arcade is over 6 feet tall. he just has bad posture from sitting at a desk trying to figure out his medical experiments. a slouching king. and his height makes him stick out, which he hates so he tries to make himself seem smaller and therefore less physically domineering. he is full of insecurities and its funny but in a sad way of course
Commission for @eleanor-zhao of her OC with Arcade Gannon. Thanks again for commissioning me! It was great having the opportunity to draw her again and give her someone to cuddle :D!
Don’t you know that she’s had a bad, bad fall? And if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. —“If You Can’t Say Anything Nice,” Roy Orbison (1965)
Whewwwwww this one was a project. I’ve always wanted to experiment with doing a multiple-page spread like this, and I’m glad that I finally found an excuse! It basically doubled the amount of coloring work that I had to do, but as you can see the result was well worth the trouble.
That being said, IKROAH will be going on a sort of semi-informal hiatus (which just means it might be a while until the next comic) because I have some other non-fandom comics I want to work on before the end of the year and also I have been working so hard for so long oh my god I just want to hide in a hole and play video games right now. So I will.
Anyway! See you next ish! I’m gonna go beat Metroid Dread.
Original Pencils
Since I work traditionally, it actually took a lot of effort and precision to make sure the background spread lined up correctly on each page. And it still wasn’t enough because I had to correct the alignment a bit on each page anyway during digitization! You can also see my abundance of notes-to-self about little fixes to make during the coloring process, as well as some…uh…”cut dialogue.”
The unique grittiness of the flashback panel in which Agnes confronted Dixon was achieved by leaving it uninked. By scanning it as raw pencil instead of clean black and white, I got a much rougher-looking smattering of black on it during digitization.
You can see how large I drew the flyers on the original pencils at first; I shrunk them down digitally. It was easier to draw them bigger and I knew that I could just reposition them later.
Something that proved surprisingly difficult during the art process was thinking of things to draw in front of the Fort’s walls. On the original pencils here, you can see that I drew somebody tripping over a rock on Page 5 because I thought that it’d be funny, but I replaced him with birds during the inking process because on second thought it just seemed too distracting.
Transcript
JULIE:I can’t believeyou…youkilledDixon?
INT. THE OLD MORMON FORT in FREESIDE, the Vegas-area headquarters of the FOLLOWERS OF THE APOCALYPSE. The director JULIE FARKAS is engaged in a shouting match with AGNES SANDS, while AGNES’ companion ROSE OF SHARON CASSIDY stands by beside her and JULIE’s associate ARCADE GANNON frets behind her.
AGNES:Heattackedme!What was I supposedto do?
JULIE:I don’t know, notleave yet another murder victim out on the streets of Freeside, maybe?
ARCADE: Julie, please…
JULIE pinches the bridge of her nose, stressed.
JULIE: I thought you’d convince him somehow, not…this!
AGNES:Wetried. He said we’d have to pay him off, but we didn’t have the caps—
JULIE:You could have come back!Andaskedfor the caps!
CASS:Sowhat, then, the followers just open their wallets for any asshole selling on their block? Shit, Agnes, maybe weshould start pushing and get our money thatway.
ARCADE leans in to speak to JULIE.
ARCADE: Julie, I hate to say it, but she’s got a point. Even if we did give Dixon the caps, it would have set a bad precedent…frankly, we can’t afford to be extorted.
JULIE:And this justifies murder,Arcade?
JULIE turns her attention back to AGNES and CASS.
JULIE:Somehow I doubtDixon just attacked you two for no reason.
AGNES:Itoldyou. He asked for a bribe…that we buy him out, basically. And we, uh…we couldn’t pay, and so…and so I improvised…and I threatenedhim—
JULIE cuts AGNES off, pointing at her furiously.
JULIE:—and so you startedit!
AGNES:I…no, look, he pulled a knife—
JULIE:No. Stop. I don’t care.It’s already taking allof our effort to keep tensions between Freesiders and NCR squatters from boiling over into all-out riots, and everyone’s only been even moreon edge since somebody took out the Silver Rush*. People are scared, and killing a dealer like Dixon no matter howscummy is only going to make things worse, not better. We’ve been struggling with our patients’ withdrawal symptoms enough as-is.
(NOTE: Julie would know who if she’d read IKROAH #17—Lou.)
JULIE crosses her arms, immense disappointment and frustration on her face.
JULIE:And furthermore? I don’t need yourperspective on violence in Freeside. I livehere. I knowDixon’s type, and the Followers of the Apocalypse have worked with plentyof people just like him without everresorting to threats and violence. Do you fucking getit yet?
AGNES seethes behind her sunglasses.
JULIE:Do you understand what you’ve done?
AGNES’ teeth clench tight.
JULIE:You’re a murderer.
AGNES:I—
CASS (interjecting): Yeah, yeah. Nice lecture. But we didwhat you asked. That asshole won’t be dealing where he’s going, guaranteed. You’re not happy at all?
JULIE looks at them hard.
JULIE:No. I’m not. I’m nothappy that I seem to have put my faith in a pair of hitwomen. You and the Followers have no further business.
CASS:What about the caps for our trouble?Nothing?
JULIE (turning to leave): The caps you were promised will go toward Dixon’s burialexpenses. Arcade, please escort these two out of The Fort.
Exeunt JULIE as she enters one of the Followers’ medical tents.
ARCADE:I’m sorry about Julie. I mean, I agreewith her, but…well, I don’t actually know why I’m apologizing, then. Murder is bad, as it turns out.
AGNES:…it’s fine.
ARCADE:And she really doesn’t meanto be so harsh…things have just been really, uh, tensearound here lately.
ARCADE smiles sincerely.
ARCADE:Listen, if you’re ever in need of help, you cancome back anytime. Really. Just talk to meinstead of her.AllI’ll lecture you about are, uh, medicinal herbs. Haha.
CASS (turning to leave): Thanks, four-eyes. We’ll keep that in mind. Come on, Agnes.
AGNES hesitates to follow CASS, remaining still. ARCADE turns to rejoin JULIE, but looks back at AGNES with a worried expression.
AGNES:Yeah…thanks.
EXT. THE OLD MORMON FORT, the STREETS OF FREESIDE.
Arcade:Yesterday I overheard Veronica saying “Are you sure this is a good idea?” and Six replying “Trust me.” and I have never moved from one room to another so fast in my life.
I have actual genuine fallout art planned but you all get the memes first. You’re welcome or sorry that happened.
[ID: A fake tweet by Arcade Gannon. The text reads: “Ah yes. Me. My boyfriend. And his fucking floating two foot enclave eyebot.” There is a picture embedded of Arcade laying in bed, looking up at the ceiling. Beyond him we see his boyfriend, a man with medium brown skin and shoulder-length black hair, cuddling ED-E, a flying robot. Behind them are green walls and frayed curtains. It claims to have been posted on June sixth, 2282 from Twitter for PIP Boy. End ID]
