by Kris@WLP » Wed May 12, 2010 2:58 pm
In writing, one of the strongest rules of thumb is, "show, don't tell."
I'd originally planned to show Butch -about- to be abused, and rescued in a tense and dramatic confrontation by Carla, but Ben said quite bluntly that he'd had too much pain to draw as it was and he quite honestly could not- as in was not capable of- draw the scene I had in mind. To the best of my knowledge, it's the first time he's used the veto in our partnership.
On the whole, I'm glad he did; what's doing here- and especially the next page, if Ben makes the art work- is more positive, more fun, and a lot less painful for the characters... while making certain that Gus Cramer looks every bit as much the bastard as he is. (And not the Magnificent Bastard, either- just the ordinary kind.)
To clarify: Good and Evil are not a duality. They are a trinity: Good, Evil, and Bastard. Good wants everybody to get along; Evil wants to put everyone else down; and Bastard wants to put himself up, which is not the same thing.
GOOD: Fights to stop offshore drilling by protests, donating to green-leaning politicians, etc.
EVIL: Blows up an oil platform, starting a massive irreparable oil spill.
BASTARD: Buys up every mom-and-pop burger house within 100 miles of the oil spill and then offers catering for the out-of-town clean-up and repair crews at double the pre-spill prices.
Or, put in celebrity terms: Woody Harrelson is Good; Dick Cheney is Evil; Donald Trump is a Bastard.
I leave it to you to place the rest of our cast, but Butch is Evil, and her dad is a truly irredeemable Bastard.
And we've only just begun to show how much of a bastard he truly is.