Actually, what would make the 6th panel even better is if he were SMILING. When you’re trying to be creepy, nothing goes better with faces melting than a big toothy grin.
I keep looking at the last panel and thinking, “Who else wants a hug?”
oh lordy, I’ve been waiting to see this page since I saw it in the sketch comic. You sure know how to tell a story. I love how Luca goes from looking normal to completely psycho in like no time at all.
Also, I’m inclined to believe that he isn’t so much as insane as he is possessed. The transition of his expressions between this and the previous page I believe are beyond his capacity, considering how poorly he usually hides his anger. Not to mention his face in the last panel looks very Dagre-ish… namely the blank, headlight-like eyes.
I think he was saying that by her running to her death, which was quick and… well it was quick, she prevented herself from being subjected to torture that he is planning to subject the rest of her people to, the torture his people was subjected to. Funny thing though, now that this war has been initiated, it may just have been wise after all.
augh jeez. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, but I was hopeful that it wouldn’t!
Well, he didn’t say anything about not killing them, I guess? XD
(Also! I asked these questions before but maybe they got missed, you had a lot to look through, so that’s okay! I’ll just keep asking until you answer or kick my butt for being annoying, haha, either one works. Sorry! COPY/PASTE GO!:
So um, I had a question about the preordering of books. Do you know more exactly how long they’re going to be available? I really want to get a signed/sketched copy, but I’m unemployed at the moment so I want to know whether I should splurge a little or hold out and see if I can find a summer job first. XD
(also is there a way to request who gets sketched or are you just going to kind of randomly be picking characters? ‘cos I love Pinter, heheh. <3)
For preorders, they’ll probably be up until July sometime! Which is when we’re expecting the first shipment to come in.
For sketches, I actually have no idea how thats going to work XD My publisher is going to send me a box of stuff to sketch and sign, and I am not sure if they will be ready to mail at that point… If I do end up not knowing which character I am drawing for whom and you don’t get a Pinter, the alternative is to find me at some con and force me to draw Pinters all over things, which I will happily do :B
Thanks for answering! <3 Okay, July, that gives me a little while. I-I hope. D:
Haha, will do! I really want to get to a con someday, they're just expensive and blah, but if I ever figure out a way to pull it off I will definitely come and get you to draw on stuff for me! XD
I hope he says “flame on” somewhere on the next page. New page looks amazing as usual. I really hope this series is successful for you and you do well with the comic release. I’ve already told all of my friends about this series :)
augh holy crap, I definitely saw something vaguely along these lines coming, but refreshing the page and seeing solely those last two panels gave me a mini heart attack D:
Ow. Ew. Well, throwing herself at Luca *was* pretty stupid. Out of the gene pool. ;)
At first I thought Tessa was still screaming (and therefore alive) in the second to last panel. Then I realized it must be the remaining woman. It makes sense that she can’t help screaming her head off in fear and horror after what she just saw, but I also think the panel would be less confusing (and way more ominous) if there was a silent pause first… all that screaming from Tessa, and then creepy, creepy silence.
But man, Luca looks disturbing in that last panel.
Off the puns, it seems Luca has graduated from the William Bryant, Francis May, George Pullman all-stars, passing J. Edgar Hoover along the way, and is now scheduled for a Joseph Stalin Celebrity Makeover. Queue the massacres.
He conducts heat from his hands, his sleeves are burning and curling back D: Angora directs the growth of plants, Luca seems to conduct heat. Holy shit.
Damn. DAMN! Has been a long time since a comic did that for me, if ever…shocking.
Apart from that, hope that Tesa has somehow survived this one, as a horribly scarred (the weave, the weave ^^!) reminder to the queen. To test whether she really wants the peace to last despite this provocation…
Damn.
(Keep in mind that I have NOT read the sketch version, and that everything here is pure speculation and observation)
Dagre, brother to Angora’s grandfather Mocheril, is hellbent on destroying humanity. His motives are unknown, but for whatever reason he seems to be unable to do it on his own, or at the very least prefers to stay behind the scenes as his plans come to fruition.
Hence why he’s chosen Luca here to be his puppet. Luca is already paranoid and borderline insane from all his fighting and trauma from his younger years, with his wife being the only thing keeping him from completely losing it. Dagre knows that Luca is powerful, and will not hesitate to start a war with the right provocation.
SO, Dagre kills Phe, knowing that Luca will immediately lash out and blame the ambassadors, regardless of the fact whether they actually did it or not. Without Phe to guide him and keep him in check, Luca will start a war that’s very likely to bring about the end of humanity, or at least be the first domino in a chain of events that will lead to that result.
Angora was told to go to the center and find a “woman who cries, but sheds no tears”, who I’m assuming will be Soli, the third and final major character who has yet to be introduced. Somehow, these two (along with Pinter who is assisting Angora) are supposed to stop Dagre (and, in effect, Luca) from destroying mankind.
One other thing I’ve noticed is that so far two of the major characters seem to have some sort of pseudo control over the elements. Angora over the Earth, and Luca over Fire (I’m assuming those are heat waves coming from his hands, and that he roasted that ambassador’s head). This leads me to believe that Soli will be somehow in control of either Water or Air, though I’m placing my money on the latter.
How this will all come together, I have no idea. But judging form the already masterful story so far, its going to be epic.
Like you I haven’t read any of the draft. I suspect this ambassador is dead, but if she somehow survives then she’s a clear candidate to be said woman.
And maybe Pinter has some sort of power since he has a sort of part in the prophecy: “The lost one will know the way” but that he doesn’t know it yet. o_o
… Excuse the double-post. I also noticed how Tesa’s hands are burned as well: maybe Luca’s hands aren’t the only thing radiating fire thus heat. Either that or she tried to grab his hands in a rush of panic-y ingeniousness.
Thank you! Cause man, holy @#%^ I was lost.
I was wondering WTF was up w/ his fingers in earlier panels. I’d assumed he’d been tortured and he was scarred from the war(s).
It seems to be implied that Mocheril gave Angora her abilities (as evidenced by the fact that her hair didn’t always have plants growing in it), and it looks like Luca’s sudden display of power here is a result of Dagre’s influence. If Soli has elemental powers at well, I wonder what enormous spectral animal she identifies with.
On a positive note, this page will haunt me forever, and his expression in the last panel is ridiculously well done. I don’t think I’ve quite seen a face of mixed emotion that well executed, especially considering how calm he was in the first panel. It’s one of those things that make this comic stick strong in my head, in a league of it’s own.
As always I feel.. conflicted about this page. Sure, I saw it coming many miles away concerning Dagre and his/its influence but.. I still hate seeing characters I like die.
I’m not talking about the ambassador. It’s not that I didn’t like her, I was a little indifferent since she was so.. marginally competent, and easy enough to freak out (as most sane humans would be in such a situation)
No. I liked Phe. I REALLY liked her. I like those stabilizing factors that keep these shadowed characters from tipping over into madness. Which is why they usually die.. and then the characters I like, namely Luca, eat themselves internally until nothing is left. You end up with a villain. A useful enough antagonist because as Dagre knows very well, humans are very easy to manipulate in their grief and pain.
Still. I’m the sort of person who roots for the powers of good.. in /Ravenloft/. So, I keep coming back but.. yeah. I can see where this is going. Hopefullu. I am wrong, but practically spellbound one way or another. I guess it is a wall of text way to say your storytelling is masterful, even if I always take HP damage from unavoidable tragedy by empathizing with characters like Phe and Luca.
So. Short version: Awesome. Great page. Crispy crackers.
That worried eye in the second panel is super. And I especially like how you decided to draw the third one, great shot indeed. To see what’s happening from other people’s reaction is better than looking at the fact itself :P
You want to know what’s really fucked up? I just happened to check for an update here/read this comic while listening to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coivftr6sNY
For some reason, the detail that his nose is wrinkled and his mouth curled back is so striking. It shows that the dead body is stinking, and that he’s recoiling from the scent, but not enough to stop being a crazy and terrifying madman for even an instant.
Oh god….Luca you stupid b******d what have you done?
This will bring war there is no stopping that now killing one of the queens cousins when you have no proof what so ever, to back up your actions. These two could have been innocent from the start which makes his actions even worse I feel that Luca has just taking the first step, the horrible one that turns man in to a dictator.
As a side note I feel sorry for the now dead Ambassador her fears were well founded, I just don’t think even she saw this coming because I sure as hell didn’t….
I cant think if a day when microvave hands would cease to be usefull :D
Cooking, working in the shop, heating drinks, self-defence, breaking the ice at coctail parties, starting fires, putting out fires, negotiating, there’s realy a use for every occasion :)
He’ll refrain from jumping to any conclusions… but he’ll also hard-boil one of their heads without provocation. I don’t think he cares who killed who anymore. He just wants to _hurt somebody_. That, I think, makes him very, very, very dangerous…
She pushed him to fry her, I think, because he was already trying very hard not to.
Hence the “That was wise.”
I think.
Either that, or the prior page was a cruel set-up for this one, and he intended to kill one and send the other back to the Queen with the news from the start.
Glad I read the comments below!! Dummie me couldn’t figure out what was up with Luca’s hands and clothes in the last panel after thinking that he’d only gouged her eyes out?! lol!! This is waaaay more awesome!!
Hm… I wonder why he went to the trouble of fibbing to them before killing one of them. I mean, I understand lulling them into a false sense of security, but he had the upper hand, so I don’t understand his reasoning for doing so. Still, awesome page… Can’t help but feel sorry for the ditsy ambassador though.
For all we know, he wasn’t fibbing. That’s what makes it worse.
He may very well have been telling the truth about not believing that they were responsible for Phe’s death– he just conveniently left out the fact that he no longer CARES who did it.
woah D:
I couldn’t, under any circumstances, expect such a turn of events. Wow °___°
I think he tried hard to stay calm and reasonably, but getting touched by someone he didn’t want to be near him (only Phe is allowed to come near him :D) just turned off or on some switch … brain off, insanity on. whatever.
This cold (lol so much heat, but cold) lunatic way of handling things ist really really scary :<
is the "that was wise" sarcastic? maybe I didn't get some important point there :/
the third and the last panel are gorgeous! shivers down my spine :9 goosebumps, I love this comic!
btw… is it also possible to get one of those prints send to Austria? (not Australia)
……wow thats epic….SO using that in D&D or any chance i get emperor that has strange burning hands……..i think thay burn any ways but that look…..priceless on bolth thare faces.
I really do feel like I am missing something. The first chapter felt kind of introductiony… but this second one is just bizzare. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but it is going so slowly, I wish I understood more of how this related to some random naked woman in the forest. Kudos though, for making me this interested.
I drew the rough version of this chapter in May-June 2007.
Chapters 1-3 are introductory in their own ways! The story is three arcs, so each of the three arcs needs their own beginning… you’ll find out the relations as the story progresses :)
I think it was known that he had powers- when he sees the embassadors for the first time and says ‘What are you hear for” He has his hand out to silence the introduction guy and the guard is like, staring at his hand like ‘Oh noes’ lol. Maybe thats how he rules, with the fear of his power.
Well, looks like I got what I wanted |D Nightmare fuel and all.
Is that Lethy or Tesa screaming in the last panel? It seems a little bit unclear, what with Tesa looking kind of dead but Lethy having her hands over her mouth.
I be confused. Is that the reason why he always wore gloves? So he wouldn’t burn everything he touched? I thought it was because his hands were somewhat disfigured so he wore gloves……does this count as the disfigurement?
He does wear the gloves because his fingers were once broken during torture (as far as I remember). The gloves are no protection against burning – there are serveral scenes (notably the bed scene) where he doesn’t wear them and nothing happens.
The burning power seems to be something that activates when he’s in extreme distress (similar to Angora’s power). He also might have some control over it, but I can’t really tell yet.
