This is me leaving

There has been a lot of dialogue leading up to the page, and Ronni really has been on her best behavior in dealing with the witch. But she’s got her limits, and Morgan has surpassed them with her scorn and condescension- almost as if that’s part of her plan. After all, she doesn’t have to convince Ronni, she has a much more solid plan in place to motivate her to go on this adventure.

Plus this is the first page where we get to see the witch genuinely surprised by something- she didn’t expect a comprehensive answer to her question from Giant Girl, yet there it is.

DEE’S NOTES I liked setting up panel one like a chess match, with the characters facing off, with all the light sources in the middle of the room. I thought it was a nice way to do something a smidge different than the shots we've been seeing.

Also, had to remember at the last second to FLOP the part in Ronni's hair for her reflection. Heh Heh

COMMENTS

And so on and so forth

I love how Morgan is so blase about the war between light and darkness, which illustrates exactly what her perspective is on all of it. A little prophetic vision or two in the teacup- I mean, why not make yourself a scrying teacup to save you from having to spellcast?

The comedic overreaction of 64 is something I forget I used to do with him from time to time, and it’s nice to get back to it. Turns out it was in the original script, so I kept it on the revision.

If you’ve read the story, you know just how accurate the witch is being here, while still speaking in vagaries and what seems like just general concepts. Once again illustrating that effective communication is apparently not that easy for the dramatic old know-it-all. Although given that her goal is winding up our heroine to piss her off, she is effective, I feel.

DEE’S NOTES

This page was both fun to do, and artistically a way to catch up as I’ve been sick of late and have fallen a smidge behind. We took advantage of existing art to FORESHADOW what Ronni will be facing, but hopefully made it look really cool in the process.

It took a little back and forth to figure out how to do the ripples in the tea, but I like how the effect came out.

COMMENTS

Spoilers

So, this is the witch engaging in ‘oh, look how clever I am, it’ll all make sense in retrospect’ wordplay. She starts by answering Ronni’s first question quite truthfully- it is Giant Girl that she wants, not 64 Bit. Meanwhile, she’s deliberately wearing on Ronni’s nerves, playing them like a virtuoso violinist. Then she spells it out- ‘engage’ with the giants.

Making an impact on local history is really droll if you know that Ronni’s confrontation with the goblin city of Igglehoop is coming. Oh ho ho, she’s gonna break her arm patting herself on the back here. I love writing Morgan because she is an insufferable know-it-all, but she does actually KNOW, which makes her that much more interesting to me.

It isn’t that she doesn’t understand how to deal with people, to my eye, it’s that she chooses precisely how to deal with the rest of the world. Because she can- I mean, she literally lives in her own little world, in this pocket dimension. Because for her, it’s all about control.

Can you tell that Ronni’s about reached the limits of her calm here?

DEE’S NOTES

One of the first lessons I took to heart, when I started taking my desire to draw comics seriously as a kid, was to figure out how to make two characters talking look interesting! There's not a lot going on with this page, except for some solid, back-and-forth verbal sparring. But I knew I wanted a full-money shot of Morgan on her "throne" commanding the room. I knew I wanted a tight, chess-match feel to the pacing as the panels get a little tighter on the figures in the scene.

It's a fairly large, open room. Hell, one of the walls is missing and leads to a cosmic expanse of the unknown. BUT I still wanted the scene to feel imposing. Ronni is feeling a smidge trapped by the situation, and I wanted that to be felt in the staging and "camera" work.

This entire story is a crucible for Giant Girl, and that fire is being warmed up in this room.

COMMENTS

Walk with me

Now we take a little stroll through the non-euclidean mansion, where the armor suits are watching you, the Moai is watching you, the haunted portraits are watching you...

The witch is already dropping hints of things to come, because, of course, she knows what’s going to happen, and she’s being smug about it. That just comes naturally to her- imagine if you were very old, and you knew what was going to happen all the time. Now imagine trying NOT to be smug about it after centuries.

It doesn’t excuse the witch’s behavior, but it does at least explain it.

That ‘mildly mean-spirited threat’ crack indicates that she was listening in on their conversation in the cab. Which is more than a little creepy.

I love the air quotes around ‘super powers’. It’s not only the witch showing disdain for the idea of superheroes, but also her indicating that she knows what Ronni’s true power is, as she tries to pass it off as super powers. Also, her flat lidded eyes speak volumes in this shot.

Our thought is that since Ronni’s been here before, she likely asked about the simulacrums, and Morgan never passes up an opportunity to brag.

Any guesses as to the non-actionable identities of the ghost portraits?

DEE’S NOTES

I do love me drawing some spooky, haunted mansion vibes, and Stanely’s mostly-silent reactions to everything were fun to suss out. As always, I enjoy drawing character acting, so scenes like this are always a lot of fun to work out.

