script + thumbnails

i don't do a lot of process posts mostly because i think my process is fairly straightforward and unremarkable, plus i'm lazy, but here we go!

i tried to find some Wet Moon 7 snippets that weren't super spoilery and i think these work okay, but if you're spoilerphobic then turn back now! this is a process from script to thumbnail. here's an excerpt of 7 pages.

some notes: i've been doing a thing where i color code scenes in my scripts to denote which characters each scene focuses on (Mara = red, Cleo = blue, Martin = mustardy color, etc.) so i can better pace things out and i can tell generally how much pagetime a given character has just by scrolling through the text document really fast, but i didn't include that here.. the parts where it says [CHARACTER] OUTFIT both tally up how many outfits each character has in the book so i know how many i have to lay out, and they also will refer to specific outfits once i gather those up and make easy-access collages of them for when i start drawing pages. the "artpage" header is how many pages i actually have to draw, minus the chapter dividers or black "pause" pages and stuff like that, i like to know how many pages i'm going to be drawing, or at least a general idea since sometimes i add or delete pages along the way. then the first page number is what the actual page number will be in the final book.


i wanted to do a thing where the script is alongside the thumbnails so you can follow along easily but it was too difficult and time-consuming, although it probably would have taken less time then jockeying with Blogger's annoying formatting.

anyway, here we go after the jump!


my scripts aren't written with the intent of anyone ever seeing them, even my editor, so my panel descriptions are really sparse because all the poses, compositions, body language and facial expressions are in my head. i do make up some of that as i thumbnail, since writing it out doesn't always translate to the thumbnail and i move characters around or change dialogue to accommodate the eventual drawing, but most of the stuff is already made up in my head when i write this stuff down. 

page 56 [artpage 51]
- MARTIN OUTFIT #4, GLEN OUTFIT #3, AUDREY OUTFIT #3. Martin and Glen, sitting in
      the basement of Martin’s house, looking at yearbooks. Audrey is nearby on a couch or chair,
      reading a book.
     Glen: “Oh shit, Tim Marasco, remember him?! What an asshole.”
     Martin: “He peed on your backpack in gym!”
- Glen: “Yeah. But it was after I left that tube of acne cream on his desk in Spanish class, ‘cause he had
     so many zits, so I kinda deserved it.”
     Martin: “No way, you deserved him squeezing the tube all over your head, not getting your
                backpack tossed in a gym shower and peed on. Come on.”
     Glen: “I guess so. Yeah. High school was pretty cool.”
- Martin: “Haha, are you kidding? It blew. Where else could you get your backpack peed on?”
     Glen: “It sucked in a lotta ways, I got bullied pretty bad but some of the stories are too good to
                pass up. Well, I dunno, maybe not, tough to say. I was pretty mean to some people, too, like
                Vulture Boy and that girl I harassed by calling her a werewolf in 9th grade. I think all that
                made her switch schools.”
- focus on Audrey glancing down at Glen and Martin, amused.
     Martin: “Yeah… That’s pretty bad.”
     Glen: “I was just angry. Like, at everyone.”
- Martin points at a yearbook page, showing some evil-looking boy. dialogue is from off-panel.
     Martin: “Oh man, Mo Skivington, he looks like the frickin’ devil in this picture, haha.”
     Glen: “Haha, yeah, the eyebrows. He was actual jerk, too, he was exactly what you’d assume from
                this photo. Remember when we were outside on the hill during lunch and he ran at me—”
     Martin: “Hahaha, knocked you down the soccer field hill!”

