Saved by the Bell #6 ANNOTATED

In May or so, I worked on SAVED BY THE BELL #6. I enjoyed drawing this story, and I hit my stride with some of the panel layouts. Of course, enjoy the cover by Chynna Clugston here, and buy the e-edition on Amazon!

The e-format drives the page layout, so while it's written as a 12 page story, it's really 12 2-half pages or 24 half pages. It can be a challenge maneuvering the script into the half page format (would be a no brainer for me if the 12 page script allowed freedom to be drawn as a whole page) I'm probably not describing this well. Too little or too much coffee maybe.

PAGE 1 

Sorely lacking for my enjoyment are splash pages or half-splashes. So for this story, I significantly altered the script affording me the space for a half-splash. I love panel 1! The girl with the blue hair is wearing the "Hippie Daisy" T-shirt I designed while hanging a poster reading "art by Tim Fish." Zack is wearing the "Johnny's Magnet" T-shirt I designed. Jeffrey, the scruffy indie boy I worked into the backgrounds of issues 2 and 4 appears embracing his BF or maybe just a hookup. Tough to say. Panel 4 was really fun to draw.

PAGE 2

The script places Kelly in audition lines for the "Pop Diva" TV show, so lots of familiar faces worked into the crowds throughout the story. 

Panel 1:

• Archie, Betty, Veronica (obscured by the letterer's placement of text)
• Jughead

Panel 2:

• Andrea Thomas/Isis
• Kathy a.k.a. Pumpkin Head, a.k.a. PH (woman I work with)
• Indie Uncle Sam
• Human Bomb
• Phantom Lady

Panel 5:

• Lilandra

In panel 4, we meet two producers—the villains of the story. The primary villain I drew after my most recent ex. The secondary villain, I drew after his then BF. After I drew this, but before it was published, they broke up.

PAGE 5 Panel 1 we see recurring background character, a rather large gal, drawn after a colleague of mine. We also see a poster for a pub I frequent, Tavern at the End of the World. Panel 2 is Jeffrey again, and panel 5 we see Leslie from issue #4.

PAGE 6 Screech wears a robot T I designed for my office's student employees (my day job is at MIT). In panel 5 we see the iconic single pedestal Planner Group desk designed by Paul McCobb.

PAGE 7 Zack's polos drawn by me are usually labelled with the mark you see here...kinda looks like a whale. Or a sperm. Not sure. We also get to see the foil label in the desk drawer in panel 2; panel 6 I re-use my explosion effect I've blogged about before.

PAGE 8 turned out alright, except Kelly's head in panel 4 bothers me...should be a little over to the right. Looks like she broke her neck. Oops.

PAGE 9 catches a glimpse of Jeffrey eating some fries.

PAGE 11 went through significant edits in the pencilling and layout phase. Given the half-page publishing format it could have benefited from being busted out over 2 pages. But sometimes there are easy pages to draw and sometimes tough ones! Since my editor generally gives awesome quality and helpful feedback, I think the page turned out well.

Panel 1:

• Fred from SCOOBY-DOO
•  The Wizard from my Arche-Lady series
• Black Canary

Panel 2:

• Arche-Lady and Doctor Glax
• Lyle Norg/Invisible Kid

Panel 3:

• Johnny Magnet from my Arche-Lady series

Panel 4:

• Black Canary again

Panel 5:

• woman dressed as Tigra

Ok, that's all for May! What will June bring?—time will tell!