Comic Report #32 - A Reunion With Old Friends (Patreon)

Hello again! It was a holiday week but I managed to make both comic and gamedev progress, so I've got two posts to make this week.  I promise you I didn't work all the way through Christmas, the gamedev stuff just didn't take quite as much of the week as it normally does.  I also felt like I didn't want to leave comic-only patrons out in the cold for too long, so here's a look at the next page.

Since the last page was an end-of-chapter shot, the next three pages will be black & white intermissions, which are relatively much, much less taxing on me to draw.  I like to do intermissions because they let me look back at other parts of the world I created and check in on people, to keep all my threads in order. 

This week we'll be revisiting our friends the Sons of Surtr.  When we first met them they were having a pig roast before being rudely interrupted by cops.  After a big musical bike chase the thought was, maybe the pig got ruined? That'd be a big deal, where do you even get another pig to roast in a post-civilization urban garbage zone? That's a lot of work gone if something happened.

I always like drawing the bikers. Growing up my family was connected with a lot of biker culture so I was brought to a lot of those kinds of cookouts, and I have fond memories of them.  The Sons of Surtr reflect that part of my life, and I have a lot of fun writing dialogue between Barry and Terry, the two lead bikers. I sort of write them like a bickering couple, so any chance I have to bring them back I'll gladly jump on.

This page also ties Sixgun Johnny Rhythm back into the timeline. Narratively speaking I tend to only write about Sixgun in the peripherals, on the edge of the story, because I see him as something of a bloodhound.  When the comic arrives at and then departs from an arc, Sixgun comes along later and revisits that scene, following the trail the main characters- and Monday in particular- took through the city. I wanted to tie him into the bikers by having him pop up and make sure the pig roast isn't ruined in their absence. I'm not sure yet what to put in his hands- I have a meat thermometer blocked in- but I need to convey like he's working on the pig. I try to frame his interactions as friendly and amicable but still a looming, predatory threat you won't need to encounter if you cooperate with him, so following the scent of dinner and helping out seems like a good way to win over a bunch of bikers who may or may not have seen who you're looking for.

This week I'll be finishing up the comic page.  It's all black and white inkwork so it shouldn't be that long, I am predicting I'll have a finished, un-lettered page for you before next Thursday.  Have a happy new year!