Tag: Writer Notes

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 7 part 1

Title page

Title page is a small hint of what’s to come cause you got brad’s wolf, Jeff’s, Rebecca’s and an all black silhouette in the back.

page 367 – 377

I know a few chain smokers who have this problem where basically they have to wake up to have a cigarette. I thought it was be a nice detail to have for Danny.

I like the kinda lighting Mary gave the kitchen.

Brad’s wolf is all restless. He doesn’t have to change on the full moon since he’s in control but he gets cranky/restless if he doesn’t. I think the best way to describe it is like being a little hungry. You can delay or choose not to eat but if you can you will.

I always like inking scenes like this. I like using so much spot black.

I never really know what to do with sound effects. So Brad’s Wouaff is me not wanting to use woof but I needed it to be clear he wasn’t growling.

And now Danny’s gonna be a werewolf for the next 60 pages or so.

page 378 – 381

Jeff’s new car is a mustang convertible. Jeff’s roots slowly growing back is a thing I made sure Mary kept from my old coloring job. I wanted to show he wasn’t redying his hair before explaining later.

Ally and Danny’s little class confrontation is kinda how I usually like to write fights, with both parties looking bad. Danny needs to check his privilege/not tone police and Ally needs to not make the conflict physical so quick.

page 382 – 387

A big writing sorta lesson is show don’t tell. This whole series of chapters is kinda to show someone being cured rather than telling. I maybe could have cut the chapter as a whole in hind sight.

Once again I like doing these moody scenes with a lot of black. This Brad/Danny scene is no exception.

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 6

Title page

It’s all sepia tone cause I through Sorcery 101 try to keep flashbacks color coded. If Pat’s telling the story they are sepia tone cause he’s old timey. Seth ones are usually red. Ally’s purple. Danny’s and minor characters are blue.

So from this chapter and the next one the redos were slightly easier because I didn’t have to rearrange the art too much and the files I had were big enough for me to ink them in Manga Studio. I don’t usually ink digitally, but it was just the easiest way.

Also the writing starts to get tighter here because I was doing full scripts before hand.

page 335 – 337

So flashback time. Pat did murder a lot of his family. Seer guy he is killing here is his brother-in-law. In hindsight I should have made this scene not in English. Pat didn’t grow up speaking English and all the other scenes similar (aka Suzanne’s flashback in As We Were) aren’t translated. Pat is much more freckley when he got more sun.

page 338 – 339

And of coarse Pat gets woken up cause he sleeps during most business hours. I always like if it people figure out the big dramatic secrets on their own. So Will is just trying to give Pat opportunities to fess up about being a vampire.

page 340 – 346

This airport is based off the airport in Savannah Georgia cause it was just the one I was the most familiar with at the time. Well that and Logan but Logan Airport is a giant cluster fuck of a place. So the Savannah was easier.

And you meet Danny’s daughter Natalie for the first time. She might be the HARDEST character to draw. Kids in general are hard to draw. Then Natalie’s got more squared off features when kids are usually more round. So she’s just difficult. It would have been easier if she looked more like Danny.

Then we get Danny’s exwife. I always want the Jackie to be stern but also kinda in the right. Steve/steven is kinda my go to boring guy name. I don’t know why. The rest of the scene is kinda by the numbers to show their relationship. And you get some background on Danny’s family. Danny’s mom is probably sleeping with her publicist.

page 347 – 352

Perspective is a little janky in that first panel. Danny’s car is flying.

Will’s magic shop goes through a lot of shit.

And thus the Pat back story starts and we get a little hint at his goals.

page 351 – 358

Don’t cheat at cards when playing with demons. It never got brought up, but Will does continue to cheat with his powers, only now it’s by checking lotto numbers.

The keeping someone busy while sorcerer gets ready is a thing I keep using over and over cause it is more or less a good system for this world. Spells take a long time to cast.

It’s never said out load, but Pat doesn’t like to be touched, especially by women. Suryu fucked him up pretty bad. So even though he found his wife again they were never back together.

And this part I know cause a little bit of confusion. So I’ll make it clear here. Sorcery puts a strain on someones heart. It doesn’t use up their life or anything. So Pat’s wife being in her 60s during this flash back had a heart attack for over working it with fairly standard spells. Crazy advanced spells could probably over work a perfectly healthy heart. There is a part in As We Were where Lope’s chest hurts after casting a spell that’s why. But Danny’s heart can’t be over worked cause blood bond keeps him at the status quo from the blood bond part. So anything Danny does to his heart, he’ll recover from. He just might need to take it easy for a few days. And later when Will says Pat’s descendants lived fairly long for a mage is because a mage usually means demon hunter which means dying in battle.

page 359 – 361

Pat is not good at friends.

page 362 – 366

Will don’t lock his door or have a magical barrier. He really really really really should have. I try to make it a common thing that if you know what to look for you can figure out who’s a vampire/werewolf/etc.

And here we get Pat finding out he has family.

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 5 part 4

Title page

Super big flashing title page since this is mostly a fight.

page 306 – 312

So they all cramp into a tiny car. Mostly cause it’s funny to pick on Pat.

Danny looking over the weapons and mentioning there being no gun is cause it won’t occur to Pat to own a gun since he used to be a magic and could shoot lightening and what not. Then once he was a vampire he stole all his weapons from Suryu. But in this situation Danny really would have done better with a gun. Especially, since he can’t lift the ax. Note that later Aaron mostly uses a shot gun for a lot of the same reasons Danny could have used one here.

page 313 – 325

This whole fight, is to show just how experience Pat is in a fight. He doesn’t talk much and makes sure to keep an eye on what’s going on. Ally can mostly take care of herself so Danny gets most of Pat’s protection. Danny who’s a heavy smoker on the other hand can’t.

Pat also thinks fast to about using his surroundings with the table. And his stabby ice spell is French not Latin this time around, cause spells can be anything that isn’t your native language.

Demon leader isn’t dumb. He immediately goes for the weak link in the team. But he didn’t know about Rita who while timid isn’t incompetent.

This whole fight ran pretty long. I try not to do fights or scenes this long anymore. Updating 3 times a week while this was running means this fight took up most of the month.

page 326 – 328

Ally and Cal fights once again. To give us more hints of Cal being in trouble.

page 329 – 333

Pat’s back to his usual grumpy self, being all unhappy about taking help from the “wrong” types of supernaturals. Also, Pat’s very handy with getting blood out of clothes. That’s something a vampire should know.

I like Danny’s face when he asks Trish if it’s Seth’s hair that makes her like him. Also this is the only time Pat laughs in the comic I think. The idea of Seth being a “Nice guy” is just so weird.

Trish giving Danny something to think about though.

Brad doesn’t shave when Ally’s not home. He caused the fire by getting distracted by something and leaving the room. That’s the real reason he shouldn’t cook.

page 334

I loved drawing this page. I always like nice backgrounds where I have time to put in all the details. Liberael was Pat’s angel. So Cal’s got to go report in on all of this.