Lunar Peaks Post. This is Your Warning.
Before reading this, there are a few things that I need to make really god damn clear so that no one breaks their necks giving themselves whiplash reading this:
- I know I draw but I consider myself a Writer first, and a Visual Storyteller second. The reason for this distinction is because everything I do is always working towards telling the story as much clarity as possible while also trying to find a way to make the process of reading it enticing. Drawing is a skill that I ultimately developed to get better at communicating these ideas because I’m also an incredibly visual person. All of this is being said because that’s the only thing I care about: The Story and being good at both telling the story and providing it with what it needs.
- I studied Animation in College. This has also colored my perspective for how I tell stories (especially visually). Contrary to popular belief, however, I am not trying to convince anyone that when writing a Comic or Graphic Novel, you need to be aiming to make it for animation or to treat it like it’s animation. That’d be bananas! Comics/OGNs and Animation are two different mediums so trying to insist on that would be the equivalent of insisting you drink arsenic to hydrate yourself. It’s just that Animation – due to it being a visual storytelling medium that also relies on movement to be a qualifier – has a lot of really god damn good rules that it follows to make sure that it’s good at visually communicating a narrative. I will be continually referencing these because they are useful tools that anyone who is interested in any kind of visual storytelling should have in their toolbox. In fact, a lot of rules from Animation are borrowed from Film which is – you guessed it- THE ORIGINAL VISUAL STORYTELLING MEDIUM, so it’s honestly pointless to disregard the foundations that help made Comics and Visual Storytelling a possibility.
- I do not consider myself an expert on this subject matter. In fact, here are definitely a ton of people who would be quick to throw tomatoes at me in order to insist otherwise (and I can honestly probably list all of them or, at the very least, point you in the direction of where to go to find those people who think this about me). However, as someone who has already gone through the process of creating a comic project that I would consider Mid at best, I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur for what would be considered Shit at this point and like to encourage people to try and aim to make something that’s – at minimum – better than Shit because your name is, in fact, attached to it and that’s something you should sincerely think about. And no, not because of reputation, but because that’s something that you will need to find a way to make peace with the fact that you went through the time, energy and effort to make something that you’re ultimately not happy with. … And decided that everyone should know about it so maybe consider whether or not what you’re producing is something that you – at minimum – can feel proud to stand beside no matter what.
- Even though technically we could be launching Lunar Peaks right now because it mostly is a glorified space for me to run my mouth on the shows/books I’ve been reading/etc. that I’ve been engaging with and give my opinion on writing in media that absolutely no one asked for (except for E. and everyone else which thank you for enabling my need to give my opinion on literally everything). HOWEVER, we’re trying to handle this like an actual business, so we are focused on consciously moving forward rather than just doing something because it’s convenient because living with intention is a thing and it is actually sincerely fulfilling.
ANYWAY! Onto the post!
But First, Let me start Lecturing
I have a theory: The reason why the entertainment industry is ultimately struggling to make money is because it’s forgotten who it’s number one competition is. No, it’s not a competing studio. If you’re “indie” or whatever, it’s also not the industry. Hell, it’s not even AI.
The number one competition for any form of entertainment is Life and it’s Misery.
And that’s what it’s always going to be.
If you look back at history, people were still able to make a living off of their craft simply due to the fact that their work was so profound that it was able to even get those who were poor and illiterate to be invested in their writing. Even Shakespeare had the poor showing up to his plays and it wasn’t because his shit was too hard to understand and comprehend.
The reason why either of these examples were ultimately successful was because their work was able to stand up against how horrible it was to live during either of those time periods, and the same is true for any writer. Even Jane Austen, despite not making a large fortune when alive due to her being screwed by publishers, still found her works selling out on the regular.
All of this in spite of what it meant to alive at that time.
So, why is this important? I think it’s honestly important because I’m done treating myself like I’m a try hard when it comes to the level of standard that I’m holding my work to when I’m creating. Being around other creative individuals for decades now has allowed me the chance to see a lot of things – one of which is the cycle of life and death that seems to come with creativity. There was a while when things felt very promising, but for the last decade or so, things have been on the decline where being around creative spaces really does feel a bit like you’re surrounded by death and disease and there is no real cure.
