Another Way To Breathe

Spoilers, obv.

Nothing easy about this arc, is there? After the stretching deadlines of the previous issues, we recalibrated the schedule, and ended up here. So there’s been a gap as the machinery of publication realigned. It’s very complicated.  Anyway – this means the last issue is out at the start of September (September 12th), and the 1373 Special will be out at the end of September. Double WicDiv thrills in September. The Trade comes out in October, the Funnies Special in November, and we’re back with our final arc in December.

We’re settled on a title for that now – in the backmatter of 39 I say we’re still deciding, but between writing that and now, we’ve settled on it. I’ll save a public unveiling for the next Writer Notes, to be fair. Also by the next writer notes Spangly New Thing will be announced, for Kieron Gillen Comic watching. In fact, (spoilers) it’s likely out later today.

Back to this issue.

Jamie/Matt: Let’s call this the Anna White cover, but as revealed inside it’s Old Minerva or Young Ananke. This is Jamie’s first drawing of her, and I love what Jamie does with the facial features of the woman across the years. Worth noting that, on a design note, Ananke and Minerva’s propensity of veils, masks and similar is in part about disguising the resemblance.

So much to love here though, right? The necklace, the hat, the veil. Strong look, Anna White.

Cliff Chiang Cover: Fashion Norns. Startling, angular, exciting. I love this stuff. Also, interestingly, with the Minerva cover next issue means that Fashion Catwalk is a look right now.

Pages 1-2

This issue has been interesting – I wrote 38 and 39 simultaneously, as they’re intensely interlinked, and need to be aligned on several levels. It’s also stuff I clearly can’t talk about much this issue. I suspect I’ll write a lot about it next issue. On a craft note, there’s some useful stuff, I suspect.

Firstly, look at Matt’s colouring in our dance through the 20^th century here. Every page is a masterclass. The oranges and reds of this opening sequence are just amazing.

The four previous historical sections have been dramatisations of key things we’d like the reader to know – the first the (enigmatic) rules Ananke’s operating under, the second her endgame (as in, explicitly what she’s trying to do), the third an explicit statement of her methodology and how often she’s done it, the fourth showing what happens when she fails to succeed in her goals. The sixth is different, as you’ll see, but the fifth is very much an “everything else”. There’s two sorts of everything else – the first is a reiteration of stuff that is implicit in previous episodes, and the second is paying off things we’ve set up hard that it would be aesthetically unsatisfying not to return to. Set up hard, with an implied promise: I have a list of these. Clearly “Robert Graves and The White Goddess” after being hit as hard as it was back in issue 9 would have to be on it.

This is Galmpton, where Graves was at the time of being inspired to write The White Goddess (or the proto-White Goddess of the Roebuck in the Thicket). His main home was in the island of Majorca. I believe Jamie sourced the actual cottage, which is pretty good going.

So this is a second sort of “everything else” (Gravesian payoff) but also a first sort (reiteration of stuff) – by implication, Ananke and Minerva are the same person and one ages into the other, but we haven’t seen a mid-point Ananke/Minerva yet. Now we do.

Anyway – Graves and Ms White, by the fire, having a loaded conversation and a whole lot of booze.

Page 2 is a temporal jump conversation, with little snippets from across the evening. The whiskey on the side table is the counter. I like these kinds of things. The “shot glasses on the table as timer” motif – I’ve used that before, probaly in Phonogram.

Jamie’s Drunk Ananke body language is a joy, of course. Look at her move between the effusive nonsense and the aggressive over-seriousness of the fourth and fifth panel, for example. That’s so much fun.

Page 3

Thirteen years later. This is the YHMA in New York where Graves did a speech on the matter of the White Goddess, included in the present edition. The quotes from Graves are verbatim.

Once again, look at Matt’s treatment of these pages, and how the shadow and light works.

Page 4

Another bit of quiet-confirmation. We’ve seen Minerva arrive before, in the last issue, but as it was presented along with a ritual having gone wrong, one could take it as something that happens when a ritual goes wrong. This refutes that reading. This is just how Minerva appears.

(Also, it shows her mental state when she does, which is perhaps the key bit of new information in the sequence – it could be taken from last issue, but is undeniable here.)

Talking about the implied story, Minerva finding and stealing some sheets before going and knocking on doors is lots of fun.

This issue is tightly wound, in lots of ways – when planning, I suspected that I’d need the space for later scenes, but I’d like to have taken more moments with Ms White across the twentieth century. That was a want rather than a need though, so they got lost. The other ones would have been “stuff that happened before the Pantheon kicked off properly” – this is one of them. Another would have been Minerva being introduced to her “parents” which I also killed, and did the requisite lifting in the single line of dialogue in panel 4. If Minerva appears from nothing we know she doesn’t actually have parents, so the people who were her “parents” aren’t real… but it’s worth stressing it.

