[Laura]

Oh, hey, there is that reading. I guess I just meant:

Krys: There's no competition!
Eskimo (probably): oh, there is so, I fought hard to get to the top blah blah

Eskimo (later, when someone else is there): Lance, TELL her! Tell her I'm right and she's wrong!

but your way works better and is funnier so wahey.


ETA:
You will find out the name of the boat. I think. I haven't written the comic where it happens yet, but I know what it is, so presumably it will show up.

This post has been edited by Laura: 18 April 2007 - 11:02 PM

[Lefty]

Speaking of mis-reading comics--my first interpretation of today's events:

-Krys has sold the cannons, which is why she looks shagrinned in panel 2

-Panel 5 shows the cannons, sold to a dandified schoolmaster, who encourages an unenthusiastic pupil (in the present) to learn cannon warfare to fight the visigoths (which, as everyone knows, is silly--if this takes place when VHS tapes still roamed the plains in mighty herds, they should be preparing for the woad-soaked Celtic hoards!)

It was only when reading the "author's notes" at the bottom that I realized that the boy with the bangs, uninterested in cannonular knowledge, is a young Lance! Were I called on to make a clarifying suggestion (for my, perhaps not wide-spread, mis-read) I would suggest "thought bubble"-edges on that pannel, perhaps even with thought-bubble-bloops emminating from Lance's head in the previous panel--though the bloops might be going too far.

This post has been edited by Lefty: 19 April 2007 - 08:16 AM

[Laura]

Well, your initial reading is a valid one too, so it's not too big deal. Although: I probably would have put the flashback after 'Where are they?' in that case. Context is everything.

& VERY alert readers might be able to find a resemblance between the teacher in the flashback and the blase schoolmaster who shows up in tiny form in strips 1 & 2.

I think this kind of thing will also become easier to interpret as the strip goes on. This is the first time I drop you unceremoniously into a one-panel flashback, but I enjoy the device and so I doubt it will be the last!

This post has been edited by Laura: 19 April 2007 - 09:48 AM

[J m HofMarN]

Since I can't be arsed to update my own site I put up a link to the comics archive there, hope it draws some interest for you. I'm loving things thus far.

I think English and Spanish would have been better, since that's a more famous rivalry ala Westward Ho.

[Laura]

Well, the rival pirate is something of a Francophile, as you will see.

[Lefty]

Wow, the mast gets a lot of play in those last few episodes.

Though I think Lance appearing on-deck in the episode "Weapon Snuggling" is inconsistant with him being below-decks stealing Chefelf's throwable objects (where their ongoing mid-battle battonage is adorable)--however, Eskimo's above-deck mast-mourning & belowdeck flinging-belaying works better, so I wouldn't site her for the same travelling violation. Jebus ghod, what a pile of mixed metaphors...but at least it's nicely seasoned with hyphens!

Oo, & their nemesis's ship is called the "Charles." I believe it is named after Professor X.

This post has been edited by Lefty: 24 April 2007 - 08:23 PM

[Laura]

Yeah, I wasn't really sure how to handle the move from Chefelf's kitchen/cabin/nest-area to above-deck; whatever travelling happened must have occurred between strips, since if you squint you can see that Lance is balanced on the bowsprit (? terminology?) throwing stuff in panel 1. My imagination is that after the feather debacle he grabbed some throwable stuff and ran up to deck to get a better shot while Chefelf trailed behind, cradling his knives and complaining/fretting/being adorable.

Now off to istrip admin to make sure there will be a strip for tomorrow!

[Lefty]

For this week's odd mis-parsing of text, I really had to stretch: for a half-second, I read "you miss Rook" as "you: Miss Rook" (implying the woman was Miss Rook, rather than "she misses Rook"), but of course then the rest of the sentence made no sense so I figured it out pretty quick.

But, definately, more action occurring! Long lost (archenemies|relations|friends|something-or-other)s! Life-threatening piratical violence (albeit treated in an emergency room)! Mysteries!

