I liked Borin Ironlung a lot when I first created him, but aside from his role in this book of Volume 1, he never really went on to play much of a part in the rest of the series. He's a sort of mix between (in his looks) Freewheelin' Franklin from the Freak Brothers comics, and (in his deafness) Professor Calculus from Tintin. At the time I thought he was pretty funny, but I think in the long-run he just wasn't original enough for me to want to hang on to.
Bob Gnarly is the last of the Peace Patrol members. Like most of the rest of the group he never really hung around beyond the stories in this particular Book. These strips were all done very early on, and I hadn't really figured out that characters really need to be thought-out and well-developed before putting them on the page. Back then I was just making it all up as I went along, hoping things would turn out fine. For the most part they did, but I really just created the characters of the Peace Patrol for the visual impact they'd have when they are first seen at the start of this story. It wasn't until later, when I actually had to come up with dialog for them, that I realized they were all a bit too shallow. I've tried to rectify that a bit in this revised edition and give them their dues, because I do think the overall concept was good and there are some pretty funny episodes involving them all.
Pewfell's wand -- whatever happened to that? I don't think it ever appeared in the strip again. For some reason I just never really want Pewfell to do any actual magic.
I love that first strip. The way you render the city is always inspiring to me. Don't take offense if my upcoming project has some Whelon influence in it. I can't help myself.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the notes here. I always found it funny that Pewfell is such a low-output spell caster. But it works for the character. Having him lob fireballs, summon imps, and animate the dead all the time would detract from his charm.