heather makes sence
or owen (as zzleigh guessed below)
or amanda…
jaqueline would be good to bring her out of the dumps – even if she doesnt appear to be in them
Yes, it could be Jin. Either to get advice on how to cope with super long time periods, or to tell her something she found out about her condition. Something that has been weighing on Shelly’s mind ever since she got back.
Whatever the case, she clearly isn’t into clothes anymore.
Jaqueline always seemed a security blanket when Shelly was freaking out. She seems restless, not freaked. If the comic title is not a misspelling or omission, it’s Officer TB or optionally Owen.
@Paula: I just now thought of Lakshmi. I think Shelly could because of what you said, but also with the idea of not physically fitting in, too, in a weird way. It’s different because Shelly only was large as a sphinx, but there might be enough overlap there. I agree that it’s a low chance, though, with her.
After some thinking..I doubt it’s Officer TB. Her demeanor is wrong for that. It sounds more like she’s calling someone she once was close to, but sort of got lost out of sight (not talking the 80000years of banishment)..
This is speculation of course but I don’t believe it will be anyone from before the GG first appearance. That seems to have been some sort of epoch and certain characters like Owen and Lakshmi have never appeared since.
I’m going for the 1:100 odds bet (there’s about that many different characters so far). I’ll place my dime on the receptionist at the dance/yoga studio who’s name escapes me. The one that had issues with tattoos and commitment.
UGH!! GRD#$%^&*DNMIT& (Unabridged stream of invectives) that was meant to go under Paula’s comment. 😡
Although it’s truth that most males (of ANY age) are quite obsessed with nude females…
Did You know that looking at boobies makes male IQ drop? It’s officially tested by a bunch of psychologists. (waist of money..any reasonable looking female could have told the researchers that) 😆
That is not true, I doubt a gay male looking at a womens “boobies” would suffer any significant redirection of blood flow as to cause a loss of IQ points. And Psychologists? Please it those pseudo scientists had ever seen naked female breasts in person without spending money on ” Research” they would know that while naked female breasts can be a distraction, consistant exposure over a sustained period of time will do no permanent damage. UNLESS research money runs out and the research assistants have not been paid the previously agreed fees. The all bets are off
You know, those scientists have also discovered that looking at breasts improves health for men…so it’s be a smart sick guy or a healthy dumb guy…your choice. 🙂
@TGOBG – Well, I suppose gay men wouldn’t lose blood flow from looking at breasts, but almost every gay man I know is still oddly fascinated with them. 🙂
Since Shelly!Sphinx “came back” the artwork has seemed to more and more redefine both Shelly’s character and her character design. I’m liking her look a lot – and not just because she now feels less is more (clothing wise) — and her character is finally past that aggravating as hell lack of thought, curiosity, and introspection (even if it did take 80,000 years to do it). Go Shelly!
Seconded. It looks like Shelley “grew up” during her stint as ‘Park Ranger’.
Now she looks like a woman and a lot less like a kid. I really like her new look and hair, the last two panels make her seem like a completely different person. Which she probably is now anyway compared to what she was.
that would explain Shellys scatterbrainedness(?) if the bigger portion of her mind was locked away for 86000 years she was pretty much running on instinct. Now that she is all in one piece again she will be much more of a force to be reconned with than just muscle.
from what i gather
the 80k years lasted for 5seconds our time.
she is just dumb sometimes..cuz that’s how she is 🙂
i don’t think she was missing her brain for 80k years
but it does raise some interesting speculation if one were to assume that’s what occured 🙂
Maybe uncomfortable. It also signals that she doesn’t find peace of mind laying about in bed.
As a frame, it’s artistically very classic and elegant. Look at the sway of the hair, the curvature of her back, and the general composition… I like it , I really do.
No, I like it too. But it’s not the most natural pose for someone to be in. And even if you were very flexible, why would you attempt (while trying to relax) to place the leg you are LAYING ON over the leg on top?
And if it’s supposed to be tossing and turning, how many of readers here naturally find themselves in that position when rolling over? I doubt many.
Again this is another one of those things that doesn’t matter too much, but it’s still odd.
If her knee wasn’t tucked under the other leg in panel 2 I’d say it’s exceptionally comfortable and exactly how I sleep…but that tuck looks VERY uncomfortable.
No, I’m talking about the legs. I sleep like that for the most part too. But I don’t place the leg I’m sleeping on on TOP of the other like that.
Seriously, any of you guys go try that pose she’s in, and tell me it feels natural. Unless you’re EXTREMELY flexible, you probably won’t (but jeez I don’t even think flexible people would like that position).
Hahaha!! But hey!! Maybe DJ was right. She is a Sphinx. Maybe the part cat thing makes this easier.
nah, not really, I do the same thing if I lay on my left side that way- if my weight is more on my shoulder than my hip, my right knee tends to wind up sort of tucked into and slightly under my left knee cuz it’s higher off the mattress and has to angle down anyway. I swear it’s comfortable, lol. Paul is just that thorough with his drawing style, her anatomy is properly and naturally depicted there.
… If I understood you correctly, I think I do that too. But that’s not what that pic shows. Her right knee is on TOP of her left (the third panel shows another position.
I remember the time i glanced in a pet store window; they had just gotten in a bunch of ferrets and they had them in the window display, with the sorts of things weasels like to play on/in/with.