And honestly? It’s fucking exhausting.
SO… I’m doing what I usually do in times like this which is going into hermit mode where I just start honestly staring at what I’m doing and get real god damn honest with myself.
If this is actually my job to make what we’re doing lucrative, am I doing a good job at it? And honestly? … Maybe? But not really. But also… maybe? Just probably not in the way that I might think.
SHE IS THE END is the first comic project that I had made in about 5 years. I had roughed out all of the first chapter (or “Episodes” as we’re calling them) by the end of 2023, and while I made a brief stint to release it as a webcomic to try and re-establish myself, life had other plans and it immediately had to be shelved (which is a reoccurring them for me but such is life and it’s reality). The version of the story as it stands now is actually Version #3 and it’s still not quite ready. It’s getting there but not quite because it turns out that there’s a lot that I had to unlearn from the previous chapter of my creative career and the bad habits that I passively picked up from being around other Webcomic Creators and their honestly poor standards of everything.
Earlier this year, I started revisiting it after roughing our third comic title – Time for Luna! {MONUMENTAL CALL} – and uh… after roughing that first episode out, it was a bit staggering to see just how much my visual storytelling skills had improved in such a short time period (in spite of all of the chaotic shit that was also happening). It is in the wrong format so I do have to adjust the pages but overall, I can honestly say it’s the strongest thing I’ve written to date and this is in spite of the fact that the concept is highly complicated (not getting into that right now. You’ll see. Eventually) and also in spite of the fact that this series is being forced to have each Episode be restricted to the short end of the page count.
Before Time for Luna was Timing’s A Witch which I’d consider my second strongest piece of writing to date. The more I’ve been tackling this projects and – in turn – the more I’ve been sharing them with E and other people, the thing that I came to realize is the quality of standard that I’m really trying to stick to is… Do we even enjoy what the fuck I’ve been writing?
If you ask me about my opinion of my first major comic project, I’ll be honest in saying that it was Garbage. Yes, this is in spite of the fact that it did garner some level of popularity and did find itself being featured and reviewed on not-so-small Media Outlets during the time that it was active. But still? It was garbage. And the amount of debt I was accruing as a result of it only reinforces how much it was garbage because I’ll be totally honest in saying that at no point in time did I really ever go back and re-read the story. I would go back and review it (one of the things I enjoyed doing was opening up a chapter’s folder and being able to clearly see the shift in the story based on the color keys alone), but did I really spend much time going back and re-reading it?
Not really.
But it was also extremely traumatizing for me and looking back at each page would often bring back a flood of memories of whatever fucked up shit I was dealing with at the time so I made a pretty strong point to just keep going out of fear that if I really stared at what was happening, I might quit entirely.
However……………………… I can say with total sincerity that I (and in turn we) have never read and re-read pretty joyfully everything that we’ve been creating. In a lot of ways, it’s taught me to realize why people like Shakespeare and Dickens were able to be so successful. Life sucks, and has sucked for a very long time for me. As a result, I’ve always been a pretty voracious consumer of media as a means of distracting me from what was happening. For decades, it was easy for me to burn through anything I was engaging with but it was honestly very rare for me to consume anything that left a true impact.
And yes, this includes the plentiful amount of webcomics that I was reading that was made from other people.
Karl Marx said that Religion was the Opium of the People. As much as everyone wants to insist that this was him being condescending, it was actually done from a deeply empathetic understanding that Life fucking sucks and people need something bigger to believe in. It feels even more profound to consider this right now as I’m writing this considering how Religion is on the decline globally as we see a dramatic increase of Celebrity Worship as we all have become more Online and Logged Into Social Media. We’re all so desperate for this sense that the suffering will end. If we get enough followers – enough likes, enough reblogs – we’ll find ourselves in the heaven that we see the upper echelon residing in daily.
It’s not really a possibility to achieve in reality, though. This is where it feels a bit like Media and Entertainment has replaced Religion in a lot of ways. It’s totally possible that it’s always been in the same space, honestly. I mean if you ever grew up Catholic, the entire thing is a bit of a charade isn’t it? There’s so much pomp and circumstance that it is – in it’s own right – a form of entertainment. It’s something that makes it easy to miss going to Church every Sunday Morning. It’s a procession that breaks up the doldrums of day to day life that gives you a sense of pause where you get to listen to someone Read from A Book to you that helps you believe that maybe something – maybe everything – will get better if you just keep coming back Every Single Sunday.
