The Insignificant Other (page 3)

Fitz on Oct. 13, 2007

Wow, it's barely 6pm and I'm done with the page. Took a while to do! Worked on it every day since Monday, and from dawn till dusk yesterday and today. Oddly enough, this time it wasn't because of me weeping: “I'm a faaaailureeee!” It was just… a lot of work! It's getting kinda hard pushing the artwork that one step further every time. This time the milestone for me was the panther (yup, that's a panther, btw). My models for it were a bunch of Pittsburgh panther statues. Erica noted that it also looks like the ThunderCats logo. As unintentional as it was, it's true! And it turns she loved ThunderCats back in the day, just like I did :) Aaanyway… Also, I followed Bek's advice and took a look at SilentKitty's tutorial about rain effects - hence the neat looking mist around the edges exposed to the downpour.

And then it stopped raining. And fireflies showed up.

Were you surprised? I know I was! LOL! It was one of these spontaneous ideas I got just yesterday. I figured that without the rain it'd be kinda empty all of a sudden. Not to mention there wouldn't be much to aim the “camera” at while the rodents converse. Thus: enter Lampyridae! They're not very likely to go wandering through Manhattan - even though they can be seen in Central Park. But oh well, they glow yellow light, and I needed yellow. And besides, who cares about realism in a story about two mice wearing jeans and drooling over a human girl? :P

A girl who's going to kill me when she reads this episode :P

She's away in Boston again, so I still have a couple of hours to live. I didn't consult the script with her, so the last line on this page is going to be as much of a surprise/shock/horror to her as it was to you. Even though she might have a clue. She actually asked about something related to it, before. Anyway, it's going to be hard to explain the joke next time if she rips my head off ;) So keep your fingers crossed. And don't worry, kids, it's nothing x-rated :)

Btw, speaking of gruesome death… Did you know fireflies were poisonous, even deadly? Yup. One little bugger, not even an inch in size, can make a lizard kaput! And the beautiful light glowing from their abdomen is actually a warning signal for any beasties stupid enough to try and take a bite. Most animals - like frogs, for instance - have orange, yellow or red bellies to let everyone know they're poisonous. Fireflies developed this nifty FX, instead. The light also serves them to recognize their own kind. Different breeds of fireflies have different signal patterns. Recognizing one's own is crucial to… staying alive, basically. Because fireflies are canibals. Females will even fake another breed's signal pattern to lure a male to dinner. The main dish being him!

Now you'll never look at fireflies the same way ;)