The gloves in this scene and before were just a really neat indicator for power activation. :-)
oh my god! you are a genious! i know i say how awesome you are at every page but wow! i love this part of the story! honestly i like it more than chapter one! i’m going to be sad when it’s over :(
So I recently got into this comic because I saw a friend’s Ceiling Dagre wallpaper and was like “WTF IS THAT MELTING TIGER THING, IT’S TERRIFYING and yet somehow adorable?” and now i am hardcore addicted. awesome.
In that last panel he looks alot like Dagre. The wild, lidless eyes, his nose all snarled, even his mouth has more outline then normal so it looks kinda of preditory. Cool
Oh heavens Luca… what have you done.
(I haven’t realised this before, but Tesa is related to the queen of Caris, isn’t she?
Which might be the reason for Luca to kill her and not Lethy.)
This is BAD
I just kind of assumed that what happened was Luca did the thumbs vs. eyes in the sockets dealie, but now it’s looking like he has some kind of burning palm technique. I had thought the smoke was some kinda artistic choice, like “check it out he just punched a lady’s eyes into her brains *smoooooke*”.
AWHYISSSS NEGOTIATE THAT BEEYOTCHES. Holy geez her eye’s like burned out isn’t it, the resolution is dark on this monitor I couldn’t tell for sure.
I didn’t think you could make him look any more scarier and then that last panel showed up and proved me wrong. Awe-Sum. I seriously punched the air…then it punched me back
Also I’m very sad at the lack of buckteefs in this page prime opportunity to put them in tch tch Alexds
Welp commenting again because I just noticed that the metal band around her head heats up so hot that it burns into her scalp. AAAAAAaagod I love this comic D:
I have a suggestion for the stuffed Dagre but don’t have a LJ account so I thought I’d post it here. If you really want to give him his long neck, you could try having rice or beans in his bottom. I have a stuffed Tramp dog that sits up, even though he is tall, because there are beans in his caboose. Even not being the authentic design, he is still creepily cute. :)
And to be the 1,025 person to say it – I love this comic and you are awesome!
I was thinking about that for the neck XD But then he might be too heavy to stand, or would need to be balanced on his butt which would make him heavier to ship :
Fill with your own beans? And he could have a (spring? wire?) coil neck so you could stretch it out or tuck it in…
HMMM, production costs just doubled!
I was going to say “And he could talk…” but HELL NO. Last thing I need is some creepy song coming from a long-necked plushy Dagre. Furby fear all over again.
If you read the previous chapter, she hugged him and said “I was so worried!” So, he’s replying to her comment. He meant that it was wised to be worried.
Look at the last panel, though. The two speech bubbles are rendered with very slight differences, and the one on the left conveniently only has one-syllable words. It could be that Dagre speaks, and then Luca finishes the sentence.
I think that he was going to defy Dagre,decretly after promising otherwise, but when Dagre saw the betrayal, he took him over. Luca probably doesn’t have superpowers, unless that is what happened to his hands in the war, and he cannot control it well.
But Dagre’s speech bubbles are really unstable-looking, symbolizing how ghastly his voice is. If he possessed Luca, wouldn’t he be talking the same way? Besides, from what we’ve seen so far, it’s very easy to tell that Luca’s vengeful heart is wide-open to manipulation. I don’t think Dagre would NEED to possess him.
That’s pretty freakin’ bad ass that Luca can melt you GOD DAMN FACE OFF! Ha ha I think its kewl too that his red gloves are kinda symbolic of his hot hands.
Jeez, now you can really tell he’s gone mad (the messy hair is a very good sign of a mad-man). She better get out of there quick or he might change his mind and fry her, too.
It’s interesting how now his gloves are almost completely gone, as well as part of his sleeves. Did he use more energy this time? …I wonder if he’s ever tried to make popcorn with his powers before…? If they even have popcorn there.
You know I’ve been following this for awhile now but never really felt compelled to comment (bad reader, I know), but after this page my jaw literally dropped. this was so powerfully scary, amazing, crazy good!!! I was loving Luca, the poor confused oaf, but now I’m scared to death of him.
I bow to your awesomeness. ^^ I so wish I had money to buy the comic. :'(
Oh man, that Dagre plushie is as cute as it gets. You have to keep the glowing eyes idea!! I love it too much XD Man, that’d be creepy to have those giant round disks staring at me every night…
Anyway, it took me hours to get myself together enough to say something. I totally saw this coming, but… not like this. You still created such an insanely great impact. Your comic is FEARLESS! Chapter one had a naked lady running around with men trying to rape her, and this chapter has fairly graphic depictions of horrible ways to die. One of my favorite lessons from Stephen King’s /On Writing/ novel—tell the truth in what happens in your story, the things your characters do and say no matter how vulgar it is. It seems you take that to heart as well, because even though this is all fantasy and would never happen in real life, what you’re telling is believable. Angora’s actions are real enough for us to have faith in her while Dagre’s motives and Luca’s actions are terrifying enough to leave us with nightmares. I can’t wait for Soli’s story!
And uh… I don’t think there are enough words to express how amazing The Meek is. I love it so much! It’s given me so much inspiration! I hope I can have as much success in story writing when I start my comic.
If he’s radiating enough head from his hands to melt someone’s flesh in a few seconds, he’s probably radiating enough to flash fry someone’s brain. That’s just assuming he attacked using heat, it could easily have been a strong electrical arc, or some kind of magic that leaves what appears to be burn wounds as a secondary effect. I’m sure it’ll turn out to be something much more awesome/horrific than simple heat or fire.
Yeah, figured you hadn’t simplified it since the draft version. Speaking of which, nice move not showing the actual freaky magic here, that can really increase the impact when we eventually do see it.
I personally feel that Luca’s powers may be a manifestation of destruction, seeing as how he is tied Dagre (who need I remind you, wants to destroy everything). This would be a direct counterpart to Angora who is tied to grandfather-salamander, with the powers of growth.
Death by disintegration through nuclear fission!
Anyway for some reason I always liked the other woman anyway, maybe Tesa was created slightly annoying to lessen the impact of killing her off.
Well, the signed and sketched books be available for another week? I hope so, really bad. I’ll get your book for sure. I also can’t wait for the Dagre plushy. Luca looks like he could use a hug too, but I’ll just have to give my hugs to the Dagre plush instead.
and OMG why is Phe dead?! We just learned of her awesomeness.
oh lordie that face. Miracle I could sleep last night.
…On an unrelated note, after browsing the wiki, I must ask–at this current point, what season is it? Also, if it’s not snooping around too much, will the comic span a short amount of time–a few weeks, in-world–or several months/years?
That’s one of the edits that I’m putting into the comic, each of the chapters starts out on a date. Right now is in June, I think (you can check Phe’s page on the wiki since I updated it with her specific death date).
Question!
Why is her hand burnt if he was gripping her face? Or is this a kind of hint at what exactly Luca’s mysterious “more specific than just heat” power is? (some kind of electricity perhapsss?)
Beware the man who hates in the name of love..
:/ he’s not crazy, just heartbroken.
Your furball is awesome in his evilness, but I still don’t like him >.>;
I want to know how he killed Phe Dx
I don’t even know what to say… O_O
but that’s different.
I think the heat rippling and smoke just make it more disturbing and creepy. Well done with that aspect. o.o
I’ve been waiting to see this page in full color since I first saw those chapter pencils! Tesa’s body now is even scarier than the charred looking corpse from before D:
Well, remember that a big chunk of chapter 1 was a gang of violent workers trying to chase down and rape an innocent girl, and then trying to brutally scar the guy who they think got to hit it first.
But then Angora did kick them in the nuts WITH NATURE, which is a decidedly more cheerful resolution than this chapter’s, so far :)
I saw the last panel on your DA and it reminded me to come back and check on the comic. I tend to read it in chunks, waiting for each individual page is agonizing XD
Whaaa?! That was crazy! It looks like Luca has some crazy powers. I wonder if Dagre is like Adnora’s spirit guardian/father creature and they are both granted powers through their respective connections.
Though I saw Tesa’s death coming 2 pages ago, at first I thought he had clawed out her eyes and I was very disturbed.
Then I realized he had MICROWAVE hands…
…am I any less disturbed? I’m not sure.
I think she probably grabbed his hands to try to pull them off (or just did it on reflex, either way). Since his hands were made of burning at the time, they burned her hands. You’ll notice they also burned the cuffs of his sleeves.
Woah, Luca’s scary now. Possessed, much? I figured she’d force him to break by being so emotional. Never expected it to happen this abruptly… or for Luca to have such strange powers. His hand no longer looks burnt either… but on the contrary, his hands are burning everything. I love how his face at the end parallels Dagre’s expression.
I love how your comic is so tastefully violent and brutal (if there was ever such a thing). Is there any particular reason I see Frankenstien in the last panel?
Been reading since maybe a few pages into the color version, and now I finally get all the “Luca is hot!” comments that have been going on all along. haha (and …eep!) this also brings a whole new, way sinister and disturbing meaning to the banner art for the chapter. o.O
Wait, the banner art changes for each chapter? I only started reading when Chapter 2 went online, so I didn’t realise that. Where can we see banner for Chapter 1? Please…?
Luca, in the last panel, is creepy enough to give Dagre a run for his money. The crazy eyes are worse on Luca because we know him, we’ve seen his emotional ups and downs over the past chapter, we’ve developed certain expectations of him as a character — and he just completely shattered them.
Oh Tesa, didn’t your mom ever teach you it’s impolite to hug the emperor D:
I think this now has to be my second favourite panel of the whole thing- the first is and probably always will be ‘Dagre, look what they did…’ Made me tear right up, that one did.
Also, I can’t comment on Livejournal for some reason but I will DEFINITELY TAKE A DAGRE- preferably a real one if possible :D
Will they be squishy plushies or firmer plushies??
Next time you’re at a party and you get accused of murdering the host’s wife, be sure to wear fireproof mascara. Especially if said host is in cahoots with a certain edldrich daemon tiger.
You’d think as an ambassador, you’d learn these things.
Angora has the power to create (or at least stimulate) life, and Luca can use the power of RAGE PHEROMONES to put down dem h– er, ambassadors. They’re roughly opposites then and that is badass.
Oooh, I love how you see his gloves burn a few pages back but you don’t think much past “oh, he has some weird cloth disintegrating power.” And then it leads to FACE MICROWAVE.
Is Tesa just burned and unconscious or is her brain fried too? I’ve only just realised she was still screaming when she fell, but that might be like… death screams.
I think in the last panel with screaming it’s actually the other ambassador that’s screaming – they start to scream together and then it’s just her. Poor Tesa D:
I actually didn’t notice the disintegrating gloves at first, but when I saw the burnt edges of his sleeves in this last page, I went back to see if they were like that earlier, and then I noticed “Oh yeah, and he had gloves a moment ago…”
I actually burst out laughing at your joke there. XD
I’ve been reading for a while, and never really felt I had a valid enough comment to add except the general “homfuguh, you are teh sex at everything!” Kinda noise I usually reserve for special occasions. I just have to say, I love this comic. I adore Luca, and I’d want to give him a hug if we hadn’t all just seen his reaction to such things. :3
The Meek is getting me more excited with every page, can’t wait for the next pages to come! :D
And the Dagre plushie, it’s adorable, I really want one O_O
;-; … Oh my gosh.
… She just wanted a hug.
… Seriously, man, HUG.
You didn’t have to go and sizzle her to death.
… I’m just so… so… …
o_o
Dagre plushie. <3
All is well.
I will have nightmares about this. In the mean time “OWNED”. And seriously best quote ever XD! *flails* I can’t wait for the next update!!! OH and super belated congrats on getting picked up by 4DE! You totally deserve it! *hugs*
It’s kind of sad some think Tesa deserved that just for being flaky. It rather overshadows just how monstrous an act it was.
