Pets of Rusty Towers, Episode 4 - The Outclaws

In which a rather assertive gang of biker chickens seek to gain the upper claw.

Featuring, this time: Static, Raptor, Bandit & Beans Nicholas; Casper Brankin-Newall, Bumpy and Calvin Preisinger; Tikka Vroom; Twitch Lawson; Chewie Sumner; Chonko Le Beau*; Mr Bear Rinella*; Bugsy Tirado; Dash King; Oscapus Davies*; Ripley Brankin-Newall; Cookie King.

*soft toy pets!

Drawn by Tessa Vroom

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Image ID: Pets of Rusty Towers, Episode 4: The Outclaws, part 1. This is a vertical, three panel comic.

In the first panel, there are hills, browny-grey in the evening light on the left and right of the picture, and between them the sun is setting; we see the top third of its yellow-orange ball. The sky is blue at the top and merges into pink around where the top of the hills sit.

Below the sun, in the dead centre of the picture, we see an approaching dust cloud. At the head of it, are four figures on motorbikes with headlights lit, travelling towards us. They have helmets with dark visors or shades, so we can’t see their faces.

There is large black lettering in capitals, reading 'RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE'. Big white capital letters identify them as 'The Outclaws'. Lettering outside of the panel reads “From left to right: Lydia’s chickens Static, Raptor, Beans and Bandit.”

Static is fluffy grey with a pinky comb angled to the right looking at her. She is on a purple bike with purple shades/sunglasses.

Raptor is grey and feathery with grey feathers; three grey feathers like points like a crown, also angled right, are on her head, emerging from a green helmet with a black visor. She rides a green bike.

Beans is light brown and smooth with a black head and a red helmet with a black visor, and two white bits of feather with two points protrude from either side of her head. She rides a red bike.

Bandit has brown feathers, fading from darker to lighter brown from bottom to top. She has black shades and no helmet. She rides a blue bike.

In the second panel, the bikers are now close up, as though they have travelled at great speed directly towards us. We can see more clearly now that the riders have feathers, and spindly legs with claws at the end sticking out at right angles to the bikes.

The third panel is split into two halves horizontally. Both show the turrets of the castle seen from the outside. In the top panel, on the left, Casper is standing in the stone doorway into the tower, front paws raised, looking aghast. He says “OK, everyone. This is a moment where we need to give 110%!” Bumpy and Calvin (Hannah P’s cats), Tikka (Tessa’s dog) and Twitch (Tai’s rabbit) are congregated to the right of the picture positioned just behind the battlement.

In the bottom panel, we see just the pets behind the battlement. They are identified in text outside the panel as: Chewie, April’s dog, Mike’s cuddly toy Chonko, Cathy’s cuddly toy Mr Bear, Rhys’ cat Bugsy, Suzanne’s dog, Dash and Oscapus, Lowri’s cuddly octopus toy. They are holding fruits and vegetables, preparing to pelt the chickens.

Part 2

Image ID: Pets of Rusty Towers, Episode 4: The Outclaws, part 2. This is a vertical, three panel comic.

In the first panel, we now see the biker chickens from behind, arriving at the edge of the moat of Rusty Towers, which is bright blue. The chickens have come to rest side by side at the end of the road leading to the castle. Opposite them is a wooden drawbridge. We see the silhouettes of the pets above, on the battlements. Big black capital letters read 'TENSION TENSION'.

The second panel is split horizontally. In the top half we have a close-up of Raptor. Her visor is now raised and we see her face, which is two black eyes and a dark grey triangular beak, against a light blue background She says “Pets of Rusty Towers! We are Broody! We have Needs! We demand your most Soothing Sounds!”

In the bottom half, we zoom in very close on Raptor’s menacing face. The background is now red and there’s a jagged red line to the left of Raptor, suggesting a very tense situation. She says “Or Else… You’re in for a Racket!”

In the third panel, we return to the view of the battlement seen from the outside. Oscapus is lowering Dash down the castle wall on the right. On the left, Casper, with Bugsy behind him, is saying “Oh no, oh no, last time they made a racket all the audio was ruined!” Bugsy says “Don’t worry, Casper, Dash is an incredible negotiator.”

Part 3

Image ID: Pets of Rusty Towers, Episode 4: The Outclaws, part 3. This is a vertical, three panel comic.

In the first panel, there is a black banner across the top with white writing reading 'Some Time Later…'

Below it, in the background, there’s a dusk/twilight view of the same two hills with the sky fading from darker blue to pinky going downwards. In the middle distance we see The Outclaws’ dust cloud travelling away from Rusty Towers.

In the foreground, the two puppies, identified in writing outside the panel as Ripley, Hannah B and Alex’s puppy, and Cookie, Suzanne’s puppy are on the very left, looking at Dash, who is right centre. Ripley is black with a blue collar; Cookie is a white spotty spaniel with brown ears. Both have yellow stars for eyes suggesting hero-worship and are smiling excitedly. Speech bubbles show them talking over each other excitedly – it is unclear which puppy is saying which words. They say “Did you do it, Dash? You did it, Dash! What did you give them, Dash? Did you give them good audio, Dash? Oh wow!”

Dash smiles calmly and indulgently, looking at the puppies. He is black, with a light grey chin. On the far right, Oscapus is climbing back up through the battlement.

The second panel is split horizontally. The top half is narrower and has a pink background with lots of yellow smilies floating around to indicate a satisfied mood. Dash, again, is looking calmly happy.

In the bottom half, we see The Outclaws. Raptor is in the centre on her brown circular nest, with Bandit on her left on another nest and Beans and Static to her right. Bandit and static are eating popcorn from red and white vertically striped cardboard boxes. In front of Static is an audio player, which is charcoal grey. All four chickens are looking content. The background is green. Writing in a white rectangle positioned bottom centre says “Rusty Quill Presents… The Magnus Archives…”. Little zigzags emerging from the rectangle show that these are audio being played.

In the third panel, we return to Casper, viewed from behind. He is alone on the turret now, looking over the edge of the battlement to a very starry night sky, which fades from indigo to purple top to bottom, with just the edges of the hills silhouetted in at either side of the picture. We see the back of his head with the ends of his whiskers sticking out either side, the top part of his body and the top half of his tail, curled to the right. Casper says “Well, we kept our heads cool today. My only concern is, when they get to the end of Season One… They’ll be back for more.”