Words vs Wordless (Patreon)

Let me show you how much more complicated is to make a wordless comic.

The basic punchline of the comic is "Mercy get wrecked".  Human nature find misfortune hilarious and while the punchline is straightforward, many jokes are about the delivery, not about the punchline. Stuff like Ana confused face, or Mercy smug one all counts as part of a good joke. 

Back to making a joke, I decided Mercy new clothes getting ruined will be the punchline, and the 1st thing I need to remember is to show people she enjoys her new suit otherwise they won't see why it getting dirty is a problem. For people who play Overwatch this is natural since people love the new costumes but for someone who don't follow the game they may not know what the fuss is about.  It's very easy to assume all readers out there are in tune with the game you play and will catch every reference, and this is just not true.

With some wordplay I can easily TELL she cares about the new clothes. After the value of the clothing is show, it's just a matter of choosing how to ruin it, with poor Ana as the escape-goat this time.  

All in all, a pretty simple comic, specially because I recycle the 1st panel on the 2nd so this is pretty much a 2-panel comic in terms of workload. Some people shun the idea of re-using panels but this is a one-man show and I take the shortcuts I can, specially if they don't impact the delivery.

Now, when I go wordless, things get complicated. I can't tell the clothing is fancy, I need to SHOW it, so I create an extra panel just to show Mercy appreciation of the new skin. It did not help I choose to use an mirror which made me spend more time on this panel than on the rest of the comic. Basically, this wordless comic took me twice the time and effort than the regular, worded one.

And today is a new day and I need to make a new one, plus Patreon pics, practice, chores and whatnot. Sometimes, there is just not enough time, energy and / or creativity for me to do those.

This said, I think the wordless version has a better flow. I have room to show the new fancy clothing and it was fun to draw it.