Tag: As We Were

page 76 – 83

This scene is mostly about getting the plot moving to and exposition since we now got something more urgent going on for the climax. All the folks in the bar knew not to talk to the cultists so none of them would have the full story. I told Shazzbaa to make the sorcerer should kinda look like a bit of a sleeze. The redhead is Ally’s sister Shannon. I don’t know if anyone picked up on that though.

The choice is to show that despite Suzzanne’s anger she is listening to Lope. I wanted to force the issue before the end of the book. Her saving Lope is supposed to show that at least for now she is thinking about stuff beyond revenge.

page 84 – 85

Here I wanted to quickly show the gruesome cutting up and keeping of body parts the cultists to push the urgancy of Suzanne needing to save him.

page 86 – 92

Once again I wanted to show Suzzanne be resourceful during her fight. So she acts fast using one of the cultists as a human shield and then locking them in the other room. I also wanted to make sure her fight focuses on getting Lope out rather than harming the cultists.

page 93 – 97

Also Suzanne is once again being resourceful and showing why her and Lope make a good team. She stacks all the stuff up to make Lope’s spell do more damage.

page 98 – 100

So ending things on a nice moment. I wanted to start the scene with the goddess/coincidence discussion/argument they have at the beginning. I thought it would act as a nice bookend.

page 51 – 54

This was another expositiony scene. I have been trying to stay away from these more and more as I write these days. The shopping is mostly to give them something to do while talking. The outfits offered to Suzanne, I told Shazzbaa to do something that would be easily adjusted for different sized Nistans but was also elaborate and more feminine than what Suzanne is used to.

page 55 – 56

These silent pages I wanted to drive home that Lope is home and part of a community here. It’s something Suzanne hasn’t had for a long long time.

page 57 – 61

Suzanne’s mad at everything, even the ground. I wanted to have her take out her frustration at what she is lacking communty wise on something else. I love the face Shazzbaa drew on Suzanne when Lope goes back to is use talk about helping people in need. It’s extra annoying to her now because Lope has a family and community but is choosing to give it up to help people. She had always assumed he didn’t have any connections like this because he was traveling with her. I told Shazzbaa that in those last two panels I wanted a tree or crack in the glass street between Lope and Suzanne as a visually cue of the barrier between them.

page 62 – 70

I love of Shazzbaa draws magic goings on.

The scene that Lope and Suzanne see is for the second half of Love is a Losing Game. I sent Shazzbaa the script of what would be happening in that scene and told her what Danny was wearing since they weren’t drawn at the time. The scene with the fugitive shows him talking to one of the clut members. It wanted it to be picked up on if someone reread As We Were or if they had read Sorcery 101 before this.

The motorcycle vs piece of shit joke is dumb but it still makes me laugh.

page 71 – 75

The random helpful person is a think Lope is super used to. So he completely doesn’t suspect to get grabbed like that after.

Page 26 – 37

So the bulk of this chapter is for showing off where Lope lives. So I tried to put in a bunch of small moments that would help with explain some things about the location and Lope. I also wanted it to not be too clunky and be an info dump. Also, I wanted to show Suzanne’s continued focus on Seth. So as Lope gives her some basics of his home she repeatedly brings up locator spell and Seth.

If I thought the glass street through better I would have realized that it is super impractical and SUPER doesn’t work. Haven’t recently had to walk on an inch of ice covering the sidewalk, it’s a bad idea. Looks cool though.

Them getting food is to also give contrast or a clue to how Suzanne and Lope usually get by. It also lets you know how much easier Lope’s life would be if he stayed home. Shazzbaa likes medium shots a lot. I never told her to redraw stuff, but I did end up sending her a general note of please pull out more often. I like backgrounds. Shazzbaa did a fantastic job with Lope’s expression when he awkwardly changes the topic away from Seth.

page 38 – 41

This argument is basically the main conflict of the whole book. I probably could have made that clearer if I wrote this book now. And I should have gotten to it sooner. Lope’s whole reason for staying with Suzanne is that he is trying to gentle nudge her away from revenge. He means well but it is pretty shitty to not tell Suzanne how long it’s gonna take. I told Shazzbaa to stay on the side of Suzanne that has a scar when she is being demanding toward staying on mission. Ya know, cause of metaphors and symbolism and all that.

Also, that letter if from Danny and Brad. It’s what they sent to Lope right after Jeff got bit. I imagine Danny and Brad trying and failing to remember how to write Lope’s name in his own language, then giving up.

page 42 – 50

Lope’s knowledge about how humans work is partly from watching humans from public spaces and from what Danny or Suzanne told him.

