The background of panel two is a pretty obvious composite – I just couldn’t find any classical depiction of Okeanos drinking something. Had Robert E. Howard used “the years when Dionysos drank Atlantis” instead, I would have been spoilt for choice, but…I guess it wouldn’t have been as evocative. I’m also not sure why somebody would spread out blue mantles beneath the stars…possibly to reserve a place on the beach for the next day, or something like that.
But, yeah, I’ve absolutely overused Howard’s phrase by now, out of sheer fondness…and I can only hope that making my own characters call me out on it in the middle of a strip will somehow help me to break that habit. Fingers crossed…
And, anyway, it does serve a useful purpose here: illustrating just how epic the Professorian’s adventures in the Realm have been…without having to relate them in detail, which would turn the new chapter into a retread of the penultimate one, with the proportion of filler upped to 100%. The only relevant outcome is, anyway, that the Barbessor made it through a whole lot of stuff and grew more powerful and knowledgeable by leaps and bounds throughout that – as a PRG character does. The size of his character sheet illustrates the same point in a much more direct way. Just less evocative than the words of Robert E. Howard…
More on Monday.
Excellent! I was playing Poledouris during my weights workout this morning.
https://youtu.be/LANHWwEjOAU?t=27
Yeah, the music is probably a big part of what make that movie intro stick in my mind so fiercely – it suits the scope and style of Howard’s fantasy world just perfectly.
This is unrelated to the strip itself, but I actually had a dream about this comic recently… all I remember is that there was a Chinese knockoff comic featuring copies of the characters, such as a Chinese version of Professor Doctor, only for a major plot twist to be that the knockoff and original were connected when knockoff Professor opened a dimensional gateway to ask for help, and the help that arrived was original Professor.
Now that I type it out, it doesn’t even seem that out of character for the comic.
Yeah, that’s absolutely something that could happen around here – and would hardly be any less logical or more random than some of the plot twists of the past. XD
And China is definitely large enough to work as some sort of self-contained parallel universe.
But a fascinating dream, in any case. Was Snuka in there, as well? And what did the Chinese version of Snuka look like – was he a token Westerner, or just more stereotypically Asian than the people around him? XD
Alas, I don’t remember if Snuka was there. The only other character I remember offhand was a vampire who worked with Knockoff Professor… So, presumably alternate-Mopey.
That would make sense, although the Professor also mentioned (and called) a vampiric mentor in chapter two or three.
Anyway, try to remember what you ate or drank before falling asleep that night, and then just avoid it in feature. As awesome as it is that you dreamt about BMC, there are many worthier things to spend your dream-time on. XD