OOTS #750 - The Discussion Thread

[The Giant]

New comic is up.

[Arakune]

Silly Elan and it's selective ignorance. :smallbiggrin:

[Dresil]

Interesting message you did.

[DragonOfUndeath]

skeletons in the ball pit :smalleek:

[Eldrys]

Looks like everyone is getting along with their new deserty buddies! :smallbiggrin:

[Jarian]

Am I the only one creeped out by the skeletons in the bawl crawl? :smalleek:

Edit: Ninja!

[Assassin89]

I think Durkon's accent has affected his spell casting. I also found the Mr. Scruffy and Blackwing antics funny.

[HalfTangible]

Sometimes the combination of happy go lucky fun and utter depravity in the same scene in this comic scares me. Not because of the depravity, but rather the fact i still go 'aw that's sweet'

For example: Skeletons in the ball pit.

What scares me more is that i have a theory as to how that happened :smalleek: and good god it's creepy. Unoriginal but creepy (the method, not the skeletons.)

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Well, I think we can safely say Malack isn't a vampire, if he and Durkon are chit-chatting out on the roof when the sun's high in the sky.

[Hzurr]

hmm...odd layout. It took me a bit to figure it out, but I like it. I also should really look at getting a widescreen monitor.

[Raging Gene Ray]

So was Durkon SPELL-checking the scroll he found in Malack's library, or is he subtly gleaning new spells or state secrets?

Also, Elan's naivete is not charming...a grown man acting like an eight years old boy, ambivalent about the monuments about his father's slaughtering whoever that statue guy is...it's not innocence, it's just straight ignorant, yo.

Also, Haley freeing the slaves and V helping makes me love those characters more...and the Scruffy and Blackwing show is a neverending cavalcade of zany antics. They need to have their own spin-off comic! Mr. Scrufy would chase Blackwing...and then Blackwing would chase him back! That alone should be good enough for 150 strips.

[Katana_Geldar]

I was going to say how much I like ball pits...then saw the skeletons. :smalleek:

[Dr.Epic]

I love the ball pit and statue. But what's with the longer page format?

[Ormur]

What spell is Durkon so fixed on?

[Darkfyre99]

Ahh... obliviousness is truly bliss. And Elan is blessed with an abundance of it. :smallwink:

I'm glad to see the freed slaves actually took the freedom they'd been given, unlike some people predicted. ^_^

[Morithias]

I love the size of it. Finally a webcomic I can use as a background for my desktop without stretching it, or leaving pieces of black!

[Dr.Epic]

I was going to say how much I like ball pits...then saw the skeletons. :smalleek:

What are you kidding? The skeletons were the best part!

[Katana_Geldar]

What spell is Durkon so fixed on?

Maybe something to do with Girard?

[CoffeeIncluded]

Eee! And right before I go to sleep too! :smallbiggrin:

Poor oblivious Elan. Notice that the dinosaurs are chained down? :smallfrown:

[DSCrankshaw]

That was huge.

I liked it.

[Blaznak]

For some reason at the end of the strip I started channelling Spongebob.
"Oh its the best day evvvvver...."

[ref]

whoa, different format here. Takes some time to get everything in.

[Mellisan]

Maybe something to do with Girard?

I was thinking maybe the mass death ward spell he mentioned researching back in 672 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0672.html) (panels 4&5). Just a guess though. There might be something more recent I've forgotten.

[Blaznak]

Also, Elan's naivete is not charming...a grown man acting like an eight years old boy, ambivalent about the monuments about his father's slaughtering whoever that statue guy is...it's not innocence, it's just straight ignorant, yo.


Is that a Troll over there? (grin) Nah, I don't think so. I think the story (and Elan's behavior towards Pops) justifies what we are seeing. Intriguing point, but I'll put in my "no" vote. :smallsmile:

[Ranzunar]

I was almost expecting Elan to say "Yabba Dabba Doo!" when he was sliding down that dinosaur's tail. Great comic as usual. Got to admit, dinosaurs, ice cream, ballons, and ball pits would make for a pretty awesome day no matter what your age or maturity level.

Edit: Just noticed that one of the skeletons is a kobold. Great touch with the detail and weird left to right reading trajectory. Keep redifining narrative production in sequential art Giant.

[Dr.Epic]

I love the size of it. Finally a webcomic I can use as a background for my desktop without stretching it, or leaving pieces of black!

I don't know. I hate it when you hate to scroll horizontally when reading a webcomic. It can really make it hard to read the thing.

[Thor Person Guy]

I love the ball pit and statue. But what's with the longer page format?

It's for when the comic gets put into a book. The left half is going to go on one page, and the right half is going on the other. If we're lucky, it should look the same in print as it does now.

[Fargazer]

What are you kidding? The skeletons were the best part!

I'll agree with that one. Best part of the comic.

[teratorn]

Haley, Haley, this is not Azure city.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Pretty, pretty comic.

Clever how it was separated even if I had to go over it twice to catch on.

I wanna turn on the dino-slide...

[blueblade]

Love it, and great fun with the new format Giant. Using the sun to show what order to read it all in helped immensely (initially I thought Durkon ended the day frustrated).

My initial thought for Durkon was that he might be starting down the path of a prestige class? But we would have had a little more heads up than that, and no evidence Malack has one. So the mass death ward thing is much more likely.

[zimmerwald1915]

On the other topic, 750 might involve as many as four stories (Belkar/Roy/Enor/Gaanji, Tarquin/Elan, Durkon/Malack, Haley/V/slaves...
Called it.

Great comic, worth the wait.

[Dr.Epic]

It's for when the comic gets put into a book. The left half is going to go on one page, and the right half is going on the other. If we're lucky, it should look the same in print as it does now.

Couldn't the Giant just make it taller so I scroll down and the second half would be on the opposite page in the book?:smallconfused:

[The Unlucky One]

Nice comic, gotta love the ball pit!

[RMS Oceanic]

This layout was a little weird, but once I figured it out it was actually pretty satisfying.

I liked Mr Scruffy and Blackwing's antics. :smallsmile: And I'm also intrigued at what Durkon was researching... :smallconfused:

[Gift Jeraff]

Read this comic horizontally and Mr. Scruffy becomes some magic-resistant superbeing, Haley and V rescue at least 3 rounds of slaves, and Malack is no help.

But anyway, cool comic. Nice to see the unlate Isamu's sap still coming in handy. :smallsmile:

EDIT: And I am also thinking that Durkon was researching a mass death ward spell. I just hope that Malack's edits didn't include something, unbeknownst to Durkon, Evil. :smalleek:

[RebelRogue]

Poor oblivious Elan. Notice that the dinosaurs are chained down? :smallfrown:
Actually, that reminded me of the turtle monsters in Final Fantasy XII. For some reason they're chained too.

[tmacdevitt]

Rich,

Thank you again for showing us a new way to appreciate both your story, approach, and double meanings.

I enjoyed this strip very much.

Tom

[FoE]

MAKER'S BREATH! Who put skeletons in the ball pit? :smalleek:

Don't you know that bodies go in the dumpster? Playgrounds are only good for disposing drugs and toxic waste! I mean sure, if you're in a hurry, but still …

What's really shocking is the lack of professionalism in the Empire of Blood. For shame.

[Elfin]

This was really entertaining and clever; a great strip.

[RebelRogue]

Also, I really like the friendship that is developing between Durkon and Malack. I'm certainly beginning to hope that Malack will not end up as an enemy of OotS.

[DreadArchon]

I love that Kobold skeleton.

Also, do you guys really need to complain so much about getting one strip or so in alternate format per book? Come on, it's not like he's making a habit of this. :smallsigh:

[Dr.Epic]

Poor oblivious Elan. Notice that the dinosaurs are chained down? :smallfrown:

Well duh. Have you never seen Jurassic Park? And Jeff Goldblum isn't even in this comic.

[whitelaughter]

What are you kidding? The skeletons were the best part!
This.
I wish my dad had taken me to play in a ballpit with skeletons :(

[One Step Two]

Wonderful use of the fluidty of the web medium. The spread was awesome seeing those multiple stories played out so well.

I like to think Elan is protraying heavy willful ignorance, he wants his dad back as much as possible, and him turning a blind-eye to the obvious evils he portrays is because he is quite genre savvy (well, alot of the time). Elan knows the significane Vader references means he knows what will likely go down when they get down to brass tacks, so he's enjoying his time with his dad while he can.

[Scorpions__]

Is it just me or is that a statue of Tarquin killing Roy?






DM[F]R

[Amarsir]

I have to confess that I found this comic a little awkward to read. Time is flowing from left to right, which is evident if not immediately obvious. But the lack of consistency in top-to-bottom ordering made it all seem a little more jumbled than need be.

The Giant normally hits it out of the park when he modifies the format, so I just found it noteworthy when this one felt a little off. Still a good comic though. 8.5/10.

[GreenMuffin]

Tarquin is my favorite character. He's got the awesome parts of elan, plus he's evil!

Although, I wonder how many stepbrothers Elan has...

[Glich]

{{scrubbed}}

[Dr.Epic]

Wonderful use of the fluidty of the web medium. The spread was awesome seeing those multiple stories played out so well.


I have to confess that I found this comic a little awkward to read. Time is flowing from left to right, which is evident if not immediately obvious. But the lack of consistency in top-to-bottom ordering made it all seem a little more jumbled than need be.

The Giant normally hits it out of the park when he modifies the format, so I just found it noteworthy when this one felt a little off. Still a good comic though. 8.5/10.

I have to agree with Amarsir. Scrolling takes you out of reading the comic. I've adapted to scrolling down to read webcomics, but scrolling sideways is kind of difficult.

