Page 1043…
Hi all!
Sorry…I wasn’t able to get to making a new vote incentive yesterday.
Hopefully I’ll find the time today to sit down and draw. I thought it’d be fun to try sketching again.
In the meantime…here’s yesterday’s….
I hope you’re enjoying the pages…and I’ll see you all tomorrow for another.
🙂
Thanks
Scott
Arthur? As in Arthur Pendragon? Of Camelot? Interesting…
Boo-ya!!
is the sword implying that it is Excalibur, ‘THAT’ Sword of Kings!? … Actualy I am suprised I did not see this coming earlier and if this is where Arthur once ruled then this must also be Avalon… just a peace of trivia but did the rest of you know that the legends behind king Arthur are actually Nordic in nature?
Did Nick have Arthur trapped in…something…that somehow made him live forever to prevent the sword from finding a new king? Nick doesn’t strike me as dumb to not know that humans have a reletively short lifespan.
Arthur Pendragon according to legend and poem promised to return to Britain if the need arose. If he was killed by Nic, that would be a bit of a deviation from legend.
Very dramatic with Alex crawling out of the canyon.
Must have been pretty tough to go to his “happy place” mentality while on fire! “I love Nastajia so. . . . waaahhh! FIREFIREFIREFIREFIRE!!!!!!!”
So it looks like Nick himself never thought of Alexander as the next king, but merely as an annoyance, who had managed to get the sword unstuck, and who could eventually manage to get it to whoever would be the next king…
I wonder if that will change Nick’s opinion of Alexander…
Nice dramatic effect, on Alex climbing back up… I had expected to see him floating up…
Awesome stuff man, keep it up ^_^
Is it just me or does Nic come off as a little dense here? My mental response for the sword is “Thank you captain obvious. Now kindly impale yourself on my blade and get this over with.”
Thats not a cliffhanger, thats pure awesomeness… at least in my opinion 😛
of course its a cliff hanger can’t you see him half way over the ledge?
I thought they were Norman… Tolkein created Middle Earth in part to be a truly English mythology; he was disgusted that the “English” legend actually had French origins.
Arse afire and everything!
*piece
That might depend on which Arthur you are referencing, also. There are…well, too many versions to go into. Scott’s version is going to be like what you see in the [em]Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica[/em] series- a completely modified author’s version of it, via an idea that legend mixed with fact until the point that the true knowledge of what happened was completely lost. So, it really doesn’t matter which “version” or branch of Arthurian legend you want to go with. It’s Scott’s own made up version of it that’s going to peel away the “myth and legend” and give us a completely fresh take on it with Dreamland as the center of it.
* (em) Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica (/em)
Current circumstances aside, if they could just find the World Tree Teledrasil, Yggdrsil, whatever you want to call it, it would make a great scene that and it couldn’t be to hard to find it… how hard can it be to find a tree that is bigger than most country’s… you know what, don’t answer that
Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica
Permission to dance about and shout that I called it meekly. XD
that is true… there are to many legends and made up myths that to realistically say which ones, if any, are true. so lets put those ones aside and concentrate on the new one before us. (yawn) now it is time to finally go and take a cat nap ZZZZZzzzzz
Though we have only a partial concept of the relative time in our world and dreamland. Also in how time is perceived. For all we know, our world’s year and dreamland’s are different. For instance, Alexander seems to train full days, yet probably sleeps about 8 hours, this would mean a Dreamland year might be three times as long as a real world year and though 15 years passed since he left dreamland, the actual duration is closer to 45 years of real world time applied to dreamland and Nastajia is a 50yo cougar. 😀 But that said, the perception of relative time might well be radically different, perhaps even to the observer on either side.
I just realized what a blunder i just said… by made up myths I do not mean that they are wrong just that over time things have gotten confused and mixed up by being told so many time, kind of like rumors I guess and the game of telephone. now it really is time to head to bed
Hmm, after rechecking some facts, Excalibur and the Sword of the Stone are two diferent things. Anyway, does the sword keeps pawning Nick, or is it just me?
