct was to send him a note saying, basically, that I thought he made Ha look too ugly in this last panel, and asking if we could discuss changing it.
… yeah. Because heaven for-fucking-bid that a woman’s facial expression should be, in one panel of one issue, shown as less than completely conventionally attractive. Especially when she’s mad as fucking hell, and righteously so. It’s a great moment, and a great panel, and you should feel uncomfortable reading it, so I hope the readers flinch at her anger just as much as I did.
Page seventeen
Stalking Minh. I would’ve liked a few more panels to establish this and smooth over the pacing, but we go to war with the page count we have, not the page count we want (though we did make this issue 24 pages – thanks, Paul!).
Page eighteen
Again, lots of rewriting here, trying to get the pacing just right. I don’t think Minh would want to tell this story – at all. And so I wanted to make it feel realistic that Eugene would talk him into it – in just one page. I tried a lot of different approaches to it, and in the end it still doesn’t feel like a clean decision, but I don’t think it necessarily should. I don’t think there’s one specific reason Minh is telling them this; I think it’s partly a desire to unburden himself, as Eugene says, and partly out of spite, to show Eugene how wrong he was.
Page nineteen
And here’s the part where we use the white captions for non-Eugene narration. Ah, well.
Page twenty.
You all saw this coming, right? Very tropey? Sorry. I have to admit, it was fun to set a book up with the structure of a murder mystery, and then solve it in the second-to-last issue of a four-issue mini.
Page twenty-one
Notice the heart-shaped pool of blood. That was a fairly big clue we planted back in issue one. And I believe it happened a bit accidentally – Paul noticed that the blood he’d drawn was kind of vaguely heart-shaped, and it seemed like a good idea, so he steered into the curve.
I also enjoyed playing up the different between Eugene’s and Bao’s reactions here. Because we only have Eugene’s narration, we get his compassionate thoughts about his desire to absolve Minh’s guilt, but his knowledge that he can’t tell anyone else how to carry their pain; and then we follow it up with Bao just wanting to get the fuck out of there already. Mystery solved. Let’s go.
Page twenty-two
Another great first panel from Paul Tucker. I originally scripted this with no captions or dialogue over it. Then I felt like the transition was too abrupt, so in lettering I added some. Then I decided to trust the reader, and took it away again.
Page twenty-three
Boy, this is some heavy-handed dialogue, huh? I should’ve added a panel where Eugene just jumps up and down and screams, “IT’S A PARALLEL, DON’T YOU SEE? CHIP AND CADEO’S RELATIONSHIP PARALLELS MY RELATIONSHIP WITH HA!” And then ended the whole mini there.
Page twenty-four
And another sort of anti-cliffhanger. Every issues of Tet ends on a bit of an ambiguous note, and feels like it could be an ending. Which is a terrible thing to do for serialized storytelling, but it’s pretty obvious by now that this book was not written with any market considerations in mind whatsoever.
Also, this page is meant to sort of be the flip-side of page one’s ending. Both are crime heavy endings that end with an explosion, which then takes us into a much more violent, war-heavy issue the following month.
And that’s it! Tet #4 is out next Wednesday, Dec. 2, so please check it out, and I’ll see you back here in a bit.
Hey, there. Welcome to the Tet writer’s notes. I meant to start this after Tet #1 came out, but, you know… life interfered. So, without further ado, let’s dive in to this double-length first edition!
Tet #1 Main Cover
Not much to say here but “wow.” These covers were all Paul Tucker, from concept to design to execution. This one, in particular, was one of the earliest images Paul created for the book, and kind of set the tone for everything that followed, art-wise. And it’s just such a powerful representation of Eugene’s inner turmoil. Wonderful.
Tet #1 Variant Cover
This was also one of the earliest images Paul created. It – along with the variant covers for issues three and four – were originally intended as promo pieces for the book. That wedding dress quote was in the first plot summary I sent to Paul, and seeing it pop up here made me pretty happy. I also have to give credit to Comics Experience and IDW for letting us put out variant covers that left off our names and minimized the book’s title so drastically.
