(I like the Divine Comedy reference. Although I note for all the horror and danger of the Inferno, it was in the Purgatorio that Dante got hurt worst when the Angel carved the seven P’s (one for each of the Mortal Sins) on his forehead, stating that as he purged each Sin from his soul one of the P’s would heal and vanish… Also, the last ring of Hell with plains of ice would be a great place to get a snow cone!)
Indeed Ook! I was wondering how many posts would pass before L-Space was mentioned Pratchett fans get everywhere. I’ll mention it next time I see him :0)
One of the greatest minds alive…with a real life magic sword.
What?!?! He had a sword made out of meteoric metal. Narrative Imperative dictates that any sword made from meteoric metal must be magical. I didn’t make the rules, I just gotta live by them
@geekoncall:
Not necessarily spontaneous. There have been hints it may be sentient all along. They question would be: if it had a voice, why hasn’t it used it in front of Monica until now.
Well, old buildings can make strange sounds and after being locked up there so long Phix might have started to started to hear things.
But assuming they are all hearing the same thing, it’s probably Tina. It’s unusually assertive coming from Tina, but it’s similar to what Tina said recently to Monica and Shelly.
Mister8Coffee Yes. Yes she is.
I like both shows. I was going for the G. Callen and Special Agent Sam Hanna, pairing for Phix and Nudge. Because I thought it’d be funny if they became friends after 1000′s of years of hating one another.
Tina seems to be the likely suspect to my sleep deprived mine. The timing seems right. We haven’t heard from Tina since Nudge started into her history lesson from last week.
And more incoherent ramblings, I predict we’ll be seeing Tina 3.0. The Tina collective is now w/o Nudge amongst them. And the amnesiac Tina has been brought to the Library which has all of the Knowledge of the Entire Universe. It seems like perfect timing for more character development for Tina.
And I’ll probably be thinking “What hell was I thinking last night?” when I read this in the morning. With that I’m off to bed.
Phix did say “all of the knowledge” recentl. But, yes, it did not contain the information recorded on Monica’s grandfather’s reel-to-reel tapes, for example.
I’m with you on this one. It’s Tina…though I don’t think of her as a 3.0, so much as a 1.5…the original demons minus one stowaway. She’s always been insightful, and the aura reading certainly helps her with that…
As for why the three look so puzzled about the origin of the voice in the last panel (because I know that could be an argument against my case), there are two possible reasons.
1) They forgot Tina was there since they got so involved in this confrontation.
2) While they were distracted, Tina went wandering and her voice is echoing from another location in the Library.
And I thought of all of this before any caffeine or food intake. Yay brain!
It would have been easy to miss and even I used Google to double-check. (I *thought* I remembered using it.) But, yes, I think that Tina died and was fully rebooted, so it needs to be Tina 2.x or Tina 2R1 or something like that. If it turns out that Tina really wasn’t that influenced by Nudge, then perhaps it could be Tina 2.1, too. Then we can have Tina 2.2 and Tina 2.3 and so on, which I just used so I can claim to be the first.
Seriously, other arguments for Tina are that she has experience working with Nudge and instinctively understands Phix’s nature, so she would be in a good position to have today’s insight.
But when Tina was resurected, she was minus one soul, so that wasn’t an upgrade, it was a retrograde/downgrade. So shouldn’t she have become Tina 0.0 (from 1.0)? Or maybe Tina 0.9 so as to give room as demons leave. With Nudge gone as well, she becomes Tina 0.8.
I think we are using version numbers, so an increasing number just means newer, not necessarily more features or better. A newer version can certainly be more broken. Some people paid extra money so they could upgrade to Windows XP (version 5.1) from Vista (version 6.0), for example. The other thing would be that Tina 0.9 could mean Tina before she was born.
Of course, the way Windows is coded sometimes, some people paid good money to retrograde from 5.2 to 5.1, since the stupid program was on an automatic upgrade, and didn’t bother to check what was already installed…
Now that made me laugh out loud! *looks around to see if anyone noticed* Never thought about The Library having a P.A. system. Even if you aren’t right it was a good and funny idea.
I been in a lot of Libraries (Umm maybe I shouldn’t admit that?) But I have yet to find one with a PA system. Wouldn’t that contradict the famous Quite nature of these places?
Well, it’s a really, really big library. Gotta get the word out somehow when it’s closing time. “Attention please. The library will be closing in 15 ethereal minutes. Please bring your final selections to the front so you may be judged worthy of the tomes you desire. Anyone caught trying to sneak out a book will be eaten. Have a nice day/night/millenium/time period of your choosing.”
Our public library wasn’t that big, but did have a PA system–precisely for making announcements like closing time, or tornados, or whatnot. I’m not sure Nudges qualified, however.
1. Phix was the new sphinx in town and got stumped by a riddle on her first day.
2. Nudge (assuming she’s not lying) is an ultimate altruist, seeking to help others despite hazard to herself
3. Phix and Nudge have reverted to bargaining with Monica as if she’s the arbiter of the situation.
4. Given 3, both Phix and Nudge seem to feel they need Monica on their side — Phix despite her inherent power and authority, and Nudge because she lacks the same.
5. And the Voice is coming from someone! But who?
- Kukulkahn?
