There were a TON of rounds of tryouts for this book. First, I did these spec pages -- you can see I was still using the super fine SAN HANNIBAL microns. Some good stuff here and there, but there's a pervasive stiffness. It was that last pinup that ended up pushing me forward.

Next round was a test page from a sample script Matt had written. A version of this was eventually run with the Hollywood Reporter announcement of the series. I love Matt's scripts -- brief, percussive, with highlight words to dictate the tone of the panel. Great to work from.

Lucky thing, too -- this Gil Elvgren painting became the basis for my Ellen Dolan, which apparently was one of the things that finally put me over the top. I had the gig! Now it was time to get to it, we needed the issue in a month. An appropriate start to a comics career.

More WILL EISNER'S THE SPIRIT by Matt Wagner, Brennan Wagner & me. Haven't actually looked at these in a while -- I'm appreciating how much Brennan's cool, lurid palettes do to make this really feel like the world of The Spirit, all damp and funky and uneven. He's GREAT on this. https://t.co/rAXJ9zZenr

That's right - I tend to think of it as the prime piece of information the page is meant to convey. In this first page, it's panel 1, where we realize the convo Bond and M are having is actually about M's daughter, while the 2nd page is all a setup for the comedy beat in panel 5. https://t.co/nrBfRWL1fh