First things first: I'm sorry. I'm dreadfully sorry. Page 13 wasn't even a clue-by-four; it was a moral sledgehammer. None of you deserve to have had to go through that. Problem was, I ran out of time, needed to find a way to end the story, and that was the only thing that I could think of after a full hour (and if you think that wasting an hour on plotting came easily, well, all I can say is, try it yourself some time).
At least I didn't have him (obviously) decide to try to become a dragon again. I had the good grace to leave his dreams undefined. It's like what they used to say back in the Old West: "Any cliche avoided is like a walk back from Boot Hill."
Well, at
least they would have used to say that in the Old West if I'd been there,
and had been sufficiently delusional from lack of sleep to mumble such a
thing through the watered-down swill that passed for beer at Jake's
Saloon, shortly before the lawmen locked me up for criminal overextension
of analogy.
Let's give credit where credit is due. (All
the blame, of course, is mine.) Of course, this entire endeavour would
not have occurred if it were not for the inspiration of Scott McCloud, author of
"Understanding Comics" and "Reinventing Comics" -- two guides that are
absolutely essential to understanding the medium as an art form. I also
don't think I would have felt such a personal attraction to the idea if I
hadn't admired Cerulean's "So This Is The
Desert" so much. And I owe a great debt of gratitude to Jhonen
Vasquez' "Fillerbunny" books, for showing just how enjoyable a brutally
retarded waste of space can be, and providing the final kick along the
road of "Hey, even I can do this." (The immortal words of Fillerbunny
echo in my head still: "You also wish that I were drawn consistently.
But there I cannot help you.") 
You can find references to all three of these in the comic; in fact, you probably noticed them already, and I shouldn't insult you by pointing them out. I've done so anyway. My bad.
In retrospect, I think that there was so much more I could have done with Shadows -- so much potential left untapped or brutally discarded. But, for what it is, I guess it's not bad. I'm proud of some of the technical achievements; the layout of page 4 and page 12, the deliberate use of non-framed spaces throughout, and some well-done individual panels (the last one on 7; the final page). I still like "Hersh Realty" -- not subtle at all, but it makes me grin. Sharon's allergies (which I'd meant to introduce earlier in the story, but oh well). The fake screenshot that introduces the story to the non-Tomorrowlands-savvy reader. I look upon these things, and I think, "It was good." My muse has been satisfied.
Sure, there were issues. I never settled in on a single way of drawing Pete's eyes. The style got more simple as the comic went on (and, ultimately, I ended up reusing old stock characters for the, uhm, NPCs -- the dragon's partner and B. Hersh played supporting roles in many of the comics I drew as a teenager). I forgot to fill in the magazine cover in P5/p5. The shading of Pete's hair and clothing varied from page to page because I couldn't be bothered to write down the colors I was using. Etcetera. All of the tiny little details that get overlooked in the rush to make the Big Picture look complete.
But that simply means that I have that much more room to improve next time.
(manaical laughter)
 Up to 24-hour comic index |
Please report errors or broken links to <webmaster@tomorrowlands.org>. Page is script-generated. Design © 2000 Tad "Baxil" Ramspott. |