I talked with my dad about the Speed Gibson manga a few weeks ago, and he gave me a bit of input on it:

*Secret Police should use luger pistols. So, I need to figure out wtf they look like.

*Watch video serials from late 30s/early 40s for ideas on visuals. I already watched most of the 1943 Batman serial, which provided crap tons of inspiration. And the Robin in that serial is possibly the coolest character ever. Something... I can't imagine I'm actually saying. But man, that kid is awesome.

He also recommended Don Winslow of the Navy. And we have the DVDs of Flash Gordon.

*Today, he saw I had my Cherry Project manga book sitting out on the table. I was looking at it just for a little bit of visual reference for actual manga style. It's the only manga I have left. (Which sounds like the rest of my manga books died in a horrific accident or something. It's ALMOST true.

See, last year when I was getting rid of a bunch of crap, I decided to sell all my manga because it had a habit of making me super emo in the past.)

He said that my cartooning style is strong enough on its own that I shouldn't worry TOO much about making it look like professional manga. And what he meant by that was not to be derivative. Not to be all "OH MY GOD I CAN'T DO THIS ON MY OWN QUICK! GRAB A BOOK SO I CAN JUST COPY DIRECTLY OUT OF IT".

He also suggested that I leave out the giant robots. Which, oh, man, come on! It wouldn't be Speed Gibson without giant robots!

But, seriously, I was planning on having the Octopus's wheelchair be all super powered mecha armored craziness. But, you know, whatever. As if I could even draw something like that.