Cheap joking aside, come on. This is so very much the complete opposite of everything Phe would have wanted. Grief isn’t a license to kill, I don’t think HOW he did it has nearly the impact as the fact he actually did it at all.
I feel so sorry for his children. They’re losing BOTH their parents in one swoop. :/
Really? I found it awfully chilling. (No I can’t think of a heat related pun for that feeling.) The fear on her face before he came in, her relief, then that insane expression on his face. I don’t find it funny at all.
You know, thinking about it I’ve realized that everything Luca’s said could be literally true. He said, for instance, that he doesn’t intend to jump to conclusions about the guilt of the diplomats until after an investigation was done. Taking him at his word, it means he killed Tesa without knowing or caring if she was guilty.
Which fits, really.
And is the typical prelude to the Joseph Stalin Celebrity Makeover. Despotism in three days, or your money back! It’s helpful that Luca’s such a hands-on manager. (I told you, I can’t stop with the puns.)
Ah, so Luca’s possessed by Dagre already. Burning hands, mad round eyes, problems to keep his mouth fully shut, and all.
Well, Luca, it was nice knowing you before you went full-on evil. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be here cheering for you to get a bullet through your brain before you bring even further misery to your country and your family.
Nah, not possessed. He’d show signs of elongated neck, high-beam eyes, and a toungue that refuses to stay in his mouth. Followed by copious amounts of salivation.
Not going to lie- this page chilled me to the core for a whole day. Tesa’s eye in the second panel and Luca at the end. It just gave me the shivers, I could not focus on my studies all day ’cause I kept thinking of this page.
I guess you could say..
Tesa’s face was..
– Puts on glasses –
Melted, with Luca’s hands.
DAMNIT, THAT WASN’T A PUN, IT WAS ONLY STATING THE OBVIOUS!
[FAILSTAMP]
Okay, next page. Next page, next page, next page, next page, come on, come on .. YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE ! *jumps up and down in anticipation for the next page*
Riddle me this, Alex. This question is for you, only ;D I believe it’s the strip before the one where Luca tests the food, but I noticed Tesa’s shocked/panicked expression at the meat, as if she’s surprised it hasn’t been touched. It’s highly probable Phe’s death was poisoning? (as theorized by many of us), did Tesa know, or have anything to do with it? (Or it could have been answered, and I somehow missed it, lol.)
This comic started incredibly intriguing. Very well drawn, and with a promising story. Seeing how this is now sacrificed for some cheap drama gore moments makes me genuinely sad. Main characters get introduced just to kill them. While I still like the drawing style, the gore makes it boring and empty. A bit like all the movie remakes who can’t do without overblown action scenes (‘flight of the phoenix’, ‘A-team’, ‘Enterprise’…).
Maybe I’m just too old or I care too much for fictional characters. But I can’t get any fun out of this butchering. If this comics was worse, I could make puns and laugh about it, but here was serious potential.
It feels like a promise for an exceptional comic didn’t come true. Well, just not for me.
But it seems there’s quite an audience for slaughter.
That’s fair! It would be unrealistic for me to expect everyone to have the same tastes in my writing as I do. However I think it would also be fair for you to keep in mind that we haven’t yet finished with the three introductory chapters, and that there are around 40 chapters of story that you aren’t able to judge yet. If you’re truly against reading the rest of it, then I thank you very much for staying around so far. But if not I’d suggest that you check back at some point in the future to see where things are going. From the standpoint of the author I don’t think you have enough information yet to make an accurate assessment of the plot.
Yeah, I kinda had a feeling you’d be focusing on her a bit more. Luca’s got a lot of backstory that needs developing, and Phe will figure pretty heavily in there I bet :)
I think you’re being rather unfair here. Tesa certainly wasn’t a main character, she was a secondary one at best. If you’re going to look at it from the perspective of the reader, then yes, it is dramatic, but its importance to the story is to illustrate the fact that Luca has been driven to near insanity, if not outright lunacy. Your dismissive and to be quite frank indecently condescending message is just rude and half thought through
Your opinion seems a little unwaranted, Pete. In defense of the author, I think you’ve spoken too soon- the plot is unfolding, I feel Phe’s death is an extremely important point in the development of Luca’s character, as was the same for Tesa’s. Being ‘too old’ has little to do with your personal tastes, perhaps you’re ‘too judgemental’ too soon, not ‘too old;’ the rest of us respect the bold and fearless bit of ‘slaughter.’ This is, after all, a graphic novel, not a child’s story, and it’s proving to be an exceptional one at that. I feel this comic still has great potential that grows with the addition of each page- and I’m sure most everyone here will agree with me. As Gleebits said- you seem very condescending. If you don’t like it, either stop reading or make your comments constructive.
Definitely. Something I only just realised was exactly how LITTLE of the story we’ve actually seen – with one or two pages being released a week, it’s easy to think that the story is longer than it actually is. :)
Hey, wait. Where did the cuts/punctures on Luca’s clothing go when Dagre tossed him about?
His interactions with Dagre weren’t psuedo-psychological were they? I suppose that would lend credit to the intertwined connections between Dagre and Luca, messing with Luca with spooky mind powers.
and he seemed like such a together guy…I love this chapter.
Went through the archives, amazed at all the little cryptic hints that make sense now. Lots of years in the making or not, I’m impressed by the planning!
Look at it this way, Luca: on one hand, you’ll never be able to hug someone without microwaving their face. On the other hand, nachos and popcorn anytime you want! :D
“My name is luca
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes i think you’ve seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was…”
i think you just
*puts on sunglasses*
made yourself look stupid
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man I was listening to Borgore – Saturday Night (Gorestep) and it fit PERFECTLY into this scene. O.O Fantastic comic btw, I’m on my first read through. :D
BTW tesa had it coming. every movie has a panic prone idiot who opens the doors to the zombie horde, or tries to negotiate with the psycho that lost his morality before his virginity. I feel sympathy for the devil, cause mick jagger asked me to. but he never said anything about idiots
Wow that scared me to pieces! But I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it~ Lucas expression in the last panel of the last page was too expressionless to mean anything good. Ohhh Luca you shouldn’t have done that! Phe wouldn’t have wanted it!
I think he’s saying that even though he doesn’t suspect either of them of actually assassinating Phe, he’s still going through to open hostilities with Caris. The killing of the ambassador was just to put the period on the end of that message.
well with that scary conversation tesa must have recieved a
*puts on sunglasses*
heat”setence”
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man. On reread, I don’t really understand why he bothered to lie on the previous page. He’s evil and all, but if his motivation is revenge and anger and stuff, what does he gain by momentarily appearing to be willing to negotiate? What was going through his mind when he entered the room that way?
I just don’t get how to fit this sequence into my understanding of the character, “blinded by torment and rage” sort of deal.
Honestly he just didn’t want to chase them around. He had decided before coming into the room that one would die and one would be sent back with the message.
The ripples in his clothing is really unnerving. I don’t think that was there before; now he’s either shaking uncontrollably, ofr his whole being is possessed somehow. D:
All joking aside, you foreshadowed this rather well. In the earlier bedroom scene you made it obvious that Luca had some sort of post-traumatic disorder from the earlier wars and that his wife was what was keeping him sane.
522 Comments
Bleah! I knew it! Bad Luca bad! At least he killed the one I didn’t like…
SHIVERS. Such a great transition from sad Luca to crazy head-broiling Luca.
Holy Snaps! He IS totally insane! Woah. Scary. Frightening. Phsycologically damaging. ‘specially her face in the 5th panel.
Woah. O.o
Great comic, by the way. Even though this chapter freaks me out… in a good way ^.^
Oh god oh god oh god I am trying to decipher what happened to her head
Burnination, got it
holy shit…
just…holy shit.
…Jesus helling Christ the last page was misleading to a whole new level. D:
DAAAAAAAAANG.
He actually had me fooled there.
When I saw that last panel, I heard the Psycho theme music. That’s a totally great “I’ve lost my mind and I’m going to kill you” expression.
Actually, what would make the 6th panel even better is if he were SMILING. When you’re trying to be creepy, nothing goes better with faces melting than a big toothy grin.
I think that was him smiling :
Oh dear lord.
Ahhh at the 4th panle!
That was beautiful.
Wow. I am experiencing a literal jaw drop right now.
O.O
Brings a new meaning to the term “facepalm”
Wow… just wow. I’m in shock….
Well, I was planning on sleeping. Luca’s face in that last panel however has made that impossible. Thank you.
My thoughts exactly. I’ll be having nightmares about that one. Thanks a lot.
6th panel…Oh my God.
“They’re coming to take me away, ha ha!” That song just oozes from that panel.
Oh my God…I’m in shock…I literally said Holy shit when I read this page. That is seriously scary.
Does he have some sort of fire power?
…. aaahhhh. Aaaahhhhh. AAAAHHHH. D:
OH DANG
Just . . . OH DANG
Well…crap. O_O I wasn’t quite expecting that, though I’m not exactly surprised…
You can see it start with his hair in the first panel! He gets frizzy RAGEQUIT hair.
Dammit, and I was really starting to warm to him. I guess Tesa got there first. (ba-dum ching)
holy SHIT!!!! D:
I keep looking at the last panel and thinking, “Who else wants a hug?”
oh lordy, I’ve been waiting to see this page since I saw it in the sketch comic. You sure know how to tell a story. I love how Luca goes from looking normal to completely psycho in like no time at all.
Simply awesome! Perfect response by Luca =)
What exactly did he mean by, “That was wise.”?
Also, I’m inclined to believe that he isn’t so much as insane as he is possessed. The transition of his expressions between this and the previous page I believe are beyond his capacity, considering how poorly he usually hides his anger. Not to mention his face in the last panel looks very Dagre-ish… namely the blank, headlight-like eyes.
Yeah, these pages are meant to be read in sequence. Go back to the previous page (the page before that is actually best) and read through again :)
Whoa, you’re right…I think you may be on to something.
He was either responding to her comment. ‘I was so worried!’ ‘That was wise.’
..or being sarcastic.
ah now I get it :D thanks, with this my question earlier can be considered as answered :D stupid me :’D
I think he was saying that by her running to her death, which was quick and… well it was quick, she prevented herself from being subjected to torture that he is planning to subject the rest of her people to, the torture his people was subjected to. Funny thing though, now that this war has been initiated, it may just have been wise after all.
GOTDAMN!
No more wanting to cuddle Luca… HAPPY FEELINGS GONE.
i knooow, right?? :C
Wha…What the frack…?!
Aaaaah I’m scared D: *hugs the Dagre plushie for comfort* (Love the hanging tongue on it btw! X3)
My g-d, those hands!!! I mean, it’s all amazingly drawn… the the hands!!!!!! Wow. I am going to take you tutorials on deviant art.
HOLY SHIT.
augh jeez. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, but I was hopeful that it wouldn’t!
Well, he didn’t say anything about not killing them, I guess? XD
(Also! I asked these questions before but maybe they got missed, you had a lot to look through, so that’s okay! I’ll just keep asking until you answer or kick my butt for being annoying, haha, either one works. Sorry! COPY/PASTE GO!:
So um, I had a question about the preordering of books. Do you know more exactly how long they’re going to be available? I really want to get a signed/sketched copy, but I’m unemployed at the moment so I want to know whether I should splurge a little or hold out and see if I can find a summer job first. XD
(also is there a way to request who gets sketched or are you just going to kind of randomly be picking characters? ‘cos I love Pinter, heheh. <3)
For preorders, they’ll probably be up until July sometime! Which is when we’re expecting the first shipment to come in.
For sketches, I actually have no idea how thats going to work XD My publisher is going to send me a box of stuff to sketch and sign, and I am not sure if they will be ready to mail at that point… If I do end up not knowing which character I am drawing for whom and you don’t get a Pinter, the alternative is to find me at some con and force me to draw Pinters all over things, which I will happily do :B
It is going to be SO HARD not to let slip to my kids that I’ve ordered them the sketch copies between now and when they arrive.
