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(Jon sez:) 
Mark and I got a relatively rare bit of time in each other's physical
presence this past weekend. (I live in Pennsylvania, while Mark lives in
Illinois, so we usually communicate by email.) We spent a lot of time
utterly slacking at a rather boring meeting we both attended, and also found
time to ponder the layout of the next few pages of A Miracle of
Science.
The time we spent discussing the upcoming pages highlighted for me one of my
personal deficits: I have vivid pictures in my head of what things in the
comic should look like, but I am incapable of drawing even the simplest
picture. I am often forced to rely on vast stacks of verbiage, which Mark
then turns into the spare and elegant pictures you see. Usually, I simply
state what an object or machine or character should do and rely on
Mark's aesthetic sense to bring it to life.
An example of this would be the pistol Benjamin carries. Its
first appearance in the
script was attended by this description, edited slightly for length:
"Benjamin stands beside Caprice - as if not quite willing to hide behind her
- and pulls his pistol, which is a fairly large, pistol-style railgun...
The muzzle end of the railpistol has an odd muzzle-bore with two
projections, one on the top and one on the bottom... The railpistol makes a
'ZZ-THOOM' noise when fired." From this minimal description, Mark created a
nifty, unique gun.
A postscript: My wife often reminds me I am not allowed to purchase a
motorcycle. I suspect it is because she is terrified I will immediately
take it out on the interstate and race between huge tractor trailers at high
speed like Benjamin does in today's comic.
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(Mark sez:) 
I could buy a motorcycle and take it out on the lunar interstate and race between huge tractor trailers at high speed if I wanted to. I just don't want to.
I'd also like to mention that the insanely narrow and dangerous two-lane freeway our heroes have been driving along is directly inspired by the insanely narrow and dangerous Schuylkill Expressway between 476 and the PA Turnpike near Philadelphia. |
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