There’s a full-color version of that stained-glass panel as a Patreon wallpaper. With all the characters in outfits that harmonize with their Beings, and some extra fancy rainbow sunbeams.
Hard to get real privacy in such a tiny apartment, let alone such a crowded tiny one…but everyone else was either “deep in conversation” or “outside the building,” so Bianca and Emma pulled it off.
The librarian in the first panel is a mini cameo of Violet, from Leif & Thorn.
Have we seen Jany’s phone change? I don’t remember if Walker bought her a better one, among all the other upgrades Walker’s bought, or if Jany had a decent one from the start. (In contrast with Timothy, who, as we saw earlier in the chapter, doesn’t even have a smartphone.)
Either way, she’s considering that Walker might’ve had it bugged. And/or might be tracing all traffic on the wifi in the buildings she owns.
Public libraries to the rescue.
In the original version of this chapter, Jany was sending an email to spill everything to Bianca. Another doubled Big Reveal. In the remaster, I switched this to just be Jany’s first round of undercover research — now there’s a few chapters of buildup before the reveal.
Always nice to hit the point in a story where someone goes “hey, what if, instead of just reacting to other events and people as they hit us, we decided to get proactive?”
Sparrow has spent a good chunk of the comic pretending she can do magic. Now it’s out that she can’t. Yet. But after all, why shouldn’t she learn?
It’s not like she’s found a job that uses any of her other practiced and well-honed skills, anyway…
I think those are tiger lilies in the big splash panel. Nice way to draw a subtle-but-pointed connection between the treatment of “Sister Lily” and “the Tiger.”
It would be more obvious if I went a step farther and colored them in orange, but eh. I’m leaving this one as-is.
The phrase “Heroic Quest to Save All the Beings” is in Magneto Bold, the updated BICP title font. (Same device I use for “Secret Order of Monster Hunters” in Leif & Thorn.) Like the chapter covers, it got changed in the remastering.
Battle Camellia is wielding the Fourth Pentacle of Mars: “It is of great virtue and power in war, wherefore without doubt it will give thee victory.”
On her tunic is just Battle Reseda’s sigil.
This isn’t Reseda’s official Monster Form — at this point in the comic, I haven’t even designed that. It ends up being a little weirder and more otherworldly, like the Tiger and the Lizard, rather than following the Dog and Rabbit in just being “a cool cat, but Big.”
Sparrow was just wearing the turtleneck at the start of the chapter, but now she’s got a second shirt over it. Inspired by the Emma Trifecta? (She already had the knit cap.)
Another short review of background-character Beings, like the “Beings with acting jobs” list earlier. But for this one — a list of Beings treated as religious and/or cultlike figures — I showed the actual designs. The Sea Monster has already appeared; the Lion showed up in some bonus art; the Goat is new for this page. Shame they never showed up again. I liked the “spiral horns and goat pupils” design.
For a few years I lived in a converted house, where my roommates and I understood the sidewalks were ours to shovel. (There was another apartment in the building, but it had a rapidly-rotating cast of tenants, and we never discussed it with them.)
One year the landlord’s son came by and offered to shovel. I think he even had a snowblower, or some other heavy-duty equipment that made it easier. Either way: great!
…and then he charged $20 for it. (Which was a genuinely hard expense to cover for the housemate who was present at the time.)
The good news is, we did some research afterward, and found out that the area had county-wide rules about landlords being responsible for clearing snow at their properties, period. The housemate got her $20 back, and the job was covered from then on.
I don’t remember if this whole story happened before or after this page was drawn. Shoveling snow is miserable, and having someone else do it without trying to pull one over you in the process, is great, is the point.
Reseda and Patrick, there is room for both of you there, you know? Especially if you get small enough.
(And it ends up being moot because Reseda sleeps on Timothy anyway.)
This night features Emma wearing the Emma Fashion Trifecta: the multi-layered clothes, the knit cap and the Sometimes Glasses.
Sparrow’s final sentence becomes a pointed commentary on the Miranda-and-Cohen relationship.
And, you know, all of politics.
And maybe even one of the General Recurring Themes of BICP as a whole.
Only safe way Cohen could’ve finished that sentence.
This is one of those pages where I want to get a certain effect, and luckily it involves “doing less work on purpose.” Just 3 panels, with 3 simple figures, and almost no background. The “head thrown back” pose is a little trickier than usual, and that’s all.
The only way it could’ve been easier is if Cohen was supposed to be kinda frozen in place, so I could cut-and-paste the figures. (And if you want to count it, I definitely c&p’d the doorframe.)
