Page 890…
Hey all!
So I FINALLY got around to changing the music on the Jukebox.
Hope you like it.
This time around…we have…
Diner. I heard this song on the tv show Scrubs.
The kids and I dance to it at night before bed. They love this song.
Secret is from the 80’s. Donna and I were at Noshville (a local deli) and it came on the radio. I Shazamed it (an app on the iphone that can tell you what song you’re listening too…really amazing) and we were like….”Oh my God. I remember that song! When we were TEENAGERS!”
It’s a Mistake. Another 80’s song.
Kiss the Girl. I love this remake. Little Mermaid is one of my favorite movies of all time. It was the movie I took Donna to for our 1 year anniversary of dating.
Sweet Tides. I picked this song randomly since I like Lebonese Blonde by the same group. It’s kind of grown on me.
Anyways. That’s the new music…probably with more info about it than you needed…ha ha.
I’ve been really thinking about some sort of giveaway for things. I have toys and books. And if you guys are willing to help out. Why not give some things away?
The votes for Topwebcomics are coming along nicely. I feel we may get into the top 10 by the end of the month. THen of course it resets.
But if you guys are OK with clicking daily. Thank you.
Also…
We’re closing in on our 1000th Twitter follower.
Maybe I should do something special for that?
I don’t know…
Well…if you haven’t already. Follow me on Twitter.
I’m full of mundane stuff. It’ll put you RIGHT to sleep if you need that. I promise.
🙂
Hope you have a great day, and thanks again for reading.
Scott
Is this a deliberate C.S. Lewis reference? You’ve mentioned before that the Chronicles of Narnia influenced some aspects of your world (such as time passing differently in the dreamlands than in our world). In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the professor repeatedly asks “what do they teach in schools these days” or some close paraphrase of that.
Ah, just in time with the Jukebox. I did’t know what I should listen today at work. 🙂
Hmm… ever since you changed that with the all-reflecting armour I’m seeing all kinds of things in there. I guess today it’s just some houses though (are these the same houses than on the previous pages, do they just look the same?) – but there could be monsters in that reflection, sometimes.
So much for a Tuesday early morning comment. 😉
Surely even Alex can recognize Ursa Major? Although if it’s not visible it still doesn’t mean the stars aren’t the same, he might just be on the wrong hemisphere. 🙂
You know…. I just noticed the crest on Alex’s armor…
Very nice touch!
(There’s alot more I wanted to say, but it all seems too spoilerific, even tho I don’t know where the story may go.) 🙂
Wonderful as usual Scott!
~Prince Demitri
Alex hasn’t realized it yet, but he’s slipping into the Nightmare Realm. Not the one Nicodemus is leagued with necessarily.
No, this is a different one, the one everyone potentially carries within themselves.
It’s built of small things: good intentions that never quite get carried out; potential that never quite gets fulfilled; opportunities taken for granted or not even seen until they’ve passed irrevocably out of reach. A day late and a dollar short…
It’s looking in the mirror, and discovering the view is not what one thought it was – if one had even been paying attention at all. It’s the doubt that takes root when one opens one’s eyes and really takes stock of where one is – and how short that is of what might have been…..
Learning to fly is the least of Alex’s problems at this point. There is magic in Dreamland, but there is no magic so great as that of taking all one’s mind, heart, and soul are capable of, and bending them to a task worthy of them. If Alex can begin to do that at last, then learning to fly again will be trivial in comparison.
Alex has this much going for him – that task is at hand even if he hasn’t begun to grasp all the implications yet.
To quote one of my favorite authors,
“Tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.”
–Lois McMaster Bujold Shards of Honor
I was never into constellations, I don’t recognise a single one of them to this day… and I consider myself a very studious person otherwise! So I’d say it’s not uncommon not to recognise them. Plus living in England and particularly London, you don’t see the stars much at night because of sky glow.
Interesting to see her mood now reverting back to getting slightly irritated with Alex again, after being all butterflies and turtle-doves!
Interesting thing about the crest is that Staj’s pendant seems to be that of a dragon, while on Alex’s crest the lion is pouncing on the dragon! Subtle foreplay at work?
i agree, what DO they teach us 😉
no sword fighting, gunfighting, bowskills, not evenhand to hand combat 😀 nothing useful to survive ^^
This one belongs to that number of pages that need to be printed and pinned at the wall.
Dreamland and Alex’s reality are very different. At home, he’s a class clown and is probably barely passing his classes (the second’s an inference). Here, he’s forced to be a hero and he has a true social relationship, not just clowning around.
Besides, Alex’s reality’s schools teach what is necessary in life. Guiding yourself by the constellations isn’t taught anymore (but I bet they taught it before compasses were invented ^.^). Education adapts to meet the future.
I love your comics but in this page, you can tell that Nas’ head is bigger than Alex’. Can you tweak that somehow, it looks weird specially since she has such a slender build.
Yeah, um, those songs you listed aren’t the ones I can see on the Jukebox… :/
Hadn’t noticed Nas’s brooch before. I assume the silhouette is a bird, not a dragon. Heck, I’ve been so unobservant that only now do I notice the emblem on Alex’s breastplate.
Alex’s expression in the last panel is amusing.
