I have vague recollections of the main character biting off his own finger to remove a ring, and using one of his own legs as a very effective club. And at least once the only way to progress was to die, and randomly wake up somewhere else. The mage who was permanently on fire worried me somewhat too.
I did find the fact that you could only change the female companions clothing by dropping another outfit over the old one amusing, especially when they complained if you tried to remove the old one first.
That’s a style of insane game writing we need more of now.
Euhhh…sooooo.. It’s a bit like dynamite-fishing? “light fuse, open body panel, throw in thingy, and hope for a nice result, with the tiny caveat of letting lose all energy of a rotating galaxy inside an indestructable, rather CRAZY golem.
Mwah. What could go wrong?
PS Bud’s hatch still makes me giggle after all these years…..
Me, too. And you’ve noticed that Bud seems to be the only one of them with a hatch? The reasons why are probably covered in the documentation, written in Glyph and lost for centuries.
On the other hand, Bud much more than Jin will need an understanding boyfriend. And she’d really better have that little talk before the frantic groping starts.
Probably because Bud’s the only one who wouldn’t go poking around in there and break something. Brandi too curious, and Jin’s both controlling and rather insane at present.
Brandi would end up pulling out a cog to show it to Monica or Phix, and Jin would end up randomly interchanging cogs hoping it would kill her permanently.
As Fairportfan points out, we don’t know. Only Bud has been seen to have a hatch. Maybe coincidence (Brandi hasn’t breathed fire, but she probably can), maybe it’s a Clue.
That would be Tina, who is not a Golem but a Demon Colledctive with an entrepenual bent. (this computer doesn’t have spell check, I hope I spelled that word right)
Actually yes I was, I always think of Vegeta’s line when this phrase comes up. All my friends automatically go for Guru but Vegeta’s so much creepier when he says it.
This is a bit strange. When Bud retrieved Maya and later when she talked with Jin she was a lot more grounded and adult. Now she is acting like a space case and Bud is acting like she’s always beena ditz. Did something change in Maya recently? Or is this an aspect of her we haven’t seen before? In either case this is unusual for a lady who could create the calander machine and golems, and other fancy science that she has.
Could be the difference is she’s not contantly fending off demon attacks. It might take a while to unwind after 80K years of being on your guard – and not a few pitchers of marnagreeters. Margureers. Margolas.
Drinks.
Zzzat’z ze t.t.trrutthz… *burp*.. Ugh ..muszt hf b’n zat last marg.. murg.. m’rgr.. ^^that, what you shaid… *blomp!* drops on floor and starts snoring.
Neh.. It’s an intra-dimensional manifestation of an extra-dimensional phenomenon. It only looks&feels like a hatch for us 3 (4, if you will)- dimensional creatures. It’s a visual variation of timey-wimey, curled-up branes……and..ehh..stuff * takes off glasses an shuffles for a bit on his plymsols*. Uhm..yes..that got away from me a bit….
A well-respected Professor of Sociology entered the classroom at the beginning of the period, wrote a medium-complex bit of symbolic logic on the board, turned to the class and said, “Now I’m sure you can all see that this is obviously … hmmm…”, turned, studied what he’d written for a moment, looked back at the class, said “Excuse me a moment,” and disappeared out the door.
A few minutes before the end of class, he returned, chalk dust on his jacket and hands, and said “I was right – it is obvious!”
@Fairportfan–I’d heard a variant of that story said about a math prof doing a proof. And after saying it, having come back 35 minutes after the class was over, he continued with the proof.
May have been the same fellow who got stopped by a student after class asking if he could explain the proof a bit more clearly.
The prof thought for a moment, and replied, “Yes, that does work.”
“But I still don’t understand!”
Another moment of thought. “You can do it that way too.”
“But how do you get there?”
“I’m sorry. I’ve offered you two different ways of proving it. If they aren’t enough, I cannot help you.”
It’s either a pandimensional access, or the panel neatly sliced through Bud’s dress as it opened, or Bud isn’t really wearing clothes, it’s a hologram or she just spray painted the fabric pattern on her skin.
In another graphic novel, this sort of thing became known as “plumage”. And one small character wanted to grow up to be a succubus, not least because they got to run around “nakers.” Pibgorn, Feb. 25, 2009.
Jay-Em: you seemed to get it AFAIK, but then got lost in time/space travel??
Eee: I think its more ‘extra-dimensional’.. it does not cut the *dress fabric* in any way, it merely cuts a temporary hole through your lower dimension, tied to the golem..
I guess it only looks like a ‘door’ to our limited senses, who cannot see the multidimensional whole..
The Egyptian fruit merchant seemed to be able to percieve it. Did he have any special abilities? Maybe, I suppose.
I probably have liked it better if Maya first turned Bud into a stone form, then opened the hatch, but whatever. I would have also preferred to just forget about it, but I don’t care that much.
May’s expression in that last panel reminds me so much of Nudge. And if I’m not mistaken, May looks visible much order than she did just after Bud brought he back from the Demon Realm. Is may just showing her age now (like Jin changing her hair)?
illiad-
Maya from inside (only feet sticking out), “now I just need four pounds of Semtex to fire forge the connection and seal it shut.
Bud “Out! get out of there! Now. Oh wait that wouldn’t even tickle me, Just be sure to shut the hatch before you fire the charge.”
