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"Ink Be Gone"
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Ink Be Gone
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Latest Medusa Comic

Ink Be Gone

by Paul Taylor on January 15, 2010 at 12:00 am
Story: Wapsi-Archive
Characters: Bud, Mayahuel, Shelly

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Discussion (91) ¬

  1. fairportfan
    January 15, 2010, 12:02 am | # | Reply

    So Shelly doesn’t have the tat any more.

    What about Luci?

    • Craig Roth
      January 15, 2010, 12:07 am | # | Reply

      What about her??

      I’m sorry, but Luci’s problem with Shelly is just that: Luci’s problem.

      • fairportfan
        January 15, 2010, 1:25 am | #

        But Shelly worries about her opinion.

      • Bitterman
        January 15, 2010, 11:38 am | #

        She said that the ink of the portal cloth was useless now, but did not say that it was gone. I don’t think it is blood, because blood didn’t change damage the other portal cloth… it still worked fine.
        http://wapsisquare.com/comic/notanyfruitmarket/

      • Saku
        January 15, 2010, 4:51 pm | #

        It still needed to be locked. So it could have been blood and a locking?

  2. Kellisanth
    January 15, 2010, 12:02 am | # | Reply

    I sure hope that “ink” wasn’t blood. And poor Shelly.

    Curious to know who this newcomer is. 🙂 I mean, I might know, but… I’m never really good at guessing. 🙂

    (waits for next week’s thread)

    • Craig Roth
      January 15, 2010, 12:10 am | # | Reply

      Based on all that’s been presented, I would say that is Jin’s mom, the ‘B’ objective of this little expedition.

      • Twilakam
        January 15, 2010, 9:15 am | #

        Thought crossed my mind, too. ;3

  3. Craig Roth
    January 15, 2010, 12:04 am | # | Reply

    I’m glad to see Shelly survived that. At least, I HOPE she did!!

  4. Kellisanth
    January 15, 2010, 12:13 am | # | Reply

    @Pablo – Curious. What typeset/font did you use for the demonic language?

    • Paul Taylor
      January 15, 2010, 9:10 am | # | Reply

      I created it myself. =)

      • Patrick Mc
        January 15, 2010, 10:22 am | #

        When it first appeared a few of us tried to figure out how to translate, but made little progress and gave up (at least I did).

      • Brian
        January 15, 2010, 11:27 am | #

        It would have been a lot easier if in the background there would be things such as a billboard that said “Drink Slurm” in both that script and the latin alphabet.

      • Brian
        January 15, 2010, 11:29 am | #

        Well then, you did a damn good job!

      • sco3tt
        January 15, 2010, 2:12 pm | #

        That’s DemonDings font, common on the other side, here not so much. Paul has this weird design on the wall of his studio you see . . .

      • bmonk
        May 19, 2011, 4:40 pm | #

        Are you sure it isn’t on his g-friend’s belly?

  5. ziggy78eog
    January 15, 2010, 12:14 am | # | Reply

    Okay, that first panel is a tangle of limbs flying out of Shelly’s abdomen. I can make out Bud, but there is something strange about the second (please tell me that is a second person). To me, the proportion between leg and torso seem off. And who did Bud take with her? Jin’s mother? Maybe.

    And the second panel does not bode well for Shelly. That does not look healthy at all. It looks like her chest exploded. I think Shelly has a little bit more to worry about than dirty undergarments.

    • Kellisanth
      January 15, 2010, 12:15 am | # | Reply

      As long as it isn’t a chestbusting Alien, we’re ok. Right? 😀

    • fatuncle
      January 15, 2010, 12:21 am | # | Reply

      I think you are looking at an artifact of perspective – the upper torso is twisted towards you,foreshortening it.

      The “blood” would appear to be the ink from the tattoo, which Bud has snatched off Shelly with a word of command.

      I hope.

    • Pat
      January 15, 2010, 3:56 pm | # | Reply

      Was there someone bothering Shelly before? It was a sidescroll comic. Maybe her?

  6. jwhouk
    January 15, 2010, 12:15 am | # | Reply

    GUARANTEE – Monday’s comic will feature one word:

    MOM!

