Jonah's train of thought segways into a story about the one and only Ra55itCorpse Concert the two ever went to as an example of music they both liked. They turn to their parents to buy them tickets but each has their own reason for refusing to purchase them. Luckily Jonah's young and hip Aunt Sophie happens to also be a fan of Ra55itCorpse. Looks like the boys are going to get their wish ... but is there a catch?
TRANSCRIPT:
PAGE 6
PANEL 6.1
Jonah (narration): ... and there was always plenty of music *we* could both get behind ...
Jacobi (Jonathan's father): *Boys*! Turn that down! And Jonah stop jumping on my son's bed!!
PANEL 6.2
Jonah (narration): Take that signed poster of Ra55itCorpse over there for example. That's a souvenir from the night *we* went to *our* first&only Ra55itCorpse show. *We* were very lucky to discover well in advance that Ra55itCorpse would be hosting a show in *our* town that summer.
PANEL 6.3
Jonah (narration): *We* were both super big fans. I liked his underground experimental cred ...
Jonah (narration): *He* loved his improvising live talent ... able to create powerful emotional melodically complex moments on the fly ...
PANEL 6.4
Jonah (narration): *We* both begged *our* parents to buy tickets for *us* so *we* could go ...
Jacobi (Jonathan's Father): This fur celebrates death and decay, the domain of the devil, and we do not abide the devil in our house!
PANEL 6.5
Jonah (narration): ... but no matter who *we* turned to *we* met a brick wall ...
Grace (Jonah's Mother): I'm sorry *hun&buns*, but those tickets are way too expensive ...
PANEL 6.6
Jonah (narration): ... that was ... until my Aunt Sophie came to the rescue ...
Sophia (Jonah's Aunt): oh man, Ra55itCorpse ... he's just like so ... rad 'n' gnarly ... guy's a real trailblazer y'know ...
STATS:
BTBF 6 Illustration Time - 3 hours 30 minutes BTBF Total Illustration Time - 23 hours 26 minutes Average Time/Page - 3 hours 54 minutes
COMMENTARY:
Ra55itCorpse began as a simple rabbit spoof of Deadmau5 (if that isn't obvious to anyone). Initially he was going to be a much more direct parody, but my initial designs bored me. The weirder it got the more interesting it became. I decided, instead of a direct parody of Deadmau5, it would be more interesting to make Ra55itCorpse an edgier grungier underground 80s musician. The name was just a simple play on Deadmau5 at first, but it suggested something more gruesome and "zombie-like". Being allowed to take the character in my own different direction made it much more interesting to me. The reaction to the design was not recieved well at home though. My daughter thought the design was too busy (this is intentional and something I really like about it personally). My wife asked "why I drew the mouth that way?". The answer is actually pretty simple. To add surrealism to the character, and make it more disturbing. The idea actually comes from a specific dali painting where a skull has an elongated jawline which transforms into a grand piano. The image can be seen here for reference:
The reference to "music" is nice though accidental (I only remembered the elongated jawline).
This page reveals that the boys frequently visit each others homes, enough so that Jonathan's father feels comfortable disciplining Jonah by name, and enough that Grace even has a collective name for them, "hun&buns".
"Aunt Sophie" was actually planned for later in the comic and initally would have been the older sister. However I decided to make her the younger sister so that she could provide the boys a way out of their dilemma. I'm very happy with her design. To date she is probably the most attractive female character in BTBF. We won't be seeing too much of her, but she does have some story role to play in the early chapters, so we will see her again.
I'm happy with how this page turned out. Every character came out pretty good. Some personal favorites are Jonathan in 6.1, 6.5, Ra55itCorpse in 6.3, Jonah in 6.4 & 6.5, Jacobi, and Aunt Sophie.
Note: the mature rating is due to the gory appearance of Ra55itCorpse even though its fake gore (its just a costume not their real appearance).
