This page starts with a punchline, which is somewhat unusual, I guess!

It was set up on the final panel of the previous page, and I think this is the first time in the comic that I've done a set-up/punchline across two pages. Until now I have always tried to keep the jokes contained to one page, given the episodic nature of the webcomic format. I certainly feel like I'm challenging myself as a writer and growing a bit by trying things like that. If you're new to the comic, the guy in panel one is Terry, the security guard, who was last seen in the previous issue! I thought it would be fun to bring him back. He survived!

I've said before that I find folds in clothing one of the most challenging things to draw. I feel like I got the folds working pretty well on this page, and certainly felt more comfortable drawing them than I usually do.

It took a couple of tries to get the crater in panel three right. My first attempt had a lot of debris strewn about but it didn't convey that the building was completely gone. There was not even much of a crater in that first pass - I realized that the Eco-Opt building probably had some subterranean levels. I pulled out my trade paperbacks of Akira, to see how the masterful Katsuhiro Otomo handled destruction on a massive scale. I certainly found some inspiration there. If you've never read Akira, I thoroughly recommend it - it's better than the movie!

One more reason I love working in Clip Studio Paint: I found a very handy "people brush" online and modified it slightly so I didn't have to draw all those bystanders one by one. A real time saver!

I hope you guys like this page - I'm pretty happy with it!