Welcome back, gang!
Well, it’s San Diego Comic Con week, which means a lot of prep and running around for me. No, I’m not on any panels this year, nor do I have a booth– but I will be doing as much grassroots Spy6teen marketing as possible.
It’s funny, it was just two years ago, I took a portfolio and pitch book of the Zuda version (plus, some concept stuff of what you’re currently reading) down to SDCC to show of. The next year, I was a little ill-prepared– and we only had 4-pages up, so I loaded them on my phone and used that as a small presentation piece to folks that I met. It was cool, but obviously, we didn’t have a ton of material to showcase.
This year, I’ll have a hard copy to show off, plus images loaded up on my phone and snazzy new cards (with a QR code!) to hand out and place on the various freebie tables:
A large part of the grassroots Spy6teen SDCC adventure is of course, meeting people! And one of the best things about SDCC is, there’s a ton of people to meet! I’m aiming to hang out with our Spy6teen pal, Jules Rivera (of Valkyrie Squadron fame)– so, if you’re also headed to San Diego, please let me know and we’ll get a small little web/digital comic gathering going somewhere!
Since prep is bound to get nuts (all the little thing, like doing laundry!), I’ll save most of the other Con blathering for Thursday– where I’ll let you know what panels I’m planning on checking out. Of course, if you can’t make it to San Diego, don’t worry: I’ll have a full writeup for you next week!
Ok– busy day: Let’s move onto—
PROCESS
The rainclouds haven’t quite broken yet, but we’ve transitioned out of the Cally/Conrad beat to check in with Don and Sears.
This is another 2-page beat– with today’s page being mostly setup for next week’s. That said, there’s still plenty to talk about!
First off, from a story perspective: I hemmed and hawed about the “Note” line on this page– Which, actually, Editor DJ suggested to change to “Suicide Note” for clairifation.
I’m not 100% sure folks picked up on it, but back on Page 5, Miles mentions that Kevin has “Left a note behind“– Again, it’s always hard to tell how this will flow for a reader who sits down and plows through the issue in one sitting– but I almost wonder if the week-to-week pacing actually somewhat hinders the reading experience for quick subtle bursts of info like this.
Anyhow, the intent was: Kevin, obviously, did not leave a note behind– but rather Sears and Don’s mysterious “boss.” Yeah, we’re starting to hint at a big bad!
Even though this is a setup page for next week, we’re still moving stuff forward!
The other callback on this page is the fact that we’re in the school theater, with Don/Sears having clearly taken it over. That goes all the way back to Page 4 of Issue 1, where Cally mentions that the Football Coach doubles as the Drama teacher. Clearly, since he’s put the theater “under renovation” we can guess that his first love isn’t the arts!
DJ did another amazing job putting together the Theater “Set”– it ended up being exactly what I’d envisioned. I realize this might not be exactly what a “real” theater looks like, but it is at Montauk High!!
Also a big fan of the little details DJ popped in here: The Energy drinks, junk food wrappers, and empty water bottles. If you look really closely in Panel 2, you can see Sears and Don have even hung up a few posters– and just generally trashed the place. It’s always great when DJ throws in some storytelling beats that fall between the panels!
COLORS! LETTERS!
I’ve mentioned before how every person on Team 16 knows exactly what’s right for each page: And here Lisa proves it!
I’d totally forgotten to mention that in our establishing shot, we should still be under some gray skies– particularly since we’re coming right out of a downpour– but I did want to create the illusion of time passing– hence no rain.
That said, I forgot to mention all this to Lisa– as it turns out: no need! Lisa knew exactly what to do with our establishing shot!
When it came time for lettering, Brant got a good “Burst Balloon” in!
This is a great letterer’s page, as it really illustrates exactly how balloons can create volume dynamics– From Sears’ quiet “I know” in panel 2, to Don’s outburst in Panel 4– this page has a fairly large dynamic range.
We should also note that Brant laid in the “Under Renovations” sign on panel 1!
WRAP UP!
Well, that’s about it for this week! As I mentioned earlier, we’ll be back Thursday with a pre-Spy6teen goes to Comic Con report on Blog@16!
In the meantime, I’m off to finish prepping up! (And yes, that may or may not mean laundry!)