One of the things was a PVC pipe t-fitting – at least four, more likely six inches ID.
It took me a second to realise that what i had thought were parts of two snoozing ferrets hanging out of two ends at right-angles were a single ferret; part of the delay in realisation was that, in order to be in the position it was, the critter (sleeping on its side) had to be bent backward at close to ninety degrees…
Even with visits from Phix and other sphinxes, and Connie, after 80K years she still needs some human comfort. Personally I don’t care who she gets it from as long as their life and health insurance premiums are up to date. I get cranky after a week, but not any more so after months so I don’t think the 80K years will be any worse than say, two months without. Either way I still wouldn’t want to be first, except that first will not need to display a great deal of technique other than endurance.
Behold!!!
Enter and give witness to the mystery of THE DISAPPEARING PHONE CORD.
yer mind will be so freakin’ blown….you won’t even care about the cost of entry
It’s running up the far side of the phone, and then stretched carefully behind her thumb and wrist.
Phone cords one of those issues of verisimilitude that are only going to increase in silliness the longer mobiles and cordlesses are the norm. Panel 4 here is hardly the worst example so far.
There was an episode of Mad Men set in 1964 where one of Don Draper’s women comes running in from the kitchen and across a large room to bring him a period desktop rotary, with a live call. It had the cord to the handset, but the wall cord was invisible. You know, the hard-wired cord that Ma Bell would own and have nailed to the wall? Within a foot of where the phone would sit, forever?
I guess that Officer tightbuns is about to become part of the clowncar. I don’t know if Justin should be glad about that.
Orr..we’re getting a new hat out of the rabbit’s hiney, and it’s the re-entry in the story-line of Heather. They were pretty close, after all.
Although, I would love to see Owen back. I always call my childhood BFF if I’m in the dumps. (Last year we celebrated 25 years of friendship..beats many a marriage..)
My reply boxes always seem to hang for a second and miss letters if I type too quickly. I almost always have to go back and fix it. I consider the placement of typos a testament to your typing speed. 🙂
Or went to bed very early, not knowing what to do with herself, tossing, turning, not finding a good and restful position, and then decided to call someone, when there was still a chance of meeting them in Darren’s, or something.
Maybe, but Shelly had a woolly butt(and a tail) for aeons..A completely bare bum would feel somewhat odd , me thinks.
On nudism: Would be fun, and in the warmer climates ,it would save tonnes on washing powder , let alone the unpleasantness of sweaty clothing. On the other hand: no pockets..kind of a hassle.
I wonder what people would think off to set themselves apart when there’s no clothing.. hairdo’s? tattoo’s?
n the USA a bum bag is called a “fanny pack” referring to the fact that over the pond a “fanny” is a “bum”! Obviously that is different in the UK and thus here we mainly refer to them as bum bags.
speaking of the nudity
where has her scars gone?
or did they vanish a while ago
she did have scars from when bud ripped the calender machine tattoo from her or were they not-lasting scars
i cannot seem to recall them in any of this storyline. before or after sphinx.
they wern’t??
from what i remember the ink was removed from her body quite violently.
yes the joke was the day after with the iron content but bud clawing the ink off her has imprinted on my brain.
Laser tattoo removal (which vapourises the ink under the skin by using a light wavelength to which the epidermis is essentially transparent) leaves visible marks that fade fairly quickly because it damages the epidermis (because it’s only essentially transparent and because the vapourised ink has to go somewhere). The damaged skin – like all skin – wears away pretty quickly and is replaced.
Seems to me that at least one Science fiction author addressed something like this–can’t recall who or where–Heinlein?–I believe they opted for body paint: not as permanent as tattoos, not as confining as clothes.
She seems to be uncomfortable. No sheets, no pillow, no nothing. She may even be maladjusted to a matress by now. Perhaps she slept in a cave, curled up into a sleeping cat position for a very long time. Decompressing may not be going well. For that matter, did she even sleep at all?
Somehow your comment reminded me of divers coming up from the ocean floor and decompressing. I doubt that it’s what you were referring to, but if Shelly tries do decompress too quickly, could she get a metaphysical version of the bends?
Over here (besides the divers connotation) decompressing is also used as a term to mean transitioning from one situation to another. As in, “he needed time to decompress after being in such a dangerous place for so long.”
She wouldn’t call Darren and ask to meet him somewhere, she’d go to his bar.
I don’t think she’d call Justin to meet either, she’d just go to his place, or invite him over.
I think it’s Owen or Heather, leaning towards Heather.
My comment/point was that “meet somewhere” may be at Darin’s, regardless of who she’s meeting, since EVERYONE seems to like Darin’s bar (even though they all stopped going there for some reason).
I have had the feeling after reading yesterdays, that this is, perhaps about what she may have (unknowingly) taken with her to that other place. And couldn’t bring back. Not something, but some one.
Fold this string this way and we get 3 times the room, but we do have to put up with that tree limb. word is not to climb down though. Yeah some creepy little girl lives there. The Apos’ve got warning signs all over that area.
Gotta be Phix or Nudge. She needs the perspective of another supe who has spent a long time both trapped (in Nudge’s case, on the lam) and then interacting with humans, so she can learn how to adapt again…
The phone could be at the annex and there could be a connection through the portal somehow. It could be something set up for sphinx emergencies or who knows what. It doesn’t seem particularly likely, but it seems like the sort of thing that would exist if the plot really needed it.
