I am insanely pleased with the cover for this puppy, all except for one thing: The cards in Bakura's hands are "Unity" and "Soul Resurrection," which you can barely see. (I complained about this elsewhere.) Unlike the cover for Magic Light, this thing goes way heavier on the inks (which my art has come to do in the past year or so) and I think it really works. That shadow scar really entertains me for some reason.
Yes, the cards point to bits of plot. Yes, the plot involves Yami Bakura. No, you don't get to get spoilers. That would be silly.
Page one, of course, involves Bakura Ryou chest. XD Now, as ya'll know, I've talked and talked about using the dub names. "Ryou" never gets mentioned as his name in the dub, he's only called Bakura. But for heaven's sake, he needs two names. I spell it "Ryou" instead of "Ryo" (like the manga) for two reasons: the "U" changes the sound, and "Ryou" sounds like what they say in the Japanese. "Ryo" makes me think of Shaman King, and after all these years of reading fanfictions calling him "Ryou," it looks kind of emasculated without that last letter.
There's a lot more CG airbrushed shading on this page. I have to admit, I like my CG shading-- and it does make it look more... uh, night-timey here. But I think what really clinched it was the black page. I totally did that on the compy, not with a marker, although the "Not there" panel did originally have black sharpie all over the background, which is why it now looks like there is no panel border for that panel. Go figure.
When Bakura says "It's been six months," by the by, he means since the end of the Memory Arc. In case anyone WASN'T clear on that. O_o
As I mention in the DeviantArt comments for page two, everybody in the first panel is somebody.
I really enjoy Joey in Little Voices. He cracks me up all over (He was pretty funny in Magic Light, but not like he is here.) His expression in the last panel here wasn't quite as manic as the original sketch, but it still makes me laugh. (And so does Yugi's sympathetic pout in panel five. XD)
Little Voices makes a lot of off-hand references to the final episode's Japanese ending song sequence, which showed a bunch of "what are they doing now" type moments. That first panel of page three is the first, and the later pages with the Schroeders and Pegasus is a longer one.
I chuckle that Joey "always" worries about Kaiba. Kaiba's costume here is intended to enfold him in a somewhat protective way, like armor. Because he's been feeling somewhat vulnerable since he accidentally ran Joey over, you know. As for page four-- Mokuba is chasing around after Serenity for much the same reason he was in Magic Light. Also, HIS costume is intended to emulate Kaiba's Battle City costume, although you can't see much of it.
Rebecca, on page five, is essentially the same bubbly nightmare she was when last we saw her. Her life has been going well since the end of the series. I think she's growing up just a wee bit, though, if only in that now, she's actually trying to KISS Yugi. XD
Page six: Once again, a guest in the first panel. Thistle, incedentally, was the first character that got sent in (not counting the characters that belong to friends of mine who all said "go ahead and use them if you want.") She'll probably appear in several different incarnations, because I did a lot of sketches of her that didn't all look like what was originally sent me. XD
I've always had it in my head that Mai gave Valon Joey's email. I'm not sure WHY Mai would do that, except possibly that she found the idea very amusing.
As for Valon, his emails typically consist of video mails ("Gueass who, Wheelah!!") and porely speld threts to treet mai rite. XD (Considering Valon's background, wouldn't he be somewhat illiterate?)
One of the things I've long tried to do with my craft is tell as much as possible with the pictures, and especially the facial and body expressions, as much if not more than with the dialogue. If your characters stand there and tell the whole story with talking, there's no point to making it a comic; you may as well be writing an online chat. The fourth panel of page six illustrates what I'm talking about-- there may be talking there, but the real story is in Yugi's face and Joey's hand on his shoulder. And I'm pretty happy about that.
Ironically, I had a lot of trouble with Téa and Bakura's scenes, and technically this chapter is about them. (You'd never guess it, considering one of the upcoming scene sets, but that'd be spoiling.) Originally Téa was way more emo on page seven, page eight wasn't even there (and it's pretty silly that it wasn't, because it clarifies a lot) and page nine was... um... gooier. Bakura and Téa are essentially "together" here, but I wanted very much to not let it feel like Bakura was taking advantage of her grief, and at the same time I didn't want it to seem like Téa was taking too much advantage of his kindness or shoving Yugi aside too callously. Some of the original pages made me make "ew gross" faces, if only because I made the mistake of trying to make several of them funny, and I'm actually still in the process of reworking parts of this chapter just because this sort of awkward relationship can be hard to work with.
(And I was in a relationship something like this once, sort of on Bakura's side of it, which only makes it harder.)
All Bakura really wants here is a happy ending for the people who helped him, and it's putting him in an uncomfortable position.
I think of page ten as the coup de grace of this project thus far. You see a lot of Kaiba angst scenes, and a lot of them go too far in one direction or another. His best "angst" moment in the series was probably the Face Off duel, and there he was caught and stripped of his armor right in front of an enemy. (I tend to think the real reason he was such a jerk to Yugi about it later is because he was trying to calm his own self down-- and also because Kaiba really doesn't realize how jerky he sounds sometimes. XD) Here he has chosen the time and place for himself, so I got to let him angst calmly in the rain. XD I actually really enjoy drawing rain, when it turns out right, and sadly touching scenes are my true art, so this page was essentially "GDG spoiling herself."
