Chapter 4: Page 1
One Vision: Page 1
NOTES FROM RANDY
Hello everyone and welcome back to Diamond City!
If it feels like it has been a long time to you, I assure you it has felt ever longer of a time to us. But we’re back and dropping new pages Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’s time to finally see this whole story through to the end.
Jason and I will be splitting the workload of commentary. I’ll be taking Tuesdays and he will be taking Thursdays. So since I’m first up, I figured I’d share a bit about the art side of this chapter.
It has been one hell of a trip since we last spoke. Ever since starting Chapter 4 some time ago, I never felt like it was good enough. I took some time off, more time than I should have, and I take all the blame for our first false start of posting Chapter 4. It took me a lot of time to realize that I’d rather have the story out there in the world than “perfect,” because it will never be the latter. So I spent a couple months, developed a bit of a workflow around all of my other work, created some new Procreate brushes (shameless plug to visit my Gumroad to get those brushes for yourself), and BAM, we’re here.
All of the art has been recreated from the ground up. Every page I had finished in the “before times” has been re-inked, touched up, and re-lettered. And while I hate that I took all that time off from this book, I’m thankful for the fact that Jason is as dedicated to continue and finish this story as I am. And now, I think this chapter looks better than ever. I can’t wait for you to read it all. So make sure you’re subscribed here and get every page (with commentary) delivered to your inbox, or follow us on WEBTOON to just read.
Thanks for being here. Along with this post, I wanted to add one more little section to sweeten the deal. Check it out below.
-Randy
BEHIND THE SCENES
So if you’ve read The Jacket’s first volume (if you haven’t why are you HERE?!? Go read it!!), you’ll likely remember this page:
This is where Penny returns to here old home, looking for her ring, as evidenced by the ring box in the last panel. However I want to bring your attention to the little ripped note in Panel 4.
If you Google “0-547-24964-0” you’ll get some interesting feedback. Specifically, the answer to the math problem, being -25,511. And why that number is important is because…
Nothing. It’s not important. What is important is what 0-547-24964-0 actually is…
It’s 1984’s ISBN. And the second number, the phone number listed for the bank? 267-806-1949, that breaks down like this.
267: An area code in Philadelphia. It’s the largest city nearest Jason and I, but I *think* at the time I just wanted to confuse everyone as to where exactly Diamond City is located…which we’ll talk about at later point in one of these posts.
806-1949: It is the date of publication for 1984. 8th (8) of June (06), 1949 was the original publication date for the novel that Jason and I were both so inspired by when creating this comic.
Just to be clear, NOTHING in this comic is by accident. There are coincidences, sure. Many that we love that came from one idea, but accidentally ran into other things (Diamond Dogs). There’s so many of those moments that Jason and I will discuss. But if you see numbers in the art, they are there on purpose. Always.