    • jwhouk
      January 15, 2010, 12:26 am | # | Reply

      Unless, of course, Pablo’s still out of commission with his back.. 🙁

  7. fatuncle
    January 15, 2010, 12:16 am | # | Reply

    Lordy! Looks like Bud has been to the wars …

  8. Virnin
    January 15, 2010, 12:17 am | # | Reply

    Bud was only holding”mystery woman with nicely muscled legs” when she came through so the other portal is still “in there”. Of course with no end-point in this world, I hope it isn’t going to be very useful.

    • Pat
      January 15, 2010, 3:58 pm | # | Reply

      What could it do with no end-point?The whole thing reminds me of a Dirac Sea – to change one thing, you must put another in its place.

  9. jae
    January 15, 2010, 12:18 am | # | Reply

    Who says the “The ink of the portal cloth is useless now!”? The newcomer? (Who many likely hope is Jin’s mom). And what’s it mean? That they’re in (some unknown) deep doo doo now?

    • fairportfan
      January 15, 2010, 1:27 am | # | Reply

      Bud, i assume, since she seems to be ripping the ink from Shelly’s torso in the previous panel.

      And i suspect it means that Bud somehow shut down the portal behind her…

      • stjen
        January 17, 2010, 7:40 am | #

        I’m thinking that she ripped the ink off the portal cloth itself that was left inside the demon universe, and it was the last thing to pass thru the portal out of Shelly. I don’t think she ripped the ink out of the tattoo (or did anything that injured Shelly).

  10. Ziggy Stardust
    January 15, 2010, 12:23 am | # | Reply

    Why would Shelly’s mum be in Shelly’s hammerspace(boiler room)/through the portal cloth? Shelly’s mum is dead.

    • jwhouk
      January 15, 2010, 12:27 am | # | Reply

      Not Shelly’s mom… JIN’S mom.

      • Rachel
        January 15, 2010, 8:50 am | #

        Yes, that’s who I think it is, Jin mom.

      • Leak
        January 16, 2010, 2:26 pm | #

        Anyone else expecting a “your mom” joke on Monday? 😉

  11. rande11
    January 15, 2010, 12:42 am | # | Reply

    Oh no, her favorite boots are gone!

    • jwhouk
      January 15, 2010, 1:20 am | # | Reply

      Looks like there’s not much that’s left of them, but there’s still something there on her feet.

      • SoWhyMe
        January 15, 2010, 2:30 am | #

        It looks like a moccasin of some sort. As if she is dressed in native clothes. Makes me wonder how long she was in there. What is only a couple of minutes to us may be much, much longer in a world without time. I guess, in theory, you could be in there eons yet emerge shortly after you left.

        She must have had someone hot on her heels as well to come out like that. Great sequence of panels. The second even has a dimensional look to it.

  12. hewolf
    January 15, 2010, 1:28 am | # | Reply

    Glad that last frame labeled that as Ink. Thought Shelly bought it in the end there.

  13. TlalocW
    January 15, 2010, 1:38 am | # | Reply

    Huge Spoiler: That’s not Jin’s mom. It’s Amelia Earhart. I can’t believe you guys all missed the clues leading up to Bud bringing her back.

    • Dusty668
      January 15, 2010, 4:42 am | # | Reply

      Amelia Earhart’s legs aren’t nearly that long. Also where was the shirt shredding as they came through/ripped out the ink?

      • fairportfan
        January 15, 2010, 10:43 am | #

        The portal isn’t really “physically” on Shelly’s chest, it’s apparently a one-dimensional interface. Things don’t actually go “through” it; i remember that “Doc” Smith once described fourth-dimensional beings as moving “past, not through” three-dimensional surfaces.

        Also, Pablo’s established that things could go either way without damaging Shelly’s clothing:

        http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dontfreak/
        http://wapsisquare.com/comic/notanyfruitmarket/

    • Dusty668
      January 15, 2010, 4:43 am | # | Reply

      Plus we need to save up to get Bud another set of those boots.