I can just imagine any serious boy/girl friend cosying up to one of the golems in a moment of passion and… oops, the trap door pops open. Talk about coitus interruptus maximus meets the terminator… aah!
Carefully. Very carefully. Unless one is May, then it’s plug it in, turn it on and see what happens. Deal with any side effects afterwards, or at least try to.
Yamara-
And this is why my ‘Mender’ (Trademark applied for) is so careful. Last time he screwed up he had to replace part of a Solar system, And that invention actually did what it was supposed to.
I don’t know. I guess you have to start somewhere. Seems to me it has way too many irrelevant factoids. Too much trying to blend the real world with the wapsiverse. These just lead to confusion and a difficulty in following the actual story timeline. Also too many episode references that are not important mile-markers, especially toward the end. It needs serious editing. Problem is, that will likely upset whoever wrote it and lead to more and more editing by others of differing opinions.
My approach would be to establish the absolute minimum number of main points first (possibly by on-line discussion), then branch each of them for salient sub points, but only after fully vetting the main points.
I wouldn’t be upset about changes, it’s a public wiki. I’ve been in real edit wars at Wikipedia, watching idiots making actual threats. So I’m mellow. But see below as to why I’ve approached this as I have.
I have a suspicion about chronology which I’ve been intentionally not discussing; either it’s an upcoming plot point or a potential plot hole and neither one is made better by pointing it out. But I like that someone’s trying to untangle the question, even if the current version is overrun with trivia.
The guilty chronologist would be me. There was a call for it on the wiki, and I just dove in.
Firstly, Paul, if you want me to stop this public compilation, just say the word.
Secondly, and mainly, what I’m doing is some live historiography. That is, I’m comparing dates and ages and seeing what things measure up and when. Trivial references is what history is often made from, and so I am beginning by being hypercomplete.
I’m still in the process of finding a lot of stuff; right now I’m starting to add character first-meetings.
Even after a few days of this, I am having quite a time determining the extent and severity of Monica’s time in the mental health services, and also the chronology of Mayahuel and her various creations and activities. This is one reason I chose an open and exhaustive process: it’s too easy to miss something.
And if people want the storyline– I think they should read the comic!
Isn’t the chronology meant to be the chronology of the story line? The sequence of events of the major happenings in the story? Maybe I’m thinking about this wrongly.
I look it as a chronology of the major events and character introduction of the various characters, with more hyperlinks to the details and real world tie-ins The current link to the CM cycles would be an example. To me, anyway, it would be cleaner as a first read.
It might be good to introduce a fundamental link to a “Sandbox” where people could put in their ideas as to how it might be done while not messing with (or up) the current chronology as you have presented.
Whatever it is to be it shouldn’t be a replacement for the comic.
The storyline is what Paul chooses to present in the order he chooses to present it, in the comic. He introduces lies, foreshadowing, misdirection, and host of other surprises, often out of chronological order. Add to this time loops and a number of references to history and legend to enhance wonder and mystery. Enough of these have been made to warrant a chronology to keep them straight. Something to place them in their order in time, as a reference to experienced readers.
I didn’t say it was the story line, I said it was the chronology of the story line. This would include the first time each character was shown, the appearance of the golem girls, When Nudge revealed herself and when she was knocked out of Tina by Phix, etc. If you take your chronology from 2001 on, that’s what you’ve been writing, but, in some cases, with more plot revealing detail than I would have.
I would present things tersley so as to not reveal too much plot. For instance,
“Monica introduced”
“Tepoz introduced”
– .
– .
– .
“Golem girls first appearance”
“Calendar Machine situation introduced”
“Calendar Machine situation resolved.”
– .
– .
– .
“Shelly and the Time Tree Forest”
That sort of thing. Simple phrases which do not give away the actual plot.
As I see it, you actually have 2 timelines. The first which covers back history, and the second which covers the plot in chronological order as presented in the story line.
I created a talk page. I thought some of the stuff involving Maya happened in a different order and said so. Beyond what I said there, I discount the idea that time ever stood still; it’s just that Tina’s stuck experiencing time as humans experience it, I think. (If time stood still, how would Tina know that it happened?) Beyond that, nothing jumped out at me, but I didn’t look all that closely.
The main problem I’m having there is that early on Tepoz says he came along hundreds of years after Bud, Brandi and Jin were murdered, but then later claims he met a disguised Jin while the priests were rounding up 18-year old girls.
This is before the loops, so they can’t both be true. Maya’s chronology is messed up just now because of that. (I’ll take this to your new Talk page in a wee.)
Don’t all women have access panels? Yet they call them… something else…
May is gonna be inside of Bud!
Will there be a unrated version of the next page?
Yeah, there’s potential with this one. Not sure what exactly it is, but there’s a metaphor somewhere around here. Or maybe I do know what it is and I’m just being polite.
Probably good that Bud wasn’t looking at May when she asked that question. I do think May has that very scary, calculating expression that says she’d already anticipated the question, was long past it, and is now thinking, “Step one, take working indestructible unit; Step 2, see if new addition unbalances it. Now if the idiots were were using my original blueprints …”
Now we’re cooking …. With Science! (oops, tripped off a series of ‘easy-bake oven’ jokes at this end)
I begin to wonder if what May actually developed is a synthetic form of DNA. Set it up as you wish, then drop some into a batch of the special clay-ashes mixture. It takes over and creates whatever desired from a mixture of the synthdna’s “blueprint” plus whatever DNA fragments/markers are left in the ash. This would allow for the making of perfect replicas.
