Page 37 – Chee-dee-dee!
Thus ends Act I.
Now the real story begins.
Can Harriet the chickadee locate Jane? Will Jane locate her necklace in time? I’m sooo excited. Can you tell I’m excited?! Stay tuned, dear reader.
Original Script
MOM Goes to the birdcage. Find Jane. Please. Opens the birdcage to release Harriet. Keep her from harming herself. And, anyone else. BIRD Harriet flies out the front door and into the night. Chee-dee-dee! Chee-dee-dee …
You’re not half as excited as your readers, brother.
We can’t wait to see where this goes.
I’m particularly proud of the next page, coming at you on Thursday.
I imagine Harriet’s chirps to mean something like, “Okay, but I’m doing this only because I want to do it. Not because you told me to do anything.”
I did a little research (the bare minimum actually) on chickadee vocalizations when adding Harriet as a recurring character. The more “dee-dee” repetitions in their call the more happy they are. A single short sharp note is generally a warning. And, apparently they have a “hey sweetie” call I totally missed before. Darn. Now you too can recognize a chickadee in your neighborhood.
I rather imagined Harriet’s cries to translate thus: “At last! Adventure! Excitement! Hold on, Jane, reinforcements are coming!”
But then, that’s how I feel about it, and I may be putting words in her beak. 🙂
Panel 6 is breathtaking in it’s intricacy. Have you suffered long from this level of masochism? ^^
^This!
You have no idea how deep my artistic masochism goes. The next few pages keep getting more and more detailed. Send help! Or, coffee! 😀
So about my last comment…
At any rate, looks like her mom might be more on top of things than I had expected.
Yep, undead chickadees come in handy.
I’d love to see a hard-boiled I, Mummy spin-off called “Dirty Harriet”
SCENE: Nighttime in a dingy alleyway. A stray cat picks through the trash under a lone flickering lamp above a back door. The cat becomes alert and bolts off just before the door bursts open and BRUNO, a large thug in a black leather jacket and dark goggles, flies out backwards as if thrown by a powerful assailant. BRUNO trips and falls against the opposite wall.
BRUNO: (Smears the blood tricking from his nose with the back of his dirty hand) Heh, you hit like a chick.
A tiny chickadee flutters out of the open doorway and lands in the alley in front of BRUNO. The tough guy flinches almost imperceptibly.
HARRIET: Chee-dee!
BRUNO: I’ll never sing for you, little birdie!
HARRIET: Chee!
BRUNO: No! You wouldn’t! Please, not THAT! I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t…
HARRIET: Chee-dee-dee. Skee! Chee-dee-dee-dee.
BRUNO: I-I don’t know where THE BOSS is. Honest.
HARRIET: Chee.
The mangy alley cat saunters up and sits at attention next to the chickadee. MMROOOOWWW it coughs.
BRUNO: M-mittens! But, you’re d-dead! I saw you go down. No! Stay back. I’m… ah, ah… CHOO! Allergic to cats! Help, police! Someone!
Fade to black.
That first panel is one of the best drawings you’ve done – really nice job.
I think I will start an archive dive tonight – I’m losing track of story again. (My fault, not yours – I have the memory of … what was I talking about again?)
You and me both. Share… something?
I’ll be sure to link back to significant pages as events come up in the story. There are a lot of minor things that show up again later that were intentionally downplayed. Hehe. The slow trickle of page releases doesn’t help, either.