Yep. Shelly died in the forest before Jin could get her. That allowed her to be a portal to the Demon world like Monica became. In this last cycle, Jin didn’t know if Shelly or Monica would be the portal though which her mother (May) would communicate.
Conscience needs a longer t-shirt, it’s riding a little high. And while I have no problem with Shelly’s buns being visible, underage demonic ones should be kept covered…
It’s up for debate but the way Pablo tends to do his proportions, I’d say the shirt is riding right at the intersection of her upper thigh and behind. Plus her hair is long and covers anything that would be inappropriate. And even though in the past she’s been drawn with her shirt riding up showing her underpants, it never came across as inappropriate to me. She’s not sexualized at all. She’s just a kid. Kids run around without pants all the time.
So, are all these little girls the same one? And if so, where’s Monica’s little friend? Or is Monica her own little friend (thinking of the tutu and bug girl strips).
Shelly’s mother died (heart attack?) in her very rural home on a reservation. The telephone lines were down so Shelly could not call for help. Her mother’s death and subsequent dreams of rabbits were inspiration for Shelly to go a vision quest where she saw and chased the image of a rabbit, eventually encountering Jin as Tochtli. Jin discussed this with Monica here.
When Jin met Shelly, Shelly was virtually dead from the cold, so gaining access to her demons similarly to Monica. The reason Jin was late to rescue Shelly was because she was pre-occupied with rescuing Monica far away in Mexico at almost the same time.
Also, coincidentally, when the bus that ran down Monica stopped short, Tina’s car rear-ended the bus, so ending her life, sort of, and allowing Tina 2.0 to exist.
It’s late and I’ll stop now. (This thing really needs a preview window!)
Ooh, many thanks for the summary. This stuff is getting pretty complex. Even after re-reading ALL from day 1 (cost me the whole Saturday), I often got lost in all the threading&weaving..
Not because the storytelling is confusing ,but just because I am a dunce with a short memory….
There is one correction that needs to be made: there was absolutely zero coincidence to Tina and Monica being in the same accident. Monica’s part in that accident was engineered. Brandy convinced Monica’s and Tina’s demons to work together to make it happen…because it forced Jin to choose between rescuing Monica and rescuing Tina.
Turning Tina into what she is now was the only good way to get the clock key into Monica’s and/or Shelly’s hands.
The girl from Bud’s dream? Whoa, that’s quite a ways back in the archives. And a huge bit of foreshadowing.
If Conscience (so I spelled it right this time) is correct we’ve got a potential forth Golem Girl or 3+1 or whatever. … Hah I’ve got it..The girl. she’s a Ghost in the Shell.
And now that I think about it the more I’m convinced that Conscience is on to something. When Jin spaced out or freaked out the Cerebus Club during the girls night out (starting here) Jin talked about seeing a lost girl in the mirror and freaked out when Monica mentioned it was just Jin’s reflection. At the time we all assumed Jin was referring to herself. But what if Jin was seeing that small girl from Bud’s dream? What is the small girl did get mixed in with the Chimera and is now mostly in Jin? That could certainly explain Jin’s problem in part.
It was actually Tina who said that she was wrong, that the hole at Jin’s center wasn’t empty afterall. In the comics that follow the linked one, Bud postulates about the entity filling the hole being the girl from her dreams.
Huh…I’d forgotten that it was in that particular comic that the “haunted Jin” discussions began. I really liked that Tina image. 🙂
RE why the priests lost control of the Chimera: Contamination is correct, but it was Jin who was the contaminating factor. The Chimera was already running wild (and destroying everything in sight) when it encountered the little girl. Jin wasn’t crazed with pain and fear when she was killed like Bud and Brandi, and she was also Maya’s daughter, an Immortal, and apparently a bit of a magician herself. Her spirit was strong enough to break the priests’ control, but not strong enough to keep Bud and Brandi from lashing out in their agony at the world…
I don’t think we’ve actually been told that Shelly died before, and i think the only reason we know Monica died that day when she was fourteen and ran in front of the bus was that Jin mentioned it once … haven’t got the reference.
And, of course, that was the day that Tina died – in the same Mexico City incident, when she crashed her car into the back of the bus…
Oh; backstory – Shelly went out, completely unprepared, when she was the age Creepy looks to be, on a vision quest; Tochtli, the rabbit god (Jin, in actuality) came to her … apparently short-circuiting her death as she did for Monica the same day.
