I hope by now we’ve all established that the Emperor does not like Caris.
Last post I got a lot of “grammar ftw” type comments, thank you all for being such astute readers! Actually there are no errors so far in the comic, all the bad language is entirely the Emperor’s fault. Santri, the major language in the comic (aka English), is his third language. Basori (his primary language) has an entirely different syntax and grammar and pronunciation etc etc. He has an accent too, obviously you can’t tell from looking at pictures. Rest assured, I reread the script many many times before putting it in the comic, everything from the length of the sentences to the vocabulary gets taken into consideration. If I’m going to make a text mistake it will probably be in spelling something wrong… like believe/ relieve, I always get those vowels mixed up. Again, I appreciate all of your close readings :3
The dude in the painting is the Emperor’s late (very late) father, Sadar. I could get into a paragraph about Pasori naming conventions but I will resist. I’ll be posting some more about him in the TWC voting thing this week, as well as some big panels!
Comic is now being updated on Sundays, more on that here. This will change back to 2x a week after the end of my second semester in May!
Pimp of the week goes to Raine Dog, by DC Simpson. She is also the mind behind Ozy and Millie as well, which I enjoyed for years and is one of the most nicely-written comics I’ve ever read. Go take a look!
He takes the glove off of his left hand and then shows him his bare right hand? A little confused…
But other than that, I am LOVING this page. Really awesome detail in the lighting, especially in the eyes. I also really love how both hands look in the final panel, so natural and very fluid.
And of course I meant “her his bare right hand.” Just got up, aggh. ;_;
lol, and thank you for picking that out, that is so stupid of me
I mean, what mistake? As you can clearly see, his other hand is bare as well.
*cough*
Sneaky devil. XD
No, see, they messed up his hand so badly that it looks like it’s on backwards. ~.^
lol maybe they took off his hands and then sewed them back… but ON THE WRONG ARMS oh no
ahahahaha
In all honesty, with the angle given, it would be more likely for him to be showing the hand he wasn’t pulling the glove off of, both because of Phe pressing on his left arm and the height of the hand once he exposes the damaged fingers (Ow, by the way). I might be wrong in my assumption, but one way or another, those are my views on said backwards, screwed up hand.
wow.. did you have the painting of his father in your archives before doing this comic, or did you do it especially for this? either way, it makes the extra time taken on the comic this time around EXTRA excusable (even if it wasn’t already excused due to you a) being ill, and b) having a life of your own :P)
I’m guessing the thing with pasori names is a bit like how in germanic countries you’d get ‘Von Something’, except you get deSadar, with the de being from? (total guesswork here, combined with you mentioning Basori sort of being similar to german somewhere)
oh and i’m loving the hair and the fingers in the last panel, as well as Phe’s expressions (Luca’s are good too, but Phe’s are particularly amazing) (and I did notice the problem with the hands, but meh. tis so beautiful you’re forgiven =D)
Sons get the father’s first name as their (first) last name! You just keep adding on to your name… Luca’s full Pasori name is about 30 names long (I think I put the first 5 in the introduction to the ambassadors part). The kids would have had that as well, except that Luca adopted a more Santrified name when he *insert backstory*
Actually that painting was took the least time D: haha
haha, that sounds… fun =D and as for backstory, I think i’ve picked up some from when I went through meekipedia brushing up on culture and the main characters so i’d understand the story even more haha :)
And your skills with a tablet are UNFAIR, dammit :P I still can’t believe that most of your stuff is just the default brush blended A LOT.
Gahhh I just love this right now! Lucas gets more and more intriguing as the pages go on!
awesome. I’ve been creepily refreshing the site for a few hours now to see the new page. It was entirely worth it. :D
I think, at any given time, we are both creepily refreshing each other’s sites.
wow, I was so surprised to see this at the start of the new week! (it’s already monday here ;D)
The fight between Luca and Phe was already one of my favourite moments, now I’ve just grown to love it. Somehow you manage so well to convey the stored-up anger of Luca bursting out… and poor Phe, who wasn’t responsible for anything that has happened, gets shouted at.
