Phew!  Better late than never I present the final page of the fifth Girls in Space story Hell Creek.

Each of the first four stories took exactly four months to tell, and this was the plan for Hell Creek as well.  However, even before I began posting pages on 2 May 2011, I realised that it wasn’t going to be so straightforward.  First of all, on 16 May 2011 (a year ago today – Happy Birthday Elwood) I became a Dad.  I knew this would have an impact on the comic and so, as a precaution I decided to post once a week instead of twice, a decision which instantly meant the story would take twice as long to finish.

Secondly, Toys R Us accepted me onto their Toyologist programme to review toys (in a comic strip format) in exchange for free toys.  I soon realised I couldn’t do both Girls in Space and the toy reviews and so the girls went on hiatus for 4 months.  So, here we are, over a year since Hell Creek began, finally posting the last page.

Hooray – five complete stories in the bag!

After the fourth story Around the Universe in a Bath Towel (a tale which focused almost exclusively on Red), I wanted to involve Zoe to a greater extent.  I also wanted to progress one of the major plot elements of the overall story: exploring why males stopped being born throughout the universe (except Earth).  So, when I started to think about these elements I thought about how Earth itself had an extinction event millions of years ago.  And while the Earth event was most likely caused by a meteor crash, I felt there was enough ‘wriggle room’ to insert my own explanation.

With the decision that the space crew were now going to be going to be stranded in Prehistoric Earth, it was clear that they wouldn’t face a villain (just some hungry predators).  I decided that Zoe would face the villain this time, an entirely different type of predator!  Dr Alex Delgado isn’t your typical Sci-fi villain, but to Zoe who grew up without males around, he’s just about as alien as it gets.

I also wanted to progress Zoe’s relationship with Fergus, but rather than turning Girls in Space into a Rom Com, I chose to make her dealings with Dr Delgado help her to realise her feelings for Fergus.

When I first began this story I had never attempted to draw a dinosaur, and the first attempt looks quite cartoony.  However, after buying a toy dinosaur to use as a reference model, it got easier to depict the T-Rex more frighteningly.

If there is one thing I learned from Hell Creek, it is that I cannot work without a buffer.  I had several late pages and put myself under a lot of stress to churn out last-minute (and sub-standard) pages.   For the next story, this isn’t going to happen.  I intend to build up a buffer (possibly even the full story) before I post anything.  So, I’m sorry to say this is the last page you’ll see for a while.

Thank you for reading this story, for sticking with it through the delays.  The comments were the only thing pushing me on at times and I really appreciate them all.

While I work on the next story, I’m going to post weekly pin-up art on the site.

Hell Creek (Page 34) is a post from: Girls in Space

Better late than never, here is the second last page of Hell Creek.

Hell Creek (Page 33) is a post from: Girls in Space

However, fate (or rather Mark Stokes of Zombie Boy comic) threw me a bone by telling me that one of my characters features in a strip he posted.  So, since there is nothing to see here at present, I’d like to redirect you to his strip.  Hint:  It isn’t one of my Girls in Space characters he added.

Thanks Mark.  You are officially da man!

Zombie Boy is a post from: Girls in Space

Towards the end of each story I start to worry about what a new reader may make of any given page.  By itself today’s page may seem a little odd to anyone who didn’t know that Dr Delgado had referred to Zoe as Sweet Cheeks throughout the story.

My wife got a smartphone this week and I got a chance to see how Girls in Space appears on the screen.  To my great delight, it is fairly readable if you make the comic page the same size as the viewable area of the screen.  It makes me wonder if I could release a wee ebook version of the comic.  Let me know what you think Smartphone users!

Hell Creek (Page 32) is a post from: Girls in Space

Again I present a page completed at the last minute.  The worst thing about having to rush these pages out is that I feel the quality of the artwork suffers.  I literally knocked this page together with no time to spare, hence the rather dull ‘talking heads’ look of the page.  I’m going to have to come up with a way of giving myself more time, and I think it may be that once this story is finished I’ll post some ‘filler’ material to allow me to get a reserve of pages built up again.

This page had a re-write after some of the readers pointed out a continuity error in the story.  I had originally given Dr Delgado a moustache (or mustache as my American friends would spell it), but somewhere along the way I started drawing his top lip hair-free.  I was going to correct the pages but then I thought it might be funnier to add this to Dr Delgado’s list of supposed frauds.

Hell Creek (Page 31) is a post from: Girls in Space