DISTRESSED DAMSELS: "When Pint-Size(d) Ninjas Attack," part 4! (Patreon)

(You can check out the previous installment of this story fragment here.)

Behold, the fourth installment of a fairly lengthy and extremely goofy commissioned story from the early 2000s, featuring a suspiciously bondage-prone—yet still plucky and defiant!—iteration of Dirty Pair's Kei and Yuri unsuccessfully battling "the Pint-Size(d) Ninja Platoon."

You might recall from earlier con sketches posted here that the Pint-Size(d) Ninjas had previously been depicted distressing these damsels, in pieces probably dating back to the late 90s (judging by the facial designs):

Wellp, IIRC, one of my long-time commissioners was especially amused by those sketches, so in my spare time—over several years, mind you—I knocked out 25-odd pages of wee dumbasses struggling to capture Kei and Yuri.

Anyhoo, after a tranqed and trussed-up Kei was hauled off by the Platoon at the end of our previous, we've jumped to a new, Yuri-centric scene drawn a few years later, though only a few hours elapse within the context of the story. Next Wednesday, this longer—and, as you've seen, more ambitiously drawn—sequence of Yuri in peril concludes.

And now, if I have time, a few words on the pages (or not, if I didn't find the time before this post went up Wednesday):

Gotta say that I do I do like the bit in panels 1-2 above with the wee ninja falling and not being caught by his comrades.

Spotty "hit rate" on the Yuri figure drawings above (with panel 2 being especially wonky), but the action poses are pretty solid. In fact, this scene has some surprisingly well-done "Yuri in action" shots, though I rather doubt that's what the commissioner was looking for.

I didn't quite pull off the very tricky, torso-twisty pose in panel 3 above, but I still find it a nicely dynamic shot. TBH, at the time I was very likely feelin' the need to draw some g-d action scenes—as I am nowadays, BTW—so I crammed 'em into this story of distressed damselhood.  

Wish this "action damsel" riff was the kinda thing I could do in Empowered, but Emp isn't an accomplished martial artist without the help of her supersuit. (Ninjette. OTOH, could do this kinda thing.)

Some legitimate, "real comic" action storytelling in this sequence, folks! I clearly felt the need to be drawing some actual comics work, not just a bunch of panels of distressed damsel writhing helplessly, which can get repetitive in a hurry. (That being said, you'll see exactly such content in the concluding pages next week, as Yuri tragically loses her battle with the Platoon. Uh, SPOILER ALERT?)

However, you can see my "just winging it, as this will never be published" approach to figure drawing with the last panel, as Yuri gets hit with an early appearance of the dreaded Mysteriously Intermittent Post-Millennial Torso Glitch. Oh, well.

Tomorrow on this here Patreon: Serialization of the (mostly) bondage-free unpublished 2003 story Dirty Pair: Quick & Dirty concludes!