Comic #961: Staying Alive (Patreon)

This was another idea I've had in my notes for a while. The struggle I had with making it into a comic was how to make it clear someone was locked out of a boss fight. I'm hoping that most readers will be able to tell Donald was locked out, but I'm still not sure.

One of the early ways I thought of making it clear the player was locked out, was making the lockout part of the premise rather than the punchline. The countdown started, and they were trying to get there on time, but failed. It just ended up being kind of a flat punchline.

I really wanted the reveal to be that someone was locked out, but I knew I'd have to really work hard on drawing the entire scene, including the barrier, which could be physical or magical, and raiders fighting. I did consider drawing the barrier from Donald's point of view, so he would be in the foreground and the raiders would be in the background. I realized though that too much of the action would be lumped in one small space where the portcullis would be blocking most of it anyway.

The other challenge was making an obvious portcullis that wouldn't block Donald so much that you couldn't tell it was him or makeout his expression. I ended up adjusting it so his eyes and mouth would be visible through the bars and I think it worked out.

Originally this was going to be Narya or Keydar, and in the final panel they were going to say something more along the lines of, "Please don't notice, please don't notice!" But in the end I thought it would be funnier if Donald just thought he was winning.

Also, you might notice that Donald's "I won't let you frown!" is a bit of a callback to Donald's previous incarnations of that phrase, namely, "I won't let you upside down!" and "I won't let you drown!" That he said to Nyte and Krom respectively in #747 and #755.