[herrhauptmann]

I like to think Elan is protraying heavy willful ignorance, he wants his dad back as much as possible, and him turning a blind-eye to the obvious evils he portrays is because he is quite genre savvy (well, alot of the time). Elan knows the significane Vader references means he knows what will likely go down when they get down to brass tacks, so he's enjoying his time with his dad while he can.
That's an interesting take on Elan's viewpoint. It's possible too.
My money though, Elan hasn't actually seen his father do something evil (Tarquin has just made references that Elan didn't quite get. Like his 8th wife dying of mysterious circumstances, and meeting his future 10th), so he believes that his father is Good and reducing the evil acts of the country, the same way that Roy is Good and reduces the evil acts of Belkar.

Skeletons in the ball pit, that's awesome. And a really freakin deep ballpit

Why isn't V smiling at freeing the slaves, still wondering how much good karma will be needed negate that familicide spell? Or wondering how some unsupplied humans are going to make it across the desert (even the fringes) to the next city?
edit:

Tarquin is my favorite character. He's got the awesome parts of elan, plus he's evil!

Although, I wonder how many stepbrothers Elan has...
Stepbrothers, or half brothers? I can't see Tarquin marrying a woman with prior baggage. But seeing that Tarquin seems to get around as much as either of his sons, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few dozen of his bastards running around.

[Ron Miel]

The title: Making up for lost time

Does this refer to Rich giving us a double helping after leaving us waiting for days?

[shadowkiller]

Well duh. Have you never seen Jurassic Park? And Jeff Goldblum isn't even in this comic.

Yes he is, he's human skeleton #2.

Also we can confirm 11 slaves freed.

[Strawberries]

What are you kidding? The skeletons were the best part!

Agreed. :smalltongue: I love the skeletons in the ballpit.
Also, I'm really starting to like Malack, for some strange reason.

@ herrhauptmann: I noticed that too. V just doesn't strike me as the smiling type, however. Expecially after recent events.

[Gift Jeraff]

I'm going to second Amarsir's comment on the lack of consistency (I'm assuming they're referring to the wider panels making it a bit confusing). However, since it is a montage, I find that the order you read it in really only affects Durkon's panels. At first I thought the red edits on the scroll were the contents of the scroll and Durkon failed, causing them to vanish (as seen with the scrolls of Dismissal (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0424.html)).

[tcrudisi]

So was Durkon SPELL-checking the scroll he found in Malack's library, or is he subtly gleaning new spells or state secrets?

Also, Elan's naivete is not charming...a grown man acting like an eight years old boy, ambivalent about the monuments about his father's slaughtering whoever that statue guy is...it's not innocence, it's just straight ignorant, yo.

I was also wondering exactly what Durkon was doing.

Also, Elan used to be my favorite character... but with this newest story arch, he's just coming across as way too ignorant and seems to be different than his usual comedian-self that I fell in love with. It's very sad to me. I really hope this arch ends soon so that Elan can go back to being his normal self. I'm okay with him acting 8 y.o., I'm not okay with how blind he's allowing himself to be.

[wizuriel]

Took me awhile to see the page right (The sun at the top helped me a lot). Though my understanding is Durkon was reaching a spell and Malack helped him make the edits to get it working at nightfall.

Sun rise you see them chatting
morning Durkon is in the library looking something up
noon he is making a scroll
afternoon he fails to cast the scroll
evening he talks to Malack again
sunset you see the edits and what looks like the magic now working


Okay and now after typing that out I have to wonder if the spell Durkon cast is the spell he think he cast

[Yagerr]

Really great comic. I think it is ironic it is called making up for lost time and it took more then the normal amount of time for this one to be released.

Of course Rich's work is really great and he can take as much time as he wants but it is longer then average.

[tcrudisi]

Oh jeez - I completely missed the setting of the sun at the top of the comic, so I probably mis-read it. Thanks to everyone who posted about it so I can go back and re-read it.

That was a bit confusing and I'll probably have to read the comic a couple more times before I'm able to figure out what order to properly read it in.

I'm not so quick as to say that I like or dislike the layout though, as I believe that anything new has to be given it's fair shake.

[Ranylyn]

Wait, you weren't supposed to read it horizontally?

...

*facepalms at self* I stay up late on a gut feeling the copic will update tonght, it does, and I'm too tired and excited to read it right, hahaha, wow....

[Forealms]

In all fairness to Tarquin and the Empire as a whole, that ball pit could just have easily been at Chuck E. Cheese :smalltongue:

[Prowl]

The layout is fine, it's like a little puzzle in itself trying to figure out what is happening in what order... just keep an eye on the color of the sky, which is distinctive for each time period, those panels which cover two or more time periods are things that more time is being spent on. The one exception I can see is the very last panel whose sky color and context and position tells the reader it is the very last depicted event in the sequence.

[Vectner]

Tarquin can honestly say he doesn't have any skeletons in his closet. He keeps them in the ball pit.

[Umbra]

That was huge.

I liked it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-wf2pP7T0Y

For some reason, the panels look out of order.

[Dr.Epic]

I wonder if Elan was singing the Flintstone's theme song while he slide down the dinosaur's tail.

[binyamin20]

My first thought is: WOW. My second thought is: WOW. I haven't even gotten to my third.

YOU ROCK GIANT!!!

[Ron Miel]

For some reason, the panels look out of order.

It makes more sense if you read down each column.

[One Step Two]

I have to agree with Amarsir. Scrolling takes you out of reading the comic. I've adapted to scrolling down to read webcomics, but scrolling sideways is kind of difficult.

I really didn't have much issue with the comic as a whole. But I have a nice widescreen monitor, and when I looked at the first panels right to left, I noted the movement of the Sun, and it clicked that the comic beneath was plotted accordingly. But I always like to think my head is wired differently.


That's an interesting take on Elan's viewpoint. It's possible too.
My money though, Elan hasn't actually seen his father do something evil (Tarquin has just made references that Elan didn't quite get. Like his 8th wife dying of mysterious circumstances, and meeting his future 10th), so he believes that his father is Good and reducing the evil acts of the country, the same way that Roy is Good and reduces the evil acts of Belkar.

Skeletons in the ball pit, that's awesome. And a really freakin deep ballpit

I think what it comes down to is Elan seeing everything with rosy coloured glasses. He chooses to see everything in the best possible way when he can, It annoys some to a degree, like Roy, and it makes him vulnreble to others, Nale being a prime example, and it sets him up to be hurt. Of course it occasionally pays off, like with Thog.

Of course, the Giant could be setting us all up, cause his dad is awefully Genre savvy too, and all this could just be for show, Elans Dad could totally be the evil-but-not guy who made it his business to be a compelling part of the story, much like Julio Scoundrel.


Why isn't V smiling at freeing the slaves, still wondering how much good karma will be needed negate that familicide spell? Or wondering how some unsupplied humans are going to make it across the desert (even the fringes) to the next city?

Maybe he sees it as small beans compared to what it did, and not to mention, trying to balance the debt simply reminds him that he does have that debt.


Stepbrothers, or half brothers? I can't see Tarquin marrying a woman with prior baggage. But seeing that Tarquin seems to get around as much as either of his sons, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few dozen of his bastards running around.

This sparked a very vivid point when Brothers (siblings really) were mentioned. Perhaps the reason there was so many different wives of Tarquin is because they got pregnant, and knowing the net result of one evil child who attempted to betray him, decided it was best not to have any others.

[Xykeb Zraliv]

Personally, I find that reading each character's story individually helped. Every character has at least one panel (or a double-time-period one) in each time period, except Belkar/Roy and Mr. Scruffy/Blackwing, who take up the "other" panels in the strip, but it's easy enough to read those separately, so you can read semi-horizontally for each group of characters.

[JonestheSpy]

It took a little bit of work figuring out how to read it, but I thought that was part of the fun.

And I will bet ten internets that Durkon is researching that Mass Death Ward spell with Malack's help.

[The MunchKING]

Ball pits deep enough to squish a man.

THAT's some serious fun...

[factotum]

What order are we supposed to read it in? The Durkon panels appear to run top to bottom and left to right, but there's a panel with V zapping some guards at the top right with a (presumably) later panel of him creating some illusory guards while Haley unlocks the prisoners at the bottom left...my brain hurts! :smallwink:

[AxeD]

What were the spells V cast? One was some form of illusion, but I can't tell the other one. Was V casting some sort of enchantment spell on the watch tower guards, or another illusion to make it look like there are guards up there?

Edit: Also, how can Blackwing use a wand?

[Agi Hammerthief]

this will look brilliant in the book

how many strips since the last batch? this format is just askibg to be in the middle.


got to love the ball pit :smallbiggrin:

[Ron Miel]

What order are we supposed to read it in?


Read it in columns. See, at the top of each column there's the sun showing what time of day it is, and as you read down each column, the events happen more or less simultaneously.

[Kal Ironfresh]

Is it just me or is that a statue of Tarquin killing Roy?


DM[F]R

No, the boots are too small for the corpse to be Roy.

If Roy changes to small boots though.....:smalleek:

[Tundar]

Really great layout of this comic. Fits my 22" really nicely.

ANd skeletons in the ball pit - that's creepy!

[HandofShadows]

Great page! Poor Elan is going to have a really hard landing when it all hits the fan. Or does his father have a plan? He HAS to know that Elan will have to go againt him at some time. Is Tarquin getting in some quality time before the blow up? And is Tarquin actully planning on the blow up? :smallconfused:

[Caleniel]

Wow!

This is definitely one of the strips I am going to return to again and again once I get the book. It is absolutely gorgeous!

And talk about beautifully entwined plotlines!

I remember someone posting a link to an inane article by some commercial illustrator who claimed that stick figure comics were examples of a "lazy" illustration teqnique. I wish she could see this!

[ericgrau]

I think this is supposed to be a 2 page comic, so it is read left to right but you stop in the middle. It would be nice if they were split apart in the web format to end all the confusion.

And interesting clues about Tarquin and the cleric.

[Juggling Goth]

This is strangely sweet. Haley looks so happy doing her Chaotic Good thing, and I love Durkon and Malack's interaction.

