CQ Retrospective (Chapter 1 - Part 2)

Where were we? 

Oh yeah. Almond was making a bad decision.

I used to group together the middle and ring fingers into one Big Finger pretty often in my art, which led to people asking "how come this character only has four fingers?" every so often.

The shadows cast on everyone's faces may not exactly line up with the light source and the bars of the cell, but as long as the idea is there, I find that it doesn't really matter.

Originally, this line was going to be closer to "Knowing Splashmaster will get to finish you off makes me a little jealous, but I'll deal." I'm glad I changed it.

I'm pretty sure Seafoam City was one of the environments I designed as a portfolio project in school.. I like it. It feels like a playset.

I never designed a throne room for Kelp and Conch, but this is Kelp's...study? I guess? I wish I had shown that cute octopus table at a better/closer angle.

When I designed King Kelp, I didn't really think much about this, but... he was definitely a bishounen in his younger years. He would have been a lot easier for me to draw if I had given him a neck.

I was so proud of these hands! Honestly, I still am!

It doesn't show up too often, but coming up with different styles of handwriting for the main cast was a lot of fun. Nautilus' handwriting is probably the most meticulous, so...writing several journal entries' worth of it later in the comic was a little less fun.

The capsule spell machine was a gift from a friend of King Kelp's who will be introduced in Chapter 6. Said character collects a lot of useless magic garbage like this, making them a kindred spirit to Kelp.

Also, wow, this machine is a lot bigger than I remember.

You may recall that at the end of Chapter 4, Steve and Besty arrived in the Ripple Kingdom. I'll spoil it for you now, because it wasn't planned to happen "on camera": they encounter King Kelp! In an earlier version of the script, Steve was going to empty out the capsule spell machine and gain like, a hundred-million useless powers from it... but the idea kind of got away from me, so I decided against it.

(...I say that, but explaining it just now kind of made me want to write it after all. Hmm.)

The Puffington's council is an assembly of distinguished magicians, with one representative member from each kingdom. I designed the Doughnut Kingdom representative some time ago, but...

I kinda hate him. I kind of hate this guy.

Full disclosure: I did not have the eventual use for Nautilus' pizza spell thought out at this point. I only wrote the most pointless thing I could think of and kept it in the back of my mind until a few chapters later.

The fifth stage of Cucumber. I admit to finding Cuco a lot more likeable when he decides to just accept that he's not getting off this ride.

I mentioned already that Shipwreck Shelter was inspired by a certain Paper Mario area, but here's another reminder of that. 

The name "Shipwreck Shelter" was just an attempt at an alliterative name, such as in a Mario or a Kirby, but I haven't thought much about why it was called that. It kind of gives the impression that a bunch of shipwrecks happened there and the people of Seafoam City just kind of shrugged and went "well that's what it's called now"

Yes, this is how Crabbro sees everyone.

Liquus discovers that he can speak in Chapter 5, but before that, he did have the ability to send text messages to Nautilus.

Nautilus on the left is being partially lit by the next panel here. I don't think I've pointed it out yet in this retrospective series, but it's something I do a few times throughout the comic.

Cucumber spent a lot of his pre-Quest time learning how to do small, practical spells like this. He is a big nerd, but he's kind of like the mom friend who has a Tide pen and three packs of tissues in his purse at all times.

Oh, I haven't said anything about his speech bubbles yet. I got a bit more ambitious with them as the comic progressed, but I did start the comic with a general idea of how each Disaster Master's speech bubbles would look. There seems to be more water dripping off of Splashmaster's whenever he's yelling.

This is definitely not the only place in the comic where a sound effect has a reflection like this...I just love reflections.

The little highlight behind Carrot in the last panel was an afterthought, because without it, it would have been hard to make him out against the background. I could have composed this sequence a bit clearer to avoid that, but that's artistic growth for you, I guess.

Also, this is kind of the last cool fight thing I wrote Carrot doing for a long time. Sorry, Carrot.

This is the most menacing Splashmaster ever looks. I guess hiding his mouth works wonders. Someone should tell the Nightmare Knight.

I can't remember if I had planned for the limbo battle at the beginning of the chapter. I feel like the crown was meant to be a throwaway gag, and I ended up getting carried away. Don't look too closely at those tourists in the background, whoof.

I jump at any opportunity to do a costume change, as was the case here. Almond's watermelon floatie look was my favorite of the group.

I really, uh, struggled with the perspective here. Eventually I just gave up on trying to make Nautilus' pose convincing and leaned into making it silly.

Those background tourists get more and more cursed in every panel.

Liquus was doing his best back then.

I sometimes worried about how much "unbelievability" I could get away with, and this was one of those sometimes. Eventually, I learned to embrace that I was writing a magical bunny people comic and that literally nothing except the character interactions had to be believable.

Sunlight! Warmth! Not a single blue overlay in sight! Just a big squid livin' in the moment!

The hole in the wall is supposed to have been from where the Limbo Guy and Gals broke in, though it feels more like the entire ceiling of the cave is now missing.

I heard from a handful of readers who were surprised by Almond slicing off Splashmaster's limbs like this. I still wouldn't personally consider it "too much" for a kids' comic, but I decided to color it a bit differently in the newer print version:

I figured it made sense, considering he does explode into light a few panels later.

I don't draw enough characters with cartoon X eyes like this.

I always second-guess myself on whether "legendary hero" should be capitalized. In this case, it's being used as a direct form of address, so it's fine...but I've definitely been inconsistent about it in other places.

I normally put the site URL in the bottom right corner, but I didn't want it to be positioned directly under dialogue, so I put it on the left this time.

The Oracle herself was not being deliberately vague about the number of Disaster Masters in the Melody Kingdom...but I was.

I try to show the Oracle's third eye acting independently of her other two when she is being particularly dishonest.

It's Paper Mario. You already know this.

 Princess Piano's hair hadn't been fully worked out yet. 

This page was real watercolor on paper, though the lettering was all digital. I really wanted an excuse to use that swirly purple paper on the bottom. 

Making it to the end of the first "real" chapter of CQ was a big accomplishment for me. The confrontation with Splashmaster felt like the first big, satisfying "event" in the comic, so it's nice to look back on... I hope you enjoyed it too.

...But this episode was a bit short, huh? The next episode (Chapter 1 Interlude) will be posted halfway through the month, in about two weeks. 

Thank you for being here, and please be well.