I can’t understand this art…. This cross is supposed to be Celtic, yet doesn’t look a bit that way. The blade is too thin and also doesn’t resemble celtic swords. The fact that assembled sword has its pommel of absurd shape and no cross-guard is just cherry on the top.
The cross is not supposed to be Celtic and neither is the sword, they’re both Lanthian. They were hidden and later inspired Celtic objects.
As for your cherry on top, it sounds like you have enough gripes that I suggest you stop reading my comic to help you avoid further frustration.
*sigh*
im missing all the important stuff. i may not be a natrual blonde but my brain is acting like it
Im rereading the archives and still not linked the celtic with the lanthian.
or has everything got its roots in lanthian – or maybe everything mystical perhaps.
It’s explained here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/stalling/
and the one following. Interesting too, in the first one Amanda mentioned one of the things Monica was looking up was sword hilts. No doubt the other things mentioned are, likewise, foreshadowing.
Out of sheer curiosity, has this dude made comments similar to this before? I can’t say I’ve paid enough attention to the comments section to notice it.
Playing devil’s advocate for a sec given my lack of prior knowledge, perhaps there’s something else going on that inspired a more offensive phrasing than he realized and/or intended, and it was not meant as an attack on you/the comic?
Idunno… you seem like a genuinely cool dude from what little I know of you/based on your interaction with myself and other readers, and you’re a damn good artist whose comic has entertained me greatly for years now, to boot. It just seems a little out of character to see you make a reply like that.
I apologize if this reply seems prying… I’m not sure exactly why I felt compelled to write it considering I normally just ignore stuff like this when it doesn’t directly involve me, or what I’m hoping to gain from it.
At any rate, if the dude is just a hater out to hate, don’t let them get under your skin. You’ve got tons of appreciative fans who value the effort you put into this comic, and I’m proud to count myself among them. Keep on rockin’, Mr. Taylor!
When someone comes in with a laundry list of complaints, also the “cherry on top” comment, just leaves me wondering why someone is reading my comic when it seems as though they’re reacting like it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
True true… ’twas the wee hours of the morning and I hadn’t been to sleep since 8 the morning before, so it was just jarring from the normally quite civil and enjoyable comments/discussion/debates that go on here. In hindsight, Fairportfan’s general sentiment is pretty accurate in that your response was vastly tamer than many (if not most) would have issued were they in your place.
Anyway, enough of that. Here’s to a return to civil discourse and friendly discussion. May its reign be long and prosperous, unmarred by such unpleasantries henceforth!
You know swords. You know Celtic stuff. We get it.
Now enjoy the comic that we have presented to us oh so lovely and freely, accept it for what it is (MUCH more awesome than many many many free webcomics, and updates regularly to boot!), and don’t whinge about random minutia just to prove how intelligent you are regarding trivia.
touchy as in most people would be if they were putting basically their soul out to view for everyone to see.
(and yes. if you ‘create’ something a part of your soul/being/whatever goes into it)
most people are happy to read it and enjoy it (whilst comming up with theorys as wild as lions) even if their human nature does make them mention spelling errors/continuity errors/desire of pron.
where as others are idiots and take delight in annoying people/being pedantic/poking holes in everything.
try to ignore the 2nd group
(and i dont think that anyone here IS from the 2nd group..even if they do a good impression if one. but calling someones artwork as absurd is an attack on it and therefore paul. an alternative way of saying that would be to say that the celtic mythology that you are familiar with is different to what has been portrayed and you would like some details as to why it has been changed)
Bingo. Sword in the stone. Knights quest. Not Aurthur but close. Now is this really Excalibur or just a mental symbol that Shelly has pulled it from the stone.
Also is this the full trial or just the beginning, and what reward shall she rieieve.
Maybe, maybe not. By pulling the sword she passed the test. This proves her worthy of the sword. Now she’ll have to face the challenge. Usually once the weapon is found the reason the weapon is needed must be faced.
Also this is a smaller sword, not a broad sword at all. This is a one handed sword and this was usually used with some kind of shield. Will Shelly now need to find the shield and the rest of her armor piece by piece?
There were and are one handed broadswords. In fact, most if not all broadswords were, and this one looks like it’d qualify. I think what you were referring to was a bastard sword (aka a hand-and-a-half sword) or a great sword. You are completely 100% correct that this weapon is perfect for sword and board tho. Where’s that shield?
I wonder… Per some legends, the Sword in the Stone and Excalibur are separate, distinct swords; and in other legends, they are the same sword.
Having a bit of a hint of how deep and thorough Paul’s knowledge of history, artifacts, and ancient civilizations go thanks to his links to various articles over the years, I believe we’re all in for quite a fascinating ride, with, undoubtedly, blind-siding plot twists
It’s amazing how often this comic’s audience devolved into puns. I wonder if it’s just the group, something about the comic, or if it is something else.
The cross turns out to be a Shelly sized sword hilt. Still I wonder it there is anything more to the sword. It’s missing a crossguard. Other pieces of the sword being the rest of the trial or other trials.
And the sphinx in the next to last panel looks..annoyed? or intrigued?
The gladius (at least the one on the linked picture) does have a crossguard. One of the main purposes of it is to prevent your own hands slipping onto the blade. Blocking another sword is only one of the minor functions of it and the crossguard is not even neccessary for that.
The pummel seems also pretty big and a little unconfortably shaped for a single-edged sword.
All in all, I’d say this sword is looking epic, but massivley dangerous to the wielder.
I do love how this storyline develops and how cute Shelly is looking in it ^_^
Yeah, those were my first thoughts. When she held up the cross-hilt-thing, I automatically assumed she’d stick it in the other way. I’m mostly surprised that the quillons are beneath her fist.
But as Fairportfan pointed out, it could be a different style…I’m only at basic level of stage combat and therefore have only dealt with foils, small swords and broadswords.
This is at least a Lanthan relic. Maybe even left to them by some extinct society. Lord knows what design ethic went into it.
I Wiki-ed and Googled ‘Lanthan Arms and Armour’. Didn’t get any useful info…
I wondered about that, and about the other side of it also: Now that the hilt is back on the sword blade will it still give visions of demons and sphinxes as it did when by itself?
Other random thoughts also ran through my excuse for a mind:
Why didn’t the sword have a tang to go into the hilt? Is this going to be a fatal design flaw?
That is one seriously weird pommel, what with the three extentions. Are they of use for something?
Weird shape to the sword. I’ve seen pictures of wavy bladed daggers, but this is the first straight-edge sword with a wavy fuller or riser I’ve ever seen. (Also, many katanas have a wavy hamon, the tempering mark along the blade length.)
My very favorite description of a sword and its uses comes from “The Legend of Zorro”. (I can’t recall the character names right, but the quote has lived on in my family whenever someone is cooking.)
Don OldZorro: “Do you even know how to use that thing?”
Monterro NewZorro: “Pointy end goes into the other man.”
It is on correctly. The weight at the one end counter balances the sword so the balance point is a bit in from of the hilt. Makes it much easier to wield. Now Shelly can make really cutting remarks.
Pick your music and we’ll see what we can come up with. Sphynxes dancing to the Star Wars Mos Eisley cantina band would be very different than sphynxes dancing to Singin’ In the Rain.
so
the sphynx is the lady in the lake or is shelly ^^
or is it a visual metaphor to shelly being a guardian…kinda like a sphynx.
