Tag: Sorcery 101

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.

Chapter 27

Title page
Still trying to be more designy. This is the last chapter for Ramon. So I wanted to give him a big send off. He gets a very nice over-dramatic supervilliany cover.

page 1033 – 1040

Once again Connor is the one practicing his powers whenever he can. He really likes these powers. He likes abusing them. Originally, Ramon’s name was gonna be Ryan. There were a few times I accidentally put that in my scripts while writing his other chapters. That’s why Connor is calling him that.

This scene starts with Connor standing over and looking down on Ramon cause he has the power in that scene. Danny is a few steps higher then them for that same reason. And he stays a few steps higher to while he yells at Connor so Connor can look small. It’s the only way Danny at 5’6” will ever tower over Connor’s 6’1”.

Page 1041 – 1044

I wanted it to be clear Connor did hurt Ramon. Because every other time Ramon has asked Meg for spell casting help she has said no. But since Connor did hurt him rather than just make fun of him, Meg is more sympathetic.

page 1045 – 1055

Also for this last appearance Ramon has, I made his conflict/target Connor because Danny has bigger things to deal with than Ramon’s ridiculous outbursts. It gives Ramon an opponent on roughly the same maturity level. So Connor is easy to bait, especially when so over confident about his new powers.

Again, I always like drawing street scenes and this chase is no different.

The pet tomb stones are mostly references to friends pet name ideas. Except for one that says Bramble Pelt. That is a reference to the podcast My Brother, My Brother, and Me.

Jeff pointing out he didn’t do anything, I always think is a fun bit.

I got a lot of pictures of guard dog breeds for all the zombie dogs. The little dog though is zombie version of my friend Spike Trotman’s dog Harvey who died like 6 months after these pages went online. I thought it would be funny to put him in cause he was so tiny and nervous. He was also a hairless dog so he already looked creepy.

Connor’s bite marks on his back are to just let the audience know that Seth and Connor are still a thing.

Danny is very done with supernatural teen nonsense. Hence calling the cops on all three of them.

page 1056 – 1059

Connor and Jeff are doing some problem solving. But that doesn’t save them from the cops.

Then we wrap things up with punishment dealt out with clear bias.

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.

Chapter 26

Title page
I was trying to be designy again. This works a little better than most of them.

page 1012 – 1013

Whenever Damien is plotting against Brad, I tried to keep Cassia mostly out of it. She is doing her nails cause she’s just disinterested in the whole thing. Damien is supposed to be the active force in this.

page 1014 – 1016

Will and Kayla are talking about Arsenic and Old Lace for the curious. Pat is still being a dick to Kayla.

I like drawing all the rain and the baldy cult watching from across the street. The silent panels where they head to the shop while Brad leaves came out nice.

page 1017 – 1024

I had fun with the exchange between Will and the cult guy at the door. I also really like when Danny in one panel is pulling at one side of the door while the cult guy pulls the other. I try to always think of how someone who isn’t experienced with supernatural stuff will take something. Hense Kayla jumping to hate crime rather than magic cult that cuts people up. Pat knows about the cult cause he had a brother lose a hand to them.

I had fun drawing the chase/tracking scene. Drawing everyone’s hair all wet and droopy was a nice change. And it’s always fun to draw Danny hacking up a lung after running. Danny’s “That is a SETH plan” is one of my favorite lines I’ve given him. Because it only makes sense if you have been reading the whole series and know how odd this is for Pat’s character and how Seth usually behaves.

page 1025 – 1030

Fighty fight time. I wanted to makes sure Pat did something big and flashy so all the cult folks would focus on him. The have a mage’s hand and a werepanther’s tail.

When Kayla gets the fight to stop and they try tricking the cult, I didn’t want them to go with it right away. They aren’t super gullible. So Pat threatening one of them just is to give them an extra push toward going with that reasoning.

1031-1032

And Pat uses Kayla’s name for the first time after being an extra huge dick to her all evening.

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.

Chapter 25

Title Page
Since chapter doesn’t really have a plot, it’s more transitional so those are always hard to come up with title pages for. It’s kinda eh in my opinion.

page 992 – 993

Kayla running from the wolf demons was fun to draw, mostly cause as I said I like to draw busy streets.

page 994 – 997

Not much to say here since it’s mostly an exposition dump. Alex is clearly better at giving werewolf advice than Brad since she actually talks to other werewolves and wolf demons. I also like that she calls Brad weird to his face.

page 998 – 1005

Will’s roof, Will’s rules. I never really went into it in detail but Will is a bit sketchy. His rent is mostly paid by cheating the lottery. So Pat is pretty justified in calling him creepy, even though nothing happens beyond Will’s remark about making cute girls happy.

I had a lot of fun with Kayla and Pat in their shared room. I wanted the whole scene to be awkward and Kayla rightfully worried that everything she is doing is annoying Pat. And I like the description of Pat’s shirt as non-threatening.

page 1006 – 1008

Here I again wanted it to be clear that Danny knows but wants them to fess up on their own. Connor is much better at keeping his cool and being smooth with lies. All of Jeff’s panicked faces were fun to draw.

page 1009 – 1011

The snow on the ground is starting to melt cause it’s started to warm up a little. Also no visible breath.