But at someone who isn’t particularly religious, I can say that Media and Entertainment has taken that place for me. Not in the “seeing what I consume as God” kind of way, but in the “this helps give me a sense of pause to process, mediate and think about the endless sea of possibility if I just let myself keep believing”.
It’s a bit of a depressing thing to say out loud but really, if you’re in the game of any form of Entertainment, it’s a bit of a farce you need to genuinely be willing to buy into, otherwise why the fuck would you feel motivated to keep doing it every single god damn day?
Regardless of the mild underlying cynicism, I can’t say that it also hasn’t been working. It feels weird to say but I have found myself far more inspired by my own writing. I’ve never re-read anything I’ve written before (and I can’t stress enough how grateful I am for the input of E and everyone else that I’ve been showing what we’re doing to because their input has been invaluable), and honestly? I’ve also never been so god damn driven to create change in my own personal corner by sheer virtue of what we’ve been creating.
It’s with this realization that I’ve come to understand that I’m slowly becoming my Number One Fan. Not in an egotistical kind of way, but in a “this is clearly feeding a part of me that’s been starving for an incredibly long time to be heard and seen” kind of way. Not feel heard and seen because there’s been a ton of shit over recent years that made me feel that way. I mean actually being heard and seen, and it’s been in and it’s right humbling to achieve.
I’m not letting myself off the hook with this one in any capacity. Not because it’s a punishment, but because I’m really getting why people – in spite of the literal fucking bubonic plague – would be willing to go and see one of Shakespeare’s plays. I’m also starting to understand that in spite of poverty and I’m sure even in my own right to some degree illiteracy, I’m finding a need to keep reading and re-reading everything that I write.
I think it’s because in spite of life and the miseries that it’s offering me, what I’m creating is actually able to compete.
And I think…
it’s actually…
Winning.
The ReLecturering – Part Two
I consider myself competitive but I also, at the end of the day, consider myself my number one competition. Maybe it’s because I’m incredibly Virgo but it’s very difficult for me to understand what I’m capable of if I’m forced to stare at what everyone else is doing. Why? Because usually the moment I start looking at other people, I start picking what they’re doing apart (not to be a dick but because I just want to understand what they’re doing) and then I get distracted from what I should actually be doing because inevitably it leads me astray from what I even want to be doing to begin with.
I also consider myself my number one competition because I do have a pretty fucking shit life and have lived a pretty fucking shit existence so if I can actually get myself to care about what I’m doing enough to commit then that’s usually considered a pretty high win.
This is also coupled with the fact that I was officially diagnosed with ADHD in 2016, so with all of those factors put into one person, I’d say that I’m a pretty good benchmark to figure out whether or not something is even worth acknowledging longer than five seconds because of the fact that I am, in many ways, just trapped in Life and the reality of it’s Misery.
I also feel like I need to stress the importance of the input of E and everyone else who we’ve been showing what we’ve been doing to because I am the only person out of the entire circle that is actually rooted in a creative industry in any capacity and that’s the way I like it. It was actually a few weeks ago when diving through my first Serious Professional Blog(spot) that I found a post that I had made back in 2008 that I will not be linking to but if you’re smart enough, I’m sure you can find it, that talks a lot about my perspective on Creativity, Critiquing and the Coddling that we accept in creative spaces.
And honestly? That shit still fucking tracks.
One of my worst nightmares as a creative professional is being trapped in a bubble where everyone tells me that what I’m doing is good (enough). Not because I’m a glutton for punishment but because eventually, my work is going to have to leave that bubble and will be met faced to face with reality … and my bank account will definitely end up suffering.
Because at the end of the day, if I (and you, or anyone else who may be reading this) have made the decision to move into a creative industry for a living, then your job is to not be coddled, nor is it to be told that you are great and amazing.
Your job is to entertain.
And the best way to find out if it’s entertaining is put it in front of the eyes of the kinds of people who it will likely entertain (i.e. people not in creative industries or “Normies” as so many creative people seem to be really attached to using these days which is fucking weird but I guess if you’re allergic to making money then keep popping off at the people who ultimately own your bank account).