  14. Alex C.
    January 15, 2010, 3:19 am | # | Reply

    I’m glad the ‘ink’ comment was added there, with the stunned/staring look of Shelly’s eye in panel 2 it really looked like she was suffering serious, bloody harm. As she is my favourite character, that would have been upsetting.

    I assume that the pattern of the tattoo/cloth print is a major factor in how it works, so ripping it out and letting the ink spatter permanently ‘locks’ it.

    • jwhouk
      January 15, 2010, 10:15 pm | # | Reply

      Given that Jin mentioned that the design was the important part of the cloth when she inked Shel in the first place, I’d say you’re right.

  15. mister8coffee
    January 15, 2010, 4:21 am | # | Reply

    I’m just glad Bud is back, of all the characters I liked her development the best. Not that I don’t care for anyone else, I just found her story a tiny little bit more compelling. Same with Kath. …

    Maybe I just like more broken characters journeys better. Meh, it’s 0521 and I’ve been up all night, maybe I’m just over thinking this…….

    • mister8coffee
      January 15, 2010, 4:23 am | # | Reply

      I just realized that today is friday and I’m going to have to wait till monday to find out what the hell happens next …. and again I have to say damn cliffhangers.

  16. Eleanor
    January 15, 2010, 4:57 am | # | Reply

    I think it could be TIna… The real Tina!

    • Bucky Katt
      January 15, 2010, 9:12 am | # | Reply

      Now there’s a wrinkle I hadn’t considered – though I kind of like her as a demon conglomerate.

      Besides, Tina’s body is still back in Minneapolis.

    • fuzzyprint
      January 15, 2010, 12:13 pm | # | Reply

      Ooooh, I dig this theory.

  17. Bucky Katt
    January 15, 2010, 8:01 am | # | Reply

    The ink from the portal cloth is useless now. Unfortunately, so are most of Shelly’s internal organs. Way to take one for the team, kid. We’ll buy ya a park bench somewhere nice.

    But seriously, I think the extra person pretty much has to be Jin’s mom, who was sucked into the demon realm when she tried to destroy the calendar. And I suspect she just may be the one with the power to unmake the Chimera and free the GG’s from their clay doll state – though I hope they still keep the teeth and some of their cool powers.

  18. Nitfol
    January 15, 2010, 8:36 am | # | Reply

    So that’s why Shelley wasn’t wearing a bra – she knew there’s be ink spilled and didn’t want to ruin it. Makes sense, though now her shirt got ruined instead.

  19. Wildfox01
    January 15, 2010, 8:55 am | # | Reply

    Curious to see what Jin’s mom will be like. It will be nice to have Jin have her mom back. 🙂 Should be an interesting story.

  20. TlalocW
    January 15, 2010, 10:28 am | # | Reply

    Also remember that Jin’s mom is Monica’s bisabuela (great grandmother), or at least Monica thought she was. So it could be a double-homecoming if that IS Jin’s mom.

  21. kingklash
    January 15, 2010, 11:15 am | # | Reply

    Why mention the ink specifically? Saying the Portal was rendered inert, or it’s closed forever would have been as well, but why say the ink is useless? What was it made from, and made for?

    • hewolf
      January 15, 2010, 12:42 pm | # | Reply

      Black and white. Without that comment, it can easily be mistaken for blood.

      • fairportfan
        January 15, 2010, 1:41 pm | #

        That’s oneof the resons Hitchcock decided to shot Psycho in B&W – he could get away with more (given the movie censorship of the day) in the shower scene (and use Hershey’s Syrup, which was easier than fake blood, too).

        (Another other reason is that it gave him more budget for cast, so he could hire Janet Leigh to use as a fakeout to make the shower scene more shocking…)

    • sco3tt
      January 15, 2010, 2:17 pm | # | Reply

      Maybe there are a great many portals, but without they ink they’re non-functional.
      @hewolf yeah, good call, sometimes characters in comics need to say something as a means of clarification. I never liked the narrative box.

    • kingklash
      January 16, 2010, 3:45 pm | # | Reply

      I’m just saying that there are many things to make ink from, and in a MultiUniversal way, an example is the ink from the not-lamented never-was game Tattoo Assassins, made from a amorphous living fluid.

