Double Cross Scene Compilation - CH1 Pgs 48-57

Howdy, everyone!

I hope y'all are having a great beginning to your summer.

As for me, I feel like I might need to knock on wood or something, but the last couple of weeks have been much more peaceful than in my previous updates. My tooth surgery isn't for another month, but I'm still pretty much pain-free. My Mom has been doing better health-wise—I was actually able to take her out for lunch for the first time in over a year and she had a grand time. Also, Fernando and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by sharing our favorite activities over the weekend (him: bowling, me: bicycling). It was actually a blast, and really nice to just focus on fun for a bit.

And I continue to make steady progress with the urban fantasy novel, about 4000 words a week (which is a little slow for me, but I'm grateful to be moving forward.) To keep me inspired, I've been reading the latest book from one of my favorite MM urban fantasy authors, Kai Butler.

I'm curious. Are there any MM authors who you really like?

Anyway, I wanted to keep going with these scene compilations. Your comments really make it fun for me to create these, so keep 'em coming!

This time, Cory has to dig deep as Mitch comes under a savage (and suicidal) attack from the minions. Will he be able to save his guy from getting cooked? Read on!

These pages were published way back in July-August 2019. If you want to read the previous scene compilations (and, even better, read them all at once), you can find them on the TYP:DC Scene Compilation Collection page. 

My DVD-style commentary is below the comic pages. And the pages themselves are full-resolution here on Patreon, so feel free to zoom-in, especially on that double-page spread!

Let's get to it!

 Collateral damage.

The heroes should win some of the time

In the last compilation, I mentioned that it's important to throw real challenges at your protagonists, to really make things hard for them. But just as important in my opinion is you need to give them some wins—at least if you're writing commercial, genre fiction.

To be honest, this is something that took me a while to figure out. As I've said, I don't really have a problem with beating on my characters. But I've noticed that when I, myself, am a reader, some of my favorite moments are when the heroes are kicking ass. Yes, I am super engaged when they are in trouble, and it does make me turn the pages faster. But in terms of having a good time while reading, I especially like the moments when the protagonists are on top. And not just at the end when they finally defeat the big-bad, rather it's something I look for throughout the book.

I think there are likely a number of reasons why this is the case, but probably the biggest one is that (if the writing is good), we as readers identify with the heroes. And let's face it, it feels far better to win than to get our teeth kicked in. On top of that, for fantasy (which I include superhero stories in), part of the fun is wish-fulfillment: imaging the possibilities if magic and powers were real. For fans, there is pleasure in, as fellow Patron camelotcrusade put it, characters "doing cool stuff and looking awesome while [they] do it."

This all seems blindingly obvious as I talk about it here, but when you're a writer, you can lose sight of what made you fall in love with stories in the first place. And I still think I can do better with this. I don't think my heroes have had enough pure "winning scenes" in these comics, and it's something I'm trying to deliberately add more into the more current chapters.

Anyway, in this scene (and the last), we only get a few brief tastes of pure success. But it sure is fun to see what Cory can do when he is mad!

I get to show how strong Cory can be

I love an underdog. And I especially like it when the meek inherit a bad-ass moment. I knew Cory would helm his own comic when this chapter was complete, so it was important to show that he really does have power.

But more than that, the whole reason I started making comics was to show that love between guys could make you heroic. (A very different message than I got growing up.) And here, someone hurts his Mitchell and previously timid Cory is very much not having it.

It's not uncommon for me to ask our penciler, Adam DeKraker, to "make it look epic" for big action moments in the scripts I send him. And here, I think there is no doubt that he (and colorist Vero!) totally delivered. Both in terms of physical and emotional action, what Cory does to save his guy certainly feels epic to me!

There were more challenging visuals to draw

Last time, I mentioned there were some visuals I asked for in my script that I was not sure if we were going to pull off. The same is true here. In particular, showing the magic fighting Cory's telekinetic power, and the appearance of multiple portals popping into reality all around the damaged Sphere Celestial.

The truth is, it can be hard to show complicated (or subtle) action with still images, even if you have a bunch of them. So sometimes you just need to call out what's happening in dialogue ("The magic! It's fighting me!") or sound effects ("Pop!")

I used to loathe being forced to make things clear that way, and I still try to avoid it. It feels very 80s comics to me, when the printing (and to some degree the art) was of such poor quality, you basically needed the heroes and villains to carry on a running commentary of what the heck was happening on the page.

But working with Adam has calmed me down a bit about that. There's no doubt that his art is top-notch, but there are still times when he'll send me his first pass and ask me to throw in a line of dialogue "just to make things clear." In comics, clarity is your first obligation, and I've learned that sometimes it really is okay to reach into a more classic toolbox if it keeps the readers from going "Huh?"

I still needed to keep cranking up the tension

Even with wins, in an action scene, you always need to keep upping the ante until the very end or you risk anti-climax. So, how do you top Spooky about to kill The Platinum Priestess while Cory goes nuclear on the minions and their magic?

By cracking the Sphere and dousing it with sacrificial blood, which causes a chain reaction that'll change everything!

As we'll see in the next scene, there are huge implications for this. And, even then, the scene won't be over, so I'll need to top this action, too.

Will I succeed in that? Stay tuned!

Let me know what you think!

So, that's the "DVD commentary" for these pages. Please let me know your own thoughts below. It's your feedback that makes it fun for me to create these, so please jump in and share!

And thank you, as always, for making this comic possible. Sharing these scenes with you helps remind me of how much I love creating this story. And it's only possible because of your support.

Y'all totally rock. More soon!