- The Library (incarnate device as suggested yesterday?
- Tezpoz (with magical weasel powers)?
- Jin?
- Mayahuel (my vote)?
- Pablowapsi (4th wall violations galore)?
- Her Highness, Queen of the Sphinxes (back from vacation)?
My vote is for Tepoz; he always seems to know more than he “accidentally” lets slip… I know I’m not right, but I’m smiling just visualizing that scenario, especially vis a vis Monica and the golem girls
I’m voting for Tep just because we haven’t seen the little imp for a long time. Or maybe a write in for a certain pizza loving dog who turns out to be WAY more important than Paul ever suspected
And Phix didn’t kill anyone? So why was she so down on herself for who she was in her youth? She was displeased with herself because she didn’t follow the pack and jump into the killing spree?
Actually, she said she had “nothing to do with the killings” further up.
Not only is SWM’s question valid, but why would the other sphinxes have stopped killing just because the one who hadn’t done anything had to fill in for Nudge? It’s possible that Nudge managed to trick the other sphinxes somehow and that somehow forced them to stop killing. That might explain the statement that they continued killing until one got an answer that stumped her.
Or perhaps Oedipus spread his padded story and the Sphinxes got wind of it. Maybe upon hearing that one of their number got “stumped and killed herself” they quit killing. It’s even possible that they didn’t know Phix was in the Library for a while.
Fairportfan read the strip before it was corrected.
I assumed that the killing stopped as soon as the “stumping” occurred, but I suppose if it happened soon after it would be close enough. Still, Nudge would have been pretty dishonest. If it was Oedipus’s story that tricked the other sphinxes, why did Nudge say that she was the one to do it? Taking credit for that would seem to run contrary to wanting to get Monica to trust her.
Back to SWM’s point, if Phix wasn’t a mass murderer, why would she wait until now to say so? Even now, she is bringing it up only to make Nudge look bad. I suppose it’s possible that Phix went along with Oedipus’s deception at first if it would have sounded like humans could defeat the sphinxes in order to get them to stop, but surely they would have figured things out eventually. The library is what wanted them to continue. It would have had to give them permission to stop.
“Nothing to do with the killings” when talking about a specific set of killings – at the gates of Thebes – doesn’t mean you didn’t kill anyone somewhere else.
One can be a monster without killing people…Phix never specified why she thought so little of herself in her youth. Perhaps it was her tendency to still react violently if not murderously (i.e. shredding a book that’s thrown at her instead of catching it and behaving like a rational creature), perhaps she used to kick puppies…the world may never know.
I think the answer to number 4 is that they both like Monica and consider her a friend. They both realize that their actions may in some way weaken their friendship with her and are striving to show that they are in the good one. They don’t want to lose Monica as a friend.
I’m not sure about 1. I don’t see how shredding a book counts as being stumped by an answer to a riddle. IIRC, Nudge never identified Phix as being the one who was stumped (Bud did, but Bud could have been wrong and Oedipus padded the story). I also don’t see how that would have stopped the other sphinxes. Nudge said she tricked the sphinxes (plural). There may be more to this.
2. I’m not sure that Nudge is so much of an altruist as an egoist. She may be more like an obnoxious know-it-all.
3. Yeah, that’s strange. It’s as if their egos depend on Monica siding with them. It may be that they have been hating each other for so long, they need their hatred validated by a third party. The argument is rather pointless. That’s why it seemed strange that Monica was getting into it yesterday.
4. I don’t see it that way. I don’t see how Phix had any authority. Phix was merely a tool who’s task was over. I don’t know why Nudge would have cared about authority, but Nudge was going to have whatever authority the librarian had.
Once they find out that they will both be librarians, it changes things. Now they are going to have to share whatever authority, the librarian has. That gives them an incentive, other than their egos, to fight. They also have a strong incentive to figure out how to get along, too.
@W:
Of course, that’s a good way to loose Monica as a friend. But people do that…
This has me wondering about the page with Phix walking past the wall of skulls. If she didn’t kill with a riddle.. she still killed….. otherwise why is there a wall of skulls there?
Because those were skulls from those killed by other sphinxes, and she treats it as her own crime because she was not able to prevent it from happening?
I wish I could cut and paste from the comic image. “This from the moron that managed to have the one sphinx that had nothing to do with the killings…” Lower left speech balloon in the first panel.
Also: Nudge is almost as tall as Phix? Granted, we know she can get bigger… but smaller? If she could, why is she wandering around the museum at six feet-ish?
Friend, if that starts tomorrow, the mob with torches, pitchforks, rakes and left-handed Cornish ho-reaper’s hooks will be at your door by Friday at the latest.
@jordinyc: Well yes, but what/who reaps hos? Are we suggesting that hos have their own Grim Reaper? Or that there is a method for harvesting them? Hmm?
My vote goes to Tina. (sort of) (The only KNOWN other charater/person in The Library.)
The once main controling entity of Tina is free to control again.
How long has this entity been out of the loop – or just watching what was happening around her?
