HAWKGUY #8 WALKTHROUGH

COVER

What can you say? David Aja. David fucking Aja.

Also? While we’re here at the top, I want to thank team HAWKGUY for making room for the benefit issue last month, in spite of adding an entire OTHER issue to the schedule in November, and still getting an issue out in February. New Steve, Sana, David, Matt, Chris, Annie, Jesse, and Old Steve – thank you. I know it only matters to me, but it mattered to me. So yeah. You’re the best.

Did i do a walkthrough for that one? Shit.

IFC

Steve and Sana write the little recap blurbs. I am as entertained by them as you are when the issues come out.

1

DOOMED LOVE

this was originally the last page of the issue and we changed it in read through. I fought it and fought it but looked at it both ways and felt Steve was right. And I think the issue’s stronger for it.

2

I literally just noticed that she’s wearing Louboutins. A motif amongst the ladies of HAWKGUY apparently.

3

Look at how her heel comes up out of her shoe. Jesus, david.

4

FINALLY! Finally finally. I’ve been waiting to write these girls for a while. We’ll have to wait for the meat of it all next month where they each take turns in the spotlight but… yeah.

David apparently decided it was Retro Night at the Avengers Mansion – how great is that?

They’re playing Blind Man’s Bluff. I spent a RIDICULOUS amount of time researching just WHICH card precisely each woman would bear. And now I’m talking about it because the only way people know how SMART YOU ARE and how much WORK YOU DO and how much H I D D E N C U L T S H I T you put in your stuff is if you TELL THEM ABOUT IT so you are TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

5

The second of the Fabulous Annie Wu pieces but the first one I knew I was writing, once the idea of the covers-as-Cherry’s-backstory came to me. TEEEEEEN RUNAWAAAAYYYY!

Also – Annie draws a good Charger, huh?

6

Her name is NOT really Cherry. Keep reading.

Also I love Pizza Dog giving her the gas-face.

7

I’m SURE we got the russian wrong. I hope we didn’t but i’m sure we did. eh. i’m okay with the tracksuits having a typo in the name of their own titty bar.

8

The Fabulous Annie Wu put goldfish in Cherry’s shoes, y'all.

9

Kate’s new ride. Of COURSE it’s a new Beetle. Though actually it’s only new for a little while – but more about that later.

10

Kind of a master-class in color right here from Matt Hollingsworth. We debated whether or not the sfx OONTZ OONTZ OONTZ would be across the frames but they didn’t play; rest assured, OONTZ OONTZ shows up as a sound effect in FF #5.

11

My script for this page:

– as FROM INSIDE that KO’D TRACKSUIT comes falling backwards though the door. The STRIPPERS scream – the PATRONS look like deer trapped in bad metaphors. PANIC sweeps the crowd. The TRACKSUITS all LOOK AT CAMERA (?) or at least AT CLINT and push their sleeves up, coming AT HIM/US… (It’s a SHITTY STRIP CLUB. A little stage. A pole, A wall of mirrors. Low to NO LIGHT. A BAR. A back office.) CLINT weaponizes the entire place. EVERYTHING that can be turned into a weapon will be and he uses it to take out TRACKSUIT after TRACKSUIT. Bottles. Drink trays. Chairs, tables. CLINT goes through one after the next, not going to make the same mistakes he made in ISSUE SIX. Think of The Bride’s raid on the House of Blue Leaves. At PAGE’S END, as everyone is running OUT through the door CLINT kicked that guy through – CHERRY sneaks IN, coat gone, looking like one of the fleeing, screaming, dancers.

which i add just to illustrate a little bit how the partnership works. Because – because how could you WRITE that layout? Why would you try? You can’t, so don’t.

Cherry slipping in moves to the next page, making 12 very much HER story, where as 11 is all Clint. A nice touch. David has an almost holistic way of attacking the page. Page-as-stanza. Scenes will have their own design sense, their own flow. it makes adjustments difficult on the other side, which is why it takes so much to get to this point, why there’s so much back and forth from script to thumbnail to sketch to lettering to finishes.

12

My question: did Cherry throw the shoe that hit the guy on page 11, panel 9? It’s the girl on stage’s shoes, right? The one is at the bottom of 11, then the other hits the wall here…?

Well, after the Pizza Dog solo issue, we’ll do a STRIPPER SHOE issue and answer ALL of these pressing questions and more.

Also: KING OF ALL TRACKSUITS!

13

The plot sickens!

14

Yes I know what’s in the safe. Yes I know when Clint will know what’s in the safe. Yes I know when you’ll know what’s in the safe. No I’m not telling you.

15

I guess the callback is funny, but I really didn’t mean for it to be a callback – it’s that both times we’ve seen clint pull the “i’m an avenger” card he’s been beating the hell out of somebody. So they ask if he’s Iron fist, the punching avenger.

Boy, if we ever restart Iron Fist we’re gonna call it IRON FIST THE PUNCHING AVENGER

16

I love these first eight panels. Not that the last three are tough shakes either, but.

Also, the mugshots are a Steve McQueen ref. on David’s part.

Also also, you actually get to SEE Clint’s Avengers application next issue.

17

She said don’t touch her comics, Clint. Jeez.

18

One of those things where I wrote it and just trusted the Fabulous Annie Wu to be, well, Fabulous, and good lord did she deliver. Even the logo looks like one of those old Dick Giardano romance comics…

Annie, you’re the best. Come back any time.

19

MEANWHILE IN A CRIME COMIC: look at that lineup of people.

KOAT dropping “bro” as a sign of respect to the gathered room made me giggle like a crazy person at the crazy circus.

20

I could write a ongoing book about Kingpin and Mr. Negative. Hm.

Also how great is it seeing Aja’s Typhoid Mary?

Also here Sana jumps off our Crazy Train and we welcome the Believable Tom Brennan as our assistant editor. Sana, again, thank you for everything. You’re the best.

Next: GIRLS.

F4 and FF walkthroughs coming to the mattasticfour blog over the next little bit.