Tag: Writer Notes

So for this book the chapter titles all come from what the qualities the knights of the round table are supposed to represent. Since this is about Elsie and Billy mostly and Elsie trying to make sure he’s okay, I figured Loyalty was a good fit.

page 1 – 7

I liked writing this scene because it’s basically Elsie deciding who to yell at. Also, I wanted to show how bad Billy is hurt even though he’s getting up and moving. Laughing hurts. Probably everything hurts. I also liked putting in all the tiny panels Elsie thinking things over.

Also, once Elsie tells Billy to the keep the necklace, I tried to keep Morgan seperate from them. Through out this whole book there are moments where Morgan feels more isolated but doesn’t say anything. And Billy and Elsie having sibling rough housing time like she’s not there is part of that.

page 8 – 13

I thought I’d forget the helmet if it was just on the table. Elsie wearing it is more fun. Also, Kimber doesn’t know Elsie before this story so while explaining stuff to her was a good time to spell it out that Elsie’s dad is dead.

I like how Elsie’s hands came out when she says “We still need to find Cu though.” Same with Elsie slumping over in defeat on page 10.

Also like in the scene before Elsie switches from attacking to defending once she gets a new info. I liked drawing everyone’s silent reactions to “she said she’d call.” I used that specifically because of Kimber’s crush on Rae.

Kimber is full of good ideas despite Rae pulling one over on her.

page 14 – 15

Elsie and Kimber are being the problem solvers. This scene I wanted them all to put a little bit of info together. Kimber’s got most of it. Morgan has her dream. And Elsie connects the two.

I wanted Kimber and Elsie to focused on Billy while Morgan has another tiny moment to think about what she doesn’t have. If you can’t read it the note from Kimber’s mom says her where she is, that she left Kimber money to order take out, and a reminder that Kimber needs to make a hair appointment. Kimber reading this note would probably find it annoying because of the hair bit and calling her Kimmy, but Morgan doesn’t know that Kimber and her mom always fight about those things. I made sure the most important detail was clear. The “Love Mom”

page 16 – 19

Billy falling unconscious before he changes is partly to show why he doesn’t remember anything. He just blacks out and wakes up in a different place.

Also, now that he’s helmet less I wanted a visual indicator of who was in control. Removing the pupils/irises was an easy one.

While they are putting things together, Kimber’s being more excited about the fantastical aspects should be clear. How she goes to enthusiastic to a little jealous when it comes to all this.

Elsie is the only one watching Billy/Arthur try to escape while Kimber and Morgan talk about Morgan’s dream. Since she has fallen out of her chair a bunch she knows he’s gonna fall over before he does.

Page 20 – 23

This is mostly an exposition dump and also some insight into Arthur’s motives since they are not Billy’s.  But Elsie and Arthur’s little “am not” “are too” is to show Billy is still in there somewhere.

Arthur’s motive is something I wanted to be kinda vague but still well intentioned. Each detail of what he thinks it wrong is also something that could be paired with each member of the team that is there. But I also left out Arthur’s plan to fix things because he doesn’t really have one. In old King Arthur stories Arthur doesn’t really have much of a plan either. He just replaces a several smaller fighting kings with himself. There wasn’t much of a game plan for after.

page 24 – 28

Elsie was paying the most attention to Arthur’s fidgeting so she’s the first to act. Also since Kimber’s yard is still wrecked, I wanted the characters to comment on it. Kimber definitely got a talking to after her parents saw the yard. Morgan and Elsie haven’t been too worried about property damage cause they never had these magic fights in their house.

The fights in this whole book were ones I tried to make not pretty. Know of these characters are trained to fight. So there is a lot of while pushing Elsie away Arthur’s fingers get in her mouth. Elsie hit Arthur where he’s hurt while gripping his wrist in a way that someone trains could get out of. I wanted it to feel like a dirty scramble rather than a movie fight.

Also, since we know Arthur is Billy now I wanted to show much much more invested Elsie is now. So she immediately chases after him.

page 29 – 31

I made it down poring to show visually that awhile as past. I also thought the next fight would work better in the rain. I maybe should have put a few more people on the street though. Ya know, to warrant burrito guy being at his corner.

The Morgan/Elsie phone exchange comes a little bit from real life. When I was in high school my mom used to call to make sure I got home okay at the exact same time everyday. Once I came home and had enough time to get frustrated with something before she called in the middle of me trying to fix it. I answered the phone with “What?” instead of hello and then got a lecture about how to answer the phone.

Morgan continues to be surprised by other people getting cared about. This is kinda another small point to the making her feel isolated list.

page 32 – 36

Here is one of two big scenes where I tried to push the not pretty fights. Also it raining and being slippery and muddy helps. I did some digging to find out how badly Elsie was gonna cut up her hands while playing tug of war with sword. You can hold a sword blade without cutting yourself if you are careful which Elsie never is.

I wanted to have both Elsie and Arthur bleeding by the end of the fight. Elsie doesn’t realize it but she accidentally helped the ritual by crashing through the tree with him. Arthur’s blood needed to be in the middle of the tree and their fight gets both of there blood there.

page 37 – 40

Elsie finishes her rescue of Billy. Morgan tries to help but isn’t needed really. While showing Elsie’s support or concern for Billy, I did also want to push Morgan away from Elsie and Billy. So we end things with Morgan alone in the rain.

Page 177 – 180

Morgan is used to doing stuff alone so that’s probably why she waits for Elsie to leave before checking under Arthur’s helmet. I also wanted to use this chance to give some insight to Arthur’s motives are. But I used the change the world line to tie him and Billy together. Billy is possessed but on a subconscious level he’s on board with the end game.

Morgan isn’t surprised and this really isn’t meant to be a surprise for those paying attention. Morgan getting startled and breaking Billy’s nose is kinda a making bad situation worse without thinking but also to break up a talky scene.

Page 181 – 183

Morgan has a “talk” with her dad about teen pregnancy in each book. It was a callous throw away line in book one. Now we get a reason for it but still in a callous way.

Morgan figuring out Billy’s necklace was an important step. I figured the sword being hidden in a cross necklace would be a good stealth nod to Mists of Avalon. If you haven’t read it, it presents Morgan le Fay and Avalon as trying to protect the old pagan religion of England while Arthur and his court are championing Christianity. Also, having Billy wear it through out the whole comic wouldn’t be an immediate red flag.

page 184 – 194

Morgan waits for Billy to wake up and doesn’t immediately take the necklace. I wanted that to be clear because she easily could have. It’s one thing to take something from mysterious Arthur figure but is another for her to take it from Billy.

I like werewolves and well is there really any better where to explain Billy’s black outs to him? This whole scene I kept double check that I was putting Billy’s bruises in the same places.

Billy’s anger at Morgan suggesting she give him the necklace is partly the Arthur spirit wanting to protect itself but again it’s connected in something Billy feels. Also, before this scene I established where every one of the girls parents are except Elsie’s dad. While’s it’s not said outloud here, I figured Morgan would already know Elsie and Billy’s dad is dead.

And with the transitioning of talking to Billy about his dad, Elsie comes to mind. I figured ending on them agreeing to tell her together was a good ending. It’s not really a cliff hanger but is a good, this will change the dynamic of the story moment.

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.