Happy Hanukkah, everyone, from these two jerks! I’m posting this a little early this year. Line art by the amazing Ro Stein & Ted Brandt, and colour art by @deecunniffe.
I want to point out what a technical achievement this story is on the art side. There’s a real joy to creating a whole story in eight panels, but this? This is some magic. We introduce four new characters. In panel 5, SIX PEOPLE are talking. SIX. In the world of comics, that’s almost un-doable.
Yet Ro and Ted arranged everything so the conversations flow and are sensibly grouped, all the “acting” is fantastic, and then Dee laid on top these beautiful, almost fairytale colours – look at the subtle work, the blush in Henry’s cheeks, Frank’s five o-clock shadow, the shine of the wine bottle’s glass surface, the light texturing in the backgrounds… and of course the snow! This is some first-class illustration work on an incredibly hard script. (I fear Ro and Ted always get me at my worst – my very formalist script for them in the 24 Panels anthology was no cakewalk either. (The problem is, they’re just so damn good at it… check out their work on the Image comic Crowded!)
Most of the intelligence community doesn’t believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He’s credited over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years.
Really? It’d be a shame if everyone kept circulated this story and reminded people until he leaves.
Remember, this isn’t just a matter of a pen name. He invented a whole damn person, lied to colleagues and supervisors told them that he was receiving work from this person, and pointed to the nonexistent writer as an example of the diversity and inclusiveness at Marvel—while using the lie to write some of the most godawful stereotypical shit about Japanese characters, protecting himself by claiming it was a Japanese person writing it.
omg @redartpanda sent me a prompt about Foggy meeting Daredevil and instantly recognizing his voice because Matt’s bad at what he does, which made me lol forever. Also, this one’s almost a real drabble because my self-preservation instincts are starting to kick in. <33
Matt gets a little bit caught up in beating the guy up, because it’s Foggy who had a gun in his face, and Matt feels the closest thing he’s felt to out of control in awhile. He doesn’t realize that he’s talking until he’s talking, and the guy’s nodding helplessly and curled up on the ground beneath him and Foggy’s saying, “Okay, dude, thanks and all, but mugging me is not an offense punishable by death. Really, all he was going to get out of my wallet was, like, three dollars and a condom that is definitely expired, he’s suffered enough.”
Matt takes a deep breath and lets the guy go.
“Call the police,” he says, “then get home safe.”
Foggy goes still and quiet for a long moment before his heart starts racing even more than it did when he was getting mugged.
“Matt?”
Matt freezes.
“…no,” he says.
“No?” Foggy asks. “That’s what you’re going with? No? You think I don’t know your voice?”
Matt opens his mouth to say something, then, thinking better of it, flips backwards to jump off a dumpster and head up the fire escape. Below him, Foggy yells, “I know where you live. I have the spare key! How the hell did you just do that!”
OKAY LIKE I KNOW YOU ARE AWASH IN A SEA OF PROMPTS AND THERE’S ONLY SO MUCH WORDING YOU CAN DO BUT I WANT ALL THE WORDS FOR THIS THIS THIS