I am thinking this isn’t about a booty call at all but is probably just a desire to connect with the one person that she has known longer than anyone. I believe that she is talking to her Dad.
It may just be Ownen. I think Shelly is trying to fix back into her old life. But he’s been out of touch for so long. She probably needs to touch base with something from her youth like her best from Own.
I’m not sure that the missing phone cord is a mistake. It looks like she might be detaching it from the receiver in the 5th panel. She might have been touching the keypad, rather than pressing the buttons. I doubt that it’s a magic phone that works differently when the cord is removed. Could it be that she is just rehearsing using a telephone because it’s been 80,000 years since she’s used one and because she used to be reluctant to call people before?
Hmm, there is no cord attached to the wall part either. And it does look like she’s unplugging the cord from the handset as well. Is she using the handset in some mystical way to contact Phix after all? It’s all very strange. After all she doesn’t need to totally remove the cord from both the wall unit and the handset to practice using the phone.
Or maybe our tour guide to the Wapsiverse has simply forgotten to draw it in. Not to mention at least hints of covered boobage.
^^yiup, my thoughts exactly.. Maybe Paul was in a bit of a hurry because he was busy drawing the most elaborate splash-pages ever….(one can always hope…)
I vote for one of those phones that look like older phones but work like new ones. The cord is decorative and may be removed at will with no adverse effects on the phone call. 😀
😕 I never heard of such things, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. 🙄
Other thoughts would be that she developed a ritual while she was alone in the Forest Realm to pretend to talk to people or to actually talk to people who weren’t there. She might have used a hunk of wood as a pretend phone while still there. Another idea is that she fell asleep and is dreaming and the missing cord is merely an unrealistic aspect of her dream.
Our saturn-market has those. They are a bit kitschy, to be honest..
Dreaming huh?…looking the last three frames over..it is pretty obvious that all sorts of stuff is missing: Stickers, cord, boobies(last frame) PLUS the odd light in the last frame….
Wall phones almost always have the cord inside the wall and are terminated onto a wall plate connector. The wall phone then plugs into that connector.
It is fairly common to play with the phone cord while waiting or talking as 5 Shelly is doing in frame 5. It is also an artistic excuse to cover her breasts.
In frame 6 the cord is just behind her arm and her right breast had to shrink for the strip to stay family safe.
Yes, but I was only referring to the cord which goes from the wall unit to the handset. These days it can be disconnected both from the wall unit and the handset. While it could be hidden by her arm, it just seems unlikely to me it would be so completely out of the picture. It would take quite a manuver to get it to run down the inside of her arm and out of sight. She would have to delibertly hold it against her body. But who knows. I’d consider it a minor point were it not so obvious.
My money is on Jin. There’s no, ‘hey how have you been.’ No apology for ‘sorry to call you so late.’ She sounds like she’s looking for information.
Some answer to finding the life she lost and is trying to recapture.
I wouldn’t be disappointed in her calling someone else either, just saying.
Dietzel! We know he can use the phone, because he has called for Pizza before.
On a less lighter note, this all seems incredibly sad to me. Not the comments, the artist’s depiction fills me with sadness. I can see breaking up with OTB. I can see 80,000 year old appologies. Maybe regrets is what I’m seeing.
Paul, if that’s not the mood you wanted to evoke, let me know because I’ll need to adjust my eyes a quarter turn to the left (c8.
Well, it’s obviously somebody we haven’t seen in a long while otherwise I doubt Paul would have made the suspense strip of “who’s she calling?” So my guess is either Owen, most likely Heather or maybe even Phix. To talk about sphinx stuff.
It would be nice if it’s Phix. We could get more revelations, and Shelly could thrash out her conflicting feelings. Like being torn between using the toilet and the neighbor’s sandbox. The urge to lay down in sunbeams. And this whole thing about shredding her drapes and furniture. Trying to crawl into paper bags is kinda cute though.
…. *waiting for midnight*… >D
I WANNA SEE CUDDLES! SHELLY NEEDS MOAR! (Sorry just being a lil obnoxious today Paul. I loves how you do it all, keep up the good work, and ignore us fanboys/girls when we get all eccentric like me. You always give us what we need in the end. ^.^)
… I feel like he’s a comic/story dealer. @_@
you know, i was just thinking about the whole “i was always a sphinx but i didn’t know it” thing… with the various discussions about it, and with a whole bunch of posts about the mom… but what about the DAD? there may be a REASON why he keeps treating Shelly like she’s still a child! (I’ll bet her dad has a ‘mysterious’ past as well.)
because until she finally transformed into her ADULT FORM, aka: sphinx, she was just the little girl form of a sphinx.. ala: Shelly as a 20-something HUMAN would be, and compared to 80K+ years as a Spinx, don’t you agree that being only 20-ish is STILL being just a kid?
Now taking bets on who she just called
Officer TB 8)
I’m thinking you’re right… but wouldn’t it be funny if it was Heather?
Okay. Might be interesting.
heather makes sence
or owen (as zzleigh guessed below)
or amanda…
jaqueline would be good to bring her out of the dumps – even if she doesnt appear to be in them
confuzzled
jin or alan maybe.
(yknow if i name the whole cast i might get this one right :P)
Better include Brandy in your list then. She has been an obvious omission from this storyline so far.
