Eleanor

I don’t recall when the concept of Agnes’s dreamland first occurred to me, but I don’t believe it was in the first three or four drafts of the novel. When it did, however, all of the pieces fell into place, and the story finally worked on a level I had never even considered.

Today’s page is one of my favorites of the chapter, particularly for the closeup of Agnes’s hand in the final panel. There’s just something about that unsmoked, smoldering cigarette that creeps me the hell out. Agnes in her dream space always reminds me of the Murry children on Camazotz when they’re subverted by IT.

Maybe that gives away too much of the nature of Agnes’s dreams too early. You’ll forgive me, though?

What I love about this page is the memory of drawing it in our cabin at Friday Harbor in Washington, and painstakingly filling the page with black marker. Wasteful, perhaps, but there’s nothing so satisfying at the end of a page than seeing the blacks fully blacked-in. Here’s what the final inks looked like:

Final inks for page 27. Check out all that black marker fill.

Coincidentally, this weekend I completed a page from Chapter 2 that flashes back, visually, to this same page. Faced with that enormous black space to fill, I made a different choice, and dug up a bottle of india ink and some brushes. I’d never brush-inked an Eleanor page before, but this seemed like the perfect chance to give it a shot.

Here’s an early look at page 55 from Eleanor’s next chapter:

Page 55, Chapter 2. India ink fills vs. marker fills.

As you can see, Agnes has some treacherous moments to look forward to. But for now, perhaps, she’ll just stand here while the cigarette burns down to her skin. Waiting for whatever’s next.

Hope you are all enjoying the story, and the sneak peeks every week of future pages. If you haven’t yet, come like Eleanor on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, where I share lots of behind-the-scenes looks at the making of my little graphic novel. Please share with your friends so everyone can enjoy!

Also, updates on the Eleanor iPad app!

Happy Monday and Halloween to all!