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.
Title page
So I like this idea of Danny being tied up by blood ropes. I have used it in a few promo images for Sorcery 101 in the last few years. The red and teal are the same colors I used for Enemies 2. Since this is a big chapter and is sad I wanted to tie it to a previous chapter where Danny was crushed by Seth.
page 1358 – 1360
This is where influence from Joss Whedon shows the most. Cause here is a nice happy scene before something terrible happens. I also put in some info about what lead to Danny and Jackie’s divorce. There have been hints that Danny did some scummy things before his marriage ended. Sleeping around was one of them.
page 1361 – 1366
Both these scenes are mostly set up and exposition needed for the end of the chapter. Aaron and Loki’s meeting with Kira also makes it more obvious how much power Asagi has. The order is made of Asagi, Suryu, Frost and a woman named Lilandra, who were all turned by the first vampire. The rest of the Order was turned by Asagi. So votes usually go in his favor. Also her computer business is to go against the stereotype of vampires being associated with older things and I always like it when powerful character have their own things going on.
Pat still not very good at teaching earth spells. Also, I wanted to make it clear through Pat why Cassia is going to jump Brad and Ally. Basically, no one who knows about the supernatural will buy the suicide angle.
page 1367 – 1373
So this whole fight is basically how someone weaker than Seth can get the better of him if they are prepared. Note that Aaron very reloads the gun because he knew he wouldn’t have time because of Seth’s speed. I liked choreographing the fight and thinking how Loki and Aaron keep switching back and forth on who attacks Seth. But Seth focuses on grabbing Aaron cause he’s the weakest. It was all fun to draw. That is the end of Seth’s coat but he’ll probably get a new one.
page 1374 – 1381
When Seth comes up to Danny, he’s still got a hole in his shirt from getting shot because I wanted it to be clear that he has been on the move since his fight with Aaron and Loki. This scene I also wanted to establish that since Danny know what Seth is up to now, they are a little more balanced powerwise. However, Danny also realizes that this is a case where if Seth’s in trouble, he’s in trouble. We also get to see Seth drive for the first time.
Ally and Brad’s scene is mostly about getting them in place for their finale.
page 1382 – 1389
Cars are hard to draw. Clearly artist me did murdered writer me’s parents and needed to be punished. This maybe didn’t come out exactly as planned. It was cooler in my head. If I wasn’t judging this Misfits of Avalon, I could have spent more time to make these pages work better. But they turned out okayish. I like Danny’s screaming face on page 1383. I also liked thinking of the actually effects of Seth’s bad driving such as Danny throwing up and Seth going out the window. That is the end of Danny’s porche. He won’t be buying a new one.
I always think about show don’t tell and I wanted to save the explanation for how Seth can go in sunlight for a late reveal. It’s also why neither of them flat out say it’s Seth’s pendent. But I had Seth burn his hand a little to visually make the point clear. It’s the last bit of given Danny a more even playing field before I kick all his happiness out from under him. Like Seth is still stronger, Danny now knows Seth’s biggest secret and Seth can’t control him. Seth can still threaten him but Danny can respond by not doing what Seth wants. So I’m making Danny feel pretty cocky for a guy who’s car just got totaled.
page 1390 – 1392
Cassia stays in shadow cause the sunlight will burn her up. Her hand is shaking because I wanted it to be clear how upset she is. And Brad’s wound smokes after getting grazed by the first shot to show it’s silver. Some folks must of missed that because I got some comments along the lines of “how can a shot to the gut kill Brad if a shot to the chest didn’t earlier in his life?” But that detail is why I focused on Ally looking at Brad’s minor injury rather than Cassia’s face. So Brad gets shot pushing Ally out of the way but Ally hits Cassia hard enough to knock her into sunlight. I cut off there because I wanted it open ended until Brad’s funeral.
page 1393 – 1399
I like that Seth sees Loki and Aaron and then immediately makes a break for it. I also enjoy Seth being upside down most of the scene. It made this whole scene which is very text heavy more fun to draw. The amount of text is really clunky at the start of the scene. When Danny hears the news I tired to make him look small. I probably should have done something more interesting with the text as it hits him. Cause the details aren’t super important. I maybe should have faded it out and made it the background. That would have been better.
page 1400 – 1403
This whole exchange between Aaron and Danny I tried to make Danny look small. Also Aaron offers Danny a cigarette as a peace offering to mirror him refusing to give Danny one when they first met. I also tried to make sure that Aaron is sympathic to Danny’s plite. I also wanted to end on Danny’s shocked expression about Brad. I tried to slowly zoom in on Danny as he found out in those last 3 panels.
page 1404 – 1407
This is Brad’s funeral. I had some people who thought it was Danny’s but Brad’s family is at the funeral and none of Danny’s. Also Danny’s a member of the royal family in another country. So his fake funeral is pretty showy. I asked Andrew to pick kinda dull colors for these last few pages, cause sad times. I wanted the first page to have no diolague for the same reason. When things move over to Danny’s new apartment I wanted to make is seem very empty. Any finally the last page is the same layout as the title page for the first chapter.
