Which character is that...?

[Middenway]

NOTE: This thread contains spoilers for The Long Death.

So, a new banner has appeared on the BPRD Facebook Group page...

...which sparked the question of who all these characters of the far right are. I still don't know if that woman is Agent Gervesh or Agent Carla Giarocco.

This is a real problem with having so many artists on a series. Characters like Johann and Abe and Panya remain recognisable no matter who draws them, but the regular people in the background are a little trickier. As much as I loved James Harren's work on The Long Death, I had a lot of trouble connecting his version of Agent Giarocco with Guy Davis's. They look really different (not to mention her hair changed colour too. It was darker when Guy Davis drew her). Whereas with Tyler Crook, he seems to be working really hard to make sure the characters are still immediately recognisable (although, he was working with primary cast members, not the really tough ones like Giarocco).

Jason Latour did a great job with Agent Vaughn though. He looked like the same character in Casualties.

Agent Vaughn has pale skin, that pointed nose and glasses, and Agent Nichols is dark skinned with a scar down one side of his face. No one is going to confuse them. But with Agent Strode, Agent Giarocco and Agent Gervesh, it's a lot more difficult to tell them apart from artist to artist. From what I've seen so far, Cameron Stewart has done a great job of keeping Ashley Strode recognisable as the same character from War on Frogs #3. With the cast becoming less supernatural and more human, the artists are going to have to really work out what is key to each character's design and hone it.

I wouldn't be surprised if Giarocco is marked by her experiences in The Long Death. Soon she may be known by those that can't remember her name as, "That woman with the eye patch."

I had the same problem with Duncan Fegredo's Kate. As much I love his artwork, his Kate is not Kate. Kate has never been a thin woman, her features are rounded. That's a part of the reason I like her. Tyler Crook noticed that, and kept her face round. It wasn't perfect, but looking at the banner above, I can see he's getting better at drawing her. That absolutely looks like Kate to me. (On a side note, I did like how exhausted Duncan Fegredo made Kate look)

Things like this need to be maintained. Carla Giarocco was not a very distinctive character either drawn by Guy Davis or by James Harren. The few facial features that did stand out are not the same between the two artists: Guy Davis's Carla had a broad nose, James Harren's Carla has a pencil-thin nose.

So, going forward, I really think this is something the artists need to work on together.