fresh meat, page 54

it's another breather page... haven't had one in a while, and sometimes i still have a hard time describing when i feel like one is... preferable? necessary? i don't know. a scene where kim was having therapy in her own ward and was quickly whisked away before she could try to chat with an old ward-mate was deleted because it felt superfluous.

this page reminds the reader of the other events that happen in between scenes, reinforces kim's sense of isolation even among people who are supposed to be depressed too, and, maybe most importantly, reestablishes that kim is still suicidal.

wordless "breather" pages i learned from drop-out were often pages readers struggled with. they were very rewarding for readers who are comics literate, but it didn't feel great being asked for clarification so much even though i knew this was just because some people are unfamiliar with how to read the medium. i tried to lead here with basic familiar characters, objects, and palettes, and repetition in the messages of the panels.

i'd love to do more complex wordless sequences, but fresh meat's audience seems to have a pretty large amount of teenagers and i really really doubt they will handle the more complex reading well. i also just want the comic to be over, to be honest. there's still a decent amount to get through. 

that said, despite the reservations about breathers, i often do them when i want to give the reader lots of unrelated information, or things that can't happen in one scene, so that's why this is still here. all of these instances happen better within only a few panels and don't need any extra context to make sense at this point.

the basketball "court" was challenging because most of the references i could find for basketball hoops at hospitals were like inside courts, very fancy and expensive. this is just a singular hoop on an open, sort of dilapidated patch of asphalt, surrounded by a tall concrete wall, which is topped with wiring to keep people from climbing it, and then some trees planted on the other side to make that less visible externally. definitely one of the things i had to draw more from memory... there was also some sort of employees only shack against part of the fence, which i'm pretty sure was just an exit. the spot where kim and tabitha are sitting is an outdoors eating area that surrounds the hoop.