Comic Report #113 - It's Time (Patreon)

Okay so today I have a new page to share with you, and there's something big about it that I've been thinking about for a while now.  Before that, though, I just want to make a note that this week will be a comic-only update.  We have made some gamedev progress but it is small little things (colorizing level props) and some big things (new enemy AI behaviors) but it is kind of hot today and I don't do great in the heat so I'm gonna go easy on myself, type up about a comic page and save the gamedev posts for a larger writeup next week.  Game stuff is shaping up nicely, but today let's talk about comics.

On this next page we wrap up the next lead in our big mystery: Nathan Mulgrave, aka Snake-Eye, aka the leader of the Gravekeepers, a bunch of rowdy bullies connected to one of Monday's antagonists.  Lizzie and Alice were elsewhere while Monday and Lou had their encounter with the Gravekeepers, so while they might know they're kind of shitty they don't have first-hand knowledge of it.  So the first panel is Lizzie's assessment of Nate Mulgrave, that's he's not the confirmed culprit but he's the most likely to know how one of Ethel Mulgrave's books ended up beneath a seat in the bus wall of Tombstone and thus form the final link in the chain.  Also, it's noted, that he seems particularly dangerous, so he needs to be handled with care.

Moving on from here, Marty Mulgrave apologizes for the interruption, and Liz and Alice take the opportunity to get out of his hair.  Marty seems like a good guy, and as a friendly fan of literature he's a good long-term contact for someone like Lizzie to have in the post-world land of Tombstone.  The Scarlet & Herringbone clue ended up leading to forming a new friendship with Lou's boss.  If you're stuck in one place it's nice to know who else you're sharing a community with.

The third panel is the fun one here.  Moving on from their meeting, Lizzie and Alice head home, and in the time they've been talking to Marty, a couple little flakes of snow have started to drift down from the sky.  It's late November in the comic at this point a couple hints of winter finally show up in Dead Winter.  This is sort of me introducing a weather change for Reasons but also because I'd like to try painting Tombstone in different ways instead of the same way all the time, so a little bit of snowdrift in the corners here and there might look really nice in the scenes to come.  Lizzie seems happy about the snow, Alice less so.  They can expect to see more of it in the pages to come.

Panels four and five are establishing shots of Lizzie and Alice heading home through Tombstone. I want to paint pretty angles instead of head-height shots of the characters walking, so this is my way to compress time in a way that seems fun to paint.  There's space here for Lizzie to monologue internally about her investigation, about what Nate Mulgrave means about "stay home tomorrow" and how she could best handle that.  What did he mean by "one more job"?  Is that connected to Sheriff Tanner?  What can a nurse and a waitress do without getting themselves killed?  

Whatever he's alluding to might be happening during working hours, or early in the morning, and Lizzie and Alice just pulled a late-night operation the night before.  So the last panels here set up their plan for handling whatever may be coming: actually get some rest so they can set an alarm, hit the town early and try to figure out what Nate Mulgrave is up to before it comes to fruition.  

The very last panel here is an allusion to page 545, when Lizzie was coming home alone and her cat was there to greet her, only this time Lizzie and Alice are coming home together.  It kinda unifies the two as a pair, but mostly I think it's a cute way to close out the page.  It's always nice to feature Mr. Cuddles in a shot.  

Anyways, that's it for today.  I'm trying to keep the story moving forward as it shifts into the next big arc, which I've been planning for a while, I just need to get all the pieces in place before I can knock them over.  Thanks for reading!  I'll have more gamedev stuff to share next week, so until then, stay cool and have a nice weekend.