A Woman Scorned

If you look at this from Queen Brunhilde’s perspective, five minutes ago her life was just fine. She was wondering what her big lunk of a husband was up to. Then one locked door later, and here we are. Her king is dead, twice over. Her kingdom has been overrun by men and titans. Her beautiful home, the central tower of the citadel that is their home, is in shambles, collapsing quickly under catastrophic assault. Her dragon is looking like he might just have met his match out there in the dark and stormy night.

Thus she explodes, indiscriminately firing those deadly icicles outward from her. Into her frozen dead husband’s ectoplasm. Into her own kith and kin. And into our intrepid party...

I’ma leave the suspense for next week. Also, 100 pages into a single story arc is an accomplishment even foir us, so here’s to page 100- that will probably be page 104 in the final printed volume- we’ll see, right?

DEE’S NOTES

This entire sequence between the Jarl and the Queen and her reaction here was the result of some very tight brainstorming between Sabrina and Myself, and I’m really happy with what we pulled off. We introduced a character a few pages ago that could have been less than one-note, and gave her an entire arc in a few pages to add a lot of gravitas to this battle. A battle, now, with some more serious consequences.

By and large, we’ve framed the major melee scenes in very specific ways, generally focusing on individual moments of badassery from our heroes in an ever-growing range of threats. Each major fight had upped the stakes and gotten more dangerous for our heroes, and this takes that to pretty much the only place it could go...

COMMENTS

Consider this a divorce

... is what those runes around Queen Brunhilde’s hand say, for the record.

Okay, so it’s cool, Ronni getting gigantic to try to Atlas the ceiling and protect the party. And Dee nailed the big impressive shot. I asked for Swann’s narration to be ‘hung’ on the panel borders, and we might go back and institute that across previous pages, because as it breaks the panel bnorders, so too does it break the narrative flow, taking us out of the moment and viewing it from a past tense, indicating that Swann might just survive all of this.

Here’s to the everyman.

But the real story here is Wraith Jarl Magnusson coming for his bride. I wanted his ‘unfinished business on this plane’ to be his possessiveness of her- the woman who was clearly too good for him. Whom we literally introduced to readers while he was in the middle of cheating on his wife- with another lady frost giant (that clearly looks nothing like Dee) and the captive mind-controlled storm giantess. Reanimated as a spectre (as opposed to the sparkling twinkling blue effect of Karloff’s previous raising of spirits from the dead), he plans to drag her to Jötunheimr with him.

Having to destroy your husband, because he came back from the dead as a wraith intent on dragging your soul to hell, really makes for a bad day. As you can see, shoving her arm into his chest has desiccated and withered her arm. Grim, eh?

Also? For those of you who felt that Dirk's lute couldn't exist, as a 3-necked instrument with one acoustic hole, now you know- it was a an enchanted lute that projected a simple audible illusion.

DEE’S NOTES

The drama between the Jarl and the Queen is playing out here amidst all the chaos of the battle, showcasing that these are all real LIVES in play. These two CLEARLY had some serious problems waaaay before our girl and her group showed up to literally wreck shop. I enjoyed giving her a very badass moment in this scene to claim her agency and also show a bit of her own power as a force to be reckoned with.

PLus, I REALLY liked drawing the NecroJarl. Rest in frozen peace.

COMMENTS

Patterns

On this page, we can see patterns at work, if you look. Britomart finds that, much like Kane, Stratonimbus is also headstrong, impetuous and prone to leaping into action without considering the consequences. Sure, the titan knocked the dragon through the wall, but Stratonimbus is casually making it worse.

Which is then followed by Giant Girl realizing that her actions are causing more chaos, as they tend to do. As she herself observed: “When I get big, stuff happens and people die. But people die anyway, so I have to get big, to try and keep worse stuff from happening. Vicious cycle and all that.” Here is that pattern in action.

Then Ali Kazaam, her ostensible sidekick for this mission- remember he was the one who chose to accompany her on the mission all those pages ago- has to save the day for her and buy her time. Doing so using his Shadow Witch spell, to cast three spells simultaneously, as we saw back in the trolll battle. Another familiar pattern.