This is the first Recurrence with ubiquitous telephones. I guess it does make this step easier.

I suspect it’s also a little ominous.

Page 5

Typo in the first cap. It should be 2014, during Rising Action when Ananke is dragging Minerva to the machine. This is very much a second sort scene – as in, an implicit reiteration of what happened back then, but worth stressing again for anyone who is still thinking that the machine did anything or wondering who the message was teleporting to and so on.

The “nothing too exposed” is somewhat chilling, innit?

And yeah, the “With any luck they won’t be” is definitely a “Uh-oh” right?

We’ve been interested that for a flashback issue which is mainly about clearing stuff up, it’s left far more than the usual number of people confused. Jumping about with timelines is always going to be hard, of course. I suspect if I’d had more space for more scenes, we’d have eased the walking through… but it is always a Necessary Scenes kind of issue, innit?

I suspect if any of you are totally lost, I’d say “Just read all the present day bits of story in this arc in one go, and then read all the past stuff, thinking of them as individual scenes.” I don’t think the present day stuff is any more or less confusing than we’ve ever been – perhaps even less than some of the stuff like Imperial Phase. It’s primarily about Minerva and Persephone’s actions in a short period of time.

Hard work for everyone this arc, right?

Page 6

Riff on a lyric in Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’.

Page 7

You’ll remember the hospital which we introduced in issue 14, and have come back to intermittently. With Valhalla in ruins, it steps forward as our main locale. We are all primed for a Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place crossover.

Jamie’s Valkyries on guard are a cute superhero beat. Just… good.

We played with this page, in terms of whether to put the narrator captions before or after the images. It definitely ended up better this way – statement to recontextualise what you’re about to see in the worst possible light.

The press conference is the only scene with Cass we’re not familiar with – it’s the one referenced in the text message which closed issue 36. We are tweaking that for the trade, btw, to both lighten it (so it’s readable) and to make its meaning even clearer.

The other panels are alternate views from issue 2, issue 8, issue 5 and issue 9. And the last is new.

This is another example of an idea I’ve had around for a while, and suspected I’d use here, but realised I didn’t have enough space for. If I had a MASSIVE amount of space, I’d have done it as an issue, and have the whole thing from Beth’s perspective in the editing booth, and ending with what is actually broadcast. The point being: how you’re being manipulated. (It’d have been the awful twin of issue 14, the other Remix issue.)

In the end, it was a darling, and I could get the core of it in a page. Editors in the audience may be thinking “This has come together quickly” and they’d be right. Some stuff is new, but Beth has totally been at work for a while. By implication, the “This one’s ready” implies it’s not the first.

Page 8

And hullo, Beth and the other two. They’re some of my favourite minor WicDiv characters, and they’ve been hanging around, preparing for their role in the final year of WicDiv.

That Beth comes across more likeable than Woden, and even Woden knows it, is impressive play for the big stage for Beth, innit? I’ll admit to writing the two of them with other. Beth’s seething resentment and well-practised lines, Woden’s off-handed divisivenesses (“Beth and the other two”).

Jamie brings it – that fourth panel which reintroduces us to Robin and Toni. Toni’s enthusiasm is a delight in every panel. There’s one next issue I’ll save to talk about, but I started to rerecognise his energy with Jamie’s drawing.

Scene change before end of page, worth noting – this is a sign of how tightly wound this issue is. Set up for Cass’ reintroduction. We probably lose some of the 3D spatiotemporal relations of all this, but I think we’re fine, at least for this issue.

Page 9-10

Woden’s iconic green renders this really sinister. It’s just a visual statement of people being under his power. The hospital beds are another touch.

Page 10 is a rare example in this issue of giving what may be a minor moment a lot of space. Yet again, more A+ Jamie acting – look at panel 4, with Cass thinking and Verðandi and Skuld exchanging a knowing glance, knowing what will happen next.

Except it is a bigger beat than you’d think, right? Like, why did Woden want Cass? This.

Page 11

Yeah, now we’re motoring. This gets a page.

I liked the hard cut from Cass to here, which made me laugh, but we worried about losing people. Jamie suggested adding a teleport signature behind Woden and Minerva to show that they’ve travelled here, which works for me.

Okay, this is all horrible with the heads – yet again, those expressions from Jamie. But the thing I like is that we show Sakhmet’s head is back in the teleportation circle. Minerva threw it away at the end of issue 33. She must have replaced it though, because she knows if the head had moved from where it clearly should have teleported to, someone else must have actually been here since Sakhmet died, which would immediately point suspicion back at her, even after her lies to Woden in issue 35.

Oh, Minerva. Forget Beth, you’re a piece of fucking work.

