Random Xella Babble: Second Target

Thursday February 15, 2024

Second Target is where I recommend people new to the comic start, which is a little awkward sometimes as it is called Second Target, heh. When BA's scope and ambition was much wider than it is now, it made sense to me to introduce the main characters that I could at the start. With the "main" comic now essentially stretching no further than the end of Fourth Target (although I do have some ideas and plans for smaller one-shot comics that are enhanced by having familiarity with 2nd-4th, but which wouldn't be required knowledge), introducing Alex into that and never coming back to him just doesn't make much sense. Which, in an awkward way, also makes the comic name not make much sense, but I suppose naming the comic after one of the Qudhraven instead of all five of them never made much sense to begin with (especially as he's never been the most prominent one in any iteration the story's ever taken). Ah well, leaves flowing downstream and all that.

Second Target is also when I first changed the proportions I was working on the comic at; I think it was because I was using an old sketchbook for First Target and the first four pages of Second, but ran out of space in that one and decided to have a dedicated BA book from then on, which had slightly different page dimensions. When I was doing the comic traditionally (which is, uh, almost all of it) I was using the marks on one particular ruler to keep my gutters and things consistent, but obviously it wasn't consistent across books. You can also see right at the switch where I went back and re-did a page; this was back when I was trying to keep up a weekly or bi-weekly schedule, and I didn't have time that week to make a page. A friend of mine at the time offered to do that week's page for me, and that was the page that was up on KeenSpace, ComicGenesis, and my own personal website when those were around and I was on those platforms. I'd always intended to draw it myself one day but didn't get around to it until I went to upload the whole thing to DA; it wasn't my work, I had lost contact with Cassie by then and asking her permission wasn't feasible, so I stopped putting it off.

I'm still very fond of the title/splash art for this chapter, and actually had it on my wall until we moved a couple years ago (now it's in the garage somewhere cos I haven't put anything back up yet, haha). The bridge in particular always made me happy.