Page 1276…
Hi all!
So, while working on this page, I realized that I need to establish earlier that the sword has created a crack. And the pounding of the two combatants against the ground has opened the crack up to where the pier is about to split. So I’ll be going back and adding a frame or two in previous pages of the ground generating a larger and larger fissure.
Do you agree?
All of this distraction with the screenplay and other movie deals sure is keeping me from spotting these things earlier. My apologies.
But I want to see this chapter through (only 50 more pages for this chapter) and I may need YOUR help in keeping things consistent.
Hope that’s okay with you all.
Thanks for your patience. And thanks for reading.
Scott
FIRST!!!!!
Sorry, had to do that… 🙂
Am I the only one having flahes of Harry Potter from this page?
Am I the only one who cant figure out what made alex fly off of nick? In the last panel he was on top of nick, and if the reasoning is that the pier is breaking off, they were all on the same side, why isn’t everyone else being flung around? I is confused.
err last comic I mean
“for the greater good” eh? could be…
But in regards to the page itself, Scott, maybe you should reposition one of Nic’s hands/claws to show he pushed/threw Alex off? Or did he fly off of Nic because of the ground movement?
Other than that, looking good!!
Why do the evil dictators always claim that they are doing it “for the greater good?”
No worries Scott… it’s awesome, as always.
It might help to have sound effects coming from the ground.
Indeed, this page is somewhat hard to understand. Do put some *crack is opening*, with sound effects, in.
Also, like I wrote in last page’s comments, I think it is out of character for Nastajia to attack without first offering Nicodemus a chance to surrender peacefully.
The sword there looks, eh, promising. Hope it doesn’t come to killing the usurper with a broken blade. I hate it when data storage devices suffer physical damage.
While he might have originally thought he was acting “for the greater good” Nicodemus has since gone far into the realm of usurper and evil dictator (and even the first betrayal was not “for the greater good” but he was just played into thinking that it was).
Sorry to be a pedant but you need to lose the ‘e’ on the end of loath. See http://www.english-grammar-lessons.co.uk/easily_confused/loath_loathe.htm
I agree that something is needed to show that the crack is being created and widening, I didn’t get that at all earlier.
Also, because the distinction makes a difference in meaning to me (ignore me if I am too picky or if US spelling is different than what I know):
Nico may have been loath (verb meaning unwilling, reluctant) to act, or he may loathe (adjective meaning hate, detest) acting, but I wouldn’t expect that he was loathe to act.
On the other hand, Nico is loathsome, so who knows? (And picky speller had to look up “loathsome” to find out whether or not it should have another “e” in it.)
Anyway, I’m enjoying the fight scenes, and love reading as always. Good work!
Yep … add the panels for clarity.
And anything you need to keep things going, we are here for you man!
And sound effects from the ground would also help … good idea Lulu
Once again Nic’s preaching what he was trying to do as justification of what he did.
Agreed, Scott. I wouldn’t have realized the crack was caused by the sword without the extra frames. Good Call! 😉
Is it just me, or is Nic about to have a Vader moment? (Or, as it’s known on TVTropes, a HeelFaceTurn?) http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeelFaceTurn
Wow. Had no idea there were two ways of spelling that (and 2 meanings).
Thank you!
According to my script…the sudden shift in the ground causes Alex to fall off.
Do you think sound effects would help?
Was a very difficult frame to try to get that to work.
Sound effects might help, at that. I didn’t know that the pier was even doing anything until I read your blurb.
Ah ‘The Greater Good”
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
— C.S. Lewis
Definitely need a sound effect for the fissure.
Because otherwise they wouldn’t have done it? Few evil dictators are truly insane; most of them became what they are because of their (very misguided) convictions.
And don’t forget to vote, guys! Dreamland is stuck at 30 right now… let’s get it back up to the top 10 where it belongs!
Yes–most people don’t see themselves as evil, and so they need to rationalize their actions, to somehow frame them as good, or at least as necessary. Even look at Gadaffy, for a current example: he really thinks his people need and love him.
And “loth” is an archaic alternative, which I encountered in The Two Towers.
Yes, and don’t forget that they’re also pronounced differently—that same link tells you so.
If I could suggest?
First show a frame with the ground splitting. Sound effects would be helpful to emphasize the extent and speed? Then show Alex falling off, probably a bit closer to Nic to gain some perspective?
the road to hell is paved with good intentions sadly…
Maybe a “RRRRumble” with a cracked word-balloon could do the trick? Just an idea coming from a diet of Marvel, DC and Dupuis 😆
Yep, me too.
“For the greater good.”
he looks so funny with his horn missing!