Hopefully the books will get here before they head back to college. If they don’t, well, I’ll just have to read them before sending them along. :)
Both of them. A good story, well told, bears re-reading.
In the meantime, I’m going to have to clear the smell of roasted flesh and burnt hair out of my imagination.
Thanks for answering! <3 Okay, July, that gives me a little while. I-I hope. D:
Haha, will do! I really want to get to a con someday, they're just expensive and blah, but if I ever figure out a way to pull it off I will definitely come and get you to draw on stuff for me! XD
Oh Luca….
I feel like there should be a steaming or sizzling noise in the last two panels.
Well that was creepier than I had expected. Perfect.
Hahaha, the third degree… I GET IT.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, amazing!
jfdlkasfjsdklfjwait. How’d he do that? D: I missed something hardcore.
I hope he says “flame on” somewhere on the next page. New page looks amazing as usual. I really hope this series is successful for you and you do well with the comic release. I’ve already told all of my friends about this series :)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH holy–
I WAS going to sleep tonight!
That face in the last panel is going to haunt my dreams for a good, long while. o_o
scared……….
WHY WOULD YOU CUTE-IFY DAGRE? WHY!!
Agreed. Cute Dagre frightens me when I know what the true face of the beast is.
And, unfortunately, the 6th panel Luca face. So much for sleeping.
augh holy crap, I definitely saw something vaguely along these lines coming, but refreshing the page and seeing solely those last two panels gave me a mini heart attack D:
Interesting, her hand in the fifth panel is burned as well. So maybe it’s not just Luca’s hands that make people crispy.
I colored it that way since, if I was her, I’d probably be trying to pull his (burning) hands off my face.
HOLY *!@_#*!@_*#_!@&$_!@*(&#$!_@&$%Y&^!_#(%!!!!!!!!
…
…
…
She just got BUUUrrrrnnnt! *ker boom boom, che*
So. Time to get my coffee, cause i don’t want to suffer the nightmares that Lucas face with magic fire-hand-Dagre-power-thingy will inevitably cause.
I am a-scared T_T… I mean… seriously… that ones girls reaction TOTALLY APPROPRIATE
HOMG LUCA AWESOMESAUCE!
Thank you for giving me something unexpectedly great after a really long and otherwise stupid day!
WWwwwaaaaait….
What happened to that ‘Official Investigation’ he was talking about earlier?!
That’s what I’d like to know…
he wants you to forget he ever said that.
haha, he was lying
Ow. Ew. Well, throwing herself at Luca *was* pretty stupid. Out of the gene pool. ;)
At first I thought Tessa was still screaming (and therefore alive) in the second to last panel. Then I realized it must be the remaining woman. It makes sense that she can’t help screaming her head off in fear and horror after what she just saw, but I also think the panel would be less confusing (and way more ominous) if there was a silent pause first… all that screaming from Tessa, and then creepy, creepy silence.
But man, Luca looks disturbing in that last panel.
The first allusion to Luca’s burnination ability was in the penultimate panel of first page of this chapter: Luca’s left hand turned red.
Love Luca’s crazy-grimace.
Immolation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Off the puns, it seems Luca has graduated from the William Bryant, Francis May, George Pullman all-stars, passing J. Edgar Hoover along the way, and is now scheduled for a Joseph Stalin Celebrity Makeover. Queue the massacres.
loll Unfortunately the ambassadors weren’t able to avoid a conflagration with the Emperor
Yeah. The nation’s hope for peaceful resolution just went down in flames.
(Oh God, I’m so sorry, I just can’t stop…)
Man, this is getting pretty good. Luca’s personality totally changed.
Keep up the good work!
Haha, actually it hasn’t changed. Phe was just good at keeping him from doing impulsive and stupid things like this.
Oh my.
I am the only person to say so, I believe, but I find Luca’s face in panel six…hilarious. It just looks so…strange.
A sight for sore eyes?
I’ll never get off the puns. Ever.
i second that!
Oh my God this is the best Webcomic I’ve ever read.
I KNEW IT. lol
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH Is right, lady.
Gosh, I didn’t expect that.
I totally did.
I did…How could you not?
I was being sarcastic XD
He conducts heat from his hands, his sleeves are burning and curling back D: Angora directs the growth of plants, Luca seems to conduct heat. Holy shit.
So I was listening to one of my favorite artists’s first new single in 16 years, and had to stop it just to read this page a few times over. Damn.
Damn. DAMN! Has been a long time since a comic did that for me, if ever…shocking.
Apart from that, hope that Tesa has somehow survived this one, as a horribly scarred (the weave, the weave ^^!) reminder to the queen. To test whether she really wants the peace to last despite this provocation…
Damn.
See Tesa, that happens when you hug the crazy emperor! D:
Will there be a Luca plushie available?
Luca plushie would be a fire hazard, no?
It would be self-igniting! XD
Luca is so HOT!
Luca plushie will sit in the corner…
Alright, here’s how I see it so far:
(Keep in mind that I have NOT read the sketch version, and that everything here is pure speculation and observation)
Dagre, brother to Angora’s grandfather Mocheril, is hellbent on destroying humanity. His motives are unknown, but for whatever reason he seems to be unable to do it on his own, or at the very least prefers to stay behind the scenes as his plans come to fruition.
Hence why he’s chosen Luca here to be his puppet. Luca is already paranoid and borderline insane from all his fighting and trauma from his younger years, with his wife being the only thing keeping him from completely losing it. Dagre knows that Luca is powerful, and will not hesitate to start a war with the right provocation.
SO, Dagre kills Phe, knowing that Luca will immediately lash out and blame the ambassadors, regardless of the fact whether they actually did it or not. Without Phe to guide him and keep him in check, Luca will start a war that’s very likely to bring about the end of humanity, or at least be the first domino in a chain of events that will lead to that result.
Angora was told to go to the center and find a “woman who cries, but sheds no tears”, who I’m assuming will be Soli, the third and final major character who has yet to be introduced. Somehow, these two (along with Pinter who is assisting Angora) are supposed to stop Dagre (and, in effect, Luca) from destroying mankind.
One other thing I’ve noticed is that so far two of the major characters seem to have some sort of pseudo control over the elements. Angora over the Earth, and Luca over Fire (I’m assuming those are heat waves coming from his hands, and that he roasted that ambassador’s head). This leads me to believe that Soli will be somehow in control of either Water or Air, though I’m placing my money on the latter.
How this will all come together, I have no idea. But judging form the already masterful story so far, its going to be epic.
i like you.
“woman who cries, but sheds no tears”
Like you I haven’t read any of the draft. I suspect this ambassador is dead, but if she somehow survives then she’s a clear candidate to be said woman.
I’m pretty sure the women who cries but sheds no tears is Soli not this ambassador.
Well put.
> woman who cries, but sheds no tears
I think we have a candidate here.
I agree with Jimmy, and add that you are a very nice person. :)
And maybe Pinter has some sort of power since he has a sort of part in the prophecy: “The lost one will know the way” but that he doesn’t know it yet. o_o
… Excuse the double-post. I also noticed how Tesa’s hands are burned as well: maybe Luca’s hands aren’t the only thing radiating fire thus heat. Either that or she tried to grab his hands in a rush of panic-y ingeniousness.
Thank you! Cause man, holy @#%^ I was lost.
I was wondering WTF was up w/ his fingers in earlier panels. I’d assumed he’d been tortured and he was scarred from the war(s).
It seems to be implied that Mocheril gave Angora her abilities (as evidenced by the fact that her hair didn’t always have plants growing in it), and it looks like Luca’s sudden display of power here is a result of Dagre’s influence. If Soli has elemental powers at well, I wonder what enormous spectral animal she identifies with.
(I haven’t read the sketch version, either.)
Soli must be able to control air, for she has a blue line (tear) on her face xD
HOLY BEJEZUS… LUCA CAN DO SOME SCARY SHIT.
Oh, my, gosh. That was unexpected, again.
…so that’s how those hands work. huh. O_o
On a positive note, this page will haunt me forever, and his expression in the last panel is ridiculously well done. I don’t think I’ve quite seen a face of mixed emotion that well executed, especially considering how calm he was in the first panel. It’s one of those things that make this comic stick strong in my head, in a league of it’s own.
….*shivers* <8C
More graphic in the draft. Actually showed the Za-zap. XD
Where is this draft people keep talking about D:
Shit man, unexpected much?
NO HUGS FOR HIM.
As always I feel.. conflicted about this page. Sure, I saw it coming many miles away concerning Dagre and his/its influence but.. I still hate seeing characters I like die.
I’m not talking about the ambassador. It’s not that I didn’t like her, I was a little indifferent since she was so.. marginally competent, and easy enough to freak out (as most sane humans would be in such a situation)
No. I liked Phe. I REALLY liked her. I like those stabilizing factors that keep these shadowed characters from tipping over into madness. Which is why they usually die.. and then the characters I like, namely Luca, eat themselves internally until nothing is left. You end up with a villain. A useful enough antagonist because as Dagre knows very well, humans are very easy to manipulate in their grief and pain.
Still. I’m the sort of person who roots for the powers of good.. in /Ravenloft/. So, I keep coming back but.. yeah. I can see where this is going. Hopefullu. I am wrong, but practically spellbound one way or another. I guess it is a wall of text way to say your storytelling is masterful, even if I always take HP damage from unavoidable tragedy by empathizing with characters like Phe and Luca.
So. Short version: Awesome. Great page. Crispy crackers.
That worried eye in the second panel is super. And I especially like how you decided to draw the third one, great shot indeed. To see what’s happening from other people’s reaction is better than looking at the fact itself :P
You want to know what’s really fucked up? I just happened to check for an update here/read this comic while listening to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coivftr6sNY
OOOOWNED!
This page. GAH. This page. Impact, you have made it.
For some reason, the detail that his nose is wrinkled and his mouth curled back is so striking. It shows that the dead body is stinking, and that he’s recoiling from the scent, but not enough to stop being a crazy and terrifying madman for even an instant.
Luca Toasterhands. Unexpected.
Tiger, tiger, burning bright?
Well.
Hadoken.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! *gasp* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! *gasp gasp* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
This genuinely horrified me. Luca, no!
Um, holy shit.
That is all.
oh my gosh O.O
Oh god….Luca you stupid b******d what have you done?
This will bring war there is no stopping that now killing one of the queens cousins when you have no proof what so ever, to back up your actions. These two could have been innocent from the start which makes his actions even worse I feel that Luca has just taking the first step, the horrible one that turns man in to a dictator.
As a side note I feel sorry for the now dead Ambassador her fears were well founded, I just don’t think even she saw this coming because I sure as hell didn’t….
Duuuude.
Sweet.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
He looks like The Groke in the last panel. Seriously. Childhood nightmares O.O
I KNEW SOMETHING BAD WOULD HAPPEN!
It’s also interesting to find out that Luca has some form of fire elemental powers.
And as the person above has explained, perhaps our third piece to the puzzle will have some form of water or air powers.
But MY question is where do these powers come from?
It’s easy to assume that Angora got her powers from Mocheril and Luca got his powers from Dagre.
Mocheril represents life, so control of plant life makes sense and fire represents destruction which makes sense for Dagre who craves destruction.
So, what if there’s a third party?
Another spirit.
Perhaps one that is in the gray area just as Soli currently is.
Can’t wait to see her Chapter.
Should the first line be “That wasn’t wise” rather than “That was wise” ?
Tesa says “I was so worried!”
Luca says “That was wise” (as in, it was wise to be worried) (emphasis, perhaps, on “was”)
I cant think if a day when microvave hands would cease to be usefull :D
Cooking, working in the shop, heating drinks, self-defence, breaking the ice at coctail parties, starting fires, putting out fires, negotiating, there’s realy a use for every occasion :)
*looks at last panel*
…
*clings to ceiling in terror* D:
AHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK!?!?
