So for this book the chapter titles all come from what the qualities the knights of the round table are supposed to represent. Since this is about Elsie and Billy mostly and Elsie trying to make sure he’s okay, I figured Loyalty was a good fit.
page 1 – 7
I liked writing this scene because it’s basically Elsie deciding who to yell at. Also, I wanted to show how bad Billy is hurt even though he’s getting up and moving. Laughing hurts. Probably everything hurts. I also liked putting in all the tiny panels Elsie thinking things over.
Also, once Elsie tells Billy to the keep the necklace, I tried to keep Morgan seperate from them. Through out this whole book there are moments where Morgan feels more isolated but doesn’t say anything. And Billy and Elsie having sibling rough housing time like she’s not there is part of that.
page 8 – 13
I thought I’d forget the helmet if it was just on the table. Elsie wearing it is more fun. Also, Kimber doesn’t know Elsie before this story so while explaining stuff to her was a good time to spell it out that Elsie’s dad is dead.
I like how Elsie’s hands came out when she says “We still need to find Cu though.” Same with Elsie slumping over in defeat on page 10.
Also like in the scene before Elsie switches from attacking to defending once she gets a new info. I liked drawing everyone’s silent reactions to “she said she’d call.” I used that specifically because of Kimber’s crush on Rae.
Kimber is full of good ideas despite Rae pulling one over on her.
page 14 – 15
Elsie and Kimber are being the problem solvers. This scene I wanted them all to put a little bit of info together. Kimber’s got most of it. Morgan has her dream. And Elsie connects the two.
I wanted Kimber and Elsie to focused on Billy while Morgan has another tiny moment to think about what she doesn’t have. If you can’t read it the note from Kimber’s mom says her where she is, that she left Kimber money to order take out, and a reminder that Kimber needs to make a hair appointment. Kimber reading this note would probably find it annoying because of the hair bit and calling her Kimmy, but Morgan doesn’t know that Kimber and her mom always fight about those things. I made sure the most important detail was clear. The “Love Mom”
page 16 – 19
Billy falling unconscious before he changes is partly to show why he doesn’t remember anything. He just blacks out and wakes up in a different place.
Also, now that he’s helmet less I wanted a visual indicator of who was in control. Removing the pupils/irises was an easy one.
While they are putting things together, Kimber’s being more excited about the fantastical aspects should be clear. How she goes to enthusiastic to a little jealous when it comes to all this.
Elsie is the only one watching Billy/Arthur try to escape while Kimber and Morgan talk about Morgan’s dream. Since she has fallen out of her chair a bunch she knows he’s gonna fall over before he does.
Page 20 – 23
This is mostly an exposition dump and also some insight into Arthur’s motives since they are not Billy’s. But Elsie and Arthur’s little “am not” “are too” is to show Billy is still in there somewhere.
Arthur’s motive is something I wanted to be kinda vague but still well intentioned. Each detail of what he thinks it wrong is also something that could be paired with each member of the team that is there. But I also left out Arthur’s plan to fix things because he doesn’t really have one. In old King Arthur stories Arthur doesn’t really have much of a plan either. He just replaces a several smaller fighting kings with himself. There wasn’t much of a game plan for after.
page 24 – 28
Elsie was paying the most attention to Arthur’s fidgeting so she’s the first to act. Also since Kimber’s yard is still wrecked, I wanted the characters to comment on it. Kimber definitely got a talking to after her parents saw the yard. Morgan and Elsie haven’t been too worried about property damage cause they never had these magic fights in their house.
The fights in this whole book were ones I tried to make not pretty. Know of these characters are trained to fight. So there is a lot of while pushing Elsie away Arthur’s fingers get in her mouth. Elsie hit Arthur where he’s hurt while gripping his wrist in a way that someone trains could get out of. I wanted it to feel like a dirty scramble rather than a movie fight.
Also, since we know Arthur is Billy now I wanted to show much much more invested Elsie is now. So she immediately chases after him.
page 29 – 31
I made it down poring to show visually that awhile as past. I also thought the next fight would work better in the rain. I maybe should have put a few more people on the street though. Ya know, to warrant burrito guy being at his corner.
The Morgan/Elsie phone exchange comes a little bit from real life. When I was in high school my mom used to call to make sure I got home okay at the exact same time everyday. Once I came home and had enough time to get frustrated with something before she called in the middle of me trying to fix it. I answered the phone with “What?” instead of hello and then got a lecture about how to answer the phone.
Morgan continues to be surprised by other people getting cared about. This is kinda another small point to the making her feel isolated list.
page 32 – 36
Here is one of two big scenes where I tried to push the not pretty fights. Also it raining and being slippery and muddy helps. I did some digging to find out how badly Elsie was gonna cut up her hands while playing tug of war with sword. You can hold a sword blade without cutting yourself if you are careful which Elsie never is.
I wanted to have both Elsie and Arthur bleeding by the end of the fight. Elsie doesn’t realize it but she accidentally helped the ritual by crashing through the tree with him. Arthur’s blood needed to be in the middle of the tree and their fight gets both of there blood there.
page 37 – 40
Elsie finishes her rescue of Billy. Morgan tries to help but isn’t needed really. While showing Elsie’s support or concern for Billy, I did also want to push Morgan away from Elsie and Billy. So we end things with Morgan alone in the rain.