I’ve stated how Chapter 6 is a very long chapter. It’s so big, in fact that this is the first of two double-page spreads that are in the book (the third double–page spread overall throughout the series, unless I’m misremembering). With that in mind, this makes this the penultimate double-page spread of the entire series, and they’re both very different in terms of design and purpose.
This one is more in line with the very first one I did for Chapter 3, where we have two storylines occurring at once. The spread from Chapter 3 had flashbacks layered over the present scene and worked well (in my estimation) to do some exposition while moving the story forward at the same time. Instead of a flashback, however, we have concurrent events happening, which ended up being slightly more challenging than I expected.
First, the absence of any dialogue or narration was a conscious choice, which made the choices for the Jack/Rook/Bishop part of the page crucial because my space was limited. I made the decision because I didn’t want the point where these intersect later on to be a cheap surprise; if anything, I hoped to create some simmering tension as you wonder when they would meet up again based on what we see on this page.
Second, to avoid any possible confusion, the main way to distinguish that these are separate actions was to use my only remaining tool to do so: coloring/shading. I tried out a few different ideas, but decided that the best approach would be minimalist. It would help make the more fully rendered Long John side of the story to stand out and, at the same time would––because they’re relatively small on the page––not obscure the action too much.
I like the effect of that style; it is inspiring enough that I could imagine completing an entire comic in that manner.
Thumbnail for these pages. Click for larger version.
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