SR 1 PAGE ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE

So what happened on that bus, anyway? I never went into much detail about that. We know Sera pulls it into the sky and sends it whirling around doing barrel rolls and loop-de-loops and whatnot. One guy in issue two mentions she conjured “icey bitey things” to torment the passengers, so we know it’s more than just a wild ride. Sera is flailing with rage and letting all the darkest parts of her imagination pour out.

In the second book we learn Sera eventually slammed the bus into the frozen-over waters of Stillwater Drown. Eight people were pulled out of the bus and taken to a local hospital. Let’s assume  Sera is one of those eight, making the other seven her “victims.”

So: How bad do we feel for those seven people?

Remember Maddy isn’t one of them. She stepped off the bus and screamed “You never DO anything!” at Sera through the window. I imagine the wild ride started a few seconds later.

There are at least three confirmed bullying piles of garbage on the bus. There’s also, presumably, a bus driver, a grown human adult who regularly allows homophobic bullying and underage drinking to happen on their bus. So four people deserved to look mortality straight in the eye here. I’m not saying awful bullies deserve broken bones or concussions or whatever else might have happened in those moments, but the psychological trauma seems fair enough to me. Maybe you’re a more enlightened creature, though. I respect this!

But what about those other three passengers?

Those three are where storytelling gets really interesting, and I wish I’d had more time to explore all the moral implications of the Bus Incident within Serenity Rose. Maybe someday I still can! Were all three of the other passengers innocent bystanders? Or were some of them tittering along with the bullies? Maybe one or two were trying to gather up the courage to speak up themselves? Does any of that even matter?

In theory Sera could have attempted to protect the innocent ones from the horrors she unleashed, but that seems unlikely given her emotional state. She’s basically gone full-Carrie. But we don’t know precisely what happened aboard that whirling bus. If I didn’t explicitly put it on the page, you as the reader are free to make up absolutely anything you want. That’s how it works. Maybe she shoved the Blameless Three into a protective ectoplasmic cocoon before setting little snow goblins’ to chew on the others’ skulls. Totally your call. Have fun with it!

SR 1 PAGE ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX

There are eleven panels on this page and somehow it doesn’t feel cluttered to me. Is this madness? Am I a crazed mad-person? Probably!

Eleven panels would definitely be madness in the comic ecosphere I’m currently inhabiting. Middle grade books tend to have fewer panels per page than comics for older readers. Not sure why, exactly. The books are usually a bit smaller, so that’s certainly part of it. But I’ve also noticed that middle grade prose books often have larger fonts and fewer words per page than adult books, so I think it’s just some general publishing industry tactic. The thinking is to not overwhelm young readers with too much STUFF.

Of course, speaking as a former young reader who absolutely loved being overwhelmed with STUFF, this deeply offends me. Intensely detailed, jam-packed pages were my favorite! Why should kids like little Aaron be denied the joys of overwhelming detail and overstuffed pages?

Because those joys don’t sell as well, would be my guess. 

When we were putting together the pitch for SHOCK CITY, my agent wasn’t thrilled by the seven thousand panels I tried to cram into every sample page, so I basically had to cut them all in half. Can you believe it? Half! The utter temerity to even ask for such a change! And looking back at those pages now, he was, um… 100% correct. SHOCK CITY definitely looks better with a little more air. (Thanks, Dan!) Also: More space for cool background details. There are different ways of creating density.

STUFF forever!

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

PROGRAMMING NOTE: I’ve noticed that whenever there’s a holiday weekend readership tends to crater around here. Normally I’d be, like, “Whatever! If people are interested, they’ll catch up later.” But since we’re coming to the CLIMACTIC FINAL PAGES of Serenity Rose Vol. 1 (dramatic stinger here), I want to make sure folks actually see them. So I’m going to take a short holiday break and return January 3rd to begin wrapping up the book. Only three pages left! CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE THIS?

Happy Holidays, everyone! Whatever you’re doing with the rest of 2024, I hope it’s relaxing, and that you can spend at least part of it with someone you love. Try not to destroy too many school buses with witchcraft!

NEXT WEEK: BUTTERFLY WINGS.