It’s kind of an everyday scene, this is what makes it so strong… it could happen to anybody, both feeling mistreated and taking it out on somebody else, and being on the other side. (Maaaaybe not for the same reasons, though.)
Great page!
Not the face, not the face!
… oh, is he just showing her something? :.
He’s showing her HIS RAGE ARRARRAR
Mr Danny DeVi… I mean Luca does show a bit of a barbarian rage here.
loll
MMMM intense. The expressions (especially Phe’s) are super awesome in this page. I love the fire light illuminating their faces in the in the 3rd page and Luca’s grey stripe blendy curls in the last page, it’s purty.
I also like how the last panel is a close up and enhances the whole ‘In your face’ feel.
Good stuff, good stuff.
So what’s up with his hand? Is it all bruised or is that just the lighting?
It’s mangeled from torture. *nodnod*
His fingers were crushed a while back, so he has very poor circulation in them.
Those bastards, he should wipe them out! I really hope we get to see some of the Military forces soon. That would be awesome!
In the first panels I see no strange thing on his hand. Is that possible?
If I’m right, he is showing his crushed right hand?
Note: Your comic reached one of the smallest country of the EU; Belgium.
n_n
Sorry for possible pour english.
Gtz,
TC
Hi TC!
Yeah, his fingers aren’t as purple in the first panel of this chapter… it is easier to see in later panels on that first page, since the messed-up parts of his hand are near the end of the fingers.
I love the backgrounds on the last 3 panels. The blurriness keeps your attention on the characters, and the colors look like part of the environment so it’s not distracting. And the red getting intensified really adds to the emotion. That was really incoherent, but I just really love them!
lol, this scene reminds me of The Phantom of the Opera.
“Show some compassion!” -Raoul
“The world showed no compassion to me!” -Phantom
Very convincing bit of characterization here. From the details you’ve given about the war and Pasori culture, Luca’s reaction to the ambassadors and Phe’s pleading meshes perfectly.
Even if the former aggressors are sincere in their intentions, Luca has a point: systematic atrocities don’t happen by and of themselves. I gather something like a Final Solution / ethnic “cleansing” was going on, so someone had to be obeying and carrying out those orders, over months if not years.
Well, Luca certainly has a chip on his shoulder the size of Wales (and shoulderpads as sharp as his expression)!
I’d also say he’s of the school who holds that the only thing that happens when you turn the other cheek is to invite a grinning enemy to slap it resoundingly, and wonders just why there should be “magnaminity in victory”, with better reasoning than some famous guy saying it a while back.
It’s also interesting to compare this page to Luca holding up his left hand in the site banner. He’s very much driven by his deformity?
The Pasori in general are sort of vengeful. The fact that Caris is being evasive is not only personally insulting to the Emperor, but sort of makes him lose face to his people.
His hands were mangled while he was a POW during the war (you can sort of guess who did it). They are important to the story for a few reasons!
In the banner he’s pulling on his gloves… now we know why he wears the gloves…
I was expecting Luca to sing “HELLFIRE” in the first panel >8(
agdipwga I love how curly Luca’s hair is in the last panel, and Phe’s reaction of obviously fearing she was going to get a fist in the face… or is she aware of Luca’s uh, less obvious “problem” with his hands? (not expecting you to answer that obviously, I ‘m just thinking to myself haha).
And aww, pop had freckles.
IF I HAVE TO BURN DOWN ALL OF PARIS
I’m guessing she has an idea about them? maybe? I doubt that is something he would talk about to her XD
Credit for Dad’s chocolate-chip face goes to Morgan Freeman
Though curiously, those marks (at least in Morgan Freeman’s case) are actually due to the skin disorder dermatosis papulosa nigra, which only affects those of darker skin! I only learned this recently myself.
The comic is, as ever, excellent! Luca’s tiny, tiny pupils are quite frightening.
“pimp of the week goes to Raine Dog”
!?
Haha, I pimp out a comic every week. Raine Dog is this week’s suggestion!
