Webcomicography is a weekly article from Champion City Comics that goes behind the scenes of our webcomics to give you the complete story. The Champion City Fire is the first title we published and is the first to be examined in this series. If you missed part one then click here to read.
Page one introduced Donovan Page, a time traveling member of a group known as The Disruptors, and Denny O'Shea, a disgraced football player with a lengthy criminal record. Donovan Page has been assigned to kill Denny O'Shea because The Disruptors believe that they can create a better future by eliminating some notorious criminals of the past. The problem for the time travelers is that their technology is faulty and they can only travel to certain areas during a certain time. Page one set up both characters, and the purpose of the second page was to make the reader not like O'Shea.
Let's take a look at the original page two below.
Page one introduced Donovan Page, a time traveling member of a group known as The Disruptors, and Denny O'Shea, a disgraced football player with a lengthy criminal record. Donovan Page has been assigned to kill Denny O'Shea because The Disruptors believe that they can create a better future by eliminating some notorious criminals of the past. The problem for the time travelers is that their technology is faulty and they can only travel to certain areas during a certain time. Page one set up both characters, and the purpose of the second page was to make the reader not like O'Shea.
Let's take a look at the original page two below.
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The page sets up O'Shea as a total scumbag, but the imagery of the panels just shows a man going through the motions of working a late shift as a security guard. Joe Haemmerle, the artist, colorist, and letterer, and I both liked this first set, but Joe told me he wanted to do a better job with the first few pages. I trusted Joe and he delivered.
This is the final version of page two.
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This panel gives us more than O'Shea walking around a warehouse. We have an image of Page tracking down O'Shea and an image of someone about to do something really nasty to a young girl. Joe and I felt this page was more effective and as I wrote in the previous entry, the black and white style gives the story a darker feel as opposed to the original color concept.
Page three continues the O'Shea story. Check out the original page below.
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I really like this page and it is a simple four panel page to finish O'Shea's background. The final panel gave readers the opportunity to see Page for the first time. The original design was for him to resemble Clark Gable (Gone With The Wind). Page has found his target and now the reader has the motivation to turn the page to see what happens next.
Before we move on, let's examine the updated page three.
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The mystery of the man about to do something nasty to the young girl is O'Shea. This is still a simple four panel page, but we do not see Page. The background on O'Shea is complete, but we still have the suspense of what will happen next.
Take a look at the original design for page four.
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Page has met his target and kills O'Shea with a shot at point blank range. Page uses a modern looking handgun with a silencer to take out O'Shea. The page below is the final product of Joe Hammerle's revisions. He created a splash page of sorts by combining pages four and five.
Combining pages four and five were a great idea and the end result is a more dramatic series of events. I really like the futuristic gun used by Page and how O'Shea crashes back into his car. The look of Page has gone from a Clark Gable look-alike to a more fearsome assassin. Fantastic.
Stay tuned for more Webcomicography!
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Stay tuned for more Webcomicography!
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