My Comics: Luftwaffe 46 [Pt 5]

My comic called ‘Luftwaffe 46’ has finally been finished and it looks amazing. Kudos to Steven Howard for all the good work he has done.

It’s now been sent off to Dave West at Accent UK for their 2010 Anthology called “Predators”.

But because of this I’m not allowed to show a page until it goes on sale :( But he did comment "This looks and reads wonderfully"

This Week... 1943

I’ve become somewhat obsessed with Battlefield 1943 on the 360. Especially the tactical side of things so I’ve wrote down what I think is the best tactic to take the flags and win the war.

SQUAD SETUP:
I’ll come at this from the view point of being in a squad of four with my mates. First, we spread our fighting force which is normally three Riflemen and one Submachine Gunner. The rifles are the overall best weapons I think, good at distance and close up and if you mix in the SMG with support then you can be quite the fighting force. The reason we have a SMG in the group is for two reasons, 1) letting off a full clip towards the enemy means they keep their heads down so your mates can flank and kill the target. 2) The rocket launcher option which allows you to take out any tank that rolls in the middle of a battle. Make sure you get around its arse and let a rocket fly, it should go down with one shot. Some like to play two Rifles, one SMG and a Sniper but personally I find the sniper redundant.

The trick to BF:43 is to either defend a base or attack a base. Getting killed on the way is doing no one any good and the reason why you lose your flags is because everyone runs to the nearest flag and then on again leaving the base undefended. I think its best to take a base depending on its location you use your 3R & 1SMG set up. Don’t worry about snipers as loads from your overall team will spawn as Snipers. For uou and your four man squad the role is simple… attacked and defend as a team. It is because of this attitude that our squad is always ‘Top Squad’ with four of our guys in the ‘Top 5’ players.

FLAG ATTACK:
This really depends on which flag on which island you are taking but the following can be used for all. On the start screen pick your squad and let only one person spawn. If they time it right they can use an aeroplane and take off. That person should fly straight to the furthest flag and bail out, once he hits the ground the rest of you spawn on him and capture the flag. Using this tactic means your four man team can travel a great distance in no time at all. Now automatically the rest of your blue team will take the Flags closest meaning that you can capture a majority of flags in no time. The chances are that the one you just used will be the first one the red team will happen upon which means you dig in an hold them off for as long as you can as you’ll have a lot on you.

If your mid game and lose a flag and need to retake it then the best thing to do is move as a line with your SMG laying down short suppressive fire with one of the rifles laying in a few grenades while the other two flank and take out who they can. This is the hard part because until that flag turns white then the red team that you just killed will probably spawn on you. Make sure you are spread out watching each other’s flanks.

FLAG DEFENCE:
The aim of the game is to keep majority flags and kill as many of the enemy as possible. For me as long as you take and hold three flags then that is good enough. A lot of people think you need to take four or five flags but the truth is this will over stretch you and you will probably end up losing most of not all of the flags in a quick succession.

I say take your three and then hold them, let the enemy come to you, as a defender you will always have the advantage. Each map has what I call its flank flags, forward flag, and VIP Flag. The VIP is normally the one with the Bomber Bunker on it. If you are good bringing the steel rain then you can demolish most of the enemy buildings leaving no cover. The flank Flags are those that if you take you can keep a strategic hold over the whole map. For example on Wake Island if you hold the ‘Airfield’ ‘Beach’ and ‘Signal Village’ it means you filter the majority of the enemy from only one direction meaning it’s easier to defend against. If in this scenario you lost the ‘Signal Village’ then the red team can spawn to the left and right of you meaning that your forces are split on two fronts. Finally, you come to the forward flags, these are the flags that see the most action and will probably swap hands the most in a match. If you can hold both the Flank Flags and the VIP then defend, you will be a cert to win.

Wake Island:
Flank Flag – Signal Village and Beach.
VIP Flag – Airfield
Forward Flag – Airfield

Iwo Jima:
Flank Flag – Fishing Village & Lighthouse
VIP Flag – The Mount
Forward Flag – Fishing Village

Guadalcanal:
Flank Flag – Fuel Dump & Bombing Base (sorry forgot its name)
VIP Flag – Ridge
Forward Flag – Ridge

My Comics: Fracture [Pt 4]

With ‘Fracture’ ahead of schedule it means I can show a fully finished page from the comic. This is a more mature comic by myself with a darker more adult orientated artwork from Mark Bell.

As you can see form the page below it’s not really one for the kids.

Reviews: The legend known as...

[From Hypergeek] I really enjoyed 'The Legend Known As...' I get sent quite a few comics for review from small companies, and you never quite know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised with this one though. The concept is really quite riveting, in that it features a post apocalyptic superhero story, told from the perspective of the humans they helped, and legends that built up around them. That's pretty damn high-concept, something that can be quite risky for a smaller title, but Burness and Howard manage to pull it off flawlessly! This is in part due to Burness' excellent storytelling skills, plotting, and dialogue. The idea of having the story told in retrospect from people who bore witness to these legendary characters is a stroke of genius, and gives the story a really human quality, making it very character driven. This works in the stories favour, because how many comics have you read about masked vigilantes running around and kicking ass? Lots! This story is more about the creation of a legend than just the good guys beating the bad guys.

I was really surprised with the slickness of the artwork on this book. It looks like Steven Howard has put lots of heart and soul into his work. The scenes which are set it the 'now' of the older Tom are absolutely beautiful, and that opening shot of Tom looking out at the setting sun is really quite breathtaking in it's level of detail, and the use of colours on the water and clouds has a wonderful effect. The scenes in the 'past' of the post-apocalyptic city are also really well done. He changes up the style a little bit, throwing in some different drawing techniques, and uses a much more subdued colour palette, all of which helps to make the city look like a grim, hellish, industrial nightmare! Being a character driven piece, it's always good to have well drawn characters as well as scenery, and Howard does a great job of this. Particularly good, is his use of expression to help convey emotion. A lot of the story is told in exposition, so this comes in quite important.

'The Legend Know As...' is a really wonderful little book that took me quite by surprise. This was a really well produced comic with a fascinating story and absolutely amazing artwork. I will definitely be checking out the rest of this miniseries, and I recommend that you do too. Epico have a great title here that could really make a name for them!

My Comics: The legend known as... [Pt11]

With production of ‘Fracture’ and the second issue of ‘The legend known as…’ in full swing, we are starting to get pages back from the artist team working on both. First up today is a page from the #2 T.L.K.A. It is a page showing one of the main characters which was pencilled by Steven Howard, Inked by Adam Whitfield (I think. It could be Mark Bell) and coloured by Johnney Iley.

Looks great I think you will agree. As soon as I have a finished page from Fracture, I will stick that up next.

This Week... Timeline

I sat for five minuets today (no idea why) to go through the time line of my Unico comic series that are either in production or not picked up yet by an artist. I’ve always worked towards making a Unico Universe similar to the Marvel one where all off my comics are connected in one way or another no matter the genre or type of story.

I’ve added the alternative universe stories as well. However, they do not include my ‘Collections’ comics.