Three's company.
Issue 2, page 4
Lots of red on these pages and I dig it. The night sky is always red in Reckless Life which I absolutely stole from Batman the Animated Series.
Magellan pharmaceuticals is a reference to a fellow GraphicSmash comic of the same name. All these years later Magellan is still going! Grace, if you see this, that is crazy inspiring!
Okay, back to things about me.
2005 Tim didn't completely nail that shot of Locke pouting in panel 2 but the idea still comes across even if the body language is a little stiff.
More cool abstract-looking buildings on this page. Giving up trying on my backgrounds was one of the best decisions I ever made. This comic didn't allow me a lot of Spider-Man poses so I jumped on the chance with Paige here.
This page and the next do a good job of skipping over the boring parts of the narrative. Do we really want to sit through the process of Locke being convinced to stay?
Issue 2, page 5
Or sitting through another heist plans scene? No thanks. Let's get right to the bickering.
Daniels is just looking more and more like an anime bad guy and I love it.
I did a pretty horrible job of predicting the future in Reckless Life (something I'd actually like another crack at...) but I did get wearables right and that results in a pretty cool POV shot here. Again, these pages may be the best use of my red spot color in the whole series.
The triptic shot at the bottom of this page and the red bar behind them is super icon and one of my favorites. The sex-shaming joke is not. Yes, this was written by a 20-something dude still shaking off his less than enlightened upbringing but it still makes me cringe.
Issue 2, page 6
If you thought Locke's "sweet pulley system" from Issue one, page 6 wasn't going to turn into a running gag you thought wrong. I love that Locke stole ranch dressing and that he's still super-proud of it when pressed. (And restaurant ranch IS better than grocery store ranch. Even the good ones. Fight me.)
It's a nice way to break the tension here too, alongside some more cool high contrast black and white Locke and Daniels shots.
Issue 2, page 7
Wow 2005 Tim, I'm impressed yet again. It appears you may have actually put some thought into the heist part of your heist comic this time. I'm sure everything Locke is saying here is total nonsense but it sounds legit and it's good contrast to him talking about ranch dressing and being a total asshole to Paige. I suppose occasionally it's good to remember that Locke is actiually really competent at what he does even if he's completely immature.
Paige, of course, doesn't believe him and why would she?
Issue 2, page 8
What a great-looking page, starting off with a great-looking Paige (hey-oh! *rimshot*) and ending with the Chris Ware-iest looking panel in the whole series.
This whole sequence really is Reckless Life firing on all cylinders with all three primary cast members and I love it. Thank you for reading a blog post about great i think I am.
NEXT TIME: Things get even MORE heated!