Tainted Victory

Tainted Victory

Posted by Brian • April 3, 2017

Original Release Date: January 31, 2012

Another page I really like, overall, but the last panel could have used some more care. I was trying to emulate a technique I'd seen before in which a din of noise is happening around a central character, but the character is so consumed in his own thoughts that the noise doesn't register. The idea was to have the ring announcer's words and the crowd noise just blend in to the background as Stu realizes that Mike and Renee are in big trouble. But, I think all the words in the background are too prominent and too distracting from Stu's line. It's cool, but it's a situation I would have approached differently today, from an artistic standpoint.

The announcement references a longstanding rule in professional wrestling: a title can only change hands on a pinfall or submission. Stu interferes on Paul's behalf, which gives Invader X the victory, but not the title, since the victory is the result of a disqualification. This allows a bad guy champion to cheat his way out of matches ad nauseum, and really get audiences worked up and tuning in every week to see this guy finally get what's coming to him.