May 19th, 2009
Page 274
Comics for May 19, 2009 - Page 274
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May 19th, 2009 at 5:03 am
FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!
WOOOOOOOOOOO!
Mentl! Blow something up! Ironman! Play IRONMAN!
May 19th, 2009 at 6:00 am
No, cite Dragon Slave spell instead!
May 19th, 2009 at 6:22 am
Doesn’t matter what! Just kill it all!
I like your effects used on this J.! You are doing an awesome job on the lighting, something i find rather hard to do!
Time for Mentl to bulk up!
May 19th, 2009 at 6:27 am
From where the fuck did those throwing knifes ..?
NWM, at least one of those annoying bowmen is gone. Finally the damned talking is over.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Oooh! Remember in the town when Zona got dressed up - the ladies in waiting wanted her to take off her bracers - she said among other things they were a good place to hide her knives!
May 19th, 2009 at 7:09 am
And it’s on! First blood to the good guys!
May 19th, 2009 at 7:54 am
a simple line of fire. That is a bunch of bull. come on the big bad enemy who has major magic on his side has more then a simple staff. Where are the fire balls of doom. the summoning of fire elementals, the meteor storms. These are what the great bad guys use, not some simple low level spell. I was expecting something more when you had an activation sound coming form the staff. Okay rant over, I enjoy your comic alot.
May 19th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Using your big weapons against the enemy’s guard is a rookie mistake. You use your small guns first to “soften them up” and THEN the big guns once the defenses are down. That being said.. MORTAL COMBAT!!
May 19th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Mentl, sing “The end” from The Doors, and finishes this battle!
May 19th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Well, we´ll see how Mentl will conquer this particular form of stage fright.
My bet is he´ll be pretty useless. As he spent the last days angsting about having power and offing some lizard bitch, instead of brainstorming on some quick combat jingles.
May 19th, 2009 at 9:41 am
hhmm…. did any notice Mentl was right behind the girl in the mid-left panel but is missing from the last. Is he; A, sneaking around to flank the enemy with his magic counting on the enemy not focusing on him as a threat; Or B, he been grab from behind by urrt/human female and wants to kill him or make love to him depending on how long lasting that “Body Lang” spell last. *smiles with glee* I wonder how Zona would take to Mentl having a slave girl even if Mentl doesn’t want to have one.
May 19th, 2009 at 10:45 am
No. Mentl’s had enough downtime to move beyond just one big issue. He’s been reviewing and organizing a battle spell library in his mind, and he’s as rehearsed for this as he can be at this point. He stepped clear of his friends to avoid collateral damage as he’s about to launch something untested.
My prediction. I know why they invented armchairs. Heh!
May 19th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Oh, and in Zona-speak I hear, “Hush UP, Sissie dear! Somebody’s giving the enemy too much free information!”
May 19th, 2009 at 11:11 am
My guess is that Mentl is still not familiar enough with his own power to be proactive in battle, he tends to react to danger rather than taking the lead. In this situation the ladies seem to be very much in control and not in need of any help, but I wholly expect that to change by the fights end.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Yes, it’s on. >:D
Back in my day, you used a fireball spell and you were grateful! Nonetheless, this is just the first “jab” as it were. The real fireworks are yet to come.
AdamZero, Matti, This is just the opening round - and it’s going to go on for a few pages, as it frequently does in these kinds of stories.
Apunkalypse, thanks! It’s all made so much easier by using the point lights that you get in P7. That alone has made my life a lot easier.
hans, Marylynne is quite correct. She has no sleeves, so she keeps two throwing knives in each of her bracers. Handy, no?
Tricksterson, We pray we do not disappoint.
crazy1, geez! Kids today, with their Everquests and their World Of Warcrafts!
Uhl, astute observation.
Shaolin, bets on what Mentl actually does?
Meltman, be gleeful, but don’t bet the camel on it.
PoserNieub, Armchairs, indeed. So long as you enjoy the show, you speculate all you want. Note, though, that Zona is not one of your talkers, and she has an enemy she can see. Simple equation. She has just declared this a “No Monologing Zone” for the duration. It’s funny, I actually had a lengthy bit of dialogue there written between Tula and Gorshash, but Zona almost literally tapped me on the shoulder and called bullshit on the whole exercise. When the characters start writing themselves, it’s fun.
May 19th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
What’s up with glowing terminator-esque eye? I thought he was just cauterizing the wound when he stuck his finger in it* (blech).
* http://www.soulgeek.com/comics/zona/2008/06/20/page-202/
May 19th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Although I am enjoying the story a LOT, I must admit surprise that Gorshash found them so easily (some sort of tracking spell or item? Or perhaps they just followed the horses? I suppose that would make the most sense). I was also a bit surprised by the quick adaptation to the eye socket. I did expect an eventual adaptation, but that wound is just a few days old in Zona time. Anyhoo, I am looking forward to how this confrontation resolves itself. I am almost hoping Mentl can stay under the radar, magically speaking and that Gorshash is forced to retreat from just the sisters. But we will see.
