Thumbnail Dump: After You

So! After You! There’s so much to say about it!

.. honestly that’s a lie. There isn’t much to say about it at all. It was a pretty cut-and-dry chapter that didn’t involve Souppy and I arguing about pacing or scenes happening or anything. Maybe some dialogue changes here and there, but it’s pretty much identical to the thumbnails. So there’s not many weird interesting things to show you! Other than some funny sketches, I guess!

See? The most changes I really did was altering an angle here or there, like with panel 6 of the first page. They were standing in profile for three panels already, I wanted to alter the angle to make it more interesting!

There’s also less of a pregnant pause (one panel of silence instead of two). I do a lot of those. 

Oh one interesting thing! I don’t know if people think about this too much, and I’ve definitely been a bit dismissive of the fact sometimes, but there’s definitely A Thing going on when it comes to Lucy’s friends being conscious of her deaf ear.

Paulo is the type that occasionally forgets, which is why he comes to her on the wrong side in page 5 (Even startles her!), but in page 6 he switches! 

You even see the movement of him switching to the other side in the final product, and that’s totally intentional!

He’s conscious about trying to be accommodating to her, which is something you didn’t often see with people who should know better (Like, you know… Mike. Again some pretty intentional cues I’ve been doing.)

I intended for Paulo to continue being conscious of the deafness on page 8, as you can see by the “flip” (Because sometimes I draw out of thin air and often draw Lucy on the left :-[ Which I’m trying to be more conscious about), but I went against that in the final product! Because, again, Paulo isn’t THAT self-aware. Lucy doesn’t speak out about her hearing as much as she honestly should.

I was really playing around with Lucy’s pose on panel 3, it’s funny that none of the poses I sketched out in the thumbs ended up being used. 

Oh, here are some key differences! I didn’t know how angry I was going to make Paulo! Originally he was meant to be bawling his eyes out and crying desperately for Lucy to be with him, but I thought that was such a wild reaction, especially as I needed him to get pouty and spiteful for the final sequence (which is Lucy pushing him to go to Daisy’s party). You don’t go from crying desperately to being petty and spiteful, especially for someone like Paulo. 

I had so much trouble with this sequence! I was frustrated with the pacing and didn’t really know how to get Paulo from point A (Being upset with Lucy’s rejection) to point B (The upset feeling turning into pettiness as he refuses to go to Daisy’s party to spite Lucy) 

I think what I chose ultimately is for Paulo not to really cry that much? He didn’t end up bawling, but being teary-eyed and feeling more entitled than heartbroken. 

And then an idea hit me.

Instead of Paulo just sitting there and taking Lucy yelling at him and making him feel bad, I had him retaliate by RIPPING THE TEDDY BEAR’S HEAD OFF.

That changed tone ENTIRELY. 

Like here, Lucy screams at him and he just takes it (Because in the original sequence he’s upset in a heartbroken bawling way, not upset in an angry entitled way), and then he goes to being spiteful. I thought the bear-ripping fit more with how charged the scene was, and come on, Paulo and Lucy are two of the most hotheaded characters in the comic. Paulo might have lotsa feelings for Lucy, but he wouldn’t let himself be trampled like that. 

SO YEAH I GUESS I WROTE MORE ABOUT THIS CHAPTER THAN I EXPECTED. Funny how looking back at the thumbs hit me with so many memories of how I felt throughout planning it!