Page 974…
Hi all!
I’m back from Baltimore!
Hope you had a great weekend.
I’m actually writing this on Friday last week. SO I don’t know if I did. But I hope I did.
I’ll post later and let you all know.
🙂
Have a great week.
Scott
Hi all!
I’m back from Baltimore!
Hope you had a great weekend.
I’m actually writing this on Friday last week. SO I don’t know if I did. But I hope I did.
I’ll post later and let you all know.
🙂
Have a great week.
Scott
Nice twist, Scott! Fooled me! (Have a nice fall, Alex!)
Sat here and read your entire web comic on one sitting.
Truly amazing imagination and storyline.
O_O When you said Nastajia would help, I thought you meant that Orion would help him back onto the cliff and Nastajia would somehow help his lessons. I never imagined she’d be the cause of his flying. (Or so I hope…)
wonder the the armor have any protection spells from say 1000 feet up..
” dont look down”.. oops you looked down…NOOOO
“Feel the Force flowing though you, Luke! Become one with the Force!”
Oh, wait. Flying is one thing you can’t do with the Force, even if you are the Emporer.
Too bad. Alex is toast.
Unless. . . . he tries the Bugs Bunny trick of stepping off the elevator just before it hits the ground! Yeah! That will save him!
Looks like me supposition last week was correct. If Alex had shown some commitment to his friends in Dreamland, if he had said they were the reason Orion should not drop him, then he would not be vainly trying to flap his arms right now.
It’s amazing how strong Orion is. And how confident about what he’s doing. And that Alex won’t simply wake up to escape the fall – leaving him with the choice of never returning to Dreamland or somehow finding the determination within himself to fly. Orion is certainly ramping up the pressure on Alex – he can’t keep evading his responsibilities now!
This would be a great time to add Pink Floyd’s “Learning to Fly” to the jukebox.
Great job, Scott!
I find it somewhat hilarious that the centuar DID end up using the technique Alex guessed in the beginning. (Aka ‘toss you off a cliff so you learn to fly’) Since, y’know. That is obviously what he’s doing here. I seriously can’t see Orion purposefully murdering him like that.
This certainly does assure us that Alex is finally gonna learn to fly, though! Since the only other available options are…rather depressing. XD
Scott,
There is a funky highlight just below Orion’s wrist in panel 3. His arm geometry should not allow a highlight to be there. Is it a leak-through from his highlighted palm in panel 2?
Are you implying that Alex will be depressed, as in squished like a hand smahing a rubber toy, when he hits the bottom?
That’s gross, man! I would have used more polite words that that! 🙂
ehm, could be me but in the last pannel it looks more like he’s standing on thin air then that he is falling
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!
It’s pretty corny but perhaps Alex realizing he’s in love will allow him to fly? Since you can’t really get your childhood innocence/ anything-is-possible sense of mind back, perhaps a frame of mind only possible in adulthood is key to the adult-fly technique…
…which is luuurve <3<3<3
So, you’re thinking the Peter Pan: Think Happy Thoughts guide to flying rather than the Douglas Adams: Throw Yourself At The Ground And Miss guide to flying.
It could be both: The happy thoughts could be enough to distract you…
It looks to me like a reflection off a finger on the suit of armour that Alex is wearing.
Meh. Trick or not, I’m losing respect for Orion with every panel. There are better ways to get through to thick-headed kids, and this sort of thing has a way of back-firing on you. I know, I’ve work with them.
Alex will have to double his IQ to become ‘thick-headed’.
Depending on how inventive Alex can get in a pinch, he might not figure out flight on this drop. If he wakes up just before he hits bottom, like a standard falling dream, then when he goes back to sleep, he’d just be a couple feet up, not at the top of the cliff, right? Hardly a lethal fall at that point, I’d think. Still doesn’t change the fact Orion is kinda going past tough teaching techniques into just being a jerk.
