Also, I am excited that the comic seems to be transitioning from “hook” mode into more detailed story-telling. Also: MUWAHAHAHAHA I AM ALL THE COMMENTS.
Well, now. Ain’t that interesting? It does make one wonder just how Hunter learned pyronecromancy. And whether Miz Black set out to make a virus or a vaccine in the first place. But I don’t think “anything” is quite accurate. I don’t quite foresee Hunter standing back and letting her shoot him, for one thing.
I meant more along the lines of his “anything”is rings rather hollow, since all the lady apparently wants is his corpse. She didn’t look like she was going to shoot until he started heading toward her though.
I’m also starting to wonder if maybe Hunter was a widower when he met her. Shame we couldn’t see his gloveless hands in the first few flashbacks.
But it’s curious. Now that I think about it, Hunter walks around with enough literal firepower to vaporize a regiment. Miss Black may be a pyromantic reanimated corpse with huge amounts of steampunk tech knowledge, but at the end of the day, she’s still just a human being with guns. Look at what Hunter is capable of doing- yet the most he’s done against her is flee and cover his tracks.
Maybe he’s going for her rifle, but I doubt he wishes to hurt her.
Why then is this encounter so nobly entertained? “Come sir, let’s toot.” And yes, none of you will even begin to understand what I just wrote. Anyway, it is odd to see John Henry’s calmness towards Vane when all she wants to do is kill him. Vane, Vane my dear woman, what’s it going to take to extinguish the fire of hate in your eyes? Hmmm.
Uhhhm… help, please? I don’t quite understand what they’re saying to each other, or are there spelling mistakes? That English’s not my first language isn’t helping, I guess. I mean, first panel, “lick and a promise…” should that read “luck and a promise”? Or is lick a synonym for alcohol? Also, what are the “reddest districts of red fork”? And my dictionary has nothing for “conscion” either… Help!
No spelling mistakes, but if English isn’t your first language I may have lost you, yeah!
“Lick and a promise” is an old-timey English idiom meaning, more or less, to half-ass or do something poorly. I.e. “No time to clean up after dinner; all I could give the kitchen was a lick and a promise.”
“Reddest districts of Red Fork” refers to prostitutes, which usually reside in a city’s “red light district.” Black and Hunter [presumably] hail from the river city Red Fork, and Black is [trying to be] clever with her phrasing.
“Conscion” is a pretty rare, archaic verb that just means to find something conscionable, more or less. “Justify” would act vaguely synonymous here.
Ooooh, thanks for that! I think I got the gist of it, but really wasn’t all that sure. And my goodness, Hunter is really heartbroken over her death, isn’t he? A case of not being able to let go, poor dear.
THAAAANKS Lleyn you asked,,, and Thanks Erin you answered. I was in same problem.. ajajajaj fortunatelly my doub only remains a couple of seconds.. from strip to your explanation…
THAAAANKS Lleyn you asked,,, and Thanks Erin you answered. I was in same problem.. ajajajaj fortunatelly my doub only remains a couple of seconds.. from strip to your explanation…
Even for those who are native english speakers, “conscion” is pretty esoteric. I seem to recall seeing it used somewhere ere this, but can’t think where – maybe Shakespeare? I couldn’t find it on dictionary.com, though, so perhaps I am just mis-rememberin’ a use of “conscience”. “Lick and a promise” is an interesting phrase. I know the idiom, but never considered the derivation. I wonder if it has something to do with “the checks in the mail.” As in, “I told the creditor the check was in the mail, but all I could send was a postcard with a lick and a promise.” (The lick would refer to the stamp needed to mail it, and the promise to the IOU.)
“half-senseless and still buried to the best of my ability in work and hog fever specimens, the better to turn a blind eye to your prowling the ressest districts of red fork looking for… what, precisely was it? Whores you could conscion killing?”
Jeyl, it sounds to me like while Vane was working on finding, presumably, a vaccine for her condition, she was working using other subjects (either people who had already contracted “hog fever” or perhaps animals with a similar disease). I assume Hunter started trawling the red district for people he considered trash to infect with the disease in order to provide Vane with more subjects to work on…
I think she’s talking about Hunter killing whores for her to use to develop the vaccine she was working on. They used to work together and they seemed to be very, very close (maybe even married?).
Um, errr, you do know that a vaccine does nothing to help already sick and infected people. They need a viracide. Those are tricky. Of course that is here in my world. I can’t fix my horses leg with bolts or throw fire around either. Carry on.
You’re right of course and no one’s suggesting a vaccine would help already sick and infected people.
(Part of me also wants to be an irritating pedant and point out that the rabies vaccine is almost always given post-infection in humans but not only is this an obnoxious borderline example — the rabies virus moves incredibly slowly.)
