the following comment contains a transcription of this comic page. please click the following button to show the transcript.
panel 1.
a shot of a clock at slightly above eye level. the setting is a dark cool blue, indicating it's nighttime, but dimly illuminated by indoor light, rather than brackish outdoor night. there is stronger light emanating from an unknown light source off-screen to the left, harsh orange that fades into a deep red, reminiscent of fire.
the clock is analog, so the exact time is vague, but it reads to be approximately 8:10.
dialog:
unknown speaker, blue speech bubble: do you have a history of depression?
another unknown speaker, pink speech bubble: i'm diagnosed with it. so. [speaker coughs once sharply.]
blue speaker: .. so?
pink speaker: ... sooo, yes..?
panel 2.
a point-of-view close-up of a clipboard in the same room; it seems much closer to the light source than the clock, as it now comes from the right. behind the clipboard in the background is the hint's of someone's elbows resting on their knees. their arms have some scars along the bottom.
blue speaker: have you ever been pregnant?
the clipboard reads as follows:
(in a blue text box at the top of the paper)
Practitioner-- (rest of text line cut off by clip)
Patient name: Kimberley Yu (written in messy cursive on a blank line)
Street: (blank)
Home Phone: (blank)
Age: 17 yr (handwritten)
Height: (cut off by the shot)
(rest of text is cut off)
panel 3.
the camera pans up to reveal the person in the background of the previous panel with a tall shot.
she is a young pink linsang with long, dark brown hair pushed back, and eyes of the same color looking directly at the camera (presumably at the holder of the clipboard).
she is wearing a dark blue hospital gown, and she has a medical tube stuck in her nose, which wraps around her muzzle to stay in place. her hair and fur are somewhat disheveled.
she is sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, with a separating curtain behind her. the light source seems to be directly to the right.
her expression seems irritated and slightly disgusted or incredulous. it's now evident that she is the pink speaker, and the character named kimberley.
she says "no??" in a congested voice.
panel 4.
a zoomed out shot to kim's left, revealing that the light source is a rectangular florescent light mounted above the head of the hospital bed.
also revealed is that the blue speaker, holding the clipboard, is an equine character, presumably a medical professional, as he is wearing dark blue scrubs with an id card pinned to a pocket on the left side of his chest. he is a light, warm color not fully evident in the lighting, and he has sparse dark grey stripes along his face and the back of his neck like a zebra, as well as a large dark patch around his entire muzzle. his hair is short and slicked back, and he's looking at kim, who is looking at him. he is a fair amount taller than her.
dialog:
blue speaker: alright, have-
kim, cutting him off: i'm 17.
the blue speaker makes a visible awkward pause notated by an ellipsis.
panel 5.
the shot from panel 4 is held.
the blue speaker is looking down at his clipboard, but kim is still staring directly at him.
dialog:
blue speaker: ... right, i already have your age-
kim, cutting him off again: are you sdupit?
panel 6.
a standard shot of the zebra's face and shoulders. the orange light is still illuminating the left side of his face, but the right side of his face shows faint blue highlights coming from an unknown lightsource behind him off-screen.
his expression is professionally neutral, but there's a slight furrow in between his eyebrows that gives away his irritation.
dialog:
blue speaker: .. no, i'm the one asking questions. if i was stupid, i wouldn't save lives. i'd be dead. (after a brief pause) or maybe i'd just have a tube down my throat.
panel 7.
a standard shot of kim's face and her shoulders. kim's rolling her eyes; her expression is vague and consciously muted with her mouth shut tight, but undeniably negative. she's probably annoyed or insulted.
with the detail of this shot, eyebags under kim's face are now clear. she looks tired, but she's not exhausted or groggy.
dialog:
blue speaker (off-screen): .. listen. let's just get this, and i'll leave you alone. we have to ask everyone these.
panel 8.
the blue speaker starts to ask "have you had an abortion in the last-"
his speech is cut off by the end of the panel. kim now has her head down in both of her hands face-palm style.
her hands have claws now lightly digging into her head's hair, indicating that kim has retractable claws.