Dirk Swann, the everyman of the quest, sees the pending danger and alerts the others to it. Another pattern that has repeated itself often on this adventure.

A gigantic, seemingly unwinnable battle, yet Britomart never falters, and never stops believing. She rallies the troops against overwhelming odds, because she believes. We’ve seen this time and again- if Giant Girl were not here, you can tell that Britomart would likely be calling the shots and making the plans, to do things in a more ‘mortal-friendly’ manner. But she makes do and still puts her all into it, as we have seen repeatedly.

Patterns. Maybe not the best examination of a page of action, but there you have it.

DEE’S NOTES

COMMENTS

We did the dungeon, so...

COMMENTS

My Greatest Treasure

Well, here's that payoff for Jarl Magnusson's creepy speech on the last page. I tried to work economically and succinctly here, to get across his desire and her horror, and I feel we pulled it off. The first dire wolf who bit him falling desiccated behind him as his sister discovers just what she bit into, and it starts sucking the life out of her.

Shattering his way through her defensive spell is also not doing wonders for Brunhilde, whose name I finally got out on the last page. I suppose one of the guards could have commented 'Aye, Queen Brunhilde' but it seemed lame and forced. Their names come out when they come out.

Dee's art, in those sliver panels, is brilliant economical storytelling, and I absolutely love Flynna getting a moment here as the distraction with her leaping and springing attacks, as Halder goes for the jugular. Smoke winding up in the first panel, as R'Lithon hops aboard his sword for a fastball special at the golem.

I'ma let Dee talk about the burns on the arm, and as for Karundrex? We're going to leave you on a cliffhanger there, until next week.

DEE’S NOTES

The burns on the bracer of Brunehilde’s left wrist, of course, come because she wrested her arm from the grip of the Jarl. The swirling, black fire is something that wasn’t in the script, but was something that I added in the visual stage that I took from the villain of a previous comic I had created called the Wellkeeper.

There, it was called the Withering Fire, and it served the exact same purpose that it does here, which was why I decided to carry the visual over. Plus, c’mon, it just looks creepy and cool.

This page was a way to really showcase the chaos of the battle from multiple angles, showing a bunch of our heroes in action as the “camera” swirls around the chamber. This is supposed to be an intense battle for our heroes and I hope it comes off as such.

COMMENTS

Tool User

Why was she carrying the great big axe she doesn't really know how to fight with into the battle? Because it was there, and she figured it's probably harder and sturdier than most if it was the frost giant ruler's weapon. Ergo when she needs something for a stunt, here it is.

Meanwhile, a lover's reunion between the widowed queen and the unquiet specter of her husband, with unfinished business in the land of the living. It's nice how much he cares, right? Not creepy at all.

DEE’S NOTES

Part of my goal in these pages is to show the action flowing from character to character with shots like panel 3 here. There is a natural transition here from Ronni being pelted by giant rocks to show the others running into the fray, then to the interaction between the Jarl and our Frost Queen.

And yes, those runes around all of her spells CAN be translated. ;)

COMMENTS

Cue the soundtrack after the silence

I wanted the big plan to be to gain that surprise attack, to give the party a chance to go on the offensive for that first round. And we take a long second as Ronni takes in the situation, makes a decision, and acts decisively, growing as she uses that big weird heavy metal giant axe make some room and back off the blue. A bit of narration from Swann, who will have a word or two here and there yet as our tale unfolds and his epic is crafted.

DEE’S NOTES

The upswing here is something I really wanted to draw. Thematically, it was inspired in part by the opening scenes of Fellowship of the Ring, and a particularly brutal kill in Friday the 13th Part 7 where Jason axes someone in the face with an upswing like the axe was a golf club. Lol

It’s also an opportunity to really showcase a few other story points, such as the scope of the team’s dilemma, the scale of the space, Ronni’s attitude as a member of said team. She is very much out in front here, but it is much more in line with everyone else in a way that she’s not done much. It’s an aspect of her growth (pun intended) that I enjoy in this arc.

COMMENTS

It’s good to be the Jarl

Malcolm is one of our patrons, who didn’t mind being rendered as a frost giant. As he is rather a great burly man, we cast him and promised him a great cameo. And here it is. Malcolm, here’s to you.

