Unused strip(s) for January 17, 2022

This strip didn't start out as a megastrip!  It was just those five panels to begin with.  I thought, okay, there are like two people in this world who will appreciate Rich Mullins content, and I'm one of them, and so I figured this should be a one-and-done mini montage.  

1) We've previously established that the music comes from Becky's phone, so here's a reminder that the music is diegetic.  Joe's in the background, where he spots Joyce with friends!  He's wistful from a distance.  

2) Music!  Mostly I liked teasing that, no, the final music montage song is not "Black Parade," it's this dang ol' Contemporary Christian number, lol.

3) A peek at what's going on with Liz.  The lyrics are about seeing things in perspective from a distance!  and she is far from home

4) And closure on Amber's weeping.  And an attribution to Rich Mullins for the lyrics.  Yeah, this song is almost as old as I am.  I thought it was from the 90s, but I learned he wrote it when he was college-aged and kept on redoing it because it was important to him -- which is pretty apt for Dumbing of Age, really.  

but...

...there's an earlier bit of lyrics, "it's okay to be lonely so long as you're free" which WORKED TOO WELL and I wanted to use it, but it meant, uh, more panels.  Lots more panels.  And asking folks unfamiliar with this song (nearly everybody) to endure TWO days of comic strip about it seemed like pushing it.  BUT THEN A WEEK LATER I REALIZED OH HEY WHAT IF I PUBLISH THEM STACKED ON THE SAME DAY, and this solved the issue for me, and now we had two strips, now encompassing that lyric I wanted to include.

1) Have to start out with Joyce's group again, because we're establishing that's where the music's from.  Again, diegetic.  

2) the panel I was after

3) Figured this panel's lyrics worked best with Joyce's struggles, though the "you" meaning "God" seems to be attributed to Dorothy and Becky now.

4) Danny and Sal moved up to here, because the pauper/prince dynamic is about as disparate as this ukulele nerd and this biker chick.  

5) Nihilism!  Of course Ethan goes here.  Getting Ethan in here was another plus in favor of expanding the strip to two.

6) Walky is another new addition, with the poster (and the lyrics) reminding us of Mike's death.  But it's kind of a static image for that important a bit of lyrics, don't you think?

7) Joe!  If you notice, his panel mirrors Amber's above.  Amber, placed next to Joyce, is thinking about Mike.  Joe, next to Mike's... poster, is thinking about Joyce.  (and holding where he got punched by both of them)

The rest the same.

MONTHS later (buffer of 5 months, remember), I was like, WAIT, you absolute FOOL, if viewed from a certain perspective, Mike's accident LOOKS LIKE AN ASCENSION INTO HEAVEN, ELIJAH-STYLE.  And I was like, wait, is this too much?  And I asked my wife, who is safe to ask on these things because 1) she still has not heard this song and so she is like my readership and 2) she's smart, if this was too much.  And she was like, naw, this makes sense.  And so, sadly, Walky had to go, and a flashback panel put in its place.  Properly, Joe was placed next to an image of Mike, the anxiety he was trading with Amber above him.

and then shortly after that, maybe like a month ago, i was like okay maybe it'd help if we had an actual introduction to this, because it might be confusing if we just jump into this song, and the introductory panel of Joyce/Dorothy/Becky listening to music wasn't helpful enough

And so the first row was born!!!  Which gave me the opportunity to put Walky back in.  I *could* have had the first strip run by itself, followed by the double strip, but at that point I had like FOUR MONTHS of uploaded strip buffer, and scooting everything back a day would have been insane, so.  The triple megastrip was born.  And with Dorothy and Joyce properly attributing the author of the lyrics in dialogue, I could drop the attribution at the very end.

PHEW.

anyway

jordan is waiting