Page 1
I like the first line and image of my comics to sum up the theme of the book. And I’m pretty happy with how well this one worked. The combination of Eugene’s haunted visage, and his declaration that he’s never liked telling war stories. And, of course, I’m letting the reader know that Tet is much more than a war story to Paul and I.
I also found it interesting how many reviews assumed that we would find out more about this scene, as the series went on. We won’t. This page haunts and informs what comes after, but we never double back around to it. When Eugene says “that’s all you need to know,” he isn’t kidding.
Page 2
Them colors! Hot damn, I love Paul Tucker’s palette in this book. This page also brings back bad memories of adjusting the location of the caption boxes for what felt like approximately 72 hours straight.
Page 3
In my research, I found out it was pretty common for Marines in Hue City to trade C Rations to the local kids for Coke and better food. Which… was probably not a fair trade. I’ve never had C Rations, but growing up in a military family, I’m quite familiar with MREs, their successor. MRE stands for Meals Ready to Eat, but when I was a kid I thought it stood for Meals, Rarely Edible, because that’s the only thing I ever heard the adults call it. That, or “three lies in one.”
But I still ate MREs whenever I could, because it was cool, and a novelty, and it made me feel adult. Which, I imagine, was the same appeal that C Rations had to kids in Vietnam.
Page 4
I kinda love that “I like to fall in love with every woman I meet. It makes life a bit more interesting” line. And I hammered away at it for quite a while, trying to nail the exact right wording, rhythm, cadence. Poetry is a huge influence on my writing (probably more so than prose), and I really want my words to sing. I know I fall short of that goal more often than not, but I keep trying.
Page 5
Our introduction to Ha. I struggled quite a bit with Ha’s living quarters. It’s not the most realistic thing in the world for a single woman of her age to be living alone at that time. But it wasn’t unheard of, either, and I think it drives home Ha’s stubborn, headstrong nature (an aspect of her personality that Eugene hasn’t picked up on, yet).
The silhouette panel was all Paul – a callback to our covers. It was a great idea, and I think might have been a one-off thing, but I started writing towards it, making sure to include one silhouette panel in each issue.
One more thing about this page: when one of my Marine consultants read the script, he balked at the third panel, noting that marrying a Vietnamese national would involve a ridiculous amount of paperwork and red tape, and that there’s no way they could simply grab a chaplain. But, he said, it’s also possible Eugene was just joking. In my brain, Eugene was making a lighthearted comment, but also most definitely wasn’t joking. But after getting that feedback? Sure, okay. He was joking. That was the plan all along. Totes.
Page 7
Eugene and Ha just chillin’ on the balcony in a war zone. You know, as you do. Hue City really was a strangely peacefully place before the Tet Offensive. Right on the border between north and south, but largely free of violence. There were snipers, though, and I wanted to acknowledge that, here.
I don’t think I’ve talked about the lettering yet, either. These blank panels, like the one here, were baked in to the design of the book from the beginning. Most were written into the script, and some Paul added in layouts. Every time he did, it felt like, “yup. That is the right spot for it.” Between those panels, and the silhouette panels, and the sketchy, crooked caption boxes, I’d hoped the lettering would feel like an organic part of the art and design of the book. It was important to us that Tet feel like an organic, unified product. Which is what all comics should feel like, of course.
Page 8
Marion, Indiana! And that palette change! Yowza wowza. Lovely work by Paul Tucker. Also, fun fact: Marion has a Veterans Affairs hospital. Early drafts of the script worked that in, but it never quite felt organic. I never wanted the characters in this book to tell each other things they would already know, just for the audience’s benefit.
I also love these vertical establishing shots that Paul does throughout the book.
Page 9
Oh, Eugene. I love you. And there’s some really lovely cartooning from Paul Tucker on this and the next two pages. This scene moved at a much smaller pace than the rest of the issue, deliberately, and I was pretty worried about that, but Paul absolutely nailed it.
