It's time for more unfrequently asked questions or rather, as it seems to have become, my commentary on the latest episode of The Word Smith. Here we go.
Episode 9 - In a Binding
This is the second episode in what is, effectively, The Word Smith's first "two-parter": it picks up where the previous episode left off. Could they have been combined into one episode? Maybe, but with things split up as they are, Episode 8 ended on a bit of a cliff hanger and I'm also trying to prevent individual episodes get too long. As such, the setting remains the same as the previous episode.
Page 1 officially names one of the villains that's being lurking in the background since episode 5: The Book Worm! The name is, perhaps, revealed with a little less fanfare than I perhaps should have used. The last row of the page shows events from The Pen's point of view whilst the first row of the following page shows them from, well, from everyone else's point of view, I guess.
Page 2 concludes with a pen being thrown from off-screen to a rat-a-tat. This is somewhat of a private joke (sorry) which originated with the original DiC run of Sailor Moon - when Tuxedo Mask was flinging his roses around, he would generally be heralded by the sound of castanets which led to the notion of "cats with castanets" (the idea being that Luna (or, I suppose, Artemis) would be lurking around somewhere playing the castanets). And in the final page of page 2 we do see a cat with a castanet strapped to its tail.
I tried to give The Pen a Tuxedo Mask-esque speech when she reappeared at the start of page 3. Maybe it sort of worked? Well, it was supposed to be corny, so as long as it hit that note it's alright. The Pen and The Word Smith then proceed to defeat the Irony Chef with pedantry so, yay?
Also of note in the final panel of page 3 in the far right of the background (just above The Pen) is what is supposed to be a Tesla Model S. It is there because I think they're cool. I don't know how much it actually looks like a Model S because drawing things that intentionally look like actual things is not easy and still something I'm working on. It is also visible in the first panel of page 4 and page 8.
A three page flashback to episode 3, showing the Book Worm's origin story (from her perspective, at least) starts on page 5. This was originally scripted to only be one page, but I decided that would just be too rushed and too crowded so I ended up expanding it. As a result, the episode ended up being longer than intended. I redrew the flashback panels by hand, rather than trace or otherwise directly duplicate the original panels. I did measure some things to make the panels as close to the originals as possible and I did copy-and-paste (and transform) the covers of the issue of Battle Scientist Malie C. that the (pre-)Book Worm is holding. Obviously, the whole flashback casts The Word Smith in a more villainous light than in the original episode. Finally, a Nissan Leaf (or something that is supposed to resemble one) can be seen in the final page of the flashback. Have I mentioned I'm pretty keen on electric cars in general?
Back to the present on page 8, the Worm Guard (who we've seen in the background in various previous episodes) appear briefly before being easily squashed. I mean, they are only worms, what does one expect? Of note, the pose that The Word Smith takes in the page's final panel (and the first panel on the next page) is based off of the battle stance often adopted by Saitou Hajime as portrayed in Rurouni Kenshin.
Speaking of page 9, The Pen's ability to interact with word balloons was previously shown in episode 4, though here it is shown she can rewrite dialogue rather than just using them as bludgeons. Which is more useful? Who knows? The Musty Old Tome that the Book Worm pulls out was in the stack of books that she was shown to be buying in episode 3 / the flashback.
On page 10, The Word Smith gets to demonstrate his golf swing again (which he original used in the first episode). As discussed in a previous post, there were some inking snafus on this page that ended up with it getting delayed.
The important thing to note on page 11 is that the Book Worm gets to show off here book teleportation powers. She was previously seen disappearing into a book in episode 6, but this is the first time the teleportation aspect of that ability has been shown/confirmed. Also, The Pen makes various sarcastic remarks.
And the final page has the recurring business woman and her daughter showing up, just in time for the business woman to get hit in the face with a book, which seems to be happening a lot (well, twice) this chapter. Did you know the business woman has freckles? I didn't either until I was looking at her episode 1 appearance for reference and noticed she did. She's mostly been in the background since then so this is the first time since episode 2, I think, where she's gotten a closeup. Also, I think this marks the first time where she's said something that wasn't in response to something her daughter said.
Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there is a small Spaceballs reference in the bottom left panel of page 12. Also, since the Book Worm lost grip of her book when The Pen tugged on her cape, one could technically argue that it was The Pen's fault. This is, also, a sort-of shoryuken that The Word Smith is performing in the first panel.
Lastly, the final two pages of the episode weren't originally planned. I changed the script because I decided I didn't like how the episode originally ended which necessitated adding a couple of extra pages to get things wrapped up in a reasonable-ish (I hope?) manner. One side effect of this is that a lot of episode 10 is going to have to be replanned.
Anywho, that's a wrap for episode 9. Look for episode 10 to start sometime in the fall.
Freak Out,
-TFitC
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