1 - D.D.A. Reference

D.D.A. Reference

Sean:

When you enter an online character tournament, you've got to win your place. This means that you provide a reference sheet for your character(s) (and/or vehicle, depending on the tournament) and an audition page showing how and why your characters have entered the tournament.

I love race films and cartoons. The D.D.A. was an amalgamation of several cars from various things, including:

• Dick Dastardly's car "The Mean Machine" from the Wacky Races (particularly the paint job)
• Professor Fate's car "Hannibal 8" from the Great Race
• The vehicles in Death Race 2000
• Major Dawlish and Barrington's car in Monte Carlo or Bust (a.k.a. Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies)
• Jackie Chan and Richard Kiel's technologically-advanced Mitsubishi Starion from Cannonball Run II

I can't honestly remember why it ended up being a van. I think it ended up being a box shape because that would make it easier to draw across lots of panels.

Interestingly, I loaded up the D.D.A. with a whole bunch of gadgets and weapons, but never ended up using most of the things mentioned on this page. Just goes to show that it's not worth loading up your characters with a whole bunch of potential items to use, because you'll probably forget to use them later on anyway! That, and I tend to disable any advantages the Docs could have per round as a means of showing them overcoming some sort of adversity.

I really regret using white text on that checkered background. The background was inspired by the use of squares in early Sonic the Hedgehog game packaging, but it doesn't excuse the fact that it's quite difficult to read this and the next page. The first of many mistakes I'd make during the IDD!

Sam:

Ah, the IDD. There were high and low points, I gained a wealth of experience and also had a horrible attack of self doubt. But in the end...well, you'll see in a bit.

I don't actually have anything to say about this page as Sean came up with the D.D.A's design, I just drew the thing. It wasn't a bad design - it suited the Docs pretty well - and I never had any complaints whilst drawing it.

As you can tell, my commentary is going to be thrilling!