My favorite pages from the first four chapters – Places 1 to 10
Last week, I posted the places 11 to 25 from my personal top list of all pages published as part of the first four chapters of Gaia. Now it’s time for the top 10. The following pages are listed in chronological order.
The Red Hall #18 (#2, 12% of all votes)
When the first pages of Gaia were published in November 2011, I made sure that this page was presented on the front page of our website. It took a few iterations until the 3rd panel with the fire-and-ice golem looked right, but it was well worth the effort in the end. For example, Powree’s first draft showed Ilias and Ryn stabbing into a crystal heart in the center of the golem’s body rather than swaying their swords through the converse element. The panel is also available as a wallpaper. These monsters may look a little too sophisticated for just an exam, but I wanted something to “wow” our new readers.
The Red Hall #23 (#6, 9% of all votes)
In my opinion this is the funniest page of the whole comic so far. Of course it would only be half as good without the strategically placed tentacle in the last panel. I love how the magic potion and the rainbow juice turned out and Ars immediately becomes a likable character. By the way, Ars’ recipe is inspired by a recipe appearing in a short story about an incompetent wizard that I wrote in 5th grade. I just dug it out to read it again and I have to say it’s an amazing text for a fifth grader. If it weren’t full of spelling errors I would have deserved an A+ for it.
Shadowdancers #73 (#3, 10% of all votes)
This is one of the largest word/thought bubbles I’ve ever seen in a comic. I kinda put most of the burden on Powree here since I only gave her a rather generic description about the content of the thought bubble. So I’m happy that it depicts the structured chaos inside the mind of a great planer like Viviana that well. The illustrations show some scenes related to various possible breakout plans, but only Viviana knows if the the connections between them have a deeper meaning.
Shadowdancers #87 (#7, 8% of all votes)
This was the first page that featured Viviana in a state of serious self-doubts. I think it was important to show that she’s not some kind of prodigy who’s always successful at the first try in everything she does. And the difficult task of opening the Baltor’s safe was the perfect opportunity for that. I think it’s very easy to identify with her on this page. You now exactly what’s going through her head in this moment. I would also be a “little” worried if there’s a 10% chance that I’d lose my hand.
The Tower in the Sky #7 (#9, 7% of all votes)
Now if that isn’t an impressive dragon I don’t know what is. Xarlaxe is so relaxed, yet even in this state he’s still extremely intimidating. Nonetheless, Faye approaches him with confidence and no sign of fear. It appears to be a meeting between equals which makes you wonder about Faye’s character and her role in the story. I also love the coloration of Xarlaxe’s scales and skin. Powree must have spent quite some time to get the golden shimmer just right, without making the skin appear metallic or plastic-like. Too bad that I wasn’t able yet to reveal the purpose of this meeting.
The Tower in the Sky #33 (#10, 5% of all votes)
This is another page whose dialog was based on the dialog written by my mother when Gaia was planned to be published as a role-playing game mod for the PC game Neverwinter Nights 2 in 2005. You shouldn’t do it too often so that your plot stays focused, but once in a while it’s a good idea to show a scene that doesn’t have an immediate impact on the current story arc. Pages like these make your setting seem less generic and add to the authenticity of the world you’ve created. The Shadowdancers chapter in its original state was way too long to work in a comic, but I knew from the start that this scene must appear in it since I absolutely loved the crazy prophet.
The Tower in the Sky #48 (#7, 8% of all votes)
Gaia is not short on mysterious pages, but this may be the most mysterious one. While the identity of the ghost has been revealed in the meantime, the meaning of the purple dialog lines and the whole scene are still very much open for interpretation. I particularly like the color combination of the dark cave, the light blue ghost, the purple word bubbles and Viviana’s blond hair and red pajamas. One would think that such vastly different colors would clash, but they work together very well. Viviana’s reactions in all panels also seem very lifelike to me.
The Tower in the Sky #50 (#1, 13% of all votes)
The Tower in the Sky. There is no other Gaia page whose draft was revised that often. First we had to decide on the final design of the tower, and then I made several change requests regarding the placement of all objects and the general page layout. I love how the page turned out in the end, looking almost exactly as I envisioned it. If you analyze the page, you’ll see that all objects are placed right where they need to be. If the tower was placed a little higher or lower compared to Viviana’s head, the whole page wouldn’t look as good any longer.
The Letter of Jael Bara #62 (#4, 10% of all votes)
I love Lilith in this page. She’s just so darn adorable. And the page also shows quite well what being a wizard means on Gaia. It’s a mixture of talent, enthusiasm and hard work. Of course it’s not a coincidence that Lilith’s magic proof resembles mathematical proofs. I’m a computer scientist and I had to come up with a couple of proofs of existence as well during my first year in university. Powree drew the formulas on the blackboard without further instructions. They remind me of physics formulas, which goes well with Lilith’s later line: “Magic is physics through will.”
The Letter of Jael Bara #78 (#5, 10% of all votes)
Another page featuring Lilith, and she’s cuter than ever! I believe anybody would like to own such a marvellous device. I spent at least an hour to optimize the blending of the firework effect after Powree sent me the colored page. And it really paid off if you compare it with the initial version which had too low a contrast between the firework and the background.
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And here is the most popular page from last week’s poll, The Red Hall #39. It was my personal favorite of the 15 pages as well and received 14% of all votes (42 of 296). I have updated the article with the places #11 to #25 and added the voting result next to the title of each page.
