Reclaimer - A Halo 3 Comic

So it seems I had some extra time on my hands this evening.  An excellent opportunity to produce another strip.  The conflict/dialogue between the Reclaimer and Ferial continues, with a few more details to pique the interest. 

The third frame was an experiment – I was trying to convey the sense of very fast motion resulting in the Reclaimer being knocked to his back.  I tried stacking five cropped images on top of each other and adjusting the opacity to allow each to show through a little.  The effect isn’t nearly as good as what I’d hoped for, so I’ll have to play around with some other ideas if I hope to try this again in the future.  I may just have to become acquainted with Photoshop’s magic wand.  If anyone knows of a good way to produce this effect, do please let me know.

Two additional things I’d like to point out in relation to today’s strip:

1) Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that I’m using a new font starting today.  It’s called Creative Block and can be downloaded from Blambot for free.  I went on a hunt for a good comic-style font yesterday.  I’d used Comic Sans Serif in the first two pages but wasn’t completely satisfied with the look.  I also don’t really have the spare cash right now to purchase one or two of the more professional comic book fonts, but there are really quite a few nice-looking free ones out there.  Creative Block is very suitable for this type of comic.  It’s not too cartoony, but it’s not too ‘real life,’ either.  I also used a font called Blam Blam available from Blambot, as well, for the impact frame, but I’m not completely happy with that font, either.  The font I really wanted to use will cost me $20 to buy, and may well be something I purchase later on.  For now, though, I’ll experiment with some free fonts and play with balloons to find a look I like.

2) Dark Tower fans will recognize some verbiage from Ferial at the end of today’s strip.  It’s an homage to that epic series and quiet shout-out to my fellow Gunslingers.  You can be certain it won’t be the last DT reference you’ll see in Reclaimer.