*Duck Hunt Fail Sound*
Page 9
As a man of little patience I have been known to rage play video games/clean/excercise/you name it when I'm feeling powerless while forced to wait so once again this is Locke being me. It's also a great excuse to make a Duck Hunt reference.
Damn kids.
Page 10
This is another one of those pages where I see Reckless Life starting to become what it eventually became art-wise. The charterers are on-model and fairly expressive. Speaking of expressive, you'll notice that in the Reckless Life Universe everyone wears glasses that are made of some kind of bendy substance that morphs with their eyebrows. That's not an apology. I always loved that. Like the way Spider-Man's mask eyes change shape. That makes no sense but "who cares?" because it looks cool.
Speaking of cool I love that reflection of Daniels in Locke's glasses in the last panel.
Pages 11
I'm gonna be honest with you guys. I forgot Dylan Daniels was even in this story. I hope that reveal was as exciting for you!
Daniels is still looking a bit off-model here but that last red panel has some punch. I guess that's about as dramatic as one can make a drawing of someone sitting down. There are a lot of silhouette shots like that in Reckless Life. Sometimes they were design choices and sometimes I was tired and wanted to go to bed. Always design your characters with strong profiles so you can get some sleep when you need it, kids!
Page 12
Okay, this is a great page. The layout is a cool design all it's own, (love those three white lines in the bottom half, 2003 Tim) there's a creative gutter transition between the first two panels, there's a good variety of panel shapes and the characters are looking much more on model than just one page ago. Between that and the snappy Gilmore Girls style banter this page is a real winner.
Did I fail to predict smart phones or is Daniels using a burner flip-phone? YOU DECIDE!
Page 13
"Look, I'll tell you what... here are the transactions. I'm sure you can get a trace off them."
WTF does that even mean, 2003 Tim? I know you REALLY liked 24 but that's some lazy writing even knowing that. It's a good thing that last page was so good. We'll call it a wash.
So now that I remember that it exists, I do remember the purpose of this scene. Aside from scooting the plot along it underscores that Locke has trouble with relationships. Even someone who he kind of considered a friend, or at least an ally, in Daniels immediately lets him down. That's important.
NEXT WEEK: Meet-cute.