OK, assume my 12:30 Am comment below was written before i saw this…I remember now, that the reason Jin intervened both with Monica and Shelley was because she knew she needed both of them for the calendar machine dismantling…(whew) might have to re-read the archives again!
precisely…I know there have been some strips dedicated to that day, but what of the rabbit and the forest that Artemisia mentioned above? I cannot recall that…and we still do not have a complete backstory on Tina or Brandi’s role in the whole thing, another bit I have never really understood.
IIRC, we were not ‘observers’ of Shelly’s vision quest – it was refered to obliquily in flashbacks. Might make a good standalone graphic novel, though, Paul (Hint, Hint)
Totally true! I could spend hours digging in the archives looking for the one or two pages that explain a point I’m trying to make…but my boss expects me to get “real” work done. 😛
BTW: i mentioned WS in a comment on yesterday’s Guilded Age, and got (from someone using the name “Cole Train”) the following response:
Yes, but of course, that begs the assumption that Wapsi square is, in fact, a webcomic, rather than a barely-coherent jumble of roughly related words and images.
Well, You dare to ask from the reader some involvement and thinking…SACRILEGE!
To be perfectly honest, I am lost too every now&then, but re-reading and pondering for a bit wil, usually, let plot-threads twist together nicely. Wapsi Square is not “The Smurfs” that’s for sure…
PS I ordered the first two graphic novels.. Darn! pretty expensive to get them overhere in Europe.
Bah. Just someone who can’t appreciate a novel which is what Wapsi Square truly is. Th insulter probably considers webcomcs must be oneshot and self-contained. Again I say BAH!
Actually, ND, given that “Guilded Age” is even more of a complex narrative (told episodically in out-of-order segments, and well worth reading), i doubt that he “…considers webcomcs must be oneshot and self-contained…”
No–it’s just that nerds are not generally known for their highly-developed social skills–which means that, for them, when I don’t like something, it must be trash, since I am the soul of reason, taste, perfect logic, and an all-around good guy/gal.
“This” is my absolute favorite strip, artwise.
It so elegantly gives the feeling of despair they are feeling. But the recent work in the basement is creeping up on it as my favorite work by Paul.
I am constantly amazed by your artwork, sir.
I agree the color and all is great and really sets the mood, but I could appreciate it more if Shelly weren’t there in a bathing suit. It tends to make me kinda neaseous to look at pumped up women. Even drawn ones.
I am used to them. My Mom was 6.2″ and could crack coconuts with her bare hands, and my sister has never been beaten at arm-wrestling in High-School. And no, I am NOT making that up. She used to hammer in poles for our sheeps’ den with a ginormous hammer (Think ACME), just for fun… And yet, boys were allover her.
Paul is very good at matching the artistic style to the emotional content of the piece. He is a fine visual story-teller as evidenced by your example that contains no words.
OTOH, that panel, while great at expressing the mood, is somewhat diminished if you don’t know the story surrounding it.
Not to detract from its impact in any way.
Even someone not familiar with the story would get the sense of oppression and fespair and terror; for those who know what came before and what came after, it’s even more so.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t start reading “The Lord of the Rings” with the Two Towers. One should start a story at the beginning not in the middle; if they do they should expect to not know what is going on.
From the way the girls have described it, I got the impression that most people were vaporized before they had a chance to know what was coming. The girl in Bud’s dreams is the only one who might have investigated the beginnings of the disaster…especially if it was at a time when adults are busy or sleeping, and kids are supposed to be tucked away where they can’t be in the way.
I don’t know. Unless the fire/plasma ball was traveling faster than sound, it would have caused enough noise and destruction that people further away would have been roused and looked to see what was going on. Also, surely not everyone was being a good citizen and fast asleep at the time in any event. The flash of light would have gotten some to go to the window or door.
But would they have gotten to the window in time to see their destruction coming? It might have been a simple matter of “Whoa! What’s that noi- (insert death by burning plasma here)” The little girl could have been exiting her home for a reason, and therefore wasn’t responding and investigating, but accidentally saw death approaching.
