Page 1219…
Happy Wednesday, All!
So I know it’s nearly Thursday already. And I know there are a lot of new readers wondering if this is typical of me.
No. It’s not. But there is a LOT going on right now. We have a new iPad app coming out in a few weeks.
Two movie deals we’re finalizing. A new website. And so much more.
Add to that the fact that this is a war. In the RAIN…and I’m happy we’ve been able to keep up with the daily updates this week.
That said. I DO have a video shoot I’m a helper on for tomorrow and Friday.
So please be prepared for the possibility of another late page…or worse.
As always. I’ll keep you updated in the comments.
Please know that there’s NO place I would rather be than working on new pages.
So…on a brighter note…
Here’s Nicole’s letter to Felicity.
Enjoy.
And what’s the chance that those are rock giant children and they’ll spring into action?
Ha!
No. Not much.
I am guessing that the rocks didn’t miss at all, but hit exactly where the rock giants intended them to hit.
Pssh!! They didn’t miss, they clearly have some sort of plan for that.
As a note on the incentive, typical that the doctor in training has hard to read handwriting huh? 😀
And I’m guessing that bridge is going to fall over fairly soon…
I like it that the bad guys are british… “blimey, cor it be a bloomin good thing dem rocks don’t hit us. I think I need a spot of tea now… maybe a scone or crumpet.” haha!
😀
Hadn’t thought to bring it up until now, but it seems the band Gamma Ray had made the perfect soundtrack to this chapter: Land of the Free. Heck the first song is called Rebellion in Dreamland.
congrats on the two movie deals 🙂
Maybe they are giving the little ones a lift inside?
Ehhehehe! The world moves on Dreamland. >:P
Speaking of which, I must get back to Dreamland. Cyn the elf wants to fight in this battle.
Two movie deals?!?!? *Squeee!*
Well, now the wall is weakened and the guard are busy watching the rocks go by, leaving them as perfect targets for some well-placed arrows.
Creatures who say blimey and bloomin’ good can’t be all bad..
Creatures who say blimey and bloomin’ good can’t be all bad..
hahahah… that WOULD have been fun to see
That last panel is roughly 1000 different kinds of awesome, seriously though it’s my favourite panel from this segment as of yet, great work young sir! 😉
The guy, with two big teeth, is that a seal ? Weird…
I dunno. I hear them as cockney accents…and I don’t think of people with cockney accents asking for crumpets. 😛
Huh…I was thinking walrus. 🙂
You may have told us this before, but did you find a handwritten looking font? Or did you get someone to write some of these letters for a more authentic “can’t write horizontally, must write diagonally” kind of look? 🙂
My wife did Nicole’s letter for me.
Wow, I love the rain effect you have here. It looks so real
I vaguely recall that Scott said his wife, Donna, did the letters (and had a blast with them as well!).
Yep. Why waste large artillery on individual soldiers when you can use it to destroy the supporting fortifications of lots of individual soldiers?
Heh.
They didn’t miss.
The need to get INTO the city. They’re not gonna do that by sending their rocks at individual silly soldiers.
And not just any walrus at that – I believe Nicole and Felicity met (and bested) him as children.
😉
Glad you’re inserting your traditional humor into war, and I’m doubly glad to hear about the movies. Maybe now you can get a publisher who won’t screw you and actually put your books in stores, or at least my store. It’s hard for me to go anyplace else.
Thanks all!
Quick note.
As you can see in Panel 2…the boulders are going OVER the wall.
They’re actually crashing into buildings in the city.
BTW, Scott, if I recall correctly Dreamland has been in the top 10 on TWC twice – both times coinciding with you posting the Bahta Alikchi letters.
I was wondering what you’d think about the idea of maybe continuing that concept – inventing relatively frivolous (but funny) conversations between Dreamland and Real (?) World characters via Bahta Alikchi letters, and posting the letters as Vote Incentives once or twice a week.