Also Nicodemus was essentially dormant until Alex pulled the sword. So it is also possible that Nic fell asleep for centuries, as dragons are wont to do, and when he arose, he did not perceive the differences. Afterall the area where the cave is was largely populated by elves (build it right millenia ago and leave it) and fae (We live in mushrooms and shoddy huts that fall down every Wednesday), so when he emerged, it probably was not any different outside from what he would have expected for napping a year or two. So then Nic might think it is still the Arthurian age.
Yes, Excalibur was given to Arthur by the Lady in the Lake after the Sword in the Stone was broken in a duel with (I think) the Black Knight.
I’m sure his armor keeps him from being burned.
Still on fire! No really, he needs water 😀
Some legends have Arthur taken to Avalon when mortally wounded where rather due to magic he doesn’t die. Perhaps in this story that is partially due to Nics betrayal, and Nic hoped to keep him frozen there forever so no replacement kings, but eventually Arthur finds a way to die.
Just thought you should know that now that I know the reason for voting, I vote for all my fav comics. 🙂
Ooooh… so the last human King was Arthur? That’s a loooong time…. >_>
Actually, he did state living as the advisor for various kings.
I seem to remember someone mentioning “800 years of rule under Nicodemus”.
What, no ‘Once and Future King’ in reference to Arthur? 😉
Actually, the Normans were ‘Nor(se)Men’ – http://www.viking.no/e/france/contents.html gives a run down on some of it. The Viking got footholds all over the place around the North Sea and beyond.
Nicodemus boasts of ruling Dreamland for 600 years.
roflmao, there is that, though wouldn’t it be a cliff-climber instead since he’s not hanging anymore?
the hands coming over the ledge like that… epic. totally loved the 3rd panel. 😀
and wow… nicodemus IS in denial, even though he had at least a decade to get used to the truth that was hinted on ever since alex drew the sword out of the stone. he must be good at ignoring facts. 😉
hmmm, if alex just comes back up there, does that mean he hasn’t heard the news yet? quite interesting setting. 🙂
Not the entrance I was expecting, but I will take it.
I knew I wasn’t completely insane when I kept seeing tie ins to the Arthurian legends!! Now I am finally validated in my insanity! Now to find some thing else to ponder over that also ties in to the Dreamland Chronicles. Maybe the Knights of the Round Table?
Dragons (in most fantasy settings I’ve seen so far) are famous for their unrivaled intelligence, unsurpassed cunning and scheming. However they’re also infamous for their arrogance, which can be the same as stupidity in some cases.
Look, in the Arthurian legend, at least one of them, Arthur is sleeping in Avalon,healing from the wounds Mordred gave him, waiting for Britains gretest time of need. At that time he would rise again. Of course the same legend exists in other countries as well. Frederick I Barbarossa Holy Roman Emperor, Konstantinos Paleologos of Bysantium, etc.
What is interesting is that the sword says gone, not dead. It might be simple semantics, but it can be something more.
From Nastajia (and the others) position, I’m guessing they have all heard the sword’s proclamation. So at this point, I’m betting Alex is the only one who doesn’t know he is the new king.
I like the added touch of flames going out on his armor! Anyone bring marshmallows? S’mores anyone???
I’m guessing it was the force/surprise of getting flamed, but I am curious as to why Alex didn’t simply fly back into the scene?
Alex: “I don’t suppose anyone in Dreamland has invented the FIRE EXTINGUISHER?!”
I think that Alex is going to need to resort to unarmed combat to get the sword back…namely…giving Nicodemus a good swift kick in the dragonuts.
Permission granted.
🙂
Good Morning all!
Yes indeed…we are talking about King Arthur.
We’ll learn more later in the chapter.
Thanks for reading. I love all the comments.
“It’s just a flesh wound!”
Does anyone smell baked ham?
Love the ‘still on fire’ part. Seems to have a quite a jump between kings here in dreamland. Ceaser, Arthur, now Alex.
I’m a little lost in the dialogue. Last scene, we had the sword announcing that Alexander is the King. Then, first thing today we have Nic refuting that and talking about Arthur. He can hear the sword – so I’m just wondering why he completely skipped over the fact that the sword said Alexander in the last page. Seems to take away from that exciting moment a bit.
Yeah, but it doen’t prevent him from getting freaked out! :-O
no new vote incentive is perfectly fine … I just appreciate the daily link to vote!!!!
