Hail Hydra! Page two is done!

Alright, here's page two of issue five with commentary below...

So of course, if Psychoboy went to Washington, he'd go around seeing if anyone was a member of Hydra. Duh. It's, of course, a play on the viral Hail Hydra stuff from Captain America: Winter Soldier. I know there was a jogger who may or my not have been Steve Rogers on the first page, but I tend to lean on the "may not" end of that spectrum. On the other hand, maybe it was Steve, Hydra is real and Psychoboy is a genius. You never know.

For John Boehner's tan, that is actually a color I sampled from a photo of him. Fun fact, his skin really is on the orange spectrum. But if you push the color too far towards orange, he starts looking like an Oompa Lumpa, so I decided to stick with  his real-life skin tone.

I'm having to letter this issue in Photoshop. My best advice on lettering in Photoshop is to buy Illustrator and use that instead. Unfortunately, I no longer have that option. It got a little easier once I got past the first panel with it's wondrous exposition dump, but it's still a long process with Photoshop, even when using old word balloon shapes I created in illustrator. You don't have the precise control over the shape of the balloons in Photoshop like you do in Illustrator, but I made it work.

So next up is page three where we see some of the other folks Psycho been testing his Hydra theory on. It'll be fun. And until then, remember to hail Hydra early and often. 

On your left! Page one is done!

At long last, here's page one of issue five with commentary below...

There is no more recognizable staple of a show or movie set in Washington, DC than jogging around the National Mall. If you're a fictional character and you're in the nation's capital, it's practically a requirement.

And of course, one of the greatest jogging sequences ever is in "Captain America: Winter Soldier." I couldn't resist a jogger who may or may or not be Steve Rogers blowing past our heroes.

I drew Stickboy and Psychoboy once for the opening four panel sequence and moved their arms and legs around and altered their expressions when needed.

And so the last panel had to pan out to show the Capitol building, Psychoboy's new stomping grounds, for an epic establishing shots. At first, I wanted our tiny heroes against a photo of the Capitol. Heck, I originally wanted to do the whole issue with photo backgrounds, the idea that this is the one story where they're actually in a real place (as opposed to the unnamed fictional settings of past issues). But as I did research, I found that it would require a trip up to D.C. and taking the photos myself, and even then there would be some backgrounds I just physically wouldn't be able to get shots of (like the House floor).

So the photo background issue idea was dropped, but I still thought for this one panel it would've been awesome. I had a great public domain shot picked out. And then after inking and coloring the figures in the panel, I put them against the photo...and it didn't work. They were giants compared to the far shot of the building or, if shrunk down to near proper size, they appeared as no more than dots on the page.

With no other choice, I decided to create my own Capitol building. The only way I could pull it off  (having never drawn real buildings before) was to simply trace over it in Photoshop, using the computer's ability to create straight lines and other shapes to my advantage. Almost every curve is an ellipse I cut in half.

It's a simplified version with a bit artist license, but there was only so much detail that would show up when the building was printed. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. I now have a deeper appreciation of the architecture of our nation's capital, and I pray I don't have to draw any of it again anytime soon.

So next up, a nice indoor scene in page two. Now if you'll excuse me, I think Claire Underwood and Sgt. Nicholas Brody are coming up on Psychoboy's left. Pick up the pace, Psycho!