I completely agree with Zona’s telling you that no way in hell would she put up with a bunch of chatter with the bad guys. However, I also suspect that Tula knew that as well, and that was her way of allowing Zona to win the initiative.
May 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I will also be surprised if Gorshash does not have more combat fodder than we can see. I doubt they are worried about Mentl, but even taking on Tula, Zona, two hunting cats and at least one war horse (and probably two war horses) is far too much of an even match-up for someone as smart as Gorshash, unless of course, he was really counting on his sleep gass again, or just has 20 points of overconfidence, either of which is certainly possible.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Part of me thinks this is really cool so far. Nice action scenes, spectacular work on each render, very cool.
Part of me, however, is letting out The Big Sigh™.
I don’t really like Gorshash, his villiany does not strike me as the “I have a different viewpoint than you” style (I.E. worth bothering to try to understand why he does what he does because he actually thinks of himself as the “good guy”), but more like a high-school bully. He has power, he knows it, he enjoys using it, and he enjoys toying with and causing pain to his enemies. Bully. And I just have this feeling he is going to avoid a beat-down by placing allies in front of him and then running away if things dont’ go well for him.
The expression on Mentl’s face also is not encouraging, he looks like he needs a change of underwear. He’s already terrified of his own abilities, it doesn’t seem likely he’ll work up the courage to do anything until after two or three of the animal companions and possibly one or both of the girls are lying down and bleeding out.
Again.
It’s just growing more and more difficult to empathize with Mentl. I would love to be in his situation. He, however, looks like he’s ready to search for some Ruby Slippers and sing a few choruses of “There’s No Place Like Home.”
Please, Mentl: Surprise me.
May 19th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
How about “Just a Job To Do” by Genesis?
“Bang, Bang, Bang; Down they go…”
May 19th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Jim, I do agree with you on Gorshash, but sometimes there just needs to be someone like that that you can always feel good beating up on. I mean, we’ve already got the Kivalians, Sandaks, and whoever else…I think someone who appears evil because their beliefs are the exact opposite of ours is a good thing at this point. But I’m not so sure that he’ll run away. Actually, no one’s run away yet in this entire comic.
Again, great page. If for whatever reason there was no other reason (which isn’t happening, obviously) I would still read this comic just for the artwork. Seriously.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
actually, our lovable gay count has run away, for the greater good.
My bet: AC/DC: Thunderstruck.
as each chorus of THUNDER is said the skies get darker and darker, till “you’ve been (bum bum) Thunderstruck!” and a lance of thunder >.>
yes, that would be awesome.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Will we ever see some pictures of Liri posted up?
May 19th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I have to disagree with you about Mentl, Jim. You say you would love to be in his position. What makes you think you wouldn’t be the same way? There is no way anybody could know what they would do in a given situation without having been in it before, and I don’t think there is a single person that has EVER been in Mentl’s situation.
If I ended up in some odd place, being able to magic with my music, I’d be a little freaked. Add to that beating a lizard woman and melting stone with fireballs, well, I think I’d be crapping my pants next time something jumped me, too.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Ami, yeah! How about that? Hmmmmmm…;)
Hugh, Good points, and I hope you’ll like the way it unfolds. Goshash has many resources, and right now there are excellent tactical and personal reasons why he has pursued our heroes with as many of them as he can muster.
Jim, Jim, Jim …
This is one of the disadvantages of only really being able to reveal two pages a week or so. In 1938, Hal Foster invented this style and pace of storytelling, because he simply could not do more than one page of Prince Valiant per week and keep the art at the level of quality that he personally demanded. (which was unsurpassed, then and now) No one since then has ever done it better,told a story better or created a better fantasy. Some have come up to that gold standard, but no one has exceeded it. I’m obviously not Foster, but I also try to make a single page tell an interesting beat in the longer story. My story is actually *quite* long, and the character development, I flatter myself, is deep enough to warrant the time taken to watch it come to fruition. That means, though, that it takes, in real time, a *long* time to see the changes and growth that I am putting my little imaginary people through. I think Mentl has the capacity to surprise you. But then, that all depends on what you expect.
