Days

This strip changed a lot between original script and final design: first off, the song was originally meant to be 'Misty Morning, Albert Bridge' by The Pogues. Then I almost used 'Never Assume' by Deathboy, but although the lyrics were better, it really isn't the kind of music Vince has in the Dead-End Bar's jukebox -- he hasn't got good enough taste to have Deathboy in there. So it fell to The Kinks, a wonderful and occasionally overlooked band, and to this, one of their most famous songs. (Kirsty MacColl did a great cover of it, although that goes without saying, since she did a great job on anything she covered.)

The other big adjustment is that the original script had dialogue in to supplement the music -- it was mostly fluff, so I kept stripping out the parts that were unnecessary until it became obvious there was little point in keeping any of it, since I could convey the idea of what was going on through facial expressions, body language, and - in the case of Milton Hoight - a visual representation. The only dialogue worth keeping was Miyagi's line at the end. Ultraviolence is so fun when it's being doled out by sprightly old Japanese men.

The return of the recurring pub booth backdrop isn't quite as obvious in this, since a few of the panels (pretty much any group shot) has a fully drawn background, whereas the single-people panels have the reused one.

This strip is also notable as the first time I laid out the panels and the majority of the text before setting pencil to paper on even panel one of the artwork. I'm working on the assumption that while the infinite canvas is all well and good, it's impractical to be taking on huge amounts of art while maintaining a regular schedule. To this end, I've restricted the page size to a uniform size. To counter the drawbacks this can have, the larger format strip allows for more detail and smaller text, so I can fit more on a page -- meaning I can take more time over the artwork, and fit enough text into the strip that I can try some plot development and some jokes.

In this case, after laying out the panels I could see that everything except the upper tier was restricted to a square -- so when drawing the artwork, even when drawing a larger shot I made sure all the important bits fell within a central square. (The final panel is much bigger on paper -- Halifax and Holly have full body shots sitting at the table, and most of the Oi Boy's torso is visible.)

Best bits: Halifax and Holly's facial expressions, the Milton Hoight panel, the fact it all came together as a strip without looking crap.
Worst bits: That background's getting pretty monotonous, Holly's magical transforming hair length from panel to panel.