Comic Report #120.1 - A New Approach (Patreon)

This week I wrapped up some outside work projects and got back to moving the comic along towards the deadline.  I've got a little list on my desk of jobs and commissions I've been scratching off one item at a time, and it's mostly scratched out now, so I feel less under pressure in the moment.  With that said, I've been able to move forward on penciling the next page, so let's hear a little about it as something other than a thumbnail sketch.

I've been building up to being able to work a scene like this for a while.  I think The Kiss Page has been a really pivotal moment in the lifespan of this comic, where a lot of maybe ambiguous threads I'd been weaving finally tied together.  I remember the lead-up to that page and how many people expressed concern that it was building up to heartbreak or tragedy, and how I had to kinda soft-reminder people that, no, it's a happy ending.  It was a happy resolution, and it let me set up scenes like this one, where the pair can be safe and cozy together.  

In the buildup to these pages I'd been thinking about how to properly handle the coziness of Lizzie and Alice getting a moment of rest together.  In the beginning of the comic I was a lot more free-wheeling in what I depicted, but it's been a long time and the tone of the comic has evolved enough that I didn't think that just reverting back to my old standards would be appropriate; it felt like as the comic evolved, its "rules" evolved, so drawing this scene now versus if I drew it when I started, I'm holding myself to different standards.  I didn't want to shy away from portraying the coziness of the scene, however, so I've been trying to find a balance.  I'm also having fun with it, it feels like a little bit of a reward for navigating the story through potential narrative hazards and arriving at this safe port.  It's nice, I hope people enjoy it too.

So, this week coming up is American Thanksgiving, and I'll have to knock a few days off my work schedule to be with family, but I'm shifting from my gamedev tasks into full comic focus.  I expect I should still have this page ready at the usual time, but my work report writeup on Friday may come on Saturday if things run really late from Thursday obligations.  For now, I'm gonna get back to it.  Thanks for checking in, and however you spend it, I hope you have a pleasant week.