But he’s right, that’s the sand dome. The water tank of a typical american steam locomotive is in the tender behind the engine. However, that’s nitpick of experts! 🙂
I try to do a fair amount of research but I can’t be an expert on everything! I’ll cop to embarrassing myself with occasional inaccuracies. Whoops, I guess! If time permitted I’d probably correct this, honestly, since it’s pretty egregious, but … time does not permit.
That being said, per js’ comment: not only has it not been established that this is America; I constantly hammer on the fact that it isn’t (it’s even in the about page) and this is a work of high fantasy in the most basic sense of the term.
Erin, this is a beautiful action page with vane sneaking around. In panel four and five we see the train is back under way again with the blur of the scenery going by. Love how you do that. I do wonder though how Vane gets around so gracefully with that purpose built heavily modified Sharps and scabbard strapped to her back. Oh wait, I forgot. She’s a woman. And even though she’s walking dead, she looks really hot in panel seven. OMG! I’m falling for a Goddamn cartoon!!!
I had the same reaction as you a couple of updates back- but those eyes burning with cold flames tends to kill any attraction you feel for the beautiful Miss Black.
Haha! It’s both funny and oddly heartening that people find Vane attractive, even periodically. She wasn’t exactly designed to break hearts … at least not figuratively. But I think it’s super neat there are readers who find her fetching despite not exactly being a conventionally attractive comic book female.
It is most definitely Henry-based, but as in the taking-on-water discussion above, this isn’t the historical American west, so it’s not really either, and no one one’s in trouble.
Checking out Miss Black’s guns. I’m counting at least 3 pistols and 1 long-barrelled slung over her back. She’s really armed to the teeth (although you’d have to be if you were hunting Hunter).
The first frame captures the blue feeling of a place where the light hasn’t reached yet, due to the height of the surrounding peaks. Whether the subdued hues are for this (that would align with Erin’s usual care regarding lighting) or to visually place the pale lady into the foreground, it works both effects. Like jsfury I also enjoyed the blurring of the scenery and the angle of Miss Black’s hair as indicators of speed. Actually her body language in frame 5 also indicates up to full speed – no need to hang on or lean into any acceleration. This strip does an incredible job telling the story with just the images and the usual subtle queues that we all pick up subconsciously in real life. Erin is paying more attention to them than the rest of us – and the distilling of them for the comic makes me more aware of them every day, which is another pleasure.
I like the transparent letters for the train whistle. It makes the sound large enough and yet IN the air not over it (blocking the scenery). And the watery wobble of the “O”s combined with the smaller second “O” captures that unique “WHOOoooOOOoooo” that made every engineer’s unique sound recognizable for miles. Even with modern diesels it’s still possible, and we have at least one engineer through our part of NC that creates a particular long mournful whistle.
I had to go back and look at the first shots of the train to review whether any other cars have bars on the windows… I had not observed this in the first panel of the Express on her way, but (of course) that first car after the tender is indeed different than the passenger cars. Smaller windows, and there are the bars – just not so you would notice them until frame 6 of this page. And every closer glimpse of the train other than that one (and these) shows either the rear of the train (no bars on any of those windows) or the engine and tender only. So Erin saved this carefully until now, when the sound attracts both Miss Black’s and our attention to it.
And in the back of my mind I’m still waiting for the appearance of Diamonds and the doctor from the last chapter…
I hate to be a spoilsport, but it looks like you engineer is trying to add water to his engine’s sand dome.
No, I think the engineer is just swinging it into place. 😉
But he’s right, that’s the sand dome. The water tank of a typical american steam locomotive is in the tender behind the engine. However, that’s nitpick of experts! 🙂
G., it hasn’t been established that this is America, all though it mirrors it a lot. 😉
I try to do a fair amount of research but I can’t be an expert on everything! I’ll cop to embarrassing myself with occasional inaccuracies. Whoops, I guess! If time permitted I’d probably correct this, honestly, since it’s pretty egregious, but … time does not permit.
That being said, per js’ comment: not only has it not been established that this is America; I constantly hammer on the fact that it isn’t (it’s even in the about page) and this is a work of high fantasy in the most basic sense of the term.
Erin, this is a beautiful action page with vane sneaking around. In panel four and five we see the train is back under way again with the blur of the scenery going by. Love how you do that. I do wonder though how Vane gets around so gracefully with that purpose built heavily modified Sharps and scabbard strapped to her back. Oh wait, I forgot. She’s a woman. And even though she’s walking dead, she looks really hot in panel seven. OMG! I’m falling for a Goddamn cartoon!!!
I had the same reaction as you a couple of updates back- but those eyes burning with cold flames tends to kill any attraction you feel for the beautiful Miss Black.
Haha! It’s both funny and oddly heartening that people find Vane attractive, even periodically. She wasn’t exactly designed to break hearts … at least not figuratively. But I think it’s super neat there are readers who find her fetching despite not exactly being a conventionally attractive comic book female.
That’s a Henry, not a Sharps.
88, your right. That is a Henry. Sorry, I should know that.
It is most definitely Henry-based, but as in the taking-on-water discussion above, this isn’t the historical American west, so it’s not really either, and no one one’s in trouble.
Checking out Miss Black’s guns. I’m counting at least 3 pistols and 1 long-barrelled slung over her back. She’s really armed to the teeth (although you’d have to be if you were hunting Hunter).
She still has the brass pistol which fires the explosive rounds (when in contact with water) on her aswell.
I wonder what that would do to hunter (we saw what happens to a pig).
The first frame captures the blue feeling of a place where the light hasn’t reached yet, due to the height of the surrounding peaks. Whether the subdued hues are for this (that would align with Erin’s usual care regarding lighting) or to visually place the pale lady into the foreground, it works both effects. Like jsfury I also enjoyed the blurring of the scenery and the angle of Miss Black’s hair as indicators of speed. Actually her body language in frame 5 also indicates up to full speed – no need to hang on or lean into any acceleration. This strip does an incredible job telling the story with just the images and the usual subtle queues that we all pick up subconsciously in real life. Erin is paying more attention to them than the rest of us – and the distilling of them for the comic makes me more aware of them every day, which is another pleasure.
I like the transparent letters for the train whistle. It makes the sound large enough and yet IN the air not over it (blocking the scenery). And the watery wobble of the “O”s combined with the smaller second “O” captures that unique “WHOOoooOOOoooo” that made every engineer’s unique sound recognizable for miles. Even with modern diesels it’s still possible, and we have at least one engineer through our part of NC that creates a particular long mournful whistle.
I had to go back and look at the first shots of the train to review whether any other cars have bars on the windows… I had not observed this in the first panel of the Express on her way, but (of course) that first car after the tender is indeed different than the passenger cars. Smaller windows, and there are the bars – just not so you would notice them until frame 6 of this page. And every closer glimpse of the train other than that one (and these) shows either the rear of the train (no bars on any of those windows) or the engine and tender only. So Erin saved this carefully until now, when the sound attracts both Miss Black’s and our attention to it.
And in the back of my mind I’m still waiting for the appearance of Diamonds and the doctor from the last chapter…
I should get your permission to collect your page analyses and release them with some kind of special commentary edition of the comic.