It’s got to be more complicated than that, something like the ash has a quantum entanglement with the extra-dimensional time state of the subject that allows a pattern retrieval.
The pseudo-DNA cum machine makes perfect sense though.
Not wallet, but magic pockets! A major advantage for one who regularly saves the world when nobody’s looking. Hey, is that the Loch Ness Monster riding a stick horse!?
[Please note that the Wikipedia article’s “one of whom must be a one-eyed man” isn’t true – Glass Eye George (that was the name used for the operator in describing the con in a book) was a real con artist who had two perfectly good eyes.]
It’s hard to say. Bud is functionally hollow, in that you can pop the hatch and put things inside her (including the other two Golem Girls), but it’s not that she’s literally hollow but that the hatchway opens to Somewhere Else.
I watched “Mars Needs Moms” on DVD yesterday. I was all set to dislike it, having the word “Mom” in the title as it does, but it was pretty good, except for the killing and implied killing. It was written by Blake Breathed, so what can you expect?
You ask, what has that to do with this comic episode? Nothing. What has it to do with Wapsi, period? Ah … well, in the movie the martians are advanced hooved creatures. They are done much like the way Jay-Em has done Nudge. The main difference being they have a longer middle leg section (and no horns). I found it interesting to watch how the animators made them move. They were shown as being quite graceful and natural. You really bought their movements as being “normal.” It was also quite an example of a modern rotoscope technique.
I have avoided that fil, mostly because of the motion-capture (not really “rotoscope”, since rotoscope is a process for tracing filmed material in hand-drawn animation).
I find that, so far, mo-cap (for me, anyway) is smack-dab in the deepest depths of the uncanny valley.
That’s correct. I should have said, as some of the articles I read did, it’s a form of computerized rotoscoping. The result was a bit disconcerting, making you wonder if some scenes were with the real actor against a green screen or what? Still, I guess I’m not that critical about the technique used in the film as many seemed to be. I rather liked the way they did the old woman martian’s facial expressions and mouth movements, as well as, how they used the martian language to good effect.
I understand that they’re getting better at it – third film using the technology by the same director, and between each there were huge advances in the tech – The Polar Express, judging by the trailers, was positively creepy-looking.
(I didn’t see it because of that, and because i thought that the book was basically rather twee and dumb; the only reason i even bothered to get past the first page or so was the beautifully rendered Pacific class locomotive.)
Those who did the Polar Express tried way to hard to create some artsy rendition of the story. Mostly it simply was boring and really slow paced. They seemed to think the grandure of the scenes would carry it. Didn’t, of course. Yes, it was also creepy, but I think they shot for creepy.
The thing that creeped me about that flick, was that the kid had an uncanny resemblance to the creepy boy, Oscar, from “Die Blechtrommel” I just couldn’t concentrate on it after that realization.
As far as “uncanny valley” goes ,I believe that it’s an affliction that will haunt CG movies for the foreseeable future.
Same would happen if someone would roto/ MoCap an actor with some digitgrade prosthetics as Nudge, and, say, use my statuette (which is finished now ,haven’t had time to load-up the pics) as the basis… Scans of figurines are very often used as the building blocks of CG monsters and such ,before being MoCapped. Animating the MoCapped scans -more often than not- go seriously “uncanny” So much even that a lot of animators go back to hand-animation.
Gollum, in the Lord of the Rings films, was mo-cap.
I never saw the second or third, but i understand he was Very impressive.
I actually encountered the Uncanny Valley well before CGI – in a couple of Jim Henson films.
In The Dark Crystal”, the least visually plausible (for me, anyway) characters were the two main characters – the Gelflings. They were the most human-seeming, but had virtually immobile faces … which was the visual problem.
In Labyrinth, Hoggle the dwarf, the most naturalistic-looking puppet character, almost worked – but his eyes were “dead”, and every time we got a shot of his face, it just killed the illusion.
Just thought I’d post a prediction on where this is all going. There are two possible artifacts that can fix Jin. My prediction is that the galaxy alternator will be the one to do the job, seemingly rendering Shelly’s ordeal a shaggy dog story. However, the weird cross artifact will kick off the next arc. Maybe they simply try to figure out what it is and what it does. Maybe they figure out what it does, it isn’t good, and they have to undo it. Maybe it reveals another problem to be solved. I honestly don’t know.