Nice touch with every happy father-and-son moment having something dark and horrific that Elan's ignoring. (Took me a few moments to notice the shackles on the dinosaur.)


Read this comic horizontally and Mr. Scruffy becomes some magic-resistant superbeing, Haley and V rescue at least 3 rounds of slaves, and Malack is no help.

Oops, yeah, that's exactly what I got from it the first time around. Still, I think it's going to look awesome as a double-page spread in the next book.


Is it just me or is that a statue of Tarquin killing Roy?

I thought so too, initially, but the body's wrong - when Roy's wearing his armour, he's an unusually-big-top-half on legs (representing the big-shoulder-tiny-legs muscular fighter look, I guess), whereas this guy's got a normal body. It would've been extra-funny if it had been and Elan had even missed that, though.


Why isn't V smiling at freeing the slaves, still wondering how much good karma will be needed negate that familicide spell? Or wondering how some unsupplied humans are going to make it across the desert (even the fringes) to the next city?

Maybe ze's just unhappy that hir calculation was off. Or that, if hir calculation was right, they've done less than half of the work they've got to do. *shrug* It is a bit odd, but V's not generally as smiley as Haley is, and usually saves hir smiles for smiting enemies with magic.

[Thor Person Guy]

Couldn't the Giant just make it taller so I scroll down and the second half would be on the opposite page in the book?:smallconfused:

Because it's worked before. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0422.html)

[snikrept]

So what spell did Durkon just learn by researching from Malack's library, and then getting Malack to copy-edit his work? He's not a wizard, it normally doesn't work this way...


It took a little bit of work figuring out how to read it, but I thought that was part of the fun.

And I will bet ten internets that Durkon is researching that Mass Death Ward spell with Malack's help.
Ahhh, from the scene on the boat!


EDIT - also, V does not seem at all happy at having just done a good deed

[DougTheHead]

I hadn't thought about it before someone else here mentioned it, but I like the idea that both Elan and Tarquin know there's a good chance of their reunion ending in bloodshed due to genre convention, so they've both decided to make the most out of the time they have before their alignments inevitably conflict. It would add a certain amount of surprise to a story that everybody sees coming (and yes, I would be very surprised if The Giant actually ends up doing this) and it could be bittersweet... the Order could bring down the entire Empire of Blood, consultants and all, with Tarquin saying, "Well, my boy, now you've fully thwarted a protagonist-worthy villain. Good job!" as he bleeds out. Or Durkon having to kill Malack. There's potential for bittersweetness, is what I'm saying.

[Turcano]

I used to have nightmares of drowning in a ball pit...

Um, are the guards in the third-to-last panel supposed to be transparent?

[danielmayer]

A really nice XL-Strip.
I liked the ball-pit-trap. Most likely a CR20 trap for good-doers sentenced to death by the court. Elan just got a +10 insight bonus and perhaps +2 circumstance because of his naiveness resp. the bloons provided by daddy.
A really evil trap. I'll remember that for our next game...

[The Pink Ninja]

I used to have nightmares of drowning in a ball pit...

Um, are the guards in the third-to-last panel supposed to be transparent?

I assume they're a illusion of V.

[Ancalagon]

Pretty nice comic...

[667]

Love it, and great fun with the new format Giant. Using the sun to show what order to read it all in helped immensely (initially I thought Durkon ended the day frustrated).

This exactly. Going back and reading it properly, it's genious.


I assume they're a illusion of V.

I assume you're referring to the image in the bottom row (the third-last image doesn't even picture V if you read it coloumn-wise). I had the impression that they are illusions made by V, yes.

[silvadel]

It fit fine on my screen, and I liked the way the top was a graphic of the sun at various positions in the sky to signify what time of day it was.

And I liked how malack "fixed" the scroll that durkon had. Yes they are really hitting it off big time.

[Teddy]

Wow. That thing was huge. And it took me some time to understand how to read it too. But it was totally awesome! :smallbiggrin:

I wonder what was on Durkon's scroll, though...

And the Durkon panels quite reminded me of computer programming. You write a code, curse the gods when it doesn't work, and then you consult someone else who rapidly point out all the flaws you didn't notice so you can fix them. :smallwink:

[Calmar]

Yeah, ball pits are dangerous places (http://www.owensworld.com/funnyimages/files/1204_ballpit_big.jpg). :smallbiggrin:

[silvadel]

Anyone else think Malack would make an interesting addition to the order of the sick? He seems pretty uniquely qualiified for dealing with Xykon and crew.

[DragonOfUndeath]

Anyone else think Malack would make an interesting addition to the order of the sick? He seems pretty uniquely qualiified for dealing with Xykon and crew.

well he seems uniquely qualified :smalltongue:

[Raging Gene Ray]

Is that a Troll over there? (grin) Nah, I don't think so. I think the story (and Elan's behavior towards Pops) justifies what we are seeing. Intriguing point, but I'll put in my "no" vote. :smallsmile:

I never said it was out-of-character. I'm just saying that sometimes, my feelings towards Elan are more similar to "what a moron" than "awwww, how cute!"

[Souhiro]

New comic is up.

Cool! I was about to troll about "When could we see Belkar again?".
A Huge page, and a lot of work in it! Thanks, Giant!

These kind of "Breather" pages are just the calm before the storm -like "reforging the Greenhilt Sword" -

Alas, poor Tarquin, Lawful Evil NPCs can really good characters!

[dogmac]

Durkon looks pretty appalled at the end there. I wonder what he has just discovered.

More appalled than normal, that is.

[Cerlis]

Vaarsuvius usually seems to smile when he has trounced someone, helped or seen something romatic (usually having to do with haley), or seen something simply pleasant. To him freeing slaves is probably just another days work for a wizard. But who knows.

and yes i'd bet all my money on Durkon researching that spell, Malak is a cleric of a death god after all. He'd know what was possible. (and i love how his corrections are in red pen on Durkon's research paper :P)

[Juggling Goth]

Regarding Elan and Tarquin:


both Elan and Tarquin know there's a good chance of their reunion ending in bloodshed due to genre convention [...] and it could be bittersweet... the Order could bring down the entire Empire of Blood, consultants and all, with Tarquin saying, "Well, my boy, now you've fully thwarted a protagonist-worthy villain. Good job!" as he bleeds out. Or Durkon having to kill Malack. There's potential for bittersweetness, is what I'm saying.

I really like this idea. It seems to work for Tarquin, at least, because Elan might or might not be oblivious, but Tarquin's where the intelligence in the family comes from. And yeah, given Tarquin asks Elan if he's thwarted any villains, knowing full well that he himself is a villain, it works.

I was thinking about this given the last strip, and people wondering if Haley was about to land everyone in deep trouble. I think Tarquin knows full well she's Chaotic Good, and would be kind of disappointed if she didn't do something to oppose him. He wouldn't respect her as a future daughter-in-law if she didn't. He seems genre-savvy enough to shrug it off as perfectly predictable.

Edit: Oh, man, I just looked at this strip on my parents' widescreen monitor, and it's awesome.

[Raging Gene Ray]

Durkon looks pretty appalled at the end there. I wonder what he has just discovered.

More appalled than normal, that is.

This strip is ordered differently, organized into columns representing different goings on at different parts of the day.

Durkon looks appalled because he can't figure out how to get the scroll to work, goes to Malack for advice, and then is pleased when it works with the corrections.

[Burner28]

Nice!!!!
Though I am pretty worried about what is going to happen when or if Tarquin realises that someone freed his slaves... :smalleek:

Also, hurray for Haley and Vaarsuvius! :smallsmile:

[Sannom]

Great comic, although a bit confusing, sure! I really like the interaction between Durkon and Malack, and the ball pit is hilarious, in a morbid way. Where they accident, or did those poor people drown in the pit?


Also, I really like the friendship that is developing between Durkon and Malack. I'm certainly beginning to hope that Malack will not end up as an enemy of OotS.

Me too. Especially since, if it happens, it would be the exact opposite of what people are seeing coming for Elan and his father, since both Durkon and Malack seem to be 'genre blind'.

But I have hopes, kinda. Because there seem to be great differences between Malack and Tarquin in how they see their leadership of the Empire : where Tarquin seems to be in mainly 'for the evulz' and the great feeling power gives him, Malack seems to have a vision for the Empire, apparently in accordance with his faith. Perhaps that the absurd amount of lawfulness and red tape in the Empire is the only way for Malack to keep order in a continent where countries are known to not last more than a year before they are destroyed. The Empire has stood for two years, that's a record!

So I somehow hope that Durkon could come to understand and respect that, and gives Malack the benefit of the doubt before his next visit.


Anyone else think Malack would make an interesting addition to the order of the sick? He seems pretty uniquely qualiified for dealing with Xykon and crew.

He's qualified, yes, and he seems to get along great with Durkon, but he seems really driven into making the Empire of Blood a sustainable, stable nation, so I don't think he would give up on that to start adventuring again.

[Jaffo]

That's an interesting take on Elan's viewpoint. It's possible too.
My money though, Elan hasn't actually seen his father do something evil (Tarquin has just made references that Elan didn't quite get. Like his 8th wife dying of mysterious circumstances, and meeting his future 10th), so he believes that his father is Good and reducing the evil acts of the country, the same way that Roy is Good and reduces the evil acts of Belkar.

I want to give Elan a bit more credit here, although I may be giving him credit for emotional growth that hasn't actually happened yet.

I think Elan is fully aware of how evil his father is and is playing up the innocent act to try and convert him. He's too genre-savvy to be blind to this, but he's hoping for a heel-face turn instead of a tragic showdown.

Or maybe he knows the conflict is inevitable and is just enjoying the moments while he can.

This is good for defying our expectations but kind of bad for drama, since it would be more meaningful if this turned bad for Elan and forced him to grow up in front of us.

I'm just looking for some kind of "c'mon guys, I'm not that dumb" at the end of this.