…ooh and i just googled ‘world tree’..there is a native american myth to it also. The world tree is also represented in the mythologies and folklore of Northern Asia and Siberia. In the mythology of the Samoyeds, the “world tree” connects different realities (underworld, this world, upper world) together. In their mythology “world tree” is also the symbol of Mother Earth who is said to give the Samoyed shaman his drum and also help him travel from one world to another..
and for excalibur…
Excalibur’s scabbard was said to have powers of its own. Injuries from losses of blood, for example, would not kill the bearer. In some tellings, wounds received by one wearing the scabbard did not bleed at all. The scabbard is stolen by Morgan le Fay and thrown into a lake, never to be found again.
and
The name Excalibur apparently derives from the Welsh Caledfwlch which combines the elements caled (“battle, hard”), and bwlch (“breach, gap, notch”)
so basically you have a sword which battles breaches and a tree where you can traverse breaches and a jin who HAS a breach
tho i actually thought the scabbard was the thing that the sword went into and the cross thing which shelly has just added was called the hilt but *shrugs* it sounded good
Right. The scabbard is the holster, so to speak; hilt is the part you hold. There are a bunch of technical terms, most easy to follow once you know about them. For example, see the Gunnerkrigg Court special page on swords.
The “underworld” -bit could be right. What does one need a sword for? A mythical sword to boot? .Yup! Battling underworld/dungeon beasties.
The sword could even be a symbol for the weapon to battle Jin’s underworld beasties (rotten-corpse girl?)
Soo..all in all You’re not the only one reading a lot into it. It’s the corrupting of the mind that ALL Sci-Fi & fantasy afficionados will succumb too in the end
Well..since Shelly has the magic sharp pointy thingy and can now say: “Hello Miss Sphinx, meet Mister pointy”(channelling buffy here) If I were the sphinx, I’d scamper before Shelly develops a taste for Sphinx-kabob..
So far the Sphinx hasn’t done much to anger Shelly, I doubt she’d feel much reason to lunge at her screaming “HEAD CHOP TINY BITS!!” Besides, there are still plenty of questions to ask, like “Where do you know me from?”
The Sphinx’s expression might just be anticipation. If Shelly can’t pull out the Sword, she’ll have to be killed before she can get away or fight back. If the Sword DOES come out, and that’s the first time it’s happened, then thousands of years of guardianship are over…
Yeah, I think some people may be overlooking the fact that Shelly hadn’t pulled the sword out yet. That the artifact was the grip was a big deal to Shelly and the readers, but the sphinx evidently knew all along, so the sphinx was probably thinking, “Well, go ahead and pull” as well as just observing and studying Shelly.
HMMM… Well, if that’s Excalibur, then it certainly explains why the Nazis there had it. Legends abound that Hitler had squads out looking for all manner of metaphysical/mystical/religious objects of power, including the Spear of Desti… (O_O)
HOOO boy, this is gonna get INTERESTING, isn’t it?
I don’t think M will agree with you. The last time Shelly had something sharp in her hands, she stuck into the top of M’s head and left bits of it there.
Just spent the last 3 days reading from the start, going to work, reading on my half hour break… … now I have caught up with the story as it stands now… … I … thank you for the trip through the rabbit hole.
Luci has joined your party! He’ll be reading it for every update from now on.
Seems I forgot my gravatar user name… … maybe that’ll fix it.
Thank you all for the warm welcome, but I’ll stay away from the coffee and tea, as I have an allergic reaction to said items, that causes my lungs to shut down, then causes them to convulse. I will have a tall glass of ginger orange juice though~ spiceh~
Currently rereading the commic, there seems to have been some hints dropped here and there that lead up to this grand sceme. Though, I wonder; are there others in the world with the same powers, and if so, are they for or against the main cast of characters. … Dibs on being a bad guy! No backsies!
Every time my archive reading catches up with the comic I feel a little happy-sad. Happy because it was such a rush to take in and absorb years of comics so fast and sad because it’s over.
Yes, please~ Been reading Dominic Deegan, Drow Tales, and some others… … I’m bad with names, so I forget what they’re called. But, if you have additional links, I love to read, it’ll help me someday when I write my damn book >.<
Here’s a list of suggested titles from that page (plus a couple that came to mind):
Clan of the Cats
Misfile
Pibgorn
Out There
Guilded Age
Gunnerkrigg Court
Between Failures
Eerie Cuties
Menage a 3
El Goonish Shive
The Wotch
Punch and Pie
something*positive
(at “somethingpositive.net”; “.com” is something else…)
Darken
Evil Diva
xkcd
Questionable Content
Girls with Slingshots
Between Failures
Girl Genius
Ralph the Destroyer
Squid Row
The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred
Two Lumps
Magic Chicks
Schlock Mercenary!
Shortpacked
ItsWalky
DumbingofAge?
Flipside
The Lounge
UserFriendly
The Adventures of Dr.Mcninja
Antihero For Hire
Blip
Ginger’s Bread
Grrl Power
Imy The Comic
Legend of Bill
Sandra and Woo
Sore Thumbs
The Space Between
Spinnerette
Treading Ground
Wayward Sons
DevilBear: The Grimoires of Bearalzebub
The Whiteboard
VGCats
Drowtales
Least I Could Do (seriously, no one else picked this one?)
Looking For Group (again, same as above)
Girl Genius
Deep Fried
Megatokyo
Applegeeks (even though their twitter might be alive, everythings is practically dead, lots of archives though)
Pvponline
Evil Inc
Least I could do
Looking for group
Candi
Dominic Deegan
sluggy freelance
Goblins
Challenges of Zona
intrepid girlbot
Sequential Art
PS238
Flaky Pastry
Digger
Phoenix Requiem
Day by Day
FreakAngels
Lackadaisy
Order of the Stick
Nodwick
Skindeep
Godseeker
The Desert Peach
Magick Chicks
Striptease
Sinfest
Dead Winter
The Devil’s Panties
Sister Claire (Pregnant Nun, Holy Crap!)
Vattu & Rice Boy
The Meek
Kaspall
reMIND
Para-Ten
BeanLeaf Press
The Gods of ArrKelaan
Atomic Laundromat
Calamities of Nature
Count Your Sheep
General Protection Fault
Too Much Information
SailorSun.org
Punch an’ Pie
Mysteries of the Arcana
Interesting about the sword. The wavy line only comes on folder steel blades. That technique was only being used in Japan or Damascus and after the time frame for the sword in the stone. When was this sword made and how long has it been there? It probably is from a much earlier cycle but how far back?
.. and you can work all that out from a very basic drawing??? I doubt the artist was thinking that…
but back to the strip.. Is this just ‘in the mind’, ‘in the spirit zone’ or whatever ?? and it may have been the sphinx that *taught* them how to make swords…
since when have the little details not mattered in this comic? since a wavy line takes more effort to draw than a straight one, i would say it was done very much so on purpose, and could be a hint…
Actually the line you are referring to is created by a coating being used to control cooling rates in different parts of the sword in the final heat treating process. It is not a function of the underlying metal.
I know the Japanese used it, not sure how many others.
The differential-cooling technique is normally used only with single-edged swords, in order to make the edge harder than the rest of the blade. It can be used as a final tempering step on a case-hardened blade, not just on a folded-metal blade. In this case, I think the wavy line is just a distorted reflection rather than an indication of a Japanese-style “nami” pattern on one edge of the sword.
According to the Wikipedia article on “Damascus steel”, the technique was known as early as 300 BCE. The Arthurian legends specifically state that they date from the period following Roman withdrawal from Britain between 383 and 410 CE. It would therefore have been possible for Excalibur to have been a Damascus-process blade.
Scary thought: Is that sword able to damage/injure a golem girl? Will it physically manifest itself when Shelly opens her eyes back with M and the gang?
