HAPPY HALLOWEEN, indeed! =D
Good fortune would have it that Halloween 2022 coincides with the point in the plot where Latho is supposed to make its entry within the Queen’s flashback – really, I couldn’t have planned it better. Especially since my method of “planning” the timing of my strips doesn’t lend itself well to deliver any sort of specific desirable result. But that’s beside the point. >_>
The point is that this coincidence allows me to re-stage Latho’s entry in a more elaborate and more appropriately spooky form than originally.* The original version, due to plot constraints, had Latho’s egg/spaceship simply sitting in a box on a table, right from the start of the chapter. And since Latho’s true nature wasn’t supposed to become obvious until so much later, I couldn’t have staged that entry much more spookily, anyway.
By now, the cat/plush/tentacle monster is out of the bag, so Latho’s arrival on the Queen’s planet can come with more of the appropriate trappings from the horror genre. I mean, it’s ultimately still a pink egg, so there’s limits to what can be achieved. But with some effective staging and a classic HP Lovecraft quote, this entry is definitely much more appropriate – both for Halloween as well as for Latho’s true nature.
Don’t ask me for a rational explanation for why the egg’s emerging from a tomb, though, when it’s actually supposed to come from outer space. Perhaps Latho just needed to take a little nap after a long bout of interstellar travel, and couldn’t find a better parking spot? They might not have trailer parks on that planet, or those they have might not accept small, wheel-less, egg-shaped trailers? It doesn’t matter – it’s Halloween, the one day of the year where anybody and anything is allowed to emerge from a tomb if they want to.
More on Thursday.
* OK, chronologically this version actually happened before Latho’s original entry. But who cares for proper chronology in a world of random flashbacks? =P
That’s the prop chest; or rather, it’s a prop being doubled as a prop chest. It’s just convenient the Latho-egg happened to be in there already. So why not just greenscreen an alcove setting behind it and bam, scene done.
Bonus points for being big enough to conceal the person pushing the lid off so it looks like it’s moving on its own/via mysterious power.
Yeah, that sounds exactly like the kind of corner that Nolan Nobucks Productions likes to cut: saving time and effort on top of not spending money.
Although, on the other hand, I also wouldn’t be surprised if their official prop chests would be just the back of George Geekish’s pickup truck and the attached trailer. XD