Angels: December 12-17, 2005

Dammit, there are few things more fun to draw than Mell getting assumed into Heaven. This whole sequence just about makes the storyline worthwhile.

Like I said before, when I started this storyline, I didn’t have the idea of Mell getting assumed into Heaven. But once things got underway, I realized that the entire plot was building up to this strip. Thank you, Catholic upbringing I apparently didn’t entirely understand!

This comic is excellent. That is all.

The blocking in the third panel is so weird. It’s dramatic and all, just…weird. Sometimes drawing is hard. And sometimes, or, more accurately, often, I dealt with that difficulty by completely giving up and just drawing whatever seemed to be a good idea.

Drawing Caliban from different angles: also sometimes too hard to do correctly.

Since Iris is based on my friend Laura, Iris’s husband is based on Laura’s husband Dennis. He’s a surgeon, hence the cadavers. I guess, as references go, that’s on the obscure side.

Really, the best part of this strip is Seth leaning in and glaring, for no other reason than that he glares a lot. That and the circle of magic fire.

Helen is mostly concerned about Dave going mad and/or cluelessly wreaking mad-scientist havoc, the latter of which just came to pass. But I’m sure she cares about him and stuff too. Dave’s such a romantic.

21 thoughts on “Angels: December 12-17, 2005

  1. To the tune, naturally, of “Ducktales”
    I am not claiming this tune solely, because someone else will make a much better filk later today, I’m sure.

    Do you need to say farewell to them?
    Mell is             
    ready.

    To ascend back with the seraphim
    Ri-sing
    Steady!

    But what’s that sound now?
    It’s rather loud now!
    It’s a 

    Ring-tone! A-Woo-oo!
    Even though you’re flying it’s my
    Ring-tone! Woo-oo!

    Sha-a-a-ah!
    Cal-i-ban’s mad!
    Angel’s broke up
    I-ris’s pad!

    But the place is classed up by Dave’s
    Ring-tone! Woo-oo!
    During Mell’s sacrificial save It’s
    Ring-tone! Woo-oo!

  2. Jeff, I’m running late for work, but I have to say that was excellent.  You win today.

    But I’ll get you next time, Gadget.  Next tiiiime!

  3. Tuesday:

    If you’re wondering why that column of holy light seems much taller than the ceiling of whatever room this is, then the answer is that Mell is also taking all of Iris’s roof with her. These columns of holy light, for all their glory, are basically the same as your common UFO tractor beam.

    In Helen’s defense, this is really one of the most apropos ways to end a storyline that literally takes place over a D&D game. It’s kind of a miracle, really.

  4. (TUNE: “In My Room”, The Beach Boys)

    Here’s an angel,
    Things are strange, all
    Heaven’s breaking loose!
    Mell’s assumed!  Mell’s assumed!

    Made a portal,
    Now some mortal
    Heaven’s bliss must choose!
    Mell’s assumed!  Mell’s assumed!

        Call from Helen, Dave is tellin’ …
        Explanation’s lame!
        She says, “Really?  You big silly,
        Finish up your game!”

    Girl ascending,
    Earth life ending,
    This is not a ruse!
    Mell’s assumed!  Mell’s assumed!

  5. Ok now, what is that reaching into Helen’s lab coat, and the clouds of stuff around her? I actually went back weeks to check the last time we saw her, and she and Artie had just dynamited out of something’s gullet. This looks different. Dryer.

  6. Wednesday:

    R.I.P. Mell, even though she’ll be doing the exact opposite.

    Mell was already divinely touched enough, as her previous unfairly acquired boons have told. Will she squander this latest, greatest power-up as quickly as she did the robot army or Dave’s transformer-car? (No, but just barely.)

  7. At this point, I was sure you were going to eventually reveal that Mel was a little bit of a genius and that she had manipulated at least part of the situation towards this end as opposed to it being a last-minute decision… But you didn’t.

    Still, maybe she’s simply a “genius” at taking advantage of opportunities rather than planning.

  8. (TUNE: “Helen Wheels”, Paul McCartney & Wings)

    Say farewell to the girl named Mell,
    She was vi-o-lent and really hot!
    Celestial bliss, yeah, she knows that this,
    Is her one-in-a-billion shot!

    Now she’s rising higher, while a holy choir
    Is a-belting out the melody!
    Mell’s Assuming, and there’s danger looming,
    Betcha God’s gonna say, “Oh, Me!”

       Mell in, Mell in Heaven!
       Gonna take the danger and crank it up to eleven!
       Mell in, Mell in Heaven!
       ‘Cause an angel came and took her away!

  9. Thursday:

    Sure, it’s easy to judge Ariel, but Human Artie wouldn’t think it an entirely straightforward moral decision. (Gerbils, by the way, are about as far from humanity in the Great Chain of Being as humans are from angels.)

  10. (TUNE: “My Guy”, Mary Wells)

    Ariel today
    Has taken, clean away,
    My girlfriend!
    Can’t believe she’s gone!
    Just hear me carry on!
    My girlfriend!
    I’m confessing to my old celestial ex,
    We got naked and we had some … hot sex!
    Yes, the angel was tricked,
    Now she’s totally squicked!
    My girlfriend!

    Heavenly Assumed,
    And upwardly she zoomed,
    My girlfriend!
    Ariel, we see
    How grossed out she can be!
    Bye, girlfriend!
    Now I’m feeling lots of pain and suf-fer-ing,
    Lost the girl with whom I did the … wild thing!
    Had a body so warm,
    Had a physical form,
    My girlfriend!

  11. Friday:

    I’m pretty sure her losing a shoe was entirely her doing.

    (The search is still ongoing for whoever made it nightfall again since last week.)

  12. Is that what that is? I always thought it was a patch of melted tile that had formed a wave during Mel’s assumption, because of Iris shouting about her tile floor getting damaged when the angel showed up.

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