5.41

To her credit, Rana busting in with the follow-through
(obligatory sorry about the implication of kid-smacking, if that’s something that bugs you, and for the easily influenced readers, please don’t look at this page and then go out and threaten to pop a kid or teen in the mouth, also don’t do anything you see in my webcomics in general they are all bad ideas)

For Patrons, a worldbuilding post about Pasori naming conventions as well as some secret notes on the previous page.

YO this Friday/ Sat/ Sunday I am a guest of Rose City Comic Con, come say hi at table D-01! If you’ve got a book from me that you’d like signed, feel free to bring it by :] And if you don’t have a book I will have a bunch of those, including a limited amount of hardcovers, KS pins, some minicomics, etc. This is my last con of the year I think, so will try to make it good :]

Last, cuz of the Ignatz nom, am still updating as much as I can leading up to the convention! Next page up next week, and might do a dedicated Meek week to finish up the chapter. If you’re going to SPX, please consider throwing a vote towards the comic, I would really appreciate it :]

37 Comments

  • Some_Douchebag

    I love that expression in panel 4. He looks like a cornered animal. I look forward to seeing more of it.

  • JJ

    This phrase might be overused by now, but still: this escalated quickly. Somehow I didn’t expect Rana to confront him about her suspicion that soon.

    • JJ

      Oh and she smacked that fire out of his mouth beautifully.

  • Edgar M Lemos

    Aww dang, Der-shing, are you saying that I should not go strike some sort of deal with an ancient tiger demon? Just when I thought I had found a narrative I could base all of my life choices on!

    • I mean, just do it responsibly, okay??

      • Android 21 3/7

        Aw man! I’ve already fire-murdered my 5th foreign diplomat this week! You’re an AWFUL role model!

      • Saberbeam

        *Reads comments, awkwardly scratches “despotic reign of terror” out the to-do list*

        Swear to God, I just don’t know what people want from me these days.

  • EtherBot

    I really like the way characters arguing is realistic and not just forced conflict for the sake of interpersonal stakes or pretending to be deeper or nonsense like that. It feels REAL and all these characters have believable motivation to say the things they do and at the times they do it, I like it. It grows out of the characters instead of from the author, if that makes more sense.

  • Baby M

    I assume “wolda” is a Basori swear word of some kind.

    This whole sequence is beautifully written and drawn.

    • insomniacKoala

      I guessed it was ‘enough’ or similar, but a swear seems likely too.

    • Xepter

      His facial expression looks almost panicked. Like he’s saying “quiet, Rana!” But maybe that’s because of the lighting and his long eyebrows?

  • Sal

    Jeez Louise that fourth panel is SOMETHING.

  • Mallow

    Holy shit, Rana.
    I want to clap, but I’m scared as to whether Luca’s going to start the next page stunned or angry.
    Still, fuck. Points to Rana. Not like the kids weren’t going to notice just how much Luca and Phe’s relationship was… less than ideal, to put it as tactfully as possible.

    • Spark

      Keep in mind that Rana was also low-key eavesdropping during the fight they had right before Phe’s last supper.

      “You think you know what hurting is?”

      • Mallow

        Right. Rana’s privy to more info than Luca in this regard.

  • Jac

    The light in these pages is so lovely. Gosh, I love watching you develop as an artist :D

  • mmk

    Oh snap! Rana! Wtf dude! You just ruined my demon-tiger-inspired family sand-castle illusion. Marched all over it.

    *Sigh* and it had a nice wall & tower…

  • Lawrence Tider

    Did he beat Phe? Was that shown? Was a loooooong time ago.

    • JJ

      She’s thinking of this (as is shown here).
      For years I believed that panel showed Luca throttling Phe … only in the printed book I realised he’s pulling off his glove.
      On the next page Phe is on the floor – I guess Luca shoved her? Did he also backhand her while pulling off his glove?

      • Mastiff

        Hooboy! It never occurred to me that Rana thought Luca killed Phe! Oh man, have to think about that.