Okay, this is what happens when you’re working on a Wapsi picture and ‘The Boss’ comes up on random play…
57 Tries (and Nothin’s Wrong)
Found me a baby and she’s every man’s wish
Richer than Gates and a real spicy dish
She sat me down and she had to tell me the truth
‘This ain’t no body’s first time ‘round on this earth
Everybody’s happy because they don’t know what’s going on
It took fifty seven tries, now nothing’s wrong
Fifty seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty seven tries and nothin’s wrong’
Tellin’ me the big picture was my Baby’s desire
Then she spoke the words that set my mind on fire
‘The woman you claim to love and choose next to lay
Has been alive for thousands of years and is made out of clay
Humans are a group to which I’ll never truly belong
It took Fifty-seven tries now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothin’s wrong’
‘There’s a machine that controls how time flows
But it got broken, you know how that goes
Everything runs fine, but there’s one thing on which you can bet
In December twenty-twelve every damn time it would reset
I’m the only one that could see it wasn’t moving along
It took fifty-seven tries now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty seven-tries and nothin’s wrong’
‘The machine was stopped and thrown into the sun
Eighty thousand years of re-runs ain’t no one’s idea of fun
Time is moving, it don’t skip back is how
We’ve gone on to uncharted territory now’
Her words still shake my soul like echoes from a gong
‘It took fifty-seven tries now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothin’s wrong’
She says it’s fine but when the cold winds blow
My baby will run outside and yell at the snow
I hold her close and ask why she looks so scared
She says she see’s people who just ain’t there
The good times are short, and bad times too long
It took fifty-seven tries, now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothin’s wrong
Quit your complaining Bud and let the crazy ancient lady dig around your insides! 😛
That just sounds wrong.
That sounds like a quite disturbing scene from Planescape: Torment.
So basically… EVERY scene from Planescape: Torment
I have vague recollections of the main character biting off his own finger to remove a ring, and using one of his own legs as a very effective club. And at least once the only way to progress was to die, and randomly wake up somewhere else. The mage who was permanently on fire worried me somewhat too.
I did find the fact that you could only change the female companions clothing by dropping another outfit over the old one amusing, especially when they complained if you tried to remove the old one first.
That’s a style of insane game writing we need more of now.
Convenient and Functional.
Let’s hope Brandi’s not in there this time.
Also: Tapping Bud on the behind causes her stomach to swing open.
I see an interesting night at the Cerberus Club forthcoming.
I think you need the right combination.
I think that my doctor wants me to have those.
Nothing new — http://wapsisquare.com/comic/ohdoublecrud/
That hatch seems to have hinges on either side, as required.
“Ba-na-na. Little yellow fruit. Why we talk like Tarzan?”
Euhhh…sooooo.. It’s a bit like dynamite-fishing? “light fuse, open body panel, throw in thingy, and hope for a nice result, with the tiny caveat of letting lose all energy of a rotating galaxy inside an indestructable, rather CRAZY golem.
Mwah. What could go wrong?
PS Bud’s hatch still makes me giggle after all these years…..
Me, too. And you’ve noticed that Bud seems to be the only one of them with a hatch? The reasons why are probably covered in the documentation, written in Glyph and lost for centuries.
On the other hand, Bud much more than Jin will need an understanding boyfriend. And she’d really better have that little talk before the frantic groping starts.
I’d phrase that “Bud is the only one we know has a hatch/access panel.”
Probably because Bud’s the only one who wouldn’t go poking around in there and break something. Brandi too curious, and Jin’s both controlling and rather insane at present.
Brandi would end up pulling out a cog to show it to Monica or Phix, and Jin would end up randomly interchanging cogs hoping it would kill her permanently.
um, dont *all* the GGG have an access hatch?? AFAIR one has a whole family inside, and use the hatch for ordering pizza.. 🙂
As Fairportfan points out, we don’t know. Only Bud has been seen to have a hatch. Maybe coincidence (Brandi hasn’t breathed fire, but she probably can), maybe it’s a Clue.
That would be Tina, who is not a Golem but a Demon Colledctive with an entrepenual bent. (this computer doesn’t have spell check, I hope I spelled that word right)
nope.
Me too and I can’t stop!
PPS: CLOSE THE DOOR FAST!
HELLo! oooh, more trap doors…and where do these lead??
(fleeting images of ST-NG’s Data spring to mind!)
“I need an adult! I need an adult!”
“I am an adult.”
You need to put more feeling behind that to do it right 🙂 “I AM AN ADULLLLLLLT!!!!!!!!!!”
“I am not a number, I am a free man!”
KUNTA KINTE!
Free association is fun.
That’s Guru, Lis was doing Vegeeta 😛
Actually yes I was, I always think of Vegeta’s line when this phrase comes up. All my friends automatically go for Guru but Vegeta’s so much creepier when he says it.
I usually like to say something crazy and hopefully funny here. Unfortunately, May is stealing my job.
That’s a Win. 🙂
And this woman is supposed to save the universe from her own daughter? In the words of a certain Dr. Samuel Beckett: “Uh Boy.”
Dr. Samuel Beckett? May reminds me more of Dr. Strangelove, especially considering how her contraptions malfunction in such a major fashion.
Perhaps Paul is working towards a new book: Mayahuel — The Fruit Loop Years.
This is a bit strange. When Bud retrieved Maya and later when she talked with Jin she was a lot more grounded and adult. Now she is acting like a space case and Bud is acting like she’s always beena ditz. Did something change in Maya recently? Or is this an aspect of her we haven’t seen before? In either case this is unusual for a lady who could create the calander machine and golems, and other fancy science that she has.
It could have something to do that pitcher of margaritas.
*with* that pitcher.
Sorry, need more caffeine.
Is there much caffeine in regular margaritas?
Or is it just the way you prepare them?
Bmonk and Aleister Crow-
Kind of defeats the purpose of alcohol doesn’t it?
Ratcatcher: Naa. For some people, caffeine affects alcohol rather like it affects painkillers: it improves the response.
Could be the difference is she’s not contantly fending off demon attacks. It might take a while to unwind after 80K years of being on your guard – and not a few pitchers of marnagreeters. Margureers. Margolas.
