Chapter Five: Pages 25 - 28

Last week, things were not looking good for Alexandra, her father, and their ride for Barathron. But we will have to come back to them, because over in Archipoli, Alexandra's mother and uncle have problems, too. They need a safe place for the villagers to hunker down. Vignelli's manor is a natural solution — there is probably still food left from the ball. It's a smart idea that no caring person could possibly oppose…

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NOTES.

First, I remember exactly where I was when I thought "ooh, Sofia should stand up to Vignelli and Vignelli should see Alexandra in her, and that will remind Vignelli of the way Alexandra accused him of conspiracy, and he'll use that idea against Sofia." I love that development and what it adds to their conflict.

Second, here's a dumb mistake I made on these pages!

In my original inks (below), for some reason, in the two right-most panels I teleported Sofia (Alexandra's Mom) and Nikos (Uncle) to the top of the stairs.

In every adjacent page, they're standing in the plateau in the middle of the stairs, below Vignelli. I genuinely don't know what happened here, other than a lack of attention on my part.

After eventually accepting this setback, I re-drew the second panel digitally and removed Sophia and Nikos from the third panel (below).

That makes it sound simple but I really am eliding a lot of grumbling on my part, a lot of holding my head in my hands.

I like sharing these goof-ups. I don't know why. I don't know if I expect them to bring you joy, or if I'm secretly looking for Extra Credit, or what. I do find it inherently interesting when other people do it. Maybe it's valuable to remember that in any project, not all movement is forward movement.

We're decommissioning our fireplace. We're going to wall it up. Do not message me to tell me I'm shaving tens of thousands of dollars off the resale value of our home; our house is for living in. The old mantel was ugly, the gas insert was overpowered for the room, and it's the best spot in the room to put our TV. Really, as soon as we put it in front of the fireplace, the whole shape of the room improved. But I digress.

On Wednesday I spent the whole afternoon trying to build a rigid foam plug to stop up the chimney (don't worry, the chimney's vented at the top). Long story short, it did not work. I could not find a way to make it the right size and get it into place, considering the shape of the void, my ability to access it, and the shape of the flue. Which was frustrating because 1) I was trying to do it while Kiddo wanted me to be amusing him, and 2) it feels like I have a billion things to do, and when things feel that way, setbacks are draining. You probably know what I'm talking about — you get dirty, you get sweaty, you make a mess and have to clean it up… and have nothing to show for it.

Why am I telling you this? For one thing, I'm venting (partial pun noted and accepted). And maybe it's me trying to forge a connection — look, if you can't relate to me on my drawing screw-ups, maybe you can relate to these home-reno screw-ups. Or both! And we can all clink glasses and agree that sometimes effort gets wasted, despite our best efforts.

(Yesterday, after I described this situation to our neighbour — who is building a house — he gave us some Rock Wool insulation and I shoved it up the chimney in fifteen minutes and I am considering our chimney officially draft-proofed.)

As I was writing this I noticed that in the third panel above, there's a guy in the foreground whose head is making a bad tangent with Vignelli's leg and crotch. But you know what? It doesn't look as bad in the colour version, and it's mostly obscured by a word balloon, so I'm considering that problem officially solved, too.

High fives all around! < House collapses around me, Buster Keaton-style. >

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In our next instalment, we'll see if anyone's willing to support Vignelli and the slander he's spraying over the townsfolk. Hopefully not, right?

Until then,
I remain,
as soon as we put it in front of the fireplace the whole shape of the room improved,

TC