Screen 1
ONE:
BLUEPRINT – The HOLLERN SELF-PROPELLED FLYER, MK III.
New comics every Monday and Thursday!
“Verification of the tale, as one might expect, is difficult, yet certain facts are known. Tanitin Regional Deputy Marshal Miles Drake is, in fact, a lawman of the territory, a position he has held since IV.E.987….”
Recent Addition: Lady Sabre T-Shirt. Available in unisex and women’s cuts, in small, medium, large, and extra-large sizes!
Shirt modeled by renowned Land Cartographer and Intrepid Explorer of Terra Icognita, Doctor Day Al-Mohamed.
Fly-wheel energy storage?
Droll,
XD
I LOVE this. This is a great idea for a page, something totally different from the usual narrative. LOVE IT.
Awesome, I was wishing I could get a good clear look at those fliers.
Does it work something like a friction toy? ie. Is there a big flywheel inside the gear housing that gets spun up to run the prop?
“Gear housing” includes the fuel tankage for the propeller, I’m guessing?
Bytowner-No, as revealed in the previous strip’s script (though not actually shown in the picture), the flyer is powered by the pilot pedaling. Poor guy.
@Bytowner: Previous page: “… the PILOTS in their goggles, hunched behind their controls, pedaling for all they’re worth.” So, I don’t think so.
In a RL airplane, ailerons are on the wings and rudders are attached to vertical stabilizers. I get the change of spelling to correspond to aether, but it seems strange to make an aeleron do something completely different than an aileron.
And then there’s the stationary landing gear located in front of the prop, which would tend to make the whole thing nose-heavy.
I may appreciate it more in a collection, but right now it feels like we’ve had weeks of “preparing to set sail”. The art is fantastic though.
Respectfully…
I know you don’t intend to insult, and I certainly don’t wish to over-react. We’re trying new things. One of those things was to include blueprints of some of the devices and technologies at work in the story. What we want to is to create some feeling of verisimilitude in our universe, and this is a step towards that.
I’ve no interest in depicting a “naval battle” a la Pirates of the Caribbean or similar, sound and fury and no logic at all. Trying to strike a balance between the tactical aspects of the battle and the actual engagement of the vessels is challenging. It seemed to me, Rick, and Eric, that including such blueprints (and there will be at least three more of these for both Iron Crown and Pegasus) might be fun.
If you’re bored, perhaps you should come back in a few weeks when more screens have been posted and you can read them all at once? This is a long – loooong – chapter, and we’re barely a third of the way into it, now.
I am dealing with a family health crisis at the moment and am under tremendous deadline pressure, as well. I apologize if I sound defensive. I suspect I do, and I hope you’ll forgive that, and read this in the spirit intended – as a clarification and suggestion, nothing more.
You’re right. I didn’t mean to offend my favorite author, or imply that I’m bored. I’m glad to hear it’s a long chapter, and sorry to hear about your crisis. Sorry for my lack of tact.
Also, I know that when I read this in a physical collection, I’ll love the inclusion of diagrams and similar pages.
I appreciate it. We’re still working (slowly!) towards getting the first collection up and running. And again, my apologies if I over-reacted; wasn’t my intent at all.
Does the gunner pedal too? If I were the gunner I’d want pedals, just in case the pilot fell out or something.
Ah, but if the pilot fell out, even if the gunner could keep pedaling – who would fly the flyer…? 😉
Ha! True.
Huge flywheel makes it a bitch to turn.
Actually, I’ll let Rick field that one. Not as difficult as you might think….