By coming to this page today many people probably assumed the story would advance a bit more, but no, Scott finds just the way to keep the tension growing! It’s almost unbearable…. but it keeps one hooked, that’s for sure! So, even though everything advances slowly, it’s just so well done!
Not true. If you recall Alex’s fall from the castle in Astoria, his velocity was preserved between his two dream-times. Otherwise, Felicity would have shot past him when he “woke up” in Dreamland the second time.
Along that line, I predict tomorrow’s column will be 4 panels of Alex screaming “AAAAAHHHH!!!!”, growing closer and closer to the viewer, cuntil we are given an ultra-closeup of his eyeball!
Of course, Scott can continue this for a few weeks, zooming in on a cell on his eye, then into the atomic structure, and so on and so on.
Talking is a free action indeed
haha… GUILT-TRIPPING him into flying? you sure that’ll work, orion? 😀
though alex’s not much better, trying to guilt-tip orion into not letting him fall…
this page is so hilarious… made my morning!
I’d be careful with the eyeball thing. someone might abuse the closeup and get access to anything alex protects with an iris scan… 😉
on the other hand… a closeup of the eye could be awesome, as things can be reflected in it.
and about the falling for a few weeks: reminds me of a german comedy show from a few years back. they had the “the man who fell from a very high cliff” feature. pretty fun to see what can happen to you (and/or who overtakes you) while you fall. *snickers*
but isn’t that hiding behind others instead of taking responsibility? 😉
alex go alex go, come on, you are bound to miss the ground! Can’t leave your sweetheart like that, man!
Hah, Janey! That was exactly my first thought as well – Guilt-tripped into flying is sometihing none of us saw coming!
So.. that is how deep it is
Pretty deep, hes got to learn how to fly sometime soon I guess 😛
or as if the ground is really only 2 or 3 feet lower than the cliff… with some ground mist… and alex has just landed. 😉
Is it me or was he already falling in Friday’s comic but holding on to Orion’s arm today?
some might think that, for a guy, being in love doesn’t really give him back the childhood innocence sense of mind. 😉
though I wouldn’t argue with the “anything is possible”. 😀
I would say it’s the “grab something in the very last second” scenario. 🙂
something that would make you go “phew” in your mind only to have it be in vain a short moment later. 😉
I suspect that, rather than guilt, Alex would be so incensed at the accusation that he flies up to defend the assault to his reputation (e.g. pointing out that he gave up time with Nast to save Felicity).
Could be? Or it could be that he’s already flying without realising it…
Awesome! am really enjoying it. Please keep it up! (nice so see something from New Zealand ending up in a webcomic. Go Kiwi!!!!). Read it from begining to end over three days, and I even had my daughter start reading it to me for her reading practise today! It is just at a good level to stretch her reading ability! (6 years old) Cheers!
Hmmm…so not only is Alex having fear (which prevents him from flying) but Orion is pushing a lot of buttons here in order to guarantee his failure.
I can see where this is going; then again something unexpected could happen.
Scott,
Got our sketchcards … thanks for making a mistake … we love our two sketches!
it is a reflection!
Will Alex awaken before he falls?
http://thedreamlandchronicles.com/2009/05/04/page-863…/ “push you off the cliff as you suggest, you would surely die, Alex”, “That’s what you want me to think, right?”
haha maybe he can push the world away from him using the force, but that would be hard lol…………….
holy crap, where do you people live? oh wait… maybe that time thing is in my current time… nvm!!!
Orion note “Want to be king of dreamland? I need someone with more brains than Alex. (Keep this our little secret)” Daniel reply note “Sure!” Orion “Ok, just let me take care of your dim witted brother first” 😉
AND… the suspense builds…
HAHA i know my mom wouldn’t have said that but i read these things anyway cuz i’m SUCH a bookworm… ahem.
lol nice love it! and then daniel….. “SWEET! Been trying that for YEARS!!!”
