Some folks out there in readership land (Hi Mom!) may not realise that I (the writer extraordinaire) do not actually have much of an idea what a finished page looks like until Lucas drops it into the pipeline. So when I see this set of panels for the first time I’m both simultaneously familiar with and experiencing them for the first time.

Seeing a tackletrack debut here, seeing the choices Lucas has made from our epic zoom discussions and along the road to completing the pages, makes me want to read more of the very book I’ve been writing. When we break story for the future of TCS now, we are so much farther down the road than where the published pages currently are. So it can be easy to forget about all the great work, thought and detail that we’ve already put behind us.

Having the pages arrive in the pipeline and then finally their publish date is an incredible gift even for me. As the el writerino of this (No I will never stop) I often think of the filmmakers’ adage “A film is made three times.” Again I know this isn’t film, but I believe that in the same way a screenplay encapsulates the creation of a film as its first incarnation, the writing of the comic pages encapsulates the first iteration of the comic itself. I will admit though that what would be called the ‘writing process’ in other instances is more of a ‘thoughtful winnowing’ process between Lucas and I, where hopefully the only things left on the page once we press ‘publish’ are the things we both agree can’t be beat.