Comic Report #121 - Tying Threads Together

It's been a big week this week!  My teammate and I have been putting together a hub project to connect our various projects we've worked on over the years, as well as highlighting current projects and showcasing future projects that are still in the works.  It isn't quite ready yet so I don't want to put it fully on blast until everything is just right, but we're looking to have it ready for the new year.  Dead Winter has been kind of its own thing for a very long time, so it's nice to have it set up in a showcase alongside a few other things, it makes everything feel more Complete.  More details on that later, but for now you can know that we're building something neat.

Speaking of the new year, the end of this one's coming up fast and I'm gonna see if I can squeeze one more page in on this side of the line rather than post it on January 1st when everyone is tired and might miss it.   Like our above-mentioned hub project, this page is tying a bunch of plot threads together into a neat little bow and leading cleanly into the next big moment of the comic.  Let's hop in and take a look at what's going on on this page!

The shot opens with Lizzie tiredly getting out of bed, pulling a shirt on and going to the window to see who is making all that noise.  Alice is watching nervously from the bed with Mr. Cuddles.  I want to convey that Lizzie is pulling on one of Alice's shirts, but I'm not sure if I want to make it the GWAR one or her old rabbit shirt from the beginning of the comic, whichever one will read as more Alice's.  I probably need to take another crack at the "pulling on a shirt" pose, there's a particular energy I want to capture in the shot that I don't think is there yet.  Liz tucking her flashlight gun into her underwear so she can use both hands to pull a shirt on is, I think, a funny visual gag, but I also need to work the pose just right to convey the awkwardness of doing this in the middle of the night.

From here the camera pulls back and we're looking into the room from the same angle, on the other side of the glass.  Lizzie's silhouette is hazy through the frost-laden glass.  A quarter bounces off the pane, pinging and rebounding into the air.  This panel ties our two major threads together- here's someone trying to discretely get the girls' attention.  What a surprise, it's Pat!  The next row of panels has the camera looking down at Pat, almost pityingly.  He's got a handful of pocket change he's been throwing at the glass, trying to make just enough noise to get someone's attention without making too much noise and getting anyone else's attention.  He's whimpering and desperate, his fingers are getting cold, he reaches for another coin and fumbles, dropping the change into the snow.  When he reaches down to try to pick one out of the snow, a very bright, very harsh light shines down on him from above.  Poor hapless Pat, someone up there is looking out for you.  Someone has heard your pleas.  

It's Lizzie.  She's been awakened from her sleep and her girlfriend is upset, so now she's gotta stick her head out the window and shine a flashlight down to see what all the commotion is, only to find Pat in her backyard.  There is no way for Pat to recognize what that bright flashlight pointed at him is attached to, and Liz pays that aspect of it no mind.  She's a bit cranky, demanding in maybe too loud of a voice to know what Pat is doing out here scaring her girlfriend in the middle of the night.  The camera pulls back, revealing Pat struggling underneath the harsh light of attention he'd been seeking.  He pleads his case:  he's in over his head, he's in big trouble and he needs help.  And then, in the last panel, a closer shot of Pat:  you're in trouble too.  What could that mean?  Liz and Alice hadn't done anything but do their jobs and kiss.  Is this trouble connected to Lizzie's investigations for the Deputy Mayor, or is it a different shade of trouble darkening their door?  I guess we're not going to shoo Pat away quite so hastily.

That's the long and short of this page.  I'll be revising the sketches and trying to get it inked, but I really want to get a bunch of other important things done as well.  The hub project mentioned above, game development (Dead Winter), game development (Kitsune Tails), building up my Titan Garden project buffer and doing a little freelance work for pals.  I'm gonna try to make sure the good stuff goes up in 2023 and not 2024, so bear with me.  Thanks for sticking around this year, a lot has happened, and I'm excited to share the fruit our work will bear in the year to come.  For now, though, it's back to the grindstone.  Take it easy, and have a good weekend.