Prompted by our mention in a Robot 6 article, I just wanted to give you some account of what’s up with the comic.

We fell prey to some of the pitfalls many webcomics do. Mostly, it was hard to make money on an ongoing adventure webcomic, and therefore hard to justify spending so much time producing it.

As for me, I’m back in school, studying illustration, hoping to make a career out of making funnybooks. I’ve been working a little with BOOM! Kids in my spare time – I colored Muppet Snow White and the last 3 issues of Muppet Sherlock Holmes, which were all great fun. I’m also coloring my friend Zack Giallongo’s upcoming graphic novel, Broxo, for First Second books.

After I wrap up that and graduate this summer, we’d love to get back into producing Kitty Hawk, though probably in a slightly different format, and likely with a “relaunch”, giving us time to work up a really great story. So, Kitty Hawk hasn’t crashed, it’s just up in the air.

So to speak.

-BDL

(Tacking on: I think 2010 was, at least for me, a categorically bad year — although the unemployment numbers seem to back me up on this.  I’mma call it a late yakudoshi [although 25 wasn't great either...  maybe I had 42 early?  That'd be nice].  We have been doing some brainstorming, however, and I have hopes for 2011.  When we come back, I want to come back so strong 2010 sends me a written apology.
Yours parenthetically, -V.)

There are some really cool things in store for our heroes, as you can probably tell from the cover and the last page, and we’re excited to bring it to you. We want to give you the remainder of this chapter on a regular schedule, but right now life is getting in the way of doing a webcomic. I’m going to school full-time at AIB, and Vin is without reliable internet.

You can expect color versions of the already published pages in the coming months (which should reveal an interesting detail), and we’ll see what we can put together for you in January. Stay tuned!

Hearts and bolts,

-BDL

-V.

Also, we’re working on some changes to our feedback and discussion mechanics, so watch for those soon.  They are very exciting for people who, like myself, have very low standards for excitement.

Hope this finds you all well,
-V.

(EDIT: fixed the links)

-V.

Connie Kurridge – I’ll bet you didn’t know there was a girl aviator in the newspaper funnies, did you? Okay, to be honest, I didn’t know about her, either, until today. Seems she holds the honor of being the first female hero in American adventure comics. Ain’t that something! What little art I can find looks gorgeous. It has the same level of realistic rendering as you might find in other contemporary adventure strips, but with a refreshing looseness in the inking.

Scorchy Smith – I’ve heard of this comic before. Scorchy managed to keep flying years after his contemporaries had retired to the hangar. Like other legacy comics, it passed through the hands of a number of artists. Apparently there’s a book about one artist’s revolutionary stint on the comic. I should probably read that before I say anything more about it.

Brick Bradford – Aviation is just one of the many tools at Brick’s disposal, though it’s not necessarily the focus of his eponymous strip. He started out as an aviator, but quickly found himself thrown into a wide variety of incredible science adventures. Aliens, robots, morlocks, dinosaurs, Brick has tussled with all of them and lived to tell the overblown tale.

Tailspin Tommy – Here’s another I just learned about. Tailspin Tommy hails from a small town outside of Denver, CO, where he lived with his widowed mother and worked on repairing cars in his garage (some surprising parallels with Kitty, there), dreaming of flying. He finally gets his chance when an aviator in trouble needs help fixing a plane engine. Tommy does such a good job, the fellow invites him to join the company, delivering goods and getting into trouble.

That’s all for this Spotlight. Let me know if I missed anything important about these folks, or what other characters you’d like to see me cover in a future Spotlight.