Yes, it could be Jin. Either to get advice on how to cope with super long time periods, or to tell her something she found out about her condition. Something that has been weighing on Shelly’s mind ever since she got back.
Whatever the case, she clearly isn’t into clothes anymore.
@Paula: You forgot Tina. Maybe Shelly’s just hankering to feed her Sphinx urges and kill herself a demon abomination. (>^_^)>
Jaqueline always seemed a security blanket when Shelly was freaking out. She seems restless, not freaked. If the comic title is not a misspelling or omission, it’s Officer TB or optionally Owen.
lakshmi (owens girl) tho its a low % chance but they do have strength/owen in common..perhaps she is another latent sphinx 🙂
it could be someone we have never met before.
possibly someone who helped her after her mum died…
@Paula: I just now thought of Lakshmi. I think Shelly could because of what you said, but also with the idea of not physically fitting in, too, in a weird way. It’s different because Shelly only was large as a sphinx, but there might be enough overlap there. I agree that it’s a low chance, though, with her.
Maybe she’s gone gay. It seems as if she’s been among only females, of one sort or another for 80,000 years.
I’m voting Heather…with a secondary vote of Owen. 🙂
After some thinking..I doubt it’s Officer TB. Her demeanor is wrong for that. It sounds more like she’s calling someone she once was close to, but sort of got lost out of sight (not talking the 80000years of banishment)..
Soo, my bets are on Owen or Heather.
Unless Phix’ library-annex has a phone… 😛
:ponder:
Fax machine?
Win!
Bud.
I doubt it’s Bud – the wording is more what you say to someone you haven’t seen in a while and need to catch up with.
Justin, Owen and Heather are all strong possibilities.
Orrr.. want a “break-up” in a neutral place.. O_o
after 80,000 years there is a long list of people she hasnt seen in a while
Yes – but Bud wouldn’t be on it, which is what i was talking about.
Although it might be interesting — it’s probably *not* Phix, at the library annex.
No, it can’t be Phix. (a) I doubt, that any of the phone companies could rout you to the library, (b) and if they could, the costs would be enormous.
Yeah, Probably not dad either since she would go over to his place and not meet him somewhere.
Mayahuel, perhaps.
I’m going with Officer TB, Owen, or Heather. I would think 80000 years would give you time to think about some issues you had before.
Katherine, so they can be nudists together?
That would be AWEESOME O///O
Heck, for all we know, it could just be Monica.
Whoever it is, his/her phone number is “5”.
Speed dial?
More than likely it’s a 555-xxxx number.
I think it was Brandy. After all, they started out on the wrong foot, worked it out and they both have a lot of feline in them.
Five cents on Darren. Or is it Darryl? You know, the awesome bartender.
This is speculation of course but I don’t believe it will be anyone from before the GG first appearance. That seems to have been some sort of epoch and certain characters like Owen and Lakshmi have never appeared since.
I’m going for the 1:100 odds bet (there’s about that many different characters so far). I’ll place my dime on the receptionist at the dance/yoga studio who’s name escapes me. The one that had issues with tattoos and commitment.
I didn’t even think of her but she would make sense.
Huh. Luci, i think.
Might be interesting.
Selenium.
Hopefully with some clothes on.
Wait! What am I saying?!??! No I mean, go out just as you are.
you people are obsessed now…
I believe the technical term is male.
^^that..
UGH!! GRD#$%^&*DNMIT& (Unabridged stream of invectives) that was meant to go under Paula’s comment. 😡
Although it’s truth that most males (of ANY age) are quite obsessed with nude females…
Did You know that looking at boobies makes male IQ drop? It’s officially tested by a bunch of psychologists. (waist of money..any reasonable looking female could have told the researchers that) 😆
That is not true, I doubt a gay male looking at a womens “boobies” would suffer any significant redirection of blood flow as to cause a loss of IQ points. And Psychologists? Please it those pseudo scientists had ever seen naked female breasts in person without spending money on ” Research” they would know that while naked female breasts can be a distraction, consistant exposure over a sustained period of time will do no permanent damage. UNLESS research money runs out and the research assistants have not been paid the previously agreed fees. The all bets are off
You know, those scientists have also discovered that looking at breasts improves health for men…so it’s be a smart sick guy or a healthy dumb guy…your choice. 🙂
@TGOBG – Well, I suppose gay men wouldn’t lose blood flow from looking at breasts, but almost every gay man I know is still oddly fascinated with them. 🙂
Ah used to be all strung out on drugs…now I’m all strung out on bewbies…
Only enough blood to run one thing at a time…
Sometimes the internet makes us all 13 years old. We just show it in different ways.
What, and get arrested? No!
Perhaps find that blanket again.
Hmmm… Bibio’s “Take Off Your Shirt” just came on in my audio player – coincidence? 😉
So it’s being ALONE that got to her!
Mogg yes. Relationships and contact is what make life worth living.
true
those things can be what makes life hell as well
as i’ve said this week before elsewhere – we are a mysterious and complex species 🙂
Yay Shelly!
What happened to the sticker on the phine?
It’s “phine” 😉 I’m sure it’s still there but out of focus or something like that.
See this?
This my highly polished and exquisitely detailed disdainful ignore.