Suzanne calls Danny “The spy” because she is better about connecting the dots on implications of blood bonds and vampires than Danny is. Danny is obviously a big ass area of disagreement between Lope and Suzanne. I also wanted this whole scene where Lope tries to talk Suzanne out of hunting Seth to be sad. Also, he never tells Suzanne to forgive Seth. It’s just about her.

Flashback time. Again red is Seth’s flashback color. I also wanted to show that Suzanne’s hatred of Seth is more than just I hate you cause you killed my father. I maybe should have put more flashbacks like this in there or made it clear in this one. Seth seduce Suzanne first. Her expression when thinking about if she should let Seth behind the counter could be read as discomfort. It’s more do I want to do this thing that will get me in trouble? This is more of Seth manipulating teenagers. I did make sure to put in the “Do you WANT me back here?” line. So she trusted Seth before he went and murdered her family. I feel like that original consent is important, because it makes his betrayal sharper, especially when Seth and Suzanne have their final show down in Sorcery 101.

Cover

So I told Shazzbaa that the chapter pages would be cool monotone. Before starting the comic I gave her drawings of Lope and Suzanne since I know how they’d look in Sorcery 101. So they’d have a similar body type even though our styles are different. I also gave her notes on mannerisms, like Lope doesn’t touch strangers without asking.

page 1 – 8

I thought starting with a comparison of how the two main characters handles puddles would be fun. I also thought starting out with an argument about Lope’s faith in fate would also be a good contrast. I let Shazzbaa know before hand that all Lope’s signs of his Goddess should be lucky but not unbelievable, like the tiny rocks in this scene. So Lope thinks his Goddess is taking care of him because he is looking for evidence of that.

This fight was important because I wanted to show Suzanne being competent and a quick thinker while Lope mostly powered up his spell. Spells, especially powerful ones, take while to say. So Suzanne is mostly keeping the werepanther busy.

All of Suzanne’s spanish is thanks to Jose who drew From Scratch. I now know how to say a lot of curses.

Lope’s spell is the one Danny tries and fails several times in Sorcery 101. One other thing is the effect it has on Lope is something you never see happen to Danny because of Danny’s blood bond.

page 9 – 12

Lope and Suzanne on the street the next morning is a way to get some exposition about them across in a way that felt natural. I wanted it immediately clear Lope isn’t human so when you see what he really looks like it’s not a surprise. Also while Seth isn’t ever present in the comic he is important to everything going on and needed mentioning early. I also wanted the background to do the storytelling of them being followed.

page 13 – 17

The first scene with Nam is mostly in Lope’s native language. I put a key in the book and ebook. But I tired to keep Nam’s dialogue unimportant except for what Lope repeats to Suzanne. All the reader is really missing out on is Nam being an asshole. But here is what they are saying:

Nam? Is that you?

Yes, dumbass. Now get this bitch away from me!

What are you doing here?

Looking for you.

For what?

Ozar has been caught. We need you to be present for his exicution.

Can I take Suzanne with me?

No humans on the island.

I would like her to be my companion.

Fine. We’ll tell people she is a shifter.

Really? Thank you!

There is a lot of Lope’s culture that I made up but doesn’t getting fully explored in the comic. But companion can mean anything from a close friend to a lover. Lope and Suzanne aren’t having sex but Nam does take it that way.

page 18 – 22

So the dock scene is just catching Suzanne up on some of the info that she missed in the conversation she and the reader didn’t understand. I also wanted to show that Lope is pretty well trusted and taken at his word on things. His saying Suzanne isn’t human is never challenged the whole time they are in Nistay.

As I said most of the dialogue in the crypt gets repeated if it’s important. But here’s whats said in this scene.

Did you tell her yet?

Um… I’ll do it now.

You are on your own. I barely know enough emough human to introduce myself.

Your companion is a bitch.

She has been through a lot.

Does it have something to do with the scar?

Vampire.

Nam is impressed with Suzanne fighting a vampire because Nistay only hears about the super powerful vampires. They don’t have them.

page 23 – 25

Here we have Suzanne’s family getting killed. I wanted her flashbacks to go backwards. So we get the most terrible stuff first to explain her coarse attitude. I told Shazzbaa to use red so it matched Sorcery 101 Seth flashbacks. I wanted Seth curb stomping to be forceful. So it’s over several thin tall panels. Seth’s instructions for Suzanne’s dad to put his mouth on the step is what he tells Suzanne before killing her. Again Suzanne is resourceful even before learning to fight for real. She stabs Seth with his own knife.