A rare action page in my oeuvre. I think Reverend Penrose is the only character I have ever invented specifically to have fights. He’s forced me to develop my drawing technique in unexpected ways. This page turned out unexpectedly well given the shambles that presented itself in rough form in my sketchbook. It was really just inchoate lines. Panel three contained the sound effect “SHWANG!!” and I have no idea what it was meant to indicate.
Author Unknown
I think it unlikely that, short a very extreme training montage, Lottie Grote will ever be an action heroine. There are four comics next week (Mo-Thu) as Author Unknown concludes.
I’m sorry that you won’t get to see Reverend Penrose hit a merman over the head with an ornamental stone bridge in this story. Maybe next time.
Shelley, Esther and Lottie have been having a ten-year battle to deliver the most grisly puns in my comics. Arguably Esther cleared the field in Giant Days, but that comic was set up for mirth. Shelley remains the old, wise master.
There are some very odd dynamics playing out around this table. After a series of very complicated pages involving some quite difficult mental gymnastics for a merely middling artist, this one was a simpler proposition. I do have to do a little diagram when people are round a table, to keep them in the correct positions. It’s easy to get yourself in trouble, fast. There’s nothing special about panel 2 but I think it might be a personal favourite. One more page to go!
Well, there we go. Friendships made, issues resolved, worries flopping around at the bottom of the sea. For now. We probably haven’t seen the back of human-merman unholy chimeras. That was a new thing. Lottie and Shelley will now return to their respective corners of the Scary Go Round Cinematic Universe. Both have new stories in the works, keep an eye out for The Great British Bump-Off and NEMS pt 2: Darkest Timeline – most likely next year. A new Steeple story, picking up from “Christmas With Clovis”, will start on Monday.