@StJason: I’m thinking that, since Phix has calmed down, she’s settling back into a less imposing physique. Picture a werewolf as the full moon is masked behind clouds…
Just when you thought the world was saved, another mystery arises, and another problem come out of the woodwork…Without Nudge, Will Tina remain “alive” or will collective demons fall apart? And what about those things in Tina’s basement? Where is Tep? How is Jin coping with “normal” life and her mother?
Will “living” together, Nudge and Phix drive each other crazy?
Read yesterday’s comments on that – I theorized that Mayahuel used a modified process to incorporate herself into the golem. Phix would be scratch-built — no previous life to be mixed in.
Well, thankfully I hovered over the link first to get and idea of what you were going to have me see. As a slowly recovering arachnaphobe, I will gladly share my reaction (minus any panic attacks or screaming since this is a Library).
No…that’s not little. Spiders are not supposed to get that big, so it’s like the arachnid version of the 50 foot woman…a monster, and not at all cute.
Situations like that are why I qualify statements on here (I did say “most of the time” and not “all the time”).
“OLD WOLF” said it – ‘Cute n Creppy’ I think I dated her once…..
Seriously, It sounds like everyones onto something: A SENTIANT LIBRARY, containing all knowledge. Aaahhh! Thats BRILLIANT!
Am I a bad person for wanting to snuggle up to Nudge’s soft and comfy looking bosom?
*shifty eyes*
On that note, it is rather interesting that Nudge ended up being so furry when Monica’s original view of her (with one eye closed) was more rough and leathery. Perhaps explained by that first view being somewhat “distorted” by it’s nature? Maybe masked or blurred by coming from inside Tina?
Actually, it could be argued that she has fur in her first appearance (look at her arms…furry around the elbows and forearms). It’s possible that the rest of what completes the furry look was concealed under Tina’s t-shirt (i.e. the furry outline of her breasts). Really, the textured coloring of her “fur” hasn’t changed that much.
I think it was a spring dress, not a t-shirt, looking a few pages later. A couple of pages earlier, you might have thought you saw pants or shorts, but I think that was her thumb.
It also might be be that Monica didn’t have her eye completely closed, so we saw a blending of Tina and Nudge. Or the fur might count as clothing, which was replaced by the dress. Still, the protrusions looked like bony spikes, not fur, to me, particularly near her shoulders. The way they have looked recently has varied, but they come across more like clumps of fur.
An additional argument that the original was not pure Nudge is that the spirals were still faintly visible. Nudge’s eyes have varied, but they never had spirals. The spirals seem to have come from the demons, not Nudge.
OK, after a decent night rest I’m convinced even more the booming voice is Tina. She’s had considerable time to view Phix’s and Nudge’s auras while they’ve been bickering. And she sees they should be working together instead of fighting.
Also how many more of these daily cliffhangers are there going to be? Staying up late to catch them when published is stealing from by beauty sleep.
I still say that Phix doesn’t say she didn’t kill anybody, just that she didn’t kill anybody on the road to Thebes….
Taking her remarks in both panels together:
She says she “had nothing to do with the killings”, that she wasn’t “…stationed outside Thebes … until that day…”, and that she was against killing “…via a riddle”.
Taken together, that sounds to me as if she’s referring specifically to what was going on at Thebes.
To expand just a bit – specifically stating that you were against “killing via a riddle” implies the possibility that you weren’t against killing in general.
Kind of like the fact that you didn’t have actual intercourse with the intern does not mean your relationship wasn’t sexual.
You could be right, but Phix was defending herself against the general accusation that she was a violent bully. She also seemed to be implying that imprisoning her was a bad thing compared to imprisoning the other sphinxes, and Nudge seems to be reacting as if that must be so. But who knows?
Okay…while I shouldn’t be proud of some of associations made to my home state, it made me smile to see it mentioned.
And you’re right…you’re not necessarily a bully if you’re just enforcing laws. Violence and bullying may go hand in hand, but they are not connected at the hip.
There is a difference between killing someone cause they can’t figure out a ridiculous riddle and someone who is evil and needs killing. The difference is important.
We’ve seen Monica with startled and wide eyed looks, we’ve even seen nudge all pop eyed, but this is the first time I can recall Sphinx looking caught off guard!
I don’t think anyone has asked the big question yet. What was “why the both need to stay there and work together?” I have no clue. Anybody?
It would be nice if when big voices start booming out they made sense. That would make it too easy, though, I guess. They have to be mysterious and speak in riddles.
“Word from on high, you both have better things you could be doing” :p. I finally got caught up on this comic and on my birthday no less. Love the story. Gives me lots to think about and lots of little things to pick up on. Keep up the good work.
I think the working together is to help solve Jin’s problem. Also if Mucho Mocha doesn’t open up tomorrow Bud might flatten the Earth unless Brandi has restocked the cupboard with coffee. So no pressure about Tina being okay…
It may be the hour, but I don’t think Phix’s sentence in the second speech balloon in the first panel makes sense…
Yeah, I know…I’m thinking replacing the word “have” with “screw” would work…
Or Paul left out “punished” … or punished for them
Maybe Nudge stepped on Phix’s line and cut her off.
But there’s a period.
TlalocW: no, it makes some sense.. but using ‘get’ there may make it clearer…
I agree, it’s all English words, but doesn’t convey meaning. Maybe if “have” were substituted with “nobble?”
