"COSMIC CUSTODIANS" Gloom Of The Glooms - Part Four Post One

These opening two panels to the final part of "Gloom Of The Glooms" concludes the series of panels I set aside to simply show some interplay between some of the Custodians and highlight the 'super-power' of Sagittarius; his ability to actually absorb energy. These scenes do however suffer from the consequences of my changing the look of Mistress Tendril, as the character hasn't spoken a word during the entire adventure, nor will she do so. This was because she was originally designed to have a face full of tentacles, which would make speech somewhat difficult. I did toy with the idea of making her telepathic as a result, and figured I could draw some nice telepathy speech bubbles for her when she needed to communicate. Obviously though that all changed when I redesigned her with an actual mouth (or at least lips) but subsequently fell behind with my drawing schedule for the story.

The script for this four-parter was actually written in episodic chunks. I'd simply plot out the next part's panels only once I'd actually drawn the previous episode in its entirety. So by the time I made the change to Mistress Tendril's appearance I was close to finishing the entire storyline and didn't have the room or time to go back and reallocate some of the dialogue to her character.

Air Force One is in danger of being overrun by the Aliens, and there's still an atomic missile flying towards the Pentagon. Can Galaxian and Tortoise-Shell Eddie possibly kill two birds with one stone..?

"COSMIC CUSTODIANS" Gloom Of The Glooms - Part Three Post Three

These four panels are another attempt to establish that the Cosmic Custodians have been together for a while, and as a result there is some tension within the group due to past adventures. I also wanted to show Sagittarius' short temper and again demonstrate Tortoise-Shell Eddie's mischievousness.

The composition for these frames was a reasonably swift process as for most of the panels I was re-using previously drawn figures. However I badly ran out of room with the dialogue, something I now ensure fits the balloons, so there are several ellipses and the episode even ends mid-way through one of the dark-skinned celestial bear-worshipper's rants.

Capable of crushing a man's skull with his bare hands, has an irate Sagittarius succeeded in eliminating his fellow Custodian Galaxian, when an army of Glooms failed to do so..?  

"COSMIC CUSTODIANS" Gloom Of The Glooms - Part Three Post Two

I really wanted to show just how calculating and mad Senator Somerville really was, and thought the United States government keeping a few nuclear missiles 'off the record' was a fairly plausible plot. I also wanted to ramp up the action on board Air Force One, as it had become the 'wordier' of the two storylines, so had the Glooms 'piggyback' themselves aboard the plane using Galaxian's teleportation frequency. I'm not sure just how clear that explanation is though as I found myself quickly running out of room for the senator's speech.

The 'longshot' of Sagittarius and Tortoise-Shell Eddie was simply an excuse to show off the strengths of the two Custodians and illustrate the carnage the two heroes were capable off. I also wanted to illustrate some of their interplay with one another. Sagittarius being a star-worshipping killer who sees all his victims as little more than sacrifices to his interstellar bear-god, and Eddie being a far more measured, realistic individual, who is also somewhat mischievous when it comes to his colleague's low intelligence. Unfortunately the "Dadadada" sound effect makes it somewhat unclear that the giant tortoise's mini-gun actually extends from inside his carapace. Indeed its probably hard to even see he's carrying such a heavy weapon.

Swamped by Glooms, can Sagittarius and Tortoise-Shell Eddie survive long enough for Galaxian and Mistress Tendril to come to their aid. And when they do, what welcome will the cavalry receive..?

Mooretoons - "Doctor Who" - Gallifrey

Top: The Doctor defeats a giant lizard in "Orckingdom".     Bottom: The TARDIS captures Ian the Were-Lizard.

I have tapped into quite a few sources of inspiration for my ‘original’ “Doctor Who” comic stories but possibly one of the strangest was my liking for the 1984 David Lean drama film “A Passage to India”, which I rented out on video immediately upon its release. The idea of exploring a strange land with a mysterious ancient history seemed like a cracking idea for a story so I simply replaced the British Raj for the planet of the Timelords and threw the TARDIS crew into an adventure which would illustrate the home-world of the Doctor.

