Ah, the Mexican stand-off. Is that an un-PC term these days? Anyway…

Knowing this was going to be a B&W (and grayscale) book, I wanted to add some other elements to the art to keep things interesting visually. I really liked the use of certain texture patterns in the manga series Gunsmith Cats, which was a big inspiration for me in showing just how great a B&W book could look. So throughout the series, I use texture patterns, like the speckly pattern in the rock backgrounds and the weave pattern of the mystery person’s cloak.

Bocce’s a fun character to write since, on the one side, he’s a decent guy and the de facto moral compass of the group due to his relative newness to the enterprise. But he also has a side of him that can get stuff done. I had his whole backstory worked out long ago, but I worry a little bit because since then, there has been a high-profile project that’s mined some similar territory. Argh. I don’t want to feel compelled to change things just because someone else did something similar AFTER I had already made my own creative decisions. Ultimately, I think what I’m doing is quite different despite some superficial similarities, but that sort of thing always haunts me.