We Don't Get Fooled Again... Again

So here we are, again back to the cheap jokes, though I still think it's kind of funny.

The description in the script for panel one was inspired by Rasputin's famous wang, and I think David translated that nicely. And the mortuary photo of John Dillanger. But mostly Rasputin. Russian men being the new black men in terms of certain stereotypes.

Also, I decided to do a parody of two CSIs in one shot: because Catherine in CSI (or CSI: Classic, as I call it) is a slut made of more plastic than a Barbie doll and Carusobot from CSI: Miami (or CSI: Bring Back Rory) is...well...Carusobot. He makes promises to young girls and has one of the best, most psychotic smiles on prime time television. What's not to love?

So, it's official. Against the outcry of one millions of our readers, Landlordski is dead. It's been planned like this from the beginning. His, you see, was intended to be the big suprise death at the end of 2005/Year TwoYear One, but David suggested that he wasn't a popular enough character, given all the hype we put into the "This Year, Someone Dies" campaign surrounding the plotline, and Halifax's technical death seemed a bit of a cheat in the same way that a complex storyline is cheapened when they wake up at the end and it's all a dream, or when the gigantic, all-out, war-to-end-all-wars and determine supremacy of the Old or New Gods for all time is stopped by some twat saying "Can't we all just get along?"

So then, one night, David said to me, "Would you be heartbroken if Mark died?"

"Not really."

"Do we need him for anything else?"

"Nope."

And so Landlordski's death was pushed back to make room for Mark.

That said, I liked Lordland. He was one of my favorite characters, not only in terms of favorite to write, but just favorite person. He liked Holly and Halifax and had an unnatural love for Shakra for some reason, and even Vince liked him. And he thought Honey was a talking monkey, which also made for some easy punchlines.

But now, sadly, Lordland L. Landlord has left this mortal plane. Farewell, Landlordski. We hardly knew ye...and all that stuff.

One of the more annoying things about drawing people who are meant to look like real-life personalities is that they tend to end up looking out of place because your version of them is much closer to the photograph than it is to the usual kind of facial expression you'd give them. The same thing happened on this strip: the one picture that looks most out-of-place is fake Marg Helgenberger on the second panel, grinning like an idiot (this is the biggest pitfall of trying to use paparazzi red carpet shots as reference) and looking generally like she sent a cardboard stand-in to pose for her.
The difference being, of course, that cardboard is slightly less fake than the real Marg Helgenberger. That's the only panel that I needed direct reference for, since I pretty much nailed the other shot of her on the thumbnail version, and David Caruso is less of a person and more of a composite of his swept over ginger hair, dimple chin, and little currants-for-eyes like a gingerbread CSI. Once you've got the hair, it's either going to look like David Caruso or Conan O'Brien. The only difference is how many lines you draw across their faces.

Best bit: Shakra's rape-trauma eyes in the last panel. He was, after all, done on all fronts.