First page, first issue. The more experience I have with comics, the more I realize that a lot of artists don’t actually produce the art in sequence — many start with the splash pages, then work in diminishing order of interest, saving the “talking heads” pages for last. Which works out equally well, as the “poster” pages take the most detail, and “chatty” pages are usually good for when deadlines are tight and the attention span is flagging.
A bit of housecleaning: I think it’s worth noting that this was never meant to be an ongoing series. Or rather, not an ongoing storyline. Roy and I had originally planned this whole thing as a series called “Deadies” for a horror-themed webcomic site whose name escapes me; the series was a much more ambitious concept, originally, showing the world starting with the rise of (what I inwardly called) the Thinking Dead, and then charting about the next five years. But there was no central character: the series would have unrolled in different eight-page vignettes from around the planet featuring different characters, each one moving the world forward several months even though there was no central character to “mark time” per se.
When SLG expressed an interest in publishing it, though, one of Dan Vado’s first notes was that a series by two unknown creators featuring a pretty challenging concept was far enough afield that adding “no main character” to the mix would have been, most likely, suicide. He was right — although the series didn’t exactly set the world on fire saleswise, in retrospect I think the “unrelated vignettes” idea would have tanked, tanked, tanked.
But what you’re seeing here is a compromise from the outset: Roy and I took a side character from the first eight-page story, plunked him in the protagonist’s seat, and tried to build the same world around a central character with what I’ll freely admit were mixed results. More on that over the next 160 pages.
And here we meet him, ominously in shadows. More tomorrow about Roy’s biggest art challenge with this series. And possibly ever.
PAGE ONE – SIX PANELS, CONVENTIONAL LAYOUT
Ambiance: establishment. We're setting up the big reveal that John is undead on page three. Two shadowy men in a shadowy room. What is happening here?
PANEL ONE
We're in a PSYCHIATRIST'S OFFICE. It's dark, and the psychiatrist in question – JOHN REQUIN – is in near-total darkness. He is sitting in an easy chair, as is his patient, who is about ten feet away from him. We can only see enough of JOHN – an arm, a bit of his chest with a dress shirt and tie – to know that he is neatly dressed. His patient, HENRY FIELD, is not as visible in this panel, but he is in his late forties. He's perpetually nervous and likes to touch his hands together. His attire – and we can see more of HENRY than of JOHN – is messy, in contrast with JOHN's. It's like HENRY dressed neatly that morning but the pressures of the day have reduced him to chaos, as they always do.
NO DIALOGUE
PANEL TWO
JOHN leans forward, his hands together – but in darkness – and speaks.
JOHN
Henry, have you considered that your workaholism may be an alternate channel for the rage you find it so difficult to express?
PANEL THREE
As PANEL ONE.
NO DIALOGUE
PANEL FOUR
HENRY sniffs the air.
HENRY
(wavery “sniffy” balloon)
Nff nff
PANEL FIVE
As PANEL ONE, but with dialogue.
HENRY
Is it me, or does it really smell bad in here?
JOHN
The question, Henry.
PANEL SIX
HENRY shifts uncomfortably.
HENRY
I dunno. I don't think... I don't feel angry, you know? Do we... does it have to be so dark in here, doc?
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