FAN-COMIC: A rare attempt at ~*drama*~

[brendala]

Heaven help me, I tried to tell a dramatic story in a comic instead of a stupid joke. Hopefully, it came out alright

CONTEXT: This is a Sly Cooper 3 comic. This comic is meant to be an explanation for why the female character (Penelope) never gets to be a playable pilot despite the fact that she's supposed to be a FAR superior pilot to the male character (Sly).

Needless to say, this comic is a HUGE SPOILER to the end of the third game. You've been warned


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ARTIST’S NOTES:

---One of the things that always bugged me about Sly 3 was how SLY flew the plane in the dogfight against Doctor M instead of Penelope. I understand why it was done from a gameplay & narrative perspective. But it still sucked that the player never got to do an airplane/dogfight mission where Penelope flew the plane instead of Sly (hell, even the 2-Player dogfight mini-game gives CARMELITA a plane instead of Penelope! Seriously, WTF!?).

When I played the game as a kid, it REALLY irked me that Penelope never even tried to volunteer for that mission. Not only was she the more qualified pilot (and she wasn’t recovering from a freakin’ head injury at the time); but her piloting ability was half the reason she was recruited to the gang to begin with! So why didn’t they use HER on the one mission that required a skilled fighter pilot?

Anyhoo, the scenario in the above comic was my way of explaining why Sly went up there and Penelope didn’t INSIST on flying that mission in his place. I always imagined that something like this went on off-screen at some point. I just didn’t have enough confidence in my ability to draw the characters to make something like this until now.


---I get really nervous when I attempt to tackle “drama” in a comic. It’s VERY hard to draw/write emotional scenes without making it come across as schmaltzy or melodramatic. I hope I did OK with this one


---It took me FOREVER to figure out what I wanted to do with the last panel. In the end, none of the dialogue I wrote sounded right or came across as a good way to end it. So I opted to just leave the scene silent and allow the viewers to fill in the blanks.

[DA link]

Comments

[hannahsarah.livejournal.com]

Oh Brenda! You ALWAYS get the emotions exactly right! I love the way you get the subtle nuances of the character's expression, regardless of which character you're drawing. So many different types of faces, yet you consistently manage to get them to translate into human feelings with just the slightest touch of a pen or pencil.

The dialog in this is perfect, too. It just makes sense.

Really, I'm in awe of your skill.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

Really? WOW! That's such a huge compliment! Especially since I'm assuming you're not familiar with the Sly Cooper series.


P.S. Does Rivka have any new art requests? I don't have to work on Independence Day! So I'll have a full day of doodle time!
**waves tiny flag in celebration**

[brendala.livejournal.com]

P.S. I have a Deviant Art page now. So if you wanna see all my scribbles collected in one place, here they are!!

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

As I've said before, it's a good comic Brendala. You really did get the emotions right here. ^_^

By the way, Stu and I had a thought for a scene for our Sly 4 AU. Like in the game, Carmelita gets accidentally sent to the past without Sly and the gang knowing about it. However, Carmelita ends up meeting Sly's pirate ancestor who likes her "spunk" so much she makes Carmelita her new first mate.

And later, when Sly and the gang meet up with the pirate and try to get her to believe their from the future.

Sly: You have to believe us!
Female Pirate: Arrg! That's a wild story, but ye do like like me? What say you first mate Fox.
(Carmelita steps out)
Sly: Carmelita! What are you doing here?
Pirate: Ye know this man lass?
Carmelita:....Yes, Captain I do. (looks to Sly and grins) He's a well known conartist and thief.
Sly: (annoyed)Carmelita...
Pirate: That so?
Carmelita: Yes, captain, you better lock Sly up in the brig.
Sly: Come on you can't be serious!
Carmelita: *smirking* Should have thought of that before forgetting our anniversary.
Sly: Not my fault! How an I suppose to keep track with the timeline changing so much?! (And then Carmelita tells the captain the truth, but could you blame her for wanting to troll)

He he, Stu and I just thought it would be fun if the girls bonded with the female pirate and also that the entire pirate crew were women. It would be awesome.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, I also imagined Henriette Cooper as having an all-female pirate crew. And when I heard that Penelope being kidnapped would be a thing in the forth game, I had hoped she'd somehow end up on a team with Henriette. Now I'm just revealed that Sanzaru didn't use her because they probably would have just made her out to be a pirate-themed stripper or something. >_< 

But I like your idea of Carmelita trolling him. She would totally do that. XD
....and it would certainly be more in-character than flirting with Sly's male ancestors to make him jealous (no, really. This is a running gag in the forth game. And it's gross). >_<

Another thing I had wanted to see in Sly 4 (that I might work into our AU) is Penelope ending up in Otto Von Cooper's world (Otto was the fighter pilot ancestor). I imagined a scene where Otto doesn't want to work with her because she's a woman (I'm assuming he lived in the days before Amelia Earhart) and Sly basically tells off Otto for being a jerk and we FINALLY get a mini-game where we get to fly a plane as Penelope instead of Carmelita or Sly!


Also, just curious, do you remember the scene where Dimitri flirted with Penelope on the boat? I don't know about you and Stu, but it always bugged me that none of the dudes there called him out on that. So I re-wrote a scene to explain it:

[gullwhacker.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention Otto Von Cooper - I actually had a thought for the AU Sly 4 that ties into him and Penelope.

Is the Black Baron thing salvageable? Maybe. Our Paradox villain should have plots that really are paradoxes - they're only possible because they succeed. So, in this case, there's cause and effect of Otto Von Cooper being defeated and/or never rising to glory or being shot down.

Because Otto never gained success as a fighter pilot, the Thievius Raccoonius never contained flying tips.

Because of the lack of flying tips, Sly and the gang couldn't beat the Baron, and Penelope is retconned out of joining the gang as a result.

Because she's stuck doing the Baron thing for years and years longer, she starts taking pleasure in shooting down other pilots...and Paradox recruits the Black Baron to shoot down Otto Von Cooper.

Voila. A situation in which Penelope gets to be the antagonist Sanzaru wanted, and yet is kinder to the character - and in fact has her being a better pilot than the Cooper ancestor known for his piloting.

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

Also, just curious, do you remember the scene where Dimitri flirted with Penelope on the boat? I don't know about you and Stu, but it always bugged me that none of the dudes there called him out on that.

It's possible the guys just figured Penelope could handle himself, but yeah it is weird that none of them called him out on it. Granted, it's possible him and the other guys had a "private" chat later behind the scenes.

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

Do you have a Tumblr? Because I think these are pretty cool.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

Do you have a Tumblr? Because I think these are pretty cool.

Sorry about the late reply. I just stumbled on your comment. ^_^;

I do have a Tumblr! Here's the link if you want to check it out!
link: <http://brensey.tumblr.com/>

I don't update the tumblr as much as I should. So here's my Deviant Art page link (I update that one fairly regularly)
link: <http://brensey.deviantart.com/>