“Tecumseh”
I was now spending upwards of 60 hours putting each episode together.
I don’t remember how, but I learned about something called Zipatone Shading Sheets – transparent sticky film with a pre-printed dot screen to simulate shades of gray. Basically, it would make the art print much more cleanly than I’d been able to before. This was the first episode where I tried them. I felt like the Darior series had finally hit its stride artistically.
Peter Mountain-High was based on my company mate Pete Vallejo. (Vallejo … “Valley-Low” … “Mountain-High”… Get it?). Pete was kicked out by the ac board, so it made sense to honor him this way.
I think this is also the episode where I had to almost beg Sue to do the lettering. She was really swamped with studies, feeling a lot of pressure, really didn’t feel she had the time. But I couldn’t bear the thought of going back to my own handwriting. I pleaded and cajoled and guilt-tripped her until she eventually gave in. (Thank God.)