Author notes

January 22, 2010

katfeete

on Jan. 28, 2010

There are two things that will probably make this panel clearer, but that I was no way fitting in there even with the umpteen revisions I did on the dialog. First, family. Blaine and Darwin have the same father but different mothers; however, both Darwin and Edie were taken in by Blaine's mother as preteens after their own mother abandoned them. As the third panel indicates, there were varying degrees of gratitude.

And second, business. Blaine is a bookie. While his profession does have traditionally close ties with organized crime, he's an independent businessman, not part of Darwin's gang, and – as he shows in the second panel – in possession of a certain amount of power, since he's been loaning his little brother money at what is presumably a good interest rate. Blaine is a very young businessman, however, and his funds far from limitless; this partially explains his disapproval of Darwin's war.

The rest, I hope, can speak for itself.