And a big ‘Thank you’ for doing so. I’m a huge fan of both Raine Dog and Ozy and Millie! Hell, I quote Millie and Llewellyn almost daily. -sighs- Good times, better memories. I really wish Ozy and Millie wasn’t at a stand-still, but I do understand the desire to move to another comic after so many years. I feel that a cross-over is in order!
-claps- And now for something completely different.
Wonderful comic. I’ve been a long time reader since the beginning, but this is my first (And likely last) time commenting. My life has taken a turn for the troublesome and I doubt I’ll have the Internets much longer, so its wonderful to enjoy this beautiful webcomic while I still have the chance. Thank you very much for such an astounding story.
good luck with the troublesome!
Oh I know all about Raine Dog, man, I’ll just say it’s not my cup of tea.
Can’t wait for the nest page.
Fair enough :) Next page is coming!
Third and fifth panel = wow. His hair their eyes the light! The HANDS. This man seems to be pretty f*cked up, but he hides it very well. Very intense page =)
And, I love how Phe from behind is actually a woman and not a broomstick.
…and thank you for the detailed look at 1st panel, because darkness DOES hide it pretty well. Still, the ambient lights are working just fine xd
Okay, this page kinna scared me x_x
Other times you’ve mentioned you don’t like Phe (or something like that), why is that? Just curious, because she seems to be more sensible than Luca *apparently*
Btw, I love the atmosphere you created. The darkness and the intense colors are perfect for le drama.
Haha, I do like her. But some part of me is annoyed because she is my RIVAL
jk jk
You made me LOL!
Oh God. xD
And what word did we learn to never say around the emperor, kids?
THIS IS PASORRRIIIIIIIII 8E
I love Luca’s crazy face in the fourth panel. Also if you want to take just a wee bit of crit, font size increase in that last word balloon maybe? to emphasize he’s SHOUTING? it looks so small and lonely in that big old balloon
Also I love Pa and his big bushy beard. It looks like there should be a few gulos nestled in its depths somewhere. ” He wuzzzz a MOUNTAIN of a man “
Ooh, good point about the font. Sometimes I whip out the size 10pt when I’m feeling extra sassy (and today I am feeling pretty sassy)
doncha mean SAS-SAY XD
Oh god, that looks painful! Poor Luca!
I absolutely love Luca in panel 3! He really looks like he just went off the deep end. Good work ^_^
What a great page! Standing in front of the chimney Luca looks like some badass villain out of a movie, haha
It’s great how you managed to show Luca’s rage bursting out of him. A really strong scene and it’s really painful to see Phe in such a situation :C
Also I love how Luca’s hair becomes all curly and messy <3
Ha, I was wrong about what was going to happen. Good thing I didn’t say anything! :D
Haha, well there are still 28 pages left! Plenty of time for shit to go down.
…
D:
I thought it was a nice, subtly realistic touch that his command of the language deteriorated when he was wrought up. I hadn’t realized until then that it wasn’t his first language, but that was an effective way of showing it.
I read all of Luca’s injuries and defects on his meeki page and man, he’s had the freak’n crap beat out of him. No wonder he’s the way he is but I don’t blame him.
The last panel a little confused me a little until I read your comment to clarify Lucas’ hand was crushed. What actually confused me is that Phe’s hand looks a bit odd in the panel as well, the wrist being rather short compared to the size of the palm, and also the way the thumb bends with the hand creates more of a curve while the drawing it look rather flat. So the combination of Phe’s hand being a little off in the same panel as showing Lucas’ deformed hand making its first appearance seemed like both hands were off.
I apologize if it sounds bitchy but I think that in print, there’s a chance the panel would confuse any new reader (without your comment’s clarification) and you may want to fix her hand a little when you have the time. Because I can totally imagine the Meek being sold in every comic store at some point in the future. ;-)
Not bitchy at all! I am open to “your drawings suck because etc etc” crits all the time XD What do you mean by the wrist is short? Since the wrist is technically that jointed area? Is the angle of her hand confusing, or the bump at the wrist? I referenced my own hand so either I’m deformed or I didn’t see it right, hehe.