page 57 [artpage 52]
- Martin: “It was like slow motion, I was like “Glennnnnn loooook oouuutt” but then nope, tumbling
               down the hill.”
     Glen, looking at the yearbook: “Hehheh. What are these little dots you drew in by some people’s
               names?”
- Martin: “Yeah, I don’t know, I thought at first they were marking all the people I hated but now I’m
         not so sure because look, Steve Strobeck has a dot and I didn’t hate him, same with Alexa Lee, I
         definitely didn’t hate her, heh.”
     Glen: “Maybe it’s people who I hated…”
- they lean closer toward each other.
     Martin: “Look, Quincy VanGrol, didn’t hate him either…”
     Glen: “Oh, it’s gotta be people who I hate, I completely hated him. He was like, all passive-
                aggressive, one day he was my friend then the next he wasn’t and back and forth, and he
                always mispronounced all the Magic card names.”
- Martin: “Haha, yeah, ‘Dormonic Hordes.’ DEMONIC Hordes, what a turd.”
     Glen: “Ahh, good times. College is so boring, isn’t it?”
- Martin: “I like it way more than high school. You’re nuts. You talk like you’re all old or something,
                you’re only 20.”
     Glen: “I feel old.”

page 58 [artpage 53]
- Glen: “Maybe we should do tabletop gaming again. Maybe then I’d feel less old.”
     Martin: “Ha, really? What? Nah. I can’t do that anymore.”
     Glen: “Come on, we could… Who could we get from Wet Moon?”
- they both look back at Audrey.
     Audrey: “…”
     Audrey con’t: “Could I play an elf…?”
- Glen: “Oh, Audrey, so adorably clueless. We don’t play games with elves in them.”
     Audrey: “Oh.”
- Martin: “I was about to say Trilby but… you know.”
     Glen: “Aw. Yeah. You know it’s a disaster to bring anyone you’re dating or dated into the group.
                Can’t mix gaming and romance.”
- Martin: “Yeah, true. Pete?”
     Glen: “Who?”
     Martin: “Pringles Guy, but we’re not calling him that anymore.”
     Glen: “Oh, right. Yeah, we should ask him when we get back. So cool. I could run that Ninjas &
                Superspies campaign I always wanted to do. Withering Flesh touch.”
- Martin: “I dunno, man… Maybe not. I don’t know if I could get back into it now.” 
     Glen: “I wonder if I still have my dice…”

page 59 [artpage 54]
[December 12, Saturday]
- CLEO OUTFIT #4, MARA OUTFIT #2, TRILBY PAJAMAS STILL. cut to Trilby’s bedroom
     again. Cleo, Trilby and Mara are here. Trilby and Cleo are pretty closely positioned and Cleo is
     overbearing, while Mara is off away from them. Trilby has a stack of paper.
     Trilby: “Cleo. What is this outfit?”
     Cleo: “What? You don’t think it’s cute…?”
     Trilby: “Umm… Kinda but it’s too tight. It makes your belly look crazy.”
- Trilby shows Cleo and Mara the papers. Mara glances at Cleo.
     Cleo: “Oh…”
     Mara: “I like it.”
     Trilby: “So, check these out, I printed out a bunch of news articles about me. It’s kinda weird.
                 They keep getting facts wrong.”
- Mara and Cleo looks at them.
     Mara: “I haven’t seen nothin’ about it online or on the news…”
     Trilby: “Yeah. I guess it woulda been bigger if I’d actually died.”
- Trilby tries to get up, Cleo ready to help her.
     Trilby: “Hold on…”
     Cleo: “Whoa, what is it? Are you okay??”
- Cleo helps Trilby up.
     Trilby: “Gotta go to the bathroom.”
     Cleo: “Oh, okay. Come on.”

page 60 [artpage 55]
- Cleo helps Trilby away.
     Cleo: “Hold on, Mara.”
- Mara sits there alone on Trilby’s futon. awkward and uncomfortable.
- same shot.
- cut to the bathroom. Cleo is helping Trilby with her stoma. Trilby looks upset.
     Trilby: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
- Cleo: “Shh. It’s fine. I want to do it.”
- Cleo: “See, it’s not a big deal…”
     Trilby: “It stinks.”

page 61 [artpage 56]- Cleo empties the bag.
     Cleo: “No it doesn’t.”
- Cleo gets a new bag.
     Trilby: “...I… lemme put it back on. I can do it. Here.”
- Trilby takes the bag and undoes the package or whatever.
- she starts crying.
     Cleo: “Oh, sweetie…”
- they hug, Trilby crying.
     Trilby, small text: “I can’t go back out there.”
- cut to Mara, still alone.