Bah…this is silly. We’re probably making too much fuss over something that should just be accepted. 🙂
Oh. My. God. What a set of gluteus muscles, just look at the definition on that gluteus medius ( there are 3 gluteus muscles, maximus, medius, and minimus. with the max and medius moving the leg back and forth and the minimus rotating the leg at the hip. The medius is responsible for the shape of the butt along the side, and Shelly’s suit shows them to perfection.
Oh YESS..it’s the “thrill of imminent danger” Dating a comanche girl is a bit like bungee jumping with a bungee-cord that is “sort of the right length” I gather.
That last sentence feels kind of awkward. I had to read it several times to understand it was saying. Might I recommend the following changes? — “You didn’t realize you were dead when I first came to be.”
Is that something that Paul can control? Or is that something governed by the system provider? I know other comic sites that seem to use this same comment system (though I can’t attest to whether or not the comment box ever appeared anywhere other than the bottom there since I rarely comment other places).
i should amend – runs together in my head. my fault having trouble keeping track of things over time. paul is there any way, if you have extra time, if you could do a synopsis or timeline or something? i would love to better be able to link everything together
so in the forest with the rabbit and Jin… Shelley was Dead?
Yep. Shelly died in the forest before Jin could get her. That allowed her to be a portal to the Demon world like Monica became. In this last cycle, Jin didn’t know if Shelly or Monica would be the portal though which her mother (May) would communicate.
Shelly’s got a nice little bottom.
I concur, the only thing that I can think of after seeing this strip is… BUNS!
of STEEL!
Conscience needs a longer t-shirt, it’s riding a little high. And while I have no problem with Shelly’s buns being visible, underage demonic ones should be kept covered…
It’s up for debate but the way Pablo tends to do his proportions, I’d say the shirt is riding right at the intersection of her upper thigh and behind. Plus her hair is long and covers anything that would be inappropriate. And even though in the past she’s been drawn with her shirt riding up showing her underpants, it never came across as inappropriate to me. She’s not sexualized at all. She’s just a kid. Kids run around without pants all the time.
Since she is visually the age Shelly was when she came to be, that makes her twelve or thirteen, i believe. Touch old for the “no pants” bit.
My three-year-old granddaughter, now…
Don’t forget that the girls are not exactly in public. In privacy, they can wear whatever they want.
You don’t remember Laksmi teasing Owen for staring at Shelly’s but after she 1st cut her hair and not realizing it was her?
Hey what are those two up to? I miss them 🙁
What the hell does that mean???
It means that Shelly died on the same day Monica did.
And neither of them realised they’d been dead.
So, are all these little girls the same one? And if so, where’s Monica’s little friend? Or is Monica her own little friend (thinking of the tutu and bug girl strips).
OK: The little girl event is Here.
As for the rest of the background, roughly:
Shelly’s mother died (heart attack?) in her very rural home on a reservation. The telephone lines were down so Shelly could not call for help. Her mother’s death and subsequent dreams of rabbits were inspiration for Shelly to go a vision quest where she saw and chased the image of a rabbit, eventually encountering Jin as Tochtli. Jin discussed this with Monica here.
When Jin met Shelly, Shelly was virtually dead from the cold, so gaining access to her demons similarly to Monica. The reason Jin was late to rescue Shelly was because she was pre-occupied with rescuing Monica far away in Mexico at almost the same time.
Also, coincidentally, when the bus that ran down Monica stopped short, Tina’s car rear-ended the bus, so ending her life, sort of, and allowing Tina 2.0 to exist.
It’s late and I’ll stop now. (This thing really needs a preview window!)
Oops! That last link should be:
…Tina’s car rear-ended the bus, so ending her life sort of, and allowing Tina 2.0 to exist.
(The parent is awaiting moderation so sorry if u can’t see it)
Ooh, many thanks for the summary. This stuff is getting pretty complex. Even after re-reading ALL from day 1 (cost me the whole Saturday), I often got lost in all the threading&weaving..
Not because the storytelling is confusing ,but just because I am a dunce with a short memory….
REALLLLLY APPRECIATE THE SUMMERY TOTALLY HELPED ME UNDERSTAND THE STORY LINE ALOOOOT MORE. paul maybe you should consider hiring this guy to help 🙂
You, Sir, should write an outline for Wapsisquare with links to the comic. This is meant more as a compliment than a request.
I’m honored! It helps that I have all three of the books so far, and looking forward to the fourth!