Written as a direct sequel to “Orckingdom”, “Massage to Gallifrey” is a six-page tale which sees the elderly time traveller return to his people in order to obtain a cure for Ian Chesterton; who has been transformed into a were-lizard. Despite a rather action-packed opening, which involves the TARDIS itself incarcerating a homicidal Chesterton and the Doctor dodging the laser beams of the Chancellery Guard, things soon peter out and become rather dull. I clearly tired of the entire idea and quickly curtailed the TARDIS crew’s exploration of Gallifrey by having them all captured and sentenced to death by the Timelords midway through the adventure.

Top: The TARDIS lands on Gallifrey.     Bottom: The Timelords and Chancellery Guard.

Even an attempt to explain the motivation behind the Doctor’s travels through a series of flashback panels is soon replaced by my simply drawing the character alongside a huge word balloon. The artwork also deteriorates as my figures significantly increase in size in order for most of the panels to simply depict their heads.

However, all is not entirely lost with the story, as the ‘look’ of the Gallifreyans' ceremonial attire would remain for as long as I drew my “Doctor Who” comic strips, and there is a definite smoothing out of the mouth area for the majority of my characters; a significant step closer to the way I draw my figures these days. 

"COSMIC CUSTODIANS" Gloom Of The Glooms - Part Three Post One

As mentioned in a previous posting, these panels containing Mistress Tendril had to be extensively redrawn following my decision to significantly change the appearance of the character. However this did provide me with the opportunity to try out a few ideas as to what weapons she would use during the stories.

Originally I'd conceived her as simply using multiple swords, but found four blades really cluttered up a frame. I then tried a single morning star and a laser pistol, but this combination did not really seem to work either. I then thought that as I’d already drawn Mistress Tendril’s tentacles, it would hopefully be fun if she simply battered and ‘suckered’ her opponents into submission.

Ordinarily I usually draw my figures carrying a scroll of paperwork when I want to illustrate the point that they have received information. In the third frame I thought this would look rather ridiculous though, as the Custodian’s spaceship would surely send down the results of any scan to Galaxian in a more sophisticated way. As a result I quickly sketched out a portable scanner display. Admittedly it is rather large and bulky, but I wanted the reader to be able to see something of what was being shown on the device’s screen.

Air Force One is protected by an ECM Electric Defence Measures System. But if Galaxian can teleport General Marietta aboard, then surely the Glooms can do so as well..? And just how goes the fight with Tortoise-Shell Eddie and Sagittarius against the alien invaders..? 

"COSMIC CUSTODIANS" Gloom Of The Glooms - Part Two Post Three

These final four panels to this second part of "Gloom Of The Glooms" introduce a favourite stereotypical character of mine, the maniacal statesman; in this case Secretary Somerville. It also gave me the opportunity to re-use the teleportation effect I'd drawn for the previous episode and apply it to General Marietta.

 

The last panel actually had me in two minds as to how to show that the intense fighting in the Pentagon was already badly damaging the building. Initially I considered drawing a long-shot of the Custodians and security forces blasting away at the aliens, but as so much of the story had already consisted of such 'footage', and I knew there was plenty more to come, I went with this exterior illustration instead, threw in some sound effects of the battle taking place inside and simply 'bookended' the frame with Somerville's insane plan of imminently nuking the building.

 

Desperately rescuing evacuees in the Washington Metro Pentagon Station, Galaxian and Mistress Tendril realise they have an even bigger danger arriving from above...

"COSMIC CUSTODIANS" Gloom Of The Glooms - Part Two Post Two

The opening panel finally depicts the entire Cosmic Custodians super-team, albeit it will be some time yet before all of their 'special talents' are revealed. However I did want to give some indication as to the character of the upright walking (and as shown later talking) tortoise and what role he will be playing in both this and future stories.

 

I also needed to establish that some additional subplots were going to be taking place on board Air Force One and the Pentagon basement. The action has already dwelt a bit long in one place concentrating on General Marietta and I always find it a useful technique to depicts events occurring elsewhere during a comic strip in order to hopefully help break up any monotony. In addition its a very good strategy if you want to imply the passage of time at a separate location without actually having to draw it.

 

For those who have an interest in planes, the photograph of Air Force One is of a Boeing 747. I actually used the (public domain) interior plans of President Obama's modified B747-200B to fill in some of the details as to what the plane can actually do for this adventure.

 

The White House has been overrun by the Glooms, but the President of the United States is safely aboard Air Force One. But it isn't the nation's Commander-In-Chief who is leading the fight against the alien invaders and the madman who is will seemingly stop at nothing to eradicate the extra-terrestrial menace.