Bittersweet Candy Bowl

41. Invitation, original chapter posted 12/7/07

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Transcript

*The silver tip of a fountain pen hovers over a sheet of paper.*

*Tess sits at the desk in her room. A neat pile of PSAT (school tests) is stacked next to her. Tess’ pet snoozes on the edge of the table.*
Tess (narrating): My dear friends, I write to invite you all on a weeklong vacation to the Silvershore Islands.

[The rest of the page is a series of scenes showing Tess’ friends receiving her invitation letter.]

*David walks beside his mother. He’s carrying several shopping bags and reading his letter with wide eyes.*
Tess (narrating): My parents are covering the whole thing as my senior year gift!

*Paulo walks up the stairs in his home, frowning quizzically at the letter in his hands. Behind him, a spider builds a web in the corner of a doorway.*
Tess (narrating): Just be sure to bring a little spending money.

*Daisy is in her bedroom, sitting cross-legged on her bed, Tess’ letter in hand. Her stuffed bear lies on the bed next to her.*
Tess (narrating): We’ll be staying at a really nice resort, so there’ll be plenty for us to do.

*Mike walks in his yard carrying a big stack of books. He glances over his shoulder at Blur as he flies after him. Blur smiles excitedly, holding an envelope with one wing.*
Tess (narrating): I know it’s a little short notice..

*Amaya reads her letter outside on a beautiful day. She scratches her head with one hand, looking interested.*
Tess (narrating): But I wanted to surprise you all with something big!

*Sue holds her letter with both hands, mouth hanging open and eyes big in stunned surprise. She starts sweating nervously.*
Tess (narrating): Please go through the attached itinerary with your parents and RSVP as soon as you’re able.

*Abbey sits at his desk in his room, holding Tess’ letter. A framed picture sits next to his lamp.*
Tess (narrating): (And if you can’t come.. you better have a damn good reason!) Talk to you soon!

*Lucy sits in front of her computer, resting her head on her hand. She holds Tess’ letter in the other hand, frowning at it.*
Tess (narrating): Sincerely, Tess ♥

Author commentary

Veronica: THE SUMMER VACATION ARC!!!!!! Lord was I really looking forward to making this at the time. I had SO MANY IDEAS, SO MANY PLANS.

.. A lot of plans I canned and rewrote, which was honestly a very new thing to me at this stage! For many previous chapters I just drew whatever popped into my head, but by this time I was PLANNING AHEAD!!!!! Which allowed me to figure out what ideas are not worth putting on paper!! Damn!!!

I made literal REFERENCES for characters! I was being a bonafide professional comic arteest..

Also, say goodbye to the grid-comic format! Proper panels are here to stay!

Oliver: This was a complex chapter for the omnibus project. I wanted to integrate the Summer Vacation chapters with the Volume Two ones in terms of style, which was hard enough when Summer Vacation was pencil-shaded… but this particular chapter, “Invitation”, had pencil “inks”! So it required a lot of drawing over to get it up to scratch.