I 9 P 31 "You should just hand it over"

So here we are at page 31... which was actually page 19 in the original draft of the script, which was even lower numbered in the actual script, where it was page 13.

Page 13

Panel 1

Ronni shrinking back down to normal size and letting PQ go. Note that PQ is still she-hulk sized right now..

GG: Okay, so just hand over that scepter, and-

Panel 2

Close-up of the scepter whacking Ronni in the face good and hard, with a surprised expression on Ronni’s face.

GG: Thought balloon: Why does that never work?

Panel 3

Ronni goes sprawling on the floor, coming to a stop at the feet of a bunch of promgoers who are still in a bit of shock.

GG: That... really hurt. I think she mighta broken a tooth.

And that's what happens in the creative process. Some of it is because we add panels, some of it is because we break up pages, and some of it is because we tell the story at our own pace, and my conservative scripting efforts often become much longer once they are illustrated and action sequences become sequential storytelling.

I'm not complaining, but the 80 page giant issue I have planned is probably going to run for an entire year even publishing 5 times a week.

So here is the page as it appeared published today. You can tell that there was considerable debate on my part to break this page in half, because I had Koen change the original panel border scheme, as you can see in the production drawing:






But somehow I really wasn't up for having a 2 day wait for Friday's strip to be just Ronni hitting the dirt and realizing that she might just be in a little bit of trouble with the raging redneck. So I left the page intact, and the fans see it as Koen intended for the action to flow.

One of the fans pointed out that Ronni should have just plucked the scepter out of Aisha's hands when she had the chance, and that is going to be very tragically true over the course of time. But take it from the gal who wrote this months ago (well, the core of it anyway) stay tuned- Ronni is no dumb cookie, and a moment of compassion doesn't make for a mistake she isn't willing to rectify.

As I mentioned in the last update, Koen is working on shadowing, moving light sources and underlighting, and you can see a lot of that coming into play here. In addition, his backgrounds are becoming more and more complex with all of these bystanders kicking in- I never asked but I suspect he pulls them not from the busy street outside his home in Belgium, but from his own fertile imagination, which serves him well.

My original script cvalled for Ronni to slide to a halt, but Koen did these amazing wrecked gymnasium floorboards, so I just stepped it up. Yes, she is surprised by the hit and she is rendered mortal by it, which is very unpleasant to her, but even as she is plowing in she is pushing her powers to survive this. Sometimes the story is a compromise between the script, the art and the dialogue (more often than not in collaborative efforts) and you have to be willing to go with the flow. I could have asked for the panel to be redrawn and made it much more harmless, but hey, those ripped up floorboards look great. Why rain on that? Just rescript a little, and viola- much more exciting all around, and no wasted artwork. And Ronni's increased density explains why she tore up the floor so much. because of course she can concentrate her density instead of getting bigger.

She's Giant Girl.

I'm still experimenting with the flow of dialogue, and I think I am getting a feel for it as evidenced by the bridge between those last two panels, and I wrote the dialogue of the last panel so that it could be read forward or backward and still make perfect sense.

Favorite bits? I shoehorned in that 'top men' line. and Ronni's expression in panel 5 really is quite priceless. Captain Kirk bloody lip wipe #1 for the issue.