Legen... wait for it... dary!

Some pages come easily. And some pages are page five.

There are two kinds of Love and Capes strips. There are the joke ones, where they joke is written first, and then there are the plot ones. Okay, technically, there are the serious beats, too, but those are essentially the same as the jokes in terms of writing. The other kind is the plot-based scene. It still has to be funny, but there's a higher purpose to the scene.

Like this page: I needed to establish that Abby is going to Mark's for Christmas Eve, and remind new readers that Abby and Mrs. Spencer have a contentious relationship. So, the first four panels are Abby and Charlotte closing down the bookstore, and the second set is Mark coming to pick up Abby to fly to his parents' house. So, I knew I wanted to do a "Mark's Mom Joke" and probably a "Christmas Joke".

Unfortunately, knowing what you need to do and actually doing it are two different things. It was just a pain to break this page. I finally did, and think it works nicely, but I have the feeling when I look back at this issue, this won't be my favorite page to be sure.

I did get to reuse the storeroom set, so I feel good about having redesigned it last issue.