Gem #71: GAG BALL

Palle here, with a little look behind the curtain on the visual side of creating Thomas Alsop. Hidden in all 8 issues are gems you probably missed. Here’s one of those gems.

In issue #7 there is a hilarious scene in Thomas’s publicist Arnica’s Red Hook apartment. Thomas has just swam the East River and shows up dripping wet at her doorstep. But Arnica has company, a “blond waif” as he is described in the script, whom Arnica keeps as a sex slave.
Gem-Gag-Ball-1
Chris had written dialogue for the waif, but I came up with the idea of him wearing a gag ball – and keep it on in the entire scene, replacing the dialogue with “gbbrrhhgbbb”. I argued that it was funnier that way, especially if everyone seemed to understand perfectly what the guy was saying, and it helped us avoid editorial getting on our case for use of foul language.
Chris initially didn’t like the idea, wanting to keep the dialogue in. Here’s Chris’ version:
gem-gag-1
And here’s mine:
gem-gag-2
Needless to say, when Chris saw the two versions (his and mine) next to each other he folded. Mine was funnier.
I can’t think of any other disagreements we had on the book at all. It was Chris’ call of course but I’m glad I was able to pitch in in this scene. And now you too can enjoy the censored dialogue.
The second trade paperback of Thomas Alsop is out October 25th. Pre-order from Amazon or directly from BOOM! Studios.

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