Page Commentary No. 12

Gunwild: My favorite thing on this page, besides its many charms, is panel 3. Cassiopeia is nonchalant, while almost affectionate, and Maddy is going nuts silently. Meanwhile the little offhanded gun wiggle is there. That wasn't in the script.

Psu: That's called "ACTING" gun. We take what's on the script and give it the flair only an ACTOR can bring to the table. snooty harrumph

Gunwild: You'd think I might have learned earlier in my career from stuff like that to leave more room for improvisation on your part in my scripts. But nope!

Psu: There are a LOT of things in this page that I like but there are a number of things that I really don't anymore. One, their eyes in panel one are INSANELY big, even for me. And the more I see this cloudy shading, the less I like it for this comic. It made sense for something like our Salamander comic, but here it gives the whole thing a bit too much "dirt."

Gunwild: Will it be the last time Cassiopeia gives Maddy a big hug? STAY TUNED, AUDIENCE.

Psu: Heh. On the other big things that I like about this page. You might notice that Cassiopeia is HUGE compared to Maddy. I think I may have mentioned before that I started off thinking Cassiopeia was "Amazonian" in size but over the course of drawing her I think she reverted to a more normal human person size. I think drawing her in a hoodie set me up for that. And also the fact that Zeke is ALSO super tall and I drew them in so many normal situations, it kinda evened them both out.

Psu: There are a few other details here that were tricky to get across. Maddy couldn't get her sword out of the scabbard cause it's stuck to the magnet for one. That little bit of "boob squish" that some people live for in comics. The overall effect I think was definitely worth it. But there was one thing I remember I had to discuss with Gunwild, was the Shield Lock concept.

Psu: I don't think that ever made another appearance in the comic.

Gunwild: Yeah, it's kind of a complicated idea, not to mention one that would take a few panels to illustrate "happening" even once to give a clear idea of its significance. Oh, well!

Psu: The Shield Lock was here to do a couple things, I remember I was arguing for how Cassiopeia would've needed a more sure fire backup incase they did decide to shoot at the both of them. And her "shields" would act as a solid line of defense at least against some amount of blaster fire while she makes her escape. Then the idea became that people would have personal shields, especially important people, that could act as safety from sudden attack OR sudden explosive decompression.

Psu: Shield Locking, was supposed to be a behavior in emergency situations where two people could lock themselves together to prevent drifting apart in a vacuum or other useful things like hacking through and holding onto feisty starship captains.

Gunwild: Well, I'm glad I built on the statement in the last page that these honor-obsessed, dressy types are predictable. 'Cause you see here, Cassiopeia realizes that they won't risk the life of a hostage captain if there isn't an active threat to the rest of them.

Psu: Honestly, I know for a FACT that this page turned a lot of people off of Cassiopeia's side but TOTALLY on Maddy's side in the story. And I think something about this even affected me while reading your script. I think I wanted the captain to be an important character in the future.

Psu: Also, what was the name you originally had for her?

Gunwild: Cally. Which is actually now the name of the short-haired blue girl from Vraxiopeia colony, at least in scripts.