But also… I’m kind of a Normie.
For most of my working experience, I worked in office jobs because of the hurdles I encountered with getting into the (many) industries. I’ve also had to have some sort of “normal” day job in order to support myself for other reasons because of how ultimately tumultuous creative industries tend to be. Despite what people might think, no – just “making comics” or “animations” or “art” doesn’t make you a professional and nor does it constitute as having broken into the industry.
Actually making it into the industry means you’re getting actually paid to do what you’re already doing and that’s an incredibly hard hurdle that people struggle with jumping over because of how oversaturated and hyper-competitive the entire market tends to be.
Ultimately, I like to hold onto my “normie” side because that’s the side of me that actually wants to have a life and make a living so that I can do things like eat good food, go to concerts and not feel shackled to my desk indefinitely trying to prove that whatever I’m doing will make the world a better place if you just pledge $50 to whatever the fuck it is I’m currently crowdfunding.
As I finish up this second part of my lecture, I’d like anyone who for whatever reason has decided to take the time to read through this to understand that this is the standard and expectation that I’m setting for everything that I’m creating.
While the previous chapter of my creative career would like to say otherwise, I’m actually a pretty miserable human being for a multitude of reasons. What few joys I have in life mean a lot to me because life has taught me how not only fragile that is but how terribly fleeting they can be. So when I say that something’s good enough and ready to go, it’s because it’s found a way to make the “normies” in my life – including me – happy. That somehow it’s managed to successfully entertain them (and me) in a way that makes them (and me) want more.
And that’s about it?
Which is also part of why I struggle to say that I’m an expert on anything because the only true marker for expertise is whether or not Rage Quit Ink – when everything is all said and done – is successful. That success will not be defined today because I’m also a stickler for making sure that everything is up to standard before we move towards finishing anything up and tossing them in the online store. Instead, it’ll honestly be defined on my death bed as I draw my last breath and – in true Virgo fashion – wonder if I didn’t actually spend the entire time futilely trying to give my life meaning through work that I decided was worth committing to.
I hope that as that last breath is drawn, the answer is yes.
But for now – Let’s talk about comics (or rather – OGNs)
The Rework – Part 4
What triggered this.
I honestly have no idea.
Every other rework post has been pretty chill. I even have the proof:
See? They’ve all done without me lecturing. For some reason, though, something about this latest rework that is just getting my goat in just the right way that I started huffing and puffing pretty intensely through my nostrils and felt like I had to open up the Pandora’s Box that is the place that I keep my opinions for the whole world to see.
Honestly?
It’s probably because of this fucker – Briar.
Briar is annoying. He’s also one a villain in the story. But also he’s just really fucking god damn annoying. If he were to have a VA, it’d probably be Mark Strong. Not as a knock to Mark Strong but because there’s a certain way that he’s able to talk that has the perfect level of Smarmy Bullshit that encapsulates Briar perfectly that this is the only kind of voice that I can hear when his face is the face I have to say (just with a slightly softer British Accent which is even funnier because no one in this story is meant to be British but Briar is just that kind of fucker that he needs to feel special when he speaks).
SHE IS THE END is a project that we hadn’t really looked at seriously in several weeks. Our attention has just been on Rage Quit Ink and figuring out what we’ll be doing, so we were able to get some healthy distance from the project overall. Then, I re-opened Page 22 and 23 since they’re the last pages before we dive into the fight scene and honestly wanted to scream.
Why?
Because in their current state, they’re just really fucking sucking.
The only way to describe it is that these pages are pretty guilty when it comes to having poor “Comics Hygiene”. For one, the lettering is just god awful (which I already knew about but I’ll get to that), but two they’re just awful in terms of really telling the story successfully.
Both SHE IS THE END and Catalyst Overdrive are the two projects we have right now we the longest page counts per episode at 44 pages each while Time for Luna and Timing’s A Witch both have 24 pages each. Both SHE IS THE END and Catalyst have their own hurdles for this reason because they’re longer and are therefor more fragile when it comes to keeping the story entertaining. The longer something goes, the easier for you to start rambling and…
SHE IS THE END Is veering towards rambling. And it’s not only in terms of dialogue, it’s also just in terms of the overall storytelling.
