I don't really like drawing cars, so this is about all you're gonna get out of me. Actually, I don't like drawing machines of any kind except espresso machines. It's not just because I worked as a barista, before we even called ourselves that -- I mean, in the entirety of my life, I've spent way more hours in a car than behind an espresso machine. I think it's a level of interest. I also can draw computers, and have, but unless I'm getting paid, any drawing of a computer is going to be like this drawing of a car -- about the minimum that still gets the concept across. Compare to my drawing of an espresso machine as part of the Dr. Darkness & the Fabulous Demon Babe story. That's what I'm talking about. The espresso machine was drawn with love.
I didn't think about it too much at the time (24-hour comic, no time to stop and think!) but this haunted car scenario is a revisitation of an idea that I was toying with for a while, of injecting a more Fortean element into Goth House. Previously, the only official stance on the subject was in "Goth house is not haunted" (in Collection 2: The Nameless Collection) and it was that the Goth House residents do not live in a world of supernatural occurrences. But I realized that wasn't quite true. They do not live in a world of unambiguous supernatural occurrences.
Also, I should point out -- right after this panel I went to eat dinner, and confessed that I was a bit stuck on what should happen next, because I had some time to kill before the next plot point. Remember when I thought doing this "realtime" was a really clever idea?
So, as per the dinner break mentioned above, the wasp gag that plays out over the next few panels is Paul's idea. Thanks Paul!
In Percival's imagination, Ophelia is even haughtier than usual. And she is always wearing a Morticia Addams dress, and Theda Bara eyeliner.
By the way, the picture of Theda Bara which you can see on the cover of the bio Vamp (which I have also had on a postcard since about 1988) is definitely a character design influence on Ophelia. I recommend the book, too. One interesting thing that emerged, in the excerpts from reviews of her films, is that people complaining that a sexy actress is "too fat" is not a new phenomenon at all. They were doing it in the 1920s. I'm not sure why, but I've read theories that it has to do with an instinctive attempt at female diminishment during periods when women are garnering additional political and social power. And I kind of buy that, because the phenomenon went away during the 50s (Marilyn Monroe), and then came back (people who now say Monroe was "too fat," in spite of the fact that she has become a permanent sex symbol). But, you know, I digress. A lot.
I like this dream. I think it shows you what's really going on in Terra's head, in spite of her conscious "acceptance" of "we should see other people." And I was pleased with the image of right-wing commando plastic army men coming out of the wedding cake. It's the sort of thing that I would have put some visual effort into, had I not been doing a 24-hour comic, and it sort of found its way into another, later story in Owen's Nightmare.
