FIGHT

Author notes

Page 74

mlai

on Feb. 21, 2008

This page drawn by mlai, text and CG by Edbang.

I like this page for the ensemble shot. I rarely get to draw these setup shots where everyone just happens to be fully onscreen. In fact, very few of my panels are ever poster-type shots. I don't believe in them.

Hanes' euphemism in panel 1… According of DD's resident westerns expert keithmccleary, it should be "sam hell." And that means Ed actually got it right back in 2004 when we wrote this. But back then I changed it to "sam's hill." I just thought it's a sensible corruption of Samhainn (Halloween), used by Hanes in this case to mean Hell, or a supernatural place, and "hill" works because he's asking the question "where?"

It still works for me, so I'm leaving it. The imagery of language. It works for cowboy talk, Irish slang, Shakespeare, and also the Middle English I currently use. You can't know every slang and expression, so you gotta get a handle on the basic framework, then improvise. :p

Yeah I know, sounds pretentious. Never said I get it right all the time.

Read the companion comic FIGHT 2; these stories take place in the same world.