C'Mon, Stand Up and Fight

C'Mon, Stand Up and Fight

Posted by Brian • November 30, 2016

Original Release Date: April 7, 2010

There are a few good things happening here in terms of artwork and layout. The backgrounds continue to look good and detailed, and the characters appear to actually belong in them. The hand-lettering is getting better, and even the sound effects in panel six are spilling beyond the panel border, which was easy to do when the lettering was digital, but took some getting used to after switching to hand-lettering. The interesting perspective in panel seven--the low closeup of the dead bees--adds some variety to the page and some gravitas to Mike's actions.

Also, did you notice there are other people on this page, other than our main characters? They're even still in the background on panel seven! It's not much, but it's progress. Of course, they were there so Mike could steal a drink from them, so they weren't exclusively background characters with no impact on the story, but it's an improvement.

Mike gets a win here. He knows he needs to change, and it pays off for him. I didn't want him to do too much damage, though. Bee Man, in theory, could have been killed off in this exchange without greatly impacting the series of events in the rest of this volume, but that would have made him look too weak, and Mike would have been too empowered in taking on what is yet to come. This is still Mike's journey, both physically and emotionally, and it's a long way from over.