G.I. Joe- 3.75 Division Episode 39: "Escape- Part 1"

It's taken over a year but we're finally getting close to wrapping up "The Search for Deep Six" story arc that's been under the surface for the entire series. We are just one episode away from hitting 40 of these photo comics I've created and it blows my mind just thinking about it.

I really think keeping to a 10-panel format works extremely well at keeping me from going to extreme and making 25+ panel photo comics like I used to do.

This episode kicks off our 2-part season finale ending with episode #40 next week. More G.I. Joe: 3.75 Division episodes will be coming, but closer to November as I have to shoot more episodes starring Rock 'n Roll, Dial Tone and Pathfinder (that I hinted at back in episodes 35 and 36). The series will follow them for a while but touch back on the core 3.75 Division team periodically until I have time to set up and shoot those episodes. 

Okay enough of me jabbering, as per the usual, click the photos below to enlarge them for easier reading and then look at the director's commentary after the last panel.

As I mentioned in the commentary for last week's video, this episode marks the first time there has actually been a real battle I believe in this entire series. I think part of it has to do with me not being able to edit-in special effects for blaster fire making me resistant to having battles. But this is a G.I. Joe comic so there has to be fighting. 

I was able to remedy this for the first time in Episode 20 thanks to my friend Eric (aka ToysAndTomFoolery over on Instagram) giving me some tips on adding blast effects to photos. If you read Episode 20 on Instagram, there's no blast on Destro's chest when Cobra Commander blasts him.

Another way to make a battle is to use video and this episode has the most video panels of any of the other 38 episodes in this series. They all work great and if you couldn't tell, I had fun going over the top with Banzai and his special spring action Ninja Force feature. 

Banzai makes a direct call-out to his gimmick in panel one, and it's the same one that his cardback showcases:

I shot a bunch of photos and videos for the escape of Deep Six so some got cut OR cut up to make 2 panels or videos instead of one. 

Here's the original video where Banzai beats the crap out of those 6 Battle Android Troopers as I originally shot it.

One of the downsides with posting on Instagram is any wide-angled shots get cut off to fit inside that little square box that makes up each panel. Fortunately, here on Blogspot we don't have to worry about that. Panel/Video 2 above over on Instagram doesn't have that text blurb pop up on the screen as it cut off part of the left side when I tried uploading it. Here's the Instagram version of that video:

I love the v2 Cobra Eel and that's actually how their spear guns are described on their file cards. I read that and thought "Holy crap, so if you got shot with one of those you'd get either a hole punched through you OR you'd get nailed to a nearby wall with it." and felt one of the Eels would feel pretty cocky bragging about that. Check out their file card below, they are pretty well tricked out versus their 1985 counterparts. Sorry 1985 Cobra EELs, I'm a 1992 Eel fan all the way, they are just so much more fun both in style and function in my opinion. 

Now let's talk about that Pretender Splashdown figure; it's literally one of my favorites toys and everytime I have Splashdown with his Pretender shell in an episode it's just me having pure joyus fun. I love the design of the shell, I love the articulation on the inner robot (8 points of articulation on a G1 Transformer from 1988. EIGHT points), I love the shark themed armor to the Pretender shell and I love the character as detailed on his Tech Specs.

You can totally see that love in the 8th Panel/Video where Splashdown's Pretender shell returns to aid Splashdown and thoroughly trounces the lone Eel left standing. Due to Instagram cutting off wider videos, I had to edit it to fit the platform better. Here on Blogspot you saw the wider, original version but for posterity, here's the edited Instagram version:

The dialogue between Captain Grid-Iron and Banzai in the 10th panel was directly lifted from the 1987 Masters of the Universe live action movie, specifically during the battle against Skeletor's forces in the music store between He-Man and Man-At-Arms.

The parallels go even deeper with the muscular guy with the long blonde hair (He-Man/Banzai) saying the same line and the guy with the helmet and visor (Captain Grid-Iron/Man-At-Arms) reply with the same line. I don't know if I had that scene from the MotU movie in mind when I shot this scene but it sure came to mind when I was scripting this episode!

Next week's episode has alot more to offer as things are getting pretty hairy for the Deep Six rescue team. Be back here in 7 days!