Read Sorcery 101 writer notes Chapter 5 part 1

Here is another batch of writer notes on Sorcery 101. If you want to read ahead on these got ahead on these head over to my patreon.

Chapter 5 part 1

Title page

Pretty simple cover again. Mary’s coloring really does most of the heavy lifting here.

In general for this chapter was the one that made me start sitting down and writing out a script. It ran much much longer than I expected. It was originally supposed to only be one part. But it sorta spun out of control.

page 230

And we introduce Cal and Rita. This was originally two pages but there wasn’t much dialog or even mood set by it being that long. So it was safely cut to 1. Cal isn’t being an angsty weirdo who stays up all night. He doesn’t/can’t sleep. So gonna pass the time some how and watching out the window is less creepy than watching Rita sleep.

page 231 – 234

Danny’s second doomed date with Mel. Later Mel says she thought Danny was joking when he talked about weird stuff in his life. You can kinda say why.

And Cal knows EXACTLY what he’s doing. As Ally said later, he used to do this to her A LOT in high school.

page 235 – 236

I always like having ground people react to what the main characters are doing. So poor toy store clerk.

And this is first chapter that have some family back story for a character. I wanted to give each character different levels of interaction with/getting along with their extended family. And Ally’s comes up first because she grew up in super natural stuff. She doesn’t really know anyone that isn’t.

This scene used to include Ally telling Brad they had to go and a joke about Brad not wanting Rebecca to buy a red lightsaber. Those both got cut cause bit too fillery.

page 237 – page 239

And Cal spills the beans on supernatural stuff cause he doesn’t give a shit about humans knowing supernatural stuff is real.

Danny gets a nice bonding moment about with Mel out of it though.

page 240

Rebecca treats King like a younger sibling rather than a dog. It does not always have the best results.

page 241 – 246

Ally ignores a lot of supposed Mage rules that she didn’t grow up with. Rita ignores them too but her’s just resulted in a lack of training rather than fights with Cal.

Cal asking Danny how he can help. I tried to have Cal tower over Danny in the whole scene. Cal is hundred percent correct in his assessment of Danny’s skills. But he just doesn’t want Danny to go cause it taints his mission.

Dialog here got cleaned up a lot. There was too much info dumping that didn’t matter.

page 247 – 250

This is a conversation Ally and Cal have had multiple times. Part of her 0 to snarling with Pat earlier is cause she’s used to this. Cal’s I don’t understand social ques is clearly a lie cause otherwise he wouldn’t know how to get under Ally’s skin so quick.

And that is pure magic in Cal. He doesn’t have any organs. He’s just a wrapper for magic. Making him nearly invincible but he doesn’t eat, feel, have sex, or anything. His presenting gender is determined by the mage he works with closest to. Angels are supposed to take the opposite gender of their mage. So Cal will only present as male while working with Rita and Ally. He worked with Rita and Ally’s fathers before that and presented as female then. In the last chapter with him in it you see him when he can’t construct clothing for himself, there is no belly button, nipples, or genitals.

Also getting blown up by Ally, is easier for him than arguing. Cause as Danny said he grows back, as does what he’s wearing.

page 251 – 253

Ally has quite the temper. It’s no wonder Rebecca hits people.

Those three panels are where Danny says hi to Pat and Pat slams the door are almost exactly the same in the redo and the original. Humor with a small beat in the middle is some of my favorite.

page 254 – 256

Poor Pat. Anyone can just walk into his house.

Also talking Pat into killing some demons is much easier than talking him into a rescue mission. It kinda a hint about his life pre-vampire.

Read Sorcery 101 writer notes Chapter 4 part 5

Here is another batch of writer notes on Sorcery 101. If you want to read ahead on these got ahead on these head over to my patreon.

Chapter 4 part 5

Title page

Fairly straight forward. This part is mostly the fight so it works as a cover.

page 197 – 199

Before the fight I wanted to establish two things that hint at the end of the fight. The first being Suryu’s heals which are gonna be used against Seth. And then Seth being sexually harassing Suryu.

page 200 – 202

I wanted the panels to be kinda off balance during the fight to make things more interesting.

