I know I used a circular inset panel just a couple of pages ago, but I just love the way they look on a page, and couldn’t resist using one here. I needed a way to simultaneously show Night Knight’s face as he opens one eye, and also show what he is seeing. The round inset panel seemed like a good solution. This page also features liberal use of thought balloons, another visual device that is (sadly) seldom used in modern comics. I deliberately placed the thought balloons in panel one to create a specific kind of pacing: “nngh…won’t…budge” is placed over his closed eye, to suggest that he’s thinking that with his eyes still closed, and pulling on the cables, but “Eh?” is positioned over his open eye - hopefully this reads as him opening his eye and seeing something puzzling - and the question marks signify his puzzlement but also lead the reader’s eye to what he sees, which is the “DANGER” sign in the second panel.

As some readers guessed, sometimes just pulling something won’t work! I thought it was a funny idea to have a childproof lock on a high-voltage cable, and I had a lot of fun making that sign look old and rusty!

The middle tier of panels gave me the space to throw in a couple of mini-jokes while still moving the story along. It was fun to call back to the Solvitron 9000 (briefly seen in one panel on page 5 of this issue) and also suggest that it’s kind of a jerk! I’d really like to find the time to do a short story about the Super-Effective Detective Collective at some point! In panel five, it was fun to brainstorm an opposite of “lefty-loosey” that was still alliterative. I think it’s delightfully ridiculous and it made me giggle, so I hope it had the same effect on you.

The final panel was the most challenging one on the page. It was tricky to convey that Night Knight is turning the cable’s connector without using motion lines. Ordinarily I don’t like using verbs as sound effects (I prefer onomatopoeia), but I’ve done it twice on this page. It feels like a bit of a cheat but it certainly makes it clear what’s happening, and I’ll always come down on the side of clarity when it comes to storytelling. The next challenge was making the sound effect look like it was emanating from the cable coupling. Having the letters get bigger from left to right accomplishes that, but I did have a moment where the sound effect going left-to-right as the coupling turned right-to-left seemed like it wasn’t going to work. I was over-thinking it, and again, clarity of storytelling took precedence. I always love the comic device of using a sound effect as a panel, and I’ve done it here to show Night Knight’s panicked “uh-oh” reaction. 

I hope the page reads well for you!

Keep Rolling!

Matt