Long John

This was a surprisingly stressful page to draw. With the exception of some concept art and the very first nightmare page from chapter 1, Long John’s actual clothes and gear have never been drawn nor shown.

This was on purpose; I drew concept art at the very beginning because I thought I might use it in flashbacks (a concept quickly abandoned) and then again for some aspects of the pitch document for the tv show. But I intentionally never really codified Long John’s “real” clothes in years because I kind of wanted them to become as amorphous to me as they would be to the reader. His clothes and all of their grandeur should be an idea––a memory––rather than an actual goal.

Were I to have stuck to the idea that his clothes were the goal, then it is a rote plot: a person wants a thing. Person gets thing. The story is over, happily ever after. But Long John’s arc so far has made it clear that things don’t bring peace, happiness, or safety. They are incidental and liquid. Did you notice that Long John got a new gun between chapter 3 and 4? Of course not! It doesn’t matter! (He took a gun off of one of Rich Jack’s men after the shoot out at Lady May’s cabin since they were all brand new guns.)

So, I saddled myself with the stress of figuring out what to show you of his clothes once he actually got them back. I landed on poetry––the first things he sees are the items that made him into the monster that poisoned all of his goodwill with his friends and any person around him––his guns and his gun belt. You can see a little bit more, but it’s all obfuscated by the guns and their monogrammed holster medallions.

What I like is that they look so out of character for what our Long John would carry and wear at this point, which makes this chapter, this book––and this page––a rousing success.

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