2-13 Jerks
Friday, June 1st, 2007– Commentary –
Craig: I spent a lot of time practicing drawing jackals for these pages. I found a bunch of pictures online, printed them out, and drew jackals for days.
They’re really interesting canines — they remind me a little of Anubis.
J.D.: I think you did really well with the body language of the jackals. I love in panel 5 how one of them is crouching in preparation for leaping up to devour Leon three feet from the stairs.
Craig: That happens a lot to my low-level characters in Angband. I hate swarms of Cs appearing on my screen. Especially with smart packs on, they’re nasty. Leon’s advice in panel 1 is sage — pick them off at a distance and don’t let them close to melee. If you’re toe-to-toeing jackals at 1st level you’ve already lost.
J.D.: Unless you’re a half-troll. Half-trolls usually have enough hit points at level 1 to take on a small pack. Maybe four or five if they fight smart. But Leon just lost his half-troll.
Craig: To dinner.
J.D.: Considering Lucky’s hang-ups about courtesy in gaming, it was very inconsiderate of her to just pop out with such little warning, especially in the onset of a fight.
Craig: Agreed, although I don’t think Lucky really understands the position she just put Leon into.
J.D.: If you do that in a MUD, you’d be doing the same thing that she did to Leon in Mythband. Abandoning your fellow PC to possible death.
Craig: I’m really happy with how Lucky came out in panel 4.
J.D.: I love how her parents came out. They are attractive without being “beautiful.” They look like parents instead of movie stars, because they aren’t movie stars. But they are cool.
Craig: Lucky’s dad kind of looks like he could be a lumberjack.
J.D.: He’s a mechanic. That’s the next best thing. 🙂
June 1st, 2007 at 1:11 am
some cbservations:
Luckys father calls her “Nissa”.
Lucky has strange picture hanging into wall behind her with symbol that looks like “3”, and if I did see correctly that same symbol is in her necklace.
June 1st, 2007 at 3:16 am
I figured ‘Nissa’ is just Lucky’s actual name, rather than nickname or whatever …
June 1st, 2007 at 10:05 am
Yeah, I was wondering about the picture and the necklace as well. They’re obviously no accident (“Oops, I forgot to take that off before shooting the scene…”), and given that the picture looks to be representing some non-human interaction I’m wondering if Lucky has some family background that she may not even be aware of, much like Leon.
It actually reminds me of some of the info we get later about the two types of races (don’t recall their names offhand — hevenin and something?) that were forbidden from mating. It sure looks like a baby in between a man and a woman, and the onlookers on either side don’t exactly look related to each other.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:59 am
:nods: Craig, There’s a reason jackals remind you of Anubis: it’s a jackals’ head that he has always beenh depicted with. 😉
June 1st, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Yes, Lucky looks so cute and unattainable in this strip. I think this is the time where I realized I officially have a crush on her.
“Nissa” is a strange name. Her parents look Greek, but this page claims that Nissa is actually a rare Hebrew name (not that I ever bumped into it. It sounds very foreign to me). So what, is she Israeli? If so then maybe I still have a chance with her.. 😉
June 1st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Heh. Leon can’t just pop out of Mythband 😀
Leon seems to be in quite a “nice” situation in last panel. I don’t consider jackals a threat in Angband, even for level 1.. But Mythband seems to be its own world for sure =)
June 1st, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Nissa is probably short for something else. I think nissa and leon meeting like this is no accident. Nissa’s parents look nordic to me. was her father a blacksmith before he was a mechanic??? (and how old is he really!)
June 1st, 2007 at 11:54 pm
From Wikipedia baby:
Nissa, a feminine name of Scandinavian origin (“a friendly elf”)
June 4th, 2007 at 3:07 am
If the jackals are that close, it’s sword time.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Holy poot, look at the painting behind Lucky in panel 4.
June 4th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Sorry for double post, but the symbol on it matches her necklace – just saw that.