Hey, it’s only missing a verb.
That’s close enough for government work. Aren’t librarians government employees?
Oopsie! I left off a line of text. o_O Hit refresh and all will be fixed.
Duh Dun DUN!!!
Booming voice from nowhere!
Oh God! Book II
Oh God, it’s God!
(I like the Divine Comedy reference. Although I note for all the horror and danger of the Inferno, it was in the Purgatorio that Dante got hurt worst when the Angel carved the seven P’s (one for each of the Mortal Sins) on his forehead, stating that as he purged each Sin from his soul one of the P’s would heal and vanish… Also, the last ring of Hell with plains of ice would be a great place to get a snow cone!)
No, that wouldn’t work! It’s hell, some devil or other has already gone around writing their name everywhere. Yellow snow = BAD snow cones.
That reminds me…
http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20100924.html
Oooh! Who’s that?!
P.S: Keep it down, you two…This is a LIBRARY!
And that’s exactly who that is!
For some reason , I’m now thinking of the island of misfit toys .
Are we going to run a pool for “Who said that?”. My money is on May.
Tina. Using the Big Voice on them.
It’s……………….the BOSS! (Wait, when did Tina get the Big Voice?)
+1 on Tina
+ another 1 on Tina.
“Paul Taylor”
Nah. That would mean that Pablo is making all this up, instead of faithfully reporting the events as they happen.
Not necessarily…maybe he’s reporting events after the fact…and this was his involvement in the whole shabang so we know how he knows. *nodsnods*
I vote Library. A place with so much knowledge. Would Spontaneous Sentience be so improbable?
Many things are possible in L-Space.
Oook.
Indeed Ook! I was wondering how many posts would pass before L-Space was mentioned
Pratchett fans get everywhere. I’ll mention it next time I see him :0)
Say “Hi” for me, and tell him i’ve found his “Where were you when the paper was blank?” line useful a number of times…
Pratchett is amazing… and yes we get everywhere, like cockroaches
One of the greatest minds alive…with a real life magic sword.
What?!?! He had a sword made out of meteoric metal. Narrative Imperative dictates that any sword made from meteoric metal must be magical. I didn’t make the rules, I just gotta live by them
@geekoncall:
Not necessarily spontaneous. There have been hints it may be sentient all along. They question would be: if it had a voice, why hasn’t it used it in front of Monica until now.
why hasn’t it used it in front of Phix or Nudge before now too… they are all surprised
+1 for library. As stated by the above Pratchett fans [sign appears that reads "fellow Pratchett fan"], libraries have a power all their own.
Oh, gotta remember that one.
Noisy plumbing.
Well, old buildings can make strange sounds and after being locked up there so long Phix might have started to started to hear things.
But assuming they are all hearing the same thing, it’s probably Tina. It’s unusually assertive coming from Tina, but it’s similar to what Tina said recently to Monica and Shelly.
@geekoncall You stole my line. Ah well.
But HAH!. I was right. Phix and Nudge are going to be a partners.
Laurel and Hardy. Abbott and Costello. Larry, Moe, and Curly. And Phix and Nudge.
This should be good…
Aww, I was thinking more like Batman and Robin or The Lone Ranger and Tonto.
Or my favorite scenario Wapsi: NCIS Los Angeles.
I prefer ‘regular’ NCIS
Abby is hot.
Mister8Coffee Yes. Yes she is.
I like both shows. I was going for the G. Callen and Special Agent Sam Hanna, pairing for Phix and Nudge. Because I thought it’d be funny if they became friends after 1000′s of years of hating one another.
ABBY is NOT HOT! She is a GODDESS!!!
We’re not worthy!
Mr Incredible and Syndrome.
A better choice might be Florence Ungar and Olive Madison (from the female version of the play “The Odd Couple”)
And I’ll be right back, I need to change my, umm, clothes right quick.
YAY, NEW CHARACTER ALERT!!!
ehm nudge has been around since the beginning ;P we only see her more clear now.
Kukulkan I bet. Iunno, just got the feeling thats who its going to wind up being.
KRAK-A-THOOM, as Dan Shive would say.
Looks like Tina found the PA system.
Tina seems to be the likely suspect to my sleep deprived mine. The timing seems right. We haven’t heard from Tina since Nudge started into her history lesson from last week.
And more incoherent ramblings, I predict we’ll be seeing Tina 3.0. The Tina collective is now w/o Nudge amongst them. And the amnesiac Tina has been brought to the Library which has all of the Knowledge of the Entire Universe. It seems like perfect timing for more character development for Tina.
And I’ll probably be thinking “What hell was I thinking last night?” when I read this in the morning. With that I’m off to bed.
It has all of the written knowledge.
Slightly different.
Phix did say “all of the knowledge” recentl. But, yes, it did not contain the information recorded on Monica’s grandfather’s reel-to-reel tapes, for example.
I’m with you on this one. It’s Tina…though I don’t think of her as a 3.0, so much as a 1.5…the original demons minus one stowaway. She’s always been insightful, and the aura reading certainly helps her with that…
As for why the three look so puzzled about the origin of the voice in the last panel (because I know that could be an argument against my case), there are two possible reasons.
1) They forgot Tina was there since they got so involved in this confrontation.