“Part two. Now that you have the sword, you have to get past ME!” Could be the sphinx finally has her first real challenge in millenia and has perked up considerably. Shelly may now be wielding a sphinx killing sword.
She seems really big on the “if you (whatever), I’ll kill you” part.
“OK, now the rules … If you fail at any point, I kill you. If you flinch, I kill you. If you cough, I kill you. If you fart, I kill your ass, then I kill you. Have a nice day … or I kill you.”
I saw him in Providence and laughed myself sick! Achmed the dead terrorist, Walter and Jose Jalapeno – even my husband(who reminds me remarkably of Walter) howled thru the whole show.
Alternate scenairo:
“Alright, now that you have the sword, you must go to that other stone with the scabbard embedded in it and figure out how to …”
“Got it!”
“Damnit! Slow down! Old sphinx here ya know. Anyway, now that you have both the …”
“Got it!”
*facepalm*
I’m starting to see why an earlier strip had Tina pointing out Shelly’s unusual strength… could it have been one of many underpinnings for this bit of the story? I’m leaving aside the V8, since I like to think of that as hyperbole
Huh! 7:05 in the AM in New England and 60 remarks already.
I’ve never seen a sword that fastened to a 4 pronged hilt before. Or had a heavy chain at the pommel end. Magic or technology? Or part of the vision Shelly is having?
“I’ve wanted to do this all my life!”? Self-realization that she CAN be brave and can be a hero? An “Ah-HAH!” moment.
The unknown sphinx looks like she’s thinking, “Waaiit for it….”
OK, now she’s the Queen of England and she’s got a sword that can cut into stone. Combined with her strength, this could be trouble.
Shelly’s panic that she might have to THINK to solve the quest speaks volumes.
In light of all this, I really wish there was some way to find out what happened in the sub, what they saw, and why the Captain killed his crew and himself and was going to blow up his sub rather than give up the artifact…
Does this mean that when the hilt is disconnected from the sword, the sword goes back to the rock? Even if it has to go right through the hull of a sub to do it?
…or if the wrong person grabs the hilt, the blade flies through the side of the submarine?… Virtue and purity played a huge part in later retellings of the Arthur legend.
Pablo, are you going to give us the new sphinx’s name or will that be forthcoming?
Where IS and what HAPPENED to Stinky? I usually only like my calamari deep-fried with hot peppers, but Stinky I would love to have as a pet!! (figuine?-hint hint hint!!) I can see myself walking him, on a verrrrry long lead, down by the casino and breakwater-wall in Narragansett with the usual crowd of dog-walkers. Cleaning up after him might not be so pretty, tho’.
So. Shelly is here having an adventure with one of the apotropaic sphinges. But wait. Shelly is standing in the midst of a pulchritudinous bevy of beauties, discussing the bombing of a beach.
What are the others seeing? Did she poit out? Is Shelly standing there in a catatonic trance? Or is this taking place in another space-time, or another thought-time, so that the others won’t even be aware that she’s having this little escapade? Kapitän Gewisseperson was holding that sword-hilt; did a vision of this delectable sphinx drive him mad? Will Tristan return to Iseult? Will Peewee find her dolly? Oh, it’s so hard to wait…
All they ever used the Sword of Power for was for bouncing away laser beams and evil magic. It was terribly frustrating, watching all these cartoons with huge, powerful swords — and the slabs of beef swinging them NEVER used them to cut anything other than jungle vines and the occasional door hinge. Maybe an evil robot, because robots can be chopped up and it isn’t violence.
I just really wanted to see Thundarr or He-Man or Conan or Lion-O walk up to some bad guy, draw his sword, and cut him in half, guts and blood fanning out in a fine spray. Yup, he has the power all right.
But Shelly as Shel-Ra with her faithful but snarky Battlesphinx would be cute.
I remember reading an interview with Buzz Dixon, one of the writers for the show, where he commented on the use of the Sun Sword. It seems to keep the censors happy they would front load the script with ultra violence so they would have things they could cut out to trade the censors for reasonable use of the damn thing. Evidently they had Thundarr cutting kittens in half and all sorts of mayhem that they could throw away.
Actually, in graphics, we call that light “bloom” or other names, not lens flare. It’s light that spills over from a light source when you’ve overexposed a photograph – makes the whole scene look bright and high-contrast. Lens flare is when the glass lens makes distinct light artifacts like circles or stars or ovals of light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_flare).
But Shelly as Shel-Ra with her faithful but snarky Battlesphinx would be cute.
That’s what I was going for.
Since Jin’s mother did some slicing and dicing with her claws, I think the sword might actually be used as intended; without those pesky sensors messing things up.
This sword is useless. Ok the Lantians are ancient but even they should have known that such a construction could cut your fingers off very easily. Without tsuba, cossguard or something alike, shellys hand has a good chance to slip down the blade in any trusting attack (heck gravity can do it judging by the last frame).
The broad cross below the palm would also make it a bit unhandy i think. As such i, atleast, would say this thing has a ceremonial purpose and is not made for fighting.
My guess is that you if you have to use this blade you should wield it like a jian or a middle eastern saber and not like European Longsword(“1 1/2″-hander) or Katana-derivativ. Rapiers and the corresponding fencing-style alike would be out too because of the many stings which endanger again your hand.
Well if you look at the picture of the gladius you see that there is a bit of wood between the handle and the blade that is broader then the blade. This part essentially works like a tsuba.
Miss Shellys sword on the other hand seem to have a handle that is broad as the blade and directly attached to it without any protection as far as i can see.
We haven’t seen the point yet. Maybe there isn’t one. Some of the historical Irish bronze broadswords were blunt-ended and COULDN’T be used for thrusting, being purely double-edged cutting weapons.
right thats still a possibility thought then it would be hard to nail it to the stone.
Very interresting would be if the sword is actually double-edged by having a rather “short” short edge (1/3 to 1/5 blade-length) from the tip downwards.
Even thought it would make the sword even more unusual it would allow some new tricks and techniques.
No – the next thing is to put the sword in the thing that her aunt gave her that she doesn’t know what it is so that she’ll still have it when she snaps back to the Real World.
I still say the last time she was here was when she was entranced by the doll as a child, since that hasn’t been answered yet and explains why she’s wanted to do this all her life… and if the sword isn’t Excalibur i feel it at least has some magical properties, since it hasn’t rusted over the thousands of years its been there…. As for the odd shape of the hilt, i blame it on the hundreds of different styles there are to wielding a blade, every person who picks up a sword finds a way they like to do things, those who find a way that works live, those who don’t, die. My guess is Shelly will have quick, yet fluid motions, that use the counter-weight of the hilt, and the extension of the chain, to overwhelm her opponents with agility and strength…. Sort of like the wind… :O
Seems to me that the sword isn’t supposed to resemble any conventional sword we might recognize. I too thought it looked upside down without a visible guard. However, I’ve seen a few with a hilt counter balanced. Ofcourse we don’t even know what material the cross/hilt is or the blade for that matter. The blade having what looks like a hamon also caught my eye making me wonder if this is a one sided blade. Not sure if it matters but it’s little things that keeps a geek guessing. Looking forward to seeing the story move forward
So it looks like the artifact can fit two other things on it, three if you count the end with the chain…one wonders if this is not to become a quest to meet the Sphinxes of the fours elements or something…(this one being the earth Sphinx, seeing that she is guarding the world tree)
Queen of Camelot?
I wonder if this is a mystical version of the “pull my finger” joke?