Page 13
You do not want to know how much I researched the word “eyefucking,” to figure out if it was in common use in 1968. Answer: not really. It came into its own in the 1970s. But I figured Marines would be on the bleeding edge of swearing, so it worked.
Page 14
Another lovely vertical establishing shot. And the beginning of the Bao-Eugene relationship, which is as important to the book as the Eugene-Ha relationship.
Page 16
S’up, Minh? Also, how ‘bout them colors in panel one? Also, how ‘bout that floor in panel three? Also, how ‘bout…
Page 17
This panel three caption text is insanely long, and is basically used to short-circuit the investigation plot. Kinda cheesy, and I wasn’t thrilled with having to do that, but I think it works. It also helps hide the mid-page scene transition.
I also love this old lady. That last panel! Yeah.
Page 18
Such a totally goofy coincidence for Ha and Bao to know each other so well. I usually try to come up with a plausible reason for such big coincidences, and I really struggled with that before going “eh, fuck it.” Coincidences that complicate things tend to go down with audiences a little easier. Coincidences that help the protagonist? Not so much.
Page 19
That grin in panel three! Eugene is really enjoying making Bao uncomfortable.
Page 20
I love this establishing shot, and the fact that Paul filled the previous pages with background characters, so that we could feel the passage of time as we see the bar emptied out, hours later. This is also the first time we see the ugly, paternalistic side of Eugene’s character, as he tells a Vietnamese native in 1968 that she’s naïve about war and loss.
Page 22
Eugene’s bunkmates probably really hated him, here. I also worked incredibly hard on these captions, and—
Page 23
-- on trying to decide whether to keep all the captions on page 22, and move some of them to this page. End the end, I really love the pacing of these last few pages, and I feel like dropping the captions off of this page makes it feel like we’re shifting, for the first time in our book, to a different perspective. Eugene didn’t see this. He wasn’t there for it. So why would he have anything to say about it?
Page 24
And now we’re back with Eugene. And man, this page is gorgeous. I also like that every issue of this mini ends on a note that feels like it could be the end. Not a conclusive ending, but an ambiguous ending. Which, you know… maybe be how we leave the whole thing. But that’s not a surprise to anyone who’s ready anything else I’ve ever written.
Tet #2 Main Cover
Man, this cover is on FIRE! Get it? Because… because… oh, okay, you get it.
I may be speaking out of school here, but I believe Paul originally intended the issue #1 cover to be a one-off, and that it wasn’t until a bit later he realized he could continue that same design idea through all four. Either way, I love this.
Tet #2 Variant Cover
This is the only variant cover that wasn’t originally designed as a promo image. It’s also the only one to feature a quote from a minor character (so minor he isn’t even named in the book), not one of our main folks. And did I rewrite that scene specifically to shoehorn a thematically appropriate cover quote into it? Uhm… moving on!
Page 1
The paneling on this page is the same as on issue one, page one. We’ll continue that throughout the rest of the series. We also jump ahead in time, here. Issue 1 ended with the signal flare launching the attack on Hue City, and now we’re plunged directly into the ongoing conflict.
Page 2
Layout wise, one of my favorite pages in the book. It was Paul’s idea to slide in these images of Bao, Chip and Ha, to help readers catch up, and they elevated a pretty pedestrian page to something pretty awesome. Also: “Tens of thousands dead on both sides. And I was thinking about a girl.” I leave it up to our dear readers to decide whether that’s romantic or creepy as fuck.
Page 3
Originally, Eugene didn’t have any dialogue on this page. His two word balloons were added after I was worried that it might not be immediately clear that the dude in the back of the truck is dead. In which case, the “I don’t feel great about this guy’s chances” would come off less like a dark, sardonic joke, and more like just a factual statement.
I really like how Paul handled the pacing on this page and the next, as we journey away from the battlefield and towards MACV headquarters.
Page 5
I don’t want these notes to just descend into a series of me saying “I love this page.” But I love this page. The deliberateness of it. The pure character work. This moment does nothing to advance the plot, but a lot to tell you about the kind of person Eugene is.