They make a mention of Arthur during their trip to the tablet of the merpeople. The writing inside the kraken’s den made note of a King Arthur along with a couple other recognizable names from the Bible.
Okay… why on the previous page is the sword uttering Alexander’s name, and yet Nick is talking about Arthur at the top of this one? I am quite confused.
I am loving the flames on Alex!! And I love what you just did with Nic, making his character more complex. If he (Nic) truly is in denial, maybe he’s been waiting this whole time for Arthur to come back? It would explain why he was so irritated with Alex taking the sword in the first place oh-so-many years ago, if he thought that it belonged to Arthur. Actually, I just like the dawning of revelation that Nic is going through right now…
I guess I’m confused by your confusion. 😉
Nic doesn’t “skip over” the fact that the sword said Alexander. In fact, he is arguing the point. The sword claims that Alexander is king, and Nic replies with, “No. Arthur is.” When the sword points out that Arthur is “gone,” Nic then reacts in some surprise that the sword had passed on to his successor (Alexander). It’s all very self-consistent, as we’d expect Nic to deny the validity of the new king.
The “exciting moment” stands on its own, but now we needed a transition to understanding the backstory. This provides that transition.
Somehow I’m starting to hear “Fire Water Burn” in my head. ;P
And on the notes of King Arthur, I think I’ve heard at least one version of the myths where he is given Excalibur by the Lady in the Lake but somehow (can’t remember any details) it gets put in a stone. Anyone read anything similar?
actually Nic was claiming to be the “king” of dreamland for over 600 dreamland years. since we now know Aurthur was the last true king, and he was on earth roughly 600 earth years one can guess the time between the two worlds though maybe not exact, are close to a 0ne-to-one relationship.
Depending on the version of the myth, it is either given by the lady of the lake, or Merlin shoves it in a stone to be drawn by the rightful king.
dito… since the vote button is there, we have been in the top ten… normally by this time we would have fallen to around 12th.. incentive or no, I think it helps just being there, otherwise it is too much work for someone to go to TWC search for Dreamland then vote. this way, click – click vote is counted!!
Gee….
Looking at the last two panels, I notice rocks in front of Alexander. I wonder is he remembered how Orion taught him to pick up very heavy rocks and throw them……
My bad….
wonder if, not ‘wonder is’….
I wonder… Did he recieve the sword in the ‘real’- or dreamworld? I mean Alexander at least can’t actually bring it back with him to his own world… So probably camelot it self was/is in dreamland… Wait a sec… Could it be that the great city…? The very city that we see above…?
Camelot!
But on a less MP topic: I wonder if other kings could have been purely dreamland oriented (unlike Julius Caesar for example)… Could it be that Saint George the Dragonslayer was a king aswell? Acalon could be another name of the sword… And a dead brother could explain why ol’ Nick dislikes the humans so much.
Yes, Nick comes accross as dense in relation to the sword–>successor train of thought. However, I was wondering whether there was something else in that brain of his besides the obvious behind his comment: something like, “if I kill him, you’re mine.”
Why is Alexander climbing up the cliff? I thought he could fly in Dreamland?
Any relation to Ashendel?
Relations for Nick… I hadn’t thought of a dead-brother-grudge, but that could be interesting.
Something I had wondered about, though–whether “Guardians” could’ve been an ancient name for the dragon-race, making uncorrupted relations of Nick the owners of the last tablet.
And in one version, Merlin was given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake, and when it was misused, he plunged it into the stone asking the stone not to release it until the true king came to take it. But as already mentioned, there’s many different versions. I like many of them.
That said, I can’t wait to hear how this new version unfolds. 😀
Hmm. Think Arthur can have passed out of relevance to Dreamland’s line without technically dying?
You know how for kids, fear disables their flight/belief point? Well I imagine that there could be a similar emotion-negation for adult flight happy-spots–despair to negate determination or self-concern to negate responsibility towards others, for example.
Excellent, and accurate!, use of the word wont, by the way …
😉
What? All this talk of Arthur, and no mention a’tall of the Mabinogion? For shame.
Love the suspense, Scott!
