Hunter Black Page 22 - A Simple Dealer In Goods

Remember when I said that it was okay to lean into reality, to be inspired by reality when doing your world-building? Well, that little guy at the bottom of Panel Two is named Iosephus the Trader. You see, I get my groceries as Trader Joe's and I love it there and I wanted to shout them out in the comic. And no one has ever seemed to notice.

The real lesson on this page is the two guys on either side of Iosephus. When Will and I were planning the comic, we agreed that there would be no nonhuman races in our setting -- no elves, no dwarves, no orcs, no goblins. Then these two pointy eared bastards show up. Will draws what he likes, and in this moment, he liked these two pointy eared bastards with their faces hidden.

To his credit, when I reminded him about what agreed, he offered to change the page. Now, I hate to make a collaborator redo artwork unnecessarily, and so I asked myself, "Well, what if these guys are human? How would that work?" I told Will to keep them as is and we got a ton of story out of me asking myself that question.

Rules are made to be broken. The box is meant to be thought outside of. Most of all, respect your collaborators. If you can make their creations and contributions work, you should.