there is a thick panel separator below this panel, indicating a lapse in time.
panel 9.
there is a green speech bubble asking "when was your last period?"
the camera looks up at the same clock from the first panel, slightly farther away, from the other side. it reads approximately 9:35.
kim answers off-screen, "uuuuuhh???"
the green speaker responds, "it's just for medical purposes. we don't want to give you anything that'd kill you. accidentally."
panel 10.
another standard shot of kim. she's sitting in the same position as before the time lapse, and she still has the tube in her nose.
her expression is ambiguous; she's wide-eyed and focused, with her brows slightly furrowed, but her mouth indicates she's speaking softly.
she's saying, "i already told the other doctor, though..."
panel 11.
a bust-shot of a new character, the green speaker, who is some sort of mustelid, likely a ferret or weasel, holding a clipboard and pen.
she has short orangeish fur with a black mask around her eyes that stretches down her muzzle, although her muzzle's tip has a large blotch of white interrupting the black. she's wearing scrubs with an identification badge as well, but her scrubs seem to be some shade of green, unlike the blue speaker's. she's also wearing a medical cap of the same color, a white undershirt to cover the cleavage open from the scrubs, and a white lab coat.
her expression reads as surprised, and very slightly angry. kim is in the foreground of the shot in front of the green speaker, but her expression is not visible.
dialog:
green speaker: 'other doctor'?
kim: what??
green speaker: you saw another doctor?
kim: yes??? he was here 3 times.....
panel 12.
the same shot on the mustelid character zooms in slightly to remove kim from the shot's foreground. the green speaker is squinting and looking to the left, evidently moving to turn around. her expression reads as preoccupied.
dialog:
green speaker: i need to investigate this...
kim (off-screen, in a raspy, congested voice): i'm so fucking tired.
green speaker: i'm sorry. an unmarked man with a young female patient is.. (she pauses briefly) is extremely concerning to me. i'll be be as soon as i can.
panel 13.
a shot of kim, whose expression obviously denotes barely veiled anger. she's more hunched over, snout pointed at the ground, and her hands are clenched into fists. the tip of her tail is barely visibly flicking up into the air behind her, likely twitching with hostility.
kim's eyes are observably more tired, and they're glaring to the side at a plastic cup with a red lid that the green speaker's hand is placing on a table in the foreground of the shot.
the green speaker is saying, "in the meantime, we need a urine sample." she pauses again, and then adds, "don't give this to any 'doctor' except me."
panel 14.
the shot is held on kim, but widened, so there's now more empty space surrounding her. the green speaker is no longer in the foreground, but the cup still is.
kim has lifted her head up, so she's looking at eye level again off into the distance. her eyelids are lowered, and she's sighing. her expression clearly shows she's resigned, as she says "okay." in a congested voice.
panel 15.
the shot of kim is still held, but not nearly as wide. she's glancing off to the left in front of her tiredly.
panel 16.
a shot of 2 characters in a cool blue, but much more well-lit hospital hallway, with a door hinge in the foreground to the side of the shot. this is clearly kim's point of view, and she's looking out the door of the room she's in.
one of the 2 characters is the equine from earlier, and another is an unknown orange porcupine, who is much shorter than the blue speaker, and wearing medical scrubs and a coat like the green speaker had been wearing, along with a stethoscope draped over his left shoulder.
the two are obviously having a conversation, but it is not audible, and there is no dialog shown. the porcupine is smiling coolly, leaning back on a reception counter behind him casually with his wide out. the equine character is also smiling, but his smile is just slightly twisted, and his arms are crossed; he probably doesn't actually like the co-worker he's talking to, but fakes it well enough.
to the right, off to the side, in front of the blue speaker, there's a hint of a medical cart, and in the background behind the reception counter, there's a faintly visible opposite side hall of hospital rooms with their doors shut.
panel 17.
the camera is back on kim, who's now leaning over and twisting her head to look at the clock from earlier panels, in the back of the room, behind the curtain separator. her expression reads as tired and stressed.
kim's nasal tube isn't pulled taut, but it's close to it; she probably can't actually do much more than step off the bed before it would start to yank her.
end of page. what follows is the comments section.
so excited to read a longer comic from you again. as usual your rendering of light and use of color is phenomenal. cant wait to see where this is headed!
