Comic Report #94 - New Beginnings

Hello!  Happy New Year. We made it to the end of 2021 and we're on the threshold of a fresh new start.  This has been a very full and very busy year for the comic, particularly in the last third, so I was happy to enjoy some rest before the new year starts.  I had intended to get this comic all-the-way finished before the new year but I think that was slightly overambitious of me.  I have the comic sketched for today, and then over the weekend I should have it inked and ready to post.  

When we last left off Trevor and Mary were investigating a crash in their theater lobby, and discovered the world-famous yellow poncho faction had broken through their front door.  Their hiding spot was found, and they left off with the group's leader Karen introducing herself.  As we open up this page, we can see that Karen's Hornets have less hostile intentions than one may have inferred from their entrance.  Mary and Trevor still have their hands up like, uhh? Are we good?  And the other two Hornets lower their weapons- they actually came to make an offer.

In previous pages we learned from Marv via Alice that the Hornets live in a big shopping mall.  In the second panel here Karen reiterates that point. I've set myself up to have to draw this multi-floor shot of a mall interior, because one of the points I wanted to emphasize was how all the old stores in the mall were converted to individual housing- you take a mall like a big walled castle and you turn the inside into like a Main Street lined with homes for people, and of course you've got the centerpiece in the middle of the mall and the food court at the end, but those aren't the main focus right now.  The key to this whole plot beat is the cinema on the third floor.

See, they've got this mall and it's got this cinema in it, but no one knows how to run the projectors.  It would be a huge boost to morale if Karen could get her people some regular movie nights playing up in that cozy third-floor cinema.  So here they find the local theater has a generator running, and someone must be home!  

Panel four is the big delivery to the whole intermission.  Karen lays out the setup they have and says, hey, you guys want to be part of a winning team?  If you can make our movies play  you can live safely with us!  The old minicomic featuring Mary and Trevor in yellow ponchos had some people asking questions, and this is the big answer!  Mary being set up as a projectionist however long ago means she has a unique and valuable skill the Hornets want, and that's their ticket to a safe new life around other living people.  I think it's a pretty cool hook.

The page ends with Trevor and Mary looking at each other for a beat before going, well, before we go, would you guys like to catch the end of a movie?  They left The Fifth Element running to come out here, so that whole gang of like seven new friends could head back into the theater and catch the fun action parts of the film before gathering up the reel collection and heading out.  This is the setup for how Trevor ends up aligned with the survivor faction whose members Lizzie just beat up the night before.

I'm going to take it a bit easy tonight but this weekend I'll be inking this page to get it ready to post.  Thank you for your patient support throughout the year.  I hope you also have a safe and pleasant new year, and I look forward to sharing more of this story with you in 2022!  Until then, take care.