      But, my head is a curio shop of unrelated bits and pieces of not-always-trivial information where occasionally, a lightning bolt of inspiration courses through. The path of Least Resistance connects up several items never meant to do so. It’s overthinking without thought. Zen analysis. Spontaneous platypus. It’s suddenly there, a combo of parts that work together pretty well, but not in the looks department.

      So I was wondering what the ink really was.

  22. symbiote01
    January 15, 2010, 11:49 am | # | Reply

    So. What happens two years from now, when the giant asteroid/solar flare/whatever threatens the planet, and the machine that was designed to somehow save us from it (and has done so all these years by turning back time itself) isn’t there?
    We’re doomed! DOOMED!
    …or not. This just seems too… tidy.

    • UncleRice
      January 15, 2010, 3:21 pm | # | Reply

      Hand one of the golem girls a pool cue. It’ll be 8 ball in the corner pocket.

    • Pat
      January 15, 2010, 4:02 pm | # | Reply

      Ah… is there a reference point for the asteroid?

      • symbiote01
        January 16, 2010, 5:22 pm | #

        No reference, just random conjecture. But the calendar machine was built to do something, right? And if it isn’t there, it can’t do whatever it was designed to. Who knows what our master storyteller has in store for us?

  23. Saku
    January 15, 2010, 4:05 pm | # | Reply

    Somehow, I’m wondering if it’s not one or the other theory – it’s both. Ink hit the wall, leaving Shelly’s blood behind and a really messy problem.

    With that, maybe SHE is the one brought back – this isn’t necessarily the great evil that came with Bud. Especially since Bud was able to cast the spell to take the ink off without being stopped. Unfortunately it means that Bud has to make Shelly take one for the team. But however long she was stuck in there – with a great evil, even – what would that do to the poor woman’s mind?

    • jwhouk
      January 15, 2010, 10:22 pm | # | Reply

      What’d be worse is if her mom doesn’t recognize Jin.

      • Pat
        January 16, 2010, 6:13 am | #

        …that would be worse than Shelly dying?

      • jwhouk
        January 16, 2010, 2:29 pm | #

        No, I meant that what’d be worse than Jin’s mom being as insane (if not more) than Jin is right now, is if Jin’s mom didn’t recognize her own daughter.

        Of course, what would be really nuts is if Mayahuel (or whatever Pablo names her – I’m in for just “Mae”) looks just like Jin.

      • fairportfan
        January 16, 2010, 2:36 pm | #

        There’s astrip in which Jin’s mother (i think) juliennes a guard’s face to impress a king, and, yeah, as i recall, she looked a bit like Jin.

      • jwhouk
        January 16, 2010, 7:53 pm | #

        You’re right: “You Need Better Protection”

      • fatuncle
        January 17, 2010, 10:32 pm | #

        fairportfan, jwhouk, I just went back and read through that, and I think that was Jin herself, rather than her mother. The previous strip: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/notimportant/
        mentions Jin’s first interview, and then passes immediately into your referenced page.

      • Paul Taylor
        January 17, 2010, 11:23 pm | #

        Fatuncle, in book two, I mention in a flashback that that was indeed Jin’s mom that did the slicing of the guard. =)

      • fatuncle
        January 18, 2010, 1:52 am | #

        Ah. (carefully writing that down) Not Jin; Jin’s mom

        I try to keep track of these things.

  24. fatuncle
    January 15, 2010, 4:23 pm | # | Reply

    This is somewhat off the subject, but I have been re-reading portions of the archives, checking out the lead-ins to some of what is happening now, and I have been struck by the growth of the artistic skill displayed here.

    This strip has gone from a fairly flat, 2-D line drawing to depth-on-depth, ink-wash paintings; the artwork is first class.

  25. Leeskra
    January 15, 2010, 8:36 pm | # | Reply

    OMG ITS HER MOM 😀 😀 😀 😀 :D: D
    COOLNESS!
    Let’s see where Jin gets her looks from 😉

  26. jwhouk
    January 15, 2010, 10:21 pm | # | Reply

    It’d be funny if Jin looks nothing like her mom. :LOL:

    • Bucky Katt
      January 15, 2010, 10:36 pm | # | Reply

      I’m hoping Jin’s mom looks like Joan Crawford. Seriously. And brought a wire coat hanger with her back from the other side.

