Demons: April 19-24, 2004
September 25, 2010 ~ 26 Comments
This strip was great because I only had to draw one panel. Good work, me!
Incidentally, I spent a lot of time and effort trying to come up with a clever name for this storyline and failing. That’s why it’s just called “Demons.” I really did try to think of something more interesting.
Caliban’s already developing a thing for Mell. Again, this was Jeff Wells’s idea. Thanks, Jeff.
I like the punchline to this one, but I always enjoy any reference to how terrifying Dave finds Helen’s mom.
Want the original art for this strip?
I dunno…Dave’s devastated second-panel face came out better in the thumbnails. This is one of the great frustrations of cartooning. Caliban’s expression in the third panel, on the other hand, is pretty much exactly what I was going for.
Storage Room C contains both Christmas ornaments and, it would seem, an enormous crate of gerbils.
I always liked Dave’s logic in this one. It seems consistent with the particular brand of evil at Narbonics Labs.
Those guys in the last panel look pretty sweet, especially the thing with the big blank eyes. At least I tried to draw interesting stuff for this storyline.
Want the original art for this strip?
The demons in today’s strip were drawn by the astonishing Jason Thompson, who does “The Stiff” over on Girlamatic. As you can see, Jason is totally awesome at drawing demons. Now my demons look pretty lame. Oh well.
…and sometimes I got other people to draw stuff for me. Jason is the best monster artist I know, so I thought it’d be a good idea to get him to draw a bunch of weird demons for this storyline. Man, did he ever come through. Check these guys out!
The Stiff is currently on hiatus, but Jason’s done a lot of other things since this strip ran, including writing Manga: The Complete Guide and King of RPGs, drawing some awesome H.P. Lovecraft comics, and getting married and moving to Seattle so I never see him anymore BOOOOO. Anyway, you can see more of his recent work at his website.
I never noticed it until now, but two of these panels were cut for the book!
Yeesh, I’m such a comics geek.
Monday:
I’m sure this is the only non-Sunday episode with outright unabashed flashbacks to previous strips. I suppose Zombie Woof was three entire years ago, but it seems odd that only this particular revelation mandated a memory-freshener of this intensity – especially given that we just had this brain-jogger not six weeks prior.
Fourth-wall introspection: 57.
Personally, I would have gone with “His Dim Materials” as a good story name, but that’s just because I’m a Milton student.
[snicker]
Tuesday:
Come on Dave, she only visited once in three years. Was she really thst bad? Obvious grievances aside?
As always, this sort of thing fills me with equal parts pride and guilt.
Would the conflict between Narbonic Labs and the demons be called the Hellenic War?
@Ed: That name should probably be reserved for those little spats betwixt Beta and Mom.
However, you’re a real Trojan for thinking of it!
My favorite bit is, “the demons can go to hell! Or wherever!”
Wednesday:
Almost reflexively, I looked over Cal’s shoulders to see if something menacing and extraplanar was behind him. But no, it’s worse: this time Dave was staring on purpose.
(Evidently, I was conflating this with what was surely a deliberately similar scene from “Angels”.)
Also, a teleporter.
Foreshadowing, or just “let’s stick something there”?
Isn’t Storage Room C also where Mell keeps her Christmas armaments?
Santa and reindeer + surface-to-air missle = slay ride!
Thursday:
Artie is somewhat overstating the amount of destruction the ur-gerbils and weather machine wreaked on the populace.
Honestly, his logic seems pretty consistent with most people’s morality.
I thought this was pretty well done, actually, in that in general a modern audience will have more trouble with the idea of Dave essentially raping Helen than with the suffering Artie’s unknown millions. One would cause the total loss of sympathy with Dave, and the other not so much.
Heh.
Well, considering that the most evil people in this strip have a decided tendency towards cute (Come on, even Madblood’s robot dinosaurs were cute. So was the transformerDave.) I don’t think that cute demons would be particularly reassuring.
Just for example: I can totally see that cyclops demon asking his buddies, “Okay – how many limbs do you think he can lose before he passes out? And do toes or ears count?”
Of course, that would leave one wondering just why Caliban was so surprised by Helen’s behavior….
Yeaaaaaaah!
I guess the vase of petunias is Agrajar from THHGTTG.
Saturday:
This is shameful to admit, but I remember these demons looking a little worse, and clashing more with our host’s art style. It seems my memory has been pleasantly surprised! (Is that… a rat creature in the top-right?)
I think Dave is offending the name of the highly professional, upstanding and respectable Emma Frost (a.k.a IGN.com’s Hottest Comic Book Babe 2005) by dismissing her distinctive and thoughtful attire as mere lingerie. The nerve of him!
Single panel episodes: 6.
@Leon: Or maybe the problem is that Dave’s conception of Helen in ‘Emma Frost’ garb used sexy lingerie instead of what Ms. Frost chose, and hence the demon really *did* appear as Helen in lingerie.
Or maybe it’s just Rule Of Funny.
I’m reminded of one of the illustrations from The Phantom Tollbooth…
The cover of Never for Ever by Kate Bush?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kate_Bush_Never_Forever.jpg>
Any chance of getting Saturday’s panel back up?
The last of these seems to be missing!