Should PW ever set up a Wapsi Wiki, I will certainly put some time into it!
And what is stopping you from just going ahead and doing that?
There is one correction that needs to be made: there was absolutely zero coincidence to Tina and Monica being in the same accident. Monica’s part in that accident was engineered. Brandy convinced Monica’s and Tina’s demons to work together to make it happen…because it forced Jin to choose between rescuing Monica and rescuing Tina.
Turning Tina into what she is now was the only good way to get the clock key into Monica’s and/or Shelly’s hands.
The girl from Bud’s dream? Whoa, that’s quite a ways back in the archives. And a huge bit of foreshadowing.
If Conscience (so I spelled it right this time) is correct we’ve got a potential forth Golem Girl or 3+1 or whatever. … Hah I’ve got it..The girl. she’s a Ghost in the Shell.
And now that I think about it the more I’m convinced that Conscience is on to something. When Jin spaced out or freaked out the Cerebus Club during the girls night out (starting here) Jin talked about seeing a lost girl in the mirror and freaked out when Monica mentioned it was just Jin’s reflection. At the time we all assumed Jin was referring to herself. But what if Jin was seeing that small girl from Bud’s dream? What is the small girl did get mixed in with the Chimera and is now mostly in Jin? That could certainly explain Jin’s problem in part.
Not really. Hasn’t Tina been saying that Jin is possessed? Guess who?
Actually, as i recall it, Tina said that there was a hole at Jin’s center – it was Bud (i think) who brought up the little girl
It was actually Tina who said that she was wrong, that the hole at Jin’s center wasn’t empty afterall. In the comics that follow the linked one, Bud postulates about the entity filling the hole being the girl from her dreams.
Huh…I’d forgotten that it was in that particular comic that the “haunted Jin” discussions began. I really liked that Tina image. 🙂
Does that make Conscience the ‘Ghost in the Shelly’?
Sorry, but it had to be said…
…and now we know why they lost control of the Chimera.
One word: contamination.
RE why the priests lost control of the Chimera: Contamination is correct, but it was Jin who was the contaminating factor. The Chimera was already running wild (and destroying everything in sight) when it encountered the little girl. Jin wasn’t crazed with pain and fear when she was killed like Bud and Brandi, and she was also Maya’s daughter, an Immortal, and apparently a bit of a magician herself. Her spirit was strong enough to break the priests’ control, but not strong enough to keep Bud and Brandi from lashing out in their agony at the world…
Can someone help me with some archive dates for references to this incident? I’m way off and I’m tired…
I don’t think we’ve actually been told that Shelly died before, and i think the only reason we know Monica died that day when she was fourteen and ran in front of the bus was that Jin mentioned it once … haven’t got the reference.
And, of course, that was the day that Tina died – in the same Mexico City incident, when she crashed her car into the back of the bus…
Wow. Wheels within wheels…
Oh; backstory – Shelly went out, completely unprepared, when she was the age Creepy looks to be, on a vision quest; Tochtli, the rabbit god (Jin, in actuality) came to her … apparently short-circuiting her death as she did for Monica the same day.
OK, assume my 12:30 Am comment below was written before i saw this…I remember now, that the reason Jin intervened both with Monica and Shelley was because she knew she needed both of them for the calendar machine dismantling…(whew) might have to re-read the archives again!
precisely…I know there have been some strips dedicated to that day, but what of the rabbit and the forest that Artemisia mentioned above? I cannot recall that…and we still do not have a complete backstory on Tina or Brandi’s role in the whole thing, another bit I have never really understood.
Pass the spice, I could use some prescience…
IIRC, we were not ‘observers’ of Shelly’s vision quest – it was refered to obliquily in flashbacks. Might make a good standalone graphic novel, though, Paul (Hint, Hint)
Ooooooo… Dune reference… it has been years since my last re-read… thank you for the inspiration. ^_^ Must now go find my well-loved copy and read.
heehee…Fairportfan’s “Wheels within wheels” reminded me of “plans within plans within plans”…
Not fair…my only copy is digital. 😛
Here’s I started a couple of strips early because I love the strip where they are dancing.
Oh wow! That was the strip I started on when I first started reading Wapsi Square! The dancing in the club! That was four years ago.
