It feels so weird to actually be writing out my comic. Not just doing a script or a couple of scripts, but to actually write the entire chapter before drawing a single picture.

I know it’s common place for comics, but really, I’ve always winged it, which may be why I’ve never really enjoyed success. Every comic in JBS was determined at the last second. The entire storyline was decided out of nowhere. Sure, there were a couple of ideas that were done in advance, but the major plot points came out of thin air. May’s crush on Wolf, which was established in the 4th comic, didn’t exist until the 4th comic. Really, the entire direction of the comic changed in that one. Originally, it was just going to be an adventure-type comic, but that was the time when I started reading Love Hina, so the entire comic changed. Serena wasn’t supposed to be a bitchy floozy, she was gonna stay with Wolf. May was supposed to be a complete bitch (she remained one to a lesser extent), but her feelings wouldn’t extend beyond being his friend.

I basically found out about it as soon as you did, and when I started The Space Between, I was in the same boat at first. I knew where the characters were going to be, but I decided to do a prologue to tell the story of how they ended up where they were in the present, which worked out well because I gave myself time to give them something to do. Jack being broke? Decided on the fly. Sam being a lush? Again, personality switch with C.J. If you look at the front page, C.J. is blushing, and what I intended with that was for her to be drunk. Also, Frank is giving them a group hug, which is now out-of-character for him. This is why I plan on re-drawing the title page at some point.

This is also why no real “major” events have happened, or at least in my mind. Maybe from the outside, certain things are a surprise (Jack and C.J. hooking up, then breaking up, Jack’s place of work burning down), but I saw them coming a mile away for once. This is the first time that I know exactly where things are heading. Even though I didn’t really write out the prologue in advance until I got through about 12 comics, I was writing scripts in batches instead of one at a time.

But now, I have the entire next chapter written out, as well as the very VERY basic outlines for chapter two, five and six (trying to not jump the shark there). I still haven’t quite figured out how the comic will end, mostly because it’s just starting, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and leave myself stuck on one path. I still want the freedom to do what I want with my characters. Some ideas I’ve had since I started them, and I’m sure I’ll come up with another idea at work tonight (because that’s usually how it works), but because I haven’t already decided how it ends, I have endless possibilities.

That’s why I didn’t want to commit to characters having relationships so soon unless I knew it felt right. I intended on Jack and C.J. dating briefly from the start, but I had no intentions of them staying together. That’s not to say they won’t end up together in the end, I have no idea either. It all depends on how it falls. I have some ideas on who ends up with who, who ends up single, and who ends up drunk in a bar with Hobo Dan (probably all of them), but nothing’s set in stone. I do, however, have some direction for once, and that should make things that much better.