50% rotten to the core like me
Every few months there is a page that I find very hard to draw, and it’s never a complex one. I chipped away at this one for ages, redrawing panels and couldn’t make it graceful enough. As I am sure I’ve said before, under these circumstances, one should throw the original rough (and maybe even the script) for the page away and find another way to say the same thing – if it needed saying at all. But by the time I realise I’m in trouble, it’s far too late for a redux.
The nice thing is, as one of hundreds, it skates by the viewer’s eyes. It’s only during those fruitless hours working on it where it is the only thing in front of my face that the page truly annoys me.
I bet the hurdle was deciding the size of the bra. Understandable.
The page came out just fine. Panel 4 is amazing. I love Maggie giving her best evil priestess expression there. And the writing on this whole page is spectacular- perfect, even. I’m so glad these two have had this talk, and that Billie’s found her strength again in that last panel. I’ve always said that when Maggie and Billie work together, they’re unstoppable. I pity those poor unsuspecting witches downstairs.
I love Maggie’s eyes in panel 2, as well as Billie in give-up mode with her smeared mascara.
You done good, Mr. Allison!
BTW, I just reminded myself of that old movie with Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, “Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison”, a phrase that seems reasonably appropriate to Steeple and it artist. At least it does to me.
There’s a road near me called Billie Butler Drive. Every time I pass it, I have a second of, “Hey, that’s!… wait, no, she’s ‘Baker’.”
The things that bra in panel 3 must have seen… and tried to forget…
Or tried to contain. I would love to see how Mrs Clovis looked in her youth.
Like a rock that would draw unwary young sailors to their death. Despite trying very hard not to.
What a tragic backstory. Jet, I love it.
This comment hits harder now that we have an idea of who the ghost is!
I’m hoping that the recipients of the baby jersey I’m knitting will notice as few of my special features as I notice of the things that annoy you in your drawings.
I have no idea about the struggles of the artist behind a page, but all the panels of this one are extremely good, funny and kinda dramatic. Maggie knows that her old “friends” are trying to doing something to Penrose, but Billie’s needs her. Interesting that she has to wear Mrs Clovis’ clothes but they are too big for her. Seems symbolic.
“50% rotten to the core” is Mag’s Tinder profile, yeah?
You know, I’m hoping Billie stays with the Church of Satan.
It would be a much better, forward looking Left Hand Path organization with her at the helm.
Personally, I’m hoping Billie & Maggie both realise they don’t need, or want, either church. Which probably says more about me than them.
tbf, if you don’t need a church, then either CoE or Tedrygyn’s CoS are probably decent fits for you
Sadly, in comparison to the average historical religious organization, the present incarnation of these two have more in common with each other than with others of their type… (religio = I bind)
Steeple’s favorite demon prince returns, even if only in flashback!
I don’t see Vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv…
Duke Horns to you, sir
Only Mordawwa is allowed to call him that. And when I say “allowed”, I mean “he has been unable to make her stop”.
I now have an image in my head of Duke Horns appearing to Erin one night a year to beg her to stop calling him Duke Horns. Even without her throne and demonic attributes, he still can’t make her stop.
(And, come to think of it, wasn’t it Archduke Horns? Or am I misremembering?)
It was indeed Archduke Horns, he of the ridiculously oversized arsenal and the traitorous lieutenant, between them responsible for plunging Hell into the darkness of a new war.
Way to go Maggie! You got our Billie back with just a shower and fresh change of clothes!
And some words.
The best words.
That is quite the drawing of Bob in panel 4. He reminds me a bit of the Night Creeper.
Design-wise they are definitely two handkerchiefs out of the same drawer, though the original inspiration for Bob is Tony Blair’s Covid-era hair.
https://static.standard.co.uk/2021/04/28/13/vlcsnap-2021-04-28-07h49m26s879-1.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1024
Oh, Tony, Tony, Tony. I know you’re kinda homely. But something about that bush ain’t right.
We are our own worse critics sometimes.
A statement which applies equally to the creator and the characters, in terms of this page.
Only on the 3rd or 4th re-reading did I notice the giant bra shadow in panel 3. You may be unhappy with this page, Mr. A., but your readers still delight in it.
I love this friendship. I wish I had a friend like either Maggie or Billie. Although I doubt I could keep up with Maggie in any way.
Thanks Nomi. I’m at peace with the page. It’s not perfect but it gets the job done. I like this friendship too, one of my favourites to write.
“God knows what is going on downstairs right now”.
Well, as the title of the next page is “you may kiss the bride”, whatever it is poor old Penrose is probably going to be crawling away from it with compromised dignity and diminished virtue.
Then Brian will arrive — shouting “IS THE BELL BROKEN?” — to save the day!
If anything it’s going to be Mrs. Clovis – her flight WAS cancelled and she returns home just in time to catch everyone in flagrante delicto. Best holiday ever!
Billi’s knees in p1,
Her hip-hitchin’ in p6,
Mags in every effing scene!
As Les Petite Visages sang –
“C’est trop beau”
(I might be loving gocomics rerun of
“The Case of the Modern Men”
a bit too much.)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fayL1WTR1Go
I know, I know.