I was actually wondering if it was a mystical version of a grenade… Pull the pin and count to 3…
“Thou shall not count to Four. Five is right out….”
One . . . two . . . five!”
“Three!”
“THREE!”
“Neither shalt thou count two, except that upon counting two, thou continuest on to three…”
^this^
is the most awesome ever
“And thine enemies, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.”
Like. Reply most epic.
I can’t understand this art…. This cross is supposed to be Celtic, yet doesn’t look a bit that way. The blade is too thin and also doesn’t resemble celtic swords. The fact that assembled sword has its pommel of absurd shape and no cross-guard is just cherry on the top.
The cross is not supposed to be Celtic and neither is the sword, they’re both Lanthian. They were hidden and later inspired Celtic objects.
As for your cherry on top, it sounds like you have enough gripes that I suggest you stop reading my comic to help you avoid further frustration.
*sigh*
im missing all the important stuff. i may not be a natrual blonde but my brain is acting like it
Im rereading the archives and still not linked the celtic with the lanthian.
or has everything got its roots in lanthian – or maybe everything mystical perhaps.
It’s explained here:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/stalling/
and the one following. Interesting too, in the first one Amanda mentioned one of the things Monica was looking up was sword hilts. No doubt the other things mentioned are, likewise, foreshadowing.
@sowhyme
i got the link there
i just dont understand how monica made the link
then again i had to have her giggling and jiggling and mentioning atlantis to get that one.
sometimes my brain just needs to be whacked with a big neon sign which has an arrow pointing to the clue going *its there you muppet*
Out of sheer curiosity, has this dude made comments similar to this before? I can’t say I’ve paid enough attention to the comments section to notice it.
Playing devil’s advocate for a sec given my lack of prior knowledge, perhaps there’s something else going on that inspired a more offensive phrasing than he realized and/or intended, and it was not meant as an attack on you/the comic?
Idunno… you seem like a genuinely cool dude from what little I know of you/based on your interaction with myself and other readers, and you’re a damn good artist whose comic has entertained me greatly for years now, to boot. It just seems a little out of character to see you make a reply like that.
I apologize if this reply seems prying… I’m not sure exactly why I felt compelled to write it considering I normally just ignore stuff like this when it doesn’t directly involve me, or what I’m hoping to gain from it.
At any rate, if the dude is just a hater out to hate, don’t let them get under your skin. You’ve got tons of appreciative fans who value the effort you put into this comic, and I’m proud to count myself among them. Keep on rockin’, Mr. Taylor!
When someone comes in with a laundry list of complaints, also the “cherry on top” comment, just leaves me wondering why someone is reading my comic when it seems as though they’re reacting like it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I sorta agree with the crossguard issue, since the artifact would have worked perfectly if she’d connected it the other way around.
True true… ’twas the wee hours of the morning and I hadn’t been to sleep since 8 the morning before, so it was just jarring from the normally quite civil and enjoyable comments/discussion/debates that go on here. In hindsight, Fairportfan’s general sentiment is pretty accurate in that your response was vastly tamer than many (if not most) would have issued were they in your place.
Anyway, enough of that. Here’s to a return to civil discourse and friendly discussion. May its reign be long and prosperous, unmarred by such unpleasantries henceforth!
I refuse, I love your comics. I will just shut myself with some heavy blund object.
You know swords. You know Celtic stuff. We get it.
Now enjoy the comic that we have presented to us oh so lovely and freely, accept it for what it is (MUCH more awesome than many many many free webcomics, and updates regularly to boot!), and don’t whinge about random minutia just to prove how intelligent you are regarding trivia.
scoff scoff
Paul was a lot more polite than i’d have been if it were my comic.
Bugger off.
Ditto!
Did you not see the “Warning! Touchy Artist” sign on the lawn?
Touchy? In what way?
Honestly I think Paul is a very good sport, and handles his followers quite well.
I’ll just assume you’re being humorously sarcastic.
Touchy? you’re like the Pillsbury Doughboy (Hoo-Hoo!) (and I stole that joke from a NSFW comic by a couple of Canucks)
touchy as in most people would be if they were putting basically their soul out to view for everyone to see.
(and yes. if you ‘create’ something a part of your soul/being/whatever goes into it)
most people are happy to read it and enjoy it (whilst comming up with theorys as wild as lions) even if their human nature does make them mention spelling errors/continuity errors/desire of pron.
where as others are idiots and take delight in annoying people/being pedantic/poking holes in everything.
try to ignore the 2nd group
(and i dont think that anyone here IS from the 2nd group..even if they do a good impression if one. but calling someones artwork as absurd is an attack on it and therefore paul. an alternative way of saying that would be to say that the celtic mythology that you are familiar with is different to what has been portrayed and you would like some details as to why it has been changed)
Lets just say I’ve found out just how touchy he can be. He doesn’t like me and wishes I would just go away. Probably not the only one either.
Bingo. Sword in the stone. Knights quest. Not Aurthur but close. Now is this really Excalibur or just a mental symbol that Shelly has pulled it from the stone.
Also is this the full trial or just the beginning, and what reward shall she rieieve.
Sorry typed too fast. What reward shall she receive.
looks like we are on the same page atleast. As far aw wondering if this is real or metaphorical.
She gets to live for now?
Maybe, maybe not. By pulling the sword she passed the test. This proves her worthy of the sword. Now she’ll have to face the challenge. Usually once the weapon is found the reason the weapon is needed must be faced.
Also this is a smaller sword, not a broad sword at all. This is a one handed sword and this was usually used with some kind of shield. Will Shelly now need to find the shield and the rest of her armor piece by piece?
WOnder if the next challenge is taking over as guardian.
There were and are one handed broadswords. In fact, most if not all broadswords were, and this one looks like it’d qualify. I think what you were referring to was a bastard sword (aka a hand-and-a-half sword) or a great sword. You are completely 100% correct that this weapon is perfect for sword and board tho. Where’s that shield?
Wouldn’t any sword Shelly uses be a broadsword?
@Jabberwonky- Boo, hissss!
@ Jabberwonky – Triple damages – head to the Pun Jar – cash only – no Credit Cards or Cheques !
*digs in pocket*
Lesse…lira, more bhat, and a couple of Canadian pennies…
Will that do?
Psst, Jabberwonky…
Slips him a $20
Knock ‘em dead.
That’s why I keep a typo-to-english dictionary handy.
Maybe Excalibur doesn’t really exist but this is where they got the idea.
I wonder… Per some legends, the Sword in the Stone and Excalibur are separate, distinct swords; and in other legends, they are the same sword.
Having a bit of a hint of how deep and thorough Paul’s knowledge of history, artifacts, and ancient civilizations go thanks to his links to various articles over the years, I believe we’re all in for quite a fascinating ride, with, undoubtedly, blind-siding plot twists
Absolutely great work, Paul!
This is turning all sorts of epic, lets hope it’s not all just in her head. also rawr for sexy sphinx.
“also rawr for sexy sphinx.”
Yeah, ’tis true. But have you smelled her? She sphinx.
*flees*
j/k
oh gawd the puns…
It’s amazing how often this comic’s audience devolved into puns. I wonder if it’s just the group, something about the comic, or if it is something else.
…really makes you sphinx, though.
Dang! I was going to use that: ” A very good pun. I’ll have to sphinx about it and see if I can come up with one. ”
And you ninja’d me!
It all makes my head sphin.
The PUN-ishment is the Sith rearing their ugly heads on the Fifth.
Consider it the Revenge of the Fifth.
dammit!
i missed the ‘may the fourth be with you’pun yesterday
darn
will have to try to remember next year
You’ll still have a chance in July.
