(oh, and jus’ noticed Lois said he’d been at the hospital, where the wounded SSi guys were bleeding, thus the quantities of red on….)

That’s the wonder of writing, drawing comics or trying to direct an RPG game without experiencing overwhelming desire to vivisect your players- you can just leave things hanging, and you can always count on the imagination of your mates coming up with a bazillion different outcomes. Get them all together in one wee shoutbox and you’ve got a brainstorming of the scale which can make far away galaxies shatter into cataclysmic supernovas. You don’t need to want to create suspense, you just prod us hin and yon with the stick of your narrative and we get all suspense’d all by ourselves XD

>Which is another good reason to up the frequency of this here doohickey.

I know the rest of the fans are going to drop an aircraft carrier full of bloodshot-eyed SSI soldats on me for saying this, but I personally enjoy the rhythm as it is. It makes you avare of the little details. It has you going back to the page and peering at the panels daring them to give a clue as to the develompment of the plot until you notice all the details or get voices in your head ordering you to create mayhem and bake lemon pie. Well, maybe that’s just me. It makes you aware of the “not-so-big cliffhangers”. You get more involved and devote more thought to it than if you just went thorugh it on the bus on your way to work, “hm-hm, now he puts his hand in his purse, oh it was a (CLASSIFIED), cool one Merrick, pal, hm hm oh look now…).

Personally, I enjoy looking forward to Wednesdays. I mean, come on, I’m on semi-permanent unemployed status anyways, at least lemme have something to look forward to besides bills…

I read somewhere that the last panel of every comic page ought to include some little bit that makes the audience eager to move on to the next page. Nothing cataclysmic, necessarily, just something… unfinished. In this page I’ve got a guy, y’know… reaching into his pocket. Not exactly Commado Cody’s car hurtling over a cliff.

Anyway. I don’t know if it’s something you HAVE to do, but I do it. If you check out the first book, it’s full of those kind of “cliffhangers.” You just don’t notice them as much because waiting one second is a lot different than waiting ONE WEEK.

Which is another good reason to up the frequency of this here doohickey.

I wouldn’t count on it being sympathy, as much as bartering for something (the Mini Tess) he wanted. “Sure, sure, hon, all’s cool… now gimme the little bugger, willya?”

Now, see, I’m a bit torn on what to expect next, and this is mainly due to me being unsure what to think of Merrick. I honestly don’t see him as an inherently BAD character or has it out for Sera(something I can deduce from how he talked to her when she had the miniTess captive), nor do I think he’s a complete idiot. If he’s this serious, something serious is going on. And since he probably heard all that was going on, what he’s about to say likely has to do with Tess. BUT, keeping in mind he’s a bit on the unpredictable side, it might not be bad news he has to tell. I guess we’ll wait and see.

Again, we’ll just have to wait to find out. Ugh.