This was another scene that didn’t exist in the original version of the script. I added it to break up the previous scene from the following one, which otherwise would have gone straight from “rustlers beaten” to “rustlers tied up,” which felt a bit too linear to me. I like little side beats like this to break up the narrative and spotlight some different characters.
I especially like this scene since I haven’t really had Sky interact with Bennesaud all that much, so it was nice to give them a moment. And it establishes a bit of good-natured strength competitiveness between them, which was not something I had originally planned for their relationship. It’s definitely fun to see where the characters take you as a writer sometimes.
I really like how you write the interaction between the team members.
Did you have to drop or shorten a scene to get this page in the story?
Quite the opposite actually! When I write a story arc, I do it all as one big script. When it’s done, I then break it down into around 5 issues depending on where I think the best “cliff-hanger” moments will be. Sometimes it works out well and I can get a solid 24 pages of content between cliff-hangers, but sometimes an issue may come up a bit short. I think this was one of those cases where I had a little extra room to fill. Plus I kinda wanted this scene in there anyway for the reasons I mentioned above, so it all worked out. But no, I didn’t have to drop another scene to fit this one in.
What is really interesting to me is how I will tackle the next arc. This story was done with the original intent of doing 24-page single-issue comics, but obviously, that’s not the route I’ll be going with for the future. Since the delivery will just be online and then straight to graphic novel, I’m not really tied to 24-page increments. So maybe I can actually do some longer chapters and some shorter, and just let the story itself dictate the length.
Letting the story dictate the length reminds of what Adam Warren is doing with Empowered and at the end of each volume I’m still left with the feeling that character development and story lines have progressed.
It would still be cool if you could manage to find a title for each graphic novel though. Runners volume 2 just doesn’t have the same catching appeal compared to a title like: The Big Snow Job.
The break is golden IMHO! Of course, the trick may be to not do it regularly. (Which would mean having another kind of linearity).
Hey, are they flirting?
I’d love to see a relationship between these two!
Ack! Not sure how that would work physically. 🙂 Hadn’t really thought about a relationship between Sky and Bennes. Right now, I’m just kinda seeing where the characters take themselves in some areas, but that could certainly be interesting.
I bet she’d take him for granite inside of a week
Awesome! Man, I wish I had thought of that line. I could say something about it being a “rocky relationship,” but “granite” gets the gold. 🙂
All their, um, relations would have to be while Sky is in armored form. Factor in the personality change when she’s armored, and Roka would quickly be getting quite upset about the damage to their quarters.
Yes, yes, mate with the rocky guy, ditch Bennes! 🙂