Then I sketched out some rough ideas. I wanted to show that it was about Cory, a b-boy with a yo-yo, for sure. And then if I could also show his crew and his tutor and set up the idea that he's going to have to make some kind of choice between them... thank you, ensemble manga.
So here are the tightened up choices. I adjusted Cory a bit after thinking about how his body might actually move. After more discussion, we decided to move forward with the first one.
So I tried a few other things! Some fun layout stuff, pulling away from the clouds more, but also, Giving Her Feet. At this point, I did feel like my eyeballs were melting, because I'd been looking at this for too long. Was it anything? Was I anything? What was a cover really???
We decided to use option 5 with some adjustments (fewer photos, make sure Sunna's yo-yo is clearly visible), and... They were right!!! IT IS IN FACT GREAT THAT SUNNA ALSO APPEARS TO BE PARTICIPATING IN THIS SCENE, AND NOT AS AN OLD BEN KENOBI TYPE. TEAMWORK!!!
but also it's the funniest damn thing in the universe. look at these chapter openers. the pace and length of the series really lets yoshinaga do some amazing things and i think you should read it the end