It’s essentially a “walk and talk” scene, which can get visually dull if you don’t work out your camera work and layout properly, In this case, the disjointed panels are both as foreshadowing for a scene already drawn at the end, and a way to emphasize that the geography of the house is confusing. I use those to purposefully break the 180 rule, and it’s not a thing I do lightly, but I hope it’s effective here.

COMMENTS

Dare you enter- an EC Comic?!?

Dee was just finishing some additional shadows I had asked for in a few spots when she remarked that as soon as Ronni and Stanley passed through that gate, they were suddenly in an EC comic. Had to agree.

Witching Hill, in all its rambling, Winchester mansion-esque glory. Islands floating with gates and stepping stones leading out to them, all hanging in the cosmic shadowy dimension of wonder and crackle. You can even see the projection from that amazing pentacle window on the checkerboard marble floor. Really impressive work on Dee’s part with this page’s backgrounds overall.

It all feels a bit epic as our heroine casually strolls into it, I think.

Then once inside, the haunted house atmosphere gets turned up slowly, as the witch clearly embraces her aesthetic. And to her credit, she does have a very cool house. Library shelves for days.

And we get our first good look at the Witch of Washington, who’ll offer a proper introduction as we move along

DEE’S NOTES

If you can’t tell I have a deep and abiding love of both Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Mansion from this page, I don’t know what else I can DO! Lol.

It’s fun to get to come back around to the beginning and draw Morgan again in her big, creepy, extradimensional abode. Lots of fun with shadow placement and mood. Plus, a nice ‘ZOINKS!’ moment when the door opens on them.

The backgrounds took a while, to be sure, but it was important to establish the mood we wanted to press.

COMMENTS

Don’t call it a remake!

This is the first full retread of one of the original pages. We rewrote the intro to make the beginning of the book also an introduction to the character and the world. With that accomplished, what was formerly page 2 is being re-envisioned here, Dee style.

To be honest, I’m pretty sure Koen followed exactly what I was asking for with the original layout. I’ll post the original in the comments, although I won’t be doing that throughout this process. I had an annoying tendency to just pack panels with big blocks of dialogue. Dee convinced me to start breaking statements up to make them more readable, and I can see the folly of my ways in the past as I review these old pages.

Poor nervous cabbie, worried that he’s gonna end up flattened in his own cab. The scenery sliding past in the window as he drives works SO darn well, too!

I love the little unassuming little house. You’d never look twice at it from the street.

Oh, and there’ll be a Mature version of this page on the Patreon, for folks of that tier of support who would like to see a little more of Ronni....

DEE’S NOTES

I love pages like this for a number of reasons. One, of course, is that they offer something of a breath between more dense or actiony scenes for both the readers and myself as the artist. But it’s also a great opportunity to draw what I kinda like to draw most: character conversations.

I love working out the “acting” on faces and body language, and scenes like this are wonderful opportunities to dig into the characters and play.

To achieve the reflection in the window, an effect that I think really helps sell the drama of that moment, I got an image of houses from that area from the right POV, converted the photo to line art, gave it a little motion blur and overlaid it atop the art. It really has that look of a reflection on glass, where you can still see through it, and I am happy with how it came out.

COMMENTS

Hailing a cab, Giant Girl style

Part of the fun of this comic happening (at least partially) in the real world is that we get to use real-world locales for the backdrop. Since the Witch of Washington lives in Queen Anne, this was a great way to showcase a bit of the Emerald City. And when meeting someone while riding air currents into town, what better place to meet than on the pier?

Stanley Hope, aka 64 Bit, choose to wander around as a literal 64-bit non-actionable parody character because as a living polygonal cartoon, he’s easy to spot, even from the air. Ronni, of course, is the lady in red, the outfit which screams ‘lookit me’, so he knew she’d find him and he would know when she arrived.

Longtime readers might note that he’s considerably pudgier here than 5 years later, and that’s very intentional. There’s something very wrong with his life, although he hasn’t put it all together yet. I definitely wanted an external manifestation of this visible so we can see how much happier he is later.

Notice the citizenry all looking very nervous around the living walking talking disaster waiting to happen. Giant Girl’s reputation preceded her.

DEE’S NOTES (Page 6)

I love the idea of Ronni shifting her size and mass to glide on air currents and had a lot of fun drawing that. Plus, SUPERHERO LANDING for the win!

Near the end of this story, we show Stanley’s application of his powers only twice, but we worked out the idea of the shifting voxels to visualize it. And, like every time I’ve drawn it, I only ever shadow his transformed versions with more solid gray, rather than the faux-duotone effect for everything else. The idea being is that no matter HOW realistic the game character he becomes, it will always look somewhat unreal in an uncanny valley way.

The script featured him waiting transformed into a plumber of nondescript appearance, and I added the idea of him taking advantage of that to take selfies with the locals like he was a cosplayer in Times Square. It’s what I would do with that power at least HALF the time!

COMMENTS

Credits by way of James Bond opening title montage!

This one may appear a bit tiny, because in print it will be a 2-page spread. So click to embiggen, for sure.

