The final major piece of concept art from Chapter 3! The more specific details for areas would be left mostly to quick sketches on the thumbnail pages from hereon out.

The main “research” area of Foundation B is, tragically, not an area I felt I gave myself the space to show off as much as I’d like. They functionally built a little town inside of a cave! Each of the buildings handles different elements of historical research, and are stocked with exactly the tools they need to do it. In a pinch, the cave city is relatively self-sustaining, which is good if there’s ever an emergency. Most of the buildings are crafted from the actual stone, and reach from floor to ceiling, to help act as structural supports for the area

We also see a bit more of the aquaponics room here. As mentioned previously, that’s one of the major sources of oxygen production for the caves. Likely, some forms of food are made here as well, and/or research done with various kinds of aquatic lifeforms.

Developing the looks for this place was SUCH a blast, and it’s great looking back to my initial sketches and seeing just how much ended up preserved from it all. We’ll see how much that tradition carries on in later chapters!

I had to spend extra time on developing these aliens, the Drembolts, since one of their number would be a main NPC: the final member of the security trio. Ultimately I went with something that’s about the cross between a rhino beetle, a mantis, and a scorpion. I wanted an alien that, at least on the surface, seems visually intimidating

… Which would add to the comedy of her being easily the most timid of the security trio. I like to imagine that the giant sword ship that’s crashed outside of Foundation B was actually a Drembolt ship, and that most of that crew bounced as soon as they realized their invasion had failed… all except for Peaches here. She’s definitely an odd one among her species.

While I’ve been trying each chapter to drop in at least one new alien, Drembolts overall are probably not a species that we’d see much of in the story, since I imagine them to generally tend towards being more militant (and therefore not particularly interested in the goody-two-shoes peoples that work together on Earth). But, as Peaches in this Chapter shows us, there are always exceptions to any generalities in species.

The security team aren’t overall the /most important/ element in the story, but I was proud of the little bits of character I’ve been able to establish with them so far. The trio are genuine friends tasked with doing the part of their job they never have to do! It’s a fun conflict to explore.

By this point, I’d become pretty confident in the final aesthetics of Foundation B; this was more about just making sure it all felt “right.” These pages give a little background on what some of the structures around the facility were /for,/ since it isn’t always immediately obvious. I LOVE the weird tree-like towers and their Mysterious Vats. It’s a much more (to me) interesting visual way to convey how they get consistent oxygen in this cave network beyond just pumping it in.

Another highlight of the development for this chapter: the main NPCs! Foundation B is deliberately less populated than prior locations (the bulk of its action takes place around like, 10 or 11 at night), so the characters that we do see, I wanted to make sure were a bit more memorable.

The main people of interest were going to be A: one of the people in charge of the water park and B: the security team that’s after Simon. For the former, Nova as a character had pretty much existed for as long as I had the idea of Foundation B being under a water park. I knew I had to have some foil working right next door (so to speak) that Ms Shepard couldn’t stand.

Nova also gave me an opportunity to at least acknowledge the fact that I hadn’t really included many openly nonbinary individuals in the setting yet, which felt like an obvious missed element. Unintentionally, that combined with Trinity being openly trans would end up paving the way for some more gender-non-conforming elements that would seep their way into later sections of the story.

Now for the security team, I debated a lot on what I wanted to do with them. I didn’t really have a coherent “idea” on them until I stumbled upon the concept of making them a sort of Charlie’s Angels trio of ladies. They’re certainly not /THAT/ skilled – after all, most of their job is actually just checking through and fixing potential hazards – so it was fun to play around with how this group handles having to do the actual capital-S Security operations in capturing Simon.

It’s funny to me that I was putting so much thought into (one of) the final aesthetics of the chapter this relatively early on in the concept art. The top left section wouldn’t be seen until the final few pages of the chapter! I had a particularly strong visual concept for it even this early, it seems.

Since Foundation B is underground, I had a lot of fun developing the various little gazebo elevators that’ll take visitors down to it (though most people will ACTUALLY be taking them down to the water park that’s above Foundation B).

The start of the chapter involves more use of dual-tone colors that wouldn’t really get as much focus again until the tail-end of the chapter, in the more open tunnels next to the waterfalls. Thankfully, by the time I reached that second instance, I felt much more confident in my use of dual-tones; the early parts felt a lot more muddy. All part of the learning process.

I actually visited the IRL namesake lake for this segment of the story: Lake Itasca. For those that don’t know, it’s the source for the Mississippi River, which starts in Minnesota.

It’s a BEAUTIFUL place, though in my original imaginings of the comic, I was thinking of a GIANT waterfall for this location. The actual source of the Mississippi is… honestly pretty entirely flat, mostly demarcated by a line of rocks you can hop over. Still worth the trip, especially to see the incredible pine forest that surrounds it as well.

Ultimately, we didn’t actually get much time to appreciate the forest-y lands that surround Foundation B, which is a shame, but this taught me to consider working out a little more of my scripts ahead of time, so I know what elements will need more focus and reference.

As for the Fassdoon elements, if you go back to the actual pages that show off the city, you’ll probably notice some of these buildings that were put into the comic pretty much entirely following their depictions in the concept art. The gentle pyramid-like building near the center is probably my favorite of this batch; the interlaced glass and [stronger building material] is so immediately eye-catching AND fun to draw. Another winner that’ll probably continue to inspire things moving forwards.

Developing the cityscapes is quite possibly my favorite part of Key to the Future’s Fate. Not all of my building concepts quite “hit” the way I’d like, but just messing around with shapes and designs is SO fun. Much of it helps to inspire some general architectural ideas that’ll stick around moving forwards; I’m a big fan of architecture with random “gaps” in the space, which do a lot for adding to the silhouette of a place.

I don’t quite pitch into the “aquatic” elements of Fassdoon here as I could, but that’ll just mean more of it I can play with in the future!

Though I don’t feel like I fully conveyed it in the comic proper, I /did/ have a strong concept for the general floor-plan of Foundation B. Those kinds of details aren’t /really/ that important, all things considered – the relative distance between Leon and Simon throughout is functionally conveyed by the dialogue – but it was a fun challenge trying to pin down exactly how Foundation B functions as a place.

Within all of the reference material I gathered for this chapter, I got a bunch of water park images/drawings. Ultimately, the only part of that which would manifest in the comic proper was Nova, which is a shame, but I’m at least glad I got to convey the humor in the idea of a water park being directly above a historical preservation society.

I ultimately only ended up with about half as much reference material for Foundation B as I did for locations in Chapter 2. Overall, I think the “aquatic” theming of this chapter seriously helped slot all of the distinct pieces together in ways that the last chapter lacked.

It also helps that I had a stronger visual identity in mind for this chapter’s locations, overall. While again, I don’t think I quite always nailed it as strongly as I could have, I’m at least proud of the fact that I DID include everything I wanted to show, if only for a panel or two.