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Part two of this exciting new story The Coffin Ship featuring The Guard and characters from the Ballinabricky comic can be read by clicking on the link below. (Available to read from 23rd September, 2015. Note this story will run through to the 04th December 2015, updates every Tuesday and Friday).

The third and final part of this story will be published on this site on 05th December 2015. Thank you.

Ballinabricky
comic.
Notes about The Coffin Ship part one

The above story is part one of a three part story and is a collaboration between myself and Anthony Valentino, the creator of the Ballinabricky Lego comic. (Anthony lives in the US and I live in the UK, which will explain any differences in the spelling of some words in the story).

Our collaboration began when I asked Anthony if he was interested in having a go at creating a story using characters from both strips. Anthony was as keen as I was to see what we could produce. We spilt the workload between us. (Although I suspect Anthony has done more than half, as he wrote the story and did the photography for parts two and three). After some initial discussion, Anthony suggested a crime story revolving around the theft of a painting called The Coffin Ship. We fleshed out the story to the satisfaction of both of us and then set to work.

So, I am responsible for part one of the story, showing the theft of the painting and subsequent police investigation and The Guard travelling to Ireland. I should perhaps explain about the Toucan bird clue. We originally started work on this project back in June and I was keen to try to have a “different” type of clue for the Guard to discover, which would allow him to follow the trail to Ireland. Essentially, the Toucan is a variation on the bookmark of matches clue or something similar, left at the scene of the crime which has been overlooked by the police, but which the hero discovers. However, in order for this to work, I felt that I needed to feature the Toucan clue in an earlier story. Which I did, with the bird appearing in the Race for Life story. (As did a reference to the Coffin Ship painting). I also used the Toucan to advertise an Irish beer. No not Guinness, but Goodness Beer. That’s the story behind the Toucan. Hopefully the idea worked.

Page one of the story in the format of a front page of a newspaper was a way of providing the reader with a large amount of information in an entertaining way. (The robbery method has a nod towards the Hatton Cross Diamond robbery that took place over Easter 2015 in London. The robbery appears to have been well planned and carried out by old style criminals. Indeed a couple of them were old age pensioners! No violence was used and no one was injured. It's fair to say that this robbery caught the public's imagination. It probably won't be long before a film is made of the events)!

Mallard Square is named after the Mallard class A4 steam locomotive which holds the record for the fastest steam engine in the world. The locomotive achieved a speed of 125.88 mph (202.58 km/h) on the 03rd July, 1938, south of Grantham on the East Coast Main line in England.

Page two was an attempt to show several characters performing simultaneous actions at the same time in one full page image.

Page four, panels four and five attempts to copy a technique used sometimes in TV shows to link a change of location. For example, the scene may be in a living room in a private house where the characters are discussing a vase. The scene reaches its conclusion. The camera then zooms in on the vase. The next scene starts with the camera zooming outwards from the vase to show a character(s) in a new location. Has this worked on the page or is it a technique that only works in a moving communication medium such as television or films? Did this work for those of you reading this story?

The creation of the Lego map on page five, was easier to construct than I thought it would be. I wasn’t convinced that it would be possible to create Ireland and the UK in Lego that would be recognisable. But I was wrong.

Lastly, with reference to the spelling of the word Musevm on page one, the Lego Business Card Holder set only has the one 'U' letter. (This despite the fact that it is a vowel). I couldn't justify buying two sets, so hence the use of a 'V' letter. It's interesting to note though that there are two letter 'X's in this set.

Part two of this story will be available to read on Anthony’s Ballinabricky website from 25th September, 2015 and will run on his site through to December 2015. (Updates every Tuesday and Friday).

Part three will then be posted on this website on the 05th December, 2015. In the mean time normal service will be resumed on this website, with the next story, a Halloween adventure being posted towards the end of October 2015.

We both hope you enjoy this collaborative adventure of The Guard and characters from the Ballinabricky comic.

Green Lion Comics, story and characters © Adrian Banfield, 2015.