I had two interviews go live this weekend:

The first is at Dynamic Forces. Here, I express my true feelings about garden gnomes, as well as the superpowers I'd like to have, and info on my correspondence course in evil.

The other is at Action Flick Chick. Here, I explain why you won't see butt babies in Grey Squad, as opposed to the original Intergalactic Law. Also includes dorky picture goodness. 

Janet has a cybernetic arm and there are slidey metal doors; otherwise, there isn’t a lot that makes this squad room recognizable as something not of this Earth. So, the aliens had to be really alien to get across the intergalactic nature of Grey Squad.

When John and I first conceived of Grey Squad at that awful Mexican restaurant (sorry, but you don’t throw everything together uncooked in a tortilla, fold it over, bake it, and call it a quesadilla), we talked about having a Greylien on the force.

We didn’t know if he’d be a good cop or a bad cop, we just knew his name would be Bob. Why? No other reason than we think a Greylien named Bob is funny. Plus, neither of us can say “Bob” without the entire conversation degenerating to rattling off Black Adder quotes.

Detective Tulla came about a bit differently. The rest of the cast was already set in place, but with the exception of Bob, the main players were human. I wanted something really alien. My first thought was a guy with tentacle arms, but we’d already done that with Mr. Ccchh in Intergalactic Law.


The idea to make the last detective arachnid came when I found close up pics of spider faces. Visually, Tulla came together pretty quickly after that. At least, for me he did. All I had to do was write “spider head and arms from the waist up, man legs from the waist down”.

Then I let John figure it out.

How to Vote
Click here to read Grey Squad

Click the “Vote” button to the right of the comic. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted. Click a star rating right under the “Vote” button. Click “Add to Favorites” at the bottom of the voting block.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and leave a comment. Say you voted for Grey Squad.

Thanks!

Battlestar Galactica + Starsky & Hutch = Starbuck & Hutch



Detective Kenneth Hutch must deal with his new partner, Kara Thrace, who insists he’s always going the wrong way. And who isn’t really there.


Babylon 5 + 21 Jump Street = 26 Babylon Street



Harlan Ellison consults on this space epic focused on a group of baby-faced detectives unraveling the mystery of the Shadows. J’Kar is enamored with the beauty of young Johnny Depp.


ALF + The X-Files = The ALFa Files



Agent Scully meets her new partner, ALF. Despite his alien nature, she is still skeptical of the existence of extraterrestrials.


Buck Rogers + TJ Hooker = Two Guys Trying to Bang Wilma Deering


The title says it all. Buck and TJ engage in a battle of wills for the affections of Wilma Deering and her tight white uniform.


Stargate: Atlantis + In the Heat of the Night = Stargate: Mississippi



In a mishap, the Stargate opens on 1960s Mississippi. The Atlantis expedition becomes the first science fiction crew to ever meet black people.


How to Vote
1. Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
2. Once logged in, click to read Grey Squad!
3. Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted. While you're there in the voting block, give us a "star" rating and click on "Add to Favorites."
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and leave a comment saying you voted for Grey Squad.

Thank you so much!

“You got a lot of morons in your family? ‘Cause that could be genetic.”

Who he is: Andy Sipowicz, NYPD homicide detective.

Why I Love Him: Detective Sipowicz rocks the short-sleeved shirt and tie look like nobody’s business.

How to Vote
1. Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
2. Once logged in, click to read Grey Squad!
3. Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted.
4. Leave a comment and say you voted for Grey Squad.
5. Optionally give us a “star” rating, and mark us as a favorite.

RKB has posted a review of Grey Squad at his blog, Pigs of the Industry.

RKB says:

The script is spot on, and the art works so well for this story, reminds me of Steve ‘The Dude’ Rude’s work on Nexus. Meaning alien life forms are believable and not too alien, good facial expressions so you get the sight gags aspect, and the art is clean and easy to follow.

The way the story ends both the Captain and Janet place each other under arrest, it showed real anger from the characters and was also a funny line. The script did have so many funny moments that mixed well with the drama, and I’m a lot tougher on humor comics cause that ain’t my go to genre of choice.

And much more! Read RKB’s review here!

How to Vote:
1. Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
2. Once logged in, click to read Grey Squad!
3. Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted.
4. Leave a comment and say you voted for Grey Squad.
5. Optionally give us a “star” rating, and mark us as a favorite.

Who needs a memorable quote when you’ve got great feathered hair?

On the Shatner vehicle, T.J. Hooker, Heather Locklear played Officer Stacy Sheridan, a gal who really had no purpose other than looking good while standing next to The Shat.

Officer Sheridan was no Cagney or Lacey or Pepper Anderson, but at least there was a woman on the force. And that hair could probably stop a bullet.