2) While they were distracted, Tina went wandering and her voice is echoing from another location in the Library.
But still minus the original Tina’s soul. That’s why I said Tina 2.5 a few days ago.
Hmm…I must have missed that comment. Sorry!
Google knows!
It would have been easy to miss and even I used Google to double-check. (I *thought* I remembered using it.) But, yes, I think that Tina died and was fully rebooted, so it needs to be Tina 2.x or Tina 2R1 or something like that. If it turns out that Tina really wasn’t that influenced by Nudge, then perhaps it could be Tina 2.1, too. Then we can have Tina 2.2 and Tina 2.3 and so on, which I just used so I can claim to be the first.
Tina 2.x, Tina 2.1, Tina 2.2, Tina 2.3, Tina 2.4, Tina 2.5, Tina 2.6, Tina 2R1, Tina 2Rev1 ©™ eschmenk, all rights reserved.
Seriously, other arguments for Tina are that she has experience working with Nudge and instinctively understands Phix’s nature, so she would be in a good position to have today’s insight.
But when Tina was resurected, she was minus one soul, so that wasn’t an upgrade, it was a retrograde/downgrade. So shouldn’t she have become Tina 0.0 (from 1.0)? Or maybe Tina 0.9 so as to give room as demons leave. With Nudge gone as well, she becomes Tina 0.8.
I think we are using version numbers, so an increasing number just means newer, not necessarily more features or better. A newer version can certainly be more broken. Some people paid extra money so they could upgrade to Windows XP (version 5.1) from Vista (version 6.0), for example. The other thing would be that Tina 0.9 could mean Tina before she was born.
Of course, the way Windows is coded sometimes, some people paid good money to retrograde from 5.2 to 5.1, since the stupid program was on an automatic upgrade, and didn’t bother to check what was already installed…
Now that made me laugh out loud! *looks around to see if anyone noticed* Never thought about The Library having a P.A. system. Even if you aren’t right it was a good and funny idea.
I been in a lot of Libraries (Umm maybe I shouldn’t admit that?) But I have yet to find one with a PA system. Wouldn’t that contradict the famous Quite nature of these places?
Well, it’s a really, really big library. Gotta get the word out somehow when it’s closing time. “Attention please. The library will be closing in 15 ethereal minutes. Please bring your final selections to the front so you may be judged worthy of the tomes you desire. Anyone caught trying to sneak out a book will be eaten. Have a nice day/night/millenium/time period of your choosing.”
I wonder if the library has web access, like the library of congress.
Or even simpler – you’re deep in the stacks, looking for a book — and suddenly you’re standing in front of the Librarian’s desk.
Our public library wasn’t that big, but did have a PA system–precisely for making announcements like closing time, or tornados, or whatnot. I’m not sure Nudges qualified, however.
OK — From the Top…
1. Phix was the new sphinx in town and got stumped by a riddle on her first day.
2. Nudge (assuming she’s not lying) is an ultimate altruist, seeking to help others despite hazard to herself
3. Phix and Nudge have reverted to bargaining with Monica as if she’s the arbiter of the situation.
4. Given 3, both Phix and Nudge seem to feel they need Monica on their side — Phix despite her inherent power and authority, and Nudge because she lacks the same.
5. And the Voice is coming from someone! But who?
- Kukulkahn?
- The Library (incarnate device as suggested yesterday?
- Tezpoz (with magical weasel powers)?
- Jin?
- Mayahuel (my vote)?
- Pablowapsi (4th wall violations galore)?
- Her Highness, Queen of the Sphinxes (back from vacation)?
Or — Somebody New?!?!?
My vote is for Tepoz; he always seems to know more than he “accidentally” lets slip… I know I’m not right, but I’m smiling just visualizing that scenario, especially vis a vis Monica and the golem girls
I’m voting for Tep just because we haven’t seen the little imp for a long time. Or maybe a write in for a certain pizza loving dog who turns out to be WAY more important than Paul ever suspected
And Phix didn’t kill anyone? So why was she so down on herself for who she was in her youth? She was displeased with herself because she didn’t follow the pack and jump into the killing spree?
She doesn’t say she didn’t kill anyone – just that she just thought the riddle thing was a Bad Idea.
Actually, she said she had “nothing to do with the killings” further up.
Not only is SWM’s question valid, but why would the other sphinxes have stopped killing just because the one who hadn’t done anything had to fill in for Nudge? It’s possible that Nudge managed to trick the other sphinxes somehow and that somehow forced them to stop killing. That might explain the statement that they continued killing until one got an answer that stumped her.
Or perhaps Oedipus spread his padded story and the Sphinxes got wind of it. Maybe upon hearing that one of their number got “stumped and killed herself” they quit killing. It’s even possible that they didn’t know Phix was in the Library for a while.
Fairportfan read the strip before it was corrected.
I assumed that the killing stopped as soon as the “stumping” occurred, but I suppose if it happened soon after it would be close enough. Still, Nudge would have been pretty dishonest. If it was Oedipus’s story that tricked the other sphinxes, why did Nudge say that she was the one to do it? Taking credit for that would seem to run contrary to wanting to get Monica to trust her.
