Galacton 2230, Part 3

(Continued from Part 2)

Episode X
This one has probably my favorite bogus title, which is also the most "obvious" for this story. My favorite sequence begins here. This is where I pay tribute to yet another favorite old TV show, by introducing Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, James Hampton, Joe Brooks, and Bob Steele. YEAH.
The line about the bar mitzvah is another one of my favorites.

Episode XI

Strange but true: When I started this, I was doing the whole thing as "roughs" on 8-1/2" x 11" paper.  But I realized I was putting so much work in, I owed it to myself to take it a step further. As a result, THIS episode was actually the first one I did on full-size 11" x 17" bristol board. All the earlier pages were done after the story was finished, which may explain why the last few pages before this one look a lot "tighter" and "slicker". Among the characters this time are Sarah Rush, Alan Alda, Loretta Swit, Mickey, Davy, Mike & Peter, Stan & Ollie, Peter Parker... oh yeah, and Dennis Weaver finally shows up! (Who didn't see that coming?)

Episode XII
As we barrel headlong toward the climax, Susannah York makes a cameo-- and Bob Stack finally turns up again, ready for action! As he was also the basis for my long-running character The GUN! (who I wrote no less than 50 episodes of in high school and after), his appearance here makes for a bizarre, unofficial "crossover" between this story and my "main" series.

Episode XIII
Although every episode up to here had been 2 pages (the 3-pagers expanded when I redid the art), this was the first time I realized I really needed 4 pages to do a "proper" episode without things being crammed too much. Everything comes together here, including a cameo by The Rook & Mannering.
The last 4 panels never fail to put a smile on my face!

(to be Continued...)

Alternate version of the cover.  Some time back, I redrew "Stawback" in a less cartoony style.  I just now (January 2013) redid the lettering.  Yep. No matter how good I could make it doing it by hand, it STILL looks better done mechanically on the computer!  Hey, it's a tool...

Comparing the above image with the original, I'm wondering, how the heck did I scan & process the earlier one?  So much detail was lost, I suspect I may not have used Photoshop before. I really have gotten so much better in my use of Photoshop in recent years, the difference is somewhat staggering-- and that's to me!

At last, many years overdue, here's the cover IN COLOR!

(Continued in Part 4)

Story & Art (C) HENRY KUJAWA
All prominent characters are Trademarks of HENRY KUJAWA

Galacton 2230, Part 2

(Continued from Part 1)

Episode VI
It looks like this was the point where I decided to put a little more detail into the art. Dig that Colonial "Viper"! This was also where the plot took a "nasty" turn for what started out as a comedy. But then, GET SMART used to have violence on it, too. Along the way, 2 supporting characters from a certain pulp magazine series have cameos.

Episode VII
This turned out to be the most "intense" part of the whole story. I got to pay tribute to, among other things, "ENTER THE DRAGON", "DAY OF THE DOVE", the 1st issue of MOON KNIGHT (which came out maybe a week before I wrote these pages-- note the use of Bill Siekiewicz SWIPES!), and "Captain Haddock" from THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN. As a result, the most violent scene in the whole book also turned out to be one of the funniest. Crazy, huh? that's not all. Imagine my SHOCK when a scene VERY similar to this one turned up more than 20 YEARS later in an episode of the Ron Moore remake of BG-- the very episode which had a "content warning" included because of its violence. It was spooky. It was uncanny. I mean, I figure, there's probably no way anyone connected with that show could have read my comic. But it did suggest that I was on the same "wavelength" as their writers. Which I guess is kinda cool...
(Of course, I prefer MY version!)

Episode VIII
The story reaches an important and somewhat unexpected turning point. Along the way, my favorite band turns up, my pal Jim has another cameo, and the kid gets probably my favorite line of dialogue in the whole book.

Episode IX
It was at this point that my pal Jim opened his mouth again and made another suggestion-- that I do a tribute to the "Alamo" episodes of McCLOUD. For any unfamiliar with them, Glen Larson wrote a series of season-finale stories, each one involving "Joe Broadhurst" being left in charge and the Precinct getting shot up in a gun-battle. As Terry Carter was on both McCLOUD and BG, it seemed an obvious way to go. This explains why Diana Muldaur has a cameo in this one. I also love how Dirk Benedict managed to actually follow orders, by finding a non-violent solution to their situation.

(Continued in Part 3)

Story & Art (C) HENRY KUJAWA
All prominent characters are Trademarks of HENRY KUJAWA

Publisher samples

I enjoy learning, I just always hated school. I've spent nearly every minute for the last week teaching myself Microsoft Publisher 2010. I find it's got features which are familiar to me from no less than 4 other programs I already know-- Word, Corel Draw, Acrobat and Photoshop. In a sense, this is EASY compared to something like Autocad or 3D Studio Viz.

Some samples knocked out while taking a 7-lesson online tutorial...