I'm extremely excited to see another full-length longer comic from you!! I actually found your work through drop-out and it's still very important for me.
the lighting and coloring here is FANTASTIC, and is definitely an ominous start...
I love how the warm lighting contrasts with the minty cool colour of the website's background, a very bold choice for the first page. also, that's lola's doctor from obyki in the second-to-last panel! makes me wonder whos gonna show up in the comic...
CG on the launch!!! And really strong showing for the first page too, the lighting, the hair rendering, the fur rendering! It's all so good and comes together for the film feel that you're going to treat everyone to this year!
Gottdang, the COLORS in this already! Amazing!
I can't wait to learn more about these characters! Also- isn't that porcupine doctor the same one from the Over Before You Know It side comic?
yes it is! he's slightly younger here, and lacks the sideburns/chin scruff that he had in obyki, but that's the same doctor, because this is the same hospital.
you can also notice that the room kim is in here has the same chair model and curtain setup, and the same color code for scrubs. she is, however, in a different section of this hospital from where lola was, and she's still not in the psychiatric wing.
i am so so so stoked to read this! i love the rendering on this opening page so much, the texture you've captured here is amazing and the mood conveyed by your color choice is amazingly vivid. really excited to see where things go!
yes. the script originally intended that i should illustrate this more clearly, but i cut it as a personal choice, because i felt the specifics were largely unimportant.
for reference, kim overdosed on heart medication that was not prescribed to her. in her nose is a simple nasogastric sump tube for a lavage procedure, which staff have thus far neglected to remove post-procedure. NG intubation is very frequently used over oral intubation for patients who are 1) conscious and able to speak, and/or 2) patients who are considered possibly volatile or uncooperative, or prone to disturbing or biting the tube. the tube itself is slightly modified to wrap loosely around a muzzle with a simple connector, sort of similar to how you can connect glowsticks into a circle.
kim here is also pretty lucid because she was not anesthetized for the stomach irrigation, because, while it is a highly recommended part of the procedure, the only consequence for failing to do so is the discomfort of the patient.
oooOOOHOOOOOO YES I am so ready for another comic from you!! I got so sad not having drop-out updates to look forward to, haha. Thank you for your great work!
oh man, just this week i had to go into the ER twice in one day and the second time I went in, they didn't have any records of me going in the first time, earlier that day. like wtf lol.
ok it's taking me everything in my entire being not to scream how excited i am for this and how much i know it's probably gonna rip my emotions a new one but lets say i'm at god tier levels of excitement
and as other people have said, the coloring/lighting on this is reeeally nice
approximately how long is this one gonna run, in comparison to drop out? also im surprised because i was expecting you to start borderline this year, althoguh that may have been me misremembering. i am very excited nonetheless and am glad to have another weekly update to look forward to
god, i know better than to even bother with approximations at this point...
the script has 46 scenes total, which is about 10 more than drop-out, but many of the scenes have much less depth and are intended to be shorter (for example, this scene will be 2 pages).
however, even if every scene was only a single page, that would still be 46 pages, which would take a bare minimum of, at 4 pages per month, ~11 months.
i did intend to start borderline this year, but that script has ended up being 55 scenes so far, and it isn't even halfway through the plot (which is why i don't approximate how long stories will take anymore, coincidentally).
i've been thinking about having patrons vote on whether to work on side comics simultaneously or update the main comic twice a week instead to potentially get it done faster, but i'm not exactly aching to speed through it into borderline. the writing portions of these stories are the most mentally intensive part, yet as my schedule's gotten progressively fuller, it's never been given its own time to be worked on, because it's all behind the scenes, so i have nothing to show publicly for doing it.
i'm trying to fix my work ethic to be more sustainable at the mo, but i'm just assuming at this point that i won't have a lot of days/weeks solely dedicated to being able to write, so i'll need all of the extra time i can get to have borderline completely written.
thank you.
you're actually more on-the-nose than you think; that nurse is a zebra-donkey hybrid!
you can notice that his nostrils are a little more slanted and front facing than a zebra's, and on the next page you'll notice his ears are a little longer than a zebra's. that's also why his stripes are more faded and sparse, and why he's more of a beige/light brown rather than white.
