Bonus
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Originales Paintings
The paintings you’ll see in “Burst of Energy” are original works. If you click on the link below you’ll find the name of each paining exhibited in the story. The idea to incorporate original artwork came out of a discussion with Michel Lamontagne, who said that, really, we could use any painting at all in the strip. From that idea, we decided to search for an artist who would be willing to exhibit their work in the strip.
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Villains Are Intelligent Too
We’ve already talked about how we want to avoid creating bad guys that fall into the usual clichés. Originally, in “Burst of Energy,” Roslo was supposed to destroy the painting (see image). But Michel Lamontagne again convinced us to revise this part of the story. As he put it, if a bunch of guys go to that much trouble to steal a simple painting, there must be a reason for it. And thus was born Roslo’s decision to have the painting analyzed.
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Listening to the Voice of the Reader
Having been strongly influenced by Marvel Comics, our first stories were rather chaste. But then, one of our friends commented that a group of young people like this one should be “steeped in testosterone.” We thought this made a lot of sense, and this led to the introduction of escorts and gigolos in “Battle at Sea”.
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Profile of Mercedes Ahari
Mercedes Ahari studied industrial design in Tehran and one of her major influences was Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. After working in this area in Iran, she came to Canada five years ago, where she has been studying and working. Her main interests are paining and photography, where her focus is on attention to detail and precision. She appreciates the work of artists who share that focus. For Les Apatrides, Mercedes mainly works on set design for the story’s main recurring locations.
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Credibility is in the Details
In “Burst of Energy” initially, Fabien was supposed to switch two paintings, but in the end, he left the lab with the wrong one. Michel Lamontagne explained that this would have been inconsistent with Fabien’s training and personality and therefore, not believable. He suggested that Fabien should leave with both paintings—which, ultimately, is what he tried to do.