I tried to make it clear Seth is dodging Suryu during the fight but he’s not quite fast enough. Seth is however very good at making people mad at him.

page 203 – 205

Jeff now has all kinds of brain damage. He’ll get better. But he has to stay a werewolf. That last panel of Loki pulling the hair pin out was fun to draw.

page 206 – 210

And we have more of Seth being a sexist asshole to get Suryu mad. He gets a heal in the forehead for his trouble. Then he adds some sexual assault in the mix. So for the second time that night he gets thrown through a wall. Nothing is off limits for Seth.

page 211 – 213

And then we find out that’s his plan. But Suryu is furious so speedy retreat needs to happen. Also I used this to show just how fast werewolves recover.

page 214 – 216

And here is where I set up what is the longest running conflict in the comic, well other than Seth’s dickishness. For the record all the rules of The Order are mostly don’t bring too much attention to yourself rules. And as Aaron’s line implies Seth breaks/pushes these rules a lot.

page 217 – 221

Jeff gets some brief werewolf lessons. Brad’s expression when the cure gets brought up is something I’m proud of. He reaaaaaallly doesn’t want to break the news here. You can tell where Jeff’s priorities in life are (aka sports) when he is cheered up by finding out werewolf stuff will help him make the soccer team.
And while Brad tells him the werewolf stuff Danny was off getting cosmetic contacts and blood.

page 222 – 225

I generally try to show don’t tell. I don’t know how clear it ever was, but vampire powers in general is tied to how they eat. Maybe it’s more clear after Pat is tortured by Suryu and it takes him several chapters to recover compared to Seth’s page or so here.

And Seth continues his tread of doing stuff without giving a shit what others think.

page 226 – 229

So just wrapping things up. Mostly this is dedicated to the running joke about January which is werewolf mating season. This is another thing I would honestly take out if I was starting Sorcery 101 over. I thought it was a funny joke at 19 but it ended up opening a can of worms with a small section of readers that then wanted extremely detailed explanation about werewolf sex. That’s not a thing I ever wanted to focus on. In hind sight, I should have realize that’s where the Internet was gonna take things. Actually, no. You’re never ready for someone to ask you in person at a convention how a werewolf dick works because you didn’t approve their several comments asking about. Yes, that did happen. Just goes to show one of the valuable lessons I’ve learned about writing is to think more about each aspect of a story. Even a small joke. Most of the stuff I’d do differently now has to do with pacing and getting better as a writer. This is like the one thing where I want to change it sololy because of the reader reaction. It alone made me think harder about how I present my comics to people.

There we go. These were all originally drawn in 2006. I redid them in 2012.

Read Sorcery 101 writer notes Chapter 4 part 4

Here is another batch of writer notes on Sorcery 101. If you want to read ahead on these got ahead on these head over to my patreon.

Chapter 4 part 4

Title page

I just used the funnest part of this chapter. Cause Seth getting beat up is always fun.

page 170 – 172

Jeff’s rescue doesn’t go great. Loki and Seth clearly went to the same “How to make a plan” lesson In the original version one of the other wolves (the jerk one with a hat) was the one who shouted for the guard. I changed it to Loki because like Seth is he old/strong enough to just bash in the face of any vampire Suryu has as a lackey.

page 173 – 175

And you get the the panels to make you think Loki and Aaron are betraying our “heroes.”

page 176 – 183

Not much to say. Suryu is pretty quick tempered. Everyone at the party knows to get out of the way. Poor Aaron had the job of getting dealing with her while enraged. She can listen to reason though. She wouldn’t have lived so long if she couldn’t.

Also Mary is wonderful. But she made a mistake both her and I didn’t catch until after the book came out. That’s the vampires all got reflections in the floor.

page 184 – 187

Seth plans are not good plans unless you are Seth.

Seth’s little exchange with Aaron as he walks in is supposed to be one of those lines where it seems like nothing but has more meaning (aka Seth is even more of a dick) if you know their full history. I always like touches like that. Things that mean more on rereading. It’s like that cause I was writing an Aaron becoming a vampire story at the time of the redos. It ended up getting tossed because the second half wasn’t working. By the time I started to figure out ways to maybe fix it, I wanted to move on to other things rather than do more Sorcery 101 side stories. Basically, Aaron was a preacher before he was a vampire. Seth ruined the life Aaron had built for himself, cause that’s what Seth does.

Case in point, how he handles things like this rescue mission.

page 188 – 196

Someone has to check to make sure Jeff is okay. Early on I relied a bit too much on the person who doesn’t know stuff asks questions. I’m trying to not do that so much these days and just let info unfold naturally.

Also when I mentioned cutting back on/regretting the claim on werewolves thing, this scene in practically shows how clumsy it is as a concept.

There we go. These were all originally drawn in 2006. I redid them in 2012.

[Super]Natural Attraction is almost half way funded

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HEY FOLKS! I’m running a kickstarter with my friends Kara and Whitney. It’s called [Super]Natural Attraction! It is inspired by reverse-harem manga like Ouran Host Club and Fruit Basket, but with a slightly darker sense of humor. As of right now it’s about $500 away from half way funded. It needs help spreading the word! So please consider throwing some money at it. The first chapter is only $5!

