SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLES FEATURE pt.2
Science fiction and fantasy are things I have wanted to avoid since the beginning of SCAPULA, hence my decision to have no characters with superpowers. To me, eliminating the fantastic and focusing more on the absurd, such as the characters’ nonsensical or maniacal actions, was far more interesting than an “anything goes” world of magic and sci-fi.
Slowly, however, elements of the fantastic began to creep into the series: we never learned where Dadaman’s power came from (or even what Dadaman really was), not to mention Darkevilhelldeath-Man and his seemingly-nuclear powered energy blasts. By the time the giant robot monster showed up on the scene it seemed all bets were off.
This story is probably the first to center around a science fiction element, although I’d like to do what I can to keep the technojargon side of it restrained. I think it’s important for comic creators to really consider and define their fictional worlds; as much as I am a fan of random, zany humor and surreal scenarios (and Dadaman), SCAPULA seems to work best when grounded in some sense of reality. It makes the bizarre all the more special.
Science fiction blah blah blah. I am just happy there is no signs of redness or irritation. That could bring a person down.
I find it peculiar how Scapula seems much more menacing when portrayed in Jemini’s mind (the last panel) than the actual Scapula.
Then again, she too is a villain. Her mind must be naught but distorted.
soo…they think scapula is an actual threat? besides to himselff? O_O
btw i love how this stuff is drawn it reminds me of 80’s/90’s cartoons
i realy think people should start dawing again and not make animated crap :/
bet most people dont even remember what a pencil looks like
Yes… war time… btw, funny how the ladies check out the buttocks for redness and irritation 🙂
Woo!
Without a single defect??? Hey did anybody in the Lab notice the 2nd head???
That would be assuming her second head IS a defect.
Which it ain’t.
Aha, I just went to the cast page. Looks like she already had 2 heads pre-duplication. Darkevilhelldeath-Man is a sock puppet??? Only here could such a heinous character exist…
I agree with you, Aidan. The bizarre becomes more fantastical if it’s rooted with a bit of realism.That’s what made Marvel Comics so accessible. They took fantasy and it made it seem possible. I’m intrigued by this installment and can’t wait to see more.
@Bearman Perhaps in some science fiction future butt rashes are cured instantly. Sigh…if only. Sooooommmewheeerrrre overrr the rainbow….
@Kinare Jem’s slowly come to learn that Scap poses a potential threat to her. Either that or she just enjoys imagining him as some icky evil entity (see JEMINI’S BEAUTIFUL STORY).
@BarbaricBob It doesn’t seem like anyone is safe around Scapula, whether they’re allies, enemies, or random passerbys. Someone usually ends up crying.
I watched a lot of 80’s/90’s cartoons, and I would have watched even more if they had multiple Japanese girls and naked zaftig ladies (maybe I wasn’t watching the right cartoons…).
Pencils are those things I throw into the ceiling tiles.
@alecho I guess Jemini has a medical history of…redness down south. Moving right along…
@FrankieD Woo who?
@TonyMcGurk the First They were too busy looking for red in her butt.
@TonyMcGurk the Second See, this is why someone needs to make a Wikipedia entry for SCAPULA; that way everyone can do their research before reading these comics!
@George True; I guess it all depends on which Marvel comic you’re reading. The early Spider-Man comics where grounded pretty well in some sense of reality; for example, Steve Ditko firmly objected to Stan Lee’s original idea that the Green Goblin was some mystical Egyptian demon because he felt magic did not belong in Spider-Man’s world (…and some time later Dr. Strange guest-starred. Oh well).
Wow, was checking out the cool caricatures on Deviant very cool. Simply amazed at your material.
dadahyena wiki is made for the most important things in life! like 500 pages of david hasselhof eating a hamburger….. do you REALY want your work near THAT?
You know, Scapula really is the most dangerous guy in the comic, but not intentionally I think. The fact that he’s prone to insanely stupid acts of courage and idiotic moves like taking a virtually unarmed mob to attack machine gun armed thugs makes him kind of unpredictable, the weird crap he gets wrapped up in makes him completely unknown, and he seems just this side of unkillable thanks to a lifetime of abuse. If I were Jemini I would seriously reconsider aggravating him. My past dealings with some of the people I know have led me to realize that the honestly messed up ones are dangerous to your plans the moment you involve them.
So, this is looking like a good time coming up hehehehehehehehe. I await in anticipation.
Also, why has nobody declared Dadaman their mortal nemesis? I would love to see someone THAT stupid on the scene some day (as brief as that would be hehehehehehe)
@Barbaric Bob: Don’t forget last time she was in town Scapula was at large as Darkevilhelldeath-Man.
@MJ Thanks, man! Nice work over at Legend of Bill; I’m sure Shemp would approve (or just go “Eeep-eep-eep-eep!”).
@BarbaricBob Who wouldn’t? Hasselholf equals humongous, if unearned, publicity, and hamburgers are…well, they’re hamburgers! Sign me up!
@LadyJenn Good insight; as they say, it’s always the ones you least suspect (then again, “they” has said some pretty stupid stuff over the years, like about the grass being greener on the other side. It’s the same friggin’ grass! Shut up, “they”!).
Jemini may be able to beat Scapula in a fight, but in the long run she sure as hell couldn’t predict what the little psycho was going to do. Unpredictability equals danger in this business.