[CalamaroJoe]

Hey, I think this layout was really great!
I mean, one comic in a while with a layout different than normal is just good. I don't think that is fair to complain if one must put a little more effort to understand it.
Moreover the Giant really helped us readers - the sun at the top of the page, the color of the sky... the fact itself that is a wider page must make one ask "wait, how am I supposed to look at this?".
IMHO also the mixing of the various characters' stories in different places throughout the page (and with different panel sizes) is really good.

Thanks, Giant! Great work!

[Susil]

Brilliant, brilliant comic. It packs a lot of storytelling in with next-to no dialogue at all.

Kudos to the Giant indeed.

[Draconi Redfir]

would this count as a splash page? either way it was totally worth the wait :smallbiggrin:

[Jaffo]

Regarding Elan and Tarquin:



I really like this idea. It seems to work for Tarquin, at least, because Elan might or might not be oblivious, but Tarquin's where the intelligence in the family comes from. And yeah, given Tarquin asks Elan if he's thwarted any villains, knowing full well that he himself is a villain, it works.

I was thinking about this given the last strip, and people wondering if Haley was about to land everyone in deep trouble. I think Tarquin knows full well she's Chaotic Good, and would be kind of disappointed if she didn't do something to oppose him. He wouldn't respect her as a future daughter-in-law if she didn't. He seems genre-savvy enough to shrug it off as perfectly predictable.



I've never tried to do the SPOILER thing before. Forgive me if I screw it up.


This would be a perfect mix of savvy and bittersweet. Tarquin offering himself up as a "worthy villain" for his son, both with full knowledge of what's happening. What a bizarre and heartbreaking kind of sacrifice. Pity the real Star Wars wasn't this deep.

[warmachine]

Haley and Vaarsuvius are creating more trouble for themselves. Although slaves tend to be private property, the city will be economically damaged by their shrinking numbers. The city rulers will attempt to stop these new liberators.

[Kobold-Bard]

That was great. Also useful ammunition against the "Words, Words, Words" critics.

[Arrowstorm122]

cute. is the name directed for how long we have waited for new comic? or is it because we skip a day so we dont need to wait TO long for Tarquin talking about what he knows about Girad? i guess number 2. anyway.
i get it bad when seeing how Elan and Tarquin haveing fun gets kind of destroyed by all the "TARQUIN IS A BAD GUY" stuff. :smallfrown:
nice to see that they freed the slaves without killing anyone :smallbiggrin:
i would i have like to see some more to Belkar and Roy, but i guess there isnt much to show right now :smalltongue:

[Arrowstorm122]

That was great. Also useful ammunition against the "Words, Words, Words" critics.

hey, words are nice, when comics only comes once a week, i like haveing much to read! :smalltongue:

[faustin]

Rules for future heroics libertators:

1) Make sure you disguise your identity SPECIALLY if you are a well known citizen, or worse, a palace guest. Example: El Zorro
2)After freeing the slaves, make sure they have everything they would need to continue their path, SPECIALLY if that path includes a dry hot desset whose only habitants are monsters and slave drivers.




I want to give Elan a bit more credit here, although I may be giving him credit for emotional growth that hasn't actually happened yet.

I think Elan is fully aware of how evil his father is and is playing up the innocent act to try and convert him. He's too genre-savvy to be blind to this, but he's hoping for a heel-face turn instead of a tragic showdown.

Or maybe he knows the conflict is inevitable and is just enjoying the moments while he can.

This is good for defying our expectations but kind of bad for drama, since it would be more meaningful if this turned bad for Elan and forced him to grow up in front of us.

I'm just looking for some kind of "c'mon guys, I'm not that dumb" at the end of this.

I think the true reason is more simply than that: "None so blind as those who will not want to see", a very common Spanish proverb. Elan actually KNOWS his father is evil (not even him is so fool not to see the evidences) but chooses simply ignore them because his need for parental afection. It´s not an emotional growing, but a childlish attitude (not to mention the globes, ice cream, dinosaur riding, etc...).

[Arrowstorm122]

Anyone else think Malack would make an interesting addition to the order of the stick? He seems pretty uniquely qualiified for dealing with Xykon and crew.

not really, he doesnt seem to fit in the team. is Lizardmen even a playable race? or rather, IS Malack a PC? he really more fits where he is, and really, we havent seen any of his dirty secrets yet. and i think he gots some :smallamused:

[Arrowstorm122]

I think the true reason is more simply than that: "None so blind as those who will not want to see", a very common Spanish proverb. Elan actually KNOWS his father is evil (not even him is so fool not to see the evidences) but chooses simply ignore them because his need for parental afection. It´s not an emotional growing, but a childlish attitude (not to mention the globes, ice cream, dinosaur riding, etc...).

yeah, i was thinking something like that too. but i dont explain his childlish attiude with that, Elan have nearly always been childlish. :smallsmile:

[lukelightning]

I would totally buy a large-sized poster of comic #750!

[TheBlackShadow]

Brilliant. Nice format, good title, cute seeing Elan hanging out with dad. Between them and Team Cleric, its strange (and somehow heartwarming) seeing Good and Evil working together so obliviously, and yet well. Mr. Scruffy and Blackwing are funny, Belkar's getting up to his old tricks, and might be about to get owned again. :smallbiggrin:

And, I will admit, I chuckled at the ball pit with the skeletons. Now THAT'S an interesting method of execution. :smallamused:

Nice one Giant.


EDIT

My Prediction: Either Tarquin will, after some important event concerning Elan and the Order (probably something to do with the upcoming arena fight), undergo a Heel Face Turn, or (more likely, in my opinion) will turn out to be not as Evil as he appears, as the limiting factor on the Empire of Blood preventing it from collapsing, and in possession of a plan to bring stability to the Western Continent. Tarquin, Elan & the Order kiss and make up (figuratively speaking). Then Nale turns up...

[Juggling Goth]

Regarding Tarquin and Elan, so far...

Actually, it's just occurred to me - Tarquin is a much better father than Eugene Greenhilt, despite the fact Roy and Eugene are both LG, whereas Tarquin's LE and Elan's CG. Eugene constantly needles Roy for not being like him, whereas Tarquin celebrates Elan's differences - "What are you, a protagonist? I'm so proud!" Wonder if it's set up as a deliberate contrast.

[MarkusWolfe]

Edit: Also, how can Blackwing use a wand?

Blackwing is a caster's familiar. He has as much capacity to use wands as V does.

[pendell]

I must be having an attack of the grumbly grumps. All I see is that once again the order is totally dysfunctional in Roy's absence, each one going off and doing it's own thing, often in mutually contradicting ways. V left Elan and Durkon once before .. now ze and Haley have left Elan and Durkon TOGETHER.

Yeah, yeah, Roy is the centerpiece of the OOTS and without him it all falls apart. I get it. We spent an entire book establishing that point already.

The fact that Elan can just IGNORE all the obvious clues like the statues and the skeletons in the balloon pit ... well, there's being really stupid, and there's being willfully blind. I can't decide whether I find his blindness more irritating than Durkon's, but I AM certain of one thing: I can't wait for this part of the story to speed to its conclusion.

I am, however , certain of something else also: Rich Burlew is the author of this comic, and he has -- every single time so far -- turned situations I found annoying to distraction into purely awesome storytelling. Case in point: V's attack on Xykon's fortress which was storytelling gold. This comic was and will be awesome. I await the awesomeness in eager anticipation.

Respectfully,

Brina P.

[2-HeadedGiraffe]

Someone has probably mentioned this before, but Taquin and Malak are interesting foils to Miko, in a way. Where she answered the question of whether a Lawful Good character could be an antagonist to a good party, they seem to be suggesting that evil characters can be (at least temporarily) allies to a good party. This is another suggestion that alignment does not necessarily predict how characters will interact.

[binyamin20]

Blackwing is a caster's familiar. He has as much capacity to use wands as V does.

Another question. were did V/Blackwing GET a wand?

[Castamir]

Great comic, terrible layout.

It would be so much better transposed x<->y.
Or in any other layout that preserves chronology when you read it in the natural order.

[Capt Spanner]

Edit: Also, how can Blackwing use a wand?

Possibly Rule of Funny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuleOfFunny), if the whole familiar thing doesn't work.


Another question were did V/Blackwing GET a wand?

See above.


Is it just me or is that a statue of Tarquin killing Roy?

Maybe it's the King of Nowhere (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0226.html).

[peejaybee]

Why isn't V smiling at freeing the slaves

'cuz they didn't free 23?

[Mordaenor]

Stepbrothers, or half brothers? I can't see Tarquin marrying a woman with prior baggage. But seeing that Tarquin seems to get around as much as either of his sons, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a few dozen of his bastards running around.

Actually, considering he's had 9 wives, I think we can safely say none of his children are bastards. On the other hand, after the trouble he had with Nale, maybe that's why none of his other wives survived. He kills them off once they're knocked up? Hmmm....

[RebelRogue]

Blackwing is a caster's familiar. He has as much capacity to use wands as V does.
Technically, he has the skill ranks V has, so if he has any ranks in Use Magic Device, Blackwing may use it. However, considering that it is cc and that familiars tend to have low Cha, it should be pretty hard for him to hit the DC 20. But yes: rule of funny is what is really at work here.

[Scarlet Knight]

I think the true reason is more simply than that: "None so blind as those who will not want to see", a very common Spanish proverb. Elan actually KNOWS his father is evil (not even him is so fool not to see the evidences) but chooses simply ignore them because his need for parental afection. It´s not an emotional growing, but a childlish attitude (not to mention the globes, ice cream, dinosaur riding, etc...).

I agree. Still how could Elan cope without turning a blind eye? His father is evil, his love is a thief who talks to voices in her head, he travels with a psychopath halfling & an elf who sold his soul, and his brother tried to murder him. Even for D&D that's alot!

I think he doesn't break his brain by thinking: " Look at that statue of my Dad destroying the previous tyrant. Reminds me of those statues of Perseus or Judith..."