Found it. The strip when Jin tell to Monica about what happened to Shelly in the forest when she became a portal like Monica.
And a couple of strips where Jin talks about it.
I know I’ve read some where Jin reference’s it more, but haven’t found them yet. (This would be a great job if it weren’t for the work they expect you to do.)
Totally true! I could spend hours digging in the archives looking for the one or two pages that explain a point I’m trying to make…but my boss expects me to get “real” work done. 😛
Thanks everyone! 😀
BTW: i mentioned WS in a comment on yesterday’s Guilded Age, and got (from someone using the name “Cole Train”) the following response:
You meet the most … interesting … people online.
Pretty sure that T and the other creators behind Guilded Age do not share that particular ludicrous opinion, FWIW.
Oh, absolutely. I just loved the instant attack when i had more-or-less mentioned WS in passing in response to something else…
I find that it’s knee-jerk dogma from people not smart enough to understand the plot. Oops, did I say that out loud? 😉
Me no lik wurdz more girlz in undwere plz.
Well, You dare to ask from the reader some involvement and thinking…SACRILEGE!
To be perfectly honest, I am lost too every now&then, but re-reading and pondering for a bit wil, usually, let plot-threads twist together nicely. Wapsi Square is not “The Smurfs” that’s for sure…
PS I ordered the first two graphic novels.. Darn! pretty expensive to get them overhere in Europe.
Bah. Just someone who can’t appreciate a novel which is what Wapsi Square truly is. Th insulter probably considers webcomcs must be oneshot and self-contained. Again I say BAH!
Actually, ND, given that “Guilded Age” is even more of a complex narrative (told episodically in out-of-order segments, and well worth reading), i doubt that he “…considers webcomcs must be oneshot and self-contained…”
hee hee! +1 on all these replies…
“barely-coherent jumble of roughly related words.” Hmmm, kinda describes his response.
Really, for all the stereotypes about super-genius-net-nerds wandering the internet, there are some incredibly dense people out there.
No–it’s just that nerds are not generally known for their highly-developed social skills–which means that, for them, when I don’t like something, it must be trash, since I am the soul of reason, taste, perfect logic, and an all-around good guy/gal.
“Are you reading a ‘web-comic’?”, she inquired disdainfully. “No!”, I replied truthfully. “I’m reading a serial on-line graphic novel.”
D’awwww… Holding hands. How cute!
Yeah. I don’t think Monica has ever held hands with any of her demons. In Shelly’s case, though, it would be sort of like holding hands with yourself.
“This” is my absolute favorite strip, artwise.
It so elegantly gives the feeling of despair they are feeling. But the recent work in the basement is creeping up on it as my favorite work by Paul.
I am constantly amazed by your artwork, sir.
I agree the color and all is great and really sets the mood, but I could appreciate it more if Shelly weren’t there in a bathing suit. It tends to make me kinda neaseous to look at pumped up women. Even drawn ones.
Ooh, bite your tongue…I love Shelly just the way she is…
Try one for real and see if you still feel the same afterwards.
I’m trying, dammit, I’m trying…
You need to strengthen your stomach, sir. 🙂
How does one do that?
Good question. 😀 Perhaps the same way one builds a tolerance to poisons?
I agree in that I prefer a softer, curvy physique on a woman over an athletic, ripped muscular one.
Glutes are an exception! More Glutes!
(more snickers! more coke!)
Well, so do I…but when accented properly, I can appreciate both. 🙂
I am used to them. My Mom was 6.2″ and could crack coconuts with her bare hands, and my sister has never been beaten at arm-wrestling in High-School. And no, I am NOT making that up. She used to hammer in poles for our sheeps’ den with a ginormous hammer (Think ACME), just for fun… And yet, boys were allover her.
Paul is very good at matching the artistic style to the emotional content of the piece. He is a fine visual story-teller as evidenced by your example that contains no words.
OTOH, that panel, while great at expressing the mood, is somewhat diminished if you don’t know the story surrounding it.
Not to detract from its impact in any way.
Even someone not familiar with the story would get the sense of oppression and fespair and terror; for those who know what came before and what came after, it’s even more so.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t start reading “The Lord of the Rings” with the Two Towers. One should start a story at the beginning not in the middle; if they do they should expect to not know what is going on.
