Comment Comments: featuring BTVRK

Benjamin Hobbs:

First a word from Matt:

42 more sleeps until the Remastered Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 from The Waverly Press Kickstarter launches:

Then:

Last week in the Comment section, Michael R. wrote in:

"Hey. I know the it came out a couple of months ago, but I just read BTVRK: The Earth-Pig Without Vowels and hands down this was the best issue. You know why? Because I read the whole comic without spinning the comic around and around.

"It was probably more of a pain to get this issue done than the usual 4 sideways panel pages with the little quip on the top of the page, but well worth it. It actually read like a comic book. I would love to see more CIH? comics done this way."

Thanks for writing in Michael! I'm glad to hear that BTVRK was the BEST issue of CIH? yet. The issue was one of the most time intensive issues of CIH? to create. 

 

Dave wrote pages 1-7 and 24, David Birdsong made the cover and IFC and I wrote the rest. (With some revisions from Dave.) I had my script for the book, but I couldn't visualize how the pages would flow. To remedy this, I printed out the pages as they were finished, and had rough layouts for the rest:

 

Throughout this process, I kept moving pages around. I stared at these closet doors a LOT. The Balloon handler pages started as a two page spread, but became a front/back when a pause for emphasis was needed. The Whore Of Babylon page moved so the LGBTQ ETC PEOPLE page could become a 2 page spread:

 

 

The Baby Yoda Cerebus page originally had another Mutilation at the bottom of the page, but the gag needed to breath. So I let it. The Hermann pages had a LOT more panels on them. Panels were cut to get to the Mutilations quicker. 

After all the printed pages were marked DONE, there were still some changes made, most notably on the Satan pages. From the earliest versions of the script the Paradise postcard was meant to be a panel at the bottom of page 22. There has been a long standing "Don't show Paradise" rule in CIH?, and I was going to ignore that rule, since it was a postcard. At the last minute, I decided that it was funnier if the postcard wasn't shown. This change was made right before the proof went to Dave.

Christon wrote in:

"Michael R., I agree with you. I also really liked that format and enjoyed that issue"

 

Christon, you have impeccable taste. Thanks for reading and for the kind words! Feedback on CIH? is always appreciated.

Hopefully there will be more ALL VERTICAL issues of CIH? in the future. The majority of the 2023 books are finished, but there's always hope for 2024!

 

Next Week: It's the last Wednesday of the month! There's a new CIH? at you LCS!