Mad Dog McGillicuddy and his Rabid Band of Howler Monkeys

OK, first off, as you will have noticed, this title is FUCKING. BONKERS. Which, of course, suits it perfectly. Darcy's writing is usually just this side of totally insane (notice I didn't say which side), and this is what attracted me to it, and led to my request for her to write a Guest Episode. Darcy popped up on my radar early in my twitter experience, and her tweets told me that she was i) funny, ii) clever, iii) a movie geek, and iv) NUTS. i.e. GIRL ME. I enjoyed Darcy's short fiction, Metallurgy, and her analysis of the film, Unstoppable, so much that I did some fan-art for her (the art is spoilery, so please read before viewing!). We've toyed with some ideas for further collaboration, but this is the first published piece we've actually worked on together. (Forgive my level of detail here, but this is my first collaborative Episode, so I'm keen to explore it.) Darcy sent me a written script and suggested panel layout. Apart from a few dialogue tweaks, the completed Episode is just as she wrote it. I was initially reluctant to do the art myself, as I wanted the Guest Eps to be totally removed from my own. But I settled on a style that was different enough from usual, and went with a patchy, hand-coloured design to match the craggy castle/'old country' content of the story. The bean sidhe sings Siouxsie and the Banshees' 'Burn-Up', which refers to the Jack O'Lantern and The Salamander King, hence their appearance in panel 12, along with other 'woodland faerie folk' such as fairies, leprechauns, goblins and gnomes (AND, if you look carefully, the Drunken Irish Fightin' Fairies! I couldn't have an Irish Episode without them featuring somewhere). I really like the look of my characters in this Ep. Darcy's story inspired me to come up with a new look. Now, I kinda wish I could start the Howler Monkeys all over again... But I won't.