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ALWAYS beware the signs!

This was a fun and fairly frustrating cap to make.  While looking through images I found this great pic.  It really made my mind wander... why is this sexy woman in a 'caution' area?  Did she not see the sign?  What is this 'hazzard' that necessitates such a sign?  Is this the why you should be cautioned?

I had recently read some stories about machines transofrming people and to this day that is a pet peeve of mine.  Its one thing to be transformed by a friend or lover.  You can try to convince them that you don't want this.  Its one thing to be transformed by a stranger.  You can try to sneak or force your way out.

But to be transformed by a machine?  A machine that keeps you from struggling for your safety?  Oh thats just a delicious idea.  The majority of this story was inspired by RH Music's "House Training" story on fictionmania.  I have loved that story for a long long time, and have read it and re-read it many times.

So with inspiration and an ending pose in hand I went to writing.  I knew that I couldn't go into the detail that RH Music did, but I didn't want to just put 'the machine transformed poor Matt' either.  So I tried to go light on the details.  But once I had the story mostly done and started on the layout I realized that this picture just took up to much space.  I couldn't cut it off as I really needed the sign in it.  And I couldn't cut down the story to be nearly short enough to fit in a cap format.  So I spent some time looking for other images that I could use.  I mainly looked for pictures of asian women dressed similarly, or at least in a sci-fi/industrial setting.  But nothing looked similar enough in style or form to fit.  I now know that I could have also used other items like a UPS driver, a UPS package, a name tag, a corset, a laser beam, a mechanical arm.... anything mentioned in the story.  But I wasn't that savy on using images like that at the time.

So I focused on the sign.  I found various caution signs that seemed to fit the motif.  I just had to take them into Photoshop so that I could make them all the same color and size.  I also cut out some of the details of the story so that I only had two 'blank' pages.

This was my first cap that didn't have a 'subject' photo in each panel.  I have done this several times since, and still don't like it.  But it seems to work as a last measure.

I may revisit this idea of a machine transforming someone again.  Its not something I see that often, and I think that it could make some great caps!