I think this is part of why Briar was such a trip up. The dude doesn’t really stop fucking talking.
He’s grandiose in his self-righteousness, is outright condescending and to be perfectly honest, the moment he’s allowed to take up any space on the page, he just immediately starts to overtake everything.
The biggest issue for this is on page 23 because that’s where he’s allowed to start talking (before he’s forced to stop talking). But in looking at that page, suddenly I could start seeing where everything was doing a fuck ton of rambling which isn’t necessarily the story’s fault because pages 20 to 23 are huge storytelling moments where we get a look at the backstory and why any of this is even happening.
This put me (and us honestly) in a position to really start considering how can we balance communicating important information – both visually and in writing – without it getting fucking god awful boring.
For this post, I’m only going to focus on pages 22 and 23 because those were the only ones I was able to handle dealing with. So let’s talk about what makes them guilty of sucking.
The culprits in question.
Page 22 is confusing
This page is important, actually. A lot is happening that sets up the second half of this Episode and is ultimately setting up the entire god damn story. What the page should do – when successful – is communicate a few things. 1.) How kind of off their rocker the Oté as a people are (Selenia, included but that should have been shown earlier in the Episode), 2.) Uzeth really is just that bitch that everyone is willing to kill for (literally), C.) Selenia is not safe within her perceived community and 5.) Briar is a dick. I mean if I had done my job correctly, you should have known he was a dick on Page 1 (literally), but this is supposed to be the moment that seriously drive that shit home energetically.
And I’m going to be honest – I’m not really getting that here. Like I am, but also not really. So here’s what’s missing.
Visual Clarity
Overall, I’d consider this a page that has a lot of Tight Paneling due to how much information needs to be conveyed both visually and through dialogue. That means that I really have to make the most out of every single inch that I’m given on this page in a way that helps make it clear – even at first glance – what the reader is supposed to be getting.
As the primary Creator on the project, if when I look at something, I’m finding myself confused over what’s happening then there’s absolutely no way in hell that I should expect anyone else to because it’s my job to make sure that I’m doing a good job communicating everything.
One of the things I do if I find myself feeling insecure about my coloring is just flip everything to Black and White and see what’s happening. This is the easiest way to figure out if there’s issues with the contrast or framing of everything and this page has got a lot of issues.
For one, there are a number of characters in heavy silhouette that is done to frame them as a threat to Selenia but due to how muddled everything is in terms of values, those silhouettes get lost entirely. This includes Briar’s presence in Panel 6 where he’s just given the same kind of lighting as everyone else which doesn’t make him read as being particularly threatening. All it does is give him the same level of importance as everything else on the page which isn’t really helping any part of the story. It does help that he’s bigger and that he’s breaking framing, but he really just comes off as just another character on the page rather than a threat like he’s supposed to be. Part of that definitely has to do with posing but we’ll get to that shortly.
What I will say is that there is some interesting framing happening with lighting. Like Panels 3 and 4 are relying on using sharp contrast to better direct the eyes in terms of what’s happening but because whatever’s happening in the shadow is so muddled, you’re also missing that whatever’s happening in shadow is just as important – if not moreso – than what’s being lit up by the spotlight.
The other thing that’s an issue is the lettering which I already decided was going to be redone and has been something I’ve been working through this entire time, it’s just that I was completely aghast to see just how bad it is and how badly it’s in need of relettering.
Lettering has always been a thing with me – and not really in a good way. As I mentioned before, I came in from Animation so I had to teach myself lettering and it was a pretty rough and unforgiving experience in terms of the feedback that I was receiving.
Through the years, I kept learning a lot of the rules around lettering and on this page, I can see how I’m following them… and it’s still not working.
Dialogue and placement aside, the main issue is just the shapes. They’re just a bunch of fucking circles placed everywhere and that makes everything look weird and awkward as hell – especially in contrast to the artwork and coloring.
