2-9 Evidence
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007Craig: This page, as usually seems to be the case, is one of my favorites. 🙂
J.D.: Why is this one on that list?
Craig: Tara is one of my favorite characters. While most of the characters in Penance are reacting to their circumstances, Tara is furiously pursuing a goal. She’s devastated by her grandfather’s death, and she’s trying to find meaning in it. If her grandfather were murdered — if his death wasn’t just random — then she can maybe do something about it.
J.D.: What frightens me is the prospect of what she might try to do.
Craig: Indeed. This isn’t just investigation. It’s vengeance.
J.D.: From the Silmarillion: “The lies of Melkor thou shalt unlearn in bitterness. Vala he is, thou saist. … For none of the Valar canst thou overcome now or ever within the halls of Ea, not though Eru whom thou namst, had made thee thrice greater than thou art.”
Craig: I don’t smoke, so it was challenging to draw Tara with a cigarette. One of my friends smokes occasionally, and she was quick to point out that Tara was holding the cigarette wrong in panel 3. Cigarettes are usually held between the first and second joint of the fingers, not between the second and third as I drew it.
J.D.: She offered to smoke a cigarette or two to model for us.
Craig: She also told me that Tara lights her cigarette very unusually for a woman. Lighting the cigarette with one hand while it’s in one’s mouth is a very masculine act. Most women would hold the cigarette with their other hand while lighting it. I’ve sure learned a lot by trying to draw people. 🙂
J.D.: I had fun drawing the flames going around the book in panel 6. I really enjoy working on Penance for that reason, because I get to do some really fun visual effects in what is otherwise a seemingly mundane world.
Craig: The items that Tara is showing Jonah are the same items she found while digging through the ashes of her grandfather’s store.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Runes of the book got my notice. I tried to decrypt it but got only meanless string of letters. Was it supposed to say something?
May 16th, 2007 at 11:51 am
I think it says “OF THE GR(EA?)T DARK LORD”
The third rune of the third word is giving me trouble, but the runic alphabet reminds me of the ones used for Ultima 5.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
I think she’s one of my favorite characters, because she’ the only one actively seeking the truth, everyone else either knows the truth or has the truth thrust upon them. She seeking it with a vengeance. (maybe she lit the cigarette in her mouth cause she only started smoking a week ago ha)
May 20th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Like the Dagger; Where do I get one?
I read the page and Looked for a woman smoking on TV. first one I saw lit up just like the page. But I must say women I have seen smoking before do use two hands to light up.