        When Phe cringed from Luca, I thought she was recoiling in fear of his anger as a separate entity, not in fear of Luca himself. That is, she wasn’t afraid of *Luca* hurting her, but she knew that sometimes someone other than Luca was in his head. Alternatively, she wasn’t afraid of his hitting her, but having anyone go batshit crazy enraged in your face is scary even if you know they won’t hurt you. She’s cringing from his hand in the last panel because she doesn’t want to see the horror that is his hands, not under these circumstances.

        On the next page she is kneeling because he had grabbed her hand and squeezed it so hard it hurt her.

        Poor Phe. She was his connection to sanity.

    • Lauren

      http://www.meekcomic.com/comic/2-18/

      At least what we saw, he’s never actually hit her. But we also don’t know what he would’ve done here if Rana hadn’t disrupted him.

      • Dogma

        Wow, Rana has gained weight. That’s some damned impressive continuity.

        • ElMariachi

          Now that you mention it, Rana does have a more rounded face compared to chapter 2, although I can’t say if she really gained some weight or if it’s just shingworks’ style that evolved.

          • Haha, maybe a bit of both, but I tried to give her a bit more weight around her jawline

      • evileeyore

        I don’t think he necessarily ever hit her. He feels to me like someone who abuses indirectly. He’d hit others (maybe), to make Phe understand how angry he is.

        Yes, I know her body language says “terrified of being hit”, but his face is not a face of direct rage in those archived panels. It’s a face that’s scared, and possibly feeling betrayed.

        But he is (now at least) a brutal man, and if was as brutal then, I can see Phe been afraid of that wrath being turned on her. Especially if he’s grabbed her in a viscous tight grip and is causing pain.

        • Lauren

          To me it reads as if Luca and Phe have a long history of screaming matches and make-ups (and -outs) afterwards, but he’s never threatened her with violence before. In that scene, he’s completely incensed by her inability to understand what he’s been through, and I think she is a little surprised by his extreme reaction to what she considers a perfectly level-headed approach. She wasn’t expecting him to threaten her the way he did–that’s not a “normal” part of their arguments–and when he threatens her he finally takes it too far and she considers leaving him because of it.

          Then again, the casual way he says he’s gonna beat the fire out of Rana’s mouth suggests he’s pretty complacent with corporal punishment, at least for his kids. But that doesn’t mean he’d do it to Phe, his equal, whenever she opposed him either.

          I’ve never seen Luca’s “do you know what hurting is” face as fear but I can see how it could be interpreted that way. I really love how it’s drawn, actually, because it’s this wildly unpredictable, unhinged look that you could infer a lot of things from but it’s impossible to tell what he’s actually thinking in that moment.

    • David

      I’m really surprised by that. I think Phe would have left immediately if he had ever hit her. She didn’t seem to have the battered woman mentality.

  • Panicle

    I remember the last time we saw the Pasori Rictus© on-screen, so I’ll be on the edge of my seat for a week.

  • dreampiper

    *puts hands in the air* IM OUT OF THIS ROOM!
    This is going to end horribly no matter which side wins O_O.
    *hides behind door and waits for the explosions to ensue*

  • Lauren

    Looks like Ulyer came in at a bad time. That is Ulyer, right? He’s still got a chance to back away slowly and close the door before this gets really nasty.

  • Mastiff

    Go Rana!
    Luca might have finally met his match. Rana is too much like him to be cowed. And she knows this is his weak spot. He looks completely gobsmacked in the last panel. Is he horrified at the realization that others might hink he abused his beloved Phe?

    Is it even possible that Rana thinks he killed Phe? I can’t believe she’d go this route if she thought that. But maybe she thinks his demon tiger killed Phe?

  • aachisuto

    Woah Rana! bringing a gun to a knife fight! This won’t end well.

  • Kat Serapha

    GO RANA GO!

  • UH OH

  • foducool

    oooooooh snap

  • che

    Does Wolda have a direct translation? He just looks so vicious saying it and I love language stuff

Leave a Reply to dreampiper Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *