Spoilers, obv.
Obviously, the larger structure is only really going to be visible in retrospect, but I wanted a hard tonal adjustment… which, after RISING ACTION, means going really, really soft. I occasionally joke about WicDiv being 21st century X-men, and this is the sort of episode that the X-men don’t really do any more – the one where Claremont has everyone hanging out in the mansion, and playing baseball. Except in our case, it’s them doing speedballs. No, not fucking the superhero, but it’s early days yet. Maybe we have cosplay drugs-spree penetration to come?
Anyway – a soft start. The magazine issue introduced much of the new status quo, but this lets us see it in action.
Jamie’s Cover
The Floral Goth vibe continues. More Beyoncé here for me too – I saw some people comment on the Jay-Z/Beyoncé power-couple aspect of Baal/Persephone, which is certainly in the mix.
Jen Bartell’s Cover
This is me being a sneaky writer. I saw that the ludicrously talented Jen had just read the first 11 issues of WicDiv, and was very excited by them. Clearly, this is the moment I chose to mail her and ask if she was free to do a cover. And, in that moment of glee, she did a girl-gang of the whole female cast, which is clearly FAR TOO MUCH WORK. Enthusiasm is awesome.
Anyway – this very much leans into the Imperial Phase element of the covers. It also starts a string of Guest-covers where the artist chose to draw Persephone.
Re-cap Page
My favourite thing about the recap page is how it expands out as you go through an arc, and then collapses back to more curt format when we hit the end of the arc, and the new status quo, before repeating the process.
I’m kicking myself it took me 24 issues to think of “Naysayers turned soothsayers.” I’m also amazed I was cruel enough to write the “Mom and Pop goes Pop”l line. Monster.
Page 1-5
I was considering actually including the original draft for these pages, as it illustrates neatly how a scene can remain almost identical while changing its effect completely. I did my first pass far too early, and then left it for a month or two as I let the arc cook a little more. I came back, and while barely changing any of the dialogue or even changing the panel counts, improved it basically in every single way. Which is egotistical, but it felt like a before/after example of what “writing for comics” means, and the sort of shit you should be considering when approaching the page.
I’m not going to include it, as the before was sparse, and to cut it to remove spoilers and details you shouldn’t know would make it even more sparse. But I’ll paraphrase it.
Page 1: Steady shot on the doors of Valhalla. They’re flung open, briefly revealing a Birthday party, as Persephone makes her way outside, wanting to be alone, lighting up.
Page 2: Reveal on the outside of the party, at a 200m hologram of Amaterasu.
Page 3: Basically identical conversation between the two outside leading to the kiss.
Major changes like the locations and timing are obvious. I realised Valhalla was a place no-one would want to be – it’s a place to escape from. I’d then moved it to the North Bank in London, before Jamie suggested the Shard. I had thought of that, but rejected it for being too OTT. When it came from Jamie, I realised “No, this is Imperial Phase. Nothing is too OTT. That’s what Imperial Phase means.”
Moving it to New Year gains a lot, not least makes the cycle aspect clearer. This is literally a year on from the first issue of the comic. And we’re at the half way point of our run. Also – y’know – a 4, 3, 2, 1 count, and the irony of the word “HAPPY” being anywhere near here, let alone with Persephone isolated.
But really, it’s in the visuals – Persephone, alone, outside a party. Spider-man/Batman genre type beat turned into straight teen ennui. Something abstractly amazing turned sour, as well as the obvious element of someone sitting on a ledge in a skyscraper. Then Matt and Jamie’s slow reveal gives us a skyline, and the first of the fireworks we’re level with an…
Well, single spread turned Double Page Spread. There’s no major visual set-pieces in this issue, so we use our (ahem) fireworks here, and really stress what has been lost. It’s very beautiful, and very sad.
Finally all the conversation just plays better when it’s two people sitting on a ledge outside a skyscraper than just standing around. And that last panel? Wow. That’s as good as anything in WicDiv.
Jamie continues to push himself. He said he was reworking his skill-set before RISING ACTION, but I think it solidifies in this issue intro something else. The stuff he’s doing with hair is simply astounding. The long shots showing the pair of them sitting there are perfect moments in space. Plus all the traditional Jamie strengths like the faces and body language. He’s come a long way, and Persephone has too.
Oh – and Matt Wilson was obviously sent to Earth to colour fireworks.