Drinks.
Zzzat’z ze t.t.trrutthz… *burp*.. Ugh ..muszt hf b’n zat last marg.. murg.. m’rgr.. ^^that, what you shaid… *blomp!* drops on floor and starts snoring.
“Boundaries!”
Love it.
Reminds me of the time Willow (who was still living in her Transparent Closet at the time) wound up kissing Bad Willow: “Hands! Hands!”
THAT’S EXACTLY WHERE MY MIND WENT TOO! Thank goodness I’m not the only one!
Wow, Jin’s mom really knows how to get people to open up.
HA HA HA HA!!! Nuff Said! 😀
Pun Jar people.
Isn’t that near Kolkatā?
Closer to la-Whore, really.
Hmm. *look at filled-to-the-brim pun-jar* Starts steering Pun-Dumper-Truck towards Tina’s shop. “Start loading those penny’s people. Asses and elbows!
No, Jay-Em, look over here – they added an ATM access. Now you can pay with debit or credit. Ea$y term$…. }:)
And it accepts just about anything at this point, including all known currencies, livestock, electronics, various antiques, and kidneys.
I find it really interesting, how that access panel ist in no way hindered by the clothes bud wears 🙂
Seems a bit like hocuspocus to me.
Is there a better kind of Pocus?
Her interior is an extradimensional space, and you worry about how Bud’s clothing adapts to her access hatch?
If she were wearing a blue tshirt that read…
“POLICE TELEPHONE
FREE FOR USE OF PUBLIC
ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY
OFFICERS AND CARS RESPOND TO URGENT CALLS
PULL TO OPEN”
..would that make better sense?
No, that would make her a Companion.
(YESSSS, I get to make a Dr. Who joke!)
No more than if she always pushed the door to open. (See Doctor Who Series 6.)
it’s, er, Apotropaic, dont ya know… like ‘invisibility’ it extends an inch or two beyond the body… 😛
Neh.. It’s an intra-dimensional manifestation of an extra-dimensional phenomenon. It only looks&feels like a hatch for us 3 (4, if you will)- dimensional creatures. It’s a visual variation of timey-wimey, curled-up branes……and..ehh..stuff * takes off glasses an shuffles for a bit on his plymsols*. Uhm..yes..that got away from me a bit….
Just keep it away from hens. They tend to…um…explode.
No, no. When you lose track of your creative explanations or hypotheses, you can always wrap it up with “…but after that it gets pretty technical.”
…or “The proof is left as an exercise for the student.”
“And, guys — it’s pass / fail.”
or, my favorite: “From this, it is obvious that. . . .”
“Casual to the most obvious observer.”
=======================
A well-respected Professor of Sociology entered the classroom at the beginning of the period, wrote a medium-complex bit of symbolic logic on the board, turned to the class and said, “Now I’m sure you can all see that this is obviously … hmmm…”, turned, studied what he’d written for a moment, looked back at the class, said “Excuse me a moment,” and disappeared out the door.
A few minutes before the end of class, he returned, chalk dust on his jacket and hands, and said “I was right – it is obvious!”
Fat uncle and Fairportfan-
And do not ask about Epic OR Legendary fail.
@Fairportfan–I’d heard a variant of that story said about a math prof doing a proof. And after saying it, having come back 35 minutes after the class was over, he continued with the proof.
May have been the same fellow who got stopped by a student after class asking if he could explain the proof a bit more clearly.
The prof thought for a moment, and replied, “Yes, that does work.”
“But I still don’t understand!”
Another moment of thought. “You can do it that way too.”
“But how do you get there?”
“I’m sorry. I’ve offered you two different ways of proving it. If they aren’t enough, I cannot help you.”
It’s either a pandimensional access, or the panel neatly sliced through Bud’s dress as it opened, or Bud isn’t really wearing clothes, it’s a hologram or she just spray painted the fabric pattern on her skin.
Or wizards did it. 🙂
In another graphic novel, this sort of thing became known as “plumage”. And one small character wanted to grow up to be a succubus, not least because they got to run around “nakers.” Pibgorn, Feb. 25, 2009.
Jay-Em: you seemed to get it AFAIK, but then got lost in time/space travel??
Eee: I think its more ‘extra-dimensional’.. it does not cut the *dress fabric* in any way, it merely cuts a temporary hole through your lower dimension, tied to the golem..
I guess it only looks like a ‘door’ to our limited senses, who cannot see the multidimensional whole..
only maya or paul knows….:/
The Egyptian fruit merchant seemed to be able to percieve it. Did he have any special abilities? Maybe, I suppose.
I probably have liked it better if Maya first turned Bud into a stone form, then opened the hatch, but whatever. I would have also preferred to just forget about it, but I don’t care that much.
Well, considering that he knew Tepoz and was about Tepoz’s size …
Interestingly, we’ve never seen the Golem Girls in stone/clay form. Only Tepoz, and even that only at the very beginning.
May’s expression in that last panel reminds me so much of Nudge. And if I’m not mistaken, May looks visible much order than she did just after Bud brought he back from the Demon Realm. Is may just showing her age now (like Jin changing her hair)?
Acting visibly chaotic, seems to me….
Oh!
So THAT is what it must be like to be a mechanic for a talking car!
