Long John

And so, Chapter 6––and by definition––the end of Long John begins now as he heads out to clean up his mess.

As mentioned previously, I was obsessed for awhile with Long John dragging his big chest of clothes around with him. From originally opening up the chapter with him fumbling down the stairs with them, I had originally intended to have him take his clothes with him after this scene. I just liked the idea of him dragging a long a possession and having it be a burden. I mean, why hasn’t he put his old clothes on by now? What is he scared of?

I realized, however, that this was too close to other story ideas I had and, unintentionally, a bit too close to the 1966 psychedelic western by Alejandro Jodorowski, Django (which I haven’t seen; great minds think alike, I guess). In terms of story, I ultimately figured it was best to strip (figuratively) Long John down to his essentials so he can march his way toward the ending with nothing but his experience over the last five chapters as his burden rather than a literal burden dragging behind him.

The thumbnail layout for this page. Click for larger version. I should have stuck to the shading used in panel 5.