The late post! As late as this is, I hope you’ll appreciate that I haven’t messed up my post a week average since I’ve started the comic, and I am not going to break that streak now. Page 28 will be up tomorrow so check back then!
The vote incentive (which will be up until tomorrow) is something relatively special, the image from the 1st wallpaper challenge which I haven’t posted publicly. The wallpaper itself is not available at the moment but at least you can see what it was :B
See you tomorrow!
ps the unwritten sfx for the second panel is “snarf”
I forgive you!
I love how you establish scene shifts through color!
Thanks!
Also I’m going to stop asking for forgiveness for late posts. Its not like I was sitting around doing nothing the last two weeks.
I agree! Stop it this instant… we don’t care, as long as we get to see more of your badassery!
*flex*
Haha! That’s a good start.
Honestly, I don’t know how you do it. I’m student teaching as well, and I barely have time to feed myself, let alone tackle amazing, massive side projects like this!
Whee new page, and another new one tomorrow… So exciting :D Thanks~~~~~~ :D
Oo I wonder if they know that won’t be the only ones who can speak Carissi at the dinner table. That could cause some interestingness. I wonder if Phe can?
Also, you’re right. No need to ask for forgiveness. I’m happy to get my Meek when I can, and getting it a week late is better than not having it! It just makes it that much sweeter when it does come.
Yay, an update! :D
Question: What’s the long-haired ambassador (can’t remember her name) speaking at first if she’s not speaking her native language? Plain English?
The common language is the Santri language, which is analogous to plain English :)
Yes that’s why the other ambassador tells her to keep her voice down and speak Carissi. Well technically they’re not speaking “English” per say. They’re probably speaking the dominate language of the country there in which I believe is Santri.
Perhaps Phe is wrong and the her husband isn’t as crazy (though he is obsessed) as she thinks. Can’t wait for the next page.
I think Phe can either speak Carissi or she was there early enough to catch the “blood-drinking, cannibal lunatics” line… either way, sh*t is going down at dinner, and it might not even be Luca’s fault! XD
OH! I forgot to ask are both the ambassadors female? I remember Luca mentioning the Queen sending only female ambassadors but the skinny one looks a bit neutral.
Yeah, she is female. Some ladies are not as ladyish as others, I guess!
I think I got the vibe because her chin is relatively broad (for her physique). Oh well, it works and the character really shows her personality well.
I must say, I really am in love with the way you draw women. They are all shapes and sizes! It’s fantastically done! I see too many styles where the women all have the exact same bodies.
I, too, am excited for tomorrow! Keep up the amazing work!
*hands you a chinchilla*
Yesssss free chinchilla
That’s what war begets; prejudice and ridiculous views about foreigners. Cannibals indeed
I see the Carissi still have some racism to work through.
Not “far too kind”, but making up for her husband’s rude reception.
Wow, just how large is that room they’re in? It sure looks huge, judging from the silhouettes in the window. Watching the lady eating makes her also very less ladylike than she looks at first… D:
Still, she complains about Pasori eating manners. Oh, the irony!!
Irony is a beautiful thing isn’t it? XD
Absolutely.
Wow. Very cool page, though. Can’t wait to see what’s gonna happen at the dinner table.
Hm, I’ve got a foreboding feeling!
Love her expression in the second panel – PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSED! LOL
Great drawing style and and expressions – the third panel ist my favorite! :-)
Also, interesting story. Especially the current chapter has really captivated me.
Those ambassadors are really amusing, good that the scene change brought us back to them. :D
Second panel wins!
Phe’s face in the last panel looks kind of dangerous, as in ‘I might be gentle, but I am still wife to DeSadar’, almost like she had heard what the ambassadors were talking about =P
P.S: yay for sfx.
You know, I felt very sorry for both ambassadors (ambassadrixes? Far cooler word, will use) before. Now I just feel sorry for the tall, not-noble ambassadrix. She seems like an intelligent, stateswomanly person forced to deal with a less subtle political force who unfortunately is her boss.
Dinner will be interesting.
The chubbier one is one of the Queen’s cousins too : Nothing like having to suck up to people who only got a job because they were related to the boss!
I agree, though it remains to be seen whether Lethy really is the more likable of the two. I withhold my judgement of them for now. I get the feeling there won’t be a ‘good’ side in this chapter anyhow.
I didn’t mean to say that Lethy is nicer or more likable, just more capable, and (perhaps Vetinari, the ever-amazing tyrant from the Discworld series has influenced this) in a situation like this, nice is not necessarily a good thing.
Having to put up with someone possibly ruining international relations because they’re the Queen’s cousin has to be grating.
Again I agree and I’m willing to give her my sympathy for that. She is definitely the true diplomat of the two.
Incidentally, I’m a huge fan of Vetinari’s myself. He’s the best. =)
HOLYSHITANUPDATE
YAYYYY!!!!!!
As always, amazing rendering of hair and faces.