Heh heh
The puns are a side-benefit of reading Paul’s excellent work
I wonder though how many of us are also fans of a certain bar run by a guy named Mike…
That WOULD explain a lot, eh? 
Hell, I first wandered into the Place (a.c, that is) back in the mid-’90s sometime, and it was already roaring by the time I got there.
urm
divulge more info plx
*shakes pun-jar* Now You better pay up!
*plunks a dime into the jar*
*Hopes nobody notices that he lifted a quarter from the jar*
Oh Yes we did!
*Shelly, Dear, can I hold the sword for a moment? Thanks sweetie*
*Makes a mental note not to pay for StJason’s puns next time…
The comic was drawn and now you’ll get quartered.
The girl that can hurl engine blocks around has a sword.
0_0
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
At least with whatever happens past this point, it should produce an interesting, if rather short, crunchy sound.
Especially because Shelly ince stated that she always gets into trouble due to her clumsiness..she even cut herself while buttering a sandwich….
I bet those with the database will find the reference in a jiffy
ROFL..
you do heal easily, dont you??? >:( ‘
cue shelly: ‘whoops! oh sorry!
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/naturehatesme/
Got it
Be more afraid if she says “Wow, this is really heavy.
at that point i would run… run far away..like demon world far….
From the look of the Sphinx, I’d say this is only the beginning
The cross turns out to be a Shelly sized sword hilt. Still I wonder it there is anything more to the sword. It’s missing a crossguard. Other pieces of the sword being the rest of the trial or other trials.
And the sphinx in the next to last panel looks..annoyed? or intrigued?
Swords of the period that the historical Arthur was (if he really was) often didn’t have cross-guards.
Consider the gladius.
The gladius (at least the one on the linked picture) does have a crossguard. One of the main purposes of it is to prevent your own hands slipping onto the blade. Blocking another sword is only one of the minor functions of it and the crossguard is not even neccessary for that.
The pummel seems also pretty big and a little unconfortably shaped for a single-edged sword.
All in all, I’d say this sword is looking epic, but massivley dangerous to the wielder.
I do love how this storyline develops and how cute Shelly is looking in it ^_^
The historical Arthur?
I think you’ll find your self mistaken. There’s little evidence he ever did exist and older historical basis for many of his myths.
http://celticqueens.blogspot.com/2010/03/cartimandua-queen-of-brigantes-sowho.html f’rinstance
Tho Dark age swords were often hiltless
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artarchive0607/329320620/in/photostream
Note that i said “if he ever was”.
And this sword has almost as much of a “crossguard” as that gladius – note that the blade is wider than the hilt, as in that one.
I hope there’s something Shelly can do to GET a crossguard, or Mrs. Clumsy is going to be slicing her hand open eventually. XP
Yeah, those were my first thoughts. When she held up the cross-hilt-thing, I automatically assumed she’d stick it in the other way. I’m mostly surprised that the quillons are beneath her fist.
But as Fairportfan pointed out, it could be a different style…I’m only at basic level of stage combat and therefore have only dealt with foils, small swords and broadswords.
This is at least a Lanthan relic. Maybe even left to them by some extinct society. Lord knows what design ethic went into it.
I Wiki-ed and Googled ‘Lanthan Arms and Armour’. Didn’t get any useful info…
I wondered about that, and about the other side of it also: Now that the hilt is back on the sword blade will it still give visions of demons and sphinxes as it did when by itself?
Other random thoughts also ran through my excuse for a mind:
Why didn’t the sword have a tang to go into the hilt? Is this going to be a fatal design flaw?
That is one seriously weird pommel, what with the three extentions. Are they of use for something?
Weird shape to the sword. I’ve seen pictures of wavy bladed daggers, but this is the first straight-edge sword with a wavy fuller or riser I’ve ever seen. (Also, many katanas have a wavy hamon, the tempering mark along the blade length.)
My very favorite description of a sword and its uses comes from “The Legend of Zorro”. (I can’t recall the character names right, but the quote has lived on in my family whenever someone is cooking.)
Don OldZorro: “Do you even know how to use that thing?”
Monterro NewZorro: “Pointy end goes into the other man.”
Sphinx: It’s very simple – just try to pull out the sword.
Shelly: Yay, I did it!
Sphinx: But before you do…
Shelly: D’oh!
Our HERO!
Duh-ti-da-dooo!
…not going to say it…
…not going to….
…flesh willing…. spirit weak!
IMPERIAL MARGARINE!
*hangs head in shame*
Uhm… Methinks she has it on backwards… crossguards on bottom?
Might not have cross guards – gladius.
Gladius? I’m extaticicated!
It is on correctly. The weight at the one end counter balances the sword so the balance point is a bit in from of the hilt. Makes it much easier to wield. Now Shelly can make really cutting remarks.
Only if she takes a stab at it. If you get my point.
Sharp, aintcha?
Sword of. In a written medium, I appear sharp-witted, but in the cut and thrust of live debate I lose my edge.
What the….what is a gold brick doing in the Pun Jar??
Sphinx thinks
I wasn’t aware that they made sphinx chow.
Cat chow.
BIG Cat Chow.
I would literally kill to see a commercial with dancing sphinxes…
I’ll help! =D
Rusty Warren had a song: “Bounce Your Boobies”…
Pick your music and we’ll see what we can come up with. Sphynxes dancing to the Star Wars Mos Eisley cantina band would be very different than sphynxes dancing to Singin’ In the Rain.
Why not let Rusty it for herself…
so
the sphynx is the lady in the lake or is shelly ^^
or is it a visual metaphor to shelly being a guardian…kinda like a sphynx.
…ooh and i just googled ‘world tree’..there is a native american myth to it also. The world tree is also represented in the mythologies and folklore of Northern Asia and Siberia. In the mythology of the Samoyeds, the “world tree” connects different realities (underworld, this world, upper world) together. In their mythology “world tree” is also the symbol of Mother Earth who is said to give the Samoyed shaman his drum and also help him travel from one world to another..
and for excalibur…
Excalibur’s scabbard was said to have powers of its own. Injuries from losses of blood, for example, would not kill the bearer. In some tellings, wounds received by one wearing the scabbard did not bleed at all. The scabbard is stolen by Morgan le Fay and thrown into a lake, never to be found again.
and
The name Excalibur apparently derives from the Welsh Caledfwlch which combines the elements caled (“battle, hard”), and bwlch (“breach, gap, notch”)
so basically you have a sword which battles breaches and a tree where you can traverse breaches and a jin who HAS a breach
(unless im reading WAY to into it)
tho i actually thought the scabbard was the thing that the sword went into and the cross thing which shelly has just added was called the hilt but *shrugs* it sounded good
Right. The scabbard is the holster, so to speak; hilt is the part you hold. There are a bunch of technical terms, most easy to follow once you know about them. For example, see the Gunnerkrigg Court special page on swords.
The “underworld” -bit could be right. What does one need a sword for? A mythical sword to boot? .Yup! Battling underworld/dungeon beasties.
The sword could even be a symbol for the weapon to battle Jin’s underworld beasties (rotten-corpse girl?)
Soo..all in all You’re not the only one reading a lot into it. It’s the corrupting of the mind that ALL Sci-Fi & fantasy afficionados will succumb too in the end
Jin would be the Lady of the Flake.
Ow.
Hah! I was right. Shelly is the knight-guardian.. cool..
“I’ve wanted to do it all my life”
Yay for Shel. Do I notice a very small stisfied/approving smile on the sphinx?
