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"Striking Sparks" — Page Sixty-Nine
by Bob Forward on 2015-04-05 at 21:00
Chapter: Episode Four -- "Striking Sparks"
Against the striking backdrop of a Santa Susana sunset, our hero approaches the point of his posthumous promise.
(At least I hope he does. Max-the-Artist has been swamped with Real Work lately, and has Easter obligations on top of that, so this page is likely to be finished with only seconds to spare. He'll be getting on the Vote Incentive too. In the meantime, I'm writing these insightful phrases while having only seen the rough inks. But hey, I think we can assume he'll do a great job.)
After all the mayhem and mythos of the previous pages, this current softer section is a bit of a breather for me effects-wise, so I'm using it to finally get the new shots properly sorted and catalogued. About damn time. Spring cleaning is spring cleaning, even if it is digital dusting rather than vacuuming up the zillion bits of shredded paper that Shiva the Feral Kitty scatters all over my carpet.
More below!
Bobservations
Heroes Don't Lie
During my early days in animation I worked for a company which had arranged for a child psychologist to review the writing process. This was primarily a CYA move, since the animation industry in as a whole was in strange state at the time — managing to be both incredibly bland and yet nonetheless attacked for corrupting children and promoting violence. Having a consulting psychologist listed in the credits was supposed to help fend off the latter. Mostly what it did was make the former even worse.
However, as is often the case, the psychologist himself was a good guy. And while I generally chafed under the restrictions imposed, I did learn a great deal about the why of what he was saying.
For instance: Promises are very important to children. That's why they'll say things like "You promise?" if you make some sort of vague statement of commitment. Parenting tip: Don't fall for this! Stick to "We'll try." You're not a god; you can't control the weather. But if you promise to take them to the park and it rains so you don't go, what they will remember for the rest of their lives is: You broke your promise. You're better off offering to take them despite the downpour and let them change their minds. Or, if they don't, get the umbrella and go. And consider your lesson learned.
But from a writing standpoint, this was useful. If you had a villain, and you wanted to make them a bit likable to the audience, have that villain make a promise to a kid – like he'll get the puppy back or something – and then go through hell and high water to keep that promise. You do that, and no matter what else the villain does for the rest of the show, the audience – even the adults, because they were kids once – will secretly like him forever. Because he kept his promise to a child.
Another rule was: Heroes Don't Lie. A hero could trick, they could mislead, they could cause people to make false assumptions, but they couldn't outright lie.
"He-Man! What happened to Prince Adam!?"
"He's safe."
That wouldn't work in real life, of course, because as stated above, you're not a god. Ah, but in fiction, as the writer, you are a god. You can phrase the questions and the responses any way you like so the hero can be clever while not lying. And hell, if nothing else, you can always arrange a distraction:
"Bruce Wayne! Are you Batman?"
"OMG! Look! Flying monkeys!"
To this day, I still work to that precept whenever possible. Hence our hero's dialogue in the page above. He's telling the truth — for a given value of "true" — and allowing the grieving widow to make certain assumptions which are comforting if not exactly correct. And that is how it should be.
Because heroes don't lie.
— Bob out
2015-04-05, 21:56	| # | Reply
I'm a bit of a geek. I do roleplaying games for fun. For my first real character, I built an individual who I envisioned as a hero. He would lose that eventually, as I was too new to gaming to understand how I was helping the bad guys (when i realized I challenged them and died. Fun times).
That is not the point though. I tried to make a Knight in Shining Armor and I did through a few simple steps. The most obvious being I never told a lie.
Like Max, I manipulated the truth. I was the best manipulator in the group. Every sentence was perfectly truthful, but I left onlookers convinced that I said something completely different. I had not considered that this was a thing of a hero, but looking back, I think I emphasized the clever, but truthful, because you are right. Heroes don't lie.
AceOfSpade
Some villains never lie too. I always loved a good villain who just frame the truth in the right light to manipulate people… Telling the truth isn't the same as being honest. You can also tell lies for the right reasons, like here Max could have said he was a firefighter and it would have been acceptable because he is only protecting his identity (it would have been stupid because then if she had done any research about the firefighters she would have discovered that he isn't one and so that he lied). Any good liar will tell you that a solid lie need as much truth as possible.