[fibonacciseries]

What happened between V's casting the illusion of guards who were accompanying hir, Haley, and the slaves, and their having to run out of the castle with no illusory guards visible?
more to the point, did they get caught on the way out, and need to run for it, which may lead to trouble when Tarquin, Malack, etc. find out?

[Roland Itiative]

I love how Mr Scruffy and the raven familiar Blackwing somewhat mimic the behaviour of their Belkar and V... Also, I'd like to know how many slaves V and Haley managed to free... 10 gold says 23. Lastly, Malack spell-checking Durkon's scroll was hilarious :smallbiggrin:

[Bilbo27]

Love the "Spy vs Spy" antics with scruffy. they are even color coded to boot

[Killer Angel]

I'll agree with that one. Best part of the comic.

I liked more the statue, but it's personal tastes.


Haley, Haley, this is not Azure city.

Yes, I bet that this will shorten the happiness of the "holiday".

[Hydro]

Wonderful comic. I really like the montages; less talk, more action.

No problem with the layout here, and I'm wondering in what way others could possibly read it that wouldn't make chronological sense. It doesn't matter if you go top-to-bottom or left-to-right because only the first and last events are chronologically dependent.

[Purgatorius]

A nice detail is that the sky changes colour in all the panels, showing how time passes during the day.

[Zeofar]

I think this is supposed to be a 2 page comic, so it is read left to right but you stop in the middle. It would be nice if they were split apart in the web format to end all the confusion.


eh... No. The sun indicates that each column is separate.

I have to say, I didn't realize that you were supposed to read by columns until I came to this thread because I ignored the sun as some kind of border, but when I realized how this is actually set up... I enjoyed it very much. I don't get the whining about the set-up; when an artist creates a work that doesn't simply use normal conventions, I don't think "ugh this is hard to understand i don't like it," I enjoy that they were able to make me look at something differently and subvert my expectations (Assuming that the material isn't rubbish to begin with... which this isn't). Not much for experimental poetry/art/drama/literature, guys?

[Hydro]

Well now don't I feel silly. Yea, now that I see the suns at the top it makes a lot more sense (I had just assumed that Haley, I don't know, freed a bunch of slaves and then went back to save another batch).

[Heksefatter]

I loved it. Managed to say a bunch about what is going on. Also, I am loving Tarquin more and more.

[silvadel]

He's qualified, yes, and he seems to get along great with Durkon, but he seems really driven into making the Empire of Blood a sustainable, stable nation, so I don't think he would give up on that to start adventuring again.

The empire of blood can't be a stable nation if the world is destroyed. Plus I do not think a god of death would appreciate the snarl which doesnt so much kill as unmake.



Vaarsuvius usually seems to smile when he has trounced someone, helped or seen something romatic (usually having to do with haley), or seen something simply pleasant. To him freeing slaves is probably just another days work for a wizard. But who knows.

and yes i'd bet all my money on Durkon researching that spell, Malak is a cleric of a death god after all. He'd know what was possible. (and i love how his corrections are in red pen on Durkon's research paper :P)

Somehow I wouldnt trust that any "red ink" was ink in the empire of blood.

[binyamin20]

Hmmm. The statue is not isn't Roy, the boots don't match, and it isn't the king of nowhere, since the statue has no hair (his highness has a bit). I think it's last year conquerers.

[wzeller]

Everybody complaining about the layout really should go back and give it a good look. One of the things I love most about OoTS is how there's so much detail that you can never get everything in a single reading if you read it quickly, but that it keeps you so eager for the next episode that when it comes you can't possibly read it slowly enough the first time to get it all. So you have to read it at least twice before coming to the forums where others point out things that make you go back and read it a third or fourth time (or more). And every time you find something new you can appreciate the comic even more.

And this comic has that trait in spades!

And, unlike most comics, OoTS stands up to the use of the reader's brain. Indeed, if the reader is lazy and non-critical, much of the comic is lost. Usually in OoTS, this trait is mostly embodied in subtleties of plot. But this episode actually uses this trait in the layout itself.

In my first quick read through I completely missed the sun strip at the top - I think because the internet has hardwired my brain to filter out narrow horizontal things on a monitor because they are usually ads. I had a hard time figuring out how to read it, but actually enjoyed that because I've learned to trust Rich enough that I knew I was just missing something.

Once I noticed the sun, I realized what I was actually looking at - and it blew me away because for almost 40 years now I've been reading comics (in newspapers long before the internet) that always (well, almost always) have a standard flow. That flow is so traditional as to seem almost sacrosanct. To violate it, a comic artist must be quite confident in his audience's ability to comprehend his own layout and to understand the validity of his reasons for doing so. Rich has shown a great respect for his audience in electing to do it this way. (One of my first thoughts when I realized how it worked was that it would be cute to have an out-of-the-box Elan - or maybe a minor character not otherwise appearing today - hanging over the top left corner with a big smile saying "Here's a hint! The sun up here tells you the time down there!" But that would diminish the respect shown to the reader.)

I think it was absolutely brilliant.

As for the complaint of horizontal scrolling, since that is the flow if the comic overall, horizontal scrolling is fine. I agree that it's to be avoided in almost all cases on the internet - it can be a horrible problem on most sites. But for this particular comic it was fine. The one problem that I will acknowledge is that I think most monitors that don't fit the entire comic horizontally probably also don't fit it vertically. And that means both vertical and horizontal scrolling - and that combination can be death. If there was to be an improvement, it would probably be to shorten vertical dimension any time the horizontal one is to grow.

However, I'm also happy to say that this is one of only two OoTS comics that I can think of that actually seems tailored to my monitor size! My 17" widescreen loved it!!! No scrolling in either dimension, and it would even make a good wallpaper if I didn't need my desktop icons to be clear and obvious. The left navigation bar was completely visible along with the entire comic graphic.

For monitors that require both horizontal and vertical scrolling, maybe you should use your browsers zoom controls (ctrl-+ and ctrl--) to zoom out one level for easiest reading, and then zoom back in for catching the details.

Anyway, with so many people not getting the format and not wanting to spend the time and brain energy to really look at it before complaining, I thought I should take the time to give it a REALLY BIG THUMBS UP from those of us who appreciate originality and required brain activity.

[werik]

This comic made me smile.

[squidbreath]

IMO this isn't ominous at all. :smalltongue:

Of course the dinosaurs are chained down to prevent em from raining havoc.

The statue may have been of a legendary hero killing a nasty enemy. (depends on which side you're on though)

& What's wrong with skeletons in the ball pit? It'd make a great surprise at a horror theme park. Who's to say that they didn't simply die of "natural causes" and volunteer beforehand to be buried in a famous(?) theme park?

I've a few friends who wanna be buried at Disneyland! (they may or may not have been kidding.)

[grimbold]

i always suspected that about ball pits...
and widest Oots ever?

[thatwolfguy]

'cuz they didn't free 23?

for a minute there i thought that Rich had actually drawn 23 individual slaves (combining every panel with slaves in it) but turns out there's more like 25. that would have been fun though.

Hate to go off topic but i'm wondering - just a question about "spoilers" i didn't see anything in the FAQ about it, but does wild guessing, opinion and speculation count as spoilers? i think the only person who can actually post a real "spoiler" spoiler is Rich, right?

[vwnewt]

The format took a few viewings - knew sort of how it should look, but needed multiple shots to see the course of the sun overtop of the comic. My question is, how will this translate into the print version?:smalleek:

[Prospekt]

Woohoo! We got through another day! I was worried The Giant was going to make us sit through several weeks on this plot. :smalltongue:


not really, he doesnt seem to fit in the team. is Lizardmen even a playable race? or rather, IS Malack a PC? he really more fits where he is, and really, we havent seen any of his dirty secrets yet. and i think he gots some :smallamused:

Well, Lizardfolk (the feminists would be so proud of me) are a playable race, if you check the monster manual. Not sure if Malack is a PC, though. He seems to have traveled with a group of tomb raiders or something like that, so he could be.

I'm not too sure what to think of Tarquin at this point anymore, but right now, I actually like him and Malack a lot. Tarquin seems generally happy to spend some time with his son, and there's not much reason to hate Malack, especially after what Nale did.

[Toper]

This was very good! The ball pit was my favorite, though Belkar playing the Charles Atlas beach bully was also a nice touch, and everybody else's plots were well-sketched and entertaining.

It did take me a while to figure out the ordering -- I missed the sun thing -- but I can't say I object to it.

[Nekomata]

I have to confess that I found this comic a little awkward to read. Time is flowing from left to right, which is evident if not immediately obvious. But the lack of consistency in top-to-bottom ordering made it all seem a little more jumbled than need be.

The Giant normally hits it out of the park when he modifies the format, so I just found it noteworthy when this one felt a little off. Still a good comic though. 8.5/10.

Me too. At first I read it left-right, top-bottom. You know, like words. And it seemed Haley and V raided the prison twice and the punchline was everybody succeeding except for Durkon's whose spell failed, despite Malack's help... or was it actual honest help? or subtle sabotage... and then I was like "Heeeey! Wait a minute!"

[brionl]

Somehow I wouldnt trust that any "red ink" was ink in the empire of blood.

Blood turns brown very quickly as it dries out. Haven't you ever worn a band-aid?

[Xykeb Zraliv]

While yes, it does bother me somewhat, it's all just the particular situation here. Elan has always been oblivious to others' true natures when he wants to be. The fact that Tarquin is so obviously evil to us is the only thing that we find annoying, but the truth is, Elan never lets the facts get in the way of what he's feeling until it's too late. He didn't realize Nale was evil until he got stabbed, he didn't realize Haley's love until she screamed it out in front of him, he didn't realize Therkla was really sent to kill him until she admitted it and subsequently prompted a relatively large-scale fight, and heck, he still can't accept that Roy just doesn't really like him very much. Elan needs big displays to realize the truth most of the time.