Back to SWM’s point, if Phix wasn’t a mass murderer, why would she wait until now to say so? Even now, she is bringing it up only to make Nudge look bad. I suppose it’s possible that Phix went along with Oedipus’s deception at first if it would have sounded like humans could defeat the sphinxes in order to get them to stop, but surely they would have figured things out eventually. The library is what wanted them to continue. It would have had to give them permission to stop.
“Nothing to do with the killings” when talking about a specific set of killings – at the gates of Thebes – doesn’t mean you didn’t kill anyone somewhere else.
Maybe she was displeased with the pack. ‘Sins of the fathers’, and so on.
One can be a monster without killing people…Phix never specified why she thought so little of herself in her youth. Perhaps it was her tendency to still react violently if not murderously (i.e. shredding a book that’s thrown at her instead of catching it and behaving like a rational creature), perhaps she used to kick puppies…the world may never know.
Puppy kicking is a fine art among cats of all sizes.
I think the answer to number 4 is that they both like Monica and consider her a friend. They both realize that their actions may in some way weaken their friendship with her and are striving to show that they are in the good one. They don’t want to lose Monica as a friend.
I’m not sure about 1. I don’t see how shredding a book counts as being stumped by an answer to a riddle. IIRC, Nudge never identified Phix as being the one who was stumped (Bud did, but Bud could have been wrong and Oedipus padded the story). I also don’t see how that would have stopped the other sphinxes. Nudge said she tricked the sphinxes (plural). There may be more to this.
2. I’m not sure that Nudge is so much of an altruist as an egoist. She may be more like an obnoxious know-it-all.
3. Yeah, that’s strange. It’s as if their egos depend on Monica siding with them. It may be that they have been hating each other for so long, they need their hatred validated by a third party. The argument is rather pointless. That’s why it seemed strange that Monica was getting into it yesterday.
4. I don’t see it that way. I don’t see how Phix had any authority. Phix was merely a tool who’s task was over. I don’t know why Nudge would have cared about authority, but Nudge was going to have whatever authority the librarian had.
Once they find out that they will both be librarians, it changes things. Now they are going to have to share whatever authority, the librarian has. That gives them an incentive, other than their egos, to fight. They also have a strong incentive to figure out how to get along, too.
@W:
Of course, that’s a good way to loose Monica as a friend. But people do that…
BTW, I don’t think “incarnate” means what you think it does. Some books probably deal with rather meaty topics, but still…
Oh, wait! Phix is a carnivore! That’s what happened to the missing wing!
It’s so obviously Roy! Any suggestions contrary are the product of infidels!
May I offer you a ham sandwich?
Librarians… meet your boss.
The LIBRARY ITSELF!
Oook.
This has me wondering about the page with Phix walking past the wall of skulls. If she didn’t kill with a riddle.. she still killed….. otherwise why is there a wall of skulls there?
>.>
Because those were skulls from those killed by other sphinxes, and she treats it as her own crime because she was not able to prevent it from happening?
~D.
Hmmmm that’s a good thought. Phix is interesting…
now the only question remaining is what’s up with Tina.. she’s still catatonic..
She doesn’t say that she didn’t kill anybody – just that she thought that the methodology used by the other sphinxes was suspect..
I wish I could cut and paste from the comic image. “This from the moron that managed to have the one sphinx that had nothing to do with the killings…” Lower left speech balloon in the first panel.
Ask and ye shall have some moron do it for you…
aaand, that didn’t work… :/
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j390/StJason/thisfrom.gif
I’m still thinking she means “the killings outside Thebes”.
Oopsie! I left off a line of text. o_O Hit refresh and all will be fixed.
Thanks to StJason, the rest of us can find out what everyone else was talking about.
Originally, it made it sound as if Nudge was Phix’s mother! Now that would be an interesting thought.
Perhaps the mistake is why Fairportfan missed what Phix was saying about not killing anyone.
Ruh-roh, Raggy!
Also: Nudge is almost as tall as Phix? Granted, we know she can get bigger… but smaller? If she could, why is she wandering around the museum at six feet-ish?
Maybe Nudge is gaining size as she starts to stand up to Phix?
I love the way everyone is looking up but in a slightly different direction…
THE OBAMA-GOD HAS SPOKEN! XD
…aaaaaand.. cue a two-month long side story about Bud and Brandi going out and getting new clothes. >:-D
Friend, if that starts tomorrow, the mob with torches, pitchforks, rakes and left-handed Cornish ho-reaper’s hooks will be at your door by Friday at the latest.
Urk.
“hop-reaper”.
Oh good…I was wondering just exactly what a ho-reaper looked like.
grrrrrrrrrr……
er .. like a reaper of hos?
@txmystic: Now now…what’s that growling for?
@jordinyc: Well yes, but what/who reaps hos? Are we suggesting that hos have their own Grim Reaper? Or that there is a method for harvesting them? Hmm?
Maybe they’re harvested for the fast ho business. “Ah … I’ll have 2 hos to go, please … oh, and make one with extra sleeze!”
Poor uh poor uh StJason. Drum roll as the guillotine blade is hoisted into position. Drum-roll stops *Thunk*. Angry mob jeers!
*sob sob* sorely missed, requiem en pace
That’s angry mob cheers.
