Page 1115…
Well? Another week. What do you think?
We’re back in Camelot for a couple weeks.
Enjoy. And please have a wonderful weekend.
Scott
Well? Another week. What do you think?
We’re back in Camelot for a couple weeks.
Enjoy. And please have a wonderful weekend.
Scott
waiiit.. this is gonna be a big reveal I think… how in the heck is a nightmare creature in the real world like that?
I agree… how can a nightmare creature be here? What magic is this?
On another note: This is some spectacular lighting in this page, Scott. Not to mention the symbolic use for it. The play of light and shadow reflecting the inner turmoil of the king… very dramatic.
Innnnteresting. So the wraith can at least manifest itself in the waking world in at least a spirit form.
Come to think of it, we really don’t know very much about the Nightmare Realm and its denizens up to this point.
He, he, he. It’s night. Things are dreams for some. Nightmare for others!
What a strange train of thought. Not that Arthur is more worried about Camelot than Dreamland, but that he seems to think this strange idea is the “only way” to bring peace to his world.
Okay, two things:
1. How do we explain the fact that revelation of this series of events does not match the style that has existed since the story started. i.e. Most of the story was “Chronicled” by Dan, Alex’s brother. How is it that we come to know of this part of the story. In what way should it be revealed to the “Chronicler?”
2. The wraiths can transport between the worlds? They just don’t want to share that power or their secrets.
Oh those crazy wraiths!
Awesome story arc is awesome! 😛
In this section, the sword is presumably around King Arthur’s neck, just like it is for Alex. So the sword directly witnessed this scene.
If you look at Scott’s comments on page 1108, he acknowledges that he is breaking a rule by retelling the Dreamland meeting with Nic without the sword being physically present there. Justifications for this are discussed in the comments, but it could require no more than the sword being aware of the wraith’s presence here and inferring that a meeting with Nic occurred and what was said there.
We were wondering in the comments earlier why Dan should be afraid that Nic knows about him. Well, here is the reason. The wraiths work for Nic now and can appear in the waking world and doubtless are knowledgable of what happens there.
It remains to be seen if the wraiths can touch or move anything in the waking world or just appear as incorporeal spirits.
Yeah. This is strange. I am still now 100% on Nic’s side (of course, I’m pretending I ignore the “future”, I mean in this excellent Arthur’s story arc). Arthur says it himself:
“Don’t care if it hurts [some people in] dreamland, it’s good for Cameloot”.
That’s exactly what Nic told him: You care more about Camelot than Dreamland. Arthur IS NOT A WORTHY KING for Dreamland, right now.
Now that that’s settled. What the heck is this Nightmare guy doing here? That totally breaks the paradigm until now. I am sure there will be an excellent explanation for that and can’t wait! And the problem is: it’s Friday. Have to wait 🙁
Keep the excellent work and thanks for sharing it with us!
“anger” some? wow… anger might be a tad too light a word. XD
and he still doesn’t acknowledge that the people he wants to bring with him might just want to conquer dreamland like they want to conquer camelot… *sigh*
hmmm… didn’t expect the wraiths to show up in person. hypocritical b— 😛
So…the Nightmare Realm’s Wraiths are capable of moving between the 2 worlds!
That explains some gray spots in the story and MAYBE explains why Nic is going to “check Arthur”…that means that Nic can also manifest himself in our world and can travel where he (or the Wraiths) imprisoned Arthur.
ooooohhhhh
This is the first time we see a dreamlander manifested in the ‘awake world’. So either the Wraights/Nic have some special powers we (=awakers) are not aware of or we are looking at it all wrong.
What if the Wraiths are actually Awakers that have nightmares so they pop up in the Nighmare Realm? This would not violate any mechanisms we saw already and imply that the spies of Arthurs adversaries have already invaded his close quarters. Their plans to overrun Camelot/Dreamland are thus ongoing on both worlds.
Nic and Merlin are the advisors, both aiming for peace and stability in their respective worlds. Nic tends to turn to evil measures, Merlin to the good ones. Since we know Nic is still in power, this means Merlin lost? Then Camelot fell….
Watch out Merlin, watch your back! Dark times are approaching. We need Kiwi back in play!
He didn’t say “don’t care if it hurts” he said “angers.”
As a leader, every, *every* decision will anger someone… ususally a big group of “someones.” Leaders who fear to make decisions because they fear public anger will fail. Watch Gladiator.