We thought we’d take advantage of the revised opening to showcase a few things. Like the fact that Ronni is on the TSA’s ‘No Fly List’, which should come as no surprise to anyone. Giant Girl in a metal tube full of 200+ people flying 35,000 feet off the ground sounds like a recipe for disaster, right?

With this in mind, and the fact that her bad luck tends to keep her perpetually broke, we thought showing how she uses her shrinking powers to sneak into the airport and onto planes was something that we would show, rather than tell, how she circumvents authority and does what she pleases. And once again, we return to the dotted line for adventure, as she leaves a smoking Atlanta and heads to a not-yet-smoking Seattle.

Yet.

The fact that she doesn’t bother to change out of her costume to do all of this also says a lot about her, I think. Low profile is not her thing. But inflight entertainment courtesy of a movie saved on her phone, relatively the size of a big screen TV, and snacks she blows up for economy-sized enjoyment are definitely her thing. SMRTFÜD FTW!

Once she gets where she’s going, she gets big, yet light, to catch air currents, and creatively manipulates her mass to get from SeaTac to Seattle proper, startling pigeons and using her phone to navigate as she calls 64 Bit to coordinate their meeting in the Emerald City.

EDIT: Since it came up, the soundtrack to this sequence, which I have no rights to nor make any claim to;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc3KXwd8ZWQ

DEE’S NOTES

This is a sequence that, in the original script, was two pages written in a more traditional grid. There was a lot of fun story being conveyed in the sequence that silently showed how, as Sabrina explained, our heroine traveled on the cheap. After some discussion and doodles, we decided to go NUTS with the composition and layout and really open up the concept.

Normally, I am a much more subdued artist where page layout is involved. I prefer clarity of storytelling over fancy design, but in this case, I think the sequence called for something special. It establishes, for new readers, SO much about Ronni, her powers AND her personality.

We both did a lot of work in the reference stage to make the backgrounds fairly accurate and I enjoyed adding gags in the background to give it some more fun.

COMMENTS

The Next Crisis

We start off with a Shirva lecture, which I kind of love. He takes time to make dramatic pronouncements like declaring the galaxy safe once more, while Ronni’s simple request for a high five invites a lecture on responsibility from the shining knight. I included this one to show a bit of the personality of both characters, as well as to establish that Ronni and authority seldom get along well.

The kiss on top of his head hopefully indicates she loves him anyway, and is genuinely grateful for his help. Ronni’s no ingrate, and she does love her friends and allies. Mostly.

Then of course we get the mystical portal of the Witch of Washington popping in, a format of magic we’ll see again much later in the book. But it was important for us to distinguish the different character’s effects and MO, and I really feel this hint of subtle menace and ominous presence sets the stage for who the Witch is and what role she serves in the story.

If you look closely, you can see the light from her fireplace reflected in her glasses. Dee threw that in intentionally, and she was right- it focuses your attention on her actual eyes. And the fact that Ronni’s danger sense alerts her is definitely a telling sign. Nice people don’t set off your danger sense.

Ronni’s comment about being a knight errant becomes a bit prophetic here, given what the Witch plans to ask her to do, which is essentially just that. Which of course Ronni doesn’t know yet, but as we know where she is going and why, it becomes ironic. Ah, the benefit of knowing how it will all work out as we reconstruct the beginning of the story. Also, for the record, I am aware it is 'Knights-errant' in the plural, and yes, Ronni is saying it incorrectly.

For the record, I know it’s probably a rule- never name the story inside the story. But as I looked over the dialogue I realized she’s done it before, and why would she not describe what she’s up to as a ‘Giant Girl adventure’?

DEE’S NOTES

There is a lot of hinting and foreshadowing happening here, for readers who know where the story is going. Ronni’s super-hero team up HERE is with a cosmic paladin in shiny armor that is lecturing her, which is familiar on purpose.

And we also show a bit of RONNI’s power source in her “danger sense” moment. Hopefully, these are details that are fun for those of you who have BEEN reading all along, and intriguing for our new readers.

COMMENTS

Left Hangin

When the menace is more than you think you can handle and you’re pretty sure it’s an alien supercriminal, you call a cop. Shirva’s Dimensional Displacer is an irresistible force that pulls the target into a void dimension, from which there is no escape. Judge, jury and jailer all in one chromed-out caped carapace.

Love the digitizing weapons. When I saw Dee drew them coming into being from the furthest point out and digitizing toward his hand, I thought the reverse, the ‘holstering’ of the weapon as it disintegrates would look nifty here.

DEE’S NOTES

We always try to make sure that each page has a sense of completion as what it is, and here, it’s ending on a fun little gag to lead you to the next page, which I had a lot of fun with. It’s the kind of comedy acting that allows me to stretch my “humor comic strip” chops with Ronni’s changing expression and more deflated body language in the last panel.

I can say that while our alien menace had a cool design, I’m glad we portaled him away quickly, as all those crystals took forever to draw. lol

COMMENTS