I’d love to see that!! 🙂
may is bending down, up to her waist inside bud…
“now lemme see.. its around here somewhere…”
*clank!* screw, screw.. {plink!} “ooops!” {bud’s arm starts waving uncontrollably ) 🙂
*hammer, hammer*, screw, screw, *wham* “ah, hmmm, yeah..” {bud’s arm stops}
“ah what? oh dear..”
bud: “whats wrong??”
may: “wrong kind of socket, stopped using it millenia ago…”
may: “No problem. Just need a bigger hammer.”
Ah, yes–the “bigger hammer principle”, sometimes verbalized as “anything will fit if enough force is applied.”
Bash til it fits – the basic principle of repair for Volkswagen.
ROFL ROFL!! of course!!
{noise of huge jackhammer resound from within bud}
😀
illiad-
Maya from inside (only feet sticking out), “now I just need four pounds of Semtex to fire forge the connection and seal it shut.
Bud “Out! get out of there! Now. Oh wait that wouldn’t even tickle me, Just be sure to shut the hatch before you fire the charge.”
More like the dreaded, “Damn, it’s metric, not SAE!”
No problem–it will still fit.
Anyone seen the 3′ vice grips? I might need that 20 lb. sledge also.
I can just imagine any serious boy/girl friend cosying up to one of the golems in a moment of passion and… oops, the trap door pops open. Talk about coitus interruptus maximus meets the terminator… aah!
Perhaps she wasn’t just flirting when she said
“I want you inside me.”
Booooo.
Hey. A Golem’s gotta eat.
But that’s why pizza is poitable.
This makes me want to read Battle Angel again.
Is there any reason not to do that at regular intervals?
Oy. I recently had to move my personal library.
Point taken, though. 😉
So is the manual in there somewhere?
How does one test fly a galaxy powered device?
Carefully. Very carefully. Unless one is May, then it’s plug it in, turn it on and see what happens. Deal with any side effects afterwards, or at least try to.
Assuming there is an “after”.
But the manual is on PDF, and you can’t view the manual if the system isn’t wonking rite..
The manual is only openable in the Lanthian version of WordPerfect.
But why bother with that. May is a “maker”. It’s all about the wonder of discovery.
Yamara-
And this is why my ‘Mender’ (Trademark applied for) is so careful. Last time he screwed up he had to replace part of a Solar system, And that invention actually did what it was supposed to.
Let’s hope that May doesn’t throw a whipped cream can grenade in there like the other two did….
Awrsum laugh to begin the weekend!
If Paul ever finishes documenting Glyph for me (nudge nudge wink wink) we should be able to decipher that Operating Manual for Lanthan Golems…
On a semi-related note, folks have been making some awesome contributions to the Wapsi Square Wiki. Check out the Chronology section for an example…
I don’t know. I guess you have to start somewhere. Seems to me it has way too many irrelevant factoids. Too much trying to blend the real world with the wapsiverse. These just lead to confusion and a difficulty in following the actual story timeline. Also too many episode references that are not important mile-markers, especially toward the end. It needs serious editing. Problem is, that will likely upset whoever wrote it and lead to more and more editing by others of differing opinions.
My approach would be to establish the absolute minimum number of main points first (possibly by on-line discussion), then branch each of them for salient sub points, but only after fully vetting the main points.
I wouldn’t be upset about changes, it’s a public wiki. I’ve been in real edit wars at Wikipedia, watching idiots making actual threats. So I’m mellow. But see below as to why I’ve approached this as I have.
I have a suspicion about chronology which I’ve been intentionally not discussing; either it’s an upcoming plot point or a potential plot hole and neither one is made better by pointing it out. But I like that someone’s trying to untangle the question, even if the current version is overrun with trivia.
The guilty chronologist would be me. There was a call for it on the wiki, and I just dove in.
Firstly, Paul, if you want me to stop this public compilation, just say the word.
Secondly, and mainly, what I’m doing is some live historiography. That is, I’m comparing dates and ages and seeing what things measure up and when. Trivial references is what history is often made from, and so I am beginning by being hypercomplete.
I’m still in the process of finding a lot of stuff; right now I’m starting to add character first-meetings.
Even after a few days of this, I am having quite a time determining the extent and severity of Monica’s time in the mental health services, and also the chronology of Mayahuel and her various creations and activities. This is one reason I chose an open and exhaustive process: it’s too easy to miss something.
And if people want the storyline– I think they should read the comic!
Isn’t the chronology meant to be the chronology of the story line? The sequence of events of the major happenings in the story? Maybe I’m thinking about this wrongly.
I look it as a chronology of the major events and character introduction of the various characters, with more hyperlinks to the details and real world tie-ins The current link to the CM cycles would be an example. To me, anyway, it would be cleaner as a first read.
It might be good to introduce a fundamental link to a “Sandbox” where people could put in their ideas as to how it might be done while not messing with (or up) the current chronology as you have presented.
Whatever it is to be it shouldn’t be a replacement for the comic.
The storyline is what Paul chooses to present in the order he chooses to present it, in the comic. He introduces lies, foreshadowing, misdirection, and host of other surprises, often out of chronological order. Add to this time loops and a number of references to history and legend to enhance wonder and mystery. Enough of these have been made to warrant a chronology to keep them straight. Something to place them in their order in time, as a reference to experienced readers.
But the chronology is not itself the storyline.