As for Gorshash, there is more to him than you’ve seen so far, and more to the Urtts themselves, trust me. Still, they have a long history with the Erogenians, and they are a competing, predatory species. They prey on human beings. I refuse to make them politically correct, or reform them into some kind of noble warrior race the way some other fictional universes do their stock villains. After all, how noble do you think the chicken should consider the fox? Should cows on the way to the slaughterhouse try to see the point of view of the guy shoving them up the ramp? That’s why they’re evil, they’re all evil, and until everybody on this world takes a big evolutionary step forward, that’s how human beings should consider them. That doesn’t make them one-dimensional, and I think that Gorshash definitely considers himself the paladin of his race. More on that later.
sentientcheese, you shall see. If anyone actually gets the next song Mentl uses correct, I will award a no-prize.
Anonymous, check out the Hot Stuff section.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Except of course, thunder is nothing but sound. Lightning is what lances down and strikes people.
May 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
“I refuse to make them politically correct, or reform them into some kind of noble warrior race the way some other fictional universes do their stock villains.”
You GO JE!
I think that in a sci-fi/fantasy setting like this, there SHOULD be an enemy like this. They may or may not LOOK something like us, but they’re so different in their point of view, their mental/emotional outlook that they can’t be anything other than a threat to the heroes or protagonists of the story. These are the beings whose arrival should trigger an automatic “Gah! Bad guys! Beat the @!#$! out of ‘em!” reaction from the audience.
Why does every enemy have to be sympathetic and relateable? Sure, some of them can be, but ALL of them? Especially in a setting like this, where some races will have cultures that are literally Alien to us?
May 19th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire?”
“Alright!
Now dig this baby!
You don’t care for me,
I don’t care about that.
You got a new fool,
Hah, I like him like that.
I have only one burning desire,
Let me stand next to your fire!”
Either that or maybe the diarrhea song. :-p
May 19th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Maybe some Switchfoot?
“And you’re on fire
When He’s near you
You’re on fire
When He speaks
You’re on fire
Burning at these mysteries”
May 19th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Note: I don’t *want* G to be a PC villain. I understand and appreciate that he has no easily-appatent redeeming qualities. I understand why he is presented the way he is, and I do think that his outlook and personality makes sense given the background for his people we have read already.
However, it is these very same personality qualities that make me wish he would come up with a sudden case of dead - and the notion that he will very likely survive this incident to bedevil our heroes another day leaves me with the same pleasant, tingly feeling one gets listening to the soothing sounds of fingernails on a blackboard.
This doesn’t mean our noble author is doing anything wrong, as far as I’m concerned. To the contrary, if I’m supposed to dislike G from the depths of my soul, he has succeeded admirably in his characterization of this villain, I hate him lots
May 19th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
“Mentl, *I* am your father”
“Noooooooooo!!”
May 20th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Sometimes you want subtle, nuanced villains, sometimes you just want someone you can hate and G and his minions are the latter. Prince whatsisname isn’t much better though and he’s human. May I ask for someone a tad more sympathetic in future? The half-breed girl was a good start and i hope you haven’t killed her, would like to see more.
All the people who are expecting Mentl to jump right in and be prepared and sneering at him for being scared and thinking how much better they’d do in this situation: No you wouldn’t, not unless you’ve had actual military training and/or combat experience. Remember, this comic has been going on for us for what, a couple years now yes? For Mentl, it’s been weeks. not years, he really hasn’t had *time* to adapt. So cut him a break.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
If I cut him a break, then he’s not much of a hero.
Bravery isn’t about being afraid, it’s about being afraid and doing what must be done despite your fears.
Either way, heroism is about bravery, not fearlessness. True fearlessness is an anti-survival trait, in that men who are truly fearless usually don’t live long. In combat, they’re the ones who jump on the grenade and the sergeant has to write a sad little letter to their ma & pa later. In civilian life, they’re the ones whose last words are “Hold my beer and watch this!”
May 20th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Correction to above: Second sentence should read “Bravery isn’t about being unafraid, it’s about being afraid and doing what must be done despite your fears.”
May 20th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I have to side with Jim on the issue of Mentl’s will to fight. Not too long ago back in the caves, I think right after he melted one shut, he promised Zona that he’d die beside her in battle, that she didn’t need to always protect him.
Well, time for him to live up to that promise. Time for him to step up. Because if he cowers and hides after making that big promise, it may affect how Zona feels about him-in a bad way. He’s set a certain expectation, now he’s obligated to live up to it.
May 20th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I’m thinking the next one might be Devo’s Whip It? Pretty much the entire song could be used. He’s already done a fire spell, or I’d say Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. He should do something earth or water now, maybe. Apollo 440, Stop The Rock? Styx, Mr. Roboto?
Either way, I can’t wait to see what he does! If anything!
