Chapter 1: Page 4
When I wrote the original draft of the script for this scene back in what feels like the stone age (but was more like 2007), this entire exchange was nonexistent. Actually, the first three pages of this chapter were literally squeezed onto a single page. Thinking back, I’m still not sure why we did this. I’m sure it had something to do with the fact that neither of us knew anything about making comics.
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The pacing on display was just so incredibly, amazingly, horrendously rushed, and not an iota of time was spent introducing any of the characters, giving them personalities, establishing relationships, etc etc etc. Nowadays I look back on this first draft of the script and kinda-sorta cringe uncontrollably. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to revisit pretty much everything with the new draft, and I took the opportunity to give Quinlan and Janik a little friendly banter to establish a few things that I felt were important to establish. If there’s one thing I love to write, it’s fun back-and-forth banter.
As you can see, the thumbnail is a little bit different than the final page – just the normal process of laying things out and seeing what flows best when you clean up the initial sketches. The long initial panel was split into two to accommodate Quinlan’s changing expressions based on the knowledge Janik gives him (and his B| expression in panel 2 gives me a chuckle every time I see it). The bottom section remained large at 2/3 of the page, but we combined the two panels into one, since a close-up of that magnitude seemed rather out of place in the flow of the scene.
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And here we have the cleaned up pencils of the final version of the page. A couple of minor changes were made when the final text was added to the word balloons, mostly to make the best use of panel space, but aside from that, once Rachel nailed this layout we pretty much stuck with it to the final page.
No fan art this week, but I will toss up a really cool sketch of main character Quinlan that Rachel did in a doodling session last week!
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Remember, if you have any fan art that you would like to send us to have featured on the site, send it to thewesterndeep (at) gmail (dot) com!
Also, a quick announcement for folks attending next weekend’s PAX East expo in Boston: an Xbox Live Arcade game that I’ve been working on, Dust: An Elysian Tail, will be playable at the Microsoft booth! I’ll be there Saturday and Sunday throughout the day to chat with folks about the game, so stop by and say hi if you’re visiting the expo!
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Love Janik’s expression in the last panel. These two are going to be a lot of fun together, I can tell. :)
Janik’s face is so expressive! I love that about her character.
Man, I was so certain Dakkan would be my fave (WARRIOR OTTER FTW!) but I’m finding Quinlan to be just so relatable. I hope Dakkan shows up soon, cause this squirrel is too awesome.
I love his face in the the first panel, but his B-| in panel 2 makes me smile so much.
Once again, magnificent job guys! But people might stop sending fan art, just to see awesome pictures of Quinlan! :)
Congratulations on making it into Microsoft’s booth!
I complained a bit about Janik’s look last time. Here, I think she looks great though. She looks more properly squirrel-y in the second panel, but her expression in the final one is just too much fun, even if she does carry the vibes from her first panel last time. Quin’s expressions are also great, especially the… B|, is it called? That’s a term/emoticon/whatever I don’t think I’ve seen before.
Yes, I do agree the thumbnail page moved much too fast for us to establish their characters, and the designs were not as interesting back then. I also cringe sometimes looking back at my earliest work. But one thing to remember is that you’re usually much harder on yourself with these old memories than most readers would be. For an early start, I think it’s very good.
“He knows all your hiding places.”
“You mean you know all my hiding places.”
Maxim 63: The brass knows how to do it by knowing who can do it.