Se me pointing it at you…
“See”
Kiss your what? I didn’t quite hear …
See “what”? You’re to phar away to be seen opherhere… 😈
sticker on the phone? could be a different phone in her bedroom…
as for the rest, call it ‘artistic out of focus’…
So far out of focus that there is no cord between the handset and the wall unit.
And no “other things”
It’s behind her forearm.
Booty call!
I will pity Officer TB if it is a booty call. Combine Monica’s reaction with the hunting instinct’s of a cat and he’s in a whole lot of trouble.
No matter what, somebody is going to get a hug!
Since Shelly!Sphinx “came back” the artwork has seemed to more and more redefine both Shelly’s character and her character design. I’m liking her look a lot – and not just because she now feels less is more (clothing wise) — and her character is finally past that aggravating as hell lack of thought, curiosity, and introspection (even if it did take 80,000 years to do it). Go Shelly!
Seconded. It looks like Shelley “grew up” during her stint as ‘Park Ranger’.
Now she looks like a woman and a lot less like a kid. I really like her new look and hair, the last two panels make her seem like a completely different person. Which she probably is now anyway compared to what she was.
Dear Paul,
If you switch story lines before we find out who she called I’m going to be very upset with you!
to be honest
even if he swaps to jin and alan it would still be the storyline 😛
just not a shelly-segment 😀
that would explain Shellys scatterbrainedness(?) if the bigger portion of her mind was locked away for 86000 years she was pretty much running on instinct. Now that she is all in one piece again she will be much more of a force to be reconned with than just muscle.
from what i gather
the 80k years lasted for 5seconds our time.
she is just dumb sometimes..cuz that’s how she is 🙂
i don’t think she was missing her brain for 80k years
but it does raise some interesting speculation if one were to assume that’s what occured 🙂
Heh, Shelly is starting to act like Katherine. XD
And on a separate note, that pose on the bed looks VERY uncomfortable. Like she’s crossing her legs whilst laying on her side.
I tired it to make sure. Yes, very uncomfortable.
Maybe it’s easier if your an 80,000 year old sphinx or something.
No doubt an individual’s degree of flexibility has a lot to do with how comfortable it may be.
Agreed. That’s actually one of the positions I fall asleep in, with the lower leg keeping the upper one from tensing up.
Maybe uncomfortable. It also signals that she doesn’t find peace of mind laying about in bed.
As a frame, it’s artistically very classic and elegant. Look at the sway of the hair, the curvature of her back, and the general composition… I like it , I really do.
No, I like it too. But it’s not the most natural pose for someone to be in. And even if you were very flexible, why would you attempt (while trying to relax) to place the leg you are LAYING ON over the leg on top?
And if it’s supposed to be tossing and turning, how many of readers here naturally find themselves in that position when rolling over? I doubt many.
Again this is another one of those things that doesn’t matter too much, but it’s still odd.
I fall asleep on my back and wake up on my back. I suppose I toss and turn while asleep, but I can’t remember ever waking up on my side.
Not all that odd; she could simply be a bit restless.
I vote for Jin or Maya–they’re the only people anywhere near her age….
I saw it as a single instant of her tossing and turning in bed.
If her knee wasn’t tucked under the other leg in panel 2 I’d say it’s exceptionally comfortable and exactly how I sleep…but that tuck looks VERY uncomfortable.
No, I’m talking about the legs. I sleep like that for the most part too. But I don’t place the leg I’m sleeping on on TOP of the other like that.
Seriously, any of you guys go try that pose she’s in, and tell me it feels natural. Unless you’re EXTREMELY flexible, you probably won’t (but jeez I don’t even think flexible people would like that position).
Hahaha!! But hey!! Maybe DJ was right. She is a Sphinx. Maybe the part cat thing makes this easier.
The second panel pose? It’s a bit like a modified fetal, only not as tightly drawn up to the body.
If you mean the long “back shot” pose in the 3rd panel, that’s just one leg over the other.
nah, not really, I do the same thing if I lay on my left side that way- if my weight is more on my shoulder than my hip, my right knee tends to wind up sort of tucked into and slightly under my left knee cuz it’s higher off the mattress and has to angle down anyway. I swear it’s comfortable, lol. Paul is just that thorough with his drawing style, her anatomy is properly and naturally depicted there.
… If I understood you correctly, I think I do that too. But that’s not what that pic shows. Her right knee is on TOP of her left (the third panel shows another position.
CORRECTION.
Her right calf is on top of her left knee. Wrote that wrong.
Oh noes! Restless leg syndrome strikes again! Please give all you can so we can find a cure!
Well, she is part cat now. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen my cat draped in an impossible position dead asleep for hours.
I remember the time i glanced in a pet store window; they had just gotten in a bunch of ferrets and they had them in the window display, with the sorts of things weasels like to play on/in/with.
One of the things was a PVC pipe t-fitting – at least four, more likely six inches ID.
It took me a second to realise that what i had thought were parts of two snoozing ferrets hanging out of two ends at right-angles were a single ferret; part of the delay in realisation was that, in order to be in the position it was, the critter (sleeping on its side) had to be bent backward at close to ninety degrees…
Even with visits from Phix and other sphinxes, and Connie, after 80K years she still needs some human comfort. Personally I don’t care who she gets it from as long as their life and health insurance premiums are up to date. I get cranky after a week, but not any more so after months so I don’t think the 80K years will be any worse than say, two months without. Either way I still wouldn’t want to be first, except that first will not need to display a great deal of technique other than endurance.
