Annotated 2013 Preview
May as well put this here as anywhere, I guess: it’s where the page went in sequence originally.
In order: Harky passes on his Firestone (Chapter 28), adventurers protest the Head-of-House class (chapter 24), we flash back to the Battle of the Burning Heels (Chapter 21), Iwatani Sr. signs some diabolical agreement (Chapter 22), and the cultists are cultists in greater numbers (Chapter 22). Those last two would turn out to be pretty related.
This was our second preview in four years and the last time we attempted one. Phil pretty much hated them at this point, feeling that they put the story development in an arbitrary straitjacket and often crossed the line between teaser and spoiler. And whether I disagreed in principle didn’t really matter much because if we couldn’t do previews like this together, we couldn’t do them at all.
That aside, I’m a little torn: I still hold it as an ideal to be so far ahead on your work that you can sell a year’s worth of stories like this, but it’s pretty clear to me now that we were not there. Panel 1 gives too much away and would actually take place in early 2014, while panels 2 and 3 aren’t really that heavy in dramatic relevance. Maybe I’ll try the “coming in…” device again someday, but I’ll only do it if I have a lot of confidence in my outline and full control over its execution.
I think you are still looking at this too much like the author you are and not as a reader. The reader generally just says, “Wow, that looks cool,” and doesn’t compare notes with later works to check accuracy or for dead giveaways. Random obsessed fans aside, I think you are being to hard on yourself.
Kind of mind blowing I didn’t realize the significance of that first panel until now in hindsight. I have to agree with you, both fortunately and unfortunately the average reader probably doesn’t look into things that deeply, and has a lot of other media prodding their brain to cover curiosity.
The things you both did with this comic and seeing two sides of the story is a great experience, and it’s a testament to the quality of this comic and its run that I’m just as engaged the second time around and checking obsessively on update days.
When I read the comic the first time round, I had no idea about the significance of the Firestone, so while I might have recognized Harky’s hand, I would not have known what to make of the picture other than somebody (possibly Harky) handing someone a gem. No big spoiler.