I don’t know for certain, but I wouldn’t think that would be an insurmountable burden on your time, nor very challenging to render.
You could even get Donna to help with writing the letters, if she wanted to. Or ( ❗ ), make a contest out of it: post an initial letter, say from Dan to Felicity, then ask readers to e-mail you a response. Choose the best one and make it the next vote incentive, and then another contest for the next response, etc. etc. until you decide to start a new conversation.
Of course, reading through all the extra e-mail might mean a lot of extra work, so that might not be feasible. Still, something along those lines could probably keep you in the top ten on TWC indefinitely. And while the numbers may be ambiguous, it seems to me that there have been a lot of new faces (so to speak) in the comments recently; it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to think that some of them found us through TWC because of Dreamland’s currently high placement …
Food for thought!
Ack! Sorry about the Wall of Text. Hadn’t realized how long-winded I was getting …
😳
Hey! What magic this? This reply was not here when I replied. It wasn’t here AFTER I replied.
Ok, Scott… is this some ‘web site owner’ magic or something? 😉
I have a feeling that those boulders were aimed at something else more strategic…
Yeah, really. I like them too much to see them fall in battle.
On Nicole’s letter: Isn’t it intrigueing that us, guys can ab-so-lute-ly NOT imitate female handwriting? We’ll immediately recognize female handwriting. Nowadays even quicker ‘b cause of much more typing than writing going on, younger females sort of “get stuck’ in their high-school hand.
Handwriting is, sadly an underestimated art that is disappearing (speaking as a former 4th grade teacher..yeah .I’ve been around)
Nah, to me no biggie..I actually really, truly like the idea.. It will get closer into some sort of “role-playing’ . Could be fun..(eep, geek territory)
Question, indeed, remains if it won’t become a workload that’s not needed with the movie stuff etc. going on…
That’s a pretty cool idea.
I’ll think about it.
*torturing mind as to WHAT they were aiming at* There IS a plan there, but what?
Hmm. What a puzzle. Dwarves inside? Loud diversion? Audible cue to dwarves tunneling into the castle from underneath? So many Daniel-ously devious possibilities. =)
Two deals?!? WOW!
I can’t wait to see how your vision translates to film! Do we get to know who some of the voices are yet? Please…?
I can’t acess Nicole’s letter to her. Help please?
I’m not so sure it’s a matter of strategic damage-causing shots so much as shots designed to frighten the enemy into not attacking. While I’m sure there’s definitely some kind of strategic element to all this besides just scaring the soldiers into not firing, Dan being the master strategist here, one must keep in mind that rock giants are pacifists. They wouldn’t want to actually hurt someone if they can help it, even if this is a war.
You know, while you think about it, maybe you shouldn’t post the letters, like, every other day. Maybe like one a week or 10 days or something to stay in the top ten longer. But it’s your choice, it’s only a suggestion. Your friend, Maxwell64.
Blimey, guv’ner! Wot ar rocks doin’ fluyin troo de er luike tha’?
Will we read the “last minute directions” from Dan?
I’m very curious about its contents.
Is Dan writing to Alex or to the centaur to radically change the war plan, or not?
Could be “the signal” he was talking about. 😛
and his friend next to him is the egg man – goo goo g’joob
I feel one the rock giants should say “eat gravel, bitch!” but that is just me. XD
that is okay if you can’t do updates, i know how time consuming it is to do a battle scene in the rain.
Did you click the vote link?
No. I’ve not actually written them.
But they should make sense later on.
Most sieges would last days, if not weeks. And although I highly doubt this story arc will last all the chapters that would take, no doubt the attackers are prepared for such a possibility. The reason the sieges lasted so long was because often it wasn’t a matter of breaking the wall and flooding the city with murderous pillaging soldiers, but outlasting them on resources such as food and water. So maybe they’re striking their supplystorages.