Yes, the much mentioned start of the girl-kissing heavy of Year 3 of WicDiv. For those doing deep reads, yes, this does mean that I foreshadowed this all the way back in issue 8. We do plan a lot.
Page 6
I originally had the final interstitial at this title, but realised that it was about time for a ONCE AGAIN to really hammer it home.
Page 7-11
And we debut Minerva’s new look, which we’re extremely happy with. Minerva’s look never quite coalesced, so we grabbed the obvious change in her life to mean a new image. Primary influence is Grimes, but there’s a lot more in there. Grimes touches a couple of other of the gods, but the aspects we’re not using there, we touch on here.
The three-panel is turning into something we use a lot, and I use a lot elsewhere. Waking up in bed and seeing something is a fairly classic/trope-y beat, but I wanted to give our own spin on it. Three panels really sell it hard.
Yes, Persephone’s hair is divine throughout here, and all the detail in the room is a joy. The crack in the wall. Equally, what isn’t shown is key. What are we showing here and how are we showing it? Persephone remains our lead, not a fetish object, and when she’s walking around in her underwear, that’s something Jamie has to really bear in mind.
Yes, the key cast switch around in Imperial Phase. We bring some people forward in the mix, and push others back. Sakhmet and Minerva having a lot of play here is a start towards that. Baal, despite being physically absent, is also pretty emotionally present. And yeah, isn’t it a WicDiv move to skip past the getting-together and go straight to this-isn’t-quite-right? Ugh.
Two more strong McK expressions at the end of Page 10 and the start of Page 11.
Sakhmet’s line was a little more explicit on page 11 in the first draft, but C suggested we cut it back a bit, and when I saw Sakhmet’s expression, I was glad I did. Let Jamie do the heavy lifting.
Trying to work out how to make visually clear (to those who pay attention) who was sending each phone message was a trick. It’s the little arrows. In other words, all the messages visible are TOO Persephone, bar the one Pers sent to Baph. And yeah, for a panel, there is a lot of storytelling crammed in this fucker. I basically said to Jamie “tell me how many lines I have, and I’ll write that many messages..”
Yes, it would be awesome if we had a WicDiv phone case piece of merch. It’s certainly on the list.
Page 12
Yes, the skull is Persephone’s symbol. I hadn’t quite realised how visually disturbing it would be until Jamie first sent me this page. It really is genuinely creepy.
I did wonder if giving Persephone a bike would be too much. But then I remembered it was IMPERIAL PHASE. Too much is never enough, etc.
Persephone was one of the gods you don’t actually name.
Page 13-14
Lovely effects but Matt here, in terms of colour choices. A red streak moving through a desaturated world. Delightful.
Written as one page, and Jamie expanded to two, to ensure everyone got their EXCELLENT PERSEPHONE RIDING BIKE adventures. You may wonder how all this fitted in a page. Well, there were less panels… but also there was less of an actual establishing shots.
Clearly, this is much better. Valhalla is an important locale. Us returning to it should be sold as an emotional thing.
(And lets the flashback to Ananke be bigger as well, which obviously means it appears more important.)
Page 15
As Jamie added an extra page, to maintain the page turns, I added an interstitial here. Useful effect anyway, in terms of adding a pause after Persephone’s flashback and before she arrives with the Norns. Completing the “We Return” is another bonus.
Page 16-18
I’ll say a really basic addition to this – Persephone saying “Hey” in the first panel. Really basic, but basically ties the scene together.
Anyway – back with the machine, and Cassandra and the Norns getting their investigation on. I like Matt taking a much more clinical light, almost like a hospital. Which makes a lot of sense with the dissection.
Clearly, Cassandra is one of nature’s coffee drinkers.
With a time gap having happened, at least part of the point is showing that things have changed, while also filling in. This is the end of a “plan” by Persephone and the Norns, whose detail is only revealed. I mean, you can easily guess that it’s to do with Woden, but it’s withheld.
You know the old crappy writing thing of withholding the subject until the end of the sentence? That means people pay attention for the whole sentence rather than tuning out. That, but with plot structure. Tell people what they need to care and no more.
(Deciding how much information that is very much the art. The Caring vs Mystery axis is an interesting one to look at when considering modern writers, especially post-Lost.)
The “I’m working too hard” panel is one of my favourites. I feel you, Cassandra.
As is “this goes beep.”