Contrary to what a lot of the belief may be in comics making as a whole, I genuinely do believe that lettering should work with your artwork. The shapes you use should feel flattering to the work and should feel like they’re a part of the whole picture that’s being presented rather than something that’s done separately. If I had to be frank, the lettering in most comics is part of why I find the medium as a whole off-putting because it’s clear that this is treated as a completely separate skill set and the number of letterers out there that are truly skilled enough at doing what they do in a way that melts into the comic as a whole are actually rare to see. Most lettering (including in SHE IS THE END, honestly), really just looks like someone took sticky tape and stuck everything on top of everything. It doesn’t matter whether or not it flows with the page. It doesn’t really matter if it’s done effectively independently of everything. The only thing that matters is does it work with the final product and the honest answer is that no, it does not.
We took a bit of time and ended up fixing a lot of the issues. It’s definitely closer to what both E and I would consider complete and is definitely closer to making me happy.
Ignore Briar here because he’s his own thing that I’ll be talking about shortly but we both decided to just get rid of a lot of the weird gradient on the shadows and embrace the idea of Shadows vs. Lighting so that everything can actually read clearly.
When it came to Briar, he just reads as a character who has the personality of a plank of wood here and don’t get me wrong – he’s supposed to be Stiff and Stuffy, but that’s supposed to be his personality and there are far more effective ways to communicate that then to make his characterization this wooden.
We ended up changing Briar’s body language to make it clear that not only is he completely high on his own bullshit, but he’s also clearly starting to get high at the prospect of getting to kill Selenia. While we’re still working on the lighting for his panel overall, we’re definitely moving in a direction that makes it clear that he’s moving from out of the shadows (that we can see him walking through in Panel 4) in to the light to show his now role that he’s going to be playing in the story – or at the very least the role that he’s looking forward to owning.
We also ended up deciding to make Panel 3 bigger because there was just no need for everything to be that small. The focus in this panel was supposed to be Selenia being confused/horrified and the secondary focus was supposed to be the two tertiary characters sneaking up behind her and with how small it was before, it was getting completely lost – especially with how much dialogue was originally on that page.
Which… speaking of –
DIALOGUE
The last thing that needed to be dealt with on this page was the dialogue and it’s placement for the lettering. There’s a lot that’s happening visually at the bottom of the page while a lot of the top part of that page has a hell of a lot of breathing room in terms of dialogue placement… For no real reason. We ended up moving some of the dialogue from the bottom half of the page to the top half to better drive home the absurdity of everything.
This shift also left a lot more breathing room in the bottom half of the page so it felt less overwhelming to the reader which – surprisingly – left room for how overwhelming this is for Selenia to be experiencing to actually come through.
The end result of all of this just makes the page read a lot less mess, a lot more fluid and in turn – makes it easier for the gravity of the situation to come through on the page without it feeling like the reader needs to read through every single word that’s being written. We’re also definitely ditching Ovals/Circles for the dialogue and going without more rectangular shapes to add better contrast to my artwork which is already naturally very fluid/fluffy.
When it comes to my artwork and the kinds of stories that we’re writing, there is admittedly a bit of a mismatch happening. For one, it feels painfully obvious that I have a background in Animation with how naturally expressive and fluid everything I draw comes out, but considering how heavy, complex and dark a lot of our stories are supposed to be, there’s a lot of that seriousness that can get lost if we rely too much on making our lettering something that would be seen as traditionally appealing. Making the lettering a lot more angular makes it easier for the gravity of what’s going on and being spoken about to come through – including anything that’s meant to be threatening.
We’ll also probably tweak the size of the lettering since it is a little big, though that may also be a left over from me working on something that’s more YA and less adult focused.
Intermission
Oh my god you’re still reading? Well, I hope you got up and stretched because we’ve still got a whole assed other page to get through, so go ahead and take your breather so we can get through this thing.
Page 23 is Underwhelming
It’s not necessarily it’s fault, though. In a lot of ways it’s Briar’s, but also it’s in part due to the set up that happened for Page 22.
When it comes to Comics/Graphic Novels/Whatever else you can think of, it’s important to not fixate on any one Page/Panel/Etc in isolation. The goal is to make sure that when everything comes together, it reads clearly, effectively and does what it’s supposed to be doing which is telling the fucking story.
Page 23 has The Panel on it that I’ve been fixated on for a very long time. I was pretty damn proud of it. Especially with how I drew Selenia’s shoe.
Look at this thing and be in awe.
