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I’ll take a break from dogging on Eve and talk about the technical part. Conceptually this page came together fast. Some early sketches where I tried to work out the panel arrangement. Obviously the first idea didn’t work and I needed to tighten it to make the arc – this made overlapping panels necessary, which ended up creating a neat effect. I normally script in a text document, but occasionally for acting-focused scenes it comes out in sketches. Again I got it pretty close on the first pass: Getting everything to Valerie (and eventually, to print) meant measuring everything out to its precise page size. So I constructed the whole thing before the final pencil and inking pass: Valerie had some wonderful ideas, the most clear and brilliant to me being the heat of the wheel hitting Eve just as she hits her breaking point. The glow of the wheel itself is hellish and threatening. I’m still very happy with this one, and how effortless it felt to assemble it, even though it took many, many hours. I think I’d felt a sharp drop after the last story, a period where I’d been completely manic in my art and my life (which were very difficult to separate). For a while nothing was coming out right, I’d exhausted everything, I had no more to say, and everyone knew it. Eventually this feeling fed into a new burst of energy. I was thinking about Dusty Springfield’s version of “The Windmills of Your Mind”. Of all Eve’s problems this probably still rings truest to me. Even with a more relaxed dependence on friends, sexual viability and public perception, I can still work my brain into a frenzy. The hopeful thing for Eve is that she recognizes it pretty quickly and talks her way out of it. |
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I am always the Eve in this situation.
God damn, I loved everything about this page on my first read.
I am rereading the comic with even more ferocity due to your insights. They are important to me. I am very very glad you posted how you build this page. Thank you.
Seeing this page reposted somewhere on Tumblr is what made me seek out the comic and read it. Simply an incredible page.
I have since read the whole series multiple times and own all the books haha.
When webcomics first arrived and Scott McCloud got all excited about the potential of infinite scrolling to open up how space can be used to tell stories, this and the Hanna running sequence from a few chapters ago are exactly what he was so jazzed about. Yes, Meredith made the layout work on the page, too — and kudos for that because as the process pics show, it wasn't easy — but its at its best on the web where you can follow Eve's journey in one smooth motion. Great stuff!
Loved the behind the curtains commentary on the art!
Great peek into the composition.
Between this and Hazel & Jamie on a rollercoaster in GWS (can’t place my hands on a link) I’m of the opinion that more webcomics need rides in them.
Thank you so much for the insight to your process. Another landmark moment in a stunning series.
Although I have to say, wall-eyed rage Eve on in the middle of the first page is the unsung hero of this arc.