I think she just looks hungry.
Well..since Shelly has the magic sharp pointy thingy and can now say: “Hello Miss Sphinx, meet Mister pointy”(channelling buffy here) If I were the sphinx, I’d scamper before Shelly develops a taste for Sphinx-kabob..
So far the Sphinx hasn’t done much to anger Shelly, I doubt she’d feel much reason to lunge at her screaming “HEAD CHOP TINY BITS!!” Besides, there are still plenty of questions to ask, like “Where do you know me from?”
I’ve read that exclamation before … found it
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20101101
Either I’m reading too many comics, or I’ve found a crowd of people sharing the same roster of artists
reply to theMark:
Maaaaybe. ^_^
@theMark:
So long as the sphynx doesn’t say “FineIdon’thavetostayhereIcankillpeopleanywhere.
I meant that the sphinx looks hungry…
hmmm, looks more like ‘at last, the trial starts…’
The Sphinx’s expression might just be anticipation. If Shelly can’t pull out the Sword, she’ll have to be killed before she can get away or fight back. If the Sword DOES come out, and that’s the first time it’s happened, then thousands of years of guardianship are over…
Now is the time for the sphinx to casually mention Shelly will be unable to let go of the hilt until she dies.
Yeah, I think some people may be overlooking the fact that Shelly hadn’t pulled the sword out yet. That the artifact was the grip was a big deal to Shelly and the readers, but the sphinx evidently knew all along, so the sphinx was probably thinking, “Well, go ahead and pull” as well as just observing and studying Shelly.
HMMM… Well, if that’s Excalibur, then it certainly explains why the Nazis there had it. Legends abound that Hitler had squads out looking for all manner of metaphysical/mystical/religious objects of power, including the Spear of Desti… (O_O)
HOOO boy, this is gonna get INTERESTING, isn’t it?
By the by, may I remark that Shelly looks utterly cute here?
I don’t think M will agree with you. The last time Shelly had something sharp in her hands, she stuck into the top of M’s head and left bits of it there.
WHOMSOEVER PULLETH THIS FLOPPY DISK FROM THIS DRIVE SHALL BE RIGHTFUL KING OF ALL IBM
…what, I’m not the *only* one who remembers that, am I?
If you’re remembering it originally came from Disney, then no, no you’re not. (c8
That’s fine, Shelly, but just remember, strange women lyin’ about on stacks of skulls distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government!
What is your name?
Lancelot of Camelot.
What is your quest?
I seek the Grail.
What is your favorite color?
Blue!
Right! Off you go then!
Blue! No wait! Red! AAAHHHHhhhhhhh…
What….is the air-speed velocity of an unladen sparrow?
No! Swallow!
[thrown over bridge]
aaaaaauuuuuugh!
African or European? Coconuts are heavy, you know…
What? I don’t know that!–Aaaaghh!!
“How did you know that?”
“You have to know these things to be king.”
Oh my poor head.
This was too easy.
But WHY was it too easy?
Everything’s easier with the right tool.
are you saying shelly is a tool??
It might have been easy because Shelly was the right person.
It wasn’t easy for everyone else who tried it, which is why there’s a mountain of skulls behind the Sphinx…
Even with the “chosen one” trope factored in, this was still quite an easy task…
Just spent the last 3 days reading from the start, going to work, reading on my half hour break… … now I have caught up with the story as it stands now… … I … thank you for the trip through the rabbit hole.
Luci has joined your party! He’ll be reading it for every update from now on.
Welcome to our little circle of weirdness and adventure! You never know just what is waiting around the corner — and that’s the fun of it!
In the corner, however, are the confusicated people having coffee. Feel free to join us at your whim.
Indeed. Welcome. Grab a latte and join us in our corner of embafflement.(yes, I invented that word.)
In light of the Holy Grail quotes above, we can all hope nobody catapults a cow over the embafflements.
Now go away or I shall taunt you a second timeeh!
Seems I forgot my gravatar user name… … maybe that’ll fix it.
Thank you all for the warm welcome, but I’ll stay away from the coffee and tea, as I have an allergic reaction to said items, that causes my lungs to shut down, then causes them to convulse. I will have a tall glass of ginger orange juice though~ spiceh~
Currently rereading the commic, there seems to have been some hints dropped here and there that lead up to this grand sceme. Though, I wonder; are there others in the world with the same powers, and if so, are they for or against the main cast of characters. … Dibs on being a bad guy! No backsies!
Every time my archive reading catches up with the comic I feel a little happy-sad. Happy because it was such a rush to take in and absorb years of comics so fast and sad because it’s over.
YES! I so look forard to finding new good stuff. Questionable Content and Gunnerkrigg were my last. I was so sad to get to present, le sigh.
Well, i could probably recommend several more comics for you to read, some with archives almost as deep as this one…
Yes, please~ Been reading Dominic Deegan, Drow Tales, and some others… … I’m bad with names, so I forget what they’re called. But, if you have additional links, I love to read, it’ll help me someday when I write my damn book >.<
About half way down this page is the collection of comics Wapsi has read, so there is quite a bit of reading for you to do.. http://wapsisquare.com/comic/play-thing/comment-page-1/#respond
just search them in google at your lesisure.
Here’s a list of suggested titles from that page (plus a couple that came to mind):
Clan of the Cats
Misfile
Pibgorn
Out There
Guilded Age
Gunnerkrigg Court
Between Failures
Eerie Cuties
Menage a 3
El Goonish Shive
The Wotch
Punch and Pie
something*positive
(at “somethingpositive.net”; “.com” is something else…)
Darken
Evil Diva
xkcd
Questionable Content
Girls with Slingshots
Between Failures
Girl Genius
Ralph the Destroyer
Squid Row
The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred
Two Lumps
Magic Chicks
Schlock Mercenary!
Shortpacked
ItsWalky
DumbingofAge?
Flipside
The Lounge
UserFriendly
The Adventures of Dr.Mcninja
Antihero For Hire
Blip
Ginger’s Bread
Grrl Power
Imy The Comic
Legend of Bill
Sandra and Woo
Sore Thumbs
The Space Between
Spinnerette
Treading Ground
Wayward Sons
DevilBear: The Grimoires of Bearalzebub
The Whiteboard
VGCats
Drowtales
Least I Could Do (seriously, no one else picked this one?)
Looking For Group (again, same as above)
Girl Genius
Deep Fried
Megatokyo
Applegeeks (even though their twitter might be alive, everythings is practically dead, lots of archives though)
Pvponline
Evil Inc
Least I could do
Looking for group
Candi
Dominic Deegan
sluggy freelance
Goblins
Challenges of Zona
intrepid girlbot
Sequential Art
PS238
Flaky Pastry
Digger
Phoenix Requiem
Day by Day
FreakAngels
Lackadaisy
Order of the Stick
Nodwick
Skindeep
Godseeker
The Desert Peach
Magick Chicks
Striptease
Sinfest
Dead Winter
The Devil’s Panties
Sister Claire (Pregnant Nun, Holy Crap!)
Vattu & Rice Boy
The Meek
Kaspall
reMIND
Para-Ten
BeanLeaf Press
The Gods of ArrKelaan
Atomic Laundromat
Calamities of Nature
Count Your Sheep
General Protection Fault
Too Much Information
SailorSun.org
Punch an’ Pie
Mysteries of the Arcana
Interesting about the sword. The wavy line only comes on folder steel blades. That technique was only being used in Japan or Damascus and after the time frame for the sword in the stone. When was this sword made and how long has it been there? It probably is from a much earlier cycle but how far back?
