Let’s Review: Good Luck Ham

In today’s “Let’s Review” blog I’ll look back at a page from our Archives, reflect on the process behind its creation, and tell any stories surrounding it!  These have been increasingly fun for me to do, so let’s get right to today’s peek back into our Archive!

LET’S REVIEW: Good Luck Ham

STAR POWER & THE SEARCH FOR BLACK HOLE BILL was a chance for me to slow down the pace of the comic and focus more on the characters we introduced in our first storyline.  Without a looming threat on the horizon, besides Danica’s need for a recharge, I was able to put the spotlight on these characters and see what they were like when they weren’t scrambling to face incoming danger.  Their attempts to pass the time as Danica sat before a star was the perfect way to begin a glimpse at this relatively new cast of characters.

But Kaylo’s moment of comic relief was, by far, my favorite of these character building moments.  Mitch confessing to Danica that he feels inadequate, Shi Lalis saddened by her unrequited affections for Shu Lato, Grex’s desperate need to look after her “family” in the wake of Doro Thunden’s death; these were all moments that defined who these characters were beyond their powers and uniforms, but they were a string of heavy subjects.  In comes Kaylo with a much-needed joke to lift everyone’s mood at just the right time.  This defined Kaylo for me, and cemented who he was in my mind.

This moment also resonated with me because it was the first time I got to reference real world humor in my made-up setting.  Years of doing a fantasy comic prevented that, or at least forced me to be careful with it lest I break the tone of my fictional world.  But in a science fiction setting where Earth as we know it exists in the past, you get to play around with existing humor a little more loosely.  So when I saw my opportunity to have an alien police officer make a Tim Conway joke, I ran with it.  I haven’t done it much since then, only recently using “Free Bird” in our current storyline, but on those rare occasions when I can slip in modern culture into my future world, I’ll do so with care.

Also, since this page was posted, Garth has told me that he can only read Kaylo Durin’s voice as that of Tim Conway.  I think that’s a nice accomplishment in and of itself.