But that’s the issue. The story isn’t about this one singular panel (even if it’s therapeutic in so many ways). The story is about Selenia making it out of everything that’s happening with her fucking life.
And you… kinda don’t really get that here even though this is where it’s very clear that her life really is on the line and there is no turning back.
At first glance, it just reads as a lot of smart assery, then someone loses their head and then ooooooooo close up with BLOOD. How EDGY.
I mean, if nothing else it’s clear that I grew up Anime which is definitely something I want people to get out of my work but that shouldn’t be the focus, nor should it be the selling point.
The Focus and Selling Point should be whether or not I’m good at telling the god damn story.
That’s it.
This is where SHE IS THE END and Catalyst get tricky because things start to turn in the middle of the first episode (as things do), and for SHE IS THE END, it needs to shift from being Selenia being pretty chill to shifting into kill mode to make it out alive.
This is also where Briar being the pain in the ass as a character comes through because he’s not particularly interesting as a character and yet somehow, he’s monopolizing everything in a way that just makes everything about this read incredibly tedious and annoying. To be honest, the attack reads more like Selenia saying “Shut the ever living fuck up” (which same, honestly), instead of her essentially defending herself because she knows that there’s only one way that she’s going to be able to leave.
Similar to Page 22, it’s also got that same issue with the lettering. Just… a whole lot of bubbles up top and not much happening at the bottom which throws off everything:
Technically speaking, the lettering isn’t bad here. It does the thing that comic book lettering is supposed to do which is lead the eye across the page to what’s happening but it’s also just boring, jarring and honestly pretty god damn annoying.
In fact, upon looking at this again, it almost reads like Selenia’s just getting her feelings hurt and that’s it. Like the revelation that the other Star Eaters (which you’ll find out what those are further into the story) have been carelessly sacrificed in order for the Oté to have their new chapter makes her go 8__8 and then she… kills something?
How boring.
I like stories that have a lot of weight and gravity to them and sometimes that’s incredibly hard to communicate – especially in a visual medium. Not because of the lack of options but because of the seemingly endless sea of possibilities.
One of the things that I’m pretty obsessed with is lighting as a tool to bring focus and establish the mood of what’s happening.
I don’t consider myself a film buff by any means and while I want to turn my nose at everyone about how I took film classes in college, that was well over a decade ago so really – what kind of pedestal would I be putting myself on to rely on such archaic experiences to use to lord of everybody?
Regardless, one of the things that I always find myself thinking about is how lighting can establish a mood and that definitely has to do with how old Black and White movies used to handle things including none other than the That Dude himself – Hitchcock.
If I had to be honest with you, this is part of why I love older media – this includes animation. The restriction of the media that they were working with forced them to think creatively in order to communicate their ideas effectively. They didn’t have computers and the kind of technology that we have now to “push” the boundaries of what was possible.
The only boundaries that they were able to really push was the ones that existed within their own minds and this is truly the peak of creativity for me. Not Hitchcock specifically. Just literally anything that was made and produced before 2000 if I had to be honest since there was so much restriction in what they could do in the material that the only way such amazing things could be done is if they chose to expand themselves mentally, emotionally and I wouldn’t even be surprised if in a lot of ways that included spiritually.
I know I’ll never be on the level of the Old Greats (or at least that’s not up for me to decide), but I can definitely take the time to look at what they did because they made rules that everyone can easily turn to when they need to figure out how to communicate something effectively.
ANYWAY – In the context of SHE IS THE END, lighting is kind of everything – at least for this first Episode. This whole entire sequence takes place on a stage in front of a crowd where they can literally control the lighting and – in turn – the focus of what’s happening. While I don’t know these characters personally, I’d like to think that the Oté are just that fucking extra that they really would have someone working backstage adjusting the lighting to try and better add drama because this is – in many ways – their own form of entertainment. This is where the idea of making the lighting shift on the stage play a greater part.
It already gets established visually in pages 24 and 25 that the light around Selenia has been tightened to make her easier for targeting. Even mentally speaking this is a bit of a fucky thing to consider because if you’ve ever worked on stage, you’ll know that being under the spotlight will obscure your capacity to see what’s happening outside of what’s being lit up which ups the stakes to consider for Selenia, how she’s thinking and her survival mentality.