COMMENT
awesome page
i was gonna mention the hand but most people have already done that :D
but i’d like to ask: does Luca put in false front teeth? this page and only like 2-3 others has his teeth missing when the rest have them fully intact D:
Okay I’m going have to get a bit technical here because there’s no way I can explain this without referring to the muscles involved. It would be much easier if I could just show you using my own hands than words. XD
It’s not a problem with the anatomy itself because you have the hand’s muscle movement right. It’s more of a scaling problem really, because no matter the angle, I can’t match the length of the base-of-thumb with the length of the wrist even for a really thin female, especially when the abductor pollicis brevis muscle is bending upwards then it shortens how far the palm goes from the point where the wrist joins with the palm.
Let me show you graphically with a comparison to a hand pose where the pal m stretches as far as possible from the wrist to show the comparison of the two lengths:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/Moonblaze/hand.jpg
Now on your image, the palm stretches as wide as the wrist itself if not a little bit longer, while on the reference photo the palm doesn’t even get close to being as wide as the wrist is, keeping in mind the reference hand stretches the palm further than in your hand’s pose. So the only thing you really have to change is increase the wrist’s line beneath the stretching palm itself a bit considerably. You may also want to add a bit of light on the base-of-thumb to show the small u-curve the palm makes bending the thumb to match up with the fingers.
Don’t mean to butt in or anything, but the entire comic itself is highly stylized. I don’t think the artist is concerned about making all of her anatomy super realistic…it’s more “cartoony.” I think the fact that she takes liberties makes her original and makes her style more recognizable.
On some things, sure, like expressions. But I’d like to get the basics right whenever possible, and I do make mistakes.
I agree with you, Alexds1 spends a lot of time in anatomy but right down to it, it doesn’t have to be insanely perfect. Hands are one of the hardests things to draw, we all “screw up” or do them differently sometimes. Realistic hands frankly take too long, simplistic ones with all the right binds and curves are the best – in my book.
Thanks, I think I get what you’re saying for the anatomy, she sort of has a fat thumb base (like a male spadefoot toad, haha). Can’t change the lighting since Luca’s bigass shadow is in the way but I’ll mess with the hand a bit more. Thanks!
The difference between “believe” and “relieve” is a consonant… silly.
Haha, I meant I always spell the vowel parts wrong XD I had to spellcheck to make sure the ones up there were right…
I’m downright giddy reading this chapter with each new page. I had to laugh at how excitedly I explained to my girlfriend that May is only 22 pages away!
Nghhh the expressions on this page *__________*
Did they show mercy!?! They got permanent ink all over my hand!!! (sry, couldn’t resist)
Oh man, I had an art student fangasm at this page a little….great lighting and posing throughout, but that last panel especially is gorgeous….the way you drew the planes of Luca’s face, and that little snarl of gray hair through the black….
*_* So awesommme.
I feel a sense of sadness when reading this, I think because it’s obvious that these people hurt Luca at some point, crippled him somehow emotionally using torture and that torture has forever maimed him.
Now he just can’t let it go and he can’t stop hating them because it’s always there to remind him. I think he needs someone to tell him that it’s not just about mercy its about being able to move on and finally forget
Now I see this I don’t hold his angry actions in the previous pages against him, because this page shows that he is only human and he’s probably feeling proud but at the same time deeply conflicted. Beautifully deep and strong art.
It would of course be a lot healthier to forget… but seriously if someone did that to me, I don’t know if I’d be able to forgive them. I haven’t really gotten into the gory details yet, I guess you can make up your mind once those are out.
After seeing the hand, I couldn’t help but look through the first pages of the chapter, and I have to say, you were clever about that. You’d showed his hand injuries in the very first pages, but avoided drawing attention to them…
Loving the attention to detail, there, nice one!
Love the comic too, by the way. This one really keeps my attention, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Oh man, that last pannel is so intense! This chapter is really superb, I’m really looking forward to what comes next. Fantastic work!