The idea here is that Ali Kazaam is casting an illusion to stop the charge in it’s tracks, and buy the party a surprise round on the guards and troops beyond the door. So that’s why it’s his expression on the illusionary Jarl’s face, and the three women are the ladies of the party, while Lexii is literally peeking out of the illusion so she can get a good look at naked Kane the frost giantess, as envisioned by Al’s obviously fertile imagination. And memory.

Panel 1 is dedicated to J. Scott Campbell, who etched this into my brain.

DEE’S NOTES

While drawing this, I had the idea that this illusion is being cast by Ali in my head, and as such drew his specific expressions as if he were providing the mocap for our dearly departed Jarl. It was a fun creative exercise to consider another characters “performance” on a different design.

The ripple effect was tricky to pull off, but I like the final product in the bottom panel.

COMMENTS

Talking Heads 

This is one of those moments where the fact that it is a serialized webcomic doesn’t serve us as well. Because you need to ride off the question of the previous page to properly appreciate the answer on this page.

So you may ask yourself, who is this powerful giant of the storm? And you may say to yourself, how did they capture her? You may ask yourself, if they had her as a mind controlled captive, surely they could find a better use for her than harem girl? You may say to yourself that even if they managed to slip her an ingested poison that worked on her and drugged her to a state they could control her, surely the frost giant king wouldn’t just try to throw her in as a side dish while he was cheating on his queen.

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down

Letting the days go by, water flowing underground

Long story short, Stratonimbus is in, manifesting her armor and summoning her weapons, even as she retrieves her helm, which the Jarl had appropriated and was hanging on his bedpost. We get a roll call of the characters, everyone taking a second to introduce themselves. Partially because it’s been maybe 70 odd pages since they were introduced in many cases.

It’s a page with 16 panels, but I love it. Stratonimbus looks magnificent for her big intro, everyone else takes a character beat, we get a little bit of Flynna casting. She is the only wizard on the quest, after all. Ali Kazaam is a witch, a different breed of spellcaster altogether, as Swann observed in his report to the Overlord. Thus a surprising amount of the spellcasting ‘heavy lifting’ falls on her shoulders. Love how Dee is working the sound effects into the art, making it an interactive part of the panel rather than a passive obstruction for the artwork.

Enter the giants, and the battle is joined... maybe.

DEE’S NOTES

Incorporating the sound effects has been a learning curve for me. I letter the pages and know HOW to do sound effects, but in my own work, have tended to forgo them. In this project, they are really tonally appropriate and fitting. The integration has been something Sabrina and I worked out together and putting some effects BEHIND the characters has really helped make them feel less obtrusive.

As for this being a SIXTEEN panel page, that is MY fault and I regret nothing. In the script, the scene called for a group shot of everyone saying their names but I realized it would be a design issue with everyone still scattered around a fairly large space. Plus, there are wildly different SCALES that would have had specks introducing themselves in the case of Lexii or R’lthon, who was furthest from the group on the actual wall.

I recommended the idea of the sliver panels that would allow us to not only show their expressions and personalities, but also to maintain the order of introductions as Sabrina had written them.

And, not to pat myself too hard on the back, but I really feel like this page has a lot of dynamism and energy and doesn’t FEEL like a sixteen panel page at all.

COMMENTS

Lightning strikes, and the thunder rolls

3 panels! Look, only 3 panels for a change! I didn’t want to miss out on that big beautiful shot of our captive giantess getting her bearings. Which of course leads to Giant Girl getting ready for a fight- not that she wasn’t going to anyway. And in the last panel, the challenge was to include everyone, and show them preparing for the battle. Plus just a touch of 4th wall breaking on Ronni’s part.

Oh yes. A climactic battle is just around the corner now...

DEE’S NOTES

The fun bit where Ronni looks at the camera in the last panel is something of a minor error that, in the spirit of Bob Ross, we made into a happy accident. Artistically, I just flubbed her eyeline and when we noticed it, decided that it worked for her.

Also, if you consider how much more muscular I’ve been drawing Ronni on average, you can imagine how happy I am to draw our new giantess. <3

COMMENTS