Chapter 4: Page 8
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NOTES FROM JASON
As we continue with this Harker flashback, you might notice that this isn’t your typical flashback. Certainly not as linear and clear cut as Penny’s in Chapter 2. It used to be like that in the earliest drafts. But, like so many other things in both this chapter and the overall story, things changed. As we’ve seen throughout these past few pages, Harker’s not doing so well. Aside from resisting all attempts to break his will through intensive interrogations, his mind seems to be in shambles as well. Though whether the latter is due to the former or for reasons yet unknown, time will tell.
Most of this was there in those early drafts. But it just wasn’t conveyed all that well. We’d have the interrogation, then cut to the flashbacks, like before. But it was just too neat, too structured. Didn’t really convey the fractured mental state of Harker all too well. So, I decided to get a bit experimental. Break the linearity and create a visual hodgepodge, with panels going from the present to the past, then back to the present, then to another point in the past, and maybe some snippets of the future thrown in too. It’s jarring, and confusing, and thus we now get a real sense of what Harker’s going through. This change also necessitated the first person POV in the panels as well. I won’t call it stream of consciousness, but it’s close to it.
Maybe the result is too jarring and confusing. Or maybe it’s not jarring enough. This page doesn’t have much shifting about. But hopefully this new approach better conveyed the mental chaos. This is a visual medium after all, so one should see the narrative alongside reading it. That statement probably makes you think, “No shit, Sherlock,” but it is something that I periodically need reminding of when writing. Whether or not my narrative experiment succeeded or missed the mark, the final verdict is left to all of you reading it.