Chapter 4: Page 5

One Vision: Page 5

NOTES FROM RANDY

Welcome back! This week we finally get to see what happened to the actor who portrayed Samson Cole in multiple hit action films, Warren Harker! The last time we saw him, Harker was being dragged off by the DOGS at the end of Chapter 3.

This is also the official in-person introduction to The President. We got to see him in Chapter 1, but it was through a screen while he was giving a speech to the citizens of Diamond City. Getting to interact with him on a whole different level will be something to get used to in this chapter. That, and all the shit that Harker is going to be dealing with will also be a prove to be quite…unique.

I have to say, I’m very impressed with how Jason wrote Harker’s parts for this chapter. I can only hope that I did his script justice.

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SUB ROSA

A huge part of this page is the obvious introduction to Diamond Penitentiary. Something that I believe a lot of people don’t think about when reading comics is just how much thought and planning goes into designing background items, like buildings, cars, technology, and other bits. Honestly, when I plan a page that has an establishing shot of a new place we’ve never been before, I just sketch in a large cube and start planning in the pencil-stage of the page.

Yet sometimes, even after a page is completed, something I never even thought of might hit me and push me back to revamp that panel. This page, is a clear example of that.

Here’s a look at the original design I used for Diamond Pen’.

Usually when I approach anything to do with Diamond City, I aim for diamond shape-language. I thought it would be cool to apply my typical Diamond Tower design to this building. Kind of like when Director Towser had his conference call with Harker in Chapter 3, the speakerphone was a mini Diamond Tower, sans clock.

So after I dropped in the diamond shapes, the li’l Diamond Towers, and filled in the rest, I moved on and forgot all about this page…

Hah, kidding.

No, I overanalyzed it and couldn’t come up with anything better.

Enter, Reddit.

I love Reddit. I especially love it for references. Because it is an easy way to get a lot of imagery from around the world in front of your face, without ever having known that there was worldly imagery you wanted to see in the first place. And one of my favorite subs? r/EvilBuildings.

I’ve used several buildings from the r/EvilBuildings sub, and I’ve even saved tons more images for later. Basically, if it looks like a supervillain’s hideout, it can hit that sub. Though, much of it tends to lean towards Brutalist design, there are some golden nuggets that fall into many different design categories.

So that’s when I came across this post. Here’s the image for those of you not interested in going to Reddit:

So this is the Digital Beijing Building. It was designed by the architect Pei Zhu, and is meant to be seen as a circuit board on the long sides, and as a barcode on shorter sides. And the moment I saw this windowless-looking building, I felt like it was the best inspiration for the white-light hellscape that is the interior of Diamond Penitentiary. I took some liberties to make it my own, but the general feeling is there.

And one last fun fact from its Wikipedia page:

“It has been both praised for its avoidance of kitsch and criticized as resembling Orwell's Ministry of Truth.”

With that, thanks for stopping by today. Jason will be back with you on Thursday. As always, feel free to share and I’ll look forward to seeing you back here next week!

-Randy