Regarding the grammar comments. It’s quite apparent that English (whatever) isn’t Luca’s first language. I think it’s quite clever of Helmer to have Luca’s sytax to start slipping when he gets excited. ;)
Helmer thanks you XD
I imagined him with an accent waaaaay back when there were only sketch pages, and couldn’t think of it any other way, so I’m glad that’s accurate! XD
The misunderstood grammar is actually a nice touch too, I’ve never seen that anywhere in anything comic-wise before, but it only makes sense since it’s an everyday thing in the real world.
…hand O_o
The colors and expressions are amazing as always. I know you’re trying to make him out as a big ol’ grump, but hes one of my favorites so far.
And, accents? Love em <3
They must have done something really bad to get him like that. He looks very troubled… I feel for him. I truly do…
*mentally puts Luca in the middle of Woodstock* All we are saaaaaayyyyyy-iiinnngggg….
I just read the whole comic and it’s seriously amazing! The drawing, the whole script, you really have thought this out! Angora is adorable!! Brilliant!
Aw, thanks very much!
I flipped back to the beginning of this chapter, and sure enough, his mangled hand was always there to see! You are one fantastic artist to keep such details consistent in these pages!
Haha, thanks… not like it was a ton of effort, its one of his defining characteristics. It just wasn’t important yet at the beginning :)
You know I have to say something…
“Merry Christmas”
Happy holidays to you as well :)
After reading this, I went back to the first page of this chapter. I didn’t give his hands in the last panel a second thought, as it looked like shading and the hands didn’t at the time seem like the focal point of the scene. Wow. It does give “I like peace” a whole different feel.
That’s what I like about literature over movies and TV. The ability to go back and check on something whenever something new has come to light.
Brilliant so far, I am definitely hooked.
And now it all becomes clear why he hated the phrase “Hand of the North” and couldn’t button his own collar.
This is a fantastic comic.
Is she afraid of his hand or is she trying to protect herself from being hit? Poor Phe.
Probably a bit of both! I mean, he’s sort of scary XD
What I really enjoy is that despite that he’s full of raging hatred, and he was elected but took over as a dictator, he STILL has a completely legitimate point. You can’t torture the leader of another country and then refuse to take responsibility when you come to them for peace. It’d be so easy to make him generically irrational or bad, but there’s real complexity. You know things aren’t simple when the dictator has the greatest moral point.
You win.
PASORI RAGE!!!
So I WAS right. I thought there was something up with his hand when I saw him on the last panel of 2.01 saying “I like peace!”
I’ve just noticed that Luca is missing some of his teeth(maybe)!
I’m not sure thought, but the expressions on Luca’s faces are priceless!
Happy X-mas! We want more nakie Emperor. That would make my holiday season complete, for sure! LOL
:’(
Poor Emperor.
I see Luca is missing some teeth in panel 3. lol
So… Luca grabs off his left hand glove but he shows her his right hand? Am I seeing things or is that a oopsy-error? ;P
I see that too. And am now going to be using the term oopsy-error for the rest of my life.
It could be, or you could be like me and say that both hands are ungloved so he is waving both of them around :)
His right hand is the only wounded one, check out 2.01: http://www.meekcomic.com/2009/08/27/201/
Whoops, meant to say bruised, not wounded.
In what way? I can’t see what’s wrong with his hand.
I’m not at all surprised that people misinterpreted the emperor’s grammar as being the writer’s fault, but I DO find it a little vexing that people who have read The Meek from page one would think so little of her planning and forethought. Does anyone besides me think that this is one of the best-written and best planned comics being posted for free online? I also have to applaud the author for using such restraint and good humor in her reply to these shenaniganous (new words are fun just ask Kiesu) comments. Still, I’m glad we got some direct exposition from the author on this one; at first I thought that the emperor had some hilarious speech impediment.
Speech impediments, haha http://jjrowland.com/wigu/20020315.html
Well, I’d rather get everyone on the same page than yell at them :B I figure by the 15th “typo” it will start to sink in.
so what has happened to Luca’s hand? did i get smashed or something in the war with Caris?