Pat’s whole earth spell lesson doesn’t go well. I never said it in the story but a few readers figured it out. Pat was an air mage, so earth spells are his weakest area. Also, a lot of folks thought I was gonna have Kayla and Pat hook up because he finds her distracting. I considered it, but I decided that Pat’s too messed up and still has issues being touched. Then his last chapter with Suryu would just make that worse. So this isn’t the time for him to try anything like that.

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.

Chapter 24

Title Page

I always struggle to try to make a title page that isn’t me resting on the same tricks over and over. One day I’ll put some time aside to practice stuff like this. But I liked how this one turned out. Figuring out how to do the reflection in the eyes was a little tricky at the time but I like how it came out.

page 955 – 958

I try to keep flashbacks not only one color but try to color code them to which character is the focus or explaining the flashback. Seth flashbacks are always red.

Anyway, you get a glimpse at younger Ally and her sister. I had fun looking at 80s work out clothes for it. You also get to see a hint of her relationship with Mr. Tamura when she was younger. He was her mentor and also the closest thing she had to a stable parent figure. Unfortunately, now that I’m sitting down and writing these notes I realize I drew Ally too old in this scene. I should have made her like 12-13. I forgot how much older Shannon is from Ally.

Seth’s 80’s outfit is basically Christian Slater’s outfit in the movie Heathers. Also teenagers shouldn’t be left alone with Seth. And I wanted to make it clear that Ally’s home life is a wreck. Ally focused on training with Mr. Tamura. Shannon went to Seth for comfort. Also, Seth’s shush and then kiss is reflective of when he kissed Trish in that flashback. Remember his caption then was “I figured it would shut her up”

Page 959-967

Shannon looking for liquor while waiting for her target to arrive. She sure learned a lot from Seth. I like this whole exchange and how it turned out. I like that it’s cold but familiar on both sides. Then fighting. I like that last facial expression on Shannon in page 961, right before she gets hit. I didn’t want Sarah to be helpless in this scene. She used to fight demons and has been in prison for over a decade. She can hold her own.

This is the start of Aaron trying to apologize. I wanted to make it clear he almost knocks but then chickens out. I mean there isn’t much he can do to make it up to her. He can

This fight was super fun to plan out. I like when Shannon grabs Sarah’s ankle and pull. I try to make sure my fights have a nice flow to them. But whoops Shannon’s stab wound switches legs. Sarah has had her full of vampires for the evening.

A little bit of world building from the TV. I didn’t want people to forget Damien during his long absence. I like two things a lot on this page. Ally’s body language during the phone call and King triumphantly leaving with the tug of war rag.

page 968 – 977

I like Seth’s acting/body language in this whole scene. Especially when he just casually steals from the bar. The fact that Shannon was in Terra is a little bit of a hint of who she has been talking to.
Tapping fingers on a table is something I always like as a nervous/impatient character action but I never know if I’m doing it justice in comics. It’s one of those small motives that can do a lot but is hard in a static medium. Much like nodding. Ally’s cell phone is I had to look up what to draw. It is still 2006 in Sorcery 101 some I the further I got from the start of the comic the more I had to look up to be sure any tech they use wasn’t too recent.

Cal’s returns and continues their streak of terribleness. I like that Seth is just laughing at Cal and Ally’s whole exchange. Seth’s comment is cause I wanted to keep hinting that about Cal probably not on the firmest ground with the rules they should be following.

Seth’s phone call is from Asagi. During Asagi’s first appearance he mentioned warning Seth. This is the warning.

page 978 – 982

Once again, everyone except the vampire in the scene can see their breath. That is a detail I always love putting in. Seth saying “Trust me” never goes well. Also, big full moon in the background incase anyone wondered where Brad was during all this.

I always like drawing street scenes and putting lots of passersby around. It also makes for nice visuals on talking scenes like this. And you get some back story of Seth and Shannon. The mechanic daughter is Suzanne.

I like all of Seth’s expression in this scene where Ally is calling him out. Especially when he laughs and then says “No.” Around this time I started trying to get mouth shapes to match a word in the speech ballon. Then I wouldn’t be drawing the same smirk smirk smirk that Seth always has. But I will say drawing someone laughing is kinda hard. However this whole scene I had a lot of fun with both the dialog and the drawings.

page 983 – 988

Fight times. This whole chapter is when I think I started to plan fights better in general. I figured Ally is better at her mage powers than Shannon so she is good at holding off all the fire. Shannon makes a similar mistake to the fight with her mom, where she’s not paying attention to opponent when she has the upper hand.

Shannon’s stammer and expression even while Seth is saving her and being gentle is to show she basically knows what’s next.

Getting knocked on the back of the head that hard is never good. She has obviously been out for awhile, since it is morning.

page 989 – 991

Seth is a bad bad man. I figured Shannon probably passed out from being nailed to the table. Also Seth would 100% put emphasis on “sunny” when she wakes up. I like how this scene turned out. Usually Seth’s crueler moments are off screen. This is when we see a more planned out cruelty from him rather than his blow shit up and see what happens destruction. The panels with him in silhouette against the window are my favorites.