096: Bad Motivator
November 12, 2024
Oh geez, only four comics left! The final ‘reveal’ is upon us!
This comic was kind of a ‘we’ve regrouped and are heading in to the final encounter’ beat. Also reminding us of the ticking clock and putting more emphasis on that. Not very successful in the ‘gag’ department, despite attempting two separate mini-jokes. Probably could have re-written this one a hundred ways to make it flow better. But done is done. Let’s move on.
I’m finally comfortable drawing Laurel in various action poses and emotional states. If you’ll notice in the early comics she pretty much just stood there, stoic. That’s not the Laurel I envisioned. She’s sarcastic, but also runs a bit hot (anxiety!). It’s been fun to make her face go into full panic/shock. Also I finally tried the comic trope of “many arms indicate a rapid waving motion” in the first panel. I think it works really well! Go me.
Yes, there really is a person named Booth Tarkington.
I am a bit concerned the final reveal just no good. It’s a decent ‘twist’ but kind of obvious when you think about it. But maybe that’s the point? To get you to think about it? It’s not Shakespeare or Scalzi, but it does push the story and characters forward and refine the setting. I didn’t want to reveal everything, and I also had to take into consideration what the characters currently know about their situation (very little). So given that, it felt right to just open the door a bit.
I could still re-write the next two comics to be completely different, but it took me about three months to figure out this ending. I doubt I’ll be able to fight Covid and re-write with a brilliant new ending. This one is good enough for now.