Best reaction ever!
But is she DEAD?
Yes. Her brains were cooked by Luca’s toaster hands.
OMG.
I-I don’t think she’s dead. Just badly burnt. She appears to be screaming as she falls. Unless that’s just me.
I think that’s Lethy screaming in the 2nd to last panel.
I think it goes from Tesa screaming to Lethy screaming in a continuous AAAAAAH from a panel to the other.
He’ll refrain from jumping to any conclusions… but he’ll also hard-boil one of their heads without provocation. I don’t think he cares who killed who anymore. He just wants to _hurt somebody_. That, I think, makes him very, very, very dangerous…
Yeah, dunno what happened to not jumping to conclusions….
She pushed him to fry her, I think, because he was already trying very hard not to.
Hence the “That was wise.”
I think.
Either that, or the prior page was a cruel set-up for this one, and he intended to kill one and send the other back to the Queen with the news from the start.
…..
Ooookay, I did NOT see that one coming! Love the expression of terror from the other ambassador lady. That’s some great body language!
I want to be freaked out by this dramatic page, but your “third degree” pun is making me laugh too much :D
Those hands are gonna come in handy when the iron’s broken and he needs a suit pressed.
Lol’d.
Win. XD
Glad I read the comments below!! Dummie me couldn’t figure out what was up with Luca’s hands and clothes in the last panel after thinking that he’d only gouged her eyes out?! lol!! This is waaaay more awesome!!
Oh god that last panel. It’s like Luca’s channelling the Groke or something. *hides*
First thought upon the last panel:
“In Pasori culture, toothy smiling does not connote good humor.
Now, who wants another hug?”
Hm… I wonder why he went to the trouble of fibbing to them before killing one of them. I mean, I understand lulling them into a false sense of security, but he had the upper hand, so I don’t understand his reasoning for doing so. Still, awesome page… Can’t help but feel sorry for the ditsy ambassador though.
For all we know, he wasn’t fibbing. That’s what makes it worse.
He may very well have been telling the truth about not believing that they were responsible for Phe’s death– he just conveniently left out the fact that he no longer CARES who did it.
> I wonder why he went to the trouble of fibbing to them before killing one of them
Make her suffer more when she realizes?
Show he’s mad enough to make an innocent suffer?
Revenge against the universe for killing Phe, another innocent?
Do something evil he won’t be able to come back from, choose allegiance to Dagre?
Haha, part of me thinks it was just easier to grab one of them that way XD He does have a bad leg, after all.
Silvermoonlight:
while they may have been innocent of any wrongdoing, in most cultures there are consequences if you just run up and give the emperor/king/ruler a hug.
His expression in the last panel reminds me very, very strongly of Dagre’s face.
I wonder if he had a more direct hand in what Luca’s done than goading him into it.
Luca bad.
Dagre plushie needs more Evil. Has very very little Evil. Like a Bugs Bunny toy with no ears, really.
Tesa. ;-; Oh please let Lethy live, at least I get that impression from this page.
I can see Luca making this a ‘run and tell your queen how crazy I am’ situation.
He’s totally lost his shit, now. I can’t say I blame him, since the only thing keeping him from going crazy is gone.
Still haven’t lost any of it’s impact, even though I knew it was coming.
Awesome.
:O omg
AAAAAAEERGGH..
There are no words
O_o Yeah… except maybe, the f#ck?!
My boyfriend was just all triumphant and like, “See? He’s not crazy!” Ha. I win.
woah D:
I couldn’t, under any circumstances, expect such a turn of events. Wow °___°
I think he tried hard to stay calm and reasonably, but getting touched by someone he didn’t want to be near him (only Phe is allowed to come near him :D) just turned off or on some switch … brain off, insanity on. whatever.
This cold (lol so much heat, but cold) lunatic way of handling things ist really really scary :<
is the "that was wise" sarcastic? maybe I didn't get some important point there :/
the third and the last panel are gorgeous! shivers down my spine :9 goosebumps, I love this comic!
btw… is it also possible to get one of those prints send to Austria? (not Australia)
“That was wise” refers to her saying “I was worried,”
not her foolishly running into Luca’s arms.
“I was so worried!”
“That was wise.”
thank you both :D stupid me, couldn’t connect those two sentences by myself :’D
now it makes perfectly sense! :D (or .. not o_O; Luca!!!! ó_ò What have you done!!! ;__;)
Now I can hear PHE’S facepalm from here.
Dammit Luca, you just lost the game. :C
All I could do was *u*
HOLY SHIT
NIGHTMARE FUEL AT LAST TWO PANELS.
Did he like…MELT HER FACE?! WITH HIS HANDS?! O_O
I MUST READ MORE!
That’s what I’m wondering about too!! ‘Cause he has fuckin’ steam coming out of them??
It looks like the sheer heat coming from his hands is causing the air around it to warp a bit. Aughhh terrifying!
Yeah, I’m just lost and freaking out at this point.
Still having fun, though. :)
……wow thats epic….SO using that in D&D or any chance i get emperor that has strange burning hands……..i think thay burn any ways but that look…..priceless on bolth thare faces.
Luca is hooooooot. ;)
I knew Luca wasn’t going to be nice, but I did not guess that he was going to cook that ambassador’s face. :o
Also, Luca reminds me of Sweeney Todd in the last panel.
?
Whoops failed html…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v32/nondecaf/lucadeecopy.jpg ???
*snort* That me LOL.
lolll oh god
XDDDDD
I WOULD NEVER, EVER EAT THOSE MEATBALLS.
Lol :’D
Well, that explains Tesa’s new ravioli face.
I had to do it. Just was too tempting. X3
Haha, wow. Pasori cuisine has probably seen better days…
WIN.
Is it bad that I would probably buy those? Who could resist that deranged face?
That’s just pure awesome right there.
I really do feel like I am missing something. The first chapter felt kind of introductiony… but this second one is just bizzare. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but it is going so slowly, I wish I understood more of how this related to some random naked woman in the forest. Kudos though, for making me this interested.
Why three years?
I drew the rough version of this chapter in May-June 2007.
Chapters 1-3 are introductory in their own ways! The story is three arcs, so each of the three arcs needs their own beginning… you’ll find out the relations as the story progresses :)
ZOMG That was totally hard core!
I wonder if Phe had known about Lucas’ heat powers? How long has Lucas been hoarding his powers, or was it just RECENTLY given to him by Dagre? :S
I think it was known that he had powers- when he sees the embassadors for the first time and says ‘What are you hear for” He has his hand out to silence the introduction guy and the guard is like, staring at his hand like ‘Oh noes’ lol. Maybe thats how he rules, with the fear of his power.
But then wouldn’t Phe have burned when she touched him AND put his hand to her cheek a while ago?
I’m pretty sure he can decide when its used…
I think you’re right.
I think he did. Isn’t that why she said “Stop it, you’re hurting me” when he has his hands on her? It just wasn’t as dramatic a display.
My guess is that his emotions touch it off–either he’s pissed and giving Phe a heat rash or he’s batshit psycho and melting Tesa’s eyeballs.
Nah, I meant when she was all “My emperor” like. (:
But you’re probably right about the emotions thing.
Oh Tesa that was totally a bad id-
what.
WHAT.
WHAHHAAT.
OH GOD.
AAAAAAAAAA
I hope she’s alright >.>
No, I’m pretty sure her brain got baked. =/ Along with most of her face.
:O
omg
and now I feel bad :C
I think I’m having nightmares tonight.
Well, looks like I got what I wanted |D Nightmare fuel and all.
Is that Lethy or Tesa screaming in the last panel? It seems a little bit unclear, what with Tesa looking kind of dead but Lethy having her hands over her mouth.
It was Lethy.
I don’t think Tesa is in any shape to be screaming :I
I be confused. Is that the reason why he always wore gloves? So he wouldn’t burn everything he touched? I thought it was because his hands were somewhat disfigured so he wore gloves……does this count as the disfigurement?
He does wear the gloves because his fingers were once broken during torture (as far as I remember). The gloves are no protection against burning – there are serveral scenes (notably the bed scene) where he doesn’t wear them and nothing happens.
The burning power seems to be something that activates when he’s in extreme distress (similar to Angora’s power). He also might have some control over it, but I can’t really tell yet.
The gloves in this scene and before were just a really neat indicator for power activation. :-)
OMG. That’s even more morbid than dead Phe’s panel! O_O I’m shocked.
….Dagre should not look that cute…and okay, he’s got acid/burning hands, don’t shake whatever you do!
HARDCORE! D:
We’ve gone from the adorable cuteness of Angora to Luca melting people’s faces with his hands.
OMG HIS FACE.
HIS FAAAAAACE!! D:
This comic is so effing cool.
oh my god! you are a genious! i know i say how awesome you are at every page but wow! i love this part of the story! honestly i like it more than chapter one! i’m going to be sad when it’s over :(
Holee shit O.O
Question: What would Luca have done if Tesa wasn’t the idiot she was and did not go all “huggy huggy” on Luca ?
JENGA
That explains EVERYTHING.
And subsequently nothing.
this panel is smokin’
So I recently got into this comic because I saw a friend’s Ceiling Dagre wallpaper and was like “WTF IS THAT MELTING TIGER THING, IT’S TERRIFYING and yet somehow adorable?” and now i am hardcore addicted. awesome.
can’t wait for more nightmare fuel. awwwww yeah.
Why does Luca remind me so much of a monkey in the last panel!! : D
Okaaaaay…
I was expecting it but… but… woah. Just…. woah. XD
In that last panel he looks alot like Dagre. The wild, lidless eyes, his nose all snarled, even his mouth has more outline then normal so it looks kinda of preditory. Cool
Thank god his tongue is not hanging out :P
Oh heavens Luca… what have you done.
(I haven’t realised this before, but Tesa is related to the queen of Caris, isn’t she?
Which might be the reason for Luca to kill her and not Lethy.)
This is BAD
Good memory :) She’s her cousin.
The queen of Caris is NOT AMUSED.
I just kind of assumed that what happened was Luca did the thumbs vs. eyes in the sockets dealie, but now it’s looking like he has some kind of burning palm technique. I had thought the smoke was some kinda artistic choice, like “check it out he just punched a lady’s eyes into her brains *smoooooke*”.
I laughed pretty hard when I read this.
Dude, ROFL. Great choice of wording. I lol’d pretty hard just now.
AWHYISSSS NEGOTIATE THAT BEEYOTCHES. Holy geez her eye’s like burned out isn’t it, the resolution is dark on this monitor I couldn’t tell for sure.
I didn’t think you could make him look any more scarier and then that last panel showed up and proved me wrong. Awe-Sum. I seriously punched the air…then it punched me back
Also I’m very sad at the lack of buckteefs in this page prime opportunity to put them in tch tch Alexds
He was wearing his dentures at dinner. Given that he hasn’t changed out of his bloody Dagre-gnawed clothes, it follows that he still has them in.
Welp commenting again because I just noticed that the metal band around her head heats up so hot that it burns into her scalp. AAAAAAaagod I love this comic D:
oh my gosh. i stared at this page for a good ten minutes with a “OMG” face.
this is brilliant and totally scary
I have a suggestion for the stuffed Dagre but don’t have a LJ account so I thought I’d post it here. If you really want to give him his long neck, you could try having rice or beans in his bottom. I have a stuffed Tramp dog that sits up, even though he is tall, because there are beans in his caboose. Even not being the authentic design, he is still creepily cute. :)
And to be the 1,025 person to say it – I love this comic and you are awesome!
I was thinking about that for the neck XD But then he might be too heavy to stand, or would need to be balanced on his butt which would make him heavier to ship :
Fill with yo
Fill with your own beans? And he could have a (spring? wire?) coil neck so you could stretch it out or tuck it in…
HMMM, production costs just doubled!
