We’re going to make another scene jump to check in on the Henchmen. I haven’t forgotten about the name of our villainess, but obviously it’s not coming for another week or so. If you haven’t submitted your suggestion, you still have some time.
I always enjoy drawing the full-page splash page drawings. I can’t do them too often, or the story would take three times longer to finish, but it’s fun to slip them in occasionally.
This one is a special tribute to the classic scene from James Cameron’s Aliens. I still remember the cheers that rose up from the full-house audience when Ripley emerged from behind the door to confront the alien queen and uttered the famous line. I actually worried about using ‘bitch’ but I decided that it was an essential part of the scene that I was paying tribute to.
Thanks to everyone who has been submitting names for our sword-wielding villainess. If you haven’t submitted your suggestion yet, you have another week or two before I’ll reveal her new name.
Stay tuned!
I always thought it was an odd aspect of comics that new heroes and villains always had to introduce themselves with a dramatic declaration of their names - “I am the Mighty VIXX!” or they would do it at the beginning of a big battle “None can resist the power of MEGA MIME!” and so on. However, I’m finding that if I don’t do something like that, it’s equally awkward to try to slip the character name into the story afterward.
You may have noticed that this new villain has been lurking around the edges of the tale and now that she’s finally here, she’s sort of nameless. I suppose I could have had her declare herself when she burst through the window, but it didn’t feel right that this big, bad villain would have to yell her name out to a bunch of frightened middle-schoolers. You’ll hear her name soon enough, but it’s going to be a few more pages.
NAME THAT VILLAIN – A CONTEST!
On the bright side, since there’s no official name for this new villain yet, I can open it up to the readers to see if they have any good suggestions. If someone submits a name for her that I like better than the one I have in mind, I’ll declare that one the ‘winner’ and I’ll send an original sketch of the character to the person who submitted the name.  Just send your name suggestion as a comment to the comic and I’ll reveal the winner in the next couple of weeks. Of course, I get the final pick of the winner….