then here are the thumbs (click to make big):

and here's a scene with Nora and Nissa for good measure!

page 140 [artpage 101]
[December 16, Wednesday]- MARA OUTFIT #7, NISSA OUTFIT #2, NORA OUTFIT #2. back in Wet Moon. Mara is
     unpacking some of her clothes. Nora is looking at some of them.
     Nora: “I love these!”
     Mara: “Yeah, I used to be pretty gothy.”
- as Nora looks through the clothes, Mara brings up her cockroach terrarium and sets it on a table.
     Nora: “What is—”
     Mara: “My pet cockroaches.”
- Nora: “AAAAAH! What!!!” freaking out.
     Nissa: “Pipe down! Whoa! What!”
     Mara: “It’s fine! I know everyone hates roaches but I love them, so, yeah.”
- Mara lets a roach crawl onto her hand.
     Nora: “Ohhh my goddddddd!!!”
     Nissa: “Cut it out! Quit freaking out!”
     Mara: “They’re always there for me when everyone else is a jerk.”
- Mara holds out her hand with the roach on it toward Nora and Nissa.
     Mara: “This guy’s name is Zurthorok—”
     Nora: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—”

page 141 [artpage 102]
- Mara puts the roach back. Nora is calming down.
     Mara: “Haha, you’re so mean!” joking.
     Nissa: “She’s just pretending to overreact!”
     Nora: “Am not!”
- Nora moves closer to Mara in a subtle damsel kind of way, maybe putting her hands on Mara’s arms or
     something. Nissa is rolling her eyes.
     Nora: “Don’t ever bring them near me!”
     Mara: “Heh, okay, okay.”   
- Mara goes to bite a fingernail/bandaided finger, but Nora reaches up.
     Nora: “No, don’t.”
- Nora keeps her hand on Mara’s hand. kind of visibly uncomfortable, dying to bite!
     Nora: “Don’t do it.”
     Mara: “O-okay… I really want to, though, heh…”
- Nora: “Ask me a question. Think about something else.” keeping her hands on Mara’s.
     Nissa: “*sigh*”
     Mara: “Um… okay… uh…”
- Mara: “Do you… do you two ever wanna be separate?”
     Nissa: “Ohhh boy, how’d I know that one was coming?? Everyone has to ask us that!”
     Mara: “Sorry…”
     Nora: “No, it’s fine. Shush.”

page 142 [artpage 103]
- Nora: “I don’t remember it, but my mom says when we were little sometimes we’d try to like, pull our
     heads away from each other, so I guess back then I wanted to be separate… But now I don’t.”
     Nissa: “Me neither. No way. Together forever.”
- Mara: “That’s cool. It must be real hard, though, I can’t even imagine, how some people treat you, or
     like, you wanna do one thing when Nissa wants to do another thing, what if you wanna major in
     different things in college… I’m sorry, I don’t mean to make you feel like you’re… you’re freaks or
     somethin’, I’m sure everyone asks about this shit, but I’m jus’ genuinely interested…”
- Nora: “It’s okay. If it was anyone else besides you I’d be grouchy about it.”
     Nora con’t: “So, like, I wanna major in fine art and Nissa—”
     Nissa interrupting: “Game design!”
- Mara moves some stuff around as the girls talk, but still giving them full attention.
     Nora: “Yeah. So, that’s tricky but I’ve also got this wonderful connection with my sister that no one
                else could ever have, and—”
     Nissa interrupting: “She’s always there, I’m always here, we’re always here for each other, pretty
                much the best. It probably sounds really annoying to most people like you’d always be going
                ‘god, shut up’ to the other person or, like, you know what I mean?”
- Nissa is poking through Mara’s stuff.
     Nora: “I’d be really scared if I woke up and suddenly Nissa was gone.”
- Nissa pulls out Mara’s sexy photoshoot photos.
     Nissa: “Whoa, what’re these??”
     Mara: “Oh god.”