"RFfiliates" The Collected Thread

[cardero]

REFLECTIONS: Rev Oxley’s Unknown Universe was supposed to be a regularly scheduled feature in the “Rfiliates” comic strip. At first I was to take some "stranger than fiction" topic and just make it completely wrong but then decided that the good Rev’s name was going to be on this strip and if it is one thing that Rev Oxley 501 is not, he is not ignorant, so I decided instead to take some strange tales, educate people on the history and still have a good laugh at the same time. The idea for Rev Oxley’s Strange Universe was a combination of his avatar and the Twilight Zone.

 

[cardero]

REFLECTIONS: Mr. Guy can be considered many things to many people. To me, Mr. Guy is an insightful poster and a necessary element to the RF Communty but before he was all that, what many people do not realize is that Mr. Guy is an artist first and foremost. I have attempted to recreate Mr. Guy’s artistic style in a homage strip also celebrating Cuban humor artist Antonio Prohias, famous for his MAD magazine contributions of SPY vs. SPY. This “RFfiliates” strip went through some interesting modifications, seldom would people realize that the strip was originally written as BUTTONS Vs. BUTTONS with a negatively rendered Panda portraying Buttons adversary. Like the SPY Vs. SPY comic, I wanted to keep it simple (there are really no word or thought balloons in these strips, the reader must follow the pictures) and that is when Mr. Guy’s style was decided to be incorporated. Understanding what forum site this comic was going to be posted on and taking into consideration Mr. Guy’s beliefs and feelings on religion, the strip pratically wrote itself.

 

[jacquie4000]

You are so talented, but I still can't open some

 

[cardero]

REFLECTIONS: The concept of Mod Squad can be traced from the “What Do Moderators Do” strip (see Post #70 of this thread). I always wanted to indicate that there was this well-trained group of individuals defending righteous and justice for the great community we know as RF. The only way to do that was to create and focus on this team and to give them their own full-length stary and a worthy adversary or problem for them to deal with. The crisis had to be big, something that would plague the whole community and require all the talent and skills of all the moderators. I also wanted the story to be big, (preferably comic book length) which would give me enough room to tell a story, identify the calamity and draw readers in and be concerned for these characters. This is not easy thing to do with 4-6 pages on a monthly basis and being able to keep readers entertained and still provide momentum in the storyline. I am thinking that it would be better after everything was written and drawn to revisit the whole story and let me know how I did.

PANEL BREAKDOWNS

PANEL 2: The second panel is reminesient of the 70’s crime drama “Charlie Angels”. I know I wanted a logo for the Mod Squad and I wanted it to be explosive.
PANEL 3: Some readers were probably wondering why I drew Katzpur’s kitten avatar character a little older for this strip. My artistic defense is that she has had that kitten avatar since she signed on to RF (not that there is anything wrong with her avatar) but kitten’s eventually do grow up.
PANEL 4: I wanted to introduce the concept of teams to the Mod Squad but instead decided to settle with popular cliques intead of the militaristic sub-teams (e.g. Alpha, Blue, Omega). Victor would be decided to look like himself because I have many photographic references of Victor and felt that this would make a stronger impression. The rest of the cast (Booko, Painted Wolf and the successful Captain Xeroid) return as I rendered them in the past. Mister T is the newest member rounding out this cast.

PANELS 7-9: Communication and technology are essential to the role of moderator and I wanted to keep these members in the world of hight-tech gadgetry.

PANEL 10: What moderating team would be complete without a battle cry and one can easily discern that this was borrowed heavily from MARVEL’S Avengers comics and the gratuitous posturing of popular super-hero anime series. My favorite has to be Captain Xeroid’s getting on his “hind-wheels” to do his flexing.

Welcome to RFfiliates!! I decided to go in a unique direction and to honor the men and women who moderate our great community with their own strip entitled THE MOD SQUAD. I wanted to explain that you will see some moderators that are either no longer with us and also members that may not represent their current avatars but the story was conceived written and sometimes drawn quite a few months ago and at this point the best thing would be to tell the story in it’s entirety. It is an on going serial so don’t forget to mark your calendars for the continuation of this thrilling story of THE MOD SQUAD.

 

[cardero]

REFLECTIONS: The purpose here is to show the readers that the epidemic is widespread and that other moderators are aware and highly suspicious of the situation. Originally, there was only supposed to be two pages for the September Newsletter (pages 1 and 2) with these next 4 pages (3,4,5,6) featured in the October Newsletter but since there wasn’t a September Newsleter entry, I certainly didn’t mind providing readers with 6 pages for the month of October.

PANEL BREAKDOWNS


PANEL 1: This is a pin-up page and I wanted to convey as much information and different RF members as I could with this page. Mike182 was never used in one of my past “RFfiliate” strips and I thought this was a perfect opportunity to feature him. What a pleasure and a challenge it was to depict him. His presence and avatar lends quite a bit to this story. It was important that I designate Mike 182 as the “eye-in-the-sky” moderator for the RF community. Other “zombified” RF members include (on the bottom, from left to right) ChrisP, Buttons (holding Slabby06), jamesi and zombieharlot. Behind them (in the second row from left to right) Willamena, Ori and Jonny.

I started playing around with layout design with these pages. Since the Mod Squad was planned as a comic book and not a comic strip, I wasn’t really hampered to the familiar square panels that some of my other strips warranted in telling the story.

PANELS 2-4: Mike182 literally plays the “fall guy” in my story. I wanted to convey the lengths that the converted would go through to obtain members over to their cause.