Hmm. Every time I look at this page, I get a bit twitchy. Narratively speaking, I don’t need both jokes. They both serve the same purpose – or, at least, the majority of purpose. As such, one should have been cut. I let a darling live. Still – they seem to be stuff people liked, and after so long, it’s good to just see Cassandra and Persephone have some time together.
The Pizza Cutter joke actually originates with Chrissy, who made it when we were on the train back from SDCC. Editors are the best.
Anyway – who could be this mysterious guy who turns up speaking in Woden’s distinctive font…
Page 19-21
…oh, it’s Woden.
Woden’s in pretty good form this issue. He’s a wretch, but has a certain energy to him.
I wonder how many people would have forgot the bomb from the last arc? I know stuff sticks in my head more – because I’m writing the bastard thing – but it’s always floating around for me, so I’m surprised when people don’t. I mean, this is stating the obvious.
In terms of the Jamie Expression that makes a panel most, even above Sakhmet’s leer, we have Persephone’s from the end of page 20. In a script, I felt the “OR DO” may not be clear enough, or be a little flat. With the expression? Perfect. That’ll do nicely.
Matt call out – the dance of the greens in the panel before that.
Good Cass expression on the end of page 21 too.
Page 22-23
Oops.
Strong red here from Matt, and an actual classical traditional comics cliffhanger – which isn’t exactly the sort of one we use. It’s a “what happens next?”
Joe Keatinge dropped me a mail about this, actually. He was wondering why I do last page on the right rather than left – he’d noticed a selection of writers, mainly writers of my generation of Marvel, doing it. Now, I can’t speak for anyone else, but this is a (slightly edited version) of what I wrote back…
1) The last page cliff-hanger isn’t always the most important thing. In the case of this issue, the reveal on the video is the beat I wanted to stress. The Persephone going for Woden beat is a secondary beat. So I reveal on all that sequence in one go, which means left for the video, right for the raised fingers.
2) The second you have multiple panels on your final page, the worth of a page turn drops massively. In this case, that you have to read two panels before you even get to this last panel of Pers going for her magical gun, so effectively the panel is “spoiled” as you see it coming in your peripheral vision.
In this case, what looks like an end of issue cliffhanger actually works more like an end of PAGE cliff-hanger. We end an issue mid-action (which is very rare for WicDiv). This is normally the sort of tension you use to carry a page turn rather than leave unresolved across a month.
(As in, go back a few pages, Cass’ “If this is your handiwork…” for a similar sort of thing. The “What is Cass going to show us?” is what carries us over the page.)
Short answer is: other fish to fry with my space than spending a page of real-estate on a one page image. I mean, I do love them - I like BKV as much as the next man - but I tend to think it’s a device which often serves the single issues, but doesn’t always work as well in a collected form. When you can turn the page and see what happens next, throwing so much effort into the catchy cliffhanger image seems almost wasteful and possibly even fake drama. (Plus “is beloved character going to die!?!!?” WAITS MONTH “Phew. They’re fine.” is a different aesthetic effect from “Is beloved character going to die!?!!?” turns page “No, of course not.”)
Basically, it’s just working out what’s important to your story. And style, of course. I’m just a little more hyper than many people. I’d probably be better (or at least be more successful) if I could resist 8 panel pages and go for 4.
(Oh - and occasionally you just fuck up and realise there’s no way but to be a right sider. With WicDiv, we do all manner of cheats on the pages to get more pages in an issue, which means that occasionally the gymnastics means we have to end on a right.)
Page 24
Originally the interstitial at the end of the first scene, but works here too.
So end’s the first issue, and it’s good to be back. I just finished writing Imperial Phase (I) a few days before Christmas. I’ll probably write a little about it in this week’s newsletter. It does totally twist a bunch, though I pressed eject on something ludicrously formalist I was considering (simply because it wasn’t necessary and didn’t serve the material. Kill your darlings, unless they’re about pizza cutters, then protect those darlings, die for them.) As such, we wanted something a little more relaxing while still having a pulse – I suspect it’s closest to FANDEMONIUM in terms of the arcs that we’ve had so far.
It went down better than we expected. There’s a certain school of reviewer who’d describe an issue like this as “nothing happening”, which is generally shorthand for “no-one gets punched.” But at least in core WicDiv readers, it’s one of the more popular ones, which – given the nature of WicDiv fandom – is less of a surprise in retrospect. Happy it worked for you.
Anyway – issue 25 is in the first week of January, so hopefully see you for that.
Thanks for reading.