So on this page, we went with a pretty strong Fuck It mentality and just owned that in full to include in the narrative so it doesn’t seem like the lighting is changing arbitrarily.
Things like this are part of what make Visual Storytelling exciting for me. Here is a story being told about someone who thought that she and her people wanted a new beginning but for some reason their obsession with finding a way to avoid truly releasing has manifested in a literal performance while she just wants to live her god damn life. It’s as if their inability to accept simply living was so horrifying to consider that they needed to make something unnecessarily contrived to exist to better reflect their sense of self-importance.
This panel is small and simple but I genuinely enjoy everything that it’s saying in the context of everything. Like yes, the head cut off panel is great but this panel in a lot of ways is better to me because you can see Selenia (and Rexie) realizing that this craziness is really happening and they are going to be forced to start taking things seriously – despite it’s absurdity.
Then – there’s Briar.
I sweat to god this character just exists to Try Me which is a funny thing to say because I made him up to begin with.
The biggest hurdle here was just trying to figure out how to make him seem menacing and less like the joke that I honestly see him as whenever I think about writing him.
This is ultimately where using camera angles and framing helps a lot. One of the things I realized that happens on this page is that things just get pretty redundant on the first half. We see Briar and Selenia standing off just from different angles – in front of and from behind the curtain. If I were to choose one, I’d go with the one where we see them from behind the curtain because that’s just far more impactful than just watching them standing there – talking.
After a lot of rolling ideas in my head, I remembered that there’s a whole other character in this scene – Hami. And she’s just… watching. And doing… nothing.
Except standing witness to what she’s helped orchestrating.
We ended up pulling her into the frame and bringing her as a focus because that panel was meant to feel profound and there is something truly profound about watching a character just… watch someone get killed. For no reason. Other than that’s what she decided that’s what she should be doing.
Another reason why I like this personally is because we see this happening a lot in the following pages.
There is a deeper meaning for it, but ultimately Hami – despite how deeply not serious she seems to be overall when you first meet her, she does actually have a lot of opportunities for character growth that happen between the beginning and the end of everything. Because despite how glittery and flower she may seem, she really is thinking. And processing. And Understanding.
And all of that has gravity.
The last thing to tackle was Briar himself. Again. Because he does get his head cut off so I guess we needed to show him at some point in time doing something other than running towards dying.
In contrast – Briar is actually not that deep about anything even if he wants everyone to believe otherwise. He’s just a menace and not even in a fun and entertaining way. He wants everything to work out for him, only cares about what he gets out of everything and is willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
Luckily he’s kind enough to say that to us which makes my job a bit easier so here’s him just flashing a menacing grin because I really do believe in working smarter – not harder.
Look at him being menacing. I can hear Mark Strong’s voice reading those lines as we speak.
Speaking of, that’s the other thing. His lines needed to be cut down so badly it’s not even funny. As much as he’s supposed to be a real blow hard, we don’t want reading anything coming out of his mouth to actually feel that tedious and boring. That’s basically how you guarantee reader drop off and despite me being a pretty bitter person, I do want people to enjoy what I’m doing because I do believe it has a lot worth offering (at least it has so far for me).
There are a lot of ways to get that across without giving him a massive wall of dialogue that honestly reads pretty redundant in terms of what he’s saying vs. what’s already been revealed on the previous page. The only thing really missing in terms of information that needs to be delivered is Why Selenia, why not any other Star Eater, and why is this even a thing that’s happening?
Luckily, we have Briar who was literally volunteered himself to deliver this information to the reader before he makes his very prompt exit from the story (at least in this Episode).
After all of that being put together, this reads as a much stronger page. The absurdity of what’s happening is provided better framing, Hami as a character is given more room to let the reader become curious about the role that she’s playing in all of this, Briar gets to let the whole world know that he’s a massive pain in the ass who is full of his own shit and…
Selenia starts to learn what it means to start really winning.
Okay! I’m done talking.
And there you have it! The updated version of page 22 and 23, and all it took was you being forced to listen to me lecturing you about how I’m not settling for making something boring because really… life is too short and filled with too much misery to be guilty of such a pathetically feeble sin.
You can check out SHE IS THE END as it gets worked on in our OGN Previews.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
~ Dre
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