The opening page of chapter 3 is an overhead shot of the Ragbox district. The heavy pencil lines by Matt Reinke were something that we liked so much, he decided to keep them as the principle aesthetic of the whole chapter. I also used close-up crops of this page for the interior front and back cover of the printed Ragbox, Volume 1 book.

The actual layout of the city in this image is not the final map that I decided on for the Ragbox’s layout, but it does share some of the same feel: the crowded, relatively low buildings, the mass of power lines that connect one block to the next, and so on. I designed a map of city early on in the writing process, because I found it necessary to figure out how long it would take the characters to get from one place to another. Their routes were also important. If Roberto walks from home to the groceria, what’s he passing? Who might see him. These things become important to the plot later.

I love this opening panel. It’s not as grand as the opening splash page, but it really showcases Matt Reinke’s feel for architecture. Roberto’s room is surprisingly… sparse. Probably too sparse. A man’s got to have furniture. I don’t feel that there should be a slavish fidelity to previous renderings, so this may change in future chapters.