Page Commentary No. 79

Gunwild: This is based on the poster of a movie Psu and I watched and really didn't like, Casino Royale. The orignal one. From the 60s. Which has nothing to do with the book or regular James Bond movies.

Psu: Not bad. I say that about my own work kinda rarely. There are some iffy bits in the anatomy and I don't even draw Cassiopeia's face like that anymore but still. Not bad.

Gunwild: Ah, Cupcake as a card is more valuable than Maddy! Finally, a Queen worth "yaaasing."

Psu: Boooooo.

Psu: There are some things I would do differently now. I'd probably try to make her back even better in the frame and move her head up, just so we can get mroe space for the title. I would probably do slightly less deformation on the painting. There isn't that much sense in pretending it's actually painted on though following her curves was fun.

Gunwild: I'd change nothing, because I'm a jerk who's still patting himself on the back for the chapter title "Casinopeia," even though it's obvious and took like three seconds to come up with. I still love it.

Psu: There's a lot to like here though. We don't get as illustrative with the covers anymore, or the pinups really. A lot of times we like developing a reality which the images take place in, and they're beautiful on their own. But we've strayed away from doing covers or pinups that are more painterly or surreal. Some of that I think is about how we want to please our readers.

Gunwild: Plus you get your Cassiopinup ya-yas out monthly right here on Patreon!

Psu: Gunwild is using a lot of words tonight that I don't fully understand. Either that or I'm really tired...

Psu: Anyway, sexy cover is still sexy. I really do like the idea of body paint as a canvas thing. And I'm really happy getting away with slipping in Lefyne as the Joker card. It's a good subtle introduction to the character. And maaaaaybe dropping the card is a subtle foreshadowing? Actually I just thought about that now. But let's just say we totally intentionally made it about tossing him from the ship.

Gunwild: Subtle foreshadowing! So subtle it wasn't even there until years later!

Psu: Well, I'm also glad we got a cover so colorful it nearly hurts the eyes. Cause we're unfortunately not gonna see color again for quite a while...

Gunwild: It's fine, Casino Royale (1967) was in color and that didn't help it any.