... sorry, over the holidays I watched 'Yesterday' with my daughter on Christmas, so I got Beatles tunes running through my head. A very good movie.

Which leads to another getting up out of bed scene... shown here as a kind of 'how I did it' behind-the-pages explanation for Issue One of Mayfield Eight.

Now, I'm known for clumping together too many scenes and having too much happening. It took me reading 'The Fade Out' hardbound trade version by Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips to appreciate the slow and steady method of playing a story out.

Problem: Too much story, too few pages.

As it was, I had waaay too many narration boxes in Cal's monologue after the tiff with Tina the waitress the night before. It needed some padding.

Solution.

I literally kept the dialogue as-is, and spread the action out to include his morning routine.

Advantages:

1. I got in a nice establishment shot of him living in the 'burbs. Calvin obviously has a nice normal ordinary background. All the more jarring when he faces the shit-storm that is the next 5 chapters!

2. Since Calvin got the motorcycle back we see him lovingly wipe it down ready for the morning trip. It reinforces he's accepted the deal and will meet with Lenny at the taco joint in Socorro.

3. It's way early morning. He's going out and planning for a long day. He didn't tell anyone where he's going, being the first up.

Conclusion:

I believe there's at least three different modes a comic book creator is in when putting pages together: 1. The fast-paced frenzied pace of thinking of one scene then another then another and so on. 2. The nuts-and-bolts aspect of drawing and laying out the pages, in script and in art. 3. (Most importantly) being ready to chop/slice dice add or subtract stuff out (yes I know you spent 6 hours drawing it, out it goes, suck it up!).

At the end of the day your reader isn't going to care how much time your edit(s) tacked on to the project. It's all in the name of making a better story.

Get Mayfield Eight.

Mayfield Eight, a gritty, 1970s fueled motorcycle grind-house biker tale can be purchased on my new online site! Get it today!

CLICK HERE TO BUY MAYFIELD EIGHT!

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