"Single Girl" Page Evolution

I think I first heard "Single Girl, Married Girl" on Harry Smith's landmark Anthology of American Folk Music.  I'd never heard a song like it, or a voice like Sara Carter's.  It planted the seeds of my interest in the Carter Family, and in my collaboration with Frank Young on the graphic novel.  So the page in which Sara and Maybelle record the song was very important to me. I think of it as the cornerstone of the book. 

Originally I had a vision of the moment as Sara and Maybelle performing in empty space, with no panel borders, as an expression of the haunting quality of the song...

The sequence went on for several panels and covered a good bit of the song. When Frank and I learned that the Carter Family's lyrics were largely not in the public domain, we had to change plans!  Frank came up with the large single panel you see at the bottom of the page:

 
It didn't feel quite right to me, for such a momentous moment.  I tried it as a closeup:

 

 

This wasn't working for me either. I wanted a 1930's comic strip look, but this panel felt more like a 1960's DC comic book. I stopped right in the middle of inking and decided I had to pull the view back. But I liked the idea of the words being words and word balloons at the same time, and I kept that concept...

 

 

I was very happy with this result!  But it took a little longer than most of the other pages in the book. 

 

One side note: Quilts were hung on the walls of the makeshift studio to muffle outside sounds. All the quilts I drew were researched for accuracy...