Chivalry Is Tipping $10 In The Champagne Room

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To Richard Garfield, Ph.D
for his contributions to the Magic community and elsewhere.


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The Script For Today's Comic!

#14
Chivalry Is Tipping $10 In The Champagne Room
5 Panels

Panel 1:
(Tom and Tanner are in the living room. Tanner is three beers into a six-beer pack. Tom is watching, conspicuously not drinking.)

TOM: "Slow down on that beer, Tanner."

TANNER: "My girlfriend cheated on me, Tom. I need at least one night of heavy alcohol to recuperate."

TANNER: "This isn't beer, it's anesthesia."

Panel 2:
TOM: "Yeah, and you've already broken our door with your surgery. That's $100 down the drain."

TANNER: "I'll pay you back. But I was getting out of control, and I needed a friend to watch over me while I debase myself."

Panel 3:
(Close-up on Tanner, distraught.)

TANNER: "I don't know what else to do, man. I was loyal to Amy. I got her a car. I gave her my couch. I gave her my time."

TOM (off-panel): "She wanted a doormat, and you gave her your back."

Panel 4:
TANNER (angry): "That's not true!"

TOM: "How many times does this have to happen, Tanner? People value you for what you're worth."

TOM: "You're a walking 'TAKE ONE – FREE!' sign. If she wants you back tomorrow, you'll go crawling. And you'll apologize to her for leaving. That's not loyalty, that's insanity."

Panel 5:
TANNER (sullenly, drunkenly, with dignity): "I'm a Knight in a world that doesn't need saviors."

TOM: "Tanner, you're a bouncer at a strip club."

TANNER: "Please. I protect the ladies faire."

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Ferrett Says

Writing comics is largely an exercise in trusting your artist. In this particular strip, it’s probably a little too wordy – a fact that I discovered when I tried to Garfield myself, removing whole word balloons to see whether what was left might work. As it was, yeah, I could probably chop about a quarter of what’s here. If you look at it, you probably could delete Tanner’s outraged “That’s not true!” in the fourth panel and have it be pretty much the same strip. If not better.

But you know, when you’re starting out, you don’t know how much the artist can convey – and if you’re not used to this new, scaaaary medium of “Words and art in harmony,” you tend to load up on the words just to get by.

In this case, I probably could have relied on Roni’s character-drawing abilities to show Tanner’s vexation, which would have been better in the long run. But who knew? We’re still exploring this.

Keep in mind that I’m not sure if posting these little side comments about where I feel the strip could be improved is a good thing. Perhaps I should shut up and, you know, not share the flaws. It’d be like watching The Godfather with Coppola next to you going, “God, see that lampshade wobbling? The cameraman pulled back too fast, it’s all I can see…”

But hey, that’s me. I’m neurotic, and I know we’re still improving. I still like this strip a lot, though, mainly because I adore Tom’s expression in Panel Four.

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