This is a fantasy world, so even the most fantastic and unbelievable things could potentially happen…like the script proposal for that earlier chapter being a sizable book, rather than a few confused scribblings on the back of a cigarette packet*.
But, yeah, I have not given in to my base instincts and have kept the Professmagicirarian’s adventurous journey up the tower completely off-screen, forfeiting the opportunity to cram it full of the kind of pointless cameos I’m usually so fond of. And then I took that sort of high-minded approach to the next level by simmering down his whole academic career at this school of sorcery into only two panels, one showing some sort of practical test and one showing tiresome studies in the library. Really the bare minimum. (And probably also distorting the proportions – I’m pretty sure practice and theory wouldn’t be divided 50/50 in this field of study, and more like 10/90? I should simply have repeated panel three a couple of times…)
But it would have been pretty pointless to describe the Professmagicirarian’s studies in any more detail – after all, it was an absolute given that he’d excel in them, given his vast academic background. The barbarian element would prevent any issues arising from the practical test, and on top of all of that is the experience he’s gained from all of his adventuring with K’ip. So, yeah, there’s no doubt he simply breezed through all of the courses and graduated summa cum laude. Hence, the skip directly to the (late) point in his studies were things actually got interesting for people not interested in the intricacies of arcane secrets…
More on Monday.
* Yeah, I know, that’s a completely outdated reference in the age of the cellphone (let alone anti-smoking campaigns).