Oddly enough, i did start LoTR with “The Two Towers” – i didn’t find “Fellowship of the Ring” until a week after i found “Two Towers” on a newsstand.
In 1966 (i think – might have been ’65.)
Darn synchronicity pops up in the strangest places!
What does it really mean “she got mixed in with the chimera?” And she couldn’t be the only one who saw it coming, so why just her?
BTW, it looks like the girls are about to go downstairs.
Goody! Next-level stuff!
But she may be the only one that was seen by the chimera …
“When you look into the void, the void looks back into you…”
From the way the girls have described it, I got the impression that most people were vaporized before they had a chance to know what was coming. The girl in Bud’s dreams is the only one who might have investigated the beginnings of the disaster…especially if it was at a time when adults are busy or sleeping, and kids are supposed to be tucked away where they can’t be in the way.
I don’t know. Unless the fire/plasma ball was traveling faster than sound, it would have caused enough noise and destruction that people further away would have been roused and looked to see what was going on. Also, surely not everyone was being a good citizen and fast asleep at the time in any event. The flash of light would have gotten some to go to the window or door.
But would they have gotten to the window in time to see their destruction coming? It might have been a simple matter of “Whoa! What’s that noi- (insert death by burning plasma here)” The little girl could have been exiting her home for a reason, and therefore wasn’t responding and investigating, but accidentally saw death approaching.
Bah…this is silly. We’re probably making too much fuss over something that should just be accepted. 🙂
Oh, downstairs is records storage. We’re going to review some files…
cue flashback!
*crosses fingers*
Oh. My. God. What a set of gluteus muscles, just look at the definition on that gluteus medius ( there are 3 gluteus muscles, maximus, medius, and minimus. with the max and medius moving the leg back and forth and the minimus rotating the leg at the hip. The medius is responsible for the shape of the butt along the side, and Shelly’s suit shows them to perfection.
Yup, Nice Ass.. Who was it that said :”She could probably crack Your skull with those buttocks”? Movie? TV-series?
Shoot, my memory is pretty rotten if it comes to popular culture…
heh heh huh huh huh…you said “crack”…
huh huh huh …that was khool…
Oh my! The fact that I recognize that, makes me feel so oooooold…..
Don’t say that! I remember watching those two and thinking I was too old for it…
Get to know yourself an onery Comanche girl. Some could crack your noggin with just a hard look. And fairly strong for their size.
Oh gee, you make them sound so appealing,
Nobody said the Nʉmʉnah were necessarily nice. Strong, yes, rather dangerous, yes, loyal, usually yes. “Nice” wasn’t anyplace in that bill of fare.
Oh YESS..it’s the “thrill of imminent danger” Dating a comanche girl is a bit like bungee jumping with a bungee-cord that is “sort of the right length” I gather.
Could be interesting.
That last sentence feels kind of awkward. I had to read it several times to understand it was saying. Might I recommend the following changes? — “You didn’t realize you were dead when I first came to be.”
I like it the way it is.
Did you base that little girl on The Ring girl? She is creepy.
Hey what ever happened to Tepoz, anyway?
He was last seen in Key Largo Florida haunting Jimmy Buffet. Or was it Malibu haunting Charlie Sheen?
In the Library with Colonel Mustard…and a keg.
And Miss Scarlet’s at home pouting because she wasn’t invited…
Maybe at home poiting to the Bermuda Triangle because she wasn’t invited?
I was just wondering, is it possible to get the comments entry box to come up by the post to which one is responding as it used to be?
It USED to, at least on my machine; this new quirk only started in the last few days. It is annoying, though.
Is that something that Paul can control? Or is that something governed by the system provider? I know other comic sites that seem to use this same comment system (though I can’t attest to whether or not the comment box ever appeared anywhere other than the bottom there since I rarely comment other places).
I look at the last panel, and see Shelly holding her hand… I don’t know but it resonates in me.
0107 EST. No Wapsi.
9:13 am GMT +3 No Wapsi. Dammitall.
0124 EST (GMT -5)
El Goonish Shive isn’t up, neither.
oof. i love wapsi art and plan to keep reading, but this storyline is really hard to follow… everything kind of runs together
i should amend – runs together in my head. my fault having trouble keeping track of things over time. paul is there any way, if you have extra time, if you could do a synopsis or timeline or something? i would love to better be able to link everything together
Working on that. 🙂