To give us all a chance to reflect and have a say about Up Up Down Down, we each wrote a post and talked about our favourite comic. It was a rewarding task – we’re proud of the work we’ve done.

If you have a favourite please feel free to post in the comments below :)

Sopes’s Favourite Comic

This post should have happened weeks ago, but I was stuck in what seemed to be an endless loop of indecision. 2D and Automaton already had their favourite comics picked out, and submitted their write-up within a week of the final one. Myself, on the other hand, had only just begun the selection process. I felt that every comic was great in its own way, but I didn’t want to take the easy way out and just randomly pick one. Where do I even begin?! It seemed hopeless. Thankfully, 2D and Automaton were patient, and gave me the opportunity to really reflect on each comic. So after weeks of looking long and hard at our entire gallery, my choice for favourite comic goes to…

…{ cue drum roll }…

…Pokemon Park!

This comic is a brilliant and clever mash-up of Jurassic Park, Pokemon and our main UUDD characters. I remember being very excited to draw this one, but it wasn’t going to be easy: the script called for a bunch of sub-panels, and there were no repeating frames! Not only that, there’s practically no dialog, so it was really up to me to make this one shine. One badly composed panel could make the whole thing confusing or dilute the awesomeness of the idea. It was quite a mountain to climb, but of course, it all came together wonderfully in the end. I can truly say that I was able to do Pokemon Park justice, and give it the art it deserves.

automaton’s Favourite Comic

It’s extremely hard to pick one favourite; I love them all. Many of the comics we did are direct expressions of things that have come out of my life, things that need to be voiced. For every comic written, I can remember the meetings I had and the conversations that led to the script. Although I am sad that the days of laughing over beer and stupid ideas that eventually become incredible works of art are over, I am happy that I had the opportunity to have done all we have.

Message in a Moth though holds a special place, in my heart, as it was the first time I truly felt we had nailed a parody of a beloved movie. For this comic, I spoke to 2D about how Gandalf spoke to that moth in The Fellowship of the Ring. How did he know moth? Why is everyone okay with him smoking long bottom leaf? What would happen if he smoked so much that he passed out and didn’t save Helm’s Deep? Would he send a moth to tell them he’s going to be late? These are the kind of details that people overlook. The kind of details that need to be heard.

On top of that, the art style Sopes used here is amazing. I love it, and it looks way better than what it looked like in my mind. It’s a prime example of everything coming together, in an amazing and memorable comic.

2D’s Favourite Comic

Star Trek Masks is definitely my favourite comic. It’s the one I show people first when I talk about the comic. It’s the one I chose as the header of our Twitter profile.

When you work on a comic with three people there’s a lot of voices and a lot of talent that could potentially crash against each other. But I think our comics were best when a bit of each of us left a unique handprint on the final product – when it wouldn’t have been as good as it was without all three of us.

From the origination of the script idea, to the revision process, to Sopes’s hilarious decision to make the bean bag chair look like a captain’s chair. I remember how hard we laughed when automaton shouted, “GET OFF OF MY BRIDGE!” And how pleased I was when Sopes said, “this is one of those scripts that is so good it doesn’t matter how I draw it.”

It’s the comic I think of every time I write a script, and the comic I will remember for every script I write hereafter.