Yes, please add something to show us that the ground just splitting or has split. Unless you didn’t say so in the blog, I would be very confused. Doing evil for the greater good? That’s always messed up.
I would add a full panel with a frame showing the sword in the ground, the next frame showing the ground starting to crack around the sword, then the next frame with the start of the “rrrummbbbble” starts as the crack continues to grow. The next frame shows Alex obviously trying to keep his balance as the rumble continues, and then the final frame showing him falling off.
I would try to get the “rrrummbbbble” to go across all of those frames to provide some continuity, and try to show that Alex is falling and not being thrown by Nic. As it is, it looks like Nic managed to get a grip on him with his right arm and toss him, leaving that arm in its current position.
BTW, why is Alex hanging on to the ledge? As Bugs Bunny once said, “Doesn’t that silly duck remember he can fly?”
sound effects might help, but they way alex position is, he looks like he was pushed off rather then fell off.
nick loathed what he did? maybe he is not all such a bad guy, he did what he did just to protect dreamland to prevent war from happening in dreamland, but end up being a tyrant king did not really help any.
I’m thinking Romeo and Juliet right now. Please make it be the happy version.
Dunno if this is just a desparate ploy to save himself or justify his actions or a genuine heel face turn, but it would be interesting to see Nic play a hero.
I had to look back because it seems like there must be one or two pages missing between this one and the last. I am not even sure what is happening on this page. Is Alex being thrown? This fight scene is getting more confusing and disjointed as it progresses – it feels like you’re trying to put a 5 page week of content into 3 pages when it should be 10 pages to start with.
But I guess that’s where the print version can come in. “See the other 100 pages that makes the fight scene comprehensible… in the $95 collectors edition.”
I agree with you.
Bad guy becoming to look like the hero in his own way is an interesting turn of things.
on no,nic is making a break for the sword!!
and if that is in a crevasse then that sword will fall down with both of them trying to grab it
and i just noticed something Scott the angle that alex was thrown doesn’t make any sense in the picture of throwing a person off you chest with the way his arms dictate alex should be on the ground in front not on the side
as is written in my favorite fanfic (paraphrased for your pleasure):
“The presence of a Greater Good means there are Lesser Goods. That there
must be a Greater Evil and a Lesser Evil. In the name of the Greater Good, we might
perform lesser evils, and to craft a Greater Evil one might also do some lesser good. The sense of what is right is diluted. The individual becomes less important to that ideal. But the Greater Good for whom? The greater number? The deserving select? The selflessness of faith differs from the selflessness of the Greater Good. However, in the end both are simply US versus THEM. Both are perfectly selfish in their own way.”
Nope, I also have trouble seeing what’s going on. I guess Nic made him fly off him, but I don’t know how… 🙁
The funny thing is: As bad as Nicodemus is, he’s not wrong. Arthur’s actions would have sparked war with the Nightmare realms in the short run, turning a land of dreams in to a land of terror.
What would the long term effects of the nation of Dreamland being stuck in perpetual war? In the short run, the Nightmare nations would gain ascendancy as everywhere would be a nightmare. In the long run, what would the human race do to Dreamland? Especially a Dreamland that causes those children who are forced to visit it each night to see the horrors of war?
I imagine a hard-as-nails US general looking over his daughter who is terrified of falling asleep because of what she sees. Then, I imagine a war that looks like it was straight out of Avatar, done by Humanity for alternate reasons of compassion for their children, access to resources and just plain good old fashioned malice.
Nicodemus has seen the best and worst humanity has to offer. Is it so strange he chose to err on the side of the worst?
I think you have the wrong word there. I think you mean the adjective loath, not the verb loathe.
Alex: No no no I’M the one fighting for the greater good….you’re nasty!
Nic: Never pitiful human! You only wish that you where! not it is time for you to face your fate!
Alex: Oh you mean becoming king in place of my brother? OK!!!
Nic: No wait that’s not what I-I mean- D’oh!!! *Homer Simpson impression*
Sorry couldn’t help it XD. But anyways….
So Scott are you by any chance that you are gonna be at Kumori con in Seattle,WA in September???? I’d love to know!
Yeah, I’m a bit confused too … but it’s ok: we’ll help Scott in taking care of all this little problems when the chapter is done …
Ah, ok, now I get it.
Yeah, maybe a big sound effect would help … but I’d prefer some more panels to clarify what it’s happening …
The problem I had was with the last panel of the previous page. The only shot that shows the area surrounding the combatants is from directly above, so it’s hard to established exactly what is at what height. I see there are stairs, but I don’t know what has been knocked to a lower height because of the battle. And when the ground shifts in the first panel here without any noise, and without a clear change in the surroundings, I didn’t pick up on that.
