It's Iimi! The Last Bridge…

Gus finally came back to Babylon to talk with Della. But he’s shocked when he sees evidence of what Della does for her side jobs. Pressing on with what sort of life they can build, the question is, what will they do when they face… The Last Bridge

Post-Comic Notes:

…and so Gus exits It’s Iimi. I envisioned a much more significant role for him when he was introduced. I couldn’t quite manage to pull that off. I’ve learned that character relationships must be plotted to the timeline like other events. When I “started the clock” and began having the characters age, it was already too late to start doing that.

 

While Gus was created black to show racism is incompatible with Catholicism, it made things more difficult as he and Della headed toward their breakup because people would no doubt see it as a factor. I had to consider whether things that were intended as typical breakup issues might instead be seen through the lens of stereotypes. Readers would understandably wonder whether his demands were supposed to be stereotypes. They could legitimately wonder if Della’s resistance to marriage was due to racism.

All I can say is, no. This was never my intent. Gus was designed to be both an upstanding young man and a fallible human being. He’s certainly not the “villain.” The Della-Gus breakup is meant to show a college relationship that could not stand the test of incompatible plans outside of college. They’re both just a little too rigid to make it work. Maybe he’ll have his own happy ending. Della’s future is yet to be revealed.

Image Credits

Some images used in this comic were AI drafted by the author using NightCafe and then edited by the same. No artist names were used in the prompts.