801 Lockdown.

This is kind of an odd page in that I almost never do a scene change mid page.  Although one could argue that the typical pages now are more like two pages and I just split it as though they were.  It’s also a little odd that Nina references Reggie but the page cuts to Thomas and Wes, who then references Reggie.  On a TV show the scene would have cut to what Reggie was doing.  I suppose I could have just altered the dialogue so that Nina says something about both of them, but I didn’t think of it at the time.  Honestly I think Reggie’s whereabouts would be of primary concern to Nina for purposes of avoidance.  I could have just as easily drawn what Reggie is doing at the moment these other things are occurring, I know what it is and wrote a scene that didn’t really seem to add anything of value,  I decided that Thomas & Wes were more important.  When Reggie does appear you’ll be able to easily guess what he was doing long before he mentions it.

I also kind of wanted to keep Carol off screen until a little later so that her first appearance in this part didn’t start with a sour Reggie encounter.  I can always take the dialogue and plug it into some later story.  Waste no want not and all that.  Keeping her off screen is kind of counterintuitive in so far as she makes site traffic spike whenever she appears.  People who don’t like the comic itself like Carol.  I’m sure that’s true for all the cast, though mostly the girls, on some level, but Carol wins that contest hands down.

If my stats are anything to go by, the list is like this: Carol, Jess, Nina, Jo.  People who just stop in to look at the pictures stop in for the female cast members in that order.  Jo wins over all of them in verbal appreciation.  People who like the comic like Jo and like talking about her.  Comments tend to spike on pages with her on them.  Which I like because I like the interaction.  I should probably be careful about putting Carol and Jo in scenes together.  There may be some kind of quantum fandom rift if I do.  That said, as they get to know each other later on it is very adorable.  Everyone will like it I think.

Jess is kind of the wild card.  Her casual attitude toward nudity and confidence in herself are probably why she spikes traffic.  Nina is, perhaps, a bit too reserved to do the same sort of thing.  Which is odd to say about a character that spends a lot of pages with her belly showing.  That may change over time as well.  Especially  when I get to some of the outside the store stories.

As far as the guys go, I’m not sure.  They certainly don’t spike traffic.  Thomas tends to be on pages with Carol so the data is muddied.  If the comments are to be believed people really enjoy them doing things as a couple.  That’s an important dynamic to be sure.

More than any other male cast member Ed tends to get comments if he’s not around for a while.  Why that is I’m not sure.  Maybe it’s because he’s had more interactions that reveal his personality better than John.  John hasn’t really had a moment in the sun yet.  That’s sort of his character in so far as he’s portrayed as slightly less quick than nearly everyone.  Even Reggie.  Not everyone in the world is a star necessarily, but they are still an important part of the tapestry.  To be fair I have painted him as a bit shallow too.  Maybe the key is to add water…