He was corrupted by the Nightmare realm into thinking what he did was for the good of all. You really have no background on what Nic may/may not have known about the Adult Humans other than the Kings he had been involved with. Even then it does not go into much detail on what made him think Adult Humans are corrupted ( even though we put our own prejiduces in on that ).
It just goes to show that in trying to keep the Humans from corrputing Dreamland he allowed the Nightmare realm to corrupt Dreamland. You takes your chances either way.
I was thinking the same thing, Pablo. Flying really changes the game in terms of assumptions we make when it comes to dramatic effect. For example, height no longer matters, and the “battlefield” as it were becomes three dimensional.
Yeah… he didn’t WANT to lock Arthur in endless slumber… they WERE friends and Nic
was sworn to serve both the King and Dreamland… but the situation he was faced with
forced him to act on what he saw as a MAJOR problem. In the end he chose Country
over King, wherein [in his eyes] Arthur was ultimately nothing more than a visiting
monarch whose own life and ideals made little difference in Dreamland and for the sake
of the country and the future of Dreamland as a whole Arthur unfortunately had to be… neutralized.
Pure enough motive, and at the time it was an unwinnable situation for him.
He’s just become a bit of a jerk in the mean time – after all, if a human king
wanted to bring others to Dreamland and they found a way to do that… why
would another not have that same aspiration? Solution… eliminate the memory
of human kings forcibly from the populace.
Nick has telekenisis…. Duh! 😛
The road to Hell is also at the gates of Heaven;
but that’s unrelated to the current comic.
Clarity would be good. I had no idea they were even on a pier. I thought they were just fighting somewhere in the streets in/near the castle.
Yes, please add sound effects and make it more obvious that the ground is splitting.. without the info, the panels in this page were a little confusing and jumpy!
Awesome! Satsuga!
Thank you all!
I will definitely go back and tweak these pages.
What a busy week. Really busy.
The frames for Friday’s pages are STILL rendering. I believe it’s time for some new computers. They’ve been at each frame fro almost 12 hours.
They SHOULD be done by morning. So I’ll see you all bright and early for Friday’s page.
Sorry it’s not a midnight update. Hopefully I can get some new computers soon and speed things up a bit.
I’d love to. But I’m only doing cons this year where I’m an invited guest.
If you think they’d like to fly me out…I’d definitely consider coming. I’ve never been to Seattle.
any one notice that “for the greater good” seems to be a convenient way for bad guys to say they where doing the right thing when there not ?
I agree with everyone on the panels needing some extra work; they look great but it’s hard to tell what’s going on.
But considering we have about 6 volumes to go I keep thinking of ways the story would expand
I get the feeling Nic is not the greatest of their problems though, as in, after Alex takes him over as King, he will realize the Nic was actually dealing with a much more complicated issue which would justify his (Nic’s) actions. It would also explain the weird way he’s talking right now, maybe he wants to warn him that he’s actually doing the best to keep Dreamland safe from the unknown problem, or maybe I’m just over thinking it.
Wow, that explains a lot. I was wondering what the verb to loathe was doing there. I had no idea loath was a word, let alone that it was a adjective with a different meaning. We learn every day. 🙂
Of course I meant “an” adjective. Typo.
Tell that to the Tau.
(…for any Warhammer 40k fans out there)
Huh…”The Greater Good” always makes me think of Hot Fuzz.
Maybe that would have happened…and maybe not. Nic acted to prevent a possibility, and really he just postponed the war (since it’s happening now). Or did he think that roasting and demolishing villages (traitorous or not) was a happy thing that belonged in Dreamland (as opposed to the Nightmare Realm)? What really made Nic wrong was his methodology. Usurpation of the throne and attempting to blot out history is not right. Who’s to say that another king wouldn’t have listened to Nic’s advice (especially an inexperienced one)?
Sorry for the long response, but I just think that too many people did things too hastily and poorly in the past for anyone to be able to claim any kind of right action or high ground position.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!
(Isa 5:20-21)
I just don’t understand this page. Why is Alex hanging from a ledge now, when he was flying around like Superman hardly a moment before?
But in spite of everything. Nic did choose to side with the Nightmare Realm, and kept the other leaders out of the discussion. To the point where he had them taken out.
By the way. If Nic killed the other leaders, how did he do it? If the dwarves were as sturdy as Bagnok, that would have been HARD. Did he invite them all to a room and kill them?
To me, based on what I’ve seen in this comic, it’s almost “inconceivable” 😛 how Nic was able to eliminate the leaders of the races.
Nicodemus: “What I did was for the greater good. And since I’m greater than every other Dreamlander put together…”