UPDATE 01/19: The third issue has been released! Go read it RIGHT NOW!!

Okay, so I want to take the time to talk a little about my headspace when creating CNC Baby. In case you missed it, I made a preview of a scene from the upcoming issue 3 on @Oz70NYC's Comic Klub, which you can check by going into my profile and clicking on the Clubs I'm a part of. That's not a huge story preview, but it's BIG for me, as it allowed me to delve a little deeper in the mindset of my lead male for the story, which I will discuss a little later. But for now, I think it's important to discuss Dani, who will see a massive change in her personality as of this issue.

So far, Dani has been a girl who has trouble socializing due to issues of her past. Namely, watching her mother being abused by an unknown man at age 15 and having to flee the US shortly after. During the travel, her mom passed away of unknown reasons which haven't been fleshed out just yet. Because of this, she has shut herself off from other people, but when she's shown that a person cares about her, she slowly opens up to them. In a sense, Katie McKinnon has taken Rassía's place as Dani's bff, as in Katie made sure to drag her along with her to do things and talk to others, thus becoming friends with the likes of Rachel Vidal and Hannah Müller, who have vastly different ways of thinking.

The point here is that for the first two issues of CNC Baby, Dani has been a reactionary character. She even told Rassía that she was always a follower because of her meek personality. However, Max's "rejection" sent her on a downward spiral of isolation, only attending her classes and heading straight home. During this time, she's also avoided attending her art classes by fear of reuniting with Max, unable to sort out her emotions. However, one phone call from her childhood friend is about to change things for her, showing a resolution never before felt by her. Finally, we're going to see Dani for who she really is.

Which brings me to Max Huerta once more. The cool thing about fleshing out characters while creating scenes and imagining dialogues is that, when they're committed to paper, you start getting an idea of the type of people your characters are. So, without getting too deep into spoiler territory, here's a tidbit of information about Max Huerta.

Despite his relative youth, Max was raised with old school values due to his father being a former Contra soldier during the first Sandinista war in Nicaragua. He raised Max and his siblings with strong standards of morality. However, Max was very curious as a child and teenager, which was in a sense frowned upon by his father as he tended to be very upfront and blatant. So he ended up a person of a huge moral front and avoided inappropriate behaviors, chastising himself for any awkward conversation he had with Dani. More on that will be developed in the upcoming issue, but basically it comes down to Max being unable to be sincere with himself when it comes to his wishes and feelings towards people, Dani in particular. While he is very driven and responsible, he has some hidden raw emotions that only require a catalyst to be released. And the start of that will be shown in this issue.

The fact that he tries so hard to deny how he feels and being unable to accept any womanly advances is mostly based out of fear. Monthy mentioned he was a sheep in wolves clothing, but in a sense, it's the inverse. Moving forward, though, we're going to see Max making a set of decisions which will be controversial for him, to put it one way. It's all a matter of seeing where these decisions will take both him and Dani, so there are some dark places I'm going to go with this story, some of which are going to be a bit uncomfortable to talk about.

Sorry if this entry was a bit text-heavy. I sometimes struggle to get my ideas in order without writing them down, but it is with this process that I can keep a mental record of what the endgame is for a story and shape it into whatever direction I see fit. I would also like to discuss side characters later, but for now, where do I stand with Issue 3 of CNC Baby? Well, so far I have 95% of capturing done and the dialogues are at about 50-60% written. Realistically, I'm looking at a release window of two weeks before the issue is out. Could be before that, but I make no promises.

Thank you for reading. I hope you will enjoy this upcoming issue.