Comic Report #85 - Under Construction

Today I've got a bit of an interesting page to share.  Normally I try to share a sketch phase when it's more or less complete, but given that this is a short week and I have some interesting design problems to solve, I thought I'd share the in-progress shot and talk through my process in how I am laying out the page.  

Sometimes I find myself in this curious situation where I know what I want to convey with a page but it ends up being like a page-and-change worth of space to really convey it, so the choice then is either break the idea up with another significant story beat point in the middle and fill out the leftover part, or compress it into one page and move on.  I got big plans for the next page and beyond, so my goal on this page is to compress the events to make it work.

The plan for the page goes like: Monday approaches Maria and Mayor Richardson  to pass on the notebook of notes Alice had Marv write, as she has been brought in on the secret murder mystery investigation.  The Mayor inquires about the item, and Monday dismisses it as "very boring stuff".  The Mayor is appreciative of this warning and introduces himself, extending a hand to shake- this hand extension is plotted as that paragraph of blank panels in the second row, with the large panel on the left and two smaller panels on the right.  Monday shakes his hand and then begins to squeeze it- this is what the two rightmost panels are intended for, to focus on the clasp and then the crush.

I had wanted Monday to break his smile for a moment as he introduces himself, locking eyes with the Mayor like a cobra.  The Mayor recognizes him; in the background are flashback details that indicate that he is in fact part of the syndicate network Monday has a vendetta with, and his name is in fact on the list Monday keeps in his coat.  These two horizontal strips are one of the trouble areas I had in planning, how to pace them out.  I'd initially thought about it as like three panels- the smile, then the glare, then the frightened look- but I can't fit all that.  I had a pass where I tried eliminating the horizontal divider and blending all the information into one larger panel, as this has been successful for me in the past.  My current thought is, after this article goes up today I can try splitting the Monday glare strip into two smaller panels to get a smile and then the glare, and if that doesn't work try the one big panel approach again.  I wanted Monday specifically to be looking directly at the camera to emphasize his eyes, and that knowing gaze of an animal tracking its quarry.  This is the big compression question on this page, and I am confident I can cook up a creative solution to make it as impactful as it needs to be, I just couldn't get it done in time for today.

After the handshake, the Mayor is shaken and insists that he's actually in a hurry to go to a meeting, which we the readers have seen on the previous page he did not in fact want to go to.  So he hurries along and walks past, and the last panel needs to be a closeup shot of him fastwalking away like "oh shit", like things have instantly changed.  This is a good conclusion point for the page because it will let me shift focus and pick up on a certain other plot thread on the next page which people seem to be very excited to see reach its conclusion, which is why I don't want to make this event a two-pager.  I'll figure it out, though.  I'll make it work.

August is going to be a big month for me on my NDA gamedev job. I'll probably draw the remainder of the minicomics throughout but the main comic page may or may not go a bit slower for a little bit while I focus on hitting an animation deadline.  I'll have a more complete version of this page for next week, though!  So until then, thank you for your patient support.  Take it easy out there.