Here is an example of how the script gets revised while I draw it! I mentioned earlier that I tend not to think so much about the visuals while I script. But sometimes, that approach leads to a page like this one, where the characters are having long conversations about topics important to the plot, but all they’re doing is just sitting there. My inner writer is in conflict with my inner artist, because as interesting as I may think that dialogue is, visually speaking it’s as boring as watching grass grow. So I brainstormed something that I could add to make the background more interesting, and I hit on the idea of following Aria as she finds an item to look at on Fusella’s shelves, while she listens to Darvin and Fusella talk at each other. Then the “item” developed into a picture frame, and suddenly I had a clever way to sneak in a bit of character backstory into the artwork.
Ideally, in comics, the art should work just as hard as the word balloons to tell the story. With my process, I sometimes only arrive at that goal by a very roundabout way.
Up there in the top left corner is a little bird’s-eye-view of Fusella’s office, the current setting. It helps me remember where everything is when I start moving the so-called camera angle around.