.. and you can work all that out from a very basic drawing??? I doubt the artist was thinking that…
but back to the strip.. Is this just ‘in the mind’, ‘in the spirit zone’ or whatever ?? and it may have been the sphinx that *taught* them how to make swords…
since when have the little details not mattered in this comic? since a wavy line takes more effort to draw than a straight one, i would say it was done very much so on purpose, and could be a hint…
What period are you assuming the blade is from?
I was thinking “Arthurian” times, which is Roman Britain days, during which time damascus blades definitely did exist…
Actually the line you are referring to is created by a coating being used to control cooling rates in different parts of the sword in the final heat treating process. It is not a function of the underlying metal.
I know the Japanese used it, not sure how many others.
But they did that because the cooling rate affects the structure of the metal.
The differential-cooling technique is normally used only with single-edged swords, in order to make the edge harder than the rest of the blade. It can be used as a final tempering step on a case-hardened blade, not just on a folded-metal blade. In this case, I think the wavy line is just a distorted reflection rather than an indication of a Japanese-style “nami” pattern on one edge of the sword.
According to the Wikipedia article on “Damascus steel”, the technique was known as early as 300 BCE. The Arthurian legends specifically state that they date from the period following Roman withdrawal from Britain between 383 and 410 CE. It would therefore have been possible for Excalibur to have been a Damascus-process blade.
small side note: the differential tempering was to harden the edge without making the blade brittle.
And besides, what do we know of Lanthian sword making?
If it was Lanthian, it would have been from long before the calendar cycles even started.
Funny thing about swords in mythical settings…. you gotta use them at some point. I get the feeling that getting the sword was the easy part.
Chekov’s Gun, anybody?
Or rather Chekov’s blade?
I thought Pavel carried a phaser…
Ausch! Ouche! Yeouch! LOL
Yes. Sulu carried a rapier.
Nyah!
Not Excalibur, i think – Excalibur was through an anvil, too.
Where are the sphinx’s wings? Has she starting morphing to a more humanoid form?
I assumed they’re folded against her back.
Scary thought: Is that sword able to damage/injure a golem girl? Will it physically manifest itself when Shelly opens her eyes back with M and the gang?
well if it does, she was holding the hilt straight down when she started concentrating….so i doubt it would do any harm…
This has been one of the freakin best comics.
Her reaction was just too fun and honest.
(Applauds!)
“Part two. Now that you have the sword, you have to get past ME!” Could be the sphinx finally has her first real challenge in millenia and has perked up considerably. Shelly may now be wielding a sphinx killing sword.
She seems really big on the “if you (whatever), I’ll kill you” part.
“OK, now the rules … If you fail at any point, I kill you. If you flinch, I kill you. If you cough, I kill you. If you fart, I kill your ass, then I kill you. Have a nice day … or I kill you.”
That sounds like a Jeff Dunham routine!
THAT’S who it was. Thanks. I had wanted to put a link in to one of his terrorist routines but I could not remember who did that.
I saw him in Providence and laughed myself sick! Achmed the dead terrorist, Walter and Jose Jalapeno – even my husband(who reminds me remarkably of Walter) howled thru the whole show.
You forgot Peanut! ^_^
peanuts my favorite
love the ‘where are we…hell’ routine
Alternate scenairo:
“Alright, now that you have the sword, you must go to that other stone with the scabbard embedded in it and figure out how to …”
“Got it!”
“Damnit! Slow down! Old sphinx here ya know. Anyway, now that you have both the …”
“Got it!”
*facepalm*
Well…then…
uh…
mumbles to self
Oh! I know! Bring me… A Shrubbery!!
Her You go. By the way, there was a mister Smith behind it trying to camouflage himself. You want him too?
OOOOH You said the word that must not be uttered!!!
Nii!
No! You must impale him with a herring!
That seems like it would be awfully ungainly to wield — the bits on the side would chafe against her wrist.
(Perhaps that was part of the test, since the logical way to connect it to the blade would have been upside-down?)
I thought so too! i could imagine her telling Monica:
S: I pulled the sword out by the hilt and thought it must be special!
M: Why special?
S; Well it changed, I pulled and then I wondered why the hilt was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
I’m starting to see why an earlier strip had Tina pointing out Shelly’s unusual strength… could it have been one of many underpinnings for this bit of the story? I’m leaving aside the V8, since I like to think of that as hyperbole
Huh! 7:05 in the AM in New England and 60 remarks already.
I’ve never seen a sword that fastened to a 4 pronged hilt before. Or had a heavy chain at the pommel end. Magic or technology? Or part of the vision Shelly is having?
“I’ve wanted to do this all my life!”? Self-realization that she CAN be brave and can be a hero? An “Ah-HAH!” moment.
The unknown sphinx looks like she’s thinking, “Waaiit for it….”
Yeah, kind of a slow post day.
Itsokay…I see they made up for the deficit later.
OK, now she’s the Queen of England and she’s got a sword that can cut into stone. Combined with her strength, this could be trouble.
Shelly’s panic that she might have to THINK to solve the quest speaks volumes.
In light of all this, I really wish there was some way to find out what happened in the sub, what they saw, and why the Captain killed his crew and himself and was going to blow up his sub rather than give up the artifact…
Does this mean that when the hilt is disconnected from the sword, the sword goes back to the rock? Even if it has to go right through the hull of a sub to do it?
You may have to stab the blade into a rock or anvil in order to remove the hilt.
…or if the wrong person grabs the hilt, the blade flies through the side of the submarine?… Virtue and purity played a huge part in later retellings of the Arthur legend.
If a buff female mechanic from Minnesota has been chosen, then a buff female mechanic from Minnesota shall be king!
So this confirms it: Daddy’s name is actually Arthur Wahnee.
Uther.
Uther than what?
The cow’s uther? Ot did You mean something uther than uthers?
*plinks $0,75 in pun jar*
Uther than that, what could he mean?
This whole thread is udderly ridiculous.
* plunks 2 bits into the pun jar
Moove along. Moove along.
drops most recent paycheck in the pun jar…
Gravitar=Prince Pangor Bat the Fluffy
Yep.
Jeremy!!!
Pablo, are you going to give us the new sphinx’s name or will that be forthcoming?
Where IS and what HAPPENED to Stinky? I usually only like my calamari deep-fried with hot peppers, but Stinky I would love to have as a pet!! (figuine?-hint hint hint!!) I can see myself walking him, on a verrrrry long lead, down by the casino and breakwater-wall in Narragansett with the usual crowd of dog-walkers. Cleaning up after him might not be so pretty, tho’.
Strangely, so can I…
No butt-sniffing during THAT walkies.
And whatever would the AKC say!? No talk about ear or tail docking, huh? I certainly wouldn’t wanna be the vet!
I vote we don’t try to Phix him!
So. Shelly is here having an adventure with one of the apotropaic sphinges. But wait. Shelly is standing in the midst of a pulchritudinous bevy of beauties, discussing the bombing of a beach.
What are the others seeing? Did she poit out? Is Shelly standing there in a catatonic trance? Or is this taking place in another space-time, or another thought-time, so that the others won’t even be aware that she’s having this little escapade? Kapitän Gewisseperson was holding that sword-hilt; did a vision of this delectable sphinx drive him mad? Will Tristan return to Iseult? Will Peewee find her dolly? Oh, it’s so hard to wait…
I thought Peewee lost his bicycle and went on a Big Adventure.
The shpinx also reminds me more and more of Shelly’s creepy little girl conscience. Part of the vision?