Wraith: “Arthur…Arthur…king of the Britons…OH STOP GROVELING! One thing I can’t stand it’s people groveling…”
D’OH!
There’s a power we haven’t seen a living Dreamlander use before.
That things could transfer between realms we already knew, but not living beings.
This changes a number of dynamics of both story and of practicalities within the story. If there are ways for beings of Nightmare or Dream to come to the real world, then Alex and Dan have to be worried about a lot more than just the one side of the equation. They can no longer be sure of escaping their adversaries simply because they’re over HERE.
Last day of school!!!!
Well, this just introduced a whole new level of strategy to the situation. And since the sword is telling them this, our intrepid adventurers now know that Wraiths can go to our world…and that will change their thinking too I think…
Note: This would NOT be the time for them to be stupid and not get the idea. 😉
Good Morning all!
Love that you all saw the wraith.
It’s actually a lot darker in print (my monitor is calibrated for print) so it’s weird seeing it so bright online.
Still…I may add some “whispies” around his edges.
🙂
This definitely adds a twist to things. Doesn’t it?
Thank you, Sythiar.
I was actually pretty happy with the lighting in these pages. It really clicked.
Thanks for noticing.
i’m ashamed to say i didn’t notice the wraith until i read the comments T_T!
but WHOO! in the immortal words of Robot Chicken’s M. Night Shamalama–“what a tweest!”
Arthur….really hasn’t thought any of this through, has he. it sounds like he hasn’t been using Nic as an adviser like he should
Huh? Wraiths, what? (relooks at comic) ok, ok …. WWHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATT?!?!?!?! They-He-it-breaking-law? I can’t believe this! This is unprecedented! How could this happen? Now I have to wait a whole weekend to find out. “Twist” is an understatement!
Well the wraith if it origniates in the nightmare realm and can manifest in the awake world that would explain some of those things that goes bump in the night or things falling off something for no reason and no one pushed it. Or even those shadows we see out the corner of our eyes that sometimes doesnt look exactly like a shadow or it looks like its moving by itself. Or that “someone is watching me” feeling and u turn and no one is there. If thats true,thats just creepy.
Good Point.
I suspected as much. The real issue is that the monopoly on the ability to pass between worlds is being threatened. And apparently, that monopoly is not held by dreamlanders. Tis the nightmare realm who have probably first discovered how to do that. Who knows what kind of influence they’ve been able to wield with that kind of ability. With only one adult knowing about dreamland throughout history, they’ve been free to bring about all sorts of mischief. Now that humans are learning how to do something similar, I suspect the covert nature of the nightmare realm’s endeavors are in danger of being revealed.
What could be the motivation of the nightmare realm to influence the waking world? Perhaps an evil we are not accustomed to witnessing. Though humans have caused a lot of destruction in the past, the worst of this has been through greed. There is also an evil beyond greed. In that evil is the desire to “simply watch the world burn”.
OMG….now it makes kinda sense,
And scott you just gave me wonderful idea theory about how it happened that arthur is trapped in dreamland.
Woah! Creepy in the shadows! I’m curious to see how this plays out.
hell…
Wow, that is so creepy. I wonder if the wraith will butt in or just watch from afar. Monday’s going to rock!!
Is it just me or does Merlin seem to be not as positive to the plan as Arthur?
And since Sea Wasp already pointed out that things can go between the two worlds i want to point out that we don’t know much about the denizens of the Nightmare Realm and maybe they can’t be classified as creatures but more as things 😛
I have to admit that I missed the NR-denizen in the shadow at first too X|
Don’t know if that’s what Scott is implying, here, but you sure have an interesting take on the whole thing… I wouldn’t have thought of that, but it would make a lot of sense. It’ll be interesting to see how close to the mark you are.
It’s more likely that certain subsets of one world can project into the other. Here, it’s mostly children, with a few gifted or trained others who can do it. There? Aside from the same gifted/trained, who knows?
Yes, some people I work with also like to say that if everyone agrees with you all the time, you are probably doing something wrong. On the other hand, you should try to keep track of those you anger–because sometimes they retaliate, either through channels, or through violence. And where Nicodemus goes wrong is when he quits using the proper channels to protest.
So, is this building up to a claim that Camelot fell and Arthur failed because he was King of Dreamland also, and the wraiths sabotaged him?
arthur need i remind you are about to piss off on very big dreamlander that can breath fire?
