COMMENTARY

It's a mammoth task but eventually this page will act as a “Creators Commentary” where I will go through every page of every issue of SGT MIKE BATTLE: THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO! and point out interesting references or homages, provide an insight into how ideas came to be and give a general insight into what I think about each story.

SGT. MIKE BATTLE: THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO #12

Front Cover- It would be impossible to do any kind of homage to Jim Steranko's Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD comics without referencing the cover of issue #5. Over the years many professional artists have done their own version of the cover with varying degrees of success. Aside from not leaving enough space for the blue on the Sarge's costume, I think it's pretty good. And yes, I am aware that to some the bullet holes in the logo looks like snow.

#582 cover- I needed the 1^st chapter cover to be quite generic and not give anything away about the content of the story. The shocking twist isn't very shocking if it is advertised to everyone.

Page 1- This page was a nightmare! I drew 4 different versions of it before ending up with one in the comic. Originally it was a splash page with SMB and Barney in the foreground, with the villain in the distance, but it wasn't very threatening. You couldn't see why they were about to die. I redrew it but with the Villain in the foreground and our heroes in the distance underneath a giant laser but it didn't work. I then decided to show SMB and Barney, chained up, surrounded by sharks and spikes with hundreds of guards aiming at them. It was a better image but the angle was wrong. In the end I took the image of the 4^th version but redrew it from the angle of the 2^nd attempt. The script on page 1 went through a lot of changes. Originally it was meant to appear that Barney was narrating the scene but it didn't work. The final version is very wordy but I needed to set things up like where they are, why they are captured, who captured them and I also wanted to use the USA acronyms that I had thought up. It was impossible to do that without being too wordy. Oh the the villain's face is censored because he needs to remain a secret until the end of this book.

Page 2- Introducing Roger Knightly. Okay so he may look like another tuxedo-clad British agent but he is much more than that. For the purpose of the story (and it does make sense later in #13) he needed to arrive dramatically and scare off the bad guys (so it's not just me being too lazy to draw everyone running away).

Page 2 Panel 4- And I've just realised that I forgot to ink his bow-tie in panel 4.

Page 3 Panel 2- “Furry-Bikini-Clad-Hostages”. Hey, it was the 1960s and furry bikinis were all the rage.

Page 3 Panel 5- SPOILER WARNING I bet you weren't expecting me to kill off his sidekick so quickly. The letters page in this issue raises some improbable ways of ensuring Barney's return one day.

Page 4- Ok so SMB isn't narrating for the sake of it, He's reporting back to General Eagle, Shapely Charms and Tele O'Toole. This is a classic pointer scene where the reader is told what is going to happen.I thought it would be funny to refer to some of SMB's other dead sidekicks but in such a way that he's not fazed by their deaths.

Page 4 Panel 3- From a composition point of view, I think that General Eagle needs to be in the middle of the panel. It doesn't look right with him in front of South America.

Page 4 Panel 5- I have no idea why Roger has given titles to all his formulaic adventures.

Page 5 Panel 1- I'm not too impressed with my design for the STARS AND STRIPES Skybase. It's meant to be a flying aircraft carrier but I think it looks rubbish. I'll redesign it for #13. Part of the reason why it's not too big or detailed is that the script was that I had so many word balloons that I didn't wont to cover up to much art. By keeping the Skybase in the centre the balloons only cover up boring clouds.

The whole thing about SMB never mentioning Roger Knightly before now is something that intrigued me. How many times have we read comics where new characters are introduced who we've never heard of yet they are best friends with one of the main heroes. At first it seems strange to not mention someone before but then I started thinking about real life and it would be impossible to constantly talk about everyone you've ever met but it ended up making perfect sense.

Page 5 Panels 4 to 7- “If this van's a rockin...” Yes it's an old joke but it works.

Page 6 Panel 2- I think it's funny how SMB has a massive man-crush on Roger Knightly but seems to project it onto Shapely, even though she cant stand him. I suppose much of the comedy in SMB is that he constantly misinterprets the situation.

Page 6 Panel 6- The cliff hangar appears without warning on the last panel. And the USA acronym in this panel is the first one I ever thought of.