Lookouts - Page 3

The third page of Lookouts is now online. I hope you're enjoying it so far and before I go any further I have to give a huge kudos to Becky Dreistadt who has done amazing job in a very short amount of time. I finished the script to Lookouts on Monday which gave Becky about 48 hours to turn around the first page. This is rather staggering to me. To give you some perspective, with the Heroes graphic novels we typically allow 3-4 weeks for a 5-6 page comic (which averages out to 3-4 days per page at the worst). To put it simply, she's amazing.

Gabe posted on twitter that this is the first time Penny Arcade has done a guest week in ten years, which for me to be a part of is an incredible honor. As well as a staggering amount of pressure. First and foremost I'm a Penny Arcade fan, have been for a long time now. I have a laser cel CTS hanging in my office and a signed printout of my two favorite strips hanging up at home.

So with all that in mind, taking on this project was a pretty daunting task. Gabe & Tycho did a podcast(mp3) about their original Lookouts strip which I'd already listened to once, but listened to again (several times) to let it really sink in. It proved an invaluable resource for keeping with Gabe & Tycho's vision and you'll see a few ideas that were pulled directly out of that podcast. Namely, the concept that boys are trying to get their "basilisk badge" and secondly, the vision of the basilisk as "more chicken than lizard".

The other thing that Tycho had linked in his original post about Lookouts, was a speech by Philip K. Dick, one of my favorite authors, called "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later." I'd begun reading it for my own edification before I got the Lookouts gig and it ended up having a profound influence on how I shaped the remaining story for Lookouts (I'll explain how in more detail once it's done). If you're a writer or storyteller of any medium, I strongly recommend reading this. It's long, but well worth the read.

PAGE THREE

I think this is going to be my favorite page. There's only one line of dialog, true, but it sets up the central mystery in the story of what exactly their master is playing at. But mostly the basilisk just gets to kick some ass, and what's more fun than that? In my head I've been calling this "The Basilisk Strikes Back". It's your typical betrayal/all-is-lost/everyone-gets-their-ass-handed-to-them moment. That's always my favorite part in a movie (or trilogy), hopefully you enjoy it!

That's it for now, don't forget to follow me on twitter for Heroes news, Lookouts tidbits, and to hear me lament about having pneumonia :/