Tag: Misfits of Avalon

Page 155 – 160

Here’s the last team meeting at the diner. I wanted to quickly establish that the other girls are aware that Cu is missing. Also Rae is having trouble hearing them. There are a few times where Rae says something that isn’t quite an answer to their question. I wanted her dialog to be slight disjointed from what everyone else is saying. Her not hearing them completely is why she doesn’t pick up on Morgans “find” bit

I feel like Elsie calling Billy a monkey, him calling her a horse face, and there mom telling them both to shut up is basically their whole life.

I always like that bits of food coming from Elsie’s mouth when she talks with her mouth full.

page 161 – 163

I like Elsie’s face when she realizes what Morgan is up to. Showing Kimber slowly warm up to them now that this book is finishing up. And oh hey it’s because they are listening to her! Funny that.

page 164 – 167

I had fun drawing Elsie’s wind up and then ricochet off the invisible barrier while Morgan leans on it. And then I like Elsie leaning on her hammer. As Morgan finally reveals her dream stuff and they come up with ideas I wanted to show that Elsie and Morgan know Rae is the weak link in the teamwork department. Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a big conflict to figure out you don’t like someone or they don’t like you.

page 168 – 172

Elsie’s confusion at being called a villain I think is funny. It’s also a big part of the book. As a team they are being Morgan le Fay but they (and no one really) don’t think of themselves as the villain. It might be a little on the nose but it’s in character for Elsie.

In general I like how this fight came out. That three tall panels for Elsie’s attack breaks of the panels nice and is fun to draw. It’s why I went back to it over and over in the series.

When Arthur grabs Morgan’s cape and yells at her is supposed to be when Morgan realizes it’s Billy. I made sure we could see that the same tooth is clearly missing in that shot. So after drawing attention to it all book, the reader could see what Morgan notices.

That CRK is cause I wanted it to be clear that Elsie is really hurting Billy here.

page 173 – 176

The tone of the fight changes and slows down here. I wanted it to sink in that this is the first time they hurt a person and not weird animal monsters from the last book.

I used a lot of down shots and pulled away to make them seem smaller while they take things in. The exceptions being when I wanted a clear look on their faces like Elsie’s “Well… maybe” panel. And when she leaves worried. Also, Morgan doesn’t really move after it hits her which is supposed to be a contrast to Elsie moving a lot. Elsie keeps looking back and forth at Morgan and Arther and fidgets and pushes back her hair. They are a lot a like but I wanted to show that contrast when faced with something serious.

Page 137 – 139

I tried to make Rae entering the shed look a little ominous. All these pages I wanted to be slow and quiet as Rae checks everything. This way you can understand why she is confident her plan will work. All the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.

page 140 – 142

In this entire opening to the fight Cu is bigger or positioned higher than Rae. I wanted him to feel threatening before the fight broke out. I particularly like how his snarling teeth came out on page 142. I don’t always get Cu’s expressions right because I try not to make them too human. I also like how him jumping over Rae came out and how that startles her.

page 143 – 149

Rae tripping and fumbling the nail gun is to make it clear she won’t get out of this fight unscathed. Her stutter is to show her confidence shaking.

Sometimes sound effects are hard. I am still not completely satisfied with the noise Cu makes when shot or his whining noise after.

As the fight goes on I wanted to show more of Cu’s power. He doesn’t help the girls fight but he isn’t helpless. He is a very large dog and a fairy. I wanted him to have a less normal looking form to show the threat increasing as the fight continued and Rae lost her powers.

If you don’t know watch a Cu Sidhe is, legends about them say if you hear them bark 3 times you’ll die. So I thought Cu’s finishing move of sorts being a bark that damages Rae’s ear drum would be good.

And while things didn’t go completely as Rae planned, once she couldn’t rely on powers lent to her by Cu she does better. Even though it’s mostly because of frantic luck rather than her careful plan.

page 150 – 154

I played with the idea of Rae’s hearing being gone for the rest of the series but I decided only for the rest of the book and the beginning of the next book. There were moments in book 3 that got to complicated by her suddenly being partly deaf. Also her punishment from Cu was a little more poetic.

When Rae puts Cu in the cage I wanted it clear that the tiny cage is hurting him. She is busting out all the anti-magic anti-fairy stuff. Iron, ash wood, and then salt.

And because it comes up later and blood is important, I wanted to finish the chapter by showing both Rae’s injuries from Cu are bleeding.

Page 117 – 122

I jumped into the scene at the end of Elsie and Morgan’s search because we’ve seen plenty of Elsie and Morgan solo. So I wanted to get straight to when they have a newer interaction.

I wanted a close up on Morgan’s eyes when she says she is tired so I could render the bags under her eyes clearly.

This whole scene is mostly to show how Morgan and Elsie’s dynamic changes when Morgan finally speaks up and says what is wrong. I really like the line “Shut the hell up. I’m helping.” It’s very Elsie.

It could have been drawn clearer, but Elsie is kicking Morgan in the ribs in panel two of page 122.

page 123 – 126

The rock hitting Billy after it has been hitting Elsie is a hint for the solution at the end. The magic generally confuses Elsie and Billy’s blood cause they are related.

page 127 – 132

This scene I had Billy bandage his own injuries because it’s sorta cliche for the woman to bandage up and nurse her male love interest. Kinda the assumption being because they are a woman they are more nurturing. That’s not Morgan at all.

Billy and Morgan’s flirting is intentionally awkward. Also, Morgan’s doubt and distrust of Billy’s compliment I figured would say a lot about her. Stuff like that isn’t something you is getting told on a regular basis.

