The 3 Second Rule, a webcomic by Jason Loo and Arthur Dela Cruz, is not your typical buddy comedy.

‘Buddy fiction’, as I’m pretty sure nobody calls it, is both a plot device and a genre onto itself. You’ve seen it countless times in the movies, in books, and even in mainstream comic books (think Power Man and Iron Fist). Yet something about the genre keeps consumers of popular culture coming back.

Perhaps it’s what buddy fiction tells us about the true nature of friendship. Or maybe it’s just something we can all relate to – after all, isn’t life just a series of interactions between different personality types trying to find some common ground?

Answer: it’s neither.

Buddy fiction is popular because it’s fun, plain and simple. And when it’s done right, as it is with 3 Second Rule, it can deliver an entertaining, fast-paced narrative with room for both characters to meaningfully grow and develop.

The 3 Second Rule follows the adventures of a very serious, dedicated hit man named Axel and his debonair counterpart Shane.  Axel is the silent gun, Shane the charismatic socialite. You could imagine the sort of dynamic that unfolds.

So what sets it apart from every other buddy comedy?

Arthur Dela Cruz, who writes the strip, has this to say on the subject:

“My original plan was to do a straight forward buddy comedy in the same vein as films like Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon even Pineapple Express. You know, heavy action starring two guys who are constantly at each other’s throats. However, I do tend to write serious subject matter and lean towards the darker side of drama and comedy, so you’ll notice the scripts will veer to back and forth between light and dark comedy, but the action is always consistent.”

In addition to the interesting contrast of light and dark humor, Dela Cruz provides a solid, compelling story that goes beyond much of the more cliché buddy comedy fare you might stumble upon.  But this shouldn’t be much of a surprise, since he came to the project with ample experience in comicking.

“I freelanced as a colourist and designer for the likes of Image comics and Oni Press,  among others,” says Dela Cruz, “before I mustered enough courage to pitch my first ever comic Kissing Chaos to Oni Press at the turn of the century. (2000). At that point I worked on Kissing Chaos in print form for a few years. Because indie comics doesn’t often pay ALL the bills, I would freelance as an illustrator and writer to make ends meet, which I still do to this day.”

In addition, Dela Cruz has been affiliated with web comic collective Transmission X with his digital Kissing Chaos strip, titled “Til I Die” (currently on hiatus).

But of course, only half of the credit for The 3 Second Rule can be attributed to Arthur. His creative partner, Jason Loo, not only draws the comic but helps with creating dialogue.

On his own background in comics prior to 3 Second Rule, Loo has this to say:

“I was self-publishing mini-comics prior to the collaboration. I did a series called Popper Cosmix which was my homage to Tezuka about two aliens that visit Earth to become superheroes. I also self-published a teen runaway-turned paramilitary drama graphic novel series called AWOL’d.”

Arthur and Loo met at a comic convention years ago. They were mutual friends of Eric Kim, and wound up seated at tables on either side of him at the con.

“When I found out we both live in Mississauga, that’s when our friendship developed,” says Loo, “We’ve been going to life-drawing classes and discussing about each other’s work since then and Arthur brought up the idea of us collaborating at one of our lunch meetings. He had a bunch of story ideas and it was after a year talking about a collaboration when we started the buddy-hitman-comedy 3 Second Rule.”

Artistically, Loo says that he’s been drawing a lot of his inspiration for the comic from action flicks and European comics.

“I find the European artists pay a lot of attention to detail especially with the backgrounds. These comics have a great sense of cinematography.”

Another influence behind the comic which Loo lists is… Mexican wrestling?

“I went through a Lucha Libre phase when I was drawing the first chapter,” he explains, “and I thought it would be cool to have Axel wear a Luchador mask during his hits. The skull represents Death, but the yellow adds the flashiness of a Luchador.”

Both Dela Cruz and Loo attest that creating the strips for 3 Second Rule comes as the result of a meticulous process.

“I prefer to finish two months worth of backlog so I can focus on other comic projects,” says Loo, “But Arthur could be busy with his freelance work and I’d find the new script for the next chapter a week or two before the entire backlog is up on the site. So I’ll spend 2-3 weeks pencilling, inking, lettering an entire chapter (that’s worth two months of backlog), then work on my other comic projects, look at the calendar and tell Arthur to have the next part of the script ready, then 2-3 weeks of crunch time again.”

Dela Cruz compares his end of the process to his experience writing Kissing Chaos:

“Kissing Chaos, both in print and online with TXCOMICS.com, is a very personal, almost diary style comic, laced around a fictional narrative that provides the backbone for what is basically stream of conscious writing.

The 3 Second Rule is completely different, in that it’s very meticulously planned. So, often, when I’m caught up with my freelance work my scripts will be delayed, as Jason mentioned. With Kissing Chaos, I could very much feel my way through the story, and produce work on the fly and it will still fit tonally within the framework of the series. However, The 3 Second Rule requires a lot of time to execute the story as planned. So apologies to the fans for the sporadic schedule!”

The end result of all of Arthur Dela Cruz and Jason Loo’s efforts is a webcomic that highlights the best parts of ‘buddy fiction’.

3 Second Rule is fun, well-written, and artfully drawn. Though the majority of the early strips focus more on developing Axel, both he and Shane shine as strong individual personalities sharply at odds with each other.

And you know… I think there’s a little bit of both characters inside each and every one of us.

“I think I lean towards Axel sometimes,” says Jason Loo, “because we both come across as shy and quiet. But when I find my comfort zone around people I don’t know (and maybe after a drink or two), I can be just as social and loud as Shane.”

What about you, dear reader? Are you more quiet, contemplative killer? Or loud, sociable womanizer?

On that note, you can check out 3 Second Rule over at www.kissingchaos.com/3s/. You can also find Jason Loo and Arthur Dela Cruz on their respective web-pages.

-Written by Kevin de Vlaming