Page 6
And we’re back in Indiana. Again, a deliberately slow pace, and again, Paul Tucker handles it admirably. The trick I used in this issue is that every time Eugene moves through the city, we switch to Old Eugene, on his journey back to Vietnam. It works to effectively disguise Eugene’s movements, and let us simply catch up with him at each new location.
Page 7
Like Ha’s apartment! The last two panels of this page were originally silent, but yes, as I hinted above, I totally added this dialogue so that we would have a quote for the variant cover. But I think it works out pretty great. It was done for necessity, but now I wouldn’t change a thing.
Page 8
Eugene Smith, total badass. Truthfully, I wanted him to seem kind of clumsy in this scene, like he’s stumblefucking his way through. But with such limited space, that’s difficult to do. So I asked Paul, in the script, to try to make these action scenes and clumsy as possible, and I think he did. Eugene’s body language never looks quite graceful, here, and the whole thing feels a bit off-kilter.
Also, props to my Marine reader for telling me that I should have Eugene count to three before throwing the grenade, which both prevents the enemy from throwing it back, and also takes nerves of fucking steel.
Page 10
Another seemingly huge coincidence, here. But there is a reason for this one, explained in a future issue It was originally explained here, but the explanation felt a bit… forced. So there you go. Bao also makes a glancing reference here to the Hue Massacre, and the North Vietnamese’s hit list. There was originally more explanation, but again, I didn’t want to include information that these characters wouldn’t know about, or wouldn’t naturally share with each other.
Page 13
Ahhhh, the staircase. The staircase gave me a lot of heartburn. It’s not likely that Bao and Ha, with their background and lack of children, would live in a place large enough to have a second floor. But there’s a moment in issue three that uses the staircase – an incredibly small moment, but one I really, really love. So we went with it. Besides, it looks cool, and it’s conceivable that they just have one small downstairs room, and the upstairs bedroom.
Page 14
This was really predictable, right? You all saw this coming? Sorry. “Predictable” is the no. 1 complaint people seem to have about my work, and I can see it. It’s fair.
Page 15
And now we begin one of my favorite sequences in the book, and one that will take on much greater resonance near the end of our book. I hope. We also delve more into Eugene’s desire to be Ha’s savior. There’s a thin, ugly line between trying to save someone out of love and trying to save someone for uglier, more selfish reasons. And Eugene dances merrily along that line.
Page 16
Again, the captions fall away for a second as we see things from someone else’s perspective. I also dig that gas canister silhouette.
Page 17
This was tough to write – getting into Eugene’s head during a moment so foreign from anything I’ve experienced. But I’ve known fear, and confusion, and a lesser pain, so I tried to tap into all of that to gain some understanding of what he might be going through. Also kind of proud of that “my shit in his nostrils” line. War isn’t pretty.
Page 18-19
I love all these pages, but don’t have a lot to say about them. They were hard as hell to write, and Paul saved my ass. I also wrote and rewrote and rewrote the captions during the lettering phase, juggling them around to different positons on the page.
Page 20
Hey, tank. How you doing? In my research I discovered that just a few days into the battle, the tanks began to stay off the roads, smashing through buildings instead. When I read that, it was like, “yes, okay, I’m using that, okay, okay, yes, definitely, okay.”
Page 21
Probably the most pulpy, noiry page in the book.
Page 22
Leading up to this thing of beauty. Holy hell, that coloring. Wow. Truly lovely. And again, an issue ending that feels like it could be the end.
And that’s Tet #2 and #3! See you back here in a couple of weeks.
HEY! Do you like my comics writing? Then have I got a super sweet deal for you. My friend Lela Gwenn is having an auction today for her much-needed endometrosis surgery, and I have an incredibly cool item up for bid (only until 4 PM EST today!):
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Happy Tet Tuesday! Every Tuesday until Tet #1 launches, we’ll be sharing a bit of art, process, et cetera from the book. To kick things off, here’s the second page of issue #1 -- the unlettered final page, and the initial pencils. Linework and colors by series co-creator and artist Paul Tucker.
