Author notes

6. Ridin' the Elevator

Sameth

on June 26, 2007

You'll notice Jix is without a cigarette or cigar. This is due in part to the fifth panel and also to the fact that he knows it's rude to smoke on an elevator. The bag, on the other hand, is at his feet.

Panel five was really fun to draw. Though I don't think I did the drool right, it was a lot of fun to do. The more I erased on the mouth and redrew, the better and better it looked. I wish I had thought of trying to animate that process because it would've made a killer transformation sequence. Oh well. If I wanted to animate something that badly, I would've learned flash a long time ago. (And I can't do a woman's voice, so unless you want my friend's girlfriend to be the voice of Lauren, it's better I don't do flash cartoons.)

I'd like to bring up another point about this strip (by the way, if you read Dragon City, you know I like to talk about the comics I do) the girl was actually supposed to be the second main character in this strip. She was supposed to be an orphan and she finds Jix and the two of them travel around this city. Obviously I chose to use Lauren as the main character instead. Mainly because there's less money constraints (did you see the elevator they're riding in? It's somewhat swank) and it also has to do with the fact that Lauren demands less emotional constraints to her character. Let's face it, a weird creature that doesn't belong in this world and a young orphan girl. Unless I made Jix a total wise ass, it would've been a bit of a tearjerker and even then, I would end up doing a couple of strips about her homelessness.

So to avoid that, I made Jix's counterpart older and a little bit more emotionally stable. (Though of course she probably does have her moments.)

Also, if you're wondering who the little girl's father is…just wait. They'll show up again.