CSBG Archive
In the Background #1
This is the first of a series (of indefinite length and regularity) of posts where I present background drawings in comic books that amuse me for whatever reason.
Enjoy!
First up is X-Force #43, by Tony Daniel and Kevin Conrad. X-Force is getting ready to go on a rescue mission to find their missing teammate, Sunspot. So, what, exactly, is Siryn doing in this panel?
Let me know if you come across similar panels you think I should use in the future! E-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!







26 Comments
Niklas
August 8, 2012 at 6:21 am
I have no idea what she’s up to, but I guess she must be drunk.
Clutch
August 8, 2012 at 6:21 am
If it weren’t a 90′s comic, I’d say she’s just wild about her iPod.
sean
August 8, 2012 at 6:41 am
I think one of the things she’s doing is putting on her backpack. Or jacket. Maybe?
jjc
August 8, 2012 at 6:54 am
Shampoo commercial.
sterg
August 8, 2012 at 7:01 am
Jazzersizing.
Paul B
August 8, 2012 at 8:36 am
Not being useful.. At least Warpath is earning his keep..
Michael P
August 8, 2012 at 8:43 am
Nice of Warpath to move Cable’s spare gun for him.
joshschr
August 8, 2012 at 9:06 am
Practicing for her photo cover of “Lovely Lasses Lads Love”. I think I saw it in a Deadpool comic somewhere.
Matt D
August 8, 2012 at 9:07 am
You can’t see it well but Warpath is listening to Pornos for Pyros.
Kevin Madison
August 8, 2012 at 9:25 am
“Ponytail…caught…in…backpack…but can’t…scream or…will…KILL…teammate!!!”
Ron
August 8, 2012 at 9:41 am
She’s tearing around in the throes of a Calvin and Hobbes moment; “The laws of perspective have been repealed! …All spatial relationships are lost! It’s impossible to judge where anything is! Oh, no!”
TJCoolguy
August 8, 2012 at 10:02 am
Neat idea for a feature. Two of my favorite artists for this sort of thing are Travis Charest and Chris Bachalo (and favorite artists period, actually). I bet you could do a whole month of features just on Bachalo’s “Generation X” and Charest’s “WildCATS” runs. Those guys loved to throw in cool things like posters and graffiti in their backgrounds, not to mention Bachalo’s penchant for cartoon amphibians everywhere. I loved how often characters in “Generation X” would get knocked through a wall or something and end up with turtles and frogs on their heads.
M-Wolverine
August 8, 2012 at 10:17 am
Suggestion: You may want to put up the previous and post panel so we can see if there’s any lead in that might clue one in why the object of derision is in there (in this case, if Siryn was doing anything leading up to the panel or after). And if there’s NOTHING, and it just pops up in this middle panel, it might end up being even funnier.
Craig B.
August 8, 2012 at 10:34 am
Obviously, she’s singing “I’m So Pretty” from West Side Story.
cool arrow
August 8, 2012 at 10:41 am
Voguing?
Sallyp
August 8, 2012 at 12:14 pm
I like Kevin Madison’s the best. So…so perfect.
Neil Vig
August 8, 2012 at 12:25 pm
How can Warpath’s arm be that big?
cool arrow
August 8, 2012 at 1:12 pm
“How can Warpath’s arm be that big?”
Dude, it was the 90′s. How could it *not*?
The Crazed Spruce
August 8, 2012 at 1:37 pm
That poor woman needs a lighter backpack. Why, her spine has snapped in half!
Kendall
August 8, 2012 at 2:25 pm
It’s obvious she is getting ready for the Interpretive Dance finals at the Olympics.
Brian Cronin
August 8, 2012 at 3:46 pm
There is nothing. That is the first panel on the page and she was not on the previous page. The next panel is just an explosion. This is the correct context. Obviously if there was some context, I’d feature it. Doing otherwise would be unfair to Daniel and Conrad.
Travis Pelkie
August 8, 2012 at 4:25 pm
I forget, but is she able to fly without using her “scream”? Cuz she’s just floating there. Removing her jacket after a long day of…being on X-Force, I suppose.
Everyone else has been much funnier here.
The_Livewire
August 9, 2012 at 7:32 am
She’s dancing. Because she actually had feet drawn in an X-force comic.
Eric Henry
August 9, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Jazzercise?
Brian Mac
August 10, 2012 at 4:52 am
Obviously, Warpath is cranking the volume on his boom-box (the fact that this is the early 90s provides the context), and Terry is obeying C+C Music Factory’s command of “Everybody Dance Now!”
Leandro263
August 11, 2012 at 4:02 pm
I’ve just seen this issue a couple days ago, when I was looking for easter eggs… Syrin is just like that, the entire scene. It looks even like some meta joke about how girls in comics that time were supposed to be always posing for Pirelli callendars. Either that, or she just had some ecstasy.
And that was when I realized that she doesn’t have to be screaming to fly, I believe there’s even one panel where she’s floating around while slurping a smoothie.