Monday, March 13th 2006 - [536]Relationships: part two (7 of 18)
Original Commentary
Tired of Terrence's puttering around about what he's going to be doing next with this script, I drew, inked, colored and shaded an entire comic without a script and told him to work with it. As of my writing of this I still don't know what he did with it. -Isabel
I originally wanted to put in a line like "I can't leave Jake on his own; he's my brother and I'm responsible for him", decided against it because I was low on space, it distracted from the point I was making, and it made him seem like he was mentally or physically incapacitated. He isn't. He just has a really bad work ethic. And yes, she hung up on him, not the other way around; I hope the dialogue makes that clear - Terrence Modern Commentary
Yeah, my writing process could be infuriatingly slow. Especially when we've got deadlines.
But this setup gave me just enough structure. You've got a lot of freedom in a phone conversation; I could've had Robert say just about anything in those first two panels, if I wanted to give him lines. But writing to an existing drawing can be a lot easier than writing to a blank page.
This would have been a good place to move forward from Robert and Jane's segment; it shows what they want out of the relationship and why they don't get it. - Terrence Tuesday, March 14th 2006 - [537]Relationships: part two (8 of 18)
Original Commentary
The original plan was to have a Sofia and Jane comic, but it's hard to write those; Sofia-at-work is different from regular Sofia. By the time I had something I thought was passable, Isabel said to me "It's 11 PM. Can't you do something with just Jane?". So I did. I'll probably adapt the Jane-and-Sofia comic for use tomorrow, but I'm hesitant about bringing Sofia in for just one or two comics. I spent a decent amount of time doing a timeline for Robert and Jane's relationship. It's got about eight years to it, so it's taking a bit of time. But I work better with structure than without - Terrence Modern Commentary
What does a special Final Battle Adventure Online controller have? Buttons. Lots and lots of buttons for all your buffs and items and such that you accumulate in a MMORPG. - Terrence Wednesday, March 15th 2006 - [538]Relationships: part two (9 of 18)
Original Commentary
Yet another of the "Isabel draws it then I write it" comics. I got the timeline I referred to yesterday hammered out. In the process, I struck two years off of Robert, Jake and Jane. I had them down as 25, 25, and 23 (respectively) but that didn't really work. Now they're 23, 23, and 21. So it's a timeline of the past six years. I feel better now that things are fleshed out.
And yes, this was the comic I had written out yesterday, more or less. Sofia's line in the last panel was originally going to be a thought, but there was a misunderstanding about the script - Terrence Modern Commentary
The other waitress might actually be named Jane also. You never know.
Spoilers for tomorrow's comic: She isn't named Jane.
- Terrence Thursday, March 16th 2006 - [539]Relationships: part two (10 of 18)
Original Commentary
We're never going to show Sofia in that hairnet again. I had originally intended to only do two days of Jane at work. But since Sofia was there, she had to be dealt with. I actually wrote this comic before Isabel drew it, which is an improvement. Then I completely changed the script because I didn't like it. Originally, Jane mentioned that Kelly, the waitress, was setting Sofia up for some kind of practical joke by pretending to be Jane. However, that (a) depended very much on the last comic and was difficult to recap, (b) gave a character who didn't appear (and probably wouldn't for a while) a decent amount of personality while imparting very little to the established ones, and (c) had a weak punchline. This strip was inspired by the followup question to yesterday's comic, "Would Jane be offended about Sofia confusing her for someone else?" - Terrence Modern Commentary
We show Sofia in that hairnet pretty regularly. It looks kinda funny and it's easier to draw than her regular hair.- Terrence
Eh. They both had their challenges. - Isabel Friday, March 17th 2006 - [540]Relationships: part two (11 of 18)
Original Commentary
I kind of dropped the ball on this one... Sofia's line in the second panel should have gone in the first, thus giving more attention to Sofia's "hair explosion" going on in the second panel... those of you going to I-CON can eat sodium enriched foods in front of me and mock my sodium-less life in retribution. -Isabel Modern Commentary
On one hand, if I were trying to summarize You Say it First for a new reader, I'm not sure I'd include Sofia's hair. It's a cool thing, but I'm not sure it would make the top of the list.
On the other hand, it's nice seeing the friendship between Jane and Sofia develop. - Terrence
Sunday, March 19th 2006 - [541]Relationships: part two (12 of 18)
Original Commentary
Even as I visualized the first panel's "looking through both sides of the door" effect I told myself it was a bad idea to attempt. But since when has that ever stopped me? :) I think I almost pulled it off.. should have added a little more space between the two halves of the rooms, but I hope people can tell what I was aiming to do.
On the other hand, I am tickled a pinker shade of the brown due to how Jane and Robert turned out in that last panel... they both look so cuddly! - Isabel Modern Commentary
It's Friday night, at least. Robert doesn't have work for the next two days so this shouldn't totally wtreck his schedule. - Terrence
|