Comic #765: Close Combat (Patreon)

I knew I wanted to do a comic on Melee mechanics vs. ranged mechanics, and I had a few versions before I settled on this one. The original plan was reversed. Narya was casting spells and calmly side-stepping a swirly mechanic on the ground, and in the final panel he glances into melee and sees a scene of complete chaos.

I gave up on that version because I couldn't think of a good reason for Narya to check in on melee without telegraphing the punchline.

I had the same issue initially with the final version. I wasn't sure how to transition from the melee viewpoint to the ranged viewpoint. I could have Nyte say "Where's Narya?" or something like that, but again, it would telegraph the punchline. I suddenly realized I didn't need a transition at all, I could just cut to Narya and the joke would land fine. I got rid of the single mechanic for Narya, because I didn't think I'd be able to animate him side-stepping a mechanic with everything else.

The final panel was a lot simpler to make than it might appear.  Narya's body and the fireball is really only 2 frames.