I WILL BE BACK TOMORROW! YAY!
I knoticed something odd about the hand position with the woman eating chocolate in the second and third panle.
The way the fingers are shown makes it appear as though the woman is eating with her right hand in the picture where you can see her face. The index and ring finger up, the other two curled down and away going left to right. But in the Next panle we can see her thumb and pointer finger clutching the sweet, from an angle that makes it look like she is using her left hand, but the arm is positioned for it to still be the right…
Does anybody else see what I’m seeing?
Haha, she’s actually eating with both hands… its kind of gross XD You can tell since in the second panel it is a new candy, not a 1/2 bitten one as the first panel suggests. Probably storing up delicious calories before being subjected to a Pasori-style dinner!
Though, the fingers in the second panel looks abit akward since the indexfinger seems longer than the middle finger. But I don’t think it is important enough to change it, unless you want to. ^^
Howwww is it even possible for you to do two updates in a week? Unreal.
I kind of hate that ambassador with a burning passion now.
And any sympathy I might have had for them is tossed out the window.
Sorry if you’ve mentioned this before but how is Phe’s name pronounced?
It rhymes with “day.”
Ahh…would that then make the pronunciation “phay” or “pay”? Or perhaps better worded as: is the H silent?
Oh, haha yeah I guess. Basically the same pronunciation as fey or fay or however you spell that.
Ahh, okay then. Thanks!
I take it that that lone ellipsis in the middle panel is meant to represent Phe having her ear to the door and waiting a moment before knocking.
And by such simple things do the grandest plots come undone. You can toss the room for bugs (figuratively speaking, I’m not sure of the technology level here) and shove paper in all of the cut-out eyes in the portraits… but the one obvious way of having an eavesdropper flies over everyone’s heads.
I really like how the long-haired ambassidor is a nervous eater and the fact her nail polish matches her eyes.
Also, the way Lethy is less diplomatic in private and how she puts on the mask when Phe arrives is interesting. Lethy in general is cool. Basically, this page is awesome.
Is that a Peace Plant? Ho-ho, I see whut u did thar!
Definitely getting that feeling of artificial night-lighting. It’s there just to keep you awake, I swear.
Schedule slip my buttocks. WE READ BECAUSE WE CARE.
I don’t think you need to ask forgiveness. Fot one you provide an awesome, aesthetically pleasing comic for free and, I don’t know a bout any one else but, I’m not always on the internet. Sometimes I won’t go on for a month or more. So I don’t check up on comics that update a bajillion times a week.
True story,
I was looking this up on my phone as I was eating hush puppies at Long John Silvers.
Second panel is hilarious because of which. =]
You have to remember that most of the time this is how ambassadors are. More often than not they receive schooling in high and low points of the other culture in order to avoid international disasters; they aren’t required to adore the people with which they’re seeking an agreement, but rather offer an optimistic (or at the least neutral) semblance. Ambassadors are to be level-headed in meetings but can speak how they please in private, and given the treatment the ladies just received it’s understandable that they’re vexed even if only one openly displays aggravation.
Also “We can work with the wife” doesn’t necessarily imply something devious or sinister. Ambassadors have a goal to accomplish (doing whatever is necessary within parameters given by their ruler) and in this case it’s (allegedly) peace. Without knowing what their instructions were, we get to just sit back and wait and see how it all unfolds.
On a side note, I love Phe’s over-the-shoulder expression in that last panel. :D
Phe is turning out to be an extremely well thought out character. One of the most intelligent comics out there, this…great work!
I’m thinking Phe can be even more dangerous than Luca? ._.
Erm, what is that green semi-transparent chopped circle in her hand on the second panel, btw?
That is what we in the business like to call a MISTAKE
lol I will fix
lol damn those brushes x)
The ambassador stuffing her face just screams “I put make-up on with a spatula” in the second panel from the way you defined her eyelashes where every other woman featured didn’t have established eyelashes as she does. And here I thought she was the meek one. Pfft, she’s proof that high society tend to beget low class people. Self-righteousness ftw! /sarcasm :P
oh god XD I can see her slapping at her face with a mascara spatula now. Well its not her fault that her family is well off! right! right…?
Is ‘if you love the king/queen’ idiomatic? If it is, it sounds like Caris has something of a theocracy going on.
Well.. yeah its kind of complicated. For now lets just say that Luca is considered the Emperor and is referred to as such, whereas Caris currently has a Queen who is referred to as such. I’ll get into the King later.
What is that tiny, transparent, green blot at the bottom of the second panel? A reflection or something?
An error, actually 8D
Interesting adjustments to the characters of the ambassadors. I remember our lady of the nervous binge diet being much more appealing and friendly in the thumbnail draft. Now I can’t help but wonder what effect this’ll have on the events of the rest of the chapter.
Nice switch from reds to blues, by the way. Very stylish scene (and mood) change.
