SR 1 PAGE SEVEN

Mary Ann! Her first appearance in the book! Not the first time I worked with the character, though. She was the co-star of my second Serenity Rose short film at CalArts, Good Guys Wear Black. In that film, Sera had to rescue Mary Ann from a boogeyman in her closet. The thing had a mouthful of rattling skulls and wound up, uh… Well, just check it out: 

RANDOM FACT: Mary Ann is named after my favorite Sisters of Mercy song, “Marian (Version).” Gothiness touches even the least gothy characters in this universe.

And wait, that’s not Mary Ann’s only brush with goth culture! I have in my possession a framed drawing of Mary Ann signed by none other than Queen of the Goths herself, Siouxsie Sioux. Why? It was the most interesting bit of paper I had on me for Siouxsie to sign when I ran into her at an airport in 2002. I can’t believe I was even bold enough to approach her. But when one of you artistic heroes is standing directly in front of you in line to board an airplane, that’s the universe screaming “DO SOMETHING!” 

One thing you shouldn’t do, though, is offer to give your hero the drawing she just signed as a token of your appreciation. “Not with my name on it,” she said, turning away. 

A beautiful, humiliating memory I will treasure and cringe about forever.

SR 1 PAGE EIGHT

Nice little moment of Zoe trying to find common ground with Sera. I never wanted the relationship between Sera and her stepmom to be at all hostile, just a little awkward. Sera has a lot of trouble connecting with people, even really nice people who are trying their hardest. Social anxiety is fun like that. You know the nice people want you to say words to them, but you don’t know exactly which words to say, so you often say nothing at all, and they think you’re a snobby jerk. Wheeeeee!

Sorta forgetting now why Sera is so thrown off by Mary Ann’s little monster drawing on the fridge… Maybe after a long night of artistic frustration she’s annoyed to see this simple lil’ sketch hung up with such pride? Yeah, that’s it. Oh, to be as un-self-conscious as a small child doodling!

Or a small child eating cherry menthol cough drops. I actually loved those things when I was a kid. Kind of a similar sensation to mint, but stranger. Weird thing to give out as Halloween candy, though. How do you think this happened? The choices are 1) confused elderly person, 2) desperate sap who forgot to buy real candy, or 3) THE JOKER. Some men just want to watch the world eat menthol on Halloween.

TECHNICAL CORNER: This page has literal tape on it. Literal dang tape! I corrected panel six by taping a new drawing right on top and scanning it. Thought it gave the comic a cool handmade feel… Remember, this is supposed to be a zine-style comic Sera cobbled together instead of journaling. That conceit sorta fades away after a few issues, but it’s still fun to think about. If this whole thing is Sera’s personal journal, how truthful is she being about all this?

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

Finishing up the cover for SHOCK CITY today! Have to make it extra-nice because once promotion starts I’ll be looking at this cover every day of my life for months and months, possibly years, every flaw magnified with every glance, the imperfection burning in my brain like the beating of that hideous heart.

Happy post-Halloween, everybody! Hope you all had fun out there.

NEXT WEEK: HELLO, CRESTFALLEN!