Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.JULIET
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.ROMEO
Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!JULIET
Give me my sin again.
You kiss by the book.
(Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V)
Thus begins our comic this week, quoting (in a way) Romeo and Juliet's first meeting.This is what Lio and Foxy are talking about: you gave me your stomach ache! Quick, take it back!
Of course she kiss by the book. We'll see later on how she uses that to her advantage.
The little, funny, introduction conducts to a theme: Kane is still teaching Castalia and, since she smooched him long enough to convince him to make her read something more interesting, he is giving her Romeo and Juliet.
Is Kane owning the actual, official book? Maybe, Willie's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare) magnificent works were printed in 1623 in an official way. Bad pirated versions of his plays were already running around and maybe Kane got some of the bad quartos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_quarto). Now his sonnets he might actually have but he will be reading Catullo (some of the Catulli Carmina are just sooo romantic) to his wife, instead.
Castalia doesn't seem to appreciate a story with too many kisses... that's because she stops too early and eventually never gets to the cool part: the duel!
Of course the pirate take on this is: you want a girl, you kidnap her and marry her on the spot.
Still Kane finds an excuse for our tragic lovers: they are too young and spoiled to figure out how to solve their own problems (I have to add on top of that that the adults around them aren't very helpful either!). But this is a tragedy so things cannot go right.
Eventually, you'll see, Castalia will not get Hamlet either.
So why is Kane giving Castalia "Romeo and Juliet" instead of "Henry V" or "Hamlet" or "Macbeth"? The story... is not really "something with a duel" now, is it? What is he trying to achieve? What is he saying?
We'll see, with time.
Pay attention also to what Cassandra is saying about her sister: she went from "I wanna do it" to "I wanna do him" in a month. Castalia will not get any cooler on the contrary she'll get weaker and weaker... to a point where... you might not like her anymore. She'll learn a few thing about herself that she will not like either. If she were perfect, though, she wouldn't be human... experiencing love is not a positive thing for her until she figures out what to do with her emotions. In order to touch the Heavens you have to go through Hell.
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Personal blabber (I confess! XD)
As I keep saying... trust me but don't trust me. I will make you believe things... forgive me but it needs to be done. As I write this I have already set in mind and am currently storyboarding the ending of The Pirate Balthasar so I speak as a foreseer. Sometimes I will puzzle you and do things the wrong way... for a reason. I am sorry.
Am I using formulas for writing? I am. Am I following the hero's journey? I am. Will I use call backs, frames, ellipses and reincorporation like in movies? I will. Dialogues with subtext? Plenty of it. Foreshadowing? Some of it. Character arcs? In a good and in a bad way, yes.
Will I use "show, don't tell" like in movies? No. I'll tell you plenty of things instead in the form of gossip and exposition. Neither will I reveal all the details of certain facts (but you'll be able to put the pieces together).
Flashbacks? Not really. There are no flashbacks in real life. Flashbacks in movies and comics always have a label feeling to them: WARNING WARNING FLASHBACK ABOUT TO BEGIN!
I hate that. I'd rather use a "wrong way" to convey emotions directly because I am "telling" a story.
Formulas help me up to a certain point. This comic is a hybrid... certain things cannot work for a slice of life in a restricted circle, plus some formulas need to be broken and bad stuff need to come in in small quantities. I'm with Charlie Kaufman(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Kaufman) on this: it's okay to do it in the right amount, like in "Adaptation" - brilliant movie... I'm also with Chuck Palanhiuk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Palahniuk) you have to give your characters authority and then humiliations and you have to be willing not to betray your source material and admit things people does not believe in and might not like (that is why you'll see matrimony as the ultimate goal in life for this girls: even I do not believe in that but my story is set in 1660 so these girls shall get married).
I have confidant characters! Pea and Westley will be there to explain things to the thick headed people around them. In doing so they'll reveal you stuff.
Therefore, in small quantity, you shall see both exposition and deus-ex-machina. They will be there in a conscious way: they know what they are.
Some things need a theatrical structure and you shall see voice over as monologues and "a parte". I'll break the wall a couple of times and characters will talk to you.
For flashbacks I will be using a theatrical ploy whereby you'll see images sliding in front of the narration... as if you were watching a pantomime.
So overall the Pirate Balthasar is mixed media and believe me... there will be even musical in it.
So trust me but don't trust me! :D We'll be done before the Mayans arrive on their spaceships in 2012!
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