I honestly can’t get a fix on whether you’re a guy or a gal. I’ve been reading this comic since page one and I gotta admit I’m kinda curious.
In the third panel is the ambassador’s cheeks puffed out from chewing, or from exasperation? Cause that speck of food flying from her mouth makes me think the first while her eyes make me think the later.
I don’t know if anyone’s pointed this out yet, but Suda called it on this page: http://www.meekcomic.com/2009/11/26/2-14/ when he said they’d scream at each other, throw stuff, and then make up.
Phe is fantastic.
“We can work with the wife”, huh? That sounds quite suspicious.
Great…between messed up reproductive hormones (HOORAY FOR PPMD AND HAVING ONLY ONE OVARY! XD) and messed up thyroid hormones, I was already hell bent on raiding the local drug store chain for much needed candy crack. They normally have awesome foreign chocolate around this time of year. Aaaand then, of course, you have to go and draw the fat chick scarfing down what looks to be Lindt truffles…DAMN YOU. LOL
Seriously, though, I love the airy, regal light blues and golds and greys on the Carissi nobility and the greens and browns and earth tones on the Santri/Pasori people. I love how the colors and architectural themes match their respective cultures so well.
I also love the role reversals and how all the little details and such of both sets of peoples both mix and contrast their respective roles. I’m sensing a lot of WWII themes going on, and I love how the “commoner” Pasori are now in charge instead of the “royal” Carissi people.
Overall you’ve done a fine job of making a wonderfully complex world with all these subtle little nuances. It’s really easy to get sucked into this reality you’ve created, and honestly,I enjoy every trip.
I’d also like to add that despite having a general idea of where this story is going, you always seem to pleasantly surprise me with each new page. Normally, I can see where an author/artist is going with something a mile away. Kudos to you for giving me that treat with each update. It’s not an easy feat, lemme tell ya. :)
And, er, that might be PMDD, not PPMD. It’s way the hell too early (or rather, late) for my brain to be working all that properly. X_x
I really adore Tesa’s “snarf” expression in the second panel. The way her eyes are kind of out of focus and everything is pretty awesome.
Also, I agree: the way you use colors to differentiate scene changes is superb.
Love the comic, I’m a long time follower! thought I’s finally post.
I wonder if Phe heard those comments from the ambassadors… In that case “you are so kind” “not at all” would so be foreboding :/
I’m also wondering how you pronounce Phe’s name… Is it like feh, fee or fay?
There’s a bit of stray green at the bottom of the second panel, is that a mistake or am I missing something?
Like “fay” :) And yeah that circle is an error that I need to fix!
Ah ok thanks, … that’s how I read it in my head all along, how lucky am I… xP
Love the scene-change. :) And lovely colors as usual. Random: I am really fond of those paintings in the background too! Is that small painting resembling a frog or reptile of some sort? Cool, nonetheless!
Heh. I’m sure the Pasori *are* barbarians (their menfolk are mysogenous, succesful males are allowed to marry multiple wives and they marry off their daughters at age fourteen – I’m sure that sounds pretty barbarous to the more female-orientated Carissi. It does to me), and they probably *have* a national dish like blood-soup or something (the Spartans did) or blood-pudding (like the popular British Black Pudding, or the Dutch Bloedworst = ‘blood sausage’), but the point is, dear inbred cousin of the Carissi Queen, that you may not enslave and kill millions of barbarians simply because they are barbarians.
Haha, this made me smile. Well put!
ROFL at the second panel. Oh so feminine.
What exactly is ambassador jerkface eating in panel 2? It looks like some kind of delicious pastry. I want one.
I find it interesting how we the readers have gone from being upset with Luca’s supposedly unreasonable anger towards Caris to being upset with the Carissi ambassadors’ behavior. Proof nothing is ever black and white. I suspect Phe may know Carissi – for someone who stood up for them against her husband hours earlier, she’s got a look on her face that says she’s not too thrill with them. Usually the response of “Not at all” to “You are too kind” is meant as a polite demurral for the sake of etiquette, but I think she is being quite honest at the moment…
bahah i love her nervously/annoyedly eating face
bah! As long as the pages are good quality, and I get to see this story follow through to the end, I dont mind if it misses an update. You are human, after all (or at least I think you are!) Just dont stop altogether, the story is so interesting!
Uhm,I was just wondering,if Santri is analogous to plain english and Pasori is similar to latvian,then what language is Carissi based on?Estonian maybe?Sorry if this is so out of the blue!
Mostly basing this assumption on the fact that Estonia and Latvia are placed so close together,and yet a lot estonians and latvians seem to resent the other a lot,sort of like the ambassadors from Carissi don’t seem like Pasori people much at all.
Actually Pasori is not like Latvian, it was a joke I’d made on another site. If you want to get technical, I took a lot of the sounds for Pasori from Russian and Armenian, since I like the way those languages sound. The Carissi language is based on another language you might know of but I have to keep that secret for now :)