When you go without human contact for a long time, and then come back (or are suddenly thrust back) into society, people can be quite overwhelming.
Owen, perhaps?
good guess
its possible 🙂
It’d be nice to see him!
And you’d have to wonder if he didn’t weigh heavily on her mind for those thousands of years, i.e. what could’ve been, etc.
So strong and yet.. so vulnerable.
like andrex
Paula… thought that was a typo for ‘anthrax’ at first, and I was saying, “huh”? …glad i googled it before typing; makes so much more sense now! 🙂
andrex isn’t worldwide hmm? good to know 😀
andrex toilet tissue
soft, strong and very very long.
normally shown with an adorable labrador puppy.
long hair… long hair…long hair
Behold!!!
Enter and give witness to the mystery of THE DISAPPEARING PHONE CORD.
yer mind will be so freakin’ blown….you won’t even care about the cost of entry
Blegh! I wish You hadn’t mentioned it.. something is impossible to be “unseen” now… :X
Clearly, when she tugged it in Panel 5, she ripped the cord out of the phone.
… which means in Panel 6 she’s talking to no one…
It’s running up the far side of the phone, and then stretched carefully behind her thumb and wrist.
Phone cords one of those issues of verisimilitude that are only going to increase in silliness the longer mobiles and cordlesses are the norm. Panel 4 here is hardly the worst example so far.
There was an episode of Mad Men set in 1964 where one of Don Draper’s women comes running in from the kitchen and across a large room to bring him a period desktop rotary, with a live call. It had the cord to the handset, but the wall cord was invisible. You know, the hard-wired cord that Ma Bell would own and have nailed to the wall? Within a foot of where the phone would sit, forever?
Eh, you kids get off my party line.
‘artistic out of focus’… 🙂
Possibly, since “parts” of her anatomy suddenly seem to have gone missing too.. odd..
But it’s so hard to blend into midwestern society when you have wings! 😀
i *think* jay-em means her boobs
they vanished in the last panel.
@Paula
…Yeah, I know. I’m just being silly. That’s why I added the ” 😀 ” at the end.
Wow..stylish, minimalit and artsy..me like.
I guess that Officer tightbuns is about to become part of the clowncar. I don’t know if Justin should be glad about that.
Orr..we’re getting a new hat out of the rabbit’s hiney, and it’s the re-entry in the story-line of Heather. They were pretty close, after all.
Although, I would love to see Owen back. I always call my childhood BFF if I’m in the dumps. (Last year we celebrated 25 years of friendship..beats many a marriage..)
*minimaliSt*
grr..damn crappy motorskills of mine…
My reply boxes always seem to hang for a second and miss letters if I type too quickly. I almost always have to go back and fix it. I consider the placement of typos a testament to your typing speed. 🙂
Actually minamalit may be correct. I get the feel from the muted tones that Shelly has been having this mood in the dark.
Yeah..yeah that’s what I meant..ahem… 😛
Which causes me to ask, is this at night or the next morning?
i get the feeling it’s the same night
she just been tossing and turning a few hours, given up and decided to phone someone 🙂
Or went to bed very early, not knowing what to do with herself, tossing, turning, not finding a good and restful position, and then decided to call someone, when there was still a chance of meeting them in Darren’s, or something.
So, it’s possibly later on te evening.
something tells me shelly isn’t used to clothes anymore, hmmmm….yay nudism? 😛
Maybe, but Shelly had a woolly butt(and a tail) for aeons..A completely bare bum would feel somewhat odd , me thinks.
On nudism: Would be fun, and in the warmer climates ,it would save tonnes on washing powder , let alone the unpleasantness of sweaty clothing. On the other hand: no pockets..kind of a hassle.
I wonder what people would think off to set themselves apart when there’s no clothing.. hairdo’s? tattoo’s?
Fanny packs.
“…but I’m not wearing a fanny pack….”
If so…. what made You decide to tattoo it neon-green, stick strass-stones to it, and have a zipper surgically attached??? :LOL:
Oh Mogg… you just pulled the ONE foreign phrase mix-up I know about…
In the US, it’s a belt with a big pocket. Other places, it’s slang for…uh… something done in bed with company.
Pass the brain bleach please…
belt with a long pocket
*thinks*
bum bag?
ah yes
from here
n the USA a bum bag is called a “fanny pack” referring to the fact that over the pond a “fanny” is a “bum”! Obviously that is different in the UK and thus here we mainly refer to them as bum bags.
O.o
link is http://www.bumbag.org.uk/
where did it go????
Danzier quart or gallon (liter to 4 liter) jug?
speaking of the nudity
where has her scars gone?
or did they vanish a while ago
she did have scars from when bud ripped the calender machine tattoo from her or were they not-lasting scars
i cannot seem to recall them in any of this storyline. before or after sphinx.
They weren’t really scars. That was was just a joke that was used once.
they wern’t??
from what i remember the ink was removed from her body quite violently.
yes the joke was the day after with the iron content but bud clawing the ink off her has imprinted on my brain.
I thought I remembered Paul confirming that those were burn marks, but not scars, but I can’t find it. Anyway, she didn’t have any marks by the following springtime.
