"THE RAMBLER" "The Yeti Hunters" - Part Four Post Three

These four final frames are not only about concluding the story by reinforcing the suggestion that Sir Edmund Hillary was actually a spy using his travels to find a Yeti as a cover story. But also hopefully cement the relationship between the Rambler and Danny, so that after eight episodes the duo are now finally ready to 'hop' from adventure to adventure fully accepting of their roles within each tale.

This 'sense of comfort' between any of my series' leading protagonists helps me be able to write individual stand-alone stories, rather than string together a handful of interconnecting tales which have to be read in a specific order; something I personally dislike and have found hard to both write and draw in the past.

Next Time... with The Himalayas and 1960 finally behind them, the Rambler and Danny find themselves trapped a thousand years in the past, and facing a familiar enemy with a very sharp spear in "The Slaying Of The High King".

"THE RAMBLER" "The Yeti Hunters" - Part Four Post Two

I was a bit disappointed with how the Chinese Radio Station scene turned out, not least because the Rambler's blur line, used to imply the figure is travelling at some speed, sits over the top of his companion Danny, rather than beneath him. In addition, the interior background is actually a genuinely authentic radio station of the period, yet because of the positioning of my 'actors', you can barely see any of its intricate detail.

"Tom Slick: True Life Encounters in Cryptozoology" is a genuine book but was actually written by Loren Coleman and not published until 2002; some forty odd years after this adventure takes place. As a result there's no real way that Sir Edmund Hillary would have known the book was going to be written. However I thought it would be fun to have the adventurer ruminating about how 'history' would record his exploits.

Overrun by Yeti, and facing a gory death, the Rambler's desperate final plan is all that stands between his friends and them being eaten alive. Will it be enough, or is this the last journey of the time-traveller..?

"THE RAMBLER" "The Yeti Hunters" - Part Four Post One

In many ways this final episode is something of a rush, and Mister Hook's death in the first two panels demonstrates just how 'pushed for space' my script for "The Yeti Hunters" had become. Initially conceived as a simple tale of mountaineering and espionage, I had decided to embed the enemy Time Agent into the plot in order to reinforce the fact that the Rambler doesn't ordinarily just 'jump' to a random time period. But is usually directed to a problem by his (off-screen) Beorge masters.

Having made that point, whether successfully or not, I then found myself needing to get rid of Hook in order to allow me to conclude the adventure as planned. However, having intimated that the character had a history trying to alter the Earth's time-line, I decided at this point to re-visit the white-haired villain and incorporate his shenanigans into the 'screenplays' for this series' final two stories... 

The Rambler discovers a secret Chinese Radio Station. But with Sir Edmund Hillary fast running out of ammunition, and the flesh-eating Yeti increasing in numbers, the time-traveller must think of a solution to their furry predicament soon...

"THE RAMBLER" "The Yeti Hunters" - Part Three Post Three

There's an awful lot of figures appearing within some of these panels, and with hindsight, a couple of the frames may well have fared better if I'd 'zoomed out' from the action a bit more; especially the scene where the Chinese soldiers are eaten by the genuine Yeti, as both Sir Edmund Hillary and Danny appear a little 'squished' to one side.

I can't recall where the inspiration for the Nyalmo's look came from, but the red eyes were created in order to exaggerate just how angry they were at their territory being invaded. I also included the throwaway line by the Rambler about Doig's gun to reinforce the point that this current Time Man is not yet in full control of his role's time-travelling powers, and as such still can't recall/sense the enemy agent he's just encountered, nor similarly be recognised as 'an operative of the Beorge' himself.

Running low of ammunition and facing a seemingly endless horde of Yeti, the Rambler must desperately race to find shelter within the apparent safety of a Chinese Communications Centre. But not all of his party will survive the headlong dash...

"THE RAMBLER" "The Yeti Hunters" - Part Three Post Two

Featuring a 'classic clip' from this series' early Nineties hand-drawn forerunner "The Timeman", this particular sequence heralds the return of a recurring character last seen in June 1994; the enemy Time Agent Mister Hook. It also, hopefully, once again alludes to the fact that not only does the Rambler have a 'rich history' of past adventures, but that the 'role' has belonged to more than one individual. Indeed, the 'pen and ink' hat-wearing fellow scanned in the panel was actually already the second such Timeman I'd drawn, with the (then) current computer-drawn incumbent being the fourth.

Storywise, this sequence is once again used to try and educate the reader with more information as to Sir Edmund Hillary's exploits, and establish that because the Chinese were firing rockets from Tibet that there was a good reason why the Western authorities might be spying upon the People Republic's activities.

Captured by both the Chinese Army and an enemy Time Agent, the Rambler mistakenly believes matters can not get any worse. But then Hillary discovers that the costume-wearing soldiers of the People's Republic aren't the only furry horrors stalking the snow-caps...

"THE RAMBLER" "The Yeti Hunters" - Part Three Post One

This opening to the third episode really turns what had been a jolly(ish) mountaineering adventure with monsters, into a gun-toting tale of espionage, and as a result within the space of just four frames the yeti are revealed to be nothing more than camouflaged Chinese soldiers, Sir Edmund Hillary a British spy, and Desmond seemingly a traitor..!

I was very happy with the design for the Chinese uniforms, complete with their famous red star, and as always with such successful 'costumes', the People's Liberation Army would suddenly feature in a few more of my serials; such as the "Heroes Of Godwinson" final adventure "Lon Chaney"...

Threatened with imminent death, the Rambler discovers that Desmond's treachery isn't as simple as it seems, and that behind all these abominable machinations stands an old enemy from one of his predecessor's final adventures...

"THE RAMBLER" "The Yeti Hunters" - Part Two Post Three

Having spent a considerable portion of this entire episode supposedly cataloguing Sir Edmund Hillary's historical exploits, these last four frames finally settle down to moving the actual adventure's narrative along, and provides a somewhat unusually packed-panel whilst doing so. Indeed its rare for any regularly-sized drawing to contain quite so many figures all at the same time. But fortunately by the time I created this story I was somewhat happier utilising Paint Shop Pro 8's smart-size scaling ability.

This sequence also gives the first hint (and a whopper it is too) that perhaps the Abominable Snowmen the explorers have encountered are not all they seem. Plus a little bit of information concerning the Makarov pistol.

Baffled and bewildered by gun-toting Yeti, the Rambler and Danny unmask the true identity of their furry foes. But even within the group of explorers, not everyone is as they seem...