I didn’t say it was the story line, I said it was the chronology of the story line. This would include the first time each character was shown, the appearance of the golem girls, When Nudge revealed herself and when she was knocked out of Tina by Phix, etc. If you take your chronology from 2001 on, that’s what you’ve been writing, but, in some cases, with more plot revealing detail than I would have.
I would present things tersley so as to not reveal too much plot. For instance,
“Monica introduced”
“Tepoz introduced”
– .
– .
– .
“Golem girls first appearance”
“Calendar Machine situation introduced”
“Calendar Machine situation resolved.”
– .
– .
– .
“Shelly and the Time Tree Forest”
That sort of thing. Simple phrases which do not give away the actual plot.
As I see it, you actually have 2 timelines. The first which covers back history, and the second which covers the plot in chronological order as presented in the story line.
I created a talk page. I thought some of the stuff involving Maya happened in a different order and said so. Beyond what I said there, I discount the idea that time ever stood still; it’s just that Tina’s stuck experiencing time as humans experience it, I think. (If time stood still, how would Tina know that it happened?) Beyond that, nothing jumped out at me, but I didn’t look all that closely.
The main problem I’m having there is that early on Tepoz says he came along hundreds of years after Bud, Brandi and Jin were murdered, but then later claims he met a disguised Jin while the priests were rounding up 18-year old girls.
This is before the loops, so they can’t both be true. Maya’s chronology is messed up just now because of that. (I’ll take this to your new Talk page in a wee.)
Don’t all women have access panels? Yet they call them… something else…
May is gonna be inside of Bud!
Will there be a unrated version of the next page?
Sigmund Freud’s brain just exploded.
Yeah, there’s potential with this one. Not sure what exactly it is, but there’s a metaphor somewhere around here. Or maybe I do know what it is and I’m just being polite.
Nah, that was his grandson…
Not exceptionally funny.
Rather unfortunate timing, I admit.
Yeah – i didn’t mean it was intended, just that it fell sorta flat.
OTOH, there was his other grandson – the one who posed for that photo with Paul McCartney and Christopher Lee…
hat is just plain weird: does Bud have all of her shirts/blouses/dresses tailored to take that into account?
see back at 1:21 am..
The next comic will be a guest strip by Fellini.
No, Fellini should do the next 8½ strips…
That should be “the next 81⁄2 strips”…
Whoa, pun alert: Darling May’s in Bud!
Probably good that Bud wasn’t looking at May when she asked that question. I do think May has that very scary, calculating expression that says she’d already anticipated the question, was long past it, and is now thinking, “Step one, take working indestructible unit; Step 2, see if new addition unbalances it. Now if the idiots were were using my original blueprints …”
Now we’re cooking …. With Science! (oops, tripped off a series of ‘easy-bake oven’ jokes at this end)
I begin to wonder if what May actually developed is a synthetic form of DNA. Set it up as you wish, then drop some into a batch of the special clay-ashes mixture. It takes over and creates whatever desired from a mixture of the synthdna’s “blueprint” plus whatever DNA fragments/markers are left in the ash. This would allow for the making of perfect replicas.
It’s got to be more complicated than that, something like the ash has a quantum entanglement with the extra-dimensional time state of the subject that allows a pattern retrieval.
The pseudo-DNA cum machine makes perfect sense though.
If it was located on her chest, would it be a booby hatch?
*tosses a book of S&H Green Stamps, some Murgo red gold coins, a half-eaten energon cube, and a glass eye into the Jar*
You have some, um, interesting things in your wallet, sir. It must be uncomfortable when you sit down… 🙂
Not wallet, but magic pockets! A major advantage for one who regularly saves the world when nobody’s looking. Hey, is that the Loch Ness Monster riding a stick horse!?
(steps around a corner that wan’t there before)
“The thing that your aunt gave you that you don’t know what it is”…
Oh – do you know Glass Eye George?
[Please note that the Wikipedia article’s “one of whom must be a one-eyed man” isn’t true – Glass Eye George (that was the name used for the operator in describing the con in a book) was a real con artist who had two perfectly good eyes.]
Wow, King! You still have some S&H Green Stamps? Haven’t seen those since I lived in Killeen, Tx about 30 (mumble) years ago.
Me too–I last saw them somewhen in the ’80s, between when I moved out of home, and when my ‘rents retired and moved to another state.
I keep forgeting that im within a more mature audience…
(Because it must be done)
Salrite?
‘s’awight</door>
Hysterical.
The Diskworld golems are programed by putting notes in their head.
By the way….
I heard once that up to a certain age children believe the human body is homogenous,like a potato.
Are golems hollow?
It’s hard to say. Bud is functionally hollow, in that you can pop the hatch and put things inside her (including the other two Golem Girls), but it’s not that she’s literally hollow but that the hatchway opens to Somewhere Else.
I watched “Mars Needs Moms” on DVD yesterday. I was all set to dislike it, having the word “Mom” in the title as it does, but it was pretty good, except for the killing and implied killing. It was written by Blake Breathed, so what can you expect?
You ask, what has that to do with this comic episode? Nothing. What has it to do with Wapsi, period? Ah … well, in the movie the martians are advanced hooved creatures. They are done much like the way Jay-Em has done Nudge. The main difference being they have a longer middle leg section (and no horns). I found it interesting to watch how the animators made them move. They were shown as being quite graceful and natural. You really bought their movements as being “normal.” It was also quite an example of a modern rotoscope technique.