Been looking forward to this for months, so excited now that it's finally here! Congrats on the launch, it's always nice to have one of your longer stories to look forward to over the course of the week.
Also I really dig the way you write doctors, how even though the patient has issues it doesn't come anywhere close to justifying the power tripping and general condescending awfulness. Sadly quite reflective, especially once other specialists see you're also receiving psychiatric care.
First off, thanks for adding a transcript! It's nice to have some additional insight into what these characters are thinking and feeling. That being said, I think what I love most about this page is actually that you're avoiding clarity and presenting hospitalization as the deeply disorienting experience that it is. How easy it is to lose track of how much time has passed, who you've spoken to, what you've told them, etc. Kim's expressiveness serves as a great throughline in all of the confusion, too. Really looking forward to more.
im really enjoying this page, the shading and colors are both Excellent. the transcript is helping me notice a lot of extra details as well, which is great!
Is the second doctor a polecat? Also, if it's not too Big of a question, do you have specific reasons for making the side characters the species they are?
that character is a siberian weasel.
i choose the species of every side character a little differently because the context varies, but, basically, i usually go down this list:
1) any species that would work with a theme or symbolically without being heavy-handed (usually a pun)
2) any species that could probably provide valuable context at some point if they appear again, usually a similar species similar to a main character (ie. a recurring minor character for an obligate carnivore might work well if they're a carnivore too, in case i ever want to bring the topic up later)
3) a cool species i find interesting and novel and i'd like to share or stylize
4) choosing from a list i keep of species that i've drawn, how many times i've drawn them, and how common they are, to see if i can believably reuse a design i've already made or if i should have more, say, dogs populating the background to make the setting believable; too many really obscure species making up the bg characters makes the explanation for the setting weaker and distracts the reader if it's too much.
5) pulling from a random species generator.
for the horse dude, i made him equine because i honestly really don't like those animals, they make me uncomfortable even just visually, and i knew he wasn't supposed to be a likable character anyway. i went with ass/zebra to do something a little fresher than another horse dad antagonist.
i picked ass for hopefully obvious reasons, zebra because their natural markings are striking but neutral and would probably be easy to work with in the complex lighting scenario.
for the doctor, i knew i wanted to make her some kind of mustelid, most likely a weasel, because i was aware that kim is probably easily mistaken for a weasel. drawing a weasel that looks very different from her would make it visually apparent that she's not that species without having to directly try injecting dialog to explain what she is.
i picked siberian weasel specifically because they're a pretty bright orange, which would work with the orange light source, and because they're known for being a species that surplus kills, but stoat was a little bit too drab and overdone.
(hedgehog dude's species was picked because i was thinking of the hedgehog dilemma iirc. or it was just from a generator. it's been a while.)
im bouncing off the fucking WALL i'm so excited
i'm already hooked story-wise.. i love the lighting choices here, it honestly reminds me of the way the lighting was the last time i was in a hospital, haha
the lighting and coloring here is FANTASTIC, and is definitely an ominous start...