I think Kaiba's relationship with his biological father is really important to his character, especially since his father was the first formative figure in his life. It's usually overshadowed in fanfic because his screwed up relationship with Gozaburo is so out there and obvious, and most fanfictionists only care about his mother. I prefer a focus on Mokuba's relationship with his mother, since their lives only overlapped in a whisper, and a focus on Seto's relationship with his biological father. (Yes, I'm the author of "Happy Mother's Day," but that's not the point. "Happy Mother's Day" covered all I ever need to write about Seto's relationship with his mom.)
Even in the orphanage, Seto was telling Mokuba to "man up," to "buck up and be strong." He didn't get that attitude from the orphanage staff. I think he saw his father as a very strong and stoic person, and so when he chose to take over as Mokuba's father, he tried to emulate that. Part of what happens in Game of Dreams is that Seto comes to realize that presenting a strong face to someone who needs it isn't the same as never letting that facade slip.
Also, first panel: That is lightning dancing across the clouds. Lightning does that. Roar.
I'm really happy with the effect of non-standard gutter filler (it's not all white, it comes in different shades of gray) on this page, too. Overall, the whole scene was intended to indicate the turmoil of Kaiba's heart, while letting him still stand there looking stoic as possible (he refuses to answer whether those are tears or rain. Make up your own minds. (wink)) And I think I achieved that goal pretty well.
Page 11, of course, starts the other scene of Little Voices that references that ending sequence at the end of the final episode. I had some issues with the silly dialogue here, but it turned out okay even though I felt like I was parodying the series when I wrote parts of it.
Several people have complimented me on how well I write Pegasus. I'll tell ya'll a secret: I've been possessed by his dead wife since I was fourteen. XD I could even tell you some of that really private stuff, like the way he mutters in his sleep, but I won't. (wink) (Actually it's because I really enjoy writing campy, maliciously gleeful people. He's just sort of my Type when it comes to dialogue.)
"Scheiße" (the "ß" is pronounced or can be alternately written as a double "S," for "scheisse," or "shy-sa") is German for "Shit!" Yes, I learned this in German class, in high school. Part of the reason I even bothered including the Schroeders (besides the fact that I love them) is that they give me an excuse to put random German in my fancomics. (Hey, it's why the Japanese made him German too, and you know it.) German class was one of the real joys of my high school experience-- aside from art and choir class it was the only academic thing that I got really excited about, partly because the teacher was like an uncle to me, but also because I really just adore the language. Leon's accent will eventually get much thicker, for exactly this reason.
I like that little Curse of Dragon on page 12. He represents what's really going through Yugi's mind. XD He also wasn't there in the original sketch comic, funnily enough; there were just a bunch of ellipses and Yugi's horrified expression. XD
Yugi's kind of snarky in my comics, have you noticed?
I mentioned in the comments for that page that the idea of Yugioh characters as crime lords really cracks me up. If someone brings a fanfic to me that plays with this, and does it well, I swear I will make you art. You can call me out on this.
I like page 13's first panel. Yugi looks so grown up. XD It was with these pages that I decided to (finally) consider YnY comics to be on a schedule, because apparently treating my hobbies like hobbies means they collect dust in the corner.
The idea of Zigfried being at least a little intimidated by Pegasus has been kicking around the back of my mind for a while now. I think that regardless of what HE says happened regarding the contracts with I2, (he's an unreliable source, you know) that probably what really kept him from getting a contract was a combination of practices Pegasus didn't approve of (like crashing Kaiba's appointed demonstrations) and Pegasus being kind of scary to Ziggy. Pegasus likes Leon, on the other hand, but will only let him push so far. XD
Because a friend asked about it, here's a brief explanation of a standards war, as given to her:
A standards war is essentially this: say Kaiba uses one operating system for the Duel Disks. Now say that Ziggy comes up with a different one that isn't compatible with Kaiba's, for the sole purpose of forcing people to choose one over the other. Now say Ziggy throws a bunch of tournaments that use his operating system only, with lavish prizes (and other marketing ploys, like a lower price, easier maintenance, lighter weight, etc.) Obviously, Kaiba would have to respond to that.
What Yugi did here was essentially force Zigfried to not do that, by insisting that both systems be compatible. Now, Kaiba still has a competitor, but it's not the metaphorical bloodbath Ziggy was suggesting to Pegasus.
And you can see why Yugi would find that more acceptable.
As I mentioned in the original comments, page 14 was going to go up on Valentine's Day originally, but I couldn't get it done in time. I'm happy with it, though, and that's what matters.
Page 14 really shows what I mean by "telling a story with images," and also demonstrates powerfully why Game of Dreams and YnY as a whole are being done as comics instead of prose. This single page would have taken your average fanfictionist (who is admittedly less skilled than I am individually, since the average has to include people wh0 r1te lyk th15) the length of this entire blog post to tell. It packages two relationships and a dozen things about both of them into six images.
When I was a kid, I used to think that giving people happy endings meant you had to give them all exactly what they wanted, and therefore Pegasus couldn't have a happy ending without all sorts of problems. I know better now, of course-- sometimes happy endings have to do with learning and growing to accept what must be accepted. I think Yugioh as a series is a lot about that.
Pegasus will always grieve for Cecelia, but he's no longer cutting himself off from life because of it. And best of all, he's found someone who can understand that.
