Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Brent Peeples, Comics, dynamite, entertainment, Gold Key Alliance, phil hester

Phil Hester's Writers Commentary For Gold Key Alliance #1

Published Sun, 10 Apr 2016 13:00:57 -0500

A Writer Commentary: Phil Hester talks Gold Key Alliance #1, on sale now from Dynamite. Art by Brent Peeples.

PAGE 1
I've always been a sucker for those John Byrne-style close up splash pages with a character uttering some shocking or intriguing line, so why not kick off the whole series with one? Samson not only starts us off with a bang, but hints at some subtext for the series.

PAGES 2-5
The idea here is Samson is seeing New York as it will be after a nuclear holocaust, which is the milieu of his old Gold Key series. Why is he seeing it this way? You gotta buy the book, kid. This isn't a library.

PAGE 8
Gotta give the fans some red meat. You buy a Turok comic to see dinosaurs and dudes shooting bows and arrows, right? Feast your eyes. Also had to give artist Brent Peeples a chance to show off a little, and he delivered. Poster shot!

PAGE 9
I know it's a small detail, but I love how Brent composed that last panel. Turok is a badass on this page.

PAGE 12
Probably the hardest part of this assignment is how we have to keep four balls in the air, switching from Magnus to Turok to Samson to Solar, but both the art by Brent and color by organ Hickman do a good job of delineating the differences in each scene.

PAGE 13
Magnus delivers his improvised version of the Voight-Kampff test to Leeja.

PAGE 15
It's not a Magnus Robot Fighter comic until a robot gets its head karate-chopped off.

PAGE 17
Great, slow burn storytelling on this page by Brent. The relative quiet of this scene nicely sets up the eerie magnificence on display on page 19.

PAGE 19
I mean, they don't call her Dr. Solar for nothing.

For more on Gold Key Alliance #1, click here.

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