Maybe he's being genre-savvy and wants to spend as much time as he can while it lasts. That's plausible. But I personally think that it's just Elan, wanting to believe what he wants to believe. The fact that Tarquin is so blatantly evil is what's bothering people, but Elan does the same thing with several other characters.

[R.O.A.]

I'm not sure I understand the fuss a lot of you are making about Elan 'ignoring' his father's evilness on this strip. Dinosaurs are safest to humans when chained, that's sensible, not evil. Second is the statue of Tarquin killing some bloke. Elan had seen Roy and the rest of the oots kill loads of people, and has killed some himself (I think!). That leaves only the skeletons...but Elan doesn't see them, because they are hidden deeply.
I'm not saying Tarquin isn't evil. I'm saying Elan's naevity is still justified.

Also, what's up with the two of you questioning the strip's title? It's nothing to do with the wait between strips - Elan and his Father have been seperated for years, so are making up for the time lost during Elan's childhood.

I sound well moody in writing. I'm not angry, honest :smallsmile:

I love that Haley now has a bee in her bonnet about slavery. It makes a really nice change in the charcterisation, moving from 'greedy thief' to 'zealuos liberator'.

[Mordaenor]

I love that Haley now has a bee in her bonnet about slavery. It makes a really nice change in the charcterisation, moving from 'greedy thief' to 'zealuos liberator'.

Zealous Liberator... sounds like a good name for a Prestige Class. :)

[Crisis21]

I love this comic. It's a great way to showcase what everyone is doing without dragging the story while following each individual.

Also, I love the various ways that Elan is shown missing the signs of Evil relating to his father.

Dinosaur Park, with the dinosaurs in chains. A statue of his dad, beheading a fighter that looks a bit like Roy. Elan playing in a ball pit, that has dead bodies buried in it.

I also love the Mr. Scruffy and Blackwing chase. Classic!

[Petrocorus]

Also, what's up with the two of you questioning the strip's title? It's nothing to do with the wait between strips - Elan and his Father have been seperated for years, so are making up for the time lost during Elan's childhood.



This thought exactly the same.

[angroy]

Personly, I liked the layout so much, this comic is my computers wallpaper. It works so well for that, with the size and mainly being pictures.
Also, one of the skeletons is missing a foot!

I think next comic will be something to do with the bearded man and Roy, as it looks like its leading up to something.
This comic was well worth the wait, being so big and complicated!

[Chuckles101]

I don't know if this was covered earlier, but at the bottom left of the comic, when V and Haley are beginning to let the slaves loose, all the slaves are smiling / shedding a tear / being happy, except for one in the corner who's looking the other way. He seems distraught. Any ideas?

[Marnath]

I don't know if this was covered earlier, but at the bottom left of the comic, when V and Haley are beginning to let the slaves loose, all the slaves are smiling / shedding a tear / being happy, except for one in the corner who's looking the other way. He seems distraught. Any ideas?

Maybe a real guard is coming over to them from that side? Looks to me like a "Hey, guys over there!" type look.

[Calmness]

Maybe a real guard is coming over to them from that side? Looks to me like a "Hey, guys over there!" type look.
Yeah, maybe Haley had to shoot somebody. Or maybe the slave is just worried their escape will go wrong and he'll get caught/killed by guards.

[SporeGames]

Is it just me, or was I the only one humming the peanuts theme while reading this? :smallsmile:

[derfenrirwolv]

Well, so much for the malak as a vampire theories, unless he has a LOT of sunscreen, or sparkles.

[faustin]

A little out-question: "zealuos liberator" fits entirely with a Chaotic Good character like Haley. But a more hard character "dark enforcement" like the Punisher (punish the wicked without mercy or restrains, spare the innocents) would fits into Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral?

[Asthix]

Interesting message you did.

Uhh... you mean the title?

Regarding Tarquin and Elan, so far...

Actually, it's just occurred to me - Tarquin is a much better father than Eugene Greenhilt, despite the fact Roy and Eugene are both LG, whereas Tarquin's LE and Elan's CG. Eugene constantly needles Roy for not being like him, whereas Tarquin celebrates Elan's differences - "What are you, a protagonist? I'm so proud!" Wonder if it's set up as a deliberate contrast.
This is a great point.


Hate to go off topic but i'm wondering - just a question about "spoilers" i didn't see anything in the FAQ about it, but does wild guessing, opinion and speculation count as spoilers? i think the only person who can actually post a real "spoiler" spoiler is Rich, right?
See This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9535659&postcount=4) post.

THANK YOU really big to The Giant, Mr. Burlew for making this comic. I've always liked comics and one day I noticed that the reason I liked Garfield so much was the large number of panels with no words, yet a strong visual narration of what was happening.

I couldn't stop noticing wordless panels in other comics after that and eventually I started cutting them out of the newspaper and made a personal art exhibit with them on the door to my bedroom. It was very profound, IMO, with people displaying strong emotion from happiness to violence, contemplative to anguished. Yet there were no words at all in this vast expanse of comics, a medium which is almost totally intertwined with the speech bubble.

Interesting note: there are more wordless panels in the Sunday color funnies than any other day of the week.

I can appreciate The Giant's use of no words on a technical level to better guide the reader to reading it down, not across. A lot of the people in this thread have admitted that they had trouble understanding it because they saw the phases of the sun in the top row, filtered that out completely, then went on to the panels with the characters in them.

But the whole comic has no words, except for the last panel. So when nearly everyone gets done reading it horizontally the first time, they are naturally confused go back to the top... and hopefully see / process the phases of the sun this time and go from there. (The Giant gets sneaky points for making them 1/3 size panels though)

[Marnath]

Well, so much for the malak as a vampire theories, unless he has a LOT of sunscreen, or sparkles.

He'd actually already been shown in direct sunlight before that theory got started, IIRC.

[ThreadKiller]

Wow, awesome spread! Thanks for the comic, Giant! :smallcool:

[Dr.Epic]

I really didn't have much issue with the comic as a whole. But I have a nice widescreen monitor, and when I looked at the first panels right to left, I noted the movement of the Sun, and it clicked that the comic beneath was plotted accordingly. But I always like to think my head is wired differently.

Still, reading it as it was was a problem. How are you supposed to read it? Left to right, up to down. It's just confusing.

[Marnath]

Still, reading it as it was was a problem. How are you supposed to read it? Left to right, up to down. It's just confusing.

We get it, you didn't like the layout. I personally was confused the first time since I read it horizontally, but then I came on here and read the explanations from the other posters and then it made perfect sense to me.

[Nilan8888]

Wow.

Those centre two panels are almost iconic.

[Lateral]

...
DAMN, that's a big comic.

[Wierdkid20]

And soon it will all come crashing down.
Yeah those two slaves (The old guy and the guy with the greenish brown hair) seem to be getting a mysteriously large amount of comic time. Tho then again the Greenish brown guy might just be an awesome hat later on for Belkar.

[Asthix]

The 'greenish-brown hair guy' is the warlock from the tavern they got arrested in. See This (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0730.html) comic. Belkar's demise, anyone?

Also, for more wordless comics this artist will blow you away (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165926) with complex storylines whose only text is emoticons! You rock, Akrim.elf!

[PsychoticPanda]

I love the dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!!

And the sculpture of Tarquin!

But the skeleton at the bottom of the ball pit is HILARIOUS

P.S. Mr scruffy is Back YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gd8908]

Okay comic. Reminds me of that one from the war in Azure City. Skeletons in the ballpit... don't know why I like it, maybe I just have a sick sense of humor sometimes. :smallamused:

[Prospekt]

Well, so much for the malak as a vampire theories, unless he has a LOT of sunscreen, or sparkles.

I was going to question the idea of him being a vampire in the desert, then I remembered Belkar once fought dire camels in a swamp. :smalltongue:

[Detrinex]

Hopefully Tarquin doesn't find out.

[Psyren]

Long-time lurker, etc. Beautiful strip! It reminds me of the XKCD Online Communities (http://xkcd.com/802/) poster.

Does anyone else think that big statue that got beheaded looks a lot like Roy?? :smalleek:

[derfenrirwolv]

He'd actually already been shown in direct sunlight before that theory got started, IIRC.

I'm pretty sure all he was seen under was the throne room, and one of the entrances to the throne room was kinda lit.

[Warren Dew]

IMO this isn't ominous at all. :smalltongue:

Of course the dinosaurs are chained down to prevent em from raining havoc.

The statue may have been of a legendary hero killing a nasty enemy. (depends on which side you're on though)

& What's wrong with skeletons in the ball pit? It'd make a great surprise at a horror theme park. Who's to say that they didn't simply die of "natural causes" and volunteer beforehand to be buried in a famous(?) theme park?

And for a moment there, I thought the "Elan's dad isn't really evil" folks would be out of arguments. Now they can ignore your tonguie ad use yours!

Although ... is Malack evil? He avoided the banquet.

[John Cribati]

Great comic, terrible layout.

It would be so much better transposed x<->y.
Or in any other layout that preserves chronology when you read it in the natural order.

But then we wouldn't be able to tell that Elan was sliding down a dino tail, and the Ball pit would't look so deep. Not to mention Haley and V in the hallways freeing the slaves would look hella awkward.

[Badgercloak]

Great comic Giant, Hooah!

[Acero]

Well worth the wait. Took me a few read-throughs to understand the format. THen I saw those sunds at the top and followed it w/ a facepalm. Love the detail in lighting he added.

[Tom Lehmann]

A wonderful homage to the later Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strips, both in layout (they often used no words except for the final panel) and expressed sentiment at the end. Very nicely done!

[Belsirk]

Finally, i know what is more dangerou: Magical beast or frend animal.. the answer: The one with the magic wand :smallcool:

[Ron Miel]

The 'greenish-brown hair guy' is the warlock from the tavern they got arrested in. See This (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0730.html) comic. Belkar's demise, anyone?