I’m in the UK. I can’t comment for everybody else.
Looks like the sun hitting his wrist.
Check this out for answers…
http://www.livestream.com/thedreamlandchronicles
Click on ON DEMAND VIDEOS at the bottom of the video screen to see what I was going through for that panel.
🙂
I hope I didn’t ruin it for you.
Morning all!
By week’s end. There will be resolution. Only 4 more pages for this. Promise.
Ouch…
nice twist there, I like where you’re goin with Alex’s flight training. Good idea there; imminent death is a good motivator
Uhh — Orion, that is totally unfair, just because you’re miffed at the moment doesn’t permit you to forget that this guy just roused his dormant puzzle solving skills to try to save Felicity’s life.
Oh, and he hatched an actual PLAN to accomplish that, too. It was even almost a complicated plan. And he carried it out himself and everything. He even had to recruit other people (Nicole) to help him, which he did successfully.
OH NOES!!!!
Whoooooaaaa!
Why does “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear” pop into my head? lol!!
It doesn’t seem like Alex has fallen very far to me. Is the gravity magically altered here or is he actually kinda flying already?
I think you are on to something! Ain’t no mountain high enough … Ain’t no valley low enough … to keep me from you! Or in this case, a cliff tall enough!
Absolutely not! I love the uniqueness of it.
I think Alex would have an easier time seeing Dreamland as real if he knew a name for his waking world besides “reality.” Maybe Stark, like in The Longest Journey.
Maybe it is Alex’s recent burst of brain power that made Orion realize that he was ready for a big step – sorry, wrote that before I realized how it sounds 🙂
Well Alex of Burg(Heh, sorry, that’s my nickname for him now), you’d better learn how to be a Dragonmaster, er, I mean, learn to fly so you can save Luna, I mean, save Dreamland and get the hand of the fair Nastijia.
Definitely. If I would survive this somehow and manage to get up again I would use my shiny silver hands to teach HIM also an unpleasant lesson.
Ho Boy! Hope you finish this up quickly, Scott.
Nancy walked away from the computer this morning so mad she wouldn’t even go to the Top Web Comics voting site. She walked away muttering, “I wonder how many dogs Orion is going to kick on the way to tell Nastajia that Alex ‘fell’ off the cliff. Tell me when Alex is safe and I might start reading again.”
Happy tenth birthday, Nancy.
sometimes with webcomics it’s hard to tell. Good point though. Unfortunately, Alex JUST LOOKED DOWN so I think the magic is over.
Ha ha!
Tell Nancy I’m sorry.
Come back on Friday.
And happy birthday.
lol, you can slow your falls with the Force, but since Alex can’t get the Force…well…
Hmmm….. Reverse Psychology? 😛
I’ve been reading the story since page one, and for the most part have really liked it. It’s a true Disney-esk storyline. I had to post at this latest pages plot twist. While I agree it’s a good plot twist, and makes sense given Alex’s typical lack of regard for other people; however, the twist has far less umph to it after Alex just a few pages ago, figures out a way to save Felicity on his own. Which kinda goes against what Orion just said to Alex. Just a thought. I know a first post being a complaint probably isn’t the best, but this comic is one of the highest quality comics on the web, and I certainly commend all the hard work and effort you put into it.
John
I’d guessed at the ‘grabbed on to try to stop falling’ before seeing the livestream bit. But I have to agree with some of the others here that Orion seems to have fallen to rather unpleasant teaching techniques awfully fast. Agreed, they don’t have time for a lot of patience, since the Dragon is on the move…..
By the way, Scott…..seeing the frames on livestream was cool! Ever consider doing some simple animation of some of the strips? Something like this bit with Orion and Alex would be awesome to see animated……even without voices.
Hmmmm…. Will Alex have a whole different attitude toward life that a near death experience sometimes provides? Will he learn to focus just before he hits? Can flight truly be born out of the terror of falling, or does it require the defeat of said fear? Must… read… further…
Best comic ever!
