So with these pages we finally conclude the first chapter of “For Whom the Bells Toll.” I believe I’ve mentioned before that my original plan was to tell this story through the Applebridge Snapshots series, and if that’s what I had done then this chapter would’ve been told in one page like the rest of that series. I think it’s not hard to imagine what the Snapshot version of this would’ve looked like, but I think telling it this way will work better for what I have planned long-term. The next chapter will cover what would’ve been the second Snapshot page, but it might be a while before I get to it. I have a lot of other projects to work on, but I do intend to get to it sometime in 2025.
This is a little something I cooked up with two new Applebridge characters, Brandon Johnson and Xavier Williams. They’re both members of Applebridge High’s basketball team (alongside Cal Foster, if y’all remember him). They both have their own backstories that I’ll get into whenever I do their Bio pages, but for now all that matters is that they have a very… spirited rivalry, as this comic explores.
So for the longest time I’ve had designs, personalities, backstories, etc. in mind for parents to a lot of established Applebridge characters. These parental figures are not, as of yet, involved in any stories or anything, so there was never any need to debut them. However, I thought it’d be useful to expand the setting a bit by establishing who these figures are, for characters who live with their parents. Every character has their own situation, of course, and I figure I can use the Applebridge Bios series to flesh these things out.
We’re starting with Corey Park’s dad, Max. Now, both of Corey’s parents are a bit distant due to their own lives and ambitions, which is part of what allows Corey to run the racket he does, but they’re loving parents in their own ways. Corey’s mom will be the next one of these I do, though it may be a bit before I get to her.
I feel like this is a pretty straightforward and obvious pairing that I probably would’ve already done by now if I hadn’t fallen off Corey content somewhat. I do think the dynamic here is a bit different due to the nature of the Ask, maybe usually Corey’d be a bit rougher with someone like Tremaine, but I like this pose. There’s something about how Tremaine seems like the kind of woman to keep her heels on during sex that makes seeing here feet feel more scandalous than just seeing her naked.
This here is the last of the original pages I’d sketched back in 2015/16 when I was first planning this comic. This means that, starting from here, I’ll have to put together new pages. I do remember where the comic was going to go and I don’t think it’ll end up that different from the original vision, but it might mean the pages will be a little slower coming out than they have been.
I wanted to answer this Ask because I thought Terry’s response would be enlightening and add a little more info to his Applebridge scenario. I didn’t have much in mind for the visuals, though, so I went with letting Terry, Mickie and Rosalynne show off the goods. It was always my hope to eventually do something between Terry and his mom, although I don’t know if or when that’ll actually happen. Her being secretly privy to Terry’s relationship with Mickie would help facilitate that, though, and maybe we’ll see something more from these three down the line. Also, this Ask marks the first time I’ve drawn Rosalynne naked, so that’s something.