Also, I wanted to acknowledge that someone like Morgan would be very hard to read. That is lending to the awkwardness of their flirting. Billy is fumbling about to try to get a clear signal.

I like the end of the scene where they are about to make out but Billy’s bandage is killing the mood for Morgan.

page 133 – 136

I kinda struggled to make it clear this was the next morning. Maybe Morgan’s shirt should have been more unbuttoned or she could have been in her sleeping shorts from the last book. I maybe could have done more with the lighting. But Billy spent the night.

I thought maybe Morgan’s smirk after Elsie says “But I like to get some action once in awhile” would imply that.

This quote goes to Kimber because most of this chapter is all her and Rae and it’s all one sided. Poor Kimber.

Page 97 – 102

Rae leans in and gets in Kimber’s personal space when ever she asks Kimber for something. When Kimber asks Rae to hang out there is a brief beat. If this were from Rae’s POV we would get her putting it together that Kimber likes her. After that beat Rae starts touching Kimber more and sitting next to her. And she talks about not being interested in what boys are hot while touching Kimber in a way that could be an accident or intentional. Note that she looks at Kimber not Elsie when she says that.

Kimber’s excitement and then disappointment when she shows Rae the stone is also to contrast how both her and Elsie got excited about finding it earlier. Also to show that Rae’s smaller put downs hurt Kimber more than when Elsie or Morgan flat out insult her.

Also I tried to think about character’s home lives and how they’d show when they aren’t at home. So Elsie cleans up the pizza and dishes without being asked since her and her siblings are all used to picking up after and taking care of each other.

page 103 – 105

Rae turns up the flattery, learns into Kimber’s personal space, and tries to make a physically connection. She pulls away once she thinks she has what she wants. And while Kimber is falling for it she’s not stupid, so I made sure she gets suspicious when Rae mentions money. So Rae goes into over drive as Kimber pulls away a little. Rae’s questions are basically so she can figure out a lie that is most likely to get money from Kimber’s dad.

page 106 – 110

Kimber has a somewhere okay relationship with her dad which is why he’s the one with in this scene. If it was her mom, Kimber probably would have given Rae everything out of spite to her mom’s opinion. Rae’s last name is a reference to a famous conman who sold the Eiffel Tower. Rae getting tripped up and unprepared for someone recognizing her and her last name is what causes her to crack a little in front of Kimber. The fact that she can only save it by going from all smiles to tears probably annoys her.

When Kimber doesn’t want to surrender the credit card, I had the beat because Rae was about to push harder but then thought better of it.

page 111 – 116

I thought Kimber’s doubt through this whole chapter was important to make her sympathetic rather than seeming dumb. Also the way she talks herself out of it by putting Rae on a pedestal builds up how she sees her crush.

Rae explaining about the appearance of things is a small insight into her as a whole. Kimber notices how Rae holds the nail gun as a hint of what Rae really has planned.

Pretty gets it’s own caption to bring emphasis to it.

Once again I end a Kimber chapter with Rae leaving while Kimber looks small.

I gave this quote to Elsie’s chapter cause she is the most honest of the group. It’s unintentional honestly.

Page 77 – 80

I like writing Elsie and her little gang. They of coarse went here to see the cashier Elsie was talking about being cute in the first chapter. I gave him the same skin tone and nose as Cu to imply that Elsie has a type. Amanda starts getting money out for Elsie as soon as the cashier says Elsie is short.

Lin shoplifted some candy while Elsie was shouting. Elsie is probably a great distraction. I always like drawing Elsie posing and trying to look cool. Like that her over the shoulder head turn. Her disgust at her friends talking about her brothers is also fun to draw. And I like those silent beat panels like at the end of page 80. For the record, Billy is 17, Elsie is 15, Bobby is

page 81 – 83

Cu has figured out that Elsie is the easiest for him to get to do stuff. It’s why he appears to her when she’s not with the other girls. Even though Elsie is an easy target for Cu, I did want to show that Rae’s coldness to everyone is getting picked up by Elsie. I probably could have pushed the acting as Elsie tries to find a pen. Make it clear visually she isn’t paying attention. But I like that Elsie complains no one tells her what is going on when she missed a good chunk of exposition due to not paying attention.

page 84 – 91

Elsie banging on the door continuously until Kimber answers the door seemed very much like a her thing to do. That contrasted with how Rae appears later, which is to call Kimber to tell her she is outside.

I wanted Kimber’s game room to be impressive and clearly expensive but not over the top. I remembered a kid I went to college with’s video game collection. So Elsie’s reaction is also partly because she’s not allowed to have video games. She probably plays them at Lin or Amanda’s house.

Like Rae and her dad ended up getting cut, I never found a way to show Elsie’s home. I figured her room is about the same size as Morgans only she is sharing it with 2 of her sisters. Everything would be very cramped. Billy and all her brothers share a room. Then her older sisters share a room which also has a crib for her nephew. So it’s not just the stuff that is impressing Elsie but the space.

They never dye Kimber’s hair cause Elsie sure as hell can’t follow instructions.

Page 92 – 96

Elsie’s “back then” comment is mostly cause while watching Game of Thrones my mom saying “I didn’t know they knew how to whistle back then” and just people in general confusing fantasy with history.

I know most King Arthur things have Merlin in a cave, but there are others where he is trapped in a tree. So I to bring up that version so people could maybe put together why the tree is important.

Elsie pushing Kimber to talk about boys is her default mode. So it goes over her head how uncomfortable. Someone could interpret that as her being younger than Elsie but when it’s back to back with her excitement when Rae calls, I thought that would point to someone more toward she doesn’t like boys. Even if Elsie misses it.