Whoa Nelly.
This… wow. IF, capital IF, you are right, as I asked some weeks ago to learn about the NightmareLanders and their origins and thingamajigies, the plot has gone from thick to ‘solid-near-to-marble’ thick.
Dude.
Way to go Scott.
Still. A Nightmare on broad moonlight?
DUDE. 😐
Agreed. Merlin has played a minor role so far -I mean, IT’S THE ALL-MIGHTY MERLIN, I’ve yet to see a lighting bolt out of him…
..but he sure knows ill winds are blowing Arthur’s way.
Like any good ol’ king, it seems that mister A. is being a little bit too proudish to listen to all the ‘you’re about to be run over by an 18-wheeler bad luck truck’.
Just my tought.
Woah, I just noticed the nightmare fellow. I can’t unsee him now.
Beautiful subtlety! So often I see a cartoonist “imply” that someone’s hidden in the shadows, but you’ve truly done it. 😀 Wonderful.
As it has been since I began reading your work. 🙂
My tiny mind is just blown till monday, thanks Scott! 🙂
Wonderful panels, Scott – I love the lighting, too, as others mentioned. Really nice work.
And the eyes glowing in the corner – I had to look twice to be sure I was seeing what I was seeing!
Very cool. Can’t wait to see more!
Minor? MINOR??? Why he only managed, as a mere human (with the help of some other humans and a few centaurs) to create the Bahta Ilikshi…
Not all that minor, if you ask me… And from the sounds of that first note that made the trip, he had to travel quite a bit in order to do so, so he was not around all that much…
To be honest, I was mostly surprised that the wraith has so broad shoulders.
My theory is that the wraith is actually a creature of the real world that manifests in Dreamland like a human. In the real world, we have myths and stories about various things, such as ghosts and wraiths and the like; why couldn’t these things be real (for the purpose of this story) and able to cross over into the Nightmare Realm as they please (thus explaining the invisibility and “here now, gone later” nature of ghosts/wraiths)? This is why the wraith would offer to learn more about Arthur’s plans–they, perhaps alone, are able to cross over and spy on events in the real world as they please. Who know–perhaps some really clever Nightmare Realm folks are using the wraiths as agent provocateurs to induce Arthur to do something rash and thus get Nic to go totally overboard in response.
Wow, read through this in about eight hours total. Not bat for 100+ pages! I love how it flows so quickly.
Further confirmation that Arthur totally had it coming. His plan can only be described as ‘delusional’ anyway. So what if he does manage to drag a few humans off to an alien world where monstrous beings claim to live in harmony? The vast majority of humans are practical, they care little for philosophy. The existence of this alien realm has no bearing on their immediate power struggle with Arthur, in fact if anything they’d probably want to kill him even more since he apparently dabbles in witchcraft.
You know what I find funny about this whole plotline? It doesn’t quite make sense. The reason Arthur wants to bring humans to dreamland is to show them the peace that’s there, specifically how the Dreamlanders live in peace with the Nightmare realm. But Nic has already mentioned that they stay at peace due to a treaty. So the peace in Dreamland is maintained through crafty statecraft and not the “Oh we just all live together in peace and harmony” idea Arthur has. That’s something Arthur and his neighbors should already understand. Arthur would probably do better to study history, hammer out treaties, and keep a strong enough military to deter anyone from breaking his treaties.
Yeah, crossing the Atlantic to collaborate with the Native Americans well before Columbus was born … not a lightning bolt, but pretty impressive nonetheless!
😉
Welcome, fellow Dreamer!
Don’t forget to visit TWC each day and VOTE for Scott’s wonderful creation!
Nice touch with showing the Nightmare Realm creature on the very last panel
A wraith in Arthur’s bedroom? Euch, a whole lotta creept-creepy going on here.
What message will he bear back to Nic, I wonder?
“I’ve seen Parisss, I’ve seen Franceee and now I’ve seen Arthur’s Underpantss. They have polka dots. Oh, and he is going about being stupid too and insists on bringing more humans over.”
Wait a second! They can enter the human realm?!?!
…So did anyone else look over their shoulder for a wraith after seeing this? Or just me? I suspect I’ll be doing that for a while, now.
As someone above mentioned, it appears that the Nightmare Realm has some ability to project into the waking world. Perhaps it will only be through the Nightmare Realm that Dan and Nicole can enter Dreamland.