Heh. Honestly, I wasn't even planning on having Vespi show up for this one, but wanted to knock out the last lingering plot-threads of the last chapter, so she makes a quick apperence to give a little magic lesson to the kids. Wanted to also just quickly go into her role as a queen a bit more, and show off her insect-motif.
So yeah, again, this is just set-up for things happening later in the chapter. It's always a bit disheartening when you're really, really up for a new chapter and you realize you've got a ton of set-up before you get to the good stuff.... Especially when it's been built up so much already. But I couldn't wait around on the question for what this spell does or where I wanted to go with it.
Also Jake can apparently play guitar. I dunno, wanted to think about what he does when he's bored and that felt kinda right for him. I can picture him learning to play some Dylan songs in college and just keeping up with it through the years.
There is kind of another purpose to having Vespi show up here, but it'll be awhile before we can go into that. It is mostly as Adam said though, pretty much just tying up some loose ends.
Really in general I do kind of like how naturally she's slotted into the group dynamic and become something of a regular character, although I certainly wouldn't be having her appear in every chapter or anything. Job probably keeps her too busy for that.
Incidentally you may notice some work went into readjusting the palette on this page. Kind of just something I felt was a bit overdue and do think it's largely a series of improvements, although Grant's hair came out too peachy-looking - it's more properly blond in the next page, don't worry.
That being said... Who wants to walk with Jake?
Oh boy here goes nothing, here's hoping nothing bad happens.
Yet another reminder that my own education was boring.