tonycliff
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I'll Show You (DD4, Chapter Two, pages 61-68*)
🕑 Added 2022-09-22 19:01:00 +0000 UTCThis week: I sing, you sing, we all sing for Wanted Things.
This whole passage may be sung to the tune of… uh… to the tune of… oh, I don't know. Someone call Alan Menken!
I'm so excited to finally share this section. This, as much as anything in this book so far, is a product of the policy of "let's keep it weird and have fun." I've mentioned this previously, but I grew up with a dad who would unironically blast Disney soundtracks on his big stereo, and those animated movies clearly made a dent in me. So I like this opportunity to make a nod straight in their direction.
But it's not just an homage or a clever format change for cleverness's sake. As you may or may not have read elsewhere, Alexandra grows into a woman who guards her feelings closely. She is not an open book. So I thought, how much fun would it be to have her spill her heart in the most earnest of ways? There is nothing guarded here, there is no fuzzy language to disguise intentions or clever quips or ironic detachment. It's all cutting straight to the core. Plus, it means that all her earlier talk about adventure and bravery really, truly does come from a spirit that runs bone-deep.
Or at least that's how I hope it all reads. :)
* If you're wondering about a gap between last week and this week, note there are no pages 59 or 60.
(As always, browse completed pages using the "DD4" tag!)
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Hey a few weeks ago I was running my mouth about feelings of accomplishment. Well, this week I was putting together the HTML for the Delilah Dirk website and I saw—for the first time, really—what the pages look like as two-page spreads, the way I had always intended them to be seen.
Reader, let me tell you: I felt such a rush of good feeling, such a moment of pride that I am almost embarrassed to admit it.
That's what the comic is supposed to look like. That's how it's supposed to be seen. Now it feels like this is A Comic Book.
I guess I thought that I'd feel "done" once I'd simply coloured every page. Nope. As it turns out, this is where it starts to feel "done."
Those public pages will start rolling out near the end of October and will run until March of next year (!!!). Twenty weeks' worth of installments.
Meanwhile, my arts-grant applications are mostly complete and I'm about half way through reformatting the pages for Vertical Scroll. Next week, in addition to sharing another new sequence from Chapter Two, I get to show you guys the pile of post-its that will soon become Chapter Three!
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I hope everyone's enjoying the change of seasons. Our Katsura trees are dropping their leaves, which means the air smells like burnt sugar / cotton candy, and it is among my favourite things that the great green world offers to us. What makes it even better is that it's difficult to discover where the smell comes from. It's not like the scent of a rose, where you can jam your nose into the flower and get a big ol whiff. The smell of a Katsura tree in autumn is like catching a friend in the corner of your vision, turning to see them, and discovering it was only a trick of light. If you're open to it, you can catch the smell, but it's difficult to find if you're searching for it.
🍂
TC
Comments
Kelly Alesio
catching up with your finished pages--I loved the color and composition on this update particularly! (also loved the Las Meninas reference)
Tony Cliff
Ha ha ha, thank you for the kind words! Very glad to have been able to capture that.
dano Stec
I have been remiss in keeping up with you posts – my apologies. I just caught up with the “where are my practice swords?” episode. The art work – stunning! The story telling – wonderful! And, you have perfectly captured the self-righteous fury of a teen-aged girl. Being the older brother of three sisters & the father of a daughter I have witnessed many, many comparable mother-daughter hissy fits. The sequence brought back both amusing & “I think I’ll go somewhere else now” memories. Well done!
Abrian Curington
Haha yeah, it's a tricky one! I'm far less stressed than I was when I made my first webcomic, but I'm also trying to wait patiently on getting picked up by an agent... I'll just have to flip a coin!
Tony Cliff
Re: losing the text: yeah, that one’s on my revision list. Re: comicking: I am contractually obliged to say “do it!” Or “no! Run away! Run fast!” - I don’t know, whichever one you need to hear. :)
Abrian Curington
I lost the second "I'll show you" in the waves, but talk about a gorgeous song! I don't know if it's a classic Want Song, but I love the journey it takes us through, and where we end up. I'm currently wondering if I should brave webcomicking again myself, so it's great to see those pages up!
Mike Maihack
Gosh, those colors and compositions. Inspiring. BTW, did you happen to see this earlier this week? Pretty fun. https://twitter.com/SankoffandHein/status/1571987962715410434
jonsullivan
Outstanding.
Laura N
A gorgeous set of pages, Sir. May the Autumn be kind to you and yours.
Joel Mangrum
The color on slide 7 is the most perfect sunrise/sunset I could imagine.