Persephone was about start her second year of college, when she was tragically killed in a hit and run. Luckily, her eccentric med-student roommate have found a way to “fix” her. She is now returned from the dead with only a few scars as proof it of the incident. 

However, her unique situation allows her to find out her school campus is full of vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, satyrs, and every magical creature from legend. No one else can see their true nature. This makes her a curiosity to the whole new found community and a useful tool to the local monster hunter looking for proof. 

This Kickstarter is mostly to pay Kara and Whitney for the art portion. Below are a few sample pages. 

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pg3

pg4

Read Sorcery 101 writer notes Chapter 4 part 3

Here is another batch of writer notes on Sorcery 101. If you want to read ahead on these got ahead on these head over to my patreon.

Chapter 4 part 3

Title Page

So the original version of Wild Things part 3 was much much longer. So in the redos I broke it up more so each part is the same size as other chapters. So the new chapter title page focuses on the important parts of the chapter which are Seth and Suryu’s meeting and Jeff being a captive. Also this is the first batch of redos colored by Mary Cagle. I asked Mary to take over coloring Sorcery 101’s redos cause coloring is the thing I think is the least amount of fun. I don’t know if it’s just I haven’t had the time to figure out how to do it in a way I enjoy or basically I’m generally unhappy with my own coloring. But either way I doing like it. And redoing pages are already frustrating and discouraging. I don’t think I could have gotten through it if it weren’t for Mary coloring. I basically gave Mary the general palette so they wouldn’t stand out too much. That worked pretty well and there weren’t many corrections the needed to be made through out her pages.

page 136 – 137

Connor is not a good student. Generally, I figure Connor is very smart but very lazy and has lot attitude. So this is the first of many scenes were he butts heads with Danny. This is a very common occurrence

Page 138 – 141

Poor Jeff. He’s scarred for life now. His first wolf night probably couldn’t have gone much worse. The guy wolf in the cage was in the background of the wolf demon fight earlier. Not much really to say beside that.

page 142 – 146

Suryu’s lackeys make their final appearance as Suryu makes her first one. Everything Suryu says about Seth is not true except for the being able to go out in the sun. I spread the scene out over a few more pages to give the art more room with all the dialogs.

I think this is also the first scene where I showed Seth picking at his fingernails. There’s a lot of talking in Sorcery 101 so I tried to give each character a little go to will talking or bored. Obviously Danny’s is smoking. Seth is usually picking at his nails with other nails or with his knife.

Suryu hitting on Seth has not much to do with Seth and more about being shitty to Asagi. I purposely avoid pronouns when Asagi is mentioned so when he finally showed up everything about him would be a surprise.

page 147 – 151

Back to Pat’s dump where Seth just barges in. It gets mentioned later that Pat’s lock is broken, making it easier for Seth to just show up and be an ass. Seth doesn’t ask for anything just demand it.

Then we get some exposition. Plus a little of Pat backstory.

Honestly, I’d leave out the whole auction thing. It’s over complicated and doesn’t come up again. Plus the whole vampire forcing werewolves to be servants is too close to werewolf verse vampires. I’m not crazy about that. And more vampires aren’t strong enough to force a shapeshifter into being their servant anyway.

And lastly Seth doesn’t drive through all of Sorcery 101 until the last chapter.

page 152 – 153

Plan making time and more exposition. I changed the dialog a bit when I redid this scene. I wanted to de-emphasize the whole claim on werewolves thing for similar reasons to why I don’t like the auction bit. It is needlessly over complicated and never comes up again.

I like that last panel of Seth. That smile isn’t reassuring at all.

Page 154 – 157

Everyone learns the full grossness of Seth’s house. Also dialog that is explain why they don’t do things a quicker way or in Seth’s mind a less fun way.

Seth helps thing but also usually makes them worse.

Page 158 – 160

Seth’s patience with Danny is not infinite. Originally, he was choking Danny. But I switched it to pulling his hair back cause that is more demeaning and less life threatening.

Danny could never hope to be as cool as Princess Leia.

page 161 – 163

Seth does his best to make a big badass impressive entrance only to have it completely ruined by Loki.

page 164 – 166

So Loki is about Seth’s age. He’s just a century or so younger. Aaron is closer to Pat’s age. That’s why despite his attention span Seth tells Loki the plan. Also anyone who has read From Scratch knows Aaron, like most people, hates Seth.

And just cause they are vampires doesn’t mean you don’t need a job. Aaron writes trashy porn books. They are mostly about pirates.

page 167 – 169

Suryu is talking to Kira who’s name you don’t get until the end of the series. However, she is in the background of every vampire party. Seth is going to distract Suryu with his dick. It makes for a good distraction.

There we go. These were all originally drawn in 2006. I redid them in 2012.