Acceptable Losses: Catching Up (Issue #4)

OK, I had Breaker back, what was I going to do with him?  That was only a part of the things I wanted to explore with the next arc of my dio-story. I wanted to explore what role Cobra had in the world - for I was certain that this was an older, wiser Cobra.  They may be bent on world domination, but they know if they push too openly, the world will unite against them.  I also wanted to explore the rank and file of Cobra some (more on that for a later issue), and I had a new figure for an already-established character. I'm not from the soap opera school of "The role of X will now be played by..."  I needed a reason to alter one's appearance. 

Luckily, in a war comic, there's plenty of precedent for that.

The main part of "Catching Up" is the middle scene.  I had just built (to me) a grand set piece - the PITT, enlisted Mess Hall and rec room.  The main conversation is the poker table, but I wanted the place to be full of life: the Navy guys eating together, the group playing pool, the group watching TV.  Multiple conversations abound; I color-shaded them to keep threads together.  The pool table and the playing cards came from Hobby Lobby's dollhouse aisle.

Speaking of altered appearances, I used the same character head for Breaker's basic fatigues and scraped the beard off with an X-acto knife.  Airtight talks about a new 'suit', which gives me an out if I do create one for him, and even Beachhead gets a head that has his iconic ski mask rolled up.  Note one other thing - the Navy guys are all in their 'dry' clothes.  That's one thing that bothered me - because of the toy tie-ins, Snow Job and Torpedo were walking around malls in snow- and scuba gear. Really? 

Frostbite, Countdown, and Deep Six demonstrate.

It made more sense to me that the environmental specialists (that is, arctic, space, and underwater) needed to have a 'dry / temperate' uniform as well as their specialized outfit.  It's about this time that the dossier was born, to help identify my ever-expanding cast of customs.

I had a bit of meta fun with this episode too that made it into deleted scenes:

Oh, there's a Devil's Due comic reference in the dialogue: In the comic, there is an "Alvin R Kibbey Memorial Gym".

On to the comic!  "Catching Up" was originally posted on 3/10/2006 (scenes 1 & 2) and 4/3/2006 (Scene 3).

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Recruiting Drive: The Search for an Old Friend (Issue #3)

By issue 3, I knew where I was going.  I had identified with "Breaker" since issue #1 of Marvel, back in '82. He was my first Joe toy, too.  A lot of things gelled together for this issue - that's where the "History" blog post came from.

I also knew I needed to have a flashback scene.  My medium of choice is the early 2000's Hasbro Gi Joe line, mixed in with new and older vehicles.  But for the flashback scene, I reached out to the Joe Customs community.  HypnoHustler volunteered to shoot the flashback scene for me (with the edits I needed to make my universe work) and he sent me a series of 10 beautiful pics that were exactly what I wanted.

I had another design problem: I wanted interior shots of the Tomahawk, but I wasn't going to cut open mine for the scene.  So I created a "soundstage":  Those little modular chairs have come in handy for other scenes too.

Breaker has the most customs that I've made for the dio-series so far, and I haven't yet gotten him to his final, new uniform. Scarlett may surpass him, though, if I can get the Red Shadows arc finished.  The current story has Shanke-Eyes and Scarlett on a cruise, where two Cobra named agents are also hiding out. :)

The "Modular room" got quite a workout in this issue as Duke's office and as the jail.  I'd also recently got most of a USS Flagg from eBay and built up the USS Jane frighter escort, so when I posted the "Breaker's tale" scene in December, that got its own mini-cover.  I originally deleted the two-panel scene with the pilots, but I went ahead and included it here. That is why those dialogue boxes are not cleaned up like the others, and why they have no backgrounds.

The final "Scene 4" image completes my "Original 13", which is a minor reason for bringing Breaker back compared to my personal reasons above.  And the Epilogue takes us back to the whole reason for "Convoy" in the first place! (I do have a few-panel thing sketched out for how the satellite's transmission antenna was broken, but I haven't shot it.)

You can bet this Cobra space ninja would have been involved!

"The Search for an Old Friend" was originally published by me beginning 7/1/2005 and completing 12/8/2005. "Kittycat" is a new named character created by Bob Galley. "Cloudburst" is copyright Hasbro, but is given new life as a USAF Combat Controller.  GI Joe, Cobra, and all other named characters are copyright Hasbro, etc.

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Epilogue