Great, now I just have to read the whole thing AGAIN. *well-ok-then*
seriously, great story, great art, I especially love how you don’t force your characters to be likeable and do “what’s expected from them”, but rather kind of do their own thing, be both flexible and able to evolve without sacrificing their singularity. Also, THAT MAGIC PROOF.
You know, if the red hall #39 was present in this poll, I still think I would have voted for it. I really like that idea of a parallel world with different rules, existing alongside and interfering with our own.
I’m actually disappointed to learn so very many things are apparently fluff.
The idea that various “this is meaningful” stuff is actually just for flavor throws the whole thing a bit. I kind of hope you’re taunting us on that.
So far as best, I think it’s the TitS hands down. It’s absolutely dramatic, without requiring a single word of dialogue or the slightest thought bubble. It’s a tad off(the hands aren’t shaded right), but generically, it doesn’t look like a “comic” piece, so much as concept art for a movie or pure art.
It gives statements of terror, frailty, strength… there’s much more spoken about everything in that singular panel than in many other pages combined.
My only real issue with it comes chapters later in BAB14, when Vivi gives a height estimate for the tower. The geometry present suggests that either she’s really bad at calculations, or it’s drawn improperly. That little detail irks me, but otherwise, it’s impressive.
Lucid wrote:
I only said regarding the prophet that “once in a while it’s a good idea to show a scene that doesn’t have an immediate impact on the current story arc.” How you can reach such a far-reaching conclusion out of that sentence puzzles me.
Lucid wrote:
No, the geometry does not suggest that. The exact height of the tower is impossible to calculate from this page since there is no reference frame available. Viviana’s estimation may at least be in the right magnitude since she was actually there.
@ Novil:
I agree, that is a wild assumption. for the height of the tower, it is impossible to guess, since we have no idea how far away the tower is.
Also, after the last entry, on the last line, I believe
should be “which had too low a contrast”
The drawings of the board and of the calculations were also things you chalked up to not actually having any meaning.
For the tower, we can see Vivi, and we can see the promontory she’s standing on. It’s possible to do surveyor’s calculations to triangulate things and calculate distances. For the tower to be as high as she says, the cliffs on the far side either have to be dramatically taller than the one she’s on, which would suggest she’s tilting back at an unsupportable angle. Also, there’s a sense of there being a horizon, and, thus, a curvature to whatever location she’s at, but the amount of curvature required for the distances to be correct would be beyond what’s applicable to being on Gaia from the horizons we’ve been presented with thus far. Except, there’s nothing except Gaia. There’s also things like level of visible detail in the distance that should be occluded by the particulate matter that would be required for that amount of distance.
It’s an excellent drawing, and my favorite page, but when you start doing all of the math, it breaks down. =/
Lucid,
Deserts are notorious for throwing off distance perception. The lack of water vapor and the lack of “particulates” in the air means that these is little to attenuate light as it travels from a distant object to your eyes. This can cause a mountain to only appear to be a few miles distance when in actuality it’s many times further away. This phenomenon has caused innumerable tragic miscalculations on the part of travelers who are convinced that they can easily make it to distant mountain they can see in crystal clarity, when in fact their goal is many times more distant than they realize.
Most days when you visit the Grand Canyon and peer down at the Colorado river in the handful of places you can catch a glimpse of it, you would swear that it is just a little muddy stream when in actuality it is a good-sized river hundreds of feet wide. This is due partly because its desert environment makes the air so clear and partly because of the lack of visual references near the river.
My favorite page so far is BAB-19, the one where Lilith tells Ilias that Viviana has a crush on him.
Right now the front runner seem to be “The Letter of Jael Bara #62” which is pretty much a “Sandra and Woo” strip with a different cast. Seeing that many who view this are followers of both strips, it may have an effect on how the voting is weighted.
This one is really hard to choose as they are all so good and so unique. The Red Hall ones are very colorful and flashy – just what you want when you’re starting a new story, but a bit much for me. I know a lot of people rave about LJB-78, but those two don’t really do anything for me. (except for the shocking revelation that they’ll go on forever!) Of the rest, I guess it comes down to SD-87 and TS-48. The vision of San adds so much mystery and speculation, it’s hard to go against, but in the end I think I like the picture of the magic shield (with Viv’s reflection) and Viviana being overwhelmed by her doubts (knowing that she gets through them on the next page helps).
Had to pick The Letter of Jael Bara #62 for my top spot from the provided list. Even though it is definitely not my favorite page of that type from the comic so far (despite lacking the chalkboard visual gag, I think even the previous page, LoJB#61, is far superior), it is the one representative of my favorite types of pages in general on this list. In depth, detailed exposition on in-universe mechanics is my particular nerdly delight in any setting.
Shadowdancers #87 and The Tower in the Sky #48 would be my second and third picks, with Shadowdancers #73 coming in fourth and probably The Tower in the Sky #7 as fifth. Shadowdancers #87 is such a beautiful page with all the soft lighting and perspectives, but most of all it’s a very “human” character development moment for Viviana. Plus it has Alissa in it, even briefly – how could I not love it? *ahem* <_< The Tower in the Sky #48 is a perfectly paced chase scene coupled with interesting plot elements, something so rarely done at all, let alone done well, and I can't appreciate it enough. Also, as you say, the poses and reactions for Vivi are terrific. Shadowdancers #73 is a neat character portrait for Viviana and I love the depiction of her thought process. It sets down a lot about how she views the world and interacts with it in a nice compact form. Plus, it's a great visual joke for the comic medium. The Tower in the Sky #7 has a bad ass dragon. I… look, I don't always have deeper reasons for liking a thing.
But then, I doubt any of these would actually make my personal top ten.