My hypothesis of a sapient library has more evidence now.
That’s Library to you.
My vote goes to Tina. (sort of) (The only KNOWN other charater/person in The Library.)
The once main controling entity of Tina is free to control again.
How long has this entity been out of the loop – or just watching what was happening around her?
That was sort of my reasoning – she was the only other person there, and we haven’t seen her since Phix applied the choke-hold to Nudge.
Come on people, its the Voice of God as styled by Morgan Freeman, we’ll probably have a body of God being a cute girl.
A little old man in a golf cap, wearing trifocals.
I’d go with one (or more) of the versions from Joan of Arcadia.
@StJason: I’m thinking that, since Phix has calmed down, she’s settling back into a less imposing physique. Picture a werewolf as the full moon is masked behind clouds…
“Deus Ex Pablowapsi”?
Khool. Wapsi Square has just about cracked the top 50 again…keep voting!
I vote … Dietzel. I mean, he can order pizza over the telephone, right?
I don’t know. If I heard a voice like that on the phone, I’d hang up!
Public Address systems always make you sound “larger than life”. I think the dog’s in on it, somehow.
Just when you thought the world was saved, another mystery arises, and another problem come out of the woodwork…Without Nudge, Will Tina remain “alive” or will collective demons fall apart? And what about those things in Tina’s basement? Where is Tep? How is Jin coping with “normal” life and her mother?
Will “living” together, Nudge and Phix drive each other crazy?
PBH
THUNK! and into the round file goes my theory that Phix is a golem; once again, plausible does not equal probable.
It sounded so good yesterday.
I think that can be said for 99% of the theories presented here.
So far, I run about 5%, maybe a bit better. Paul is a damn sight more inventive than I am …
golem sphinx? epic but remember the process the girls went through to become golems who would have the power and nerve to do that to a sphinx?
Read yesterday’s comments on that – I theorized that Mayahuel used a modified process to incorporate herself into the golem. Phix would be scratch-built — no previous life to be mixed in.
1) It may be lack of sleep on my part, but Nudge has morphed from creepy to downright cute.
2) A message from one of the “higher-ups”. Now that’s awesome and scary at the same time. I love the world that Pablo has created here…
Nudge was insanely cute just before the “hammer” came down…
There can be a very fine line between cute and creepy. I’m not sure which side Nudge was on at times. But I’d probably pick the bottom frame today as being the cutest.
Awww…it’s little and it’s fuzzy. That automatically equals cute in my book….most of the time…
Oh? Here is something small and fuzzy. May I hear your reaction? And remember, we’re in a library, so shhhhhhh.
Well, thankfully I hovered over the link first to get and idea of what you were going to have me see. As a slowly recovering arachnaphobe, I will gladly share my reaction (minus any panic attacks or screaming since this is a Library).
No…that’s not little. Spiders are not supposed to get that big, so it’s like the arachnid version of the 50 foot woman…a monster, and not at all cute.
Situations like that are why I qualify statements on here (I did say “most of the time” and not “all the time”).
I guess the Head of the Library decided to speak up. Maybe he/she was getting sick of the noise that was distracting him/her from his/her work.
You know you’re in for it when the whole Library decides you’re grounded!
OH SHI-
….GODDAMN YOU, PAUL TAYLOR!!! *shakes a fist*
The suspense!!!
“OLD WOLF” said it – ‘Cute n Creppy’ I think I dated her once…..
Seriously, It sounds like everyones onto something: A SENTIANT LIBRARY, containing all knowledge. Aaahhh! Thats BRILLIANT!
I think it’s just all books. If it’s all knowledge, then it’d have to be a bit… different.
…also, it’d then have copies of my comic. Poor, poor library. Ugh.
Am I a bad person for wanting to snuggle up to Nudge’s soft and comfy looking bosom?
*shifty eyes*
On that note, it is rather interesting that Nudge ended up being so furry when Monica’s original view of her (with one eye closed) was more rough and leathery. Perhaps explained by that first view being somewhat “distorted” by it’s nature? Maybe masked or blurred by coming from inside Tina?
~D.
Actually, it could be argued that she has fur in her first appearance (look at her arms…furry around the elbows and forearms). It’s possible that the rest of what completes the furry look was concealed under Tina’s t-shirt (i.e. the furry outline of her breasts). Really, the textured coloring of her “fur” hasn’t changed that much.
I think it was a spring dress, not a t-shirt, looking a few pages later. A couple of pages earlier, you might have thought you saw pants or shorts, but I think that was her thumb.
It also might be be that Monica didn’t have her eye completely closed, so we saw a blending of Tina and Nudge. Or the fur might count as clothing, which was replaced by the dress. Still, the protrusions looked like bony spikes, not fur, to me, particularly near her shoulders. The way they have looked recently has varied, but they come across more like clumps of fur.
An additional argument that the original was not pure Nudge is that the spirals were still faintly visible. Nudge’s eyes have varied, but they never had spirals. The spirals seem to have come from the demons, not Nudge.
> Am I a bad person for wanting to snuggle up to Nudge’s soft and comfy looking bosom?
No. No. And No Again.
I’m seeing the need for a Nudge pin-up soon! =)
Figurine.
Nudge skin rug?
