The de-corruption of Jimmy Sparks – Chapter 8, Act 3, Strip 12

See? Magic succeeds quite comfortably where conventional military force failed. Love wins! Even if it’s off-brand love. >_>

The twins’ attacks have to match the genre, of course, but also their personalities. There was no way around their finishing move being a duo attack, involving some symbol of love, so that was easy. For their opener I decided on a love rocket. There’s really nothing objectionable, after all, to the twins shooting a love rocket…as long as it’s a literal love rocket. It also fits the scifi/mechanical theme of the planet, and most importantly is outrageous enough a concept to fit the twins’ nature. XD

Gigantor falls easily to that double whammy, and George Geekish went all out on that fall, as far as SFX are concerned. With costs prohibiting doing the scene in CGI, he managed to create a completely effective alternative using stop-motion.* And he required nothing for that which he couldn’t have found in his daughter’s toybox. Good thing he got her that city-streets playmat all those years ago – it didn’t lead to her becoming a particularly safe driver later on, but if you squint and hold your head like so, it creates an entirely convincing scifi-city background for this scene, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it? Bueller? Bueller?

Anyway, as I said, love wins and “Jimmy Sparks” is back to his old self. Or perhaps it’s even a new, better self, since he seems pretty happy (which war rare for him in the original show) and has full-length pants. A considerable upgrade for him. I wouldn’t say that it catapulted him into the early Heisei era, but quite firmly into the late Showa, at least.**

More on Monday.

* An effect which I then recreated in CGI, ironically. Things just keep getting more meta-meta around here…

** Originally, I sketched him with long pants by accident. I caught that before “inking”, but then decided not to correct it. I think he deserved a small upgrade after all of those decades.

2 Replies to “The de-corruption of Jimmy Sparks – Chapter 8, Act 3, Strip 12”

    1. You know, the twins might actually have worked quite well within the context of that particular movie, between BRIAN BLESSED and the Queen soundtrack… XD

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