Another Year, Another Page

The first new page of the new year is page thirteen. It's an okay page, but it's by far not my favorite.

It's one of the few pages I've ever done that I rewrote/redrew a joke after it was done. The joke was funny, but the replacement joke was funnier.

I think some of the frustration came about because this sequence features a Plot Joke. To my mind, there are two types of jokes in Love and Capes, Plot Jokes and Joke Jokes. The latter are jokes that are just funny on their face, and the funny is written first. To use issue eight as an example, Mark and Abby going to a comic book convention, that's a joke joke. The situation is set and the jokes pour out of it.

The other type is a Plot Joke, which serves to advance the story or rearrange characters on the stage first. I can cover a lot with caption boxes, but sometimes you need to show Mark flying Abby to Paris or something along the same lines. In issue eight, the bit where Crusader is set up to fight Psi-Clone is a Plot Joke. I have to introduce Psi-Clone, introduce his powers and have him change into the Crusader. There's a lot of business there to cover. On top of that, I throw a joke in it.

Page thirteen starts with a Plot Joke. Abby's co-worker Jason has to walk into the bookstore. That's very much moving characters on the stage. He needs to be introduced, have a joke, and leave. For four panels, that's a lot to do.And it woks fine, it just doesn't sing the way some of the other jokes have.

Oh well, ever forward. I have to go write another page now, which will feature a couple of Joke Jokes. But they also advance the plot. The lines, they are a blurring.