There is nothing like a potential common threat to stop the bickering and bring divergent beings together as a group.
Oh shoot! That went to the wrong place. It should have been in a thread of it’s own.
“…it is rather interesting that Nudge ended up being so furry when Monica’s original view of her (with one eye closed) was more rough and leathery.”
Please note that Nudge has been steadily morphing, slowly, frame by frame, the most visible change being in her eyes …
… and work together. Oh, and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
OK, after a decent night rest I’m convinced even more the booming voice is Tina. She’s had considerable time to view Phix’s and Nudge’s auras while they’ve been bickering. And she sees they should be working together instead of fighting.
Also how many more of these daily cliffhangers are there going to be? Staying up late to catch them when published is stealing from by beauty sleep.
It’s Magic Voice! Ten Seconds until Movie Sign!
BAH-HAHAHAHA!!!!!
Oh…that made my day. You know, I watch a lot of my movies with Rifftrax now just so I can re-experience the joys of MST3K.
*psst!* Get Winamp and watch this stream:
http://99.198.118.250:8010;stream.nsv
You are my hero!!
I still say that Phix doesn’t say she didn’t kill anybody, just that she didn’t kill anybody on the road to Thebes….
Taking her remarks in both panels together:
She says she “had nothing to do with the killings”, that she wasn’t “…stationed outside Thebes … until that day…”, and that she was against killing “…via a riddle”.
Taken together, that sounds to me as if she’s referring specifically to what was going on at Thebes.
Maybe i’m wrong; it’s happened before.
Perhaps Paul could clarify?
To expand just a bit – specifically stating that you were against “killing via a riddle” implies the possibility that you weren’t against killing in general.
Kind of like the fact that you didn’t have actual intercourse with the intern does not mean your relationship wasn’t sexual.
You could be right, but Phix was defending herself against the general accusation that she was a violent bully. She also seemed to be implying that imprisoning her was a bad thing compared to imprisoning the other sphinxes, and Nudge seems to be reacting as if that must be so. But who knows?
Killing people who fall under the Texas Needed Killin’ Law isn’t being a bully.
Violent, yes – bully, no.
Okay…while I shouldn’t be proud of some of associations made to my home state, it made me smile to see it mentioned.
And you’re right…you’re not necessarily a bully if you’re just enforcing laws. Violence and bullying may go hand in hand, but they are not connected at the hip.
There is a difference between killing someone cause they can’t figure out a ridiculous riddle and someone who is evil and needs killing. The difference is important.
Maybe Tina -is- the Library now. <.<
Sorry. Sickness + Wapsi Square is probably not the best idea. x.x
PA System + Tina voice seems the most plausible though, unless Phix's mom just showed up to give her daughter a scolding.
THERE IS NO LIBRARY ONLY ZUUL!
Beware of Marshmallow Percipitation!
Terrific. NOW where’s everybody gonna get their coffee?!
Oh, Tina is still there… just minus Nudge. I will be curious to see if she can still dispense her usual wisdom…
I don’t drink coffee.
http://comics.com/over_the_hedge/2010-11-01/
The Ultimate example of Coffee Bullet Time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbEUwGcBgE4
We’ve seen Monica with startled and wide eyed looks, we’ve even seen nudge all pop eyed, but this is the first time I can recall Sphinx looking caught off guard!
BE afraid! BE VERY, VERY AFRAID!!!
“God’s wounds, dost thou covet destruction, thou maniac? It is The Boss!” -Twain, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Geena Davis, The Fly (1986)
Sorry I forgot the reference.
I just couldn’t help making the comparison:
A SEPULCHRAL VOICE REVERBERATING THROUGH
THE CAVE SAYS, “CAVE CLOSING
SOON. ALL ADVENTURERS EXIT IMMEDIATELY
THROUGH MAIN OFFICE.”
Touch nothing but the lamp… turn it off to save hydro
LAST ONE OUT TURN OFF THE GLOBE!
I don’t think anyone has asked the big question yet. What was “why the both need to stay there and work together?” I have no clue. Anybody?
It would be nice if when big voices start booming out they made sense. That would make it too easy, though, I guess. They have to be mysterious and speak in riddles.
… other than the fact that there is a big booming voice that says so, of course.
The trouble is, we are attempting to do the equivalent of analyzing and critiquing a film, while being permitted to view only one frame at a time.
We have a super powered race of beings that are lawful stupid (at best). That more than enough reason. Vogons that are pretty are still Vogons.
Very interesting… New characters are always so exciting. But where’s Tina?
Also, am I the only one wondering how Nudge’s bosom is staying pushed together without any support/clothes? Not really a vulgar thought, just curious.
Superglue?
“Word from on high, you both have better things you could be doing” :p. I finally got caught up on this comic and on my birthday no less. Love the story. Gives me lots to think about and lots of little things to pick up on. Keep up the good work.
I think the working together is to help solve Jin’s problem. Also if Mucho Mocha doesn’t open up tomorrow Bud might flatten the Earth unless Brandi has restocked the cupboard with coffee. So no pressure about Tina being okay…
Love that last frame.
HARK YE CLOSELY! Thou ist subdued, for tis a mighty spirit indeed whom hath spake… :-O