Book 1, Page 77

Becky and I both want to apologize for the less frequent updates lately. We feel bad about it and want to get back to weekly updates; unfortunately, that doesn't look likely to happen in August. 

Becky has been very busy with unavoidable life stuff, and with work that isn't as fun as SuperButch but does earn a living. And this month, she has an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime chance to take a trip to Japan! All of these things mean less time for SuperButch. But none of this is permanent, so we should be able to get to the other side and return to our regular schedule. In the meantime, we're going to try to update every other week. 

In other news: If you live in New York City, you have a chance to meet Becky (and pick up some SuperButch on paper!) at Flamecon this weekend! It's an enormous convention of queer creators and media, and it should be a great time.

So, about this page... Panels 4 and 5 are a great example of how Becky and I influence each other's work. When Becky showed me the rough layout for this page, panel 4 was a tight close-up of Ruth's face looking straight at the camera, which made panels 4 and 5 into matching portraits of Ruth and Lillian. This is visually striking and can be a good storytelling choice, but I wanted to emphasize Ruth's nervousness, so I asked for panel 4 to be changed to a full-figure drawing that made Ruth look small. 

And in panel 5, I had originally written Lily saying something like "I see" or "I get you." But Becky's beautiful drawing of Lily's expression in panel 5 made the "I see" redundant. The dialog was deleted so that Becky's art could carry the panel and (in my opinion) that was a big improvement.

This is the kind of back-and-forth between writing and art that makes SuperButch such a joyful collaboration for me. Although these may seem like small details - and they are! - there are so many things like this that happen, on every page. And the constant back-and-forth leads to producing a comic that is unlike what either Becky or I could have done on our own. 

Thanks so much for your support of SuperButch! (And for your patience!) It's 99 degrees in Portland today; I hope it's cooler where you are. See you soon with page 78!