Interesting theory. I never spotted the resemblance before. You might be right, except
- he wasn't arrested (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0731.html)
- we haven't seen him use his warlock powers in jail.

The Giant said once something like (paraphrase) "how many hairstyles can you give a stick figure anyway" meaning that because two random stick figures seem similar, it doesn't mean they are the same person, or related.

[silvadel]

I will say though that I did love both the format and the lack of text in this comic. It was one of the best ones.

[Yendor]

Although ... is Malack evil? He avoided the banquet.
He says it's because he needs a special diet. All that stuff they're eating can't be good for the digestion, whatever your alignment. If he had moral objections to the food, wouldn't he have made that clearer to Durkon?


Interesting theory. I never spotted the resemblance before. You might be right, except
- he wasn't arrested (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0731.html)
- we haven't seen him use his warlock powers in jail.

The Giant said once something like (paraphrase) "how many hairstyles can you give a stick figure anyway" meaning that because two random stick figures seem similar, it doesn't mean they are the same person, or related.

They also have a different skin colour.

[jere7my]

Nicely done, Mr. Burlew.

[Asthix]

Interesting theory. I never spotted the resemblance before. You might be right, except
- he wasn't arrested (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0731.html)
- we haven't seen him use his warlock powers in jail.


They also have a different skin colour.

Aww, I thought I was onto something cool...

Officially stating my vote for how much #750 rocks. Congrats!

[hobbitkniver]

Awww, good for Elan. This would probably look incredibly wierd with real people.

[One Step Two]

Still, reading it as it was was a problem. How are you supposed to read it? Left to right, up to down. It's just confusing.

It's more diversive than just reading right-to-left or up and down, but closer to being a combination of both.

The path of the sun gives us a passing of time, each panel beneath that part of the sun corresponds to the time of day. The panels which extend across multiple phases of the sun indicates that the activity depicted has taken more time. Elan has had a long-standing love of dinosaurs, so he spent quite a bit of time admiring and playing with them. Similarly, V and Hayley unchaining the slaves took a while too.
As for the break-up of their order going down the page? Couldn't tell you.

This has been One Step Twos', Step by step guide on how to read comic 750. :smallwink:

[correnos]

Is it just me or is that a statue of Tarquin killing Roy?

Is it just me or does that statue look more like it's made out of chocolate than bronze? Let it not be said that Tarquin won't go to any lengths to keep Elan entertained.

[GreenMuffin]

Great comic, terrible layout.

It would be so much better transposed x<->y.
Or in any other layout that preserves chronology when you read it in the natural order.

Maybe if it was written so that each scene would have a different row, and then the fillers fill in the empty spots from the big scenes.

of course, I think it would look a lot less interesting if that had happened.

[Ted The Bug]

Like the title, love the format. Altho when people mention the 'new format', I hope they realize that this is almost certainly a one-off strip and not some actual new thing.
Yeah, it threw me off at first, but after thinking it though, I got waay more out of it than just one more comic. I can't really explain why, but this one just worked for me. I was wondering if Rich had something cool up his sleeve for 750.

[Elusieum]

Hi! I just registered an account to say how much I loved the layout of this particular comic.

Long time reader, long time lurker! :mitd:

[the_tick_rules]

Welcome to the other side.

[glowface]

A little help (http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/9785/oots750b.gif)for those having a problem with following up the layout.

Although personally I like the original much more. It's more fun. :smallsmile:

[Kareasint]

V is progressing in his use of support spells instead of blasting at every problem. As long as Haley and V are back in their rooms before anyone notices the slaves missing, they will likely get away with it.

Durkon is likely researching that spell that he discussed with Roy back in strip 672. He had access to a library and a researcher to assist him.

[Sannom]

A little out-question: "zealuos liberator" fits entirely with a Chaotic Good character like Haley. But a more hard character "dark enforcement" like the Punisher (punish the wicked without mercy or restrains, spare the innocents) would fits into Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral?

Dunno, but basing myself on the Ammon Jerro example, I think you could put him in the Neutral Evil alignment.

I have a question : Malack is the priest of a God of Death, aren't those cults generally against liches and those sort of creatures, regardless of alignment? Maybe Malack could lend a hand if he learns the main antagonist is a guy who made everything possible to "avoid the great fire below"?

[MarkusWolfe]

A little out-question: "zealuos liberator" fits entirely with a Chaotic Good character like Haley. But a more hard character "dark enforcement" like the Punisher (punish the wicked without mercy or restrains, spare the innocents) would fits into Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral?

Might be chaotic good, in a GRIMDARK sort of way.

[theMycon]

Notice that the dinosaurs are chained down? :smallfrown:
Look in the background- that dinosaur they're playing with is chained. It shows the same section of dino in the background, not chained.

All we can say for sure is "the one dinosaur the general's son is currently playing on is chained to a post. Another dinosaur a long, long way off is not similarly restrained."

[Omergideon]

Wow. Just wow. I've been exceedingly busy with my new course so haven't commented in a while, but had to for this comic. I think it may well be the best single strip of the new story arc and a strong contender for my top 5 list. Yes it was that good. A perfect character study, action packed adventure and example of the use of comic format to tell a story. But to break down more precisely here we go.

The Good: (this may take a while)
1) To begin with I need to make a comment about the artwork. Not the format, but just the artwork. It is stupendous. The details are all fantastically done from the sand in the Belkar panel to the mountains in the background. There are a thousand small details, but nothing ever becomes overwhelming. Especially good is the use of tiny ackground images to tell the larger story. It's very subtle but beautifully done. Hardly a wasted moment.
2) Now for the layout and storytelling of the comic. Firstly the increased size of the strip allowed the story to be told in fullness. A normal strip would have been too short.
Secondly I must say that the montage nature of the strip, emphasised by the lack of dialogue, perfectly fits the tone of the story here. And in this sense the layout helps a lot. Once you realise that time is passing left to right, and coloumns tell of near simultaneous events, it is easy to follow. I think the mix and match nature of the strip (with events not being placed next to each other) also helps with the feel of a montage.
I am reminded of a sunday strip from Calvin and Hobbes where he depicted a summers day using no dialogue and lots of small panels. The author often said he loved the sunday strips as he had the freedom to express himself as he wished (no panel restrictions for instance). It showed how well he used the medium to tell a story that they were often exciting and inventive. The Giant has once again shown his mastery of the webcomic format here.
3) The characters. I will make a brief comment on most, the a long one on Elan here but each member of the order gets a spotlight, or a cameo at least, and is played pitch perfect. For Haley and V we see their skill, determination and active need to do good. Haley clearly enjoyed her chance here, and V acting in a support role continues his character growth. Durkon (who gets 6 panels to his story) shows his friendship with Malak, and his steadfast nature by working through the whole day. He gets little screentime usually but his character (and the layers to his loyalty and dependability) are highlighted well. He is solid and works in the background well, pure Durkon. And Whilst Belkar, Roy, Scruffy and Blackwing get little screentime as well they get either amusing cameos or in character moments that carry on continuing plots.
Then we Have Elan. I found his day and story here to be heartwarming, tragic and moving in equal measure. The obvious joy he has at spending a day with his dad (and the clear fact that his dad enjoyed the day as well) is constantly undercut by the horrific background images we see, but Elan does not. One could argue it's unlikely that Elan would ignore them. In fact you could say that with his development since meeting Nale he should have. I disagree for one reason. Elan can't let himself see those things or else he will need to admit his dad is an awful man and ruin the newfound family. Having lost Nale in such a way I can see how he would almost wilfully blind himself to the horrors of the country just to preserve the fantasy a little longer. It is realistic (I can vouch for that) and totally tragic. Probably one of the most purely emotional scenes since V abandoned his family. Yet still funny in it's own way.
4) Finally just to comment on the jokes and the final panel. They were few, and not laugh out loud funny, but they were there. This was not a gag strip, it was a story strip and done just right. The final panel is in my mind as well the best summation of the strip. Everyone thinks it was the best day they could have possibly had. Durkon achieved his duty, Haley and V freed some slaves, Elan got to know his dad and Roy et al did what they wanted to as well. For many of these people it was a perfect day.

The Bad:
...
...
...
...yeah. nothing much to say here.

So for such a magnificent character study, action filled, emotionally charged and well constructed comic only a perfect score or 5 stars will do. In my opinion one of the best strips ever done and the best since V punked ouy Xykon. Tragedy is surely looming soon and I can't wait to get there.

[2-HeadedGiraffe]

Look in the background- that dinosaur they're playing with is chained. It shows the same section of dino in the background, not chained.

All we can say for sure is "the one dinosaur the general's son is currently playing on is chained to a post. Another dinosaur a long, long way off is not similarly restrained."

Excellent point. Elan presumably has no dinosaur experience, so keeping the one he's playing with chained up is a valid precaution. Also, the guy in the statue (who does sort of resemble - but is clearly not - Roy) had it coming and the skeletons in the ball pit died of natural causes. Okay, now I'm stretching it, but I stand by the point about chaining the sauropod.

[Santiago]

Great comic Giant, made my day!

[Tira-chan]

Just commenting to add that this comic makes a FANTASTIC background for your computer. I'm using it for one of my school accounts, and it fits perfectly, and looks really shiny.

[Bubbles]

Peoples seem to be faulting Elan for ignoring the skeletons in the the ball pit. i remember those ball pits and once things are lost in them, you don't know they're in there, like shoes, unless you're the one who lost the shoe.

The only way Elan could have seen those is if he dove down far enough to get stuck himself or if he exercised that fourth-wall breaking ability to see the whole panel. Otherwise is his only other clue would be the smell, if there still was one or it wasn't masked.

[angroy]

One thing I like is about the empire of blood is the dinosaurs. It somehow works!
I also like the way the villains (Tarquin and Malack) seem to be evil in alighnment only- what have they done thats evil?

And I'm the only one who noticed the missing foot! (I think)

[Gray Mage]

One thing I like is about the empire of blood is the dinosaurs. It somehow works!
I also like the way the villains (Tarquin and Malack) seem to be evil in alighnment only- what have they done thats evil?

