Misfits of Avalon Writer Notes Chapter 17

Page 75 – 79

Sometimes it might be hard to tell Kimber is wearing make up cause of how I tone and draw. It would have been more obvious in a color book. So this scene where it is running down her face is where it’s the most obvious. I also wanted to use to it show she had been crying the whole way over.

Kimber’s upset reaction is not just that Rae used her but also she thinks she should have known better. And looking at Cu’s injuries makes her feel responsible so she take the lead on the grosser bits of helping Cu.

I once again had fun with Elsie’s faces during this scene. Her being grossed out and not looking especially was fun.

page 80 – 84

I wanted to give another round of exposition to clear a few things up before the end. Morgan would be the obvious choice to ask why they should care. And it’s a question that I thought was important because a place they have never seen being threatened isn’t be much of a motive for something like Morgan and it’s a kinda vague reasoning for the reader to relate too.

I tried to make sure visually we could see Cu being protective of the objects with his blood on them, since they are important in the next scene.

The reason for needing to stop Billy/Arthur is sorta a play on how YA stories usually go. Since Misfits of Avalon’s main cast are playing Morgan Le Fay in the story they are technically the villains of a more tradition Arthurian narrative. One thing I noticed about children’s adventure books verse YA verse adult books is the conflict. In children’s adventure books the status quo needing to be preserved is usually the goal. This is because in theory structure/the status quo makes kids feel safe/stable. Obviously that’s not true of all kids, it’s a more general rule. Then when things transition into YA the conflict becomes more about fighting the system or rebelling in some way. Stories that transition from children’s books to teen books tend to have the characters find some big problems in the system they were protecting earlier. Like in Harry Potter how Harry and co go from defending Hogwarts and the wizarding world to learning the ministry of magic is bad news.  Then adult stories tend to go back to defending the system or at least learning the way to work within or get around it. It’s a more jaded way of defending the status quo.

So Billy as the character who would be the hero of the more traditional teen King Arthur narrative wants to change the world. The girls as the “villains” end up defending the status quo even though they aren’t happy with it. But I wanted to make sure they had a good reason for it and giving anyone even someone with good intentions that much power is always bad.

Page 85 – 90Cu telling the girls to kill Arthur here is supposed to be what gets Elsie to finally stop being on Cu’s side. Cu doesn’t turn into a human all this book because I did want to push that he isn’t human and is running on a different set of morals than the girls.

The layout of page 88 I tried to have it mimic Morgan’s dreams in style.

Also this moment at the end is to push Kimber being the youngest again. She is the least equipped emotionally to deal with the more serious aspects. Also, Morgan sorta fleeing the room in the face of Kimber crying and being vulnerable is also something I thought was important. Much like Kimber isn’t used to yelling, Morgan isn’t used to being around people that vulnerable.

Page 91 – 93

I tried to have Elsie coming to meet Kimber’s eyes while comforting her to show Elsie reaching out. The whole time I tried to keep focused on Kimber’s face as she cried. Also while writing her dialog I had her try to cover her feelings for Rae by using we. I wanted the readers attention as much on Kimber’s emotions as Elsie. So they could also maybe forgot briefly that Cu is there.

page 94 – 98

I’m trying to get better at drawing people running and varying the poses more. Having Elsie who is super thin and tall next to a stockier Kimber helped a bit. I probably still could have pushed it more. Do always like drawing Elsie yelling on the phone though. It’s body language that’s fun to draw.

page 99 – 104

I wanted to keep that Billy just being near the turned on rings makes him turn into Arthur. Both Kimber and Elsie act fast to show they have gotten the best rhythm of working together during the series. Much like Cu’s fight with Rae I wanted Cu to appear threatening. A lot of the beats of the fight are similar until Kimber pulls out the blood. She doesn’t know it but she has one up on Rae. I wanted to give her that after Rae’s manipulation.  I also wanted to reward Kimber for paying attention to things better than any of the other characters. Rae might have done a lot of homework but didn’t pay attention to the now much. Cu stops getting the dominating position in the panel layouts when Kimber pulls out the wipe with his blood on it.

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