11: Dartbored

Page Notes

Episode published on Monday 18th of July, 2005.

I like this episode. It is one of the few episodes in the first 19 that doesn't instantly make me cringe. I think it's because the episode had a point and a punchline, and I think this is where I started bothering to write a script for each page before drawing it and I can even see that I attempted to do a few backgrounds (not many mind you, half of this page still takes place in the unending purgatory of "non-specific but infinitely encompassing light blue sky"). I distinctly remember playing around with lighting for the Polaroid on the dartboard, trying to make it look like a flash had gone off in Pain's face when the photo was taken. This first attempt at lighting manipulation almost makes up for the fact that a bullseye in darts is actually worth 50 and not 180 (which you instead get through scoring the coveted three triple-20s, but I didn't know that when I was 14. Drinking and pub games were not yet part of my repertoire!).

A couple of other main characters (Captain and Ben) are name-dropped but I wanted to lead them into the comic one-by-one, which sort of happens in a haphazard way. The New Guy (that's his official name as far as I'm concerned) is basically filling the role that the Captain would play in the comic after this introductory arc.

I must also remark on the crates, medical kit, body armour and barrels of explosive toxic ooze that have been carelessly left lying around the Detulux HQ grounds (in the background of the first panel). As anyone who's ever played a first-person shooter will tell you, it is quite ordinary for criminal organisations to leave these items lying around their top secret facilities or evil lairs. You would think that this might be seen as sheer incompetence by delivery managers, but the truth of the matter is that their excuse will always be that if they store everything away then some poor sod will cut themselves badly enough to need a bandage, or some unlucky bugger will get shot fatally because there wasn't any armour to hand, or that guards get cramp from standing around too long and crates are perfect to sit on, or even that there's just never a source of explosive waste around when you need it. Detulux is no exception!

Comments

Transcript

Title - 11: "Dartbored"

(Mr. Pain and the new guy walk through more of the Detulux complex. Behind them is a stack of crates, a medical kit, some body armour and barrels of explosive toxic ooze.)

Pain: (with a curious expression) So, the Captain isn't around?
New guy: No sir.
Pain: Or Ben?
New guy: No sir.
Pain: No team leaders?
New guy: They're either on assignment or having a coffee break, sir.
Pain: (miffed) Hmm. Coffee breaks have become more frequent since I installed that dartboard in the staff room.
New guy: Point is that I wouldn't have woke you up otherwise, sir.
Pain: Hmm. Where's the security team for warehouse twelve now?
New guy: Coffee break, sir.
Pain: (spitting with sudden anger) Dammit! What is the obsession with that dartboard?
Narrator: In the staff room...

(The scene cuts to the dartboard in question. A dart lands on the bullseye with a "TUNK" sound, and we see that a Polaroid photograph of Pain's smug face has been attached to the centre of the dartboard. The dart pierces the photograph in the middle just under Pain's left eye. It is further revealed that three previously unseen henchmen are standing around having coffee, taking it in turns to throw darts at Pain's photograph.)

Henchman 1: (watching the second while stood next to the third) Ha! One-hundred-and-eighty!
Henchman 2: (lining up to throw a second dart at the board) Take that, Pain!