Two Enter, One Leaves

Two Enter, One Leaves

Okay, we’re in the final week of the Rita Kickstarter. I’ve gotten some better quotes, that are letting me revise the threshold for spot gloss down by a LOT – I think I can make it happen at around $6400. If you haven’t ordered a copy, this is getting down to your last chance to get it for this price – it’ll be $25 plus shipping afterwards, or $25 plus all the expense of attending a convention.

I’m debating whether or not this is the end of chapter VI. It’d make for the shortest chapter so far at only six pages, but I feel like I might need the chapter break to actually shift the scene like a normal comic for once. The last time I used this particular panel layout was back at the end of chapter 1; it really feels like part of this particular leitmotif might be that it ends a chapter.

(Leitmotif? Yeah, seriously. I’ve been thinking about this comic in somewhat musical terms since I began, and this past weekend I started to realize that the deliberate repetition of panel arrangements was arguably creating an equivalent to the use of small phrases to represent characters, places, or emotion in huge works like operas. You can see some of my initial Twitter ponderings of the idea here, and ponder the definition of it on Wikipedia. Of course the real test will be if I pull up other panel arrangements to bring up certain moods.)

ALSO I am finally starting to rebuild my habits of productivity after the trough caused by three cons in two weekends, a week of recovery, and another week of being down with some vicious concrud. So hopefully things should be a little more regular around here soon.

Thanks to Gabe for his pimpage of Rita and the Kickstarter on Dumm Comics, and to E.K. Weaver for the link from her TJ And Amal!

5 thoughts on “Two Enter, One Leaves

  1. Alright, since this is my first time commenting here, I’ve just got to say what an amazing ride this has been so far. The style is unique, the characters are interesting, and the idea… well, it’s original, but if someone were to do something somewhat similar to it because they had no knowledge of this awesome series before they thought of it, they might have to hope you don’t sue them out of the kindness of your heart. Hypothetically, of course.

    Now, I wanted to say two things for this page in particular: First is that whole “if I only had the money” thing you must have heard dozens of times, but if not right now, I hope you can publish more copies of this issue sometime in the future when I’m not dead-broke. The second, merely a suggestion to your problem, is that instead of calling this Chapter 1, it could just be a Prologue deal, hence the shortness. I just didn’t see the “1” in the earlier pages, so it’s just a thought.

    Overall, love the comic, go Rita(s). :D

    • Thanks! Working on this is pretty lonely most of the time – for whatever reasons I really just don’t get any.

      As to other people theoretically doing similar stuff? I’d LOVE to see that. I’m building on some of my idols; the whole parallel-narratives thing is riffing on “Those Annoying Post Bros.” #4, in which the titular brothers split up with one in the top half of these and one in the bottom, and, well, I couldn’t tell you how many of Phillip K. Dick’s books I’ve read, never mind seeing “The Matrix” or “Inception”. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants here.

      I’ve found pointers to a COUPLE of other experiments in long form parallel narratives, but it’s really scarce – usually it’s a trick people do for maybe a couple pages before returning to normal, linear time. Possibly I am crazy.

      Money, yeah, I know how THAT goes. I’ve been there. I’ll be printing more than what’s spoken for via the Kickstarter, so it’ll be available here or at West Coast cons for a while. At this stage, telling your friends about this is just as appreciated as buying a book!

      This is actually chapter VI; I’m numbering them in sequence with the first book’s worth, but switching to Roman numerals now. Chapter 1 just had the overall titles, as I didn’t know how long it was gonna be when I started; chapter IV is done with knowledge of the overall length, but is referring back to the opening in a lot of ways – I like to think of it as a fugue, sometimes, with this being a return of the initial theme. This chapter’s only two pages shorter than the previously shortest one, anyway, and I think it’s as long as it NEEDS to be.

      Glad you’re enjoying it. I’ll be making this for a while yet, I think!

  2. Wow, that sucks – this is too good to be ignored by faithful comic fans! But don’t worry, I’m spreading the word of Rita to as many people as I can, and there will hopefully be a few buyers among them. In the meantime, my co-creator friends and I are going to look into those “giants’ shoulders” you mentioned and start planning for our own project, which you can hopefully approve of once we start. Thanks for explaining the story organization thing to me, too, and I guess I can’t wait to see the beginnings of Chapter VII!

    Oh, and to the crazy thing: “Some may never live, but the crazy never die.” – Hunter S. Thompson. (I’ve got pages of these.)

  3. I love the emotion in this page. Barrett1 seems like a bit of a jerk, but his reaction here also kind of saves him. He crossed a line. This is him realizing it.

    • Thanks!

      Barrett will cross more lines, in the course of this story. This is probably not a surprise to anyone reading. *grin*

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