Author notes

601

usedbooks

on Sept. 18, 2008

This was another "tricky angles" page especially for the speech bubbles. I always script dialogue first and then divide up the panels and actions. Then I draw thumbnails/rough drafts (with stick people – some wearing hats!). I sketched this one a few times before I "got it."

Panels 2 and 6 were the "important" ones that I had very clearly set in my mind before fitting in the other panels around them. I needed Fudo with an undefined emotion (hiding under the hat) in panel 2, emphasizing Mike. With Fudo taller, it worked much better for the speech bubbles. In panel 6, I needed Fudo looking away with Mike in the background. I also knew that the hand close-up in panel 5 would need to be from the left side. So, basically, I had to pull a 180, which left panel 3 rather ugly and awkward. To get it all to fit, I accidentally ended up with both characters partially out of frame – but I wanted to convey a physical and emotional distance… so it sort of worked out. XD

amanda: A first aid kit really is useful for a fugitive. Fudo might have trouble getting to a doctor when he needs one. ;-)

DAJB: But those third-aid kits are so cumbersome and hard to carry!

Tantz: This "change of heart" started with Seiko's insistence on Kaida's good nature, which led to his search for answers. (He was following her at the Renn Fair too.) – Basically, his obsession with Kaida has taken a new form.

patrick: The chibis are allowed one party every hundred pages (in addition to their appearance in chapter titles). They let me goof off and break the fourth wall. ~_^

Warpedwenger, ghostrunner, spiritmonkey, albone, Peipei:
Thanks. I hope I can keep up my momentum. (There's still plenty of "buffer" left, and I'm drawing more … slowly.)