Eh… sorry for the rant, I'm a sucker for ambiguous characters.
bitflipper
The very best lies contain no falsehoods whatsoever; they rely on people hearing what they want to hear. Intent to deceive? Most certainly. Whether for good or for bad, the speaker's intent is to hide something or to mislead the listener. But, everything said can be verified, and often without having to stretch definitions at all. Those who can do this successfully are often considered "artful" when their deceptions are discovered as opposed to "manipulative," which just goes to show that not only do people tend to hear only what they wish to hear, but people often would truly rather be deceived than to face reality. Why do you think professional magicians are such popular entertainers?
Gene Wirchenko
I do not consider that heroic at all.
If I ever get the idea that someone is playing with the truth in that manner, I never trust the person again. I will look at everything in the worst light to try to figure out what he really means, if I bother listening to him at all.
AnarchyAnt
Well technically he ISNT lying. He was indeed part of the rescue team and he did indeed speak to her husband before he passed on (to the realm passed the astral one).
Valkeiper2012
damn, please tell me she isn't gonna join his accidental harem. it doesn't look like it, but you never know with these webcomic authors.
so far, he has 3 women looking out for him (a certain detective IS technically, after all).
RockB
I'd say that in the case of Batman, Bruce Wayne isn't a hero, being known as a playboy he could have even said "Sure I am! *wink* Ahahahahaha! C'mon, let's have a drink on Batman, and one on me!" And it would have been even better than a lie. Ah well, I guess I just destroyed my point, which was that Bruce Wayne isn't necessarily affected by the "no lies" rule, contrary, he would be expected to lie if it might suit him. On the other hand, Batman being asked "Are you Bruce Wayne?" – uh oh, flying monkey time. But AFAIR something like that never happened, the writers must have been gods…
Heh, the dog likes Max. He must be a good guy 🙂 Cutely transported!
(Out of curiosity, what's a scarlet dynamo?)
Prairie Son
In Batman's case, redirection would probably be the best tactic.
Nosy Reporter: "Are you Bruce Wayne?"
Batman: "Are you trying to be insulting?"
Anyway, maybe my mind isn't sufficiently caffeinated yet, but isn't [s]Max[/s]Countdown's car called 'Scarlet Dynamo'?
Bob Forward
The "Scarlet Dynamo" is the Marissa-created power plant/supercharger in Max's car; sort of like Tony Stark's Arc Reactor. It's what creates the red lightning. It also makes a decent nickname for Marissa at times.
I have to admit, the first time I heard her use the term Scarlett Dynamo, I thought she was dropping another "subtle" hint as to what she is like in the bedroom to Max 😛
Thanks, found it. I guess I didn't remember because a "supercapacitor cascade inverter" could very well be a real thing – cascade inverters are used to transform voltage up or down without coils. Instead they use capacitors. They would not contain moving parts and the operating principle gas nothing to do with a dynamo, so I guess I took it for a fun name and forgot it a second later…
The best non-lie I can remember was from an old episode of Frost. The main character (a policeman named Frost) just broke into someone's office and gets caught inside. The guy says "How did you get in here? The door was locked!". Frost replies "it was unlocked". The guy interprets this to mean "no, it wasn't locked" but we the audience can understand what he's actually saying is "yeah, it got unlocked (while I was breaking in)".
Aetrun
I think the biggest question here is what happens when she realizes/learns that her husband died on impact. Or she tells somebody what he said and a certain cop hears about it.
That's not something the CACO will [i]ever[/i] mention. In fact, given that the chopper was the center of the fireball, her husband's remains aren't going to be identified. She'll receive a sealed casket weighed with sand, under the guise of a 'closed casket' funeral.
Three Minute Max / Crisis Strike -- Heart Stopping Adventure from Detonation Films -- written by Bob Forward -- art by Max Forward; 3mm; 3mmcomic; 3minutemax; 3minutemaxcomic; 3 minute max; 3 minute max comic; three minute max; crisis strike; countdown commando; countdown; scarlet dynamo; UD3; second earth spitfire; Max Forward; Bob Forward; Detonation Films
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