I decided to redraft the first act of my comic about Wilde's American lecture tour. I read somewhere that problems with the ending of a story are usually due to problems with the beginning. If you don't make it clear where your protagonist is at the outset of their journey, you can't expect the audience to be wowed by their transformation. Fair enough.
To place Wilde in his social context prior to the tour, I'm referring to an excellent resource: a painting by William Powell Frith, A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881. The picture is a who's who of early 1880's London society - you can see actors, aristocrats, and everybody in between. The Prime Minister is even rubbing shoulders with a pair of cartoonists!
I've added labels so I can keep track of everybody in the jumble. Wilde isn't marked out, but you should be able to spot him. Move over, Wally (or Waldo, for my international chums).
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