Laser tattoo removal (which vapourises the ink under the skin by using a light wavelength to which the epidermis is essentially transparent) leaves visible marks that fade fairly quickly because it damages the epidermis (because it’s only essentially transparent and because the vapourised ink has to go somewhere). The damaged skin – like all skin – wears away pretty quickly and is replaced.
That’s essentially what happened to Shelly.
Seems to me that at least one Science fiction author addressed something like this–can’t recall who or where–Heinlein?–I believe they opted for body paint: not as permanent as tattoos, not as confining as clothes.
More than one author – but i’m pretty sure that RAH was one of them. Friday, mybe?
I remember body paint in a Gil the Arm story by Larry Nivin. It takes place in the same universe as the Man Kizin Wars, but several centuries before.
Also cover art on The Patchwork Girl, now that you’ve mentioned Niven – that may be the story; it’s been a LONG time since i read it.
No–it was Niven. I think I remember some body paint at Louie Wu’s 200th birthday party–in Ringworld. And that seems to be the scene I was remembering.
She seems to be uncomfortable. No sheets, no pillow, no nothing. She may even be maladjusted to a matress by now. Perhaps she slept in a cave, curled up into a sleeping cat position for a very long time. Decompressing may not be going well. For that matter, did she even sleep at all?
Somehow your comment reminded me of divers coming up from the ocean floor and decompressing. I doubt that it’s what you were referring to, but if Shelly tries do decompress too quickly, could she get a metaphysical version of the bends?
Over here (besides the divers connotation) decompressing is also used as a term to mean transitioning from one situation to another. As in, “he needed time to decompress after being in such a dangerous place for so long.”
no sleep??
i can now pinpoint the exact reason why she would have thought she was in hell…y’know…other than the killing oneself multiple times…
i miss out on one nights sleep and wonder that 😛
80k years without sleep would make me .. cranky.
Yep. I think if everyone always got a good nights sleep, 80% of the worlds problems would be resolved or, at least, not seem so bad.
You’re all focusing on the wrong thing.
It is not who she is meeting, but where. Somewhere comforting and friendly for both parties.
*crosses fingers for Darin cameo*
ooh hopefully 😀
I wonder if she’s gotten past the whole riddle/confusing talk phase yet. Grr, argh, let’s-go-have-a-beer-or-coffee.
She wouldn’t call Darren and ask to meet him somewhere, she’d go to his bar.
I don’t think she’d call Justin to meet either, she’d just go to his place, or invite him over.
I think it’s Owen or Heather, leaning towards Heather.
Of course she wouldn’t call Darin.
My comment/point was that “meet somewhere” may be at Darin’s, regardless of who she’s meeting, since EVERYONE seems to like Darin’s bar (even though they all stopped going there for some reason).
I think they still go to Darren’s, it’s just between the frames.
That’s when I go, it’s less crowded.
I have had the feeling after reading yesterdays, that this is, perhaps about what she may have (unknowingly) taken with her to that other place. And couldn’t bring back. Not something, but some one.
Huh??? *completely lost*
Elaborate, please?
*passes plans over for the confuson corner annex..confusion given via comments*
recon we will need this?
“reckon?”
y’know..
i’ve been spelling that wrong for years!!!
thanks 😀
Unless, of course, you are on a mission of finding out what’s there.
Fold this string this way and we get 3 times the room, but we do have to put up with that tree limb. word is not to climb down though. Yeah some creepy little girl lives there. The Apos’ve got warning signs all over that area.
who?
Gotta be Phix or Nudge. She needs the perspective of another supe who has spent a long time both trapped (in Nudge’s case, on the lam) and then interacting with humans, so she can learn how to adapt again…
I’m pretty sure neither of them has a phone where they live.
The phone could be at the annex and there could be a connection through the portal somehow. It could be something set up for sphinx emergencies or who knows what. It doesn’t seem particularly likely, but it seems like the sort of thing that would exist if the plot really needed it.
My guess would be Amanda or Monica, though.
There’s a switchboard in the Library; the message is being delivered by special courier. 😛
Maybe the library uses Skype and they’ve implemented IP over Avian Carriers for the portal part.
Danzier- And just how many feet does this messenger have and what shape are they?
Gah! I meant Jacqui, not Amanda.
As ever, I’d be interested in more flashbacks about Shelly’s captivity in N-space. The transition from human to Sphinx. Her visit(s) with Phix. 7rl.
maybe friday 🙂
I like the bed pose. If you rotate her 180 degrees, she’s kind of in the same pose that a lot of Aztec gods are depicted in. Maybe it’s just me.
You may be on to something there.
I am thinking this isn’t about a booty call at all but is probably just a desire to connect with the one person that she has known longer than anyone. I believe that she is talking to her Dad.
Could be, but why meet somewhere? Seems like she would just go to his house, him being her closest family and all.
I’m hoping it’s Alan
I miss the guy
Err typo, I meant to say Owen
i miss alan 🙂
he is awsome. a good partner for jin 🙂
owen is okay too 🙂
It may just be Ownen. I think Shelly is trying to fix back into her old life. But he’s been out of touch for so long. She probably needs to touch base with something from her youth like her best from Own.
I’m not sure that the missing phone cord is a mistake. It looks like she might be detaching it from the receiver in the 5th panel. She might have been touching the keypad, rather than pressing the buttons. I doubt that it’s a magic phone that works differently when the cord is removed. Could it be that she is just rehearsing using a telephone because it’s been 80,000 years since she’s used one and because she used to be reluctant to call people before?