How to Vote:
1. Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
2. Once logged in, click to read Grey Squad!
3. Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted.
4. Leave a comment and say you voted for Grey Squad.
5. Optionally give us a “star” rating, and mark us as a favorite.

One thing I wanted to avoid with Grey Squad was having a scene take more than one page (or screen). I see that kind of thing in print comics, and it works for that medium, but the web isn’t print and has to be approached differently.

I said to Robberry237 in the Zuda comments that part of the challenge of webcomics isn’t so much adapting the comics page to the size of the screen as it is adapting the comics format to the way people interact with online content. The internet isn’t digital paper.

With a comic book, you already have the reader’s attention. The book is there in her hands, she’s turning the pages and you have her complete attention. We don't have the luxury with the web - there’s always an ad or something else to click on.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been engaged in reading something online and clicked away because something else caught my attention - it doesn’t speak to the quality of what I was reading, but speaks loudly to the shortened attention span promoted by online reading. The web isn’t conducive to sustained attention, even for only a couple of pages, so the chunks have to be shorter.

Each screen of Grey Squad is its own scene, self-contained, but moving the story forward. I approached it kind of like serialized television so the reader gets a complete viewing experience with each installment. It’s similar to the way I write Intergalactic Law, just with more room.

There is a lot that can be done with comics in the online medium. Zuda is scratching the surface of that, but online comics want to break out of the confines of print mentality.


How to Vote
Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
Once logged in, click to read Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad!
Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted.
Leave a comment and say you voted for Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad.
Optionally, give it a star rating and a favorite.

Kôdo nêmu = Asamiya Saki

In Japanese, it’s Sukeban Deka, but the translation “Yo-Yo Girl Cop” is so much fun to say.

Yo-Yo Girl Cop is based on a manga which spawned a live action series in the 1980s and several movies. The premise is simple: a delinquent school girl is recruited to a government outfit, given a yo-yo/badge and infiltrates high schools to root out crime.

Sounds insufferably stupid; however, Yo-Yo Girl Cop’s awesome knows no bounds. In fact, she’s so awesome, she get’s another pic:


How to Vote
Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
Once logged in, click to read Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad!
Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted.
Leave a comment and say you voted for Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad.
Optionally, give it a star rating and a favorite.

“I’m scared, Fif. It’s that rat circus out there, I’m beginning to enjoy it.”

He’s mostly known as the Road Warrior, skulking around the post-apocalyptic Outback in the remnants of his Main Force Patrol uniform, fighting the tyranny of Tina Turner and the leather briefs of Lord Humongous, but Mad Max wasn’t always a survivalist bad ass.

Crime and criminals made him that way. And perhaps the leather and chain mail fashions preferred by post-apocalyptians. They chafe, you know.


How to Vote
Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
Once logged in, click to read Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad!
Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted.
Leave a comment and say you voted for Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad.
Optionally, give it a star rating and a favorite.

I really did mean to turn off the TV after Lost. I’d already watched for two hours (Scrubs and Better Off Ted were on before Lost) and there was work to do. Those marathon nights involving a pot of coffee and a bunch of Red Bull? Left those behind in college, thanks.

OK, so I officially left them behind at Club Congress in Tucson, AZ a few years later. Point is, all nighters make me a nasty, uncoordinated, fuzzy headed human being the next day. Powering through it? Doesn’t work. Not for me.

Then The (goddamn) Unusuals came on.

It had me at the dispatcher’s first line:

    * “Be on the lookout for a man with no pants wearing a cape.”

That might have been the second dispatcher line. It was that or the dispatch about a man in a hot dog costume. Armed with a samurai sword.

The Unusuals is good television,relentlessly quirky, without being slapstick and playing to the America’s-Funniest-Home-Videos-Let’s-Watch-A-Guy-Take-It-In-The-Nuts! crowd, and fast-paced.

Remember Gilmore Girls? The Unusuals is that kind of fast-paced. But, with cops and violence instead of Connecticut townies and small town charm.

There were two cases in the pilot ep: a cop killer and a cat killer. One was undeniably solved. The other, well, there’s still some dramatic tension to be had with that.

But, I think The Unusuals is going to be less about the cases than it will be about the cops and the unit they form. In a few ways it reminds me of Grey Squad: the quirky cops, the oddball cases, the fast pace, and the quippy dialogue, as well as what appears to be a season long story arc in addition to the case of the week. It’s a tough balance to strike and, based on this ep, I think The Unusuals will be able to pull it off.

As a closing note, it’s good to see Harold Perrineau doing something other than running through the jungle screaming, “WAAAAALLLLT”


How to Vote
Register at Zuda Comics with a valid email address.
Once logged in, click to read Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad!
Click the “Vote” button to the right. The red box will turn green when you’ve voted.
Leave a comment and say you voted for Intergalactic Law: Grey Squad.
Optionally, give it a star rating and a favorite.