That has potential: giving a choice after waking up mid-fall 🙂 that would truly be a test indeed
Hey John.
Thanks. I’m so happy you commented.
One thing to consider, though, is that reading a page a day…it gives you a LOT of time to speculate on how things are going. WHere they MIGHT go.
But what you’re reading…hopefully by week’s end…will show it’s not out of character. It’s all to get something through Alexander’s head. He needs something more than “happy thoughts” or “there is no spoon” to fly.
Orion knows this.
Hope that helps. And thanks again.
Scott
Either that or perhaps using Wille E. Coyote’s Umbrella….
MEEP MEEP!
OK. I just re-read from page 950 to here, and here is what I think is going on in Orion’ head. Orion was duly impressed with Alex’s idea to save Felicity. However, he was equally disappointed with Alex when he slips so quickly back into the clueless, goof off. He knows what Alex is capable of, and is tired of Alex denying his true abilities.So, while I think Orion knows what he is doing here, I also think he is enjoying it just a little bit! And yes, Alex will fly!
the quote comes to mind “its not the falling that hurts it’s the landing.” “flying is just falling but you miss the land.” I can’t remember where i heard those but i have a feeling it’s pop culture.
….or success. >_>
Dude has few options: wake up and turn it’s daytime in a perpetual nightmare by avoiding sleep like the plague and falling into exhaustion; learn why only powerful individuals fueled by strong feelings (fear or love) can fly; come face to face with his inner jerk and ask him to back off (and apologize to awake-time people for its presence, btw); fall in a panic frenzy and wake up in the hospital a few bones broken and a few pounds gone.
I don’t think Orion is being a jerk. He is actually quite Zen-like about it. Not Goodfellas, not ‘fairy-dustie thingie, hehehhee!’. Nope. He’s building character muscle, which Alex doesn’t have.
Kid needs a new mind frame. Oh, so he doesn’t wants one, even when people are dying? Oh, so he just wants to play it Señor DriftCool?
Well, ya got another thing up yer leg, pally! 😛
Love the effect on the forearm, the soft gleaning of the armor over it. And the expression of coolness in Orion’s face… so matter of factly, yet so warm, so aware of the consecuences…
You, my dear fellow, *ROCK!*.
Orion finally said it (last panel), Even with the Felicity saving arc, all he did was show a different side of himself; he still ,underneath, only really cared about himself. maybe Alex will wake up and smell the coffee.
Hey Scott! when Alex finally flies please make Orion say ,”inconceivable” XD.
it was nice to meet you at the baltimore comiccon, i wish my friends daughter came with me. she wanted me to get an autogragh from you but i didnt have enough money for anything. i kinda put off collecting for awhile to save money. there’s always next year.thanks again for the awesome comic
I’m starting to think Orion’s a real jerk. Sure, this is probably going to get Alex to fly, but you don’t have to be so cold while doing it.
Of course, on the other hand, Alex has had this coming for a long, long while.
dang orion is one cruel guy…
Orion, you’re such a magnificent BAHSTARD!
Scott lives in the Central time zone of the USA. I live in the Pacific time zone of the USA, which means I look for the newest post right after 10:00 pm ever week night.
This is so awesome. 😀
Sorry, I didn’t express myself well.
The right answer for Alex being in Dreamland (from Orion’s perspective) would be Alex wanting to help his friends and free Dreamland from the oppressive rule of that traitorous Nicodemous. Instead Alex threw the question back on Orion.
In other words, if he had shown commitment and love for even his quest-mates, I don’t think Orion would have dropped him.
In panel 2, the edges of the sun hitting the hand are soft. In panel 3, they are hard. It just looks a bit funny to me, but I might be alone on this.
As long as it is not Daniel grabbing the sword necklace from an expired Alex, placing it dramatically over his head and intoning.. . . . .
“THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.”