I have avoided that fil, mostly because of the motion-capture (not really “rotoscope”, since rotoscope is a process for tracing filmed material in hand-drawn animation).
I find that, so far, mo-cap (for me, anyway) is smack-dab in the deepest depths of the uncanny valley.
That’s correct. I should have said, as some of the articles I read did, it’s a form of computerized rotoscoping. The result was a bit disconcerting, making you wonder if some scenes were with the real actor against a green screen or what? Still, I guess I’m not that critical about the technique used in the film as many seemed to be. I rather liked the way they did the old woman martian’s facial expressions and mouth movements, as well as, how they used the martian language to good effect.
Oh, and, of course, that was Berkeley (Berke) Breathed, not Blake.
I understand that they’re getting better at it – third film using the technology by the same director, and between each there were huge advances in the tech – The Polar Express, judging by the trailers, was positively creepy-looking.
(I didn’t see it because of that, and because i thought that the book was basically rather twee and dumb; the only reason i even bothered to get past the first page or so was the beautifully rendered Pacific class locomotive.)
Those who did the Polar Express tried way to hard to create some artsy rendition of the story. Mostly it simply was boring and really slow paced. They seemed to think the grandure of the scenes would carry it. Didn’t, of course. Yes, it was also creepy, but I think they shot for creepy.
The thing that creeped me about that flick, was that the kid had an uncanny resemblance to the creepy boy, Oscar, from “Die Blechtrommel” I just couldn’t concentrate on it after that realization.
As far as “uncanny valley” goes ,I believe that it’s an affliction that will haunt CG movies for the foreseeable future.
Same would happen if someone would roto/ MoCap an actor with some digitgrade prosthetics as Nudge, and, say, use my statuette (which is finished now ,haven’t had time to load-up the pics) as the basis… Scans of figurines are very often used as the building blocks of CG monsters and such ,before being MoCapped. Animating the MoCapped scans -more often than not- go seriously “uncanny” So much even that a lot of animators go back to hand-animation.
Gollum, in the Lord of the Rings films, was mo-cap.
I never saw the second or third, but i understand he was Very impressive.
I actually encountered the Uncanny Valley well before CGI – in a couple of Jim Henson films.
In The Dark Crystal”, the least visually plausible (for me, anyway) characters were the two main characters – the Gelflings. They were the most human-seeming, but had virtually immobile faces … which was the visual problem.
In Labyrinth, Hoggle the dwarf, the most naturalistic-looking puppet character, almost worked – but his eyes were “dead”, and every time we got a shot of his face, it just killed the illusion.
Just thought I’d post a prediction on where this is all going. There are two possible artifacts that can fix Jin. My prediction is that the galaxy alternator will be the one to do the job, seemingly rendering Shelly’s ordeal a shaggy dog story. However, the weird cross artifact will kick off the next arc. Maybe they simply try to figure out what it is and what it does. Maybe they figure out what it does, it isn’t good, and they have to undo it. Maybe it reveals another problem to be solved. I honestly don’t know.
Okay, this is what happens when you’re working on a Wapsi picture and ‘The Boss’ comes up on random play…
57 Tries (and Nothin’s Wrong)
Found me a baby and she’s every man’s wish
Richer than Gates and a real spicy dish
She sat me down and she had to tell me the truth
‘This ain’t no body’s first time ‘round on this earth
Everybody’s happy because they don’t know what’s going on
It took fifty seven tries, now nothing’s wrong
Fifty seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty seven tries and nothin’s wrong’
Tellin’ me the big picture was my Baby’s desire
Then she spoke the words that set my mind on fire
‘The woman you claim to love and choose next to lay
Has been alive for thousands of years and is made out of clay
Humans are a group to which I’ll never truly belong
It took Fifty-seven tries now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothin’s wrong’
‘There’s a machine that controls how time flows
But it got broken, you know how that goes
Everything runs fine, but there’s one thing on which you can bet
In December twenty-twelve every damn time it would reset
I’m the only one that could see it wasn’t moving along
It took fifty-seven tries now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty seven-tries and nothin’s wrong’
‘The machine was stopped and thrown into the sun
Eighty thousand years of re-runs ain’t no one’s idea of fun
Time is moving, it don’t skip back is how
We’ve gone on to uncharted territory now’
Her words still shake my soul like echoes from a gong
‘It took fifty-seven tries now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothin’s wrong’
She says it’s fine but when the cold winds blow
My baby will run outside and yell at the snow
I hold her close and ask why she looks so scared
She says she see’s people who just ain’t there
The good times are short, and bad times too long
It took fifty-seven tries, now nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothing’s wrong
Fifty-seven tries and nothin’s wrong
*blink*, *blink* wow… {seriously impressed}
That is beyond awesome.
I did not see that coming.
Oh. Awkward.
http://flakypastry.runningwithpencils.com/comic.php?strip_id=190
Ha-haa! She’s got the ‘Motor Booty’…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Booty_Affair
Just a slittle respect for May. Din’t nobody say nuthin’ about her rocking the mini-dress…
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/20110721pastscholastics.png/
Right?!?!
Although she doesn’t show it as often, Bud’s always been a-door-able
She’s been stuck in the demon realm for God knows how long, I think she could be worse. As it is she’s quirky and delightful.