Nice work on page 3. The guy in the front in the last panel looks modeled off this guy:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193295/

Hah! Yeah, Training Day is one of the movies I researched. He was one of the guys I had in mind when I started this. Surprised to find out he's Maori. And surprised the PC police didn't raise a stink about it. I did find some people who are not pleased with him, though. As I knew I would once I saw he wasn't Hispanic.

It's good that anyone will think that, since that gives me an out because Thug 1 is actually more modeled off a photo I found off the web. But I think there's a lot of guys that have that basic look.

I'm hoping.

Still want to see Once Were Warriors. If it's not too depressing.

Notice I used the "not necessary" excuse on panel 3 to avoid drawing anymore !#$@^%#$ trees behind Sir Michael.

There should be more shadows across the path, more lines on the shirts but as I said, I'm going to let the colorist worry about that.

I'm not really that happy about Curtis as a Latin American, more so because he was not very good at it than because he's Maori. But, generally, casting Curtis (and others) as a member of any given ethnic group, makes it seem that there's a prevailing notion that all brown people resemble each other. To be entirely fair, though, I have to admit that Curtis can pass for either Hispanic or Arabic.

BTW, sorry to say that ONCE WERE WARRIORS is pretty friggin' depressing, but still worth watching. And you might recognize two other alumni from that movie from other, very popular movies.

Guy in the black suit in the middle panel looks a little stiff and off. Otherwise, that is some damned impressive work, Rick.

Well, he IS supposed to be a little stiff and formal at this point; he's been brought up short, as it were, assessing the situation, don't you know.

If I were using thought balloons, he would be thinking along the lines of "I could kill them all now before they could blink and save myself and future generations trouble. But, I've gone soft in my dottage."

It's the figures that I draw later that AREN'T supposed to be stiff that are always the problem. Probably as soon as the next page.

And thanks for the generous praise.

I should have said before now that my hand is as shaky as Charles Schultz's near the end. I go back and try to correct some of that but some of it just has to go thru or I'll be spending a week on each panel. Plus my shading is fairly crude and hit or miss but I'm trying to move on.

Also, despite my admiration for Adams, don't expect any slanty panel layouts. It makes it one less thing to have to figure out. And I justify this by thinking if rectangles were good enough for John Buscema, they're good enough for me.

I keep thinking I should tie this gang into El Brujo and give Thug 1 a Third Eye tattoo right in the middle of his forehead.

Yea or nay?

Tupac and Kanye?

It's interesting but I'd say nay. It might be distracting and misleading.

OHMAGAWD!

I knew when I said a page every two days I was being extremely optimistic but jeez. I think whatever eye-rolling was done at this proclamation at the time we can all agree now it was well-deserved. I feel like I've been working on this one page for a month.

Action is hard. Actually, all of it is hard. I may go back and tweak things when I'm done. Like...hair for instance. Sunuva...

Anyway, I've decided that, given the fact that I'm lettering this as I go to make sure I have enough room and more importantly

SINCE I KEEP CHANGING THE SCRIPT

I've decided to just go ahead and finalize the lettering and present it this way. It's going to have to be done sooner or later, anyway. This will surely enhance your viewing pleasure. So no more script pages.

And Paulo, I don't know what your heritage is but if you can speak Spanish let me know if that last bit is off. I could ask my mother but talking to you is easier. I would really like the most low-down, gutter Cuban Spanish that exists but I don't know any Cubans.

As always, everyone can critique away.

And who saw the sword cane coming?

Sorry, Rick, not a speaker of Spanish (I'm originally from India). I can say that 'plata' specifically means 'silver,' though. Of course, you probably know that and it could be the local term, for all I know, but figured I'd mention it. As for the sentence, it checks out at the site below. The only things it needs is an 'ñ' in place of an 'n'; i.e. 'compañeros' instead of 'companeros.'

http://spanishchecker.com/en/

On the art side, looks good, overall. A couple of things I would suggest:

• I'm not sure it's a good idea to suddenly skip the backgrounds in panels. I know the detail is extra work, though so, on a general note, I think perhaps that areas further back in the trees can be blacked out, even just behind the first or second row of trees, depending on the panel. Anyway, that's just my impression.
• Punk 1 seems to have less hair than in previous pages. Maybe it's just the distance.

Didn't anticipate the cane-sword. Cool!

Looks cool. I see why you skipped the backgrounds - makes the eye travel faster, giving an illusion of swift movement. I like the effect.

Overall I'd say it's looking damn good so far Rick.

Ack! Serif "I" in panel 2! Alert! Alert!

"Plata" is a slang term. Wasn't worried about that one. It was mainly the syntax on the last sentence that I was concerned with. It's really a damned shame to have a parent who speaks a language that you didn't learn growing up. Some of these translators do a word for word translation and we all know that's not necessarily correct.

I don't WANNA draw backgrounds on those two! OK, maybe I should. I did actually have just a basic outline I was going to go with but it just didn't look right. But it wasn't just extra work I was trying to avoid; it was an attempt to make the action clearer and have more impact. But you're probably right. Trees, trees, it's like Day of the Triffids up in here. Three more pages of trees and then I'll be complaining about buildings. And then two or three more pages of trees towards the end. But that will be at night. I need to dig out some of my Buscema Savage Swords to see how the master worked those trees and backgrounds.

You mean more facial hair? It may be the angle instead of distance, but I can always add a little more.

Glad you're here, Paulo.

And Rob, yeah that was the idea. I THINK other people do that sort of thing. But also with color, it won't look quite so empty.

I hope.

Note to self: missing buttons.

I like that. You keep getting better and better, Rick. Agree that you need some sort of background on those middle panels though. Maybe not fully detailed, since you do want the action to pop out, but something.

If it was being colored, you could use a gradient to give you some depth.

Yeah, I can see what you mean re: backgrounds. But, like Jeff said, maybe something else. Action lines or shading around the edges. That said, color would mitigate the blankness. Also, I just noticed a blank background on the previous page. I had the wrong impression that this was the first appearance of no backgrounds.

Re: the hair, no not facial, the head. There looks to be less of it though, again, maybe that's just due to distance. Also, by "Punk 1" I mean the first gang member to appear, not the leader (the one who resembles Cliff Curtis).

Re: the Spanish, that site is not a translator, it checks spelling and grammar of Spanish sentences.

Oh I see. Yeah, in his case distance probably. All those damned 2 pixel dots closed up!

And grammar and spelling, cool! That will come in handy.

By the way, you know how Spanish has the noun first and the adjective second? My mother has been known to say in English, "loafmeat".