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Artist's Notes:
This strip didn't actually take as many actual hours as I put into it, I did it over the holiday in the midst of a ton of disruptions. I didn't plan the FX properly and I felt like a lot got lost in the constant back and forth of losing my focus. Syl is still very fond of it though, so it can't be totally ruined.
This is my first strip on the new scanner and I probably still need to adjust some settings, but I am very happy with how little time I had to waste on cleanup here. I can back off on mashing my pencils for an uber-dark line so the dying scanner can pick it up, and ditching that will improve everything a bit.
All in all I guess it's not a terrible effort. I don't know if that's the cold medicine talking or what, but I don't hate it. Much.
If anybody needs further explanation of Ayyal; ie, needs to know the light is in fact destructive and not for illumination purposes-- colour me nonplussed. Seriously, I really hope I didn't need to be even MORE pedantic about exposition. Lily can be a little grating for me because I don't like dumbing down explanations, but that is definitely how she would talk to Ben and what's more, he appreciates it from her.
It's a little more reasonable to ask why Nathan just about blew himself into a canal bank there-- he did not stop for a full explanation of the rules here (he is the very essence of 'learn by doing') and did not expect his attacks to be so vigorously augmented. So, we get a little fun at his expense.
Nathan is actually a lot more powerful than he's let on so far, in case someone hadn't guessed that by now. Everything they're rolling up in this battle is running on a fairly untaxing amount of his power. It's just a lot easier for Yusom to make use of it, and we'll get more of why as we go on.
This is flashier and a bit longer than originally written, I grant you, but not gratuitous-- one way or another I was going to demonstrate Yusom's virtue before it became vital, and introduce Ben to it so he gets a good taste of what the older boy really is. But man, is this sequence going to push me hard. |
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