Yeah, fire can tend to freak you out if it’s on you, whether you can feel it or not …
😉
Fangirls of Dreamland, unite! Stomp out the fire on Alex’s cute butt before it is scarred for life.
I really like this page; I think the dialogue works quite well. I like the fire, as others have said; but I also like the eye in the sword, especially in the second pane where it looks over at Nicodemus. I don’t know how you managed to convey emotional connotation in a single eye in a metal sword, but I definitely read contempt there …
Don’t sweat the vote incentive; the one currently up is so awesome it can stand for multiple days if need be!
whoop whoop!
Splendid climbing out of the abyss while smoldering!!!!
As far as we can tell, the original layers of the Arthur story are Briton/Welsh, which were brought by the Britons to Brittany. From there, there were Norman layers added, while in Great Britain the English added a few elements of their own, including the idea of Bretwalda (or Lord of Britain) from at least the 6th century. In the High Middle Ages, it was one (the first) of several great literary cycles, the Matter of Britain (Arthur, plus others), of France (Charlemagne and the wars against the Moors and Saracens) and of Rome (Classical mythology and history). So, no, it is in origin neither Nordic nor French, but indigenous British (that is, the Celto-Romans left there after the Empire gave up the island about 410)
Arthur reigned on Earth sometime around 500 (plus or minus 50 years, depending on who you ask). Currently that is 1500 years ago, not 600: Nicodemus seems to be off his count by 900 years by this reckoning.
I can understand Alex not being able to fly up. Tough to maintain happy thoughts while on fire , even if you don’t feel it in your Nomex-like, super shiny armor (armour? We are talking olde English here). Gorgeous graphics here. I’m waiting for Alex to come out with “OK, now I’m steamed”, or something punnish
Another is Sebastian I of Portugal.
hmm I get a sense of The “I didn’t know you could talk! you never asked” scenario coming on sometime soon followed by or preceded by a “so why didn’t you tell me this when I needed it! but you seemed to be doing so well on your own”. scenario
Yeah but wont he get squished by the end of that and Staj would be pissed><
I absolutely love the sword. I can talk, it can essentially wield itself… *is hoping ot see more of that soon*
You’re not the only one who reads contempt. I love the T’d off sword!
I think it talked when they first got to the Centaur village.
I vote at least once a day i would try for the second but I usually forget while trying to get some arrens done just moved ^o^ Love the comic tho Scott wonderful work 😉 hehe
I found myself whistling the theme song of Superman (Christopher Reeves version) when I saw him climbing back up. =)
Don’t know why, but I was reminded of Bill Cosby’s Dentist sketch from “Myself” when you said that. “Whoa, whoa waib a binute! There’s smobke! There’s smobke coming frobm my fabce, and my bottom libp is on the floorb!” lol
In keeping with my comments regarding the parallels between this story and The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, Camelot could have been in BOTH worlds. In The Chronicles, Arthur ruled in both worlds via the help of the dragons. However, since in Dreamland Chronicles dragons are apparently creatures of the Nightmare Realm, it would seem this is indeed where the parallelism ends.
Wow Nick, for such a diabolical mastermind, you’re pretty stupid for taking so long to add 2+2. I also give props to [b]ALL[/b] of the commentators who told me all the details of King Aurthur (although I didn’t read all of it :embarrassed:.)
“I am King Arthur….” “And we are The Knights of Justice! We pledge fairness to all, to protect the weak and vanquish the evil!” 😉
One version states that the sword came from The Lady of the Lake when, after Uther Pendragon’s death (Arthur’s father), people were battling over who should be the rightful king (Arthur had been hidden away as a baby and been given the label “Wort” by the family who took him in). The Lady of the Lake magically had Excalibur appear in the stone in the town square so that one day the rightful king would claim the throne by being the one who pulled the sword from the stone. Whether you go by Disney’s comical version of it, ABC’s Merlin, The Legend of Prince Valiant’s description of the event, or several other versions of the myth, most of these details are decently consistent. However, there are many other variants, also. As stated by one person, Exacalibur was obtained in one version of the myth from the Lady of the Lake AFTER the Sword in the Stone had been broken during a duel with The Black Knight.
