So a page idea I had but need to cut was Beck shaving his beard into a goatee and getting very negative feedback from Mickey and Ed. Oh well.

While I have been laying the ground work for Beck being an alcoholic, with this story in mind, for a while now; I never really intended to delve to deep into even if I didn’t have a limited number of pages before the end. I picture his problem with alcohol being no where near as bad as what many people actually suffer from. Though his reliance on it was enhanced with his depression from hurting Heather, losing on potentially the love of his life a second time (first being when Mickey came out), losing the only job he really cared about, then finding no foothold for the career he dreamed of. All of this added up to huge huge increase in his alcohol consumption. I imagined eventually he’d start drinking again but no where near to level we’ve seen through the comic. This incident is enough to inspire him to always be responsible in the future. He’s lucky not to have such a dependency on it as others.

You know getting to see a comic I had planned years in advance finally getting drawn is simultaneously a treat and a disappointment. I can finally look at it but it’s almost never as good as it was in my head. This is one of the pages that comes very close though.