Tet is a four-issue miniseries from Comics Experience and IDW Publishing.
Ordering info: Tet #1. September 9th. Please share and pre-order. Diamond code JUL150526 (main cover) and JUL1550527 (variant cover). Please consider pre-ordering.
HAPPY NEW COMIC BOOK DAY! Today is the first day you can pre-order Tet, by printing out the attached form and taking it in to your LCS. If you have any questions about pre-ordering, let me (Paul Allor) know. I’d be more than happy to help you out. Here’s a .pdf version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nagzt1l7eal43cl/TET01-Preorder-Form.pdf?dl=0
Tet #1. Out September 9th. Please share and pre-order. Diamond code JUL150526 (main cover) and JUL1550527 (variant cover).
The ad said flirty skirts are in this summer
so she bought a flirty skirt.
It was two-tone, blue and light blue, with a zipper in the back,
flared at the bottom, made of cotton and nylon, with a bit of polyester
thrown in for good measure. It cost $58,
but she had a coupon for 20 percent off
that she took from the newspaper at her parents’ house.
That Saturday she put it on, with a white button-down shirt,
and headed out. Half a block from her apartment, she realized
her mistake. A sandy-haired boy in a pink shirt and jeans
passed her by. She looked away, studiously, to avoid his attention.
“Hey, big boy,” a sultry voice shouted out. “You look great in that shirt.”
“What?” he said, turning and smiling. “Oh God,” she said, smoothing
down her skirt. “That wasn’t me. That was – that was my skirt.
“It’s a flirty skirt.”
So: SALLY PRIDE is the first mutant I’ve co-created for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe (her other co-creator is amazing artist Andy Kuhn). She debuted briefly in issue #2, and issue #4 is where she really comes in to her own, and you see what a TOTAL bad-ass she is. But with issue three out today, I wanted to talk a bit about her.
First off, this panel:
This panel tells you so much. Hob and Man Ray are standing, and they’re serious. Sally is being Sally. Basically, Sally Pride is Paul Newman. She’s Steve McQueen. I wanted to capture that mix of effortless cool & barely-coiled anger that you so rarely seen in fictional women.
That’s what I was going for, anyway. Honestly, it got watered down a bit, due to storytelling reality, especially in this issue. Sally had to talk a bit more than I’d like, and talk in such a way that it took her away from that original intent, a bit. But that’s storytelling. It’s all about compromise, and as the storyteller, you’re always going to see the flaws and shortcomings, even when others don’t. But all in all, I think we did okay.
Wardrobe wise, I wanted her to look a little punk, and also, frankly, to look more like a criminal than the other Mutanimals. And Andy Kuhn completely rocked it. Her look tells you what she is, immediately. She’s the getaway driver. She’s a daredevil. She knows she can do anything, and gives exactly zero fucks about what anyone else thinks.
Okay, now let’s talk about her Mohawk. Sally is a lioness. Honestly, that’s not a very visually striking animal; by using a female lion, you’re taking away the lion’s most prominent feature. But to me, the Mohawk is Sally’s mane. It’s tied in to her animal identity. It’s her saying, “I’m a lioness, and you absolutely can not fuck with me.” Which, given her background as a laboratory experiment, is very important to her. Several members of this team have gone through similar experiences, and it was very important to me that they each deal with it, and that they each deal with it in their own way. This is Sally’s.
Last thing: this mini-series doesn’t address Sally’s sexuality, and I have no idea what future writers will choose do. But I have my opinion on the subject. And, I mean, I named her Sally Pride. I wasn’t being subtle, right?
So, that’s it. Sally Pride. I love her and I hope you do, too. Again, this is an introductory issue, but come issue 4… holy hell. You heard it here, first.
A bit of Nick Filardi’s awesome coloring work in TMNT: Mutanimals. Line art by Andy Kuhn, of course.
I didn’t realize that IDW had released Ben Bates’ full cover for Mutanimals #4! Previously, the three new characters were blacked out.