There’s always time for lots of dialog in comics. Note Rorschach’s fight with Ozy in Watchmen issue #12. Ozy gets in a whole soliloquy while disposing of Rorschach in about 5 quick moves.
One thing to keep in mind also is that adolescents go through lots of backsliding when they move forwards. In movies and TV, there isn’t time for any gradual, step-by-step, or better-here-but-need-to-work-on-there character changes. TDC is going to be a LOOOONG story by the time it’s done.
Also, just because Alex thought about how to help Felicity, doesn’t mean his outlook on Dreamland or more importantly, his perspective on his role in the Dreamland universe has changed. Orion wants to change Alex’s perspective from “I am here mainly for me.” to “I exist to help those around me.” Without that change, Alex would be essentially the same kind of ruler as Nicodemous.
BTW, I don’t think Orion was dead set on dropping Alex off of the cliff as they left Felicity’s tent. Alex’s reluctance to learn how to fly told Orion that Alex had not been changed by his experience helping Felicity.
Actually, he just has to take off the necklace and he won’t enter dreamland again 😉
I do like Orion’s method…how do you teach a jerk a lesson? By being a jerk 😀
Hey Eric…
You should have said so. I would have gladly done a sketchcard for her.
Next time. OK?
Crush his ego as well as drop him off a cliff to crush everything else. I can’t fault Orion’s sense of thoroughness.
Where is the Vote button Scott?? Looked all over for it but just went to the site and voted from there, is it missing from the page?
He better suddenly zoom up sword in hand extremely pissed off and lop off orions head *SLASH*
Alex finally falls- AGAIN.
I wonder what the next page will hold?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Ah, I can see it now…
The Power of Ten: Dreamland Edition
Wheee… 8D
Hey Scott, you need to post times when you’re going to be on Livestream if it’s going to be a regularly scheduled thing. If not, give us a heads up in the newest pages posts so we know when to look for you! 8D
Depends on what canon you trust. If SOME is to be trusted, well…
*Coughs*
Some EU has placed a stain on the Warsian Universe. Q_Q
Snooled.
If it were me, and I managed to fly before abruptly having close contact with the ground, the first thing I would do is fly up and punch Orion in the nose.
But that’s just me. I’m sure Alex is much more level-headed and nonviolent than I am.
That’s what I’m hoping for. XD Rofl!
definately next time
“Nastaja…she…she…”
“Will mourn…”
“No…she’ll come out here and kick your butt! That’s what she’ll do!”
haha yeah cuz on mine it said that you replied at 4:04 am >,<
LOL That she would, that she would. I wonder if Alex will even tell her what it took to get him to fly. If she had no qualms shoving him of a short cliff, she’d certainly have no problems shoving him off the highest cliff in Dreamland, flying or no flying.
Heck, I wonder if Orion will tell her, then Alex is screwed no matter what.
Oh the fun you can have with the english language. Good points both of you, though honestly, if this turns Scott in to the webcomic version of George R. R. Martin, I will be laughing my ass off. Yes, I am a massive nerd to know that Martin ends up killing at least one of the “good guys” in his books, every single time. In fact the only good thing that happens is when– and I shouldn’t have said this last sentence… Go read book three of the Swords and Thrones saga by George R. R. Martin.
Nahhhh…. To easy, if that was true then I would be flying to California now. But it was worth the try…
I say Alex ends up bouncing, but maybe only a few feet, and then the whole problem with the… I should stop now. Why am I finding it hard to put up a relatively nice comment tonight?
Either way, theres a 50/50 chance of having Alex eggs, sunny side up pretty soon. Any one else hungry for some?
I see about 4… no, 5 references that you messed up slightly… Its nice to see a fellow nerd here. 😛
Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy for the second one, absolutely no clue for the first. Maybe google has an answer…
Sadly he will forget that he has the sword pretty soon. If he flies, he is going to be to psyched about flying again to even notice Orion who will probably have a smug grin near by, a bag of popcorn, and a huge drink. Waiting for Alex to land on the cliff. Either that or the other option where he goes “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-” ker-SPLAT!
