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FAILED-PROJECT FRIDAY: James D. Hudnall's DANGEROUS AFFAIRS, pt.2
🕑 Added 2019-09-20 13:01:02 +0000 UTCFollowing up from last Friday, which showed a 4-page story from this failed pitch, here are the first 5 pages of a longer story introducing the characters seen in that preview (which took place later on in the series).
Below, I'll cut & paste info from last week about the project, with a few notes about the pages afterward:
These are1986-era pages that I drew but did not write from the superhero comedy Dangerous Affairs, created and scripted by my late friend James D. Hudnall, writer of comics such as ESPers, Strike Force Morituri, Psycho, Sinking, and Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography. Midway through my second year at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art circa '86 or '87, my classmate (and eventual Dirty Pair, Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone, and Bubblegum Crisis: Grand Mal colorist) Joe Rosas had put me in contact with Jim, and we briefly collaborated on this comics pitch.
Dangerous Affairs was a "cape comedy" about a normal schmo (Randy) sucked onto the world of "supes" after he starts dating a superheroine (Rae). Ah, but what's funnier about it is that, if you look closely enough in later story pages, you can see that it's arguably Urusei Yatsura with capes, which would've been a great idea—Rae is kind of the Lum figure, and the later character Ice Queen stands in for Oyuki. UPDATE: Oops, she's called "Ice Lady," looks like.
Jim might've pitched this series somewhere with my art, but I'm not sure. I discontinued work on the series, however, once a more promising comic project arose; you see, not long after I finished these pages, Jim in turn put me in contact with Toren Smith, and I began work on the portfolio of Dirty Pair artwork and comics that would eventually land us the rights to do an American comic version of the DP. Yay!
Notes about the pages:
*p.1: Like the "nom de guerre" bit from Phil Donahue(!); not as big a fan of Randy's internal monologue. Just realized that Macho-Dude's design was (self-)ripping off a dumbass character I created in high school, "Party-Man." (Ughh.)
*p.2: Oof. I didn't notice that Jim had credited himself as "author" instead of just "writer," which would've been a bit of a no-no in comics circles back then. Also: 1-point perspective is not your friend, young cartoonists!
*p.3: Nice hyphenation on "ALWAYS" in panel 1, oh dumbass letterer.
*p.4: Here, an early hint of the anime and manga cameos that I would later lard on quite heavily during the first few Dirty Pair series, as that's Kyoko and Mitaka from Maison Ikkoku in the background.
*p.5: Nice hands on a hamburger in panel 3, buddy. (God forbid I look in a mirror or take a reference photo for a tricky pose like this.) That type in panel 4 was a screen-tone-like product from Chartpak, as I recall.
Anyhoo, more of this story next Friday.
Comments
Adam Warren
Yeahp. (I was only rarely inked by others as a pro; almost never as a student.) The BG inking's probably mostly tech pens and crowquills, but the figure and facial work's all brush, sad to say. I wouldn't wise up and ditch the g-d brush until the third DP series, alas.
KranberriJam
Did you ink these as well? The lines are really crisp.
Otaku Twenty-Four Seven
Those oldskool CRT TV's, I remember we had a portable just like the tiny one in page 1 panel 4 for our camper, it was like trying to watch the neighbor's TV from across the road. In page 4 panel 4, what's that above Kyoko's head in the snowstorm?
