And this concludes Chapter 3 of The Betrayal. On Wednesday, we start Chapter 4 right where we left off. We’ll get a bit of background on Nitro, and a bit of insight into the mind of El Cuervo before kicking the doors down and getting dirty with the mob. You won’t want to miss what’s coming up – so stick around…

You’ll notice that Eddie isn’t some buff, musclebound Jason Statham type killer. I wanted him to have that ‘everyman’ type of look. Average build with above average fitness. We expect our heroes to be ripped and buff, and that’s just not realistic enough for me. Unless you spend a lot of time working out, you won’t have a physique like that. I don’t think Eddie has that much time to invest in his appearance. He does enough to stay in shape, but not so much as to appear like a comic book super hero.

I liked how these panels turned out – Eddie LOOKS rough. After some pills and some rest, you can bet he’s going to come back with a vengeance.

So how did he manage to survive being shot in the back seven times?

This is a diagram that shows the fibers on a standard cotton t-shirt interwoven with Boron Carbide, the stuff used to plate armor tanks and create heavy ceramic inserts for bulletproof clothing. Researchers in a joint venture between China and the US have been putting together a formula to inject Boron Carbide into the fibers of clothing in order to make it bullet-resistant. I doubt it will be fully bulletproof, but you can see how the dense fibers could ultimately absorb the kinetic energy from a screaming bullet.

Maybe even 7 of them.

Hey, it’s a stretch – but it’s a comic and it wouldn’t be entertaining if some liberties weren’t taken here and there.

See you next time.

OUCH.

I dug a fish hook out of my palm once. That was excruciating. Digging a bullet lodged an inch into your flesh must be 1,000 times worse. I hope Nitro’s got some heavy narcotics in that warehouse, because El Cuervo is definitely going to feel that in the morning.

So two more comics and we hit the end of Chapter 3. I’m excited to roll this new chapter out. If you’ve been reading El Cuervo since the ‘first’ go-around last April, you’ll note that I got up to the end of Chapter 3 before I took it down and rebooted the strip in order to tighten up the story and make the artwork consistent. Now that we’re fully there, we can show off some never before seen pages and plot/character development. It’s going to rock, I promise.

By next week, we’ll be entering uncharted waters – at least for the longtime loyal fans. So buckle up, because Eddie’s going to come back with a supreme vengeance. [cue epic music]

See you Friday!