Hmm, there is no cord attached to the wall part either. And it does look like she’s unplugging the cord from the handset as well. Is she using the handset in some mystical way to contact Phix after all? It’s all very strange. After all she doesn’t need to totally remove the cord from both the wall unit and the handset to practice using the phone.
Or maybe our tour guide to the Wapsiverse has simply forgotten to draw it in. Not to mention at least hints of covered boobage.
^^yiup, my thoughts exactly.. Maybe Paul was in a bit of a hurry because he was busy drawing the most elaborate splash-pages ever….(one can always hope…)
I vote for one of those phones that look like older phones but work like new ones. The cord is decorative and may be removed at will with no adverse effects on the phone call. 😀
Never against the artist…
😕 I never heard of such things, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. 🙄
Other thoughts would be that she developed a ritual while she was alone in the Forest Realm to pretend to talk to people or to actually talk to people who weren’t there. She might have used a hunk of wood as a pretend phone while still there. Another idea is that she fell asleep and is dreaming and the missing cord is merely an unrealistic aspect of her dream.
Our saturn-market has those. They are a bit kitschy, to be honest..
Dreaming huh?…looking the last three frames over..it is pretty obvious that all sorts of stuff is missing: Stickers, cord, boobies(last frame) PLUS the odd light in the last frame….
Dreaming… Interesting thought…
And she named the wood Wilson. No wait … Alexander.
@SoWhyMe
Wall phones almost always have the cord inside the wall and are terminated onto a wall plate connector. The wall phone then plugs into that connector.
It is fairly common to play with the phone cord while waiting or talking as 5 Shelly is doing in frame 5. It is also an artistic excuse to cover her breasts.
In frame 6 the cord is just behind her arm and her right breast had to shrink for the strip to stay family safe.
Yes, but I was only referring to the cord which goes from the wall unit to the handset. These days it can be disconnected both from the wall unit and the handset. While it could be hidden by her arm, it just seems unlikely to me it would be so completely out of the picture. It would take quite a manuver to get it to run down the inside of her arm and out of sight. She would have to delibertly hold it against her body. But who knows. I’d consider it a minor point were it not so obvious.
My money is on Jin. There’s no, ‘hey how have you been.’ No apology for ‘sorry to call you so late.’ She sounds like she’s looking for information.
Some answer to finding the life she lost and is trying to recapture.
I wouldn’t be disappointed in her calling someone else either, just saying.
Poor baby. She’s as jumpy as a cat.
I’m going with officer boy-toy.
Five most likely people: Justin (Officer TB), Dad, Jacqui, Owen, Heather.
Just a what if, but what if it wasn’t recessive sphinx genes…
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9619/20110525mycompanionwhat.png
^^ Funny! I really liked alt GC’s monolog.
nice colourage 🙂
does that mean nudge is her mother?
I’d go with that–as long as Darth Vader is not her father.
If anyone has a high midichloiran count, it would be Monica…
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/come-to-the-light-side/
I loved the copyright notice: “Used without permission or common sense”. You got that right… 😉
Ditto, that was quite humorous.
Dietzel! We know he can use the phone, because he has called for Pizza before.
On a less lighter note, this all seems incredibly sad to me. Not the comments, the artist’s depiction fills me with sadness. I can see breaking up with OTB. I can see 80,000 year old appologies. Maybe regrets is what I’m seeing.
Paul, if that’s not the mood you wanted to evoke, let me know because I’ll need to adjust my eyes a quarter turn to the left (c8.
heh i was literally just about to add that to the list above after finishing the comment-catch up 🙂
glad i didn’t
dietzel is also a good choice 😀
Well, it’s obviously somebody we haven’t seen in a long while otherwise I doubt Paul would have made the suspense strip of “who’s she calling?” So my guess is either Owen, most likely Heather or maybe even Phix. To talk about sphinx stuff.
It would be nice if it’s Phix. We could get more revelations, and Shelly could thrash out her conflicting feelings. Like being torn between using the toilet and the neighbor’s sandbox. The urge to lay down in sunbeams. And this whole thing about shredding her drapes and furniture. Trying to crawl into paper bags is kinda cute though.
Muscle-butt fan service!
OWEN! Pleeeease be Owen. I keep missing that fool…
@Paul: The comic title is missing the last couple of characters due to length.
…. *waiting for midnight*… >D
I WANNA SEE CUDDLES! SHELLY NEEDS MOAR! (Sorry just being a lil obnoxious today Paul. I loves how you do it all, keep up the good work, and ignore us fanboys/girls when we get all eccentric like me. You always give us what we need in the end. ^.^)
… I feel like he’s a comic/story dealer. @_@
you know, i was just thinking about the whole “i was always a sphinx but i didn’t know it” thing… with the various discussions about it, and with a whole bunch of posts about the mom… but what about the DAD? there may be a REASON why he keeps treating Shelly like she’s still a child! (I’ll bet her dad has a ‘mysterious’ past as well.)
because until she finally transformed into her ADULT FORM, aka: sphinx, she was just the little girl form of a sphinx.. ala: Shelly as a 20-something HUMAN would be, and compared to 80K+ years as a Spinx, don’t you agree that being only 20-ish is STILL being just a kid?