May 20th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
I want to see him make the Urts do a dance routine a la Thriller.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Wolfgang, yeah, but can you have thunder without lightning? And it doesn’t sound as cool - “Lightning Struck …”
Wysiwig, Ghost, I swear if someone actually guesses, I’ll make them a custom graphic or something. After all, y’all did get “Great Balls Of Fire …”
Macnut, Jim, I am absenting myself from the speculation, but just to say, Jim, I hope you didn’t think that what you were expressing was *wrong,* or anything. If you did, I apologize.
aPrincess, Do you check out Erfworld? Look at the sequence starting on Pg 127 … (link to Battle For Gobwin Knob in “links”)
May 20th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
OK…my guess is: Freeze Frame! …Too recent?
May 21st, 2009 at 12:04 am
@JED: No apology necessary. I never thought you were whapping my nose and I am not the easily-offended type anyway.
My guess for songs I think Mentl should try (and what I think might happen if he did):
Cult of Personality (Living Colour) - shatter the faith G’s followers.
Welcome to the Jungle (Guns & Roses) - Gorshash and his pals are hacked to little teensy weensy bits by Zona and her two kitty pals in a flurry of blood and gore that would make Jason Vorhees drop to his knees and toss his cookies.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:30 am
Well, he could conjure himself a weapon with “If I had a Rocket Launcher” by Bruce Cockburn, but that is a bit long-range and wide-area; he probably needs something more up close and personal. I agree that he’s already used fire and it scared him; he probably won’t risk making a big enough bang to hurt his friends. So I’m going to guess a morale booster: “We are the Champions”.
May 21st, 2009 at 8:12 am
How about a throwback to the Beatles? “Bang bang, Maxwell’s silver hammer came down on his head…”
May 21st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
If they tracked them there I’m worried about the giants. Anyway, take out the caster! You always take the caster out first, unless there’s a healer. Come to think of it, this guy’s a priest of the bad dude, right? So, take him out twice!! KIIIIIIILLLLLLL! Song suggestion for when Mentl get’s his act together… Killer Queen! “Gunpowder, gelatin…dynamite with a laser beam!” Sizzle that snake bugger’s head clean off!
May 21st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
How about a something to cool things off? “Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the mornin’ last, just kickin down the cobblestones. Looking for fun and feelin groooovvvyyyy….”
May 21st, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Although I am sure that JED will come up with something more obscure, I still like Another One Bites the Dust.
May 21st, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Hmmm,with a Freeze Frame strategy, Nightcore’s Stop That Time might be good….
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:11 am
hhhmmm…….Killer queen by queen…….”dynamite with a laser beam” sounds like a good lyric for combat magiks. “Guaranteed to blow your mind!”, yup one de-brained ogre coming up. Well I guess I’ll have to wait to find out.
May 22nd, 2009 at 3:01 am
Hmm. If Mentl hangs back for a little while, watches the action to gauge the big threats, and then takes out any enemy surprises, that wouldn’t be a bad thing. It’s called a (hidden) tactical reserve. Gorshash almost certainly has one, and it’s a good idea for our protagonists to do the same. Well, at least hopefully Mentl will think of that excuse if he barely saves everyone’s bacon at the end again.
I think the Supremes’ “Stop! in the name of love” might be a good one for that if things look dire for Zona. Although The effects of “Tom Dooley” might be interesting given his escape from slavery. There might be a few usable lyrics in Blue Oyster Cult seem to have a very wide usable repertoire. I hope some day we get Deep Purple’s Highway Star, Smoke on the Water, and of course Stormbringer.
But my real vote is for some Bachman Turner Overdrive: “Taking Care of Business” to take out a lot of henchmen. Gorshash gets away, but the next day, as Zona lays severely wounded by a parting curse from Gorshash, Mentl gets even via long distance against the would-be Urrtt Napoleon with Tom Cochrane’s “Napoleon sheds his skin”:
Napoleon sheds his skin
In the summer when the sun is high
He never knows when to quit
When to stop…
Or when to say die
A nasty end.
May 22nd, 2009 at 6:09 am
Queen’s Ogre Battle? (From the album Queen II).
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Ya know, I want him to sing “It’s a small world after all” just to see what the fuck would happen. XD That said I like the villains in CoZ they are just so much fun to hate. Especially the prince whats his name. I mean he made an alliance with a race of people that considers his entire species a remarkably intelligent domesticated animal to be used for labor and protein. Which is probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen. ; ) It’s fun to root against morons.
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I’m thinking he’s going to sing “come on, baby, light my fire.”
May 22nd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
“Break on Through” - escape portal.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Eye of the Tiger?
May 23rd, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Heh, Iron Man would be interesting to see.
March 17th, 2010 at 6:24 am
I didn’t follow music, so I have no idea what you musicgeeks are talking about. Howsomever I AM of a generation that remembers Jerry Lee Lewis, so I predicted “Great Balls of Fire” back in the tunnel. Of course JE using the ‘Flaming Fists’ in the banner was kindof a clue….