I don’t think I figured out that the Sepia heroes had worked out to be “another five” until I got to the part of the script where Carol reasonably asks, “How MANY other people?” and I was like, “Oh, hey.” Patterns arranged subconsciously, yada yada.

“Shrill and unattractive” was our last nod to the idea that Carol’s interactions with Shanna had a certain unacknowledged sexual dimension, especially on Carol’s side. I mean, there had to be a more professional way for Carol to describe a target to JJ than that. With this and the phrase “screechy, underfed paranoiac,” she seems to be working very hard to emphasize how repulsive she finds Shanna, as if this will prove that her moment of “infidelity” to HR never happened. “Her voice is so whiny, it could never have had any power over me, under any circumstances.”

But most people seemed to miss this idea! I suppose you could read it all as “Carol’s emotions are out of control in general, and that’s why she’s going low with the insults.” No big deal, I’ll just file this away with “Syr’Nj had a crush on Best.” So plot threads based on subtle attraction don’t come through to most readers without a lot of underlining. S’all good. Y’all got almost all of what we were putting down. The rest was a learning experience for next time.

And there is indeed a next time coming up! On February 12, Webtoon will launch Traveler, a superhero story with me on writing and lettering, Jason Waltrip on pencils, John on inks, and Monica Marier on colors. If you’ve been following the GA annotations carefully, you may already have some idea what it’s about…