Fighting sequence question.

CRxTRDude

CRxTRDude

Member
Haven't really seen how to make a fighting sequence on a comic that's plausable. I've been struggling a little bit with the fight sequence on the comic that I've been working on.

The situation is the main character, Nikki the female detective, who is a brawler, is held off side to side by three thugs, when the police would respond in and the boss antagonist ran away scared, Nikki is left with the two guys. Naturally those guys are holding her good so that she won't escape. In a situation like that, how would she manage to get free over these two thugs? The two thugs BTW are just dudes who are fit enough, just hired guys that are strong just enough, but not as strong as body builders or MMA fighters. Nikki has a slight advantage over them that she's a brawler, probably more on the arms than in the legs, probably some boxing background.

The solution that I had for them were to bump them off enough that they would fall over and allow Nikki to beat them up, but so far it didn't feel action-y for me enough. This was actually inspired by Danger Girl in their previews where the main character Abby Chase was also in the same situation, but the outcome was she rigged some explosives that launched the thugs out leaving her to chase the boss.

Are there fighting sequences that I can reference this? I'm still puzzled over.
 
Since I still teach self defense part time, I can't help weigh in here. Assuming you're going for realism and looks like you are, things are not looking good. 

Physically, she is simply overwhelmed. When it comes to sheer athletic ability, human sexual dimorphism favors the male. Even a well trained female has less skeletal density and pound per pound fast twitch muscle than an average male. That's before you bring in the size difference. IOW, both of them are faster, stronger, and more physically resilient. That out of the way, the toughest MMA fighter you could think of would still be in trouble. Once already held down by two or more opponents, in the real world you're in a bad situation.

So what's left? Technique, guile, and and most of all killer instinct. I don't know the specific situation because you didn't describe the hold, but regardless, her best bet is almost certainly a small joint or soft tissue attack. Small joint attacks (grasping, wrenching and breaking fingers) won't do much to slow an assailant down, but they're invaluable to get loose from a hold.

From there you could go for a major joint or nerve lock, but these are all or nothing. I advise something more along the lines of an eye socket hook. Ring and index fingers are shoved into eye sockets fully, then hook the fingers around profile of socket and pull. Hard. You can also do this from behind, in which case you hook upward. If you prefer striking, a palm heel into the nose or bridge can stun instantly, but again you're looking at all or nothing. Close in just slamming your elbow forward is a better bet - no fancy dibilative effects, but it's going to do damage and distract enough for a follow up even with a grazing hit.

Basically, you want reliability more than potential. Debilitation over pain (never, EVER assume pain will be enough to stop an attacker).

Once lose, the best real world tactic is to get the heck out of there, but I'm sure that's not where you're going with this. At this point you can make it into more of a brawl. Maybe unrealistic, and certainly not smart, but at least not unbelievable.

Just don't have her pull some kind of silly she-fu nonsense. It's not only painfully unrealistic, it's also tired and overdone.

DC
 
Thanks guys!

I just want to say that honestly, I don't know what lock should I use for this one. I think along the lines of a lock that allows her to do an opening. These thugs are not that experienced, so they would just easily be defeated of sorts. What can you suggest the thugs would do for this situation, like a common mistake of people during these situations.

The reason over realism is because I treat it as if it's a movie with real actors, real people, they're not CGI or anime that you can bend and twist at their own will with some move of a mouse. Since this is the case, that's why I asked this question, but I know I can just pick some shots that looks logical and cool and then let the reader decide on what it is in the seams.

The soft spots and joints are also good to know.

Finally, I like the idea of debilitation over pain. I guess that's something that Nikki also wants to believe in, subduing the person instead of killing them. I was aiming that she's haunted by her past, her father died in a murder, her mother abandoning her and her partner was killed during a shootout when she was in the police force, so she's scarred by killing and she doesn't want to do more of it.
 
CRxTRDude said:
Finally, I like the idea of debilitation over pain. I guess that's something that Nikki also wants to believe in, subduing the person instead of killing them. I was aiming that she's haunted by her past, her father died in a murder, her mother abandoning her and her partner was killed during a shootout when she was in the police force, so she's scarred by killing and she doesn't want to do more of it.
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I think you misunderstand what I meant. Debilitation over pain means you don't consider pain to be a usable tool. Every action should cause direct damage that makes it physically impossible for your attacker to continue, or it is an utter waste of time.

Example: Kicking a guy in the balls is a an exercise in stupidity - especially for a woman. It doesn't do anything but hurt, and maybe piss the guy off more than he already is. You'd be better off going feral and biting him in the neck; at least then you're doing some damage. Busting ligaments around the patella, tearing up the eyes like I described above, or basically anything that causes real injury is more useful because pain tolerance doesn't apply.

Self defense is not about empowerment - it's about living. The first thing we teach is how not to get in trouble in the first place. The next is how to mediate it. But if those fail, all bets are off. Your job is to survive by any means necessary - worry about your conscience later on.

nsw25 said:
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Well, there's the eye gouge, lol. Nice drawing!

DC
 
Actually, you're right about that, I actually thought it over afterwards and the lines of what you said popped up. Yeah, it's all about surviving, but then again, without the idea, that's her origin story. But for sense of what I mean, since she's trained in her police academy over those things, as well as being with someone who trained her in self-defense, she's got more advantage than those thugs.

Anyway here's what I got (draft quality):
 
Yeah, I mostly work on paper than on a tablet, although the coloring and final compositing is done on a tablet. There are a lot of approaches in doing coloring on a comic book, some would lift the effort and some take time.

I have those Iron Man runs where the coloring was superb. I especially like Extremis where Granov really redesigned the suit to the form today.

The problem with doing it all on computer though is the lack of human touch if overused. I tend to overuse things.
 
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