I’m intrigued by the foot language. It reminds me of feminine automatic emotional gestures – but also of a horse’s movements. The gaiters seem to accentuate the latter… She seems to be all and none of the above any more, and closer to Diamonds than to anyone human.
I love this turn in the story – and the pause in the running.
I suspect that Hunter would..and DID…do anything for Vane. I’m guessing that whatever magic he possessed before was completely insufficient to raise the dead-and that he dabbled in the most repugnant of human sacrifices in order to wreak the spell that raised her…
And her resurrection is incomplete for all that. Her skin is lifeless, her eyes burn with Hell’s own flames and I doubt that she feels human in the least-indeed, she may lack the comfort of a heartbeat, and feel her environment as numbly as if the world were coated in sackcloth. Even worse, perhaps she burns inside, from her internal wrath or the remnants of the Violet Fever in her body.
IF I am correct, then Vane died a horrible death, was denied her Eternal Rest and walks the earth a mockery of humanity, her life reanimated with the lives of murdered women, an abomination whose existence mocks her own scientific view of the world as well as any ethical or religious convictions that she may ever have had. She feels and is utterly inhuman and can never interact with humanity in more than a cursory or casual way, lest they come to know her for the walking blasphemy against nature she is…
And Hunter DID this to her, out of his loss and because he could not let her go. And as long as Hunter is alive, and his sorcery active, she cannot die…and Hunter will not withdraw the animating force from her as long as he breathes.
If I am correct in my guesswork, then there may only be three outcomes to this story:
1) Hunter learns to let Vane go, and either withdraws the animating force from Vane or or reduces her to dead ash, freeing her spirit
2) Vane kills Hunter, whether by skill or by Hunter finally letting her, and is in turn released from death
3) Vane kills Hunter, discovers to her horror that his magic lives after him, and wanders off seek a means of permanent death
Sadly, I do not see a happy ending. Mind you, Erin is incredibly creative and could easily turn my theories to just with a wave of her pen!
That would do a lot to explain why she’s been so doggedly pursuing and attempting to kill him and why he refuses to do anything to really hurt her. From what I can tell, you don’t seem too far off in most of it.
hmm, not quite happy but another possibility, Hunter accepts that he can’t keep her in this world, but instead of letting go he goes with her. all sorts of symbolic ways you can do that and i think they would be a bit happier than ending it in violence
Most of what you have said i agree with, but while it is still a possibility i don’t want to believe that she was brought back with the death of the whores. to start with he started killing whores before she was dead so he was probably doing it for her research, but also when he brought back the horse he didn’t need to kill anything
He killed the horse before bringing it back. But I agree, the whores were probably “collected” by him for her research, not to reanimate her. But woah, interesting theory, order99!
Funny how a person can think that they are doing everything for a loved one without considering once whether that is what the loved one wants. Perhaps if he’d just stayed home and made sure she was as comfortable as could be in her situation, he’d have done more for her than go hunting for specimens for her research. Especially since he did seem a bit condescending on her research / illness judging from his comments about it in the flashbacks.
I wonder if Hunter can make good on his assurance that he -will- do anything for her, even if that anything means killing her / dying for her.
I think if there was an outbreak of the illness, she would have had plenty of specimens to work with. Also most scientists test this kind of deadly shite on animals first, and I doubt she was any different, whatever the state of her current morals is. (On that one, the only human she’s physically harmed was the blacksmith, and that was due to a traumatic flashback. She doesn’t seem too caring about animal welfare, but killing folks ain’t exactly her m.o.). It also seemed like she was pretty established in her trade, and I can’t think of a single IRB that would okay such shady research practices.
Beyond that, what’s a dead whore going to get her? Not exactly the best specimen for a vaccine, by virtue of already being being expired. Might as well use cell cultures, while you’re at it. Besides, Occam’s razor suggests if you need body parts, why kill a whore when you can rob a graveyard? I would assume even in their world that’s a lot less risky of an endeavor. I doubt the woman would just accept a couple of fresh corpses from her lover without asking questions. Especially not one who seemed to be held in rather high regard in life. (See, e.g., all of the people at her funeral.) Granted, she tried to ignore his Jack-the-Ripperesque tendencies, but if work was a distraction from his antics, having the corpses of his victims there wouldn’t exactly serve the purpose of distracting.
I’m sticking to my practicing his fire magic theory in regards to the deceased prostitutes. Granted, all of the above just may be wrong in case she was involved in the manufacture of weapons of biological warfare. But I do think she’s lighter grey than Hunter on the morality scale.
Uh, I think you have an error here.
ERROR NO MORE!
Also, I am excited that the comic seems to be transitioning from “hook” mode into more detailed story-telling