PANELS 5-7: Panel 5 is the first appearance of the “villain” who has been wreaking havoc in the RF Community. The decision for him to resort and speak only in scripture was an intentional character aspect, one that I will continue to research and utilize until the end of this storyline. I also wanted a pictorial introduction of the way this adversary “turns” RF members over to his way of thinking.

continued

 

[cardero]

REFLECTIONS: You don’t mess with Mr. Emu and as long as I have interacted with him on the boards it would be safe to presume that during his long stint as a moderator, he is fair and professional. Mr. Emu was used in my last moderator strip (see post # 70) and I wanted to bring him back exactly like I remembered him (with the exception of incorporating new flip-up sunglasses).

Page 1
I wanted to convey the dilemma and frustration that our antagonist was having trying to convert Mr. Emu to his side of thinking. My favorite part is when the villain is trying to figure out why he couldn’t entrance Mr. Emu, the moderator is offering the invitation for him to post on the Member Introduction Board.

Page 2
I wanted to express that even though the adversary’s power’s were useless against some RF members, that he was still a force to be reckoned with.

continued

 

[Buttercup]

Superb as usual, Pat. Can't wait for the next episode!

 

[ayani]

this is awesome...... takbir! dang!

 

[Buttons*]

I can't see the pictures

 

[Pariah]

I cannot see any of the pictures.
Any chance you could upload them to a free server for download?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jonny]

Nice job. I liked my muscles!

 

[cardero]

Should be alright now. I am in the process of switching to a different hosting site

 

[Pariah]

Should be alright now. I am in the process of switching to a different hosting site

That fixed it. Great stuff.
You should compile them in a locked thread for your strips and your reflections and create another one for discussion.

Or create new threads for each of your strips and devote a new board for the strip.

Or are you just planning on releasing them in newsletters only?

 

[cardero]

That fixed it. Great stuff.
You should compile them in a locked thread for your strips and your reflections and create another one for discussion.

Or create new threads for each of your strips and devote a new board for the strip.

Or are you just planning on releasing them in newsletters only?

Newletters get its exclusively first (support your community Newsletter) then after a month I will include my Reflections. There was a bit of mix-up in this month's Newsletter so I had to use this thread to make sure everyone received the full impact. I will have to ask one of the Admins if I can get into these posts later to post my Reflections.

 

[Mister_T]

Pat these are great! I didn't even know about these until recently. Great job and keep up the great work!

 

[cardero]

REFLECTIONS: A classic trio. Danisty, FeathersInHair and Maddllama. Danisty (as her avatar Lucifer) represented responsibility and experience, Feathers (represented by her Belldandy avatar) represented caring and naivety and Maddllama (expressed by the Celtic spirit) represented rebellion and free spirit. They are integral to this story and sort of resemble the field components of the Mod Squad. In other words they are they “away team”. My only regret (and it is a slight one) is that Maddllama (being a big fan of anime) didn’t incorportate an anime character. It would have been interesting (coincidently and artistically) to render all these characters in true anime style. Everything worked out for the better with the only limits being that I could have used more picture references for all of these characters. Special thanks to Maddllama for providing the site for her character, I enjoy this particular artist’s work now.

PREVIOUSLY ON THE MOD SQUAD
The RF community has been struck by an occurrence that is overwhelming its members. A stranger has recently entered the town and seems to be persuading people over to his way of thinking. The Mod Squad is baffled over this mystery but is determined to get to the bottom of it.

In another part of the community Moderator Mike182 is out and above on a routine investigation when he encounters a “Bible-throwing” mob of RF friends and members which quickly causes him to fall and crash-land only to be seduced by this mysterious stranger’s charms.

Already on location, Moderator Mr. Emu intervenes to report on Mike182’s condition but is soon confronted by the source of the community’s troubles. The stranger continually converts RF members but is at a lost as to why his spell is ineffectual on Mr. Emu. Recovering quickly, the mysterious stranger hurls Bibles ridding Mr. Emu of his presence and authority.

Who is this mysterious stranger and why is he disturbing the peaceful community of RF?

The Plight Of Lunamoth was probably the most disturbing and difficult decision I had to make for The Mod Squad storyline becasue anyone and everyone who knows Lunamoth knows that she didn’t deserve this fate. But like every moderator, she would also have had to known the job was dangerous going in and I do have a comic to produce and I could not very well capture readers without depicting conflict and perils. I needed to keep up the appearance that our villain was always active in the RF community and that even someone as sweet as Lunamoth was fair game for this fiend’s agenda. For all our RF comic aficionados who recognized that the last full page of this month’s stroyline seemed familiar it is because it is an accurate layout to the classic cover to issue #142 of X-MEN’s “Days Of Future Past” storyline. In the world of comic artistry we call this a “swipe”.

 

[cardero]

(continued)

 

[RevOxley_501]

REFLECTIONS: Rev Oxley’s Unknown Universe was supposed to be a regularly scheduled feature in the “Rfiliates” comic strip. At first I was to take some "stranger than fiction" topic and just make it completely wrong but then decided that the good Rev’s name was going to be on this strip and if it is one thing that Rev Oxley 501 is not, he is not ignorant, so I decided instead to take some strange tales, educate people on the history and still have a good laugh at the same time. The idea for Rev Oxley’s Strange Universe was a combination of his avatar and the Twilight Zone.

wait a minute....how in the heck did i jus tnow see this



and too bad i cant see the image at work....i need the laff...can you post it on another service?

 

[cardero]

wait a minute....how in the heck did i jus tnow see this



and too bad i cant see the image at work....i need the laff...can you post it on another service?

No. You will just have to wait to you get home (unless of course you do not have the means to view it at home, then I will redirect you). You shouldn't be laughing and reading comics at work. :no:

 

[Don Penguinoini]

GO ON SON! Great job, can you fit me into one of them?