We’re unlocking this post from the archives as a sample of the behind-the-scenes stuff we’re shared with patrons. For loads of sketches, abandoned concepts and other secret BCB knowledge, join us here on Patreon to unlock it all in an instant! 

Back again with more thumbnails! This time, Unspoken Rule.

Translating what you have in your head into paper is often challenging. I always imagine scenes more like a movie rather than as a comic, so getting the beginning of Unspoken Rule to play properly as a comic took a few tries. The first panel labelled “NO” shows Mike walking past the house and then hesitating, but that woulda required me to draw a plain-looking house with an ant-sized Mike. I don’t think that described enough of his behaviour, and didn’t set the right tone.

Second try had Mike walking towards the house, nervous the whole time. But I didn’t like it. The real sequence for Unspoken Rule goes quite differently.. it’s Mike having already passed the house and hesitating to stay or go. Here’s how the same sequence went for real, leading into Augustus and Lucy.

Now, onto the ending of Unspoken Rule:

You can see how many times I revised the final page. I THOUGHT IT WAS ENDING TOO QUICKLY, BUT I DIDN’T WANT TO EXTEND THE FINAL PAGE BECAUSE THEN IT WOULD MEAN THE CHAPTER WOULD END ODD-NUMBERED WHICH WOULD BE PROBLEMATIC FOR THE EVENTUAL BOOK. And it’s not like there was enough information that I could extend the final page into three pages, removing the odd-numbered issue. There was so much information to share in this page that it would feel a little crammed in, but there wasn’t enough information to justify splitting it into two or three.

While the final page WAS crammed-in relative to some other pages, I don’t feel too bad about ending it the way I ended up choosing.

It’s funny because the more I revised the final page, the more I actually ADDED, which made the problem WORSE. Originally the final page felt like it ended too quickly because not much was even happening. Paulo asked her out and Lucy said yes and Mike feels sad about it.

It was originally gonna start with Lucy asking why he wanted to see her so bad, and then her casually accepting his date, but then I realised Lucy should be feeling a little weird about Paulo for SPOILERY REASONS AT TIME OF WRITING, and surely she should bring up how cute his haircut looks! I also fought where to put the focus on the final panel, should it just be zoomed on Lucy looking happy? Should Lucy’s happiness look mischievous? Should she instead be happy in a “lol whatever” way? Or should the focus be on Mike as he walks away? Should Lucy even be visible in the final panel? I did.. a lot of fighting with myself. 

And here was the result!