The "inbetween" page

(Please ignore the typo in the picture... I fixed it for the published page.)

Here's a bit about the whole "Almost finished a comic page but then decided to make another one inbetween" matter and why I decided to go with it in the first place.

I was almost done with the line art for page 10 (now page 11) when I realized that the pacing of the comic was way too fast. We have the prologue that is rather quick and fast, which is fine because it's just the introduction. Then we have the relatively long intro pages for Irma showing her do something pretty normal and then the speed is suddenly quick again, speeding through how the girls meet before school, then they're at school but already in their headquarters after school. It all just happens so fast and while I cut the scene short intentionally (original length for the girls in HQ was 3 pages minimum) in order to make progress in the main story and focus on that, it just suddenly felt wrong. I want this comic to be fun to read, to feel good to read. That is my ambition and while it may feel a bit clunky and each page being a bit different since I'm still a novice when it comes to comics, I want to do my best to learn and create a good experience. So I sat down and drafted a page that would fit between the already published page 9 and the almost finished page 10. The current page is what came out of it and I do feel it was worth it. Now the other girls get a bit more 'screen time'. After all the comic is about all five of the girls and not just Irma and I want to make sure that this becomes clear. We get to know a bit more about them as well which I think is good for people who haven't read the series in a while or are new to the franchise entirely.

Working on this page I also went a lot more with my personal decisions. It may sound strange but in many cases before I spent much time thinking about what your guys may want to read or see or what the original artists of the comic series might've chosen to draw. I researched how the girls were shown, what their movement patterns were and things like that and based my choices on that. Of cause there was a lot of myself in there too. For example showing the cards with that treasure chest and the pen and stuff like that. All my personal liking. The outfits the girls are wearing: Personal liking. Giving Taranee new glasses and cutting off her little side tail hair thingy or making Irma's hair long: Personal liking. Nevertheless I spend really far too much time thinking about all sorts of things like wanting to be fast, wanting to deliver super good quality, wanting it to feel like the original. Is all of that necessary? No. This is my comic and I can do it however I want. If I want Hay Lin to sit cross legged pointing her finger accusingly, then why shouldn't I? If I want Will to look a bit blank (and a bit fish-like) while pointing out how many jobs she's working - why shouldn't I? I know I'm a bit late realizing this haha! But better late then never.

Last but not lead I learned a lot about hands in this panel. I thought a lot about what kind of movements I would make while talking, how I might look or what the girls with their different personalities would do. Hay Lin's hand was originally open and bent to the side but I wanted her to look more accusing and absorbed in the discussion with Irma so the pointing finger came along. I wanted Will not only to talk about the jobs that she's doing or thinking about how many there are but I wanted her to point them out rather bluntly as if that was the most normal thing in the world so I gave her the counting hand and a blank expression as if she was saying: "Why do you ask? This is completely normal. I don't understand the question"

Summing this up: I learned really A LOT with this page. How to draw hands, and that I need a mirror for my desk so I don't have to turn my hand around awkwardly to see what it may look like from the other side; That I can and should make my own decisions and not worry too much about straying from the original franchise; that it is a good thing to consider pacing when making a comic and important to take the extra time for some talk and pictures that may not contribute greatly to the main story because it adds more flair to the comic, more colour to the characters and will feel less stressed when reading.

Thanks a lot to all of you guys for being patient, waiting for me to get things done and sticking with my chaotic and sometimes random artist-self. :D