CRAP!!! “sphinx”!!
Next step raise sword overhead shout in a voice like thunder: “By the power of Greyskull! I have the power!” Points sword at sphinx… ^-^
ugh, please no.
All they ever used the Sword of Power for was for bouncing away laser beams and evil magic. It was terribly frustrating, watching all these cartoons with huge, powerful swords — and the slabs of beef swinging them NEVER used them to cut anything other than jungle vines and the occasional door hinge. Maybe an evil robot, because robots can be chopped up and it isn’t violence.
I just really wanted to see Thundarr or He-Man or Conan or Lion-O walk up to some bad guy, draw his sword, and cut him in half, guts and blood fanning out in a fine spray. Yup, he has the power all right.
But Shelly as Shel-Ra with her faithful but snarky Battlesphinx would be cute.
Bikini’d and riding a sphynx? Huzzah!
I remember reading an interview with Buzz Dixon, one of the writers for the show, where he commented on the use of the Sun Sword. It seems to keep the censors happy they would front load the script with ultra violence so they would have things they could cut out to trade the censors for reasonable use of the damn thing. Evidently they had Thundarr cutting kittens in half and all sorts of mayhem that they could throw away.
My God, we have to get Dolph Lundgren working again…
Oh, I get it! We get lens flare when Shelly’s thinking! ;D
Exactly, it is because Shelly “thinking’ is so unique , that it is accompanied by an aura.
Actually, in graphics, we call that light “bloom” or other names, not lens flare. It’s light that spills over from a light source when you’ve overexposed a photograph – makes the whole scene look bright and high-contrast. Lens flare is when the glass lens makes distinct light artifacts like circles or stars or ovals of light (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_flare).
So, I guess when Shelly thinks hard she blooms…
Sorry, my radio/tv/film classes were showing.
And one on bloom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_(shader_effect)
But Shelly as Shel-Ra with her faithful but snarky Battlesphinx would be cute.
That’s what I was going for.
Since Jin’s mother did some slicing and dicing with her claws, I think the sword might actually be used as intended; without those pesky sensors messing things up.
sensorscensors.If you cross out the sensors, are you nixing the scanners and ‘scopes as well?
Nah, we’ll just reroute and bypass… they’ll think we’re miracle workers.
Naw, just the sweeps, the bleeps and the creeps.
…I don’t know if I like that look…
…I so wanna do that too!
Hold the phone…did Shelly get the sword when she was there less than a cycle ago?
Many of those skeletons in the bone pile might be earlier Shellys.
Good point. Wouldn’t it be odd if they all were.
Suddenly she is locked into the Temple of Time till she reaches a certain age and can save the world from Gannon.
Unless she smashes the giant Hourglass and kills the Dahaka.
This sword is useless. Ok the Lantians are ancient but even they should have known that such a construction could cut your fingers off very easily. Without tsuba, cossguard or something alike, shellys hand has a good chance to slip down the blade in any trusting attack (heck gravity can do it judging by the last frame).
The broad cross below the palm would also make it a bit unhandy i think. As such i, atleast, would say this thing has a ceremonial purpose and is not made for fighting.
My guess is that you if you have to use this blade you should wield it like a jian or a middle eastern saber and not like European Longsword(“1 1/2″-hander) or Katana-derivativ. Rapiers and the corresponding fencing-style alike would be out too because of the many stings which endanger again your hand.
just another thought: If you add a pole to the lower end of the thing you could be a wonderful Yari respective naginata.
Gladius
Well if you look at the picture of the gladius you see that there is a bit of wood between the handle and the blade that is broader then the blade. This part essentially works like a tsuba.
Miss Shellys sword on the other hand seem to have a handle that is broad as the blade and directly attached to it without any protection as far as i can see.
Look at the next-to-last panel. The blade is wider than the hilt. Not much, but…
And don’t forget – it’s a magic sword.
If, in fact, it is actually a sword at all.
Using the term “sword” might be simply a verbal handle for the uninitiated.
We haven’t seen the point yet. Maybe there isn’t one. Some of the historical Irish bronze broadswords were blunt-ended and COULDN’T be used for thrusting, being purely double-edged cutting weapons.
right thats still a possibility thought then it would be hard to nail it to the stone.
Very interresting would be if the sword is actually double-edged by having a rather “short” short edge (1/3 to 1/5 blade-length) from the tip downwards.
Even thought it would make the sword even more unusual it would allow some new tricks and techniques.
Basically all that I know about a sword is “Oooo! Shiny!”
I know much more than that, but can resist the urge to show “how neighbour impressingly much I know” by saying “Oooohh..Shineyyy” Too…
Yes…the force is strong with this one.
May the Fourth be with you, too.
Oh that’s right … It’s Quatro de Mayo!
The next part will be to use the Mystical Sword of Mystery and Unknown Properties to open a child-proof bottle of Sphinx-Strength(tm) Excedrin.
No – the next thing is to put the sword in the thing that her aunt gave her that she doesn’t know what it is so that she’ll still have it when she snaps back to the Real World.
(Which is, BTW, a hint if you ever play the game.)
Jay-Em–I’m just catching up–I responded to a comment of yours from the day before yesterday:
“Your comment is awaiting moderation.
“And, natch, “Boniface” is my monastic name… But we aren’t really mad at you. We forgave you long ago…”
Weeks ago I said the McGuffin fit onto something. I had no idea it would be the hilt of a sword. Cool.
There were those who guessed it was the hilt of a sword some days back.
I still say the last time she was here was when she was entranced by the doll as a child, since that hasn’t been answered yet and explains why she’s wanted to do this all her life… and if the sword isn’t Excalibur i feel it at least has some magical properties, since it hasn’t rusted over the thousands of years its been there…. As for the odd shape of the hilt, i blame it on the hundreds of different styles there are to wielding a blade, every person who picks up a sword finds a way they like to do things, those who find a way that works live, those who don’t, die. My guess is Shelly will have quick, yet fluid motions, that use the counter-weight of the hilt, and the extension of the chain, to overwhelm her opponents with agility and strength…. Sort of like the wind… :O
(..) quick, yet fluid motions (..)
Why doesn’t my wind do that??? That’s way cooler than peristaltic-stuttering…
I am just going with my gut before I read you all: She is such a geek! Luvs her
“Uh…you’ve got it upside down, sweetie.”
No, she doesn’t
I wonder if we will be treated to another Cinco de Mayo illustration tomorrow instead of the next comic in this sequence?
You called it — now we have to wait ’til Friday to see the next segment of this path…
Seems to me that the sword isn’t supposed to resemble any conventional sword we might recognize. I too thought it looked upside down without a visible guard. However, I’ve seen a few with a hilt counter balanced. Ofcourse we don’t even know what material the cross/hilt is or the blade for that matter. The blade having what looks like a hamon also caught my eye making me wonder if this is a one sided blade. Not sure if it matters but it’s little things that keeps a geek guessing. Looking forward to seeing the story move forward
So it looks like the artifact can fit two other things on it, three if you count the end with the chain…one wonders if this is not to become a quest to meet the Sphinxes of the fours elements or something…(this one being the earth Sphinx, seeing that she is guarding the world tree)
It’s the glaive! Now all we need is a cyclops and some Clydesdales with hooves of fire!
The part with the giant crystal spider is going to be fun for Shelly and her mystical sword ‘Cuisinart’.
wouldn’t it be cool if instead of fitting something in, something else came out? l
Who cares if you disagree?
You are not me
Who made you king of anything?
So you dare tell me who to be?
Who died and made you king of anything?
-Sara Bareilles