Sticking to the Script. Or Not.

You’ve seen the first few pages of the book. Want to take a peek at what they looked like before they were finished? Let’s go page by page and look at Joanne’s script and my layouts to see how we got to the finished product.

 Joanne’s script initially called for this to be a one-page splash. I spent a fair amount of time trying to make this work, but the issue I kept running into was the fact that the scene felt like it needed a very wide space to illustrate the emotional impact.

The solution was to make a one-page splash into a double-page spread. That way, Layla feels much more isolated as she makes the long walk across the road. Also, I constantly have to think about the fact that this will eventually have to go to print, so the double page ensures that Layla has an entire page to herself, and the clinic and the protesters have a page to themselves. 

Everything with this page was trying to make Layla feel as alone and isolated as possible. It’s her against the world, and I really wanted that to come across.

Also of note is that I initially drew more background detail in panel 3, but I eventually omitted it. Working in black and white means that you have to be a lot more conscious of negative space, and I really wanted the emotion on the characters' faces to shine way more than what is happening behind them. 

Eagle-eyed viewers might notice I made another change in the script: the main protester was initially holding a sign, and I changed it to a bullhorn. That was 1) to make him stand out from the other protesters, and 2) so that he could drop it in this panel. I still have an animation brain, and a bullhorn makes for a more satisfying *thud* on the ground than a protest sign.

One other note: I spent entirely too much time researching exactly what type of buses would be in a nondescript town in the mid-80s. These are things that no one will ever notice, but I really care about little details like that.