Drugs have played a role in Observer Effect, Dead City Radio, and The Dualist. Now that West is getting high For Plot Reasons™, pharmaceuticals tie The Deaths of Beef at the top of the list of ATC leitmotif.

Beyond providing a consistently paced transition from West’s compartment to the bridge, the story value of this page relies heavily on prior knowledge of Naomi’s drug use and a lot of “drugs are tools mmmkay?” writing that was cut from The Dualist. The fact that West is entering Naomi’s accommodation and making use of her amphetamines isn’t exactly clear here – I probably could have done a better job of broadcasting those details of the act but got hung up on the deliberateness of the act itself while writing the script. I’ve compensated for this lack of clarity by revising dialogue on the next page – that should solve the problem without having to rewrite or redraw anything.

The next two pages have been drawn and assembled; as of the posting of this page they need to be shadow-matched and shaded; they should be done this month and hopefully posted next week and the first week of February. After that we’ll be in uncharted territory for a bit before settling into the home stretch – stay tuned!