If Alex doesn’t fly, Orion is going over the cliff to. If Alex flies, no one notices that Orion shoved him off a cliff. Either way, some one is going to be happy or at least avenged. I wonder if Paddington would have to help Nastajia throw Orion off the cliff if Alex doesn’t fly…
I am so playing Devil’s Advocate because of this strip. Damn you Scott, I don’t like being the Devil’s Advocate!! With that out of my system, on to my more “normal” self. I am still curious about the message between Dan and Orion, and vice a versa. If it is basically instructions to tell him to take Alex’s place should Alex… “accidentally” die, then how the (insert appropriate adjective) is Dan going to know when is a good time for him to do it? The only ways except the Shaman Bag and the sword showing up in necklace form on Alex if he should die are entirely unlikely. After all, Arthur’s sword never vanished, even after he was dead. I also assume that the magic from this world that keeps the Shaman Bag intact in our world requires some sort of sign from the human part of the transportation that the user is in fact still alive… The only other question would be if, failing the above, the EEG would still be flat lining, wouldn’t it? So how do you know he is still alive?
*pant, pant* Just read through all of these… in 3.5 hours lol!
Loving this you are a really talented artist and story teller!
Man, Orion is one cold fish. He’s also REALLY strong. Alex’s 150 lbs hanging on the end of his arm didn’t phase him at all.
NICE REFERENCE!!!
Scott took the vote button down a few days ago. Out of 22,000 people viewing, only like 500 were actually voting, or something minuscule like that. He didn’t feel it was worth the programming- or view-hassle of those on the site- to have it there when the people who want to take the time to vote will do it regardless of the button’s presence.
Why? Because of the size of the world? To quote yoda: “Size matters not, … Look at me. Judge me by size, do you?”
With sufficient power and the right position in space, anything can be shifted. Hell, even a tiny force similar to that that an ant makes on the floor, made over many millions of years can move a planet out of its orbit!
[and some Jedi can fly… Consider: they can levitate objects off the floor… thus, if they really, really wanted to fly, they could levitate their bodies, or failing that, their clothes. [and technically Force Choking is a form of flight, I guess…]]
And that’s the back-fire. You may get them to do what you wanted them to, but about half of them never trust you again.
nast’s short life? last i recall elves a very long lives.
*thump*
Alex is caught by Paddington.
Paddington grins at Alex sheepishly.
“Sorry, Alex; this was Orion’s idea. Get ready to fly!”
*PITCH!*
Alex achieves escape velocity and dies in the cold airless vacuum of space.
Orion: “Darn it, Paddington, too hard! Okay, find Joey, give him this medicine bag, and tell him to call Dan when he wakes up … ”
😉
Yeah, but she hasn’t lived very much of it yet.
😉
“Hi, mom, this is Daniel. Alex took a bad fall. One ruptured lung, cracked skull, internal bleeding, fractured ribs, spinal damage…”
“What?! What happened?!”
“He fell out of bed.”
“All that from falling out of bed?!”
“He fell really, REALLY hard.”
If this is just a flying lesson, Alex is never going to forgive Orion for it if he survives. Then when he wakes up, he’ll have equinophobia for the rest of his life.
More than that..They can levitate themselves and there is Force flight too
ah, the “tough love” approach. well, the explaining didn’t seem to be working…
I know squat about Jedi and whether or not they can fly. I just wanted to correct the massive hole in your logic. Grab a chair and pick it up. Now, grab yourself and pick yourself up. Like I said, I have no idea if they can fly but just because they can levitate other things, doesn’t mean they can levitate their own body. Repulsion forces might work. Even attraction forces, applied properly, would work. I dunno….
/geekmode
Why lift yourself when you can simply push the world down? It is all relative.