The first page is important. It has to grab people's attention. It has to introduce your story. It has to impress.

That's what I wanted for the first page of Mysteries of the Arcana. I also wanted to tell a whole story on that page. I knew the slow pace of a webcomic meant that it could be months or even a year before any real information was revealed about Theresa. So, I took the old writer's adage of "show, don't tell" to heart. A scrapbook in a fire with the book open to a page showing off four Polaroid style photographs.

The four photographs are important. Except for her time with Debby, Theresa's entire life is there. In the first photograph, we see a very young Theresa riding on the shoulders of her father at the county fair, clearly having fun. In the second, we see her learning how to shoot. Her second lesson, in fact. In the third photo, Theresa's hugging her father goodbye as he goes off. He's in a military uniform and about to get onto a bus. In the final photograph, Theresa's accepting a flag from an officer as she stands near a casket.

I tried to make things as clear as possible without beating people over the head with the facts. Theresa's father was a central, pivotal part of her life. Theresa liked guns. Theresa lost her father and that loss shoved her into the frame of mind that brought her to the brink of suicide. Debby's rape/death was the final shove that sent Theresa over the edge but without her father's death and with his support, she might have endured that. The two events together were what drove her to despair.

The first page has other elements of design, too. The fire is symbolic of Theresa leaving behind an old life in preparation of embracing a new one (even though she doesn't know it yet). The words 'I didn't leave a note' were the first part of an internal monologue was supposed to hit with short, sharp jabs. The font the words are in is called 'Catholic Girls are Crazy' and I felt it fit Theresa. Deceptively "girly", the font, is looped and round without being soft.

The theme of the first page would be revisited on the last page of the story, where we discover that Theresa went back and managed to salvage at least one picture of the scrapbook. Again, there are four pictures but, this time, three of them show off her new life.

Mysteries of the Arcana began in its present form as Chrys's story. As I began developing it, however, I realized the story needed two things. First, it needed a love story. Second, it needed a point of view character.

An point of view character serves as a proxy for the reader. When a story universe has a complex history and rule system it is helpful to make one of the major characters an outsider. Someone to whom the universe has to be explained. Harry Potter's a perfect example of this. He knows nothing about the wizarding world and, so, it doesn't seem out of place when absolutely everything needs to be explained to him. If Harry were raised with a full wizard family, it would feel stilted and awkward if someone explained Quiddich to him. Since Harry is an outsider he needs to be educated and as a result the reader is educated as well.

Having decided to introduce a love interest/point of view character, I began brainstorming. I didn't need to do so for long. Theresa, like Athena from Zeus's head, emerged fully formed. Short dark hair. Army jacket. Love of guns. Somewhat short tempered personality. Deciding she was Catholic came after realizing that love at first sight was boring. There needed to be struggle and conflict along the road for Theresa and Chrys's relationship.

I also knew I wanted to start off with her marching to her doom and finding a reason to live. The reason for Theresa's desire to kill herself evolved over time but was firmly in place by the time the comic debuted. I'm very glad. In a lot of ways, Theresa has overtaken Chrys as the "star" of Mysteries of the Arcana. She's a great character.

And with this page, we end Chrys and Mandrake's part of the story. What do you think? Has Chrys learned her lesson? Will it stick or will she revert to type?

 Next week, we begin the epilogue! For those of you who love Chrys and Theresa together, I'm pleased to say the epilogue focuses entirely on them. In addition, during the epilogue I'll be providing commentary not just on this chapter but on the entire series!

Join us next week for more!