#587: "Thirsty. Tired. Die."
 

The panel layout for this one was much easier to construct in my head than on the screen. I think it came together rather well in the end, especially considering how the word bubbles came out on the first pass.

Basically, when I make an episode of 8BT, I start by writing the script. I've been doing this long enough that I can generally shape the script to the layout I have in mind or come up with a layout based on the script. Usually it's a little of both.

Anyway, once the script is done I'll paste the lines of dialogue onto a blank page. That's where I format them for the word bubbles and get a more precise idea about how the page's space will be used. Once all the lines of dialogue are pasted, shaped, and arranged, I go back through and give them their white balloons so they're easier to see against the backgrounds of the panels that will be going in next. This also helps to give an even clearer picture of how the page's space will be used since the bubbles themselves are slightly bigger than the lines of dialogue.

The first run of the dialogue in this comic was hell. See, occasionally, the "perfect" wording for a line makes an ass-ugly word bubble. I can fix it by changing the wording a bit. This comic was the first one where every line of dialogue made an ugly word bubble. Luckily, I'd gotten an idea of how the whole page flowed at the white-balloon stage, so that made it much easier to change each line of dialogue without losing the intended meaning. Really, I think several lines were strengthened by the changes.

And all of this might make a little more sense in 30 minutes when the comic updates.

What an interesting probe into the making of 8 bit.

What DOES RM mean by the constant use of "probing"? o_O;;

At any rate, all that needs to be explained now is why Ranger and Berserker aren't doing their absolute damndest to destroy the Light Warriors, having seen the newspaper article that CLEARLY shows the LWs as the true destroyers of Dwarfland... Hmm...

Berserker's random spouts of 3-worded strings of slightly offensive words are always great. The comic didn't have me laughing out loud like the last one (ENGAGE AND ROLLOUT!), but it gave me a good chuckle.

Sounds like you went through hell making the wording or whatever it is you were talking about. Heh.

The light warriors don't have beards, whereas the guys in the article clearly do.

I'm afraid I don't understand quite clearly what BM ment by "hasn't happened yet". I'm pretty sure dwarfland was infact destroyed before that event.

If someone could explain it, I'd apreciate it.

Metal, there's a smaller article on the page that mentions a real-estate scam involving ocean-front property and a desert. That'd be what BM is talking about.

Also, Brian, you know we want to know what else is on that page. Hook us up so that we may probe the dwafland media.

Oh, sorry. I didn't see that. I appreciate it.

I'm pretty sure this "probe" fixation of Red Mages is the result of Thief's mind games again. He's so sneaky. =P

I usually don't bother myself with being nice enough to post only positive content with pure praise, but I really enjoyed this comic for various reasons that I really couldn't be bothered to specify, although I do know what they are, specifically.

The double secret joke of this comic is the mini-article already mentioned. See, you'd have to really probe the comic to see it.

They need to just put me in jail where I can't hurt anyone.

'Cept I'd be probed there too!

ZING!