SR 1 PAGE TWENTY-ONE

Ha ha, I forgot Wiccan is pulling a knife from her own skull in the first panel there. You know, comics really are capable of such grace and delicacy. We take that for granted sometimes.

I think I read pretty much every review of Serenity Rose #1. It was my first published thing, how could I not? There weren’t a lot of reviews, but from what I recall they were all pretty positive. One reviewer, though, singled out this page for being cliche.

And you know what, fair enough! His argument was that making fun of “sexy bad girl” comic tropes was itself a worn out trope by 2003. Which was probably true. In my defense, this page is less about making fun of, like, Witchblade, and more about contrasting Sera’s reality with dopey media depictions of witchcraft. I gotta admit, though, drawing all those gross-looking 90’s Image Comics-style muscles was fun as hell. Look how much furious energy Wiccan’s putting into moving that playing card!

Sera uses the phrase “girlie magazines” because she’s 78 years old inside.

Quick question: Do you think “VIDEO GAME” is a good video game? It better be, right?

SR 1 PAGE TWENTY-TWO

First glimpse of Stiletta (panel 07)! Man, pretty much the whole main cast pops up right in the first issue. The blur effect is supposed to suggest there’s something uniquely important about panel seven, like the whole world slows down and gets fuzzy when Stiletta’s around. No idea what the guy’s hat said before it was smudged into oblivion… “Emory?” “Smort?” “Gmork?” Could he be a fan of the wolf beast Gmork from 1984’s classic fantasy adventure The Neverending Story? Wish I could leave an answer for future scholars, but alas.

This is also our first glimpse of Buford Puck! What, you don’t know BUFORD PUCK? The glowering man in the varsity jacket, panel two. Fan-favorite background player in all three Serenity Rose books, often seen hustling his little son away from Sera. 

If the “88” on Buford’s jacket sets off some alarm bells for you, you’re not wrong. It’s a fairly well-known hate symbol. “H” is the eight letter of the alphabet, so “88” is “HH,” or “Heil Hitler.” (This is what passes for clever among the stupidest people on earth.) Could Buford Puck be a secret Nazi??

I have no idea! This was drawn so long ago it’s all become a bit fizzly. I must have been aware of the “88” thing, though. It was on the list of things to look out for at various dingy punk or industrial shows, along with specific shoelace and suspender configurations. Most likely I did mean for this guy to be some Nazi creep scowling at Sera. Now, though, I just see him as a grumpy middle-aged guy in a varsity jacket who peaked in high school. Obviously there’s some overlap in those categories, but putting an “88” on a varsity jacket at age 42 seems like a really exotic way of winking at your fellow garbage people. Although I guess the Jan. 6 people did weirder stuff, huh?

Oh man, it’s a bummer thinking about these people! Sorry for this one, everybody! We’ll talk about Cricket next week. She’s cool!

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

With all that fascist stuff out of the way… MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL WHO ARE INTO THAT SORT OF THING! I hope you don’t have to work this next week, but if you do, I hope you’re being paid a king’s ransom for it. If not, let’s talk guillotines soon!

NEXT WEEK: GOLDEN CLASS.