"Ithaqa" Comic Book Update #95 Trapped Like(With?) Rats

This is one of those scenes that is pretty funny for the reader, but pretty awful for the characters.

Basically Ruth asks "Oh yeah, I wonder what they're up to?" And then we find out. What's interesting for me though, is seeing how a scene that I perceived of as a little bit funny can transition to something serious and heartfelt through the drawing process.

The language I use to describe a panel is ultimately lost once we bring the comic book to other people, so it's interesting for me to watch the tone of the piece change as images are put to my words.

Sometimes I'll describe a panel with something like "Ruth is just really over this shit" and to me that's a funny way of writing that she's pissed. I smirk, my editor laughs, perhaps Theresa is amused, but then it becomes an image.

It becomes an image of Ruth upset alongside other panels of bad things happening around her and suddenly it's not cute because there are real stakes, real emotions, and a face to relate them to. The difference in tone becomes even more stark when you see the next page. We transition to one of the most earnest moments in the comic so far.

Anyway I don't have a point here really haha, just musing on the realities of collaboration, and how interesting and exciting it is to watch a scene evolve when I write the skeleton, but someone else adds the muscles and skin.

Theresa Chiechi's (The Artist @la-fumettista) website is here: http://www.theresachiechi.com/

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