I was going to say “And he could talk…” but HELL NO. Last thing I need is some creepy song coming from a long-necked plushy Dagre. Furby fear all over again.
OMG… He’s scary…
Great job!
HOW did he do this? Does he have super-burning-powers in his hands or what?
Wait a minute.. Lethy is a girl too? Gee, I always thought she was a guy and he and Tesa were some kind of couple or something O.o
Luca did mention a while back that they were both female ambassadors….xD
Well.. Okay. I’ll at least know it for the future :D
I love Luca’s expression in the first panel.. it’s so.. “silly ambassador, hugs are for my dead wife!”
BURN’D
Also, nightmares. ;_;
D8
Super special awesome plot-twist!!
That was just epic. I LOVE The Meek so much! O_o
Uhnnnn D. this turned out SO FREAKING GOOD!
Well worth the wait!
its okay he’s just giving her a facelift
….
by burning off the top layers
Face melting. This is by far the most metal comic I’ve ever seen o_o.
he looks a bit like sherlock holms ( with the hair) in the last panel lol…
AAAAAAAA Deathbending
O.O
… I don’t want to give Luca a hug anymore …
O.O
FACE MELTING, I CALLED IT! and why did he say “that was wise” at the beginning, was he being sarcastic?
If you read the previous chapter, she hugged him and said “I was so worried!” So, he’s replying to her comment. He meant that it was wised to be worried.
I thought it was just sarcastic to her action of jumping into his arms. Awwwesome page though. Die, beyatch! =w=
Eewwwww, that reminds me of Indiana Jones…. O_O
Crazy Luca.
Holy geez, Luca. O_O
Luca! I thought you were just a normal supreme dictator! But now I know you were are a crazy supreme dictator with SUPER POWERS D:
I think Dagre possessed him or something. But your theory works too.
if you look at the page where he yells at everyone to leave he’s burned his gloves off before Dagre Appears
Naw, if Dagre possessed him, he’d be talking in that weird way Dagre does.
Look at the last panel, though. The two speech bubbles are rendered with very slight differences, and the one on the left conveniently only has one-syllable words. It could be that Dagre speaks, and then Luca finishes the sentence.
I think that he was going to defy Dagre,decretly after promising otherwise, but when Dagre saw the betrayal, he took him over. Luca probably doesn’t have superpowers, unless that is what happened to his hands in the war, and he cannot control it well.
But Dagre’s speech bubbles are really unstable-looking, symbolizing how ghastly his voice is. If he possessed Luca, wouldn’t he be talking the same way? Besides, from what we’ve seen so far, it’s very easy to tell that Luca’s vengeful heart is wide-open to manipulation. I don’t think Dagre would NEED to possess him.
You know I really don’t understand…oddly I’m ok with that.
That’s pretty freakin’ bad ass that Luca can melt you GOD DAMN FACE OFF! Ha ha I think its kewl too that his red gloves are kinda symbolic of his hot hands.
Luca is one crazy-ass mofo bro, yo.
wait…what…?
FFFFfff…
I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting that but it scared the crap out of me.
He looks like he was electrecuted :U
Aha! That explains the gloves slowly crumbling away! Glad that mystery was solved. C:
Three years, eh? Good job finally getting here. :D
Jeez, now you can really tell he’s gone mad (the messy hair is a very good sign of a mad-man). She better get out of there quick or he might change his mind and fry her, too.
It’s interesting how now his gloves are almost completely gone, as well as part of his sleeves. Did he use more energy this time? …I wonder if he’s ever tried to make popcorn with his powers before…? If they even have popcorn there.
Not my Tessa-coconut!! :,(
This is my first time commenting…
JEZUS TESA WHAT WERE YOU THINKING D:
this is such an awesome comic
Luca: Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
Yes, Luca is now evil incarnate.
Pre-order placed!!! woohoo! cant wait! :)
I love how you have burn marks on her hands too, she at least tried to defend herself a little before dying. I love the little details.
You know I’ve been following this for awhile now but never really felt compelled to comment (bad reader, I know), but after this page my jaw literally dropped. this was so powerfully scary, amazing, crazy good!!! I was loving Luca, the poor confused oaf, but now I’m scared to death of him.
I bow to your awesomeness. ^^ I so wish I had money to buy the comic. :'(
JESUS CHRIST!!! His FACE! His… FACE!!! Augggh, I have chills! *shudder*
holy crap does Luca have powers? It looks like Ted Spraigue’s ability in the first season of Heroes.
Wow. I sorta saw this coming, but damn.
Kudos for being brave enough to kill off your characters. She was so well developed for having such a brief appearance.
Epic! Beautiful how you did Luca in that last panel. I can almost feel the heat coming off of his hands.
Oh man, that Dagre plushie is as cute as it gets. You have to keep the glowing eyes idea!! I love it too much XD Man, that’d be creepy to have those giant round disks staring at me every night…
Anyway, it took me hours to get myself together enough to say something. I totally saw this coming, but… not like this. You still created such an insanely great impact. Your comic is FEARLESS! Chapter one had a naked lady running around with men trying to rape her, and this chapter has fairly graphic depictions of horrible ways to die. One of my favorite lessons from Stephen King’s /On Writing/ novel—tell the truth in what happens in your story, the things your characters do and say no matter how vulgar it is. It seems you take that to heart as well, because even though this is all fantasy and would never happen in real life, what you’re telling is believable. Angora’s actions are real enough for us to have faith in her while Dagre’s motives and Luca’s actions are terrifying enough to leave us with nightmares. I can’t wait for Soli’s story!
And uh… I don’t think there are enough words to express how amazing The Meek is. I love it so much! It’s given me so much inspiration! I hope I can have as much success in story writing when I start my comic.
oh, at first i thought he was gouging tesa’s eyes out but that doesn’t make any sense ffff.
Okay, so, was Luca totally joking the page before this one? Or when Tesa just rushed to hug him he was like youuknowwhatIMSICKOFYOURSHIT
And is she dead? Cause just because you burn someone’s face that doesn’t mean you kill her… unless he melted her brain or something.
If he’s radiating enough head from his hands to melt someone’s flesh in a few seconds, he’s probably radiating enough to flash fry someone’s brain. That’s just assuming he attacked using heat, it could easily have been a strong electrical arc, or some kind of magic that leaves what appears to be burn wounds as a secondary effect. I’m sure it’ll turn out to be something much more awesome/horrific than simple heat or fire.
It is a bit more specific than simply heat XD I’ll get into it later.
Yeah, figured you hadn’t simplified it since the draft version. Speaking of which, nice move not showing the actual freaky magic here, that can really increase the impact when we eventually do see it.
Also oh god Luca’s crazy face.
Yeah, he was lying. He’s not a very nice person, huh!
And also yes she is dead :u
Wait, wait, you’re making an adorable plush toy of the evil tiger entity?
Hmm. Interesting. Anyway, this page is really good. Freaky. But good.
Love the Dagre plushie – I’d probably preorder one, but my college friends and I really want a large poster to buy.
I-i-i-i-i…
I’m scared mommy hold me.
OH.MY.GOD. I was shivering. SHIVERING. Amazing!
Wow, chaos has broken loose, how will this all effect the characters in previous chapters, I wonder?
And haha that’s awesome! I’m glad you’re doing plushies after all! I find Dagre to be terrifying, but he looks adorable here!
I personally feel that Luca’s powers may be a manifestation of destruction, seeing as how he is tied Dagre (who need I remind you, wants to destroy everything). This would be a direct counterpart to Angora who is tied to grandfather-salamander, with the powers of growth.
Death by disintegration through nuclear fission!
Anyway for some reason I always liked the other woman anyway, maybe Tesa was created slightly annoying to lessen the impact of killing her off.
Oh, apparently decaying creates heat, so that’d be more logical than ZOMG Nuclear Fission!
Well, the signed and sketched books be available for another week? I hope so, really bad. I’ll get your book for sure. I also can’t wait for the Dagre plushy. Luca looks like he could use a hug too, but I’ll just have to give my hugs to the Dagre plush instead.
and OMG why is Phe dead?! We just learned of her awesomeness.
Hmmm poison on his hands perhaps? But his hands are bare… hmmmm so confusing!
I like the Dagre super power theory people are throwing around. XDXD
oh lordie that face. Miracle I could sleep last night.
…On an unrelated note, after browsing the wiki, I must ask–at this current point, what season is it? Also, if it’s not snooping around too much, will the comic span a short amount of time–a few weeks, in-world–or several months/years?
That’s one of the edits that I’m putting into the comic, each of the chapters starts out on a date. Right now is in June, I think (you can check Phe’s page on the wiki since I updated it with her specific death date).
Awesome, thanks. :) And thus, the epileptic tree theories begin…
Question!
Why is her hand burnt if he was gripping her face? Or is this a kind of hint at what exactly Luca’s mysterious “more specific than just heat” power is? (some kind of electricity perhapsss?)
She was probably trying to pull him off! Which would have given her a burn…
I’m guessing she was trying to pry his hands off before she… uh… well died. I know I would try and get his hands off in a panic D8
What did he actually do to her?
Wait and find out!
That last panel… maybe he just wants a hug…
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!11
Fastest, sharpest psyche-out I’ve read in a while.
“Dagre, I will do the evil stuff you say I need to do”
“Ladies, today is a sad day, but I’m going to be reasonable here”
“Burn and die!”
Beware the man who hates in the name of love..
:/ he’s not crazy, just heartbroken.
Your furball is awesome in his evilness, but I still don’t like him >.>;
I want to know how he killed Phe Dx
I don’t even know what to say… O_O
but that’s different.
I think the heat rippling and smoke just make it more disturbing and creepy. Well done with that aspect. o.o
I’m gonna be seeing that last panel in my dreams tonight D:
Also, the Dagre plush is nearly perfect…the only thing it’s missing are the ‘eyebrow’ markings that give him that earnest, concerned look.
I WANT THE PLUSHIE
Gentlemen, I believe we have ourselves a main villain.
That’s more like the Luca we all know and love!
Also, Dagre plushie = <3333333333
I’ve been waiting to see this page in full color since I first saw those chapter pencils! Tesa’s body now is even scarier than the charred looking corpse from before D:
OH
OH
does this explain his melty hand thing before when he was all “LEAVE” a few pages back?
luca is a badass mofo FO SHO
but in seriousness this is great, unf
Yes it does XD And a couple other small details in the rest of the chapter.
ohmygodahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
MAGIC HANDS!
the shark, it has been jumped.
Just imagine luca in the last panel just saying “Hey. Sup.”
god i lolled
Whhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?????
I love the plushie! I’d buy it in a second, I think you should make his neck longer, it’s what makes him so unique and frightening.
This is my favorite online comic. Keep up the wonderful work!!
Gotta admit, I’m now trying super-hard to figure out just what is going on in Luca’s head. Awesome.
Also that last panel is just one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. The face, the context, the dialogue, the hands, everything.
Not to be critical because I LOVE the comic…
Just wondering if from this chapter on the comic will be a lot darker or if it will occasionally swing back toward that of Chapter One?
I feel like I need a hug after each one of these last couple of pages. :P
PS – I’d buy the plushy Dagre only if you promised a giant lizard plushy too!
you mean Mocheril
Yiahhhh! Plushy Mocheril for sure! ^_^
I second the vote for a plushy Mocheril!
It’s sort of an average between the two XD
Well, remember that a big chunk of chapter 1 was a gang of violent workers trying to chase down and rape an innocent girl, and then trying to brutally scar the guy who they think got to hit it first.
But then Angora did kick them in the nuts WITH NATURE, which is a decidedly more cheerful resolution than this chapter’s, so far :)
Rape?! RAPE?! I thought they wanted to play a game of Hungry Hungry Hippo!!