I agree…what DO they teach them in those schools? I can’t exactly say for certain myself ’cause I’m homeschooled.
Good question what do Alex get teached in well theres much, but how much do he remember 😛
Morning all…
Joshua…
Just a coincidence. While I love the Narnia books…I’m not one of those people who remember “line for line” stuff of my favorite things.
Maybe it’s in my subconscious somewhere?
ROMVS…
Thanks. Her head is the same size as always. If I change it now. I have to change it for 800+ other pages.
🙂
Thanks all! I love these pages. Love having them interact. Learn to be a couple. And learn more about eachother.
What a just wonderful sequence … I just LOVE it
well…. that totally ruined the moment, didn’t it? XD
I really like this page. Not sure what it is about it, but I just really like it. Which just means that on the 1-10 scale where DLC is normally like a 9.5, this page is a 9.6 🙂
giveaways rock!
Love the page, Scott!
I agree with Sven! Surely Alex could recognize the Big Dipper! That would seem pretty basic… ‘sigh’ what ARE they teaching in school these days…
Really! I was very interested in stars, but they never taught us about them in school! 0_o I had to go and learn about them myself. I can only recognize Orion, Eridanus, Taurus, and Ursa Major. Most of which can only be seen in Winter in my hemisphere. :/
School. Fail.
Alexander should take off that armor. That way he can get up close and cozy with that lithe elven body. 😉
Is it just me or does Alex look like Nastajia violated personal space in the first panel? I think he’d be thrilled to have her so close (Certainly surprised me. Maybe I’m still too used to Ice Queen)
I think by the end of this HEAVENLY conversation, Alex starts to mature and master flying and give his professors heart attacks when he starts doing a lot better in school. Nastajia needs a *man* and she’s stuck with Alex so he needs to shape up for her.
Btw, LOVE the art on this page!
To which Alex replies “Oh, they don’t teach me anything, but somehow I keep getting by!” which is sort of the way I see his school history. Of course, elven women and dragons that want you dead are quite a distraction, so I can see him having other things on his mind than school.
*Dreamland flag waving again* “We’re” into 14th place from 24th when the TopWebComics voting discussion started! Only 15 days left! Even if you don’t comment, VOTE! Ok, I’m done.
That’s the way students like Alex learn: as long as it’s required, they will study and learn for the test, and promptly forget 90%. But when it’s something they are interested in–like the constellations NOW–they show a remarkable ability to learn and retain forever.
Like Calvin (of C. & Hobbes) knowing about paleontology and dinosaurs, but not being able to add 4+7 reliably.
😛 I don`t think Alex can answer that question because he could pay a *little* more attention in class.
Well, the next few pages should get rather interesting, as Alex explains, or tries to explain, what it is that IS taught in the schools. Sadly, Astrology is not high on any educators list, and perhaps it should be. Stargazing is a rather pleasant pastime…albeit not that important in the day to day activities.
Even if a person doesn’t know the name of the constellations, surely they could recognize familiar patterns?
If Alex is a city boy with little opportunity to look up and actually see stars, that might be forgivable.
But not if he’s from a rural area, that won’t wash (heck, I live in a residential area now, and can still see them at night.) Before I took my first astronomy class, I was familiar with the basic positions of the stars, because I saw them near ’bout every night . Yeah, there’s not excuse for not knowing what the Big Dipper and Little dipper look like, ever, even my 4 year old can point it out.
Don’t think I want astrology taught in schools, ironbandit. Now, Astronomy would be useful…
Wynnefredd – but would you recognize the southern constellations?
That’s actually a really interesting point. But obviously they’re not going to be the same unless Dreamland is also on Earth :p
Scoot in regards to your asking about incentives for voting or reaching certain milestones, I was thinking that it would be cool to see dreamland as a map as an option. You have so many incredibly rendered zones that you could turn into a “Google Dreamland” if you will. Even cooler would be a 3d explorable version that allows you to see or fly through dreamland as it exists in the story rather then a simpler top down view. Either way that would be a heck of an incentive.
Oh and as a side note, I noticed the repeat in the background in the last panel. On either side on them, there’s a big clump of stars that you might want to fix for this page, just because people’s eyes will probably be wandering towards the stars with this conversation going. :/
The only stars I ever learned were for the Big and Little Dipper. XD
I take you guys dont live in a city…
Mine isnt that big and i consider myself lucky if i see 10 stars on the sky…
I’m pretty well educated, and I can’t find the Big Dipper to save my life. The only constellation I’ve ever been able to find reliably is Orion.
Sometimes I can get lucky and spot a planet, but I usually can’t tell for sure which one.
I can usually spot the moon, though …
Nastajia: “What do they teach you in school, anyway, Alexander?”
Alex: “Not much. The budget keeps getting slashed.”
Her hair looks a bit darker,but hopefully its the light(I preferred fair purple)
Also her face looks kind of different(still beautiful of course)particularly the nose.Its very subtle so don’t get me wrong..its not even criticism.Just putting down what I noticed
NARNIA REFERENCE!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!! *giggle fit* 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Winning!
I, on the other hand, did learn the constellations in ‘school’.
But then I was homeschooled too.
WIN!