Author notes

Page 32

Scott D

on May 22, 2020

I probably should've talked about this in the previous author's note, but there's an obscure reference going on with Adrienne's pyjamas. At the very least, it'll be obscure to readers outside the U.K. who aren't aficionados of the British comics publishing industry. There's a long-running strip called The Bash Street Kids, which follows the misadventures of a class of primary school tearaways, and at one point, they started putting out a companion strip called Pup Parade, featuring the kids' dogs, who all closely resemble their owners in appearance and behaviour. The character displayed on Adrienne's shirt is Peeps from the latter.

In regards to this page, I think the close-ups in the second and third panels are the best part. There's a moodiness to them that reminds me of the works of Sergio Leone, and the staples of what we now call film noir, where the tone of the scene was conveyed through the way light fell across the faces of the actors. Think of any scene in detective fiction where the private dick glowers through the gaps in the window blinds as the artificial shine of a streetlamp illuminates the grim intensity of his features, also amplifying the mystery of the dangerous, smoky-eyed dame who just walked into his office. The 1995 film Se7en, 1998 point-and-click adventure Grim Fandango, the 1999 animated series The Big O, 2001's Max Payne, 2007's Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Brick, and 2013's Contrast, The Wolf Among Us, and Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea are all examples of modern media using these same stylistic hallmarks most effectively. Do you have a favourite noir or neo-noir piece, and if so, what is it?

I'm also taking the chance to give out very special thanks this week to crapshoot for her reading of chapter one, which you can view on her YouTube channel, and to Espeon Person of Team Bluestar for this recreation of one of my favourite panels from that same chapter! Keep up the good work, you guys!
—Scott D.

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