      • Pat
        January 16, 2010, 6:11 am | #

        Do I… want to know what you mean?

      • Dusty668
        January 16, 2010, 6:49 am | #

        See if you can rent/Hulu a movie called “Mommie Dearest” There ya go.

      • Bucky Katt
        January 16, 2010, 9:32 am | #

        Basically, Crawford’s daughter wrote a tell-all book that described her as a overcontrolling harpy, who went ballistic over trivial stuff like using wire coat hangers instead of wooden ones. But it’s nothing compared to what Jin’s mom has put her through.

      • fairportfan
        January 16, 2010, 10:55 am | #

        Actually, i believe that the coat-hanger reference is to the fact that said (adopted) daughter said Crawford whipped her with a wire coat hanger…

  27. RKSAustin
    January 16, 2010, 12:18 am | # | Reply

    Now this a finale! 🙂 🙂

  28. Pat
    January 16, 2010, 2:43 am | # | Reply

    But ink does not splat. Blood does. Together they could make a mighty big one.

    I hate to think it but maybe the voice is someone who did just mortally harm Shelly, from the other side of the portlan. Bud looks panicked so maybe she was trying to close the portal in time?

    But the splatter does seem to create shapes, but that could be the usual ‘see images in othersuch

    • bmonk
      May 19, 2011, 4:50 pm | # | Reply

      It depends on how much ink you throw. And it looks like there’s plenty of ink being thrown. It would splat!

  29. Pat
    January 16, 2010, 6:18 am | # | Reply

    Has the yellow behind the gear in the banner always been there, or, is it a new addition?

    • Paul Taylor
      January 16, 2010, 10:35 am | # | Reply

      It’s not always there, sometimes it’s red too. =)

      • fairportfan
        January 16, 2010, 10:58 am | #

        [dreyfuss]

        This Means Something.

        [/dreyfuss]

  30. Halex
    January 16, 2010, 11:32 am | # | Reply

    Three words:
    Go, team Acacia!

  31. SoWhyMe
    January 17, 2010, 3:40 pm | # | Reply

    Hopefully she destroyed the companion portal. Otherwise it could get really crowded in the boiler room.

    Thing is, destroying the current portals would not mean the danger is gone forever, just stopped for now. It should be remembered, what was done once can be done again. In theory, it should be only a matter of time before someone else creates new portals.

    • Paul Taylor
      January 17, 2010, 4:02 pm | # | Reply

      The portal doesn’t lead to the boiler room, that was a mistake on the part of Monica when drunkenly trying to poit herself and friends from the club to home. The boiler room has nothing to do with the cloth and Shelly’s tattoo. Anything attempting to go through the cloth in the demon realm now would be spit back where they came from.

  32. Anji
    January 17, 2010, 5:01 pm | # | Reply

    Weirdness. o.o Poor Shelly.

  33. jwhouk
    January 17, 2010, 5:16 pm | # | Reply

    So the question is, where does the boiler room lead to? (There is a door in the back…)

  34. Elkian
    July 13, 2010, 6:43 pm | # | Reply

    Ah…create a scar, disturb the tattoo.

  35. Centaur1971
    July 26, 2010, 2:03 am | # | Reply

    This reminds me of the blood splatter in Raiders, when that bald Nazi mechanic got minced in the airplane propeller

  36. JustaPhilosopher
    June 8, 2011, 2:54 pm | # | Reply

    Hmm, just made me think of a joke: If that ink in shelley’s tat WAS really a blood derivative, then could anyone using the portals catch “blood borne pathogens” from it? ;p

    Anyway, when she had the tat, I am assuming, like the cloth, her skin was indestructible… So, it looks like Bud used a command to extract the ink, though perhaps not in the most pleasant way, instead of doing an animalistic slashing/disemboweling of the braless Shelly. And with ink extract, no more tattoo, no more portal wormhole tube gateways things…

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