Here I had the same issue as the previous page: exclamation balloons or regular ovals? They’re not really yelling at their opponents. They’re speaking into comms. But they are also using raised voices in the heat of battle. Ack. Sometimes I can overthink these sorts of things, and I’m still not sure I made the right call.
With this scene, I was finally able to get to some fun reveals regarding Hiura’s crew of rogues. They all have special abilities, which is something I wanted to do to separate them from the main crew. As with Jayd, I wanted their abilities to derive from natural attributes, as opposed to being super-powers. In the case of the rogues, I deliberately chose traits that can be found in nature in real animals: camouflage and defensive quills. For me, it’s believable that an organism would evolve but retain some of those properties. I then decided to push them a bit to make them more interesting and useful in a combat context. And it makes sense that Hiura would have stacked her crew with people who bring something unique, ability-wise, to the table.
For Maeki, it was important to show that she is mimicking the colors around her but she is not actually transparent. So the color patterns do not perfectly match the shapes around her. It’s not seamless camouflage in this case but confusing enough to give her an edge in battle.
I previously mentioned shortening this sequence to keep the pacing tight towards the end of the story. But this is definitely a case where I would’ve loved to devote more pages to really showcasing their abilities. One or two panels each just isn’t quite enough, but ultimately, I think the quick pace of the sequence does work much better than a longer protracted final scene.
The comms are not visible, so it looks more like they’re shouting at first glance. But by having the page start with “…report in!” and have all the balloons in the same style it does look like they’re using comms. So, good job I’d say.
While the first page of this fight feels like a western page, this definitely feels like a super hero page. The origin of the powers doesn’t really matter. With Sky and Bocce on the team, Runners has already had it’s share of super hero moments. Something I enjoy, to be clear.
I did think about the comms thing for quite a while. Usually I’d have some sort of walkie talkie or wrist comm for this sort of thing. But then I usually show people fiddling with them as they’re talking into them. But I didn’t want Hiura’s crew messing with comms while also fighting. That meant the comms would have to just be ON and constantly active without needed to touch them, in which case, if someone isn’t interacting with it, it didn’t seem like it needed to be drawn. I just figured they’re something small and on their person, like an earbud. But of course, now I am rethinking that decision. 🙂
Why is there a bit of white space before the last panel? I’m assuming this is an established pacing stylistic choice sometimes used… but what is the context for when to use such a technique? I would guess there might be a gap between the two character moments just as likely … or am I missing something?
I think in this case the smaller panel and zooming in on Ozomo is to get the reader ready for impact. Making it shorter is a way to draw the reader’s eyes to it as all the other panels are the same length.
Also consider that Sean has probably viewed the previous page and this one as a spread and it just looked better to shrink the final panel.
I’d like to say it has very deep storytelling relevance, but sometimes, I might make a panel slightly different in shape just to break up the page layout a tiny bit. I’ve done it here and there on other pages (IE Ch 7, pp 6, 15, 17, and 24). Sometimes it helps to keep focus on the subject in a very vertically narrow panel by not having extraneous background. But sometimes it’s just to break up the page layout a little from the same exact outline each page.
Along those lines, I’ve always really liked clean comic art with clear gutters between panels. While I appreciate dynamic layouts in some books, I often find art with lots of overlapping panels and no clear gutters to just be a mess to look at and read. For my work, I tend to think of the “art” as being what’s IN the panel, not the page itself, with panels stacked on panels on top of a splash panel, etc. So I generally like the traditional white gutter look with standard panels. So these slight deviations are just my little way of breaking those on occasion.
Human lips look a bit strange on Ozomo’s face in panel 4.
Hmmm. I can’t really say I disagree with you. Might try a version without the lips for the printed version.