Behind-the-Scenes: "How I Met Your Coyena Dad" synopsis and breakdown! (Patreon)

Hey friends! I'm starting a new comic for 2024, so my upper tier patrons will be getting their behind-the-scenes look at my process as I go along! I'm going to try to break this information into digestible chunks to share with you on a somewhat regular basis during production over the coming months; as ever, if you have any questions feel free to ask below or hit me up in the Telegram channel!

Warning: Spoilers ahead! I'm glad to share this information with you, but please don't share it with anyone else … and if you don't want the final comic spoiled, you'll probably want to skip these behind-the-scenes bits! XD

Synopsis

Some of you may remember, but for long-format comics, I don't usually work from a script; I prefer to tease out the story's structure and pacing visually first, then write the words to fit later in the process. So for this next story, I jotted down this synopsis a couple months ago:

Intro: The family is gathered for Boreas and Aura’s anniversary. The rest of the family (Zephyrus, Austeria, Eurus, and Notus visiting) ask once again how the two of them met, which they seem a bit hesitant to reveal.

Flash back to their school days at the university. Aura is getting ready to head across campus to her Young Entrepreneurs meeting; her roommate warns her to be careful walking at night; she proclaims she’s a Modern Woman and no man is going to just jump up and be able to stop her.

Meanwhile, Boreas is working late in his lab, studying his chunk of Amasethyst, trying to see what makes it work. After explaining to his labmate the crystal’s origins and what he’s discovered so far, his partner realizes he’s late for a date and rushes out. The door slams, knocking over some equipment and ultimately disabling the shielding around the crystal.

The effects on Boreas are nearly instant; before he knows what’s happening he’s outgrowing his clothes, bumping into the ceiling, and starting to fill the room to its capacity …

Outside, Aura is walking past the science building when the wall suddenly bursts open and a giant-sized coyena bursts out onto the lawn and sidewalk next to her. She’s shocked initially, but Boreas apologizes profusely, and asks if she can help him by turning off his lab equipment before he does more damage to the building. She crawls into the lab, and after one or two false starts causing him to grow a bit larger, she manages to shut off the control panel, and he returns to his normal size. She offers him her shawl to cover himself up with, and when he asks how he can get it back to her, she suggests he return it to her over dinner that Saturday night.

Back at the present-day anniversary dinner, Boreas and Aura look at each other uncomfortable, and announce that they met at a Spin Doctors concert.

Coda: Home alone that night, Boreas remarks he’s still amazed after all these years Aura actually asked him out on a date; she replies that she immediately sensed he had a kind soul, and KNEW he had a sexy body. She then reveals that their oldest son gave them a treat for their anniversary: letting them borrow the amulet for the evening.

Boreas muses how he hasn’t had a chance to “get big” in years, and it would be fun to do it again. But he miscalculates when he tries to use it and gets really huge bursting out the side of the bedroom wall again.

So, that was my original idea! But of course, nothing is final as I continue working the story. Right off the back, I'm concerned that the original Rube Goldberg idea I had with Boreas' labmate slamming the door would be both difficult to convey AND take up a lot of unnecessary pages. At this point I've put a little mental flag on that to come up with something simpler and perhaps a bit more in line with Boreas' character.

Breakdown

The next step is to do my initial breakdown. In order to fit this story into 24 pages, I'll need to think about how to allocate pages to each beat of the story:

I'd originally thought to have a cameo by Branko at the restaurant, but in order to streamline things I'm only allocating two pages for the dinner introduction. One page to flash back to Aura, then three pages to give Boreas some time to explain what he's doing to his labmate (and the reader). Then a comfy five pages for Boreas to grow to fill the lab, two pages for Aura to walk past and for him to explain the situation, four pages for trying to turn the equipment off, and two pages for Boreas to return to normal and Aura to set up their date. Finally, one page to wrap up the framing story at dinner, one page of Boreas and Aura talking after dinner, and then three pages to go out with a "bang" as he tries the amulet for the first time in over a decade.

These page counts aren't necessary final-final, if I run into any pacing problems or think of any better ideas; but at this point I'm pretty certain this'll be close to the final form. We'll see what happens, though, when we get to … thumbnailing!

I'll check in again with y'all soon! Thanks for the support! ❤️