I can't wait to learn more about these characters! Also- isn't that porcupine doctor the same one from the Over Before You Know It side comic?
you can also notice that the room kim is in here has the same chair model and curtain setup, and the same color code for scrubs. she is, however, in a different section of this hospital from where lola was, and she's still not in the psychiatric wing.
for reference, kim overdosed on heart medication that was not prescribed to her. in her nose is a simple nasogastric sump tube for a lavage procedure, which staff have thus far neglected to remove post-procedure. NG intubation is very frequently used over oral intubation for patients who are 1) conscious and able to speak, and/or 2) patients who are considered possibly volatile or uncooperative, or prone to disturbing or biting the tube. the tube itself is slightly modified to wrap loosely around a muzzle with a simple connector, sort of similar to how you can connect glowsticks into a circle.
kim here is also pretty lucid because she was not anesthetized for the stomach irrigation, because, while it is a highly recommended part of the procedure, the only consequence for failing to do so is the discomfort of the patient.
and as other people have said, the coloring/lighting on this is reeeally nice
the script has 46 scenes total, which is about 10 more than drop-out, but many of the scenes have much less depth and are intended to be shorter (for example, this scene will be 2 pages).
however, even if every scene was only a single page, that would still be 46 pages, which would take a bare minimum of, at 4 pages per month, ~11 months.
i did intend to start borderline this year, but that script has ended up being 55 scenes so far, and it isn't even halfway through the plot (which is why i don't approximate how long stories will take anymore, coincidentally).
i've been thinking about having patrons vote on whether to work on side comics simultaneously or update the main comic twice a week instead to potentially get it done faster, but i'm not exactly aching to speed through it into borderline. the writing portions of these stories are the most mentally intensive part, yet as my schedule's gotten progressively fuller, it's never been given its own time to be worked on, because it's all behind the scenes, so i have nothing to show publicly for doing it.
i'm trying to fix my work ethic to be more sustainable at the mo, but i'm just assuming at this point that i won't have a lot of days/weeks solely dedicated to being able to write, so i'll need all of the extra time i can get to have borderline completely written.
you're actually more on-the-nose than you think; that nurse is a zebra-donkey hybrid!
you can notice that his nostrils are a little more slanted and front facing than a zebra's, and on the next page you'll notice his ears are a little longer than a zebra's. that's also why his stripes are more faded and sparse, and why he's more of a beige/light brown rather than white.
Also I really dig the way you write doctors, how even though the patient has issues it doesn't come anywhere close to justifying the power tripping and general condescending awfulness. Sadly quite reflective, especially once other specialists see you're also receiving psychiatric care.
Is the second doctor a polecat? Also, if it's not too Big of a question, do you have specific reasons for making the side characters the species they are?
i choose the species of every side character a little differently because the context varies, but, basically, i usually go down this list:
1) any species that would work with a theme or symbolically without being heavy-handed (usually a pun)
2) any species that could probably provide valuable context at some point if they appear again, usually a similar species similar to a main character (ie. a recurring minor character for an obligate carnivore might work well if they're a carnivore too, in case i ever want to bring the topic up later)
3) a cool species i find interesting and novel and i'd like to share or stylize
4) choosing from a list i keep of species that i've drawn, how many times i've drawn them, and how common they are, to see if i can believably reuse a design i've already made or if i should have more, say, dogs populating the background to make the setting believable; too many really obscure species making up the bg characters makes the explanation for the setting weaker and distracts the reader if it's too much.
5) pulling from a random species generator.
for the horse dude, i made him equine because i honestly really don't like those animals, they make me uncomfortable even just visually, and i knew he wasn't supposed to be a likable character anyway. i went with ass/zebra to do something a little fresher than another horse dad antagonist.
i picked ass for hopefully obvious reasons, zebra because their natural markings are striking but neutral and would probably be easy to work with in the complex lighting scenario.
for the doctor, i knew i wanted to make her some kind of mustelid, most likely a weasel, because i was aware that kim is probably easily mistaken for a weasel. drawing a weasel that looks very different from her would make it visually apparent that she's not that species without having to directly try injecting dialog to explain what she is.
i picked siberian weasel specifically because they're a pretty bright orange, which would work with the orange light source, and because they're known for being a species that surplus kills, but stoat was a little bit too drab and overdone.
(hedgehog dude's species was picked because i was thinking of the hedgehog dilemma iirc. or it was just from a generator. it's been a while.)
i'm already hooked story-wise.. i love the lighting choices here, it honestly reminds me of the way the lighting was the last time i was in a hospital, haha