And I'm the only one who noticed the missing foot! (I think)

What missing foot? :smallconfused:

[Xykeb Zraliv]

What missing foot? :smallconfused:

Apparently one of the skeletons in the ball pit is missing a foot.

[Marnath]

Apparently one of the skeletons in the ball pit is missing a foot.

It's not missing, the heel is just behind a ball so it looks like it's part of the leg still.

[fibonacciseries]

Apparently one of the skeletons in the ball pit is missing a foot.

No it isn't, the ankle is simply covered up by a ball. That's far too long to be a footless leg.

EDIT: Ninja'd

[Xykeb Zraliv]

No it isn't, the ankle is simply covered up by a ball. That's far too long to be a footless leg.

I did say "apparently". I have yet to actually bother checking it myself. I'm simply saying that that's what angroy was talking about.

EDIT: Upon checking, you are correct.

[MonkeyBusiness]

You know, I love these "cliffs notes" episodes that bring together all the threads of the plot and orient the reader. This one in particular reminds me of the old silent films (was that Mr Lloyd I saw hanging from the hour hand of the clock in the background? :smallwink:). A great deal was accomplished here with facial expression, mime, color ... lots of fun!

Since my computer screen is not large enough to show the whole comic at once, I had to view this comic about three times before I was sure I was reading it correctly (vertically, to correspond with the sun's position in the sky and the shade of the sky itself - nice touch, by the way!). The comic "ends" very differently if the second-to-last Durkon image is read as the last image!

And Elan is right ... it was a good day, wasn't it? :smallsmile:

Monkey

[Kareasint]

I have a question : Malack is the priest of a God of Death, aren't those cults generally against liches and those sort of creatures, regardless of alignment? Maybe Malack could lend a hand if he learns the main antagonist is a guy who made everything possible to "avoid the great fire below"?

Typically, deities that have rule over death and afterlife tend to be very anti-undead. Their followers are often tasked with seeking out undead that still retain a soul (vampire, lich) and destroying them to release the soul to be judged.

[Tova]

Great comic today, and I loved the format.

The sun panels up the top are a great idea - made it clear roughly how to read it. The precise order of panels wasn't important, which I enjoyed as well.

And the contrast between the different characters' days, which were good for entirely different reasons!

One of my favourite strips.

[theMycon]

Excellent point. Elan presumably has no dinosaur experience, so keeping the one he's playing with chained up is a valid precaution. Also, the guy in the statue (who does sort of resemble - but is clearly not - Roy) had it coming and the skeletons in the ball pit died of natural causes. Okay, now I'm stretching it, but I stand by the point about chaining the sauropod.

Yeah, counting any of them as evidence of good is stretching it. But counting any of them as evidence of evil is also stretching it. He's cannon-declared as Lawful Evil, but he hasn't been shown or even mentioned doing anything an average adventuring party wouldn't do.

Since he essentially seems like a 1-up'd version of my dad (General vs. Rear Admiral, Meeting #10 weeks after mysterious death of #9 Vs. currently engaged to #8 before divorce to #7 is legally valid, in a castle in his own dictatorship Vs vacationing in a castle in vietnam, Silver-hair Vs. Graying Gracefully), I think of him about the same way- not "consciously evil", but "Doesn't see people outside his monkeysphere as people." Hence, I suspect Elan is perfectly safe, and whoever's "his territory", such as Haley, are still relatively in-the-clear.

[JonestheSpy]

He's cannon-declared as Lawful Evil, but he hasn't been shown or even mentioned doing anything an average adventuring party wouldn't do.



In my experience average adventurers don't eat intelligent creatures, let alone good aligned ones, let alone torture said creatures to get an especially tasty bit.

But hey, that's my crowd. Maybe your friends are different.

[Marnath]

Typically, deities that have rule over death and afterlife tend to be very anti-undead. Their followers are often tasked with seeking out undead that still retain a soul (vampire, lich) and destroying them to release the soul to be judged.

Nerull and Myrkul would like a word, sir. :smallwink:

[AceOfFools]

Tarquin hides the corpses of his unpersons in a pit of playpen ball.

He is officially my new favorite villain.

[theMycon]

In my experience average adventurers don't eat intelligent creatures, let alone good aligned ones, let alone torture said creatures to get an especially tasty bit.

Seriously? You've had a game without the "would you taste your best friends arm if two you were in the wood juggling chainsaws" conversation? I have never heard of a game that tracks encumberance getting past the first dungeon crawl, woodlands, or in-enemy-territory session without at least one discussion of partial cannibalism.

[brionl]

Seriously? You've had a game without the "would you taste your best friends arm if two you were in the wood juggling chainsaws" conversation? I have never heard of a game that tracks encumberance getting past the first dungeon crawl, woodlands, or in-enemy-territory session without at least one discussion of partial cannibalism.

According to Corporal "Three-Parts" Shallot, "It's not cannibalism if you don't eat the whole person. We used to call it the leg rota when we were under siege."

[factotum]

or in-enemy-territory session without at least one discussion of partial cannibalism.

Discussion of partial cannibalism != actual eating of an intelligent being, much less torturing said being first to get the tastiest bit.

[Tvtyrant]

In my experience average adventurers don't eat intelligent creatures, let alone good aligned ones, let alone torture said creatures to get an especially tasty bit.

But hey, that's my crowd. Maybe your friends are different.

:D Oh the creatures you will eat! BTW, did you know that displacer beast tentacles taste like Kalimari? Its true!

[Mr. Snuggles]

Count me among the people who didn't see the suns on the top. I "saw" it as artistic panels, didn't realize they contained information.

What's with the ball pit?

Execution method?
Storage for dead members of previous regime?
Deadly trap?
Or just a joke about stuff being in the bottom of ball pits?


Uhh...hitting someone in the head with a sap only works when they're NOT WEARING A HELMET. They did the same thing to the nazi director in "The Producers" and it's just a wall-banger.

Is the prisoner with the gray-green hair the warlock from the bar? It sure looks like him. What's he doing in jail, he had his papers and hence wasn't arrested?

The statue is obviously Tarquin killing the ruler of whatever came before the Empire of Blood. Anyone with no hair is going to "look like" Roy in a stick figure. The helmet and mismatched boots are standard fighter equipment. Remember Yor?

Well, it seems that the cat and crow are going to have a Tom & Jerry relationship as things go further. Look for hilarity to ensue frequently now that two cute animal characters are around.

Just like I said before - freed slaves being abandoned to cross a desert with no water, no food, no map, nothing but loincloths. At least they have shoes.

What is the purpose of the illusory guards?

[DaveMcW]

The statue is obviously Tarquin killing the ruler of whatever came before the Empire of Blood. Anyone with no hair is going to "look like" Roy in a stick figure. The helmet and mismatched boots are standard fighter equipment. Remember Yor?
The last ruler (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0725.html) was not a fighter.


Just like I said before - freed slaves being abandoned to cross a desert with no water, no food, no map, nothing but loincloths. At least they have shoes.
Tarquin survived similar circumstances, see above comic.

[Surfing HalfOrc]

What is the "Art Style" used in this strip? It looks familiar, something I vaguely remember from my one and only Art class in college...

I saw "Calvin and Hobbes" earlier on the thread, and while Bill Waterson was definatly an artist, that's not what I mean. Something like Mondrain, but not the grid and primary colors theme. Or did Piet Mondrain do stuff in other colors? I Wikied it, but mostly saw the Red/Blue/Yellow designs he pioneered...

[Kareasint]

Nerull and Myrkul would like a word, sir. :smallwink:

I am sure that some would which is why I said "typically." Don't forget that Vecna is out there somewhere. Orcus is trying to work in that direction also.

Malack strikes me as one of those in the "destroy undead" camp.

[factotum]

The last ruler (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0725.html) was not a fighter.


I don't see the previous ruler of the Empire of Blood anywhere in that strip. If you're talking about the guy Tarquin is killing in panel #4, it's clear that's from long before the Empire of Blood was formed--for a start it's talking about when he first came to the Western Continent, and the panel immediately afterward shows him escaping barely with his life from the wreck of that kingdom!

[Kish]

Uhh...hitting someone in the head with a sap only works when they're NOT WEARING A HELMET. They did the same thing to the nazi director in "The Producers" and it's just a wall-banger.
It's probably a joke about D&D not having rules for helmets affecting the Sap attack.

[Marnath]

It's probably a joke about D&D not having rules for helmets affecting the Sap attack.

Or maybe Rich just doesn't know/care that a helmet stops a sap?

[Petrocorus]

Uhh...hitting someone in the head with a sap only works when they're NOT WEARING A HELMET. They did the same thing to the nazi director in "The Producers" and it's just a wall-banger.


But doesn't it work in DnD rules?

[the_tick_rules]

Not if they have a helmet I do have to say so as well.

[oddtail]

I really want the Albino Lizard Guy turn out to be Neutral, helpful to a Good cause if necessary, and just keeping his job in the Empire of Blood because he's friends with Elan's dad. He's just so awesome, even in a strip where he doesn't say a word (that we can read, at any rate).

EDIT: had to read this thread to notice the "spell-check" pun, I am ashamed of myself. Also, I agree that Elan's not being charming. I personally like him when he shows his newly acquired badassery as a Dashing Swordsman, or when he's being naive and silly. I am less pleased with Elan acting like a total moron, it reminds me of him in older strips for some reason.

Also, love the layout of the comic. Took me a while to figure out that the top row represents which time of the day the particular events happen at, but once that becomes clear, I think this representation is good at conveying the "everything is happening at once" vibe.

[Zeekar]

What was this strip's title? And where can we see the titles of past strips in general?

[Shale]

Click on the scroll at the top of the comic page.

[Gray Mage]

What was this strip's title? And where can we see the titles of past strips in general?

Click in the archive.