Action Figure Comics

Annotations

Panel #1 - For those of you just tuning in, Vayla is experiencing a dream invoked by a dream shrine. She and her companions succumbed to the ancient elven dream magic back in episode #172. So far, both Dundorious Bold, priest of Samar, and Raik Tannen, wilderness ranger, have encountered strange environments and powerful beings in their dreams.

(Dundorious's dream sequence: #174 through #182.)

(Raik's dream sequence: #184 through #194.)

Panel #2 - Actually, this is the wildest dream Vayla's ever had, in more ways than one. So, she believes it now!

All of the Vayla dream sequence photos are taken in a park near my house. This episode's filming was interrupted by some heavy rain, a very unusual event in Seattle ;p. Luckily, the rains let up a couple hours later and I was able to finish principal photography around 2:30. I took 79 photos for this episode and chose the best shots to use in these panels. Most of them came out pretty good.

Panel #3 - I'm using large panels in this episode for three reason. First, it allows me to show a lot of the forest, which looks really good. Second, it lets me get some very wide angle shots with Vayla at a distance that really emphasizes that she's in a gigantic forest. Finally, a common method in comics to nonverbally indicate longer spans of time is to use longer panels. Does it work? Well, if you look at panel #1 and then look at panel #3, which one makes you feel like more time is passing?

Panel #6 - That's Franch the lumberjack from Perils of the Bold episodes #160, #161, #162, and #163. Franch has also appeared in episodes #22, #23, #25, #26, and #31 of Webcomic Entertainment! Franch is a Stikfas customized by Jaymon and was the winner of my Donate a Custom Contest from earlier this year.

The crosscut saw leaning against the log is made from metal and was scratchbuilt by Aahz. He's created several more weapons that will show up eventually in the comic. Both Aahs and Jaymon have donated tons of stuff for Action Figure Comics. Thanks a lot!!!

As luck would have it, we had a wind storm up here in Seattle a few days ago. A tree fell across the path in the park and while I was shooting the episode a park ranger drove up and started cutting up the fallen log. This fit perfectly into this episode, as it let me have Franch appear next to a freshly sawn log! Serendipity strikes again!