I suspect Minerva gets as close as she’s got to Kid Loki in that last panel. Bad Minerva! Very Bad!

Page 12-13-14-15

Longest scene in the issue, which speaks to its import. Even then, I’d have ideally given it more. The reveal of the cathedral and the floating corpses are ones that would have got splashes if we were a different kind of book.

The other reason why I’m tweaking the interstitial in last issue to a struck through BAPHOMET is revealed here – Baphomet’s going by Nergal now.

Talking about expression, Nergal’s response to being shouted at. Oof. That’s hard.

Slight time gap. People who suffer loss can end up moving on autopilot, but I can’t see any universe where Nergal starts following orders instantly.

First two panels on 13 show a “How much you can do in a small space in comics with captions” sort of thing. Like, if you HAVE to.

I’m not even sure I can explain the conversation about the cathedral and what it needed to look like. It was peak Kieron Asking For Something Impossible. But yeah, this is what Cam and Marian have been up to.

As a storytelling thing, look at what Jamie did with the verticality of the reveal on the Cathedral. By making it narrow and tall, it gives more room for a sense of that rush of scale. Married with the tiny figures at the bottom, that’s really efficient.

Page turn, and this… and, yeah, I would just go now, Laura. This has got really weird.

Balancing the pregnancy conversation was a nightmare, but I’m interested in Nergal’s repeated tendency to say a ludicrous sentence, straight. He’s a character who is capable of bracketing their position, and moving on.

Last three panels setting up for the end of the issue, of course.

Page 16

Once more, motoring. The shell of Valhalla. Baal in the darkness (and look at the oppressive gloom of this page from Matt).

The “Heh” in panel 4 from Baal is something I find upsetting. That’s not a good laugh.

I’ve been highlighting a lot of Jamie faces this issue, but the one in panel 5 is another strong one.

Page 17-18-19-20

Four pages, but two pages of work (as in, it’s two six panel grids, spaced out with black panels). We’ve used this before – issue 1, and issue 5 are the main ones. It’s a very WicDiv beat.

I probably don’t need to say this is a key monologue. Getting Laura’s voice back in this is a boon.

The thing with this scene is that I wanted the words to be as loaded as they are, while we have this incredibly mundane situation.

Laura discovers the Eleusinia phone, as introduced at the start of Imperial Phase, is destroyed. She goes to her old flat. She finds the phone she had at the start of WicDiv, moves the sim card over, texts someone and heads off. That’s as mundane as it gets, after floating corpses, statues beneath the gods, burned castles, desecrated living heads and so on.

Lots of stuff to unpack. As a few…

I was aware that “liferaft of bodies” will likely resonate with Watchmen. I was fine with that. It’s how I’ve thought about several social groups in my life.

I smiled as an online friend finally clicked with the Perse-phone nod.

The splash of Sakhmet’s blood is hard.

The panel of her changing the phone over, with the two phones, is hyper normality.

And off into the darkness.

Yeah, one more issue, right?

Page 21-22-23

Another shorter scene than you’d expect with what happens, but it was necessary. As short as it is, you don’t sell the moral dilemma that hard. That it’s this quick implies it’s not going to end with a Norn getting shot. The reader will have subconsciously known that the dilemma happening within a page means it’s not going to end with a dead Norn. There is another option, of course – doing it as the cliffhanger. Does Cass sell out her friend?

Yeah, that’s the sort of thing you’d consider if you didn’t have a much more important beat to end on. Writing is just choices. Shall we play it THIS way or shall we play it THAT way? What do we gain from each?

Anyway – I ramble.

There’s an error in Woden’s text from Laura. It says “End of May”. It should be End of April. I’ll tweak it for the trade, though we can pretend that either Laura’s autocorrect fucked her, or Woden didn’t read it right for now.

At the end of page 21 we have a nod to how the Norns are doing divination while in the cage – “Open a port for her”. Like a firewall, it works off permissions. You can run with this all the way to Woden’s cage for Mimir in the Valhalla basement too.

Hmm. Reading Woden’s dialogue in this issue, I find myself thinking he’s starting to really enjoy being the supervillain. Little does he know, right?

I’ll say this – as quick as this goes, there’s a beat here I really like. Cass’s “Uh-huh” quotation. She’s done it sarcastically before. This is hard and beautiful faith in her friend.

In terms of panelling – look at the side-on shot between Cass and Woden. That’s great visual stuff there.

And we end with a three-panel page, which is one of my go-to page structures when I need something to be stressed as important but I can’t make it a splash. Always makes me think of Ellis’s Global Frequency, a hyper-compressed action comic, which always ended with this triad structure.

Thank Woden for reminding us of the key bit of the lore, right? Good work, Woden, for once.

Page 24

Nod to a minor note in ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ by Massive Attack.

Back soon. Thanks for reading.