The Old City.(Tunnelrunners Redux, A commentary written under the influence of “Keep Hope Alive” by The Crystal Method)

Let me introduce you to two friends of mine:

Meet Dana, and Fionn, primary residents of The Tunnelrunners comic strip.  The girl in leather is Dana McAllen.  Her mother was a school teacher, and one time head archivist for Caladharas  House.  Dana likes mysteries, and she is in the middle of her own right now.  Fionn, is a young biology student.  He’s a quiet introverted type.  Dana?  Was modeled in part off of Mira Sorvino in “The Replacement Killers.  (and if you have been living under a rock for the last 8-9 years, see the movie.  It’s one of my favorite pieces of Hong Kong style cinema, and it’s as icy cool as a jazz instrumental)”  Yeah, she likes him, and thinks he’s cute.  But she has some of her own issues that she gets to figure out along the way.

Tunnelrunners started as a throw away.  It was an experimental strip that was my testbed for a whole hell of a lot of stuff that eventually would make it’s way into Requiem.  There were good things, and there were bad things about it.  The idea was sound, but it was another case of the technology just not being there yet.  It started becoming a slick little unit by the time that comic #40 began to roll around (the first Bryce 5.5 strip, with characters that were actually rendered at the same time as the backdrop, in the same program!!!) but things were still twitchy.

In some ways, Tunnelrunners is my albatross.  Overall, I have a soft spot for it.  The problem is that I am dealing with an all ages format, and a panel limitation of 750x 550.  And it is weekly.  I hate weekly.  I went from every other day, up to seven days a week because the pacing was utterly ponderous.  Weekly is killing me.  Because of the schedule and size, it nips around at the edges of Requiem and in some ways never really commits. And because of the size and dpi range, you will never, ever see the original strips in any kind of print form.

When I started looking at a print setup for Requiem, I realized that, pain in the ass it may be, it has become a neccessary part of the story.  But it sure as hell doesn’t warrant being separate from the rest of the collection.  So it got merged into the main story.  As did other elements of Tunnelrunners much earlier on.  The Great Library for instance, the whole search for “The Angel of Obsidian Wings”

The background of the comic is Stonemason designed.  “The Walled City” is based off of Kowloon…the same section of Kowloon that served as the model for “The Narrows” in Batman Begins.  It looks great in just about any type of lighting you care to use.  One thing that I have a tendency to do is put characters in different locations than the norm.  I love putting people up on rooftops, or balconies, or second levels.  I like to break out of the cliched shots whenever possible.  The Walled City is a huge set, and I strongly recommend it.