The Astonishing Excursions of Helen Narbon & Co, Chapter Six.
March 23, 2008 ~ 8 Comments
A short installment of the Victorian story. Sometimes I could only think of a couple pages’ worth of action for these things. As mentioned previously, the title follows the “Professor Madblood and ___” formula of all Madblood-related storylines in the daily comic. I thought this sort of thing was clever, apparently.
This is the first of two times that Victorian Mell beats the crap out of an enormous monster at Helen’s command. She’s like an attack dog in this storyline. I don’t think present-day Helen ever has present-day Mell this well trained.
I cannot stress enough that the Victorian story was mostly made up as I went along. However, even in the earlier installments I knew Madblood was lying about having invented the fish craft. I mean, just look at his lying beardy face.
Eventually I stopped drawing those creepy lips on the Hapax Legomenon, but not soon enough.
Mell has some good lines on this page. I also like how absurdly Chuck Jones the background conflict gets. I was obviously thinking of the climax of “The Rabbit of Seville.” (Side note: when I got married, I used The Barber of Seville as my wedding march as a tribute to that cartoon.)
Dave is really getting subjected to nonstop indignities lately, isn’t he? In the daily strips he’s a rotting head abandoned on a bus, and here he gets his ass stuck in a porthole. Poor Dave.
This page is taller than the other pages; I added a row of panels. This is the kind of thing you can only do in the wonderful infinite-canvas world of the Web. It’s also one of many reasons the Victorian story would be hard to transfer to print. I really should’ve thought about the bottom line.
Really, the lack of visible walls or ceilings makes it painfully obvious that this is actually set on some kind of theatre stage instead of a fifteen-foot bathysphere.
Requiesat in pace, H. L.
The bottom line is that the bottom line can be tweaked from the normal bottom line.
Sorry.
Well, since you mentioned Chuck Jones, I might as well confess that when I read these strips, my twisted little mind animates them in the style of Fleischer Studios. Which is still about 40 years out of date, but whachagonnado?
“Bottom line” — that was horrible!
I thought Mell had to leave her mounted cannon behind? Or did she just have to leave the big mounted cannon behind?
Also- Mell’s lines in panels 3 and 4, and Helen’s “Oh. I would have,” complete with perfect accompanying facial expression? Classic.
I always imagine them as a sort of cross between chuck jones and the really good old Felix the cat cartoons. All scritchied up and everything. With an old Vaudville piano backround.
By the way: Best Wedding March EVER. Can I steal the Idea?
Break it into two pages and ad cheesy knock-off victorian ads.
Keiya, exactly. See Neil Gaiman’s _A Study in Emerald_ for the sorts of adverts that might do (although most of those ads are foreshadowing).