That would actually be John Williams, but I think we all knew what you meant by mentioning the actor who played in the movies that Williams did the musical scoring for.
lol
Someone didnt actually have to die for the successor to take over they just had to step down and turn over to whoever was going to take over. The sword said he was gone, which doesnt always mean he died. In fact im reading a series where merlin is from an alien race and his blood turned Arthur and his knights into vampires and theyre living in an alternate world and they come back into our world to help save it every once in awhile.
apparently the sword had contempt for Nic for a while… http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/2006/02/03/todays-dreamland-chronicles-26/
I stand corrected… for some reason I was thinking 15th century not 5th 😛
out of curiosity, what series is that?
Ok, so that then mean that time passes more quickly on earth than dreamland….
just to beat a dead horse… according to this it is one-to-one http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/2006/03/14/todays-dreamland-chronicles-54/
Come on folks, pulling a sword out of a stone isn’t an Arthurian give away right back at the beginning? Sheesh, you’re a bunch of Alexanders (sad to say it’s my middle name).
Oh and bmonk, what’s the difference between Briton and Breton? Apart form spelling 🙂
My wife keeps getting mistaken for French (despite her accent) when we’re over there, and we think the Cornish (Penrose) branch of her family has maybe Breton links.
Welsh is a Brythonic language (language of Britons) and is Breton, as was Cornish and Cumbric – now extinct. Yes I know there’s a Cornish language revival, but it died out and there is some discussion on which Cornish to use. Middle Cornish, Unified Cornish, Late Cornish, Common Cornish, Unified Cornish Revised, or Standard Written Form ?
Prophetiae Merlini (Prophecy of Merlin) a manuscript dating from about 1133 written in Latin contains some margin notes in the Cornish language.
So that brings us nicely back on subject 🙂
I find it funny that the sword seems to have a bored expression in the second panel when Nick argues that Alex cant be king, it kinda shows you how much Nick wants to keep his rule over Dreamland in a way.
I’m not sure if I’d trust ol’ scaley Nick. Early on they talk about how he’s re-writing history to convince everyone that HE has always been King. Indoctrination of the worst kind, dontcha know! 😮
that is what the nearly indestructable elven made armor is for… it could probably take Paddington tap dancing on top of it with only a scuff or two
don’t you mean roasted “mule”?
yes, please tell us! I am so tired of the overused vampire/romance scene that i would probably burn a Twilight book if someone gave me one… and that actually sounds like something that I would like to read
Yay Alex! get your sneak on XD
Thanks JustDon!
Your explanation helped me see the flow.
My belief is that none of the King Arthur stories are terribly accurate (least of all the where, when, and who) and what actually happened would probably surprise people.
Also, I think that the legend of King Arthur and Camelot has been told, retold and rehashed so frequently in modern media that it only serves to further blur real history from the public. (Example: In Fate/Stay Night the main heroine is Saber and her true is name “Arturia Pendragon”, making it a retelling of the legend in which King Arthur was secretly born female.)
To me this is just sad. It’s seems that many script writers are too tempted to mine the legend for it’s popularity, preferring the easy way out to the hard work of creating material from scratch. It’s as if they treat it merely as a work of fiction who’s copyright ran out, rather than actual history. And this reminds me of Nicodemus’ campaign to destroy Dreamland’s history to suit his own greedy ambitions.
That said, I find The Dreamland Chronicles to be a refreshing change from such rehashes and far enough removed from the legend to not impinge upon it. I for one am very glad that Scott gave the sword a unique name (instead of Excalibur) and (as far as I’m aware) did not describe Camelot anywhere.
Holy crap!!! Is that Excalibur???
Ooh! Oooh! Oooh! Is Alex a descendent of Arthur … ???? 😀
How did I not make that connection earlier? Arthur was mentioned, and Alex pulled the sword out of a stone, even! I think I may have vaguely laughed about it at that point, but it really should have stuck.
Thank you for mentioning the welsh bit.And don’t forget that if Arthur ever actually existed(in those myths its usually a real person as a base and then elaboration) he had some Roman blood as well.A theory that was even used(to some extent) in the recent film.
PS:the film was inspired by this particular historicity; I am not using the film as a legitimate source,in case it wasn’t obvious.