I NEED MORE HUGS!!!
is it mean that i think she totally deserved that o_o she was rather annoying
but it’s unclear to me what the king did, did he gorge out her eyeballs, squash her skull or what?
It looks like it was the eyeballs to me.
Wait, never mind, it looks like there’s something weird about his hands…almost like they’re smoking/steaming. Maybe he burned her face somehow?
He burnt her. With his hands.
OH MY GOD LUCA IS TOTALLY FUCKING CRAZY.
You have this impressive ability to make something completely unexpected happen on every page. Keep it up; this comic is amazing!
I would totally buy a Dagre plushie! :D It’s far too cute not to!
Oh, and Luca has officially gone batshit crazy, it’s freaking me out.
Look at the eyes… methinks he may be possessed by a Dagre…
Hot Hands? Methinks Hot hands!
I saw the last panel on your DA and it reminded me to come back and check on the comic. I tend to read it in chunks, waiting for each individual page is agonizing XD
TESA: You’re mad!
LUCA: Thank goodness for that, because if I wasn’t, this would probably never work.
*HEADSQUISH*
Holy dang… this sums up the best of three years. Keep up the amazing work!
Whaaa?! That was crazy! It looks like Luca has some crazy powers. I wonder if Dagre is like Adnora’s spirit guardian/father creature and they are both granted powers through their respective connections.
My thought process as I read this page: Aww how nice, he’s giving Tesa a hug– OH MY GOD WTFFFFFF
Well.
At least he didn’t drink your blood, Tesa.
Though I saw Tesa’s death coming 2 pages ago, at first I thought he had clawed out her eyes and I was very disturbed.
Then I realized he had MICROWAVE hands…
…am I any less disturbed? I’m not sure.
That was so freaking scary! The last panel is crazy!
OH MY GOD
I just realized there is smoke coming out of smoldering holes IN TESA’S SKULL. AAAAAAAAAH IS TOTALLY RIGHT.
Man I hope Lethy winds up without her brain fried, I like her. :C Though my favorite character always dies so… poor Lethy.
Haha, actually its part of her hair that caught on fire. Thats… thats better right?
I dunno, burnt hair smells pretty narsty.
… which could go some way toward explaining Luca’s expression in that last panel.
MUCH BETTER.
Shouldn’t let my imagination run away from me.
You owe me for therapy, man. D:>
Wait, he burned her hand too?
Weren’t both of his hands on her face?
Or did she grab at her face as it burned? …yeah, that would make sense
This is looking at the 5th panel
I think she probably grabbed his hands to try to pull them off (or just did it on reflex, either way). Since his hands were made of burning at the time, they burned her hands. You’ll notice they also burned the cuffs of his sleeves.
friiiig mah bro you are incredible.
so creepy, so good!
A man that hates in the name of love.
Well that explains one thing Mocheril said. :D
Woah, Luca’s scary now. Possessed, much? I figured she’d force him to break by being so emotional. Never expected it to happen this abruptly… or for Luca to have such strange powers. His hand no longer looks burnt either… but on the contrary, his hands are burning everything. I love how his face at the end parallels Dagre’s expression.
That has got to be the most frightening face I’ve EVER seen.
Oh dear, bye bye face :O
Man, Luca would just ruin the hell out of ‘Hot Potato’.
YES.
Oh YES.
I love how your comic is so tastefully violent and brutal (if there was ever such a thing). Is there any particular reason I see Frankenstien in the last panel?
Been reading since maybe a few pages into the color version, and now I finally get all the “Luca is hot!” comments that have been going on all along. haha (and …eep!) this also brings a whole new, way sinister and disturbing meaning to the banner art for the chapter. o.O
Wait, the banner art changes for each chapter? I only started reading when Chapter 2 went online, so I didn’t realise that. Where can we see banner for Chapter 1? Please…?
Man, I would totally kill to have Luca’s expression in last panel for the picture on my Drivers’ License.
Luca, in the last panel, is creepy enough to give Dagre a run for his money. The crazy eyes are worse on Luca because we know him, we’ve seen his emotional ups and downs over the past chapter, we’ve developed certain expectations of him as a character — and he just completely shattered them.
I think I may have nightmares of that face.
When i saw the last panel the quiznoes marketing slogan came to mind “mm mm mm! toasty” and it was disturbing.
Oh Tesa, didn’t your mom ever teach you it’s impolite to hug the emperor D:
I think this now has to be my second favourite panel of the whole thing- the first is and probably always will be ‘Dagre, look what they did…’ Made me tear right up, that one did.
Also, I can’t comment on Livejournal for some reason but I will DEFINITELY TAKE A DAGRE- preferably a real one if possible :D
Will they be squishy plushies or firmer plushies??
Gotta admit, I always knew he was hot but this is ridiculous!
http://instantrimshot.com/
Next time you’re at a party and you get accused of murdering the host’s wife, be sure to wear fireproof mascara. Especially if said host is in cahoots with a certain edldrich daemon tiger.
You’d think as an ambassador, you’d learn these things.
There must have been some funding cuts at Ambassador School between when Lethy went and when Tesa did.
Man,
I love that last panel so much. The effects are wonderful.
It looks so much like its
very hot.
I’m just really curious as to how Luca’s ‘power’ works and what it is exactly.
Angora has the power to create (or at least stimulate) life, and Luca can use the power of RAGE PHEROMONES to put down dem h– er, ambassadors. They’re roughly opposites then and that is badass.
Wow Luca. This means war!! :D
last panel is just incredible. Shows Luca’s emotions perfectly!
Wait. Wait. Are Luca’s hands radiating heat? Is that why his gloves kept disintegrating? So he just burned the ambassador’s face off?
I can see why you were so excited to publish this page. So many questions!
Could I name this chapter for you?
Chapter Two: In which many interesting women die freaky deaths
~or~
the batshit insanity of emperor Luca and his adorable pet tiger-dragon-whatsits, Dagre.
*chapter-naming is an art! so is your comic! :3
Actually, I think that second title should go:
The adorable pet tiger-dragon-whatsits, Dagre, and the batshit insanity of his pet emperor Luca.
I stand corrected. *bows*
PFFFTTT that was a tad rude, Luca. Facemelting a poor, clueless and naive ambassador. But we still love you. <3
Also… Dagre plush?! 8'D I'd so buy one! But I'd also LOVE a Mocheril plushie!!<3
THERE IT IS.
Oh, Luca. You *just* combed your hair, now look at it.
It feels like something is missing. Like a sound effect in panel 3-4. Maybe some “Fssss” sound or something. ^^
So he does have heat powers.
Badass.
Oooh, I love how you see his gloves burn a few pages back but you don’t think much past “oh, he has some weird cloth disintegrating power.” And then it leads to FACE MICROWAVE.
Is Tesa just burned and unconscious or is her brain fried too? I’ve only just realised she was still screaming when she fell, but that might be like… death screams.
I think in the last panel with screaming it’s actually the other ambassador that’s screaming – they start to scream together and then it’s just her. Poor Tesa D:
The author responded to someone else’s comment and confirmed that she’s dead.
Also…I agree with you, I thought it was Tesa screaming still when she was on the ground. That was a bit confusing for some reason.
I actually didn’t notice the disintegrating gloves at first, but when I saw the burnt edges of his sleeves in this last page, I went back to see if they were like that earlier, and then I noticed “Oh yeah, and he had gloves a moment ago…”
I want the plush! but I have no livejournal so I can not tell you :(
also I don’t think the queen will be happy.
Anyone else think he was going to snap and snap her neck? Burning her faces was unexpected but cool non the less. Fatality!
Oh, I also like the SARCASM in the first panel. You can totally tell from his face. It’s not overdone, but it’s perfect.
On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. Especially when Dagre and Luca are involved
And that was disturbing, Luca.
I love this. Can’t wait until the next update.
Well, it’s been fun, ambassadors… except it’s actually been a little hellish for you two, hasn’t it?
Can’t wait to see what happens now!
:3 Now he can make instant popcorn not microwave needed.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh dang. Although, I love that first line. Sarcasm for the win XD
Actually, I’m pretty sure he was replying to her comment of; “I was so worried!”.
I could be wrong, though.
i think your right!
You could say he dropped her..
-puts on glasses-
Like she’s hot.
YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH–
Anyway, first time comment here, just want to say the comic is absolutely gorgeous, can’t wait for more c:
I actually burst out laughing at your joke there. XD
I’ve been reading for a while, and never really felt I had a valid enough comment to add except the general “homfuguh, you are teh sex at everything!” Kinda noise I usually reserve for special occasions. I just have to say, I love this comic. I adore Luca, and I’d want to give him a hug if we hadn’t all just seen his reaction to such things. :3
-pulls of glasses-
-says seriously-
I lol’d >: I
Tesa used Hot Flash. It was super effective!
What, like fffff… That is one INTENSE hot flash.
Oh my gosh, when I read that I died laughing XD
The Meek is getting me more excited with every page, can’t wait for the next pages to come! :D
And the Dagre plushie, it’s adorable, I really want one O_O
You’re kind of like my hero right now for that first bit.
;-; … Oh my gosh.
… She just wanted a hug.
… Seriously, man, HUG.
You didn’t have to go and sizzle her to death.
… I’m just so… so… …
o_o
Dagre plushie. <3
All is well.
His wife was just murdered, possibly by one of them, I think its safe to say that he did not want hugs from her.
I XD-ed when he offed her. That, my good people is what you call K-A-R-M-A.
Loved this page :3
She didn’t deserve death! Sure, she was a racist little twat, but it’s not right to kill people for ignorance!
Actually I find that a perfectly good reason to off someone.
Additional thought: I lovve Luca’s hair when he goes NUTS!!! <3 Its was all calm and collected….then POOF.
DUUUUUDE….
I will have nightmares about this. In the mean time “OWNED”. And seriously best quote ever XD! *flails* I can’t wait for the next update!!! OH and super belated congrats on getting picked up by 4DE! You totally deserve it! *hugs*
Wow, overkill much? Then again, Tesa should have seen that coming.
Looks like Luca is really…HEATED, wouldn’t you agree? XD
It’s kind of sad some think Tesa deserved that just for being flaky. It rather overshadows just how monstrous an act it was.
Cheap joking aside, come on. This is so very much the complete opposite of everything Phe would have wanted. Grief isn’t a license to kill, I don’t think HOW he did it has nearly the impact as the fact he actually did it at all.
I feel so sorry for his children. They’re losing BOTH their parents in one swoop. :/
Really? I found it awfully chilling. (No I can’t think of a heat related pun for that feeling.) The fear on her face before he came in, her relief, then that insane expression on his face. I don’t find it funny at all.
(And I’m sure that this is a good thing.)
My feeling exactly.
I am rather curious about the children’s reaction to all this, but I think we will have to wait a little while to see that.
And now, given there are only two pages left, I can’t wait to see Soli’s (the last of the three main charactersof the tsory) introduction ! 8D
Did Luca’s hands catch on fire?
I think he might be Microwave Man.
He gets really heated up at parties! -cough-
You know, thinking about it I’ve realized that everything Luca’s said could be literally true. He said, for instance, that he doesn’t intend to jump to conclusions about the guilt of the diplomats until after an investigation was done. Taking him at his word, it means he killed Tesa without knowing or caring if she was guilty.
Which fits, really.
And is the typical prelude to the Joseph Stalin Celebrity Makeover. Despotism in three days, or your money back! It’s helpful that Luca’s such a hands-on manager. (I told you, I can’t stop with the puns.)
Haha :)
Dunno if it’s been said already or not, but… Jazz hands!
That is made of Winage!
O_O over 400 comments…oh my XD I do believe that’s the most I’ve seen in the least amount of time…?
I bet you, half of them are puns.
That’s very likely.
I just had a thought. Dagre Plushie’s eyes should be made of that reflective fabric bikers wear. So that they follow you in the dark.
YES.
HOoooooooooooooly crap that would be equal parts crazy awesome and super freaky.
