Cash sketches slipped by me.

Justin put up a new sketch from the comic [re: Calamity Cash and the Town with No Name] on his blog Thursday, which somehow I overlooked.

This is actually a pretty important place in the comic, essentially my "all-bets-are-off/shit-hits-the-fan" type moment, where the confused good guys stop fighting amongst themselves, and prepare to face off against a particularly nasty group of hombres that are on their way into town. You'll find moments like these in most stories, they're practically mandatory as far as 3 Act structure goes, but here it felt especially important because of the nature of the character of Tana Cash.

I wouldn't say I've struggled to get her down, but with any character it's good to a couple of baseline attributes, and with Tana that's always been the idea of her being a sort of force of nature. The upside to that characterization is you can treat her like you would a Dirty Harry, a John Rambo, or a Frank Castle -- effectively excusing [even celebrating] a lot of the single mindedness in her actions, while allowing those around her, and the readers, to see her almost as they would a folk hero. The hope is that by doing this, you can still treat your subject semi-realistically, while occasionally busting out kick-ass comic book action sequences.

The problem with a "force of nature" character is that they're very hard to refocus on something once you've cut them loose, and an "it's on" moment becomes all the more important, to make the sudden change of heart and mind seem believable. I think it comes off here pretty well [if I do say so myself], though I do tend to lean pretty hard on Cash's concern for her daughter, which is a bit Spielberg-y, but still effective. In the long term, when more Calamity Cash stories come, I'd like to rely on it a little less, as the daughter in danger/damsel in distress bit doesn't really capture the thrust of what I'd like to do with the characters, though I'd be lying if I didn't think it's going to come up on occasion.

Anyway, enjoy the sketches. As usual, Justin's work is impeccable, and I can't wait to see the finished pages.