Comments on: Page 331

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:08:52 +0000

…I’m also beginning to feel like someone cursed Yatta-ta with a lot of good luck. (Or maybe cursed everyone around him, lol.)

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:08:04 +0000

JIm, I’m not sure if there is one…but I’ll freely admit I’ve been admiring Yatta-ta’s fall. On his breeches. (It’s a clothing term for a double-buttoned front flap on a pair of tight breeches.) I wouldn’t mind seeing a gap there! XD

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:06:40 +0000

Hans, I’ve seen it happen in the SCA. Admittedly the fighters are using lanyards and ‘thumb triggers’ on their swords (loops of material that either wrap around the wrist or the thumb, respectively) to keep them from flying off into the distance, but I’ve seen some fights where two heavies (sword’n’shield types) have double-disarmed themselves. Mostly among lesser-trained fighters, but once or twice at most among the very skilled, too (I’ve been in the SCA for twenty-mumble years). It’s extremely rare (see twenty-mumble years and “once or twice”) among skilled combattants…but again, mostly because they’re using security straps to keep their weapons from flying off. I’ve also seen it happen among two rapier fencers, oh, a half-dozen times at most (see twenty-mumble again). (lol)

Not very probable, not very common, heck, barely even rarely. But impossible? No. Just highly improbable.

By: JIm

JIm — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:13:58 +0000

Um, it looks like Zona’s bottom clothing has a gap… Or am I seeing things?

By: Tricksterson

Tricksterson — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:47:35 +0000

Maybe it happened because Yatta didn’t know it was impossible? Maybe he’s actually a toon.

By: hans

hans — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:25:15 +0000

Nah, it´s clearly not working very well. Mentl needs to give us more than just a WHOA in the next panel.

I´d advise to add a “Double-Disarm?!?”, so the reader at least has a chance to get what´s supposed to be going on. Nobody even can suspect a “simultaneous disarm”, as it´s so unintuitive because of the clear impossibility.
Basic physics, dear Watson.

By: LN

LN — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:00:10 +0000

It took me a minute to get it, but I expect that it’ll work much better on the printed page, considering the ease of flipping backwards to figure it out. The fact that they’re staring at their disarmed hands in open astonishment helps too.

By: Tricksterson

Tricksterson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:15:32 +0000

I wouldn’t say epic fail, the idea was good, I just would have liked to have seen how it happened.
And chalk up another fan of both Samurai Jack and Brisco County Jr.

By: Sever

Sever — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:23:32 +0000

While I didn’t get what happened until it was explained, any problems I had with the page completely melted away when I saw what essentially amounts to a saber-toothed lion emoting “WTF”. Also, throughout this I love how the detail put into even the crowd. And the redhead in black is kinda “yowza”.

Good show, sir. Good show indeed.

By: Kamatu

Kamatu — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:33:43 +0000

That was fun. I’m just wondering, was I the only one who got it when I saw the first two panels? I looked back to make sure (and yes, Zona’s hilt is clearly shown on several pages earlier), but I thought the left hand thing made it obvious they had swapped weapons. Oh, skipping the real life fighting stuff (where nobody is as uber and cool as characters), I guessed it was a flashy disarm designed to put your opponent’s hilt in your off hand.

I do agree you might need something for the print comic though, one suggestion would be to clearly show both hilts in earlier pages. Several ways to do that. Heh, maybe a flashback by both to a training type sequence where they are doing the disarm and catch in mirror image….

Other than the boobie KO, I’m going to stick with a Zona “win” that is a technical loss…KO of Yatta (by something besides the sight of Zona’s boobs) with Zona disarmed.