1-24 – Two Ways Out
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007– Commentary –
Craig: Favorite. Page. Ever.
J.D.: Raindrops are a lot of work, but they really look cool.
Craig: I really enjoyed creating this page. I drew each chain link by link. It took me hours, but I wanted it to look exactly how it came out.
J.D.: Yeah, we bought some chains so that we could drop them and watch how they lay. I love chains, I love the way they fall, I love using them as an artistic symbol.
Craig: I was so impressed with the work you did on the green fire. It came out even better than I hoped.
J.D.: As he was falling, I tried to make the flames grow, as though he was leaving his own realm and entering into the Maintainer’s, and being consumed by it. And I love how vulnerable Leon is in the final panel. At this point, he truly is naked. All of his schemes have been laid bare, and they have won him naught. And as you said, he is now helpless and chained. And he doesn’t know where to turn.
Craig: Overlaying Leon’s descent is a completely different conversation between Azriel and the Maintainer.
J.D.: Who in that conversation is revealed as being vulnerable, in that Azriel calls the Maintainer “unnamed” and implies that he too is in penance.
Craig: Yep, judging from this conversation, the Maintainer is taking a big risk in interfering with Leon’s life like this. Azriel is apparently watching him very closely, looking for a misstep.
J.D.: In a way, the Maintainer is showing Leon a great deal of love by taking on the responsibility of Leon’s reclamation himself. Leon feels helpless and alone, but he never really is.
April 11th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Another thing I thought cool about the final panel was its resemblance to a baby in the womb. The chains even have a kind-of umbilical cord feel. Maybe I’m stretching a bit here, but Leon’s about to have a birth of sorts into a completely new world.
Oh, and the chains are quite well done!
April 13th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
“…great deal of love…” is not what I would call that. Showing and taking responsibility comes from character, the fact that he is what he is. And probably from the fact that there is no point denying what he had done.
Because Leon doesn’t really belong in Mythband, being outsider and cast there by Maintainer it is pretty obvious that Maintainer is responsible for that action and its consequences.