Like…never sleep with it in the same room kind of freaky awesome.
blooooood drinkers, there a bunch of blood drinkers. next page i betcha he noms her throat! *is hit with a fail block*
Can’t wait for the last 2 pages!
OMG! A Dagre plushie! Squee! :D
.. at first I was kind of touched by this hug, and I was thinking like “aw, look, he’s hugging her back! COMFORT. Wait, this is weird.”
you do kill people after all, Luca! I feel better about this. you go burn that flesh with your badass handburning smoke, you terrible dude!
can’t wait to read the next pages ;D
Ah, so Luca’s possessed by Dagre already. Burning hands, mad round eyes, problems to keep his mouth fully shut, and all.
Well, Luca, it was nice knowing you before you went full-on evil. Now if you’ll excuse me I’ll be here cheering for you to get a bullet through your brain before you bring even further misery to your country and your family.
Nah, not possessed. He’d show signs of elongated neck, high-beam eyes, and a toungue that refuses to stay in his mouth. Followed by copious amounts of salivation.
…Damn it Luca, you’ve completely obliterated those gloves now.
Also, DAGRE PLUSHIE? My life is complete.
My stomach twisted a bit first time reading this page. Ahh!
Love the steamy-like effects, btw.
Oooh, and I love the plushie idea! <3
Looks like he took things-
*puts on sunglasses*
-into his own hands.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
I’m just searching the comments for puns.
YOU HAVE WON THE GAME.
The thing I find most freaky is the distorted clothing squigglies.
Not going to lie- this page chilled me to the core for a whole day. Tesa’s eye in the second panel and Luca at the end. It just gave me the shivers, I could not focus on my studies all day ’cause I kept thinking of this page.
DB that kinda shocked me for reals. :( poor Tesa.
I f’narted!!!
http://broommaster2000.deviantart.com/#/d2skwcj
i knew it :D, good riddance that blond one was annoying.
So luca got super powers now cool :D
i saw what he did there…heh…
I want that last frame. As an oversized poster. Speech bubbles and all.
DX
To me it looks like shes still alive, badly burned but still alive.
Smells like bacon~*
I guess you could say..
Tesa’s face was..
– Puts on glasses –
Melted, with Luca’s hands.
DAMNIT, THAT WASN’T A PUN, IT WAS ONLY STATING THE OBVIOUS!
[FAILSTAMP]
lol it was a good attempt. obligatory YYYYYYYYEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
For the last panel, he should just have one single bubble. It should say: “WRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!” (I hope at least one person gets that >.>)
Alternate ending b-side dialogue:
“This hand of mine glows with an awesome power. Its burning grip tells me to defeat you! Now here I go, SHINING FINGER!”
Haha, Gundam.
Well at least this explains what happened to his gloves earlier. I don’t suppose they were heat proof
It appears the victim found the killer…
*puts on sunglasses*
too hot to handle.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
I lawl’d. XDDDD
My mom used to watch that show all the time.
Okay, next page. Next page, next page, next page, next page, come on, come on .. YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE ! *jumps up and down in anticipation for the next page*
Oh he BURNED her. I thought he like poked out her eyes or something and then she just randomly started smoking…
/observationfail
Your post made me spill my dinner it did.
Glad I could help.
omg this seriously sent a chill down my spine D:
surprised me
Deserved it…
It appears that Luca…
– Puts on sunglasses –
Had the hots for Tesa…
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-
Aw that’s terrible
or maybe
– Puts on sunglasses –
terribly funny
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
XD nicely put.
Wait… since when can they do magic? I’m completely lost.
me, too…
Riddle me this, Alex. This question is for you, only ;D I believe it’s the strip before the one where Luca tests the food, but I noticed Tesa’s shocked/panicked expression at the meat, as if she’s surprised it hasn’t been touched. It’s highly probable Phe’s death was poisoning? (as theorized by many of us), did Tesa know, or have anything to do with it? (Or it could have been answered, and I somehow missed it, lol.)
How tragic.
This comic started incredibly intriguing. Very well drawn, and with a promising story. Seeing how this is now sacrificed for some cheap drama gore moments makes me genuinely sad. Main characters get introduced just to kill them. While I still like the drawing style, the gore makes it boring and empty. A bit like all the movie remakes who can’t do without overblown action scenes (‘flight of the phoenix’, ‘A-team’, ‘Enterprise’…).
Maybe I’m just too old or I care too much for fictional characters. But I can’t get any fun out of this butchering. If this comics was worse, I could make puns and laugh about it, but here was serious potential.
It feels like a promise for an exceptional comic didn’t come true. Well, just not for me.
But it seems there’s quite an audience for slaughter.
That’s fair! It would be unrealistic for me to expect everyone to have the same tastes in my writing as I do. However I think it would also be fair for you to keep in mind that we haven’t yet finished with the three introductory chapters, and that there are around 40 chapters of story that you aren’t able to judge yet. If you’re truly against reading the rest of it, then I thank you very much for staying around so far. But if not I’d suggest that you check back at some point in the future to see where things are going. From the standpoint of the author I don’t think you have enough information yet to make an accurate assessment of the plot.
You’re not very good at discriminating between main characters and throwaway ones.
Maybe he’s talking about Phe? But I’m not exactly done with her so… yeah
Yeah, I kinda had a feeling you’d be focusing on her a bit more. Luca’s got a lot of backstory that needs developing, and Phe will figure pretty heavily in there I bet :)
I think you’re being rather unfair here. Tesa certainly wasn’t a main character, she was a secondary one at best. If you’re going to look at it from the perspective of the reader, then yes, it is dramatic, but its importance to the story is to illustrate the fact that Luca has been driven to near insanity, if not outright lunacy. Your dismissive and to be quite frank indecently condescending message is just rude and half thought through
Your opinion seems a little unwaranted, Pete. In defense of the author, I think you’ve spoken too soon- the plot is unfolding, I feel Phe’s death is an extremely important point in the development of Luca’s character, as was the same for Tesa’s. Being ‘too old’ has little to do with your personal tastes, perhaps you’re ‘too judgemental’ too soon, not ‘too old;’ the rest of us respect the bold and fearless bit of ‘slaughter.’ This is, after all, a graphic novel, not a child’s story, and it’s proving to be an exceptional one at that. I feel this comic still has great potential that grows with the addition of each page- and I’m sure most everyone here will agree with me. As Gleebits said- you seem very condescending. If you don’t like it, either stop reading or make your comments constructive.
Actually the rest of the comic will look like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1-NpyaOWV0
Dear Der-Shing Helmer:
There are no words to describe how much I would love to see this drawn. If I had money, i’d commission the hell out of it.
Thanks for your time,
TLL
Definitely. Something I only just realised was exactly how LITTLE of the story we’ve actually seen – with one or two pages being released a week, it’s easy to think that the story is longer than it actually is. :)
Whooaooh! Magic voodoo kicking in!
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard.
I love his expression….can’t wait for the next page! :)
Hey, wait. Where did the cuts/punctures on Luca’s clothing go when Dagre tossed him about?
His interactions with Dagre weren’t psuedo-psychological were they? I suppose that would lend credit to the intertwined connections between Dagre and Luca, messing with Luca with spooky mind powers.
Please keep the pre-orders open a little longer Der-Shing… I’m ordering one in the next 15 hours or so…
Tatermits
She got Egg-Waved
TOO MUCH VIOLENCE FOR MEEEEEEEEEEE
THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH SILENCE IN WEBCOMICS!!!
BLOOD RAY VISIOOOON!!!
and he seemed like such a together guy…I love this chapter.
Went through the archives, amazed at all the little cryptic hints that make sense now. Lots of years in the making or not, I’m impressed by the planning!
Whoa. Okay. NOBODY touches him. He’s gone mad and he’s got “fire” hands.
This would be hilarious if he had “Jazz” hands.
Eh? EH? “wiggle wiggle”
Look at it this way, Luca: on one hand, you’ll never be able to hug someone without microwaving their face. On the other hand, nachos and popcorn anytime you want! :D
Exfoliation: you’re doing it too harsh.
HOLY SHIT LUCA HAS MICROWAVE HANDS OAO
…What. On. Earth?
Hooray! Microwave hands!
Nice work.
And is it just me, or in the last panel does he look a little like Dagre?
Those be new powers, or has he always had crazy kill-people-with-my-microwave-hands abilities?
I think he allready had them.
http://www.meekcomic.com/2010/05/15/2-35/
You see, the page before his hands/gloves are good. When he’s angry or mad he can use that abbility I think.
Srr for possible wrong english
Oh my god…
I was shocked when i saw this page
Holy sh…
Where can I buy a print of that last panel, I love the expression
im srry but the 4 pannel looks so funny, the expresion! oh lol. even with the tragedi!
LOL yeah… When I was sketching it I drew a burger in there
… and with that, I will never be able to see that panel the same way again. XD
“My name is luca
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes i think you’ve seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was…”
I didn’t catch the thing with the hands at all, until I read your sketches where the Tiger mentions his hands explicitly.
I don’t get it. He just said he does not think they did it, and is asking for their help.
shockingly- he lied
Yeah, I don’t get it either. Also when he says, “that was wise” is he being sarcastic? It doesn’t make too much sense otherwise…
he was saying that it was wise for her to be afraid.
More likely, he was saying that was wise of her to get that close to his hands. Sarcastically.
FACEMELTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!
My first reaction to this page was horror (excellent expressions by the way), until the cute dagre plushie…then I laughed SO hard.
love the irony between the page and your comments.
I’m a little late in the game, but I just wanted to add that I think Tesa’s just caught up in…
*puts on the sunglasses*
… the heat of the moment.
Yeah?
i think you just
*puts on sunglasses*
made yourself look stupid
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man I was listening to Borgore – Saturday Night (Gorestep) and it fit PERFECTLY into this scene. O.O Fantastic comic btw, I’m on my first read through. :D
Holy shit.
I know this comment is way late but I’m just now getting to this page and all I can say is /HOLY SHIT/
dude, you got some face on your shirt.
BTW tesa had it coming. every movie has a panic prone idiot who opens the doors to the zombie horde, or tries to negotiate with the psycho that lost his morality before his virginity. I feel sympathy for the devil, cause mick jagger asked me to. but he never said anything about idiots
Amen
This is very well drawn … and very disturbing =/
ZOMG!! HE’S PHANTOM LIMB!!!!
Wow that scared me to pieces! But I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it~ Lucas expression in the last panel of the last page was too expressionless to mean anything good. Ohhh Luca you shouldn’t have done that! Phe wouldn’t have wanted it!
I think he’s saying that even though he doesn’t suspect either of them of actually assassinating Phe, he’s still going through to open hostilities with Caris. The killing of the ambassador was just to put the period on the end of that message.
well with that scary conversation tesa must have recieved a
*puts on sunglasses*
heat”setence”
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A normal person can’t kill someone that fast with their bare hands. -_-
Man. On reread, I don’t really understand why he bothered to lie on the previous page. He’s evil and all, but if his motivation is revenge and anger and stuff, what does he gain by momentarily appearing to be willing to negotiate? What was going through his mind when he entered the room that way?
I just don’t get how to fit this sequence into my understanding of the character, “blinded by torment and rage” sort of deal.
Honestly he just didn’t want to chase them around. He had decided before coming into the room that one would die and one would be sent back with the message.
Shit got real PAGES ago.
This time, shit just got 3D.
The ripples in his clothing is really unnerving. I don’t think that was there before; now he’s either shaking uncontrollably, ofr his whole being is possessed somehow. D:
“All power and no Empress make Luca go something something …”
“Go … mad?”
“Don’t mind if I do!”
All joking aside, you foreshadowed this rather well. In the earlier bedroom scene you made it obvious that Luca had some sort of post-traumatic disorder from the earlier wars and that his wife was what was keeping him sane.