The first mytery I had to unravel was "why is Krys wearing a cute haltertop instead of that stripey thing?" But upon careful review of the source material, I realized that she was bandaging ChefElf's knife-kissing injuries with her shirt in the first panel of episode 14 (it's a little subtle). The picture of ailing, hallucinating Chefelf is indeed disturbing. I'll just pretend he's just been accidentally exposed to the Star Wars Christmas Special.

Finalement: Episode 16 has both a neat flashback-Eskimo, (which in a starwars frame of mind, makes me think of a different eskimo action figure with different outfit) AND an awesome bilingual "dis"/bonne mot from Jeanne. Good times, indeed!

[J m HofMarN]

You know, Laura, this comic is really starting to bring out the fact that pirates, and I can say this despite being a boy, can indeed be cute. Why was this never mentioned in the PVSN topics? I think it's a pretty big advantage.

Also, was it a deliberate choice to list Eskimo as Patriarch of the family rather than Matriarch? That pannel has a rather cool Peter Pan semblance as well, I think.

I surely do hope you continue the comic, I'm enjoying it immensely.

[Lefty]

Wow, a full color panel! As a lazy reader, that requires a special effort to misinterpret/gripe, so here goes: Lance in white? Wearing lip gloss? BAH! Also maybe it's that my monitor is too dark, but the shadow under that lady's elbows make it look more like she's the ship's figurehead than a person leaning out of a porthole...but aside from that it's lovely!

I thought their overall mission & Eskimo's (forgotten...or just resting dormant!*) bunny suit comment marked the edges of "least professional pirate ever", but seeing them at a Pirate Convention pushes the envelope into a whole new realm & possibly off the edge of the earth, into a stormy meta limbo. Nice "3/4ths view" (is that the term?) in the first panel of this one!


*: that which is not bunnysuit can eternally lie/& over strange eons, even pink fur may dye!

[Laura]

There's plenty to nitpick in that panel, actually, but I'm glad nobody has (please, nobody look at: the coloring on the boat, which is even outside the lines in some places; the sky, which is clearly just a photoshop stamp of stars on a plan blue blackground; or the water, which is simply inexcusable.) One nitpick I did get is that the woman looks mannish. I guess I'm all right with that. I used to make all my men look like women. It's always got to be something, hasn't it?

[Lefty]

Hmm, quite a bit of West Side Story lately. While this song is fabulous (Creme Bool-e-yay is a good rhyme), it contains a ghostly chefelf face scarier than the last!

Also Krys's fight is funny. Undoubtedly her faulty debate tactics spring from the grog, as demon rum is well-known to cause individuals to forget parlimentary procedure.

I have to say, as a periodic reader who then has to catch up, I'd appreciate some kind of indexing of the comics, or at least a "Back 5 episodes" or something; pressing "Previous" 3-5 times is very arduous!

[Laura]

Archive page?

http://lanceandeskim...hp?view=archive

I just set up the Google ads, largely because it's kind of funny to see what they suggest (although since the comic transcriptions aren't linked up, it's not based on individual comics' content). For some reasont the default at the moment seems to be "Boston beauty salons."

[Lefty]

Oh...yes, well. The archives page should be near the "previous" & "next" links for the webbally-challenged.

I like how the pirates are basically like some dudes just hanging out, while occasionally one of them tries to do something ambitious/piratical/that you couldn't do while just, like, in a house (for example, taking the longboat out). It's got that homey charm of the villian headquarters parts of Austin Powers, where within the trope of an Action Spy move, the heart of it is really some normal dopes vegetating.

At least that's my take on it; that feel was kind of the inspiration for the short-lived Harpsicord Man; see the first panel on the 3rd row for further details. You very seldom see other costumed superheroes on the phone ordering a pizza; which is why a) I'll never be a superhero, & 2) I don't read many comic books!

[Lefty]

ok, so I thought the gag of having a serious stanza, each of which is then capped with a "punchline" would get old, but it totally didn't!