Brainspotting
06-02-04
D: The only one of Mary’s arc with a title panel, and also the cheapest joke of all the strip titles. Whenever Mary described this strip to me, I kept seeing it as that bit of the first ‘Matrix’ movie where Trinity’s running away from Agents and she crashes through a window, rolls down some stairs, and ends up with her guns levelled at any possible pursuers. The window seems to have disappeared entirely from this one, though.

M: I could have done it that way. In fact I scripted it with him flying through the air, through a door, across a floor and then looking up to see the baby on the ceiling...but that script was 10 panels long.

D: I think this gets the same point across in half that number, though. It’s essentially an action shot followed by the joke – and the four panels of the joke follow the same ‘beat’ as the previous strip. It seems to be an inbuilt rhythm to this arc.

M: Yes, inbuilt rhythm...aka "Mary was too lazy to do anything else"

D: Hey, it works. And laziness or not, you scripted and drew up all five of these strips in a week, when neither Appleby nor myself had finished off a single one of the arc in several months. Of course, some people who shall go unnamed haven’t finished a single strip, full stop. Hint hint.

M: While I've scripted three more since finishing the zombie strip. And I'm not even a co-creator or co-anything! I'm just a guest strip girl!

D: I’d also like to point out there’s more text in the ‘warning’ for this strip than appears in the whole strip itself. Unless you count the nigh-unreadable New Order lyrics.

M: Who needs text when there are ugly, demonic zombie babies?