As for Dadaman, no one would stoop down to declaring themselves his ‘mortal nemesis’, because that means giving him attention. When you give Dadaman attention, you get unending trouble.
@SomeBloke Right you are! I’d give you a ‘no-prize’ if they had those in e-mail form (and if Marvel didn’t own the copyright…you’ll have to settle for a bootleg ‘no-prize’ e-mail).
I think it’s inevitable to have sci-fi elements when you deal with the portrayal of supervillians. If some mad genius is going to come up with some world conquering plan, more than likely it will have to involve some kind of sci-fi element.. unless some mad genius decides to conquer the world through commerce, which wouldn’t be as interesting!
@JerryBenedict I guess it all depends what the villain is trying to achieve; for an over-the-top megalomaniac the plan is probably going to involve something ridiculously huge that might incorporate some sci-fi/fantasy elements (or, like you said, doing it through commerce…which I suppose is possible in this day and age).
wel darkevilhelldeathman was kind of a robot wich was beyond his expertise of making or so i presumed…. but if he did the whole hostage thing while asking for somthing serious i bet he could get away with it.
*i mean a hug… realy? i dont get hugs and live just fine *cut cut cut* just fine :D*
the thin line between genius and madness is so blurry with scap i dont know what he is D:
Drat! I don’t have a box big enough to mail all the attention I have kicking around to Dadaman!
San Fransisco stays safe from my parcel post madness assault…… for now!
@BarbaricBob Good assumptions, O wise reader, and let us never forget the all-healing power that is a hug. Who knows what would happen if Scapula actually got one? He might renounce crime on the spot!
@LadyJenn I’m sure San Francisco would be more than willing to send Dadaman to you, no matter where you live. The cost of shipping is nowhere near as much as the cost of madness!
Damn! This is getting crazy. I love where this is going. Very cool.
my GOD we cant have that…. or if he got a hug and betterd his life.. and than the hugger in question dies, by the hands of good guys! that would probably make scap the biggest rampaging badass ever 😀 or the biggest rampaging sissy ever :/ annyway lots of carnage garanteed 😀
I guess four (Jemini) heads are better than one! I’m just wondering what’s gonna happen when the original Jemini and her clone meet. Someone’s got to be the heads of the operation, and maybe there are two too many? Great strip, beautifully conceived and executed.
@FrankMHansen It just gets crazier and crazier for us cartoonists, don’t it? Woo hoo! Woo hoo! Woo hoo!
@BarbaricBob Actually it might create a universal paradox that would rip apart reality at its seams! For God’s sake, NOBODY HUG HIM!
@MarkStokes Who knows at this point? Maybe some nutty mix-up, a la “The Parent Trap”…only with guns. Wackiness awaits!
I like the ladies with clip boards… funny, they all look the same…
Is it sad that this is a tempting offer hun? I REALLY don’t like where I live right now.
@SquidRowMommy Why, that’s so racist! I can’t believe you–oh, wait, they’re all duplicates. Gotcha.
@LadyJenn Then leave! Jump on a train! Go someplace new! SEE THE WORLD!
you know ive been rethinking about that duplicate.
i just dont tell it that he is a dupe of me and let him lead my life
than i go underground and plot somthing dasterdly.
and when all is sayd and done i grow a moustach blend into society and the dupe takes the blame >:D
A two-headed villain should be a lot more efficient at taking over the world so long as there’s not too much internal disagreement.
@BarbaricBob But everyone knows the evil twin is always the one with facial hair! That’s just a law of doppelgangers…I think…
@Binky Internal disagreement? Like, if one head insists on eating gassy foods? Geez, that WOULD be a helluva internal disagreement!
Hun in the last two years I’ve been through the entire US, parts of Canada, southwest Asia, most of Europe, and a sliver of north africa! I’m running out of places to get chased out of!
@LadyJenn Antarctica’s nice this time of year.
true but i wil live up to good guy facial hair standards
like being a hipp…y..ok f**k my plan i just saw the flaw in it
plastic surgery it is after the bank heist..stil gonna grow a mustach though
….. you know, I do like the cold. Really toughens the skin.
Oh boy…
I think I wore the wrong shoes for a war, D.H.!
🙂
@SpilledInky Ohhh, that old line, huh? Hey, I wouldn’t be surprised if some former soldiers in my family got out of the service with the same excuse.
Clones in a comic means only one thing… the author is planning on killing a main character… usually introduced as a retcon tho
@Ducklets I can always replace Scapula with a hip, new clone for the 90’s…Scarlet Scapula!
No, wait, that didn’t work for some other comic, either…
Still re-reading. Good science fiction and fantasy *aren’t* “anything goes.” In his intro to his book, “Asimov’s Mysteries”, he points out the necessity of playing fair with the reader. He was specifically talking about not cheating when writing science fiction mysteries, but I think the same thing is true with science fiction and fantasy in general. Sure, you might want to do something really mind-blowing, but it’s still better if it’s internally consistent, because then the reader knows you came up with that mind-blowing idea as a logical conclusion of consistent ideas, and didn’t just pull it out of your a**. It’s harder on the writer to maintain that internal consistency, but if good writing was easy, there wouldn’t be any bad writers.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, for excample, displays some truly weird stuff, but still has an internal consistency that it follows.