Please note Scott’s comment above where he mentions the boulders being thrown over the wall and into the buildings within… …methinks that they are trying to knock on the door to the homes within. Ha!
This could also be a means for them to acquire additional ammo once inside the walls. But I’m reminded of Lunaroki’s comment above: “rock giants are pacifists. They wouldn’t want to actually hurt someone if they can help it, even if this is a war.” These big guys are just being used as “bodyguards.” Literally.
Love the british talk ^^
On a side note wasn’t sure rather you wanted us replying to quites made on yesterday’s panel or to just carry it over to the newer one?
Defintily will concider purchasing the series tho I would want to wait till it was finished correct?
hmm first the paddington plushie and the fact you have him for your avatar. Do I detect author’s favoritism? :p
Sorry, all.
The video shoot is from 7am to 6pm today.
I just won’t be able to get that page up in time.
I’ll work up a buffer and we should be back to 5 days a week again starting Monday.
My apologies.
Didn’t one of the past comics say in Atlantis or something that there were 7 races? Elves, Mer – People, Dwarves, Centaurs, Fairies, Rock Giants, and the Guardians right? Well what races do those last 3 animals in this comic fall in to?
Have a good time at the video shoot!! We’ll look forward to the Monday update.
My thoughts are that there are animal-people who are there to potentially be companions to the human children (I believe we saw a girl with a panda-looking bear for a companion when Alex first arrived in Ashendel, and Felicity was a cat-girl companion to Nicole…it’s a thought). These animal people are potentially a race of their own.
Moreso, the list of races from the mer-people’s tablet (which is what I think you’re referencing) was not necessarily a complete list of all races that inhabit Dreamland. That list was merely a list of the races whose elders formed a council to keep the knowledge of Dreamland’s true rulers alive…the races who had tablets.
No worries! You update more than most webcomics I’ve followed, and more consistently for longer periods of time. A blip here and there in your update schedule isn’t going to make me (or many fans I’d imagine) fade away or get upset. I don’t think the kinds of people who get angry over trivial things like that are likely to be found here reading your comic. 😛
Woah! Too movie deals? That’s awesome!
Great point! From the beginning of the story we meet the Teddy-Bears, a giant, the Kraken, also, the wraiths, Nicodemus, (although arguable are not from Dreamland, but the Nightmare Realm) and plenty more characters that don’t fit in with those 7 races. This makes me inclined to agree with your point.
P.S – Two movie deals is great! Congrats
Rock giants rock. 😀
I read Nicole’s letter and I was just wondering, why can’t she go to dreamland?! I’m mean, Dan’s got a spell on him but she hasn’t!
nice work by the way Scott!
Because, she is an adult. If you remember back a chapter (or two?) We learned that no adult human save the King can enter Dreamland. Ok that’s not ENTIRELY true. Native Americans USED to be able to enter for short periods of time, but they have lost the ability to do so.
I have a fun thought…what if the mysterious “Guardians” are dragons? 🙂 It would potentially explain why the bracelet was glowing in Nic’s treasure hoard when Felicity found it. It’s only supposed to glow when its near a tablet. *shrugs* Then again, it did -stop- glowing after she grabbed it, so my theory could be bunk. 😉
Native Americans only made spirit journeys to Dreamland. I believe they never were able to manage corporeal trips.
Leonis has it right, but to clarify on a point you made that confused the life out of me for a goodly chunk of time (and I admittedly could still have it wrong)…
Dan didn’t have a spell on him that kept him out. He couldn’t go to Dreamland because Arthur was still technically King, and potential kings cannot enter Dreamland while another King reigns (to prevent conflict). Alex made it in despite being of proper lineage (or whatever) because he’s the younger twin, so not technically the “heir” (a loophole). When he drew the sword he became the King (or perhaps that didn’t really happen until later when the sword declared it to Nic…not sure), and that became his key to return to Dreamland as an adult.
Dan is still unable to enter Dreamland for a couple of reasons I’d imagine. A) He’s now too old (this is the main reason). B) While this may be moot due to reason A, Dan’s probably still a King Candidate for all intents and purposes, and therefore cannot enter Dreamland while a King reigns (this time it’s his brother “King” Alex who is keeping him out).
Great Week, and new chapter too!
See ya Monday
Hard to read? What are you talking about? It may not be *pretty*, but it’s *easy* to read. If you want to see hard-to-read handwriting, try being a teacher.
I hope the new pages come soon, I can’t stand the suspense! But I understand that it takes you a lot of work, Scott, so I won’t complain.
It just dawned on me that nicodemus is the only dragon that we have met in dreamland, could there be some story behind that? I mean, nic is over six hundred yearsold, who knives how long he’s lived erode the time of Arthur, could something maybe have happened thousands of years ago o cause nic to be the last of the dragons? Could all of the dragons somehow have been killed by adult humans and that. Somehow started the whole kids only thing? This could explain Nic’s paranoia/hatred of humans
Sorry, knows not knives (damn autocorrect)
Wow. Lots of comments. o.O
Don’t worry about not making the comic, Scott, news of two movie deals and this comic with its beautifully rendered/painted water effects and British/Cockney characters are good enough for me 😛
They also don’t look completely evil
I like this comic enough to ignore the gratuitously bad pseudo English cliched exclamations.
Really? “Blimey” and “Bloomin’ good”? It’s not as if English doesn’t have a billion good exclamations, even for the younger crowd…
But other then that, it looks like the party got started!
It reminds me of the ‘five races’ in Stargate, where apparently we never actually learn what that fifth race was.
Actually, it’s because they’re too soft (figuratively speaking for rock giants) and peace loving. They refused to fight Nic and instead chose to run away from him. I certainly wouldn’t let somebody bully me. It’s really sad to see somebody with so much power and such a weak mindset…
Actually, the original four “great” races of the alliance were the Ancients, the Asgard, the Nox, and the Firlings.
Humanity was being considered as the fifth “great” race, but the issue was tabled indefinitely because of the indisposition of the other four races:
– the Ancients all either died or ascended, and no longer played an active role among material races (except for that whole Ori bit at the end of the series, of course)
– the Nox are completely pacifist, and generally keep to themselves
– the Firlings (apparently) died out a long time ago (we never actually saw them in the show)
– the Asgard, as the last active race of the alliance, finally succumbed to the genetic degradation inherent in their cloning process, and bequeathed all their technology to humanity before dying out (and taking the Replicators – at least the ones in the Milky Way galaxy – with them, as I recall)
I could go on, but I’ll spare the non Stargate geeks present …
😉
you know, your avatar look pretty much like Bolt from the disney movie!
Giants and very strong people are often surprisingly gentle–they tend not to get pushed around much, and also tend to break things when they are not careful. It’s the little types, like terriers, who are most often feisty: unless they push–hard–they can get overlooked.
heheh yeah it is… was wondering if someone would say something… will change it one day if ineeded or i find a better one
I hope you fit in some aussie slang in here some day
As someone who is 6’5″ tall and well over 300 lbs in weight, I can definitely confirm this.
This is why I really hate tightly packed crowds – it’s just too easy for me to accidentally hurt someone with elbows, knees, etc. Heck, I can easily break a foot if I step on it …
I observed, some twenty years or so ago, that people my size (and larger) come in two main varieties: the “gentle giants” who have learned to keep a tight reign on their temper, or the criminals who in short order end up either doing life in prison or getting killed by some little five foot nothin’ dude with a serious case of “Short Bloke Syndrome” …
😉
I think the Guardian race has to be the dragons. Nicodemus just went rogue.
1132 kinds of awesome, to be exact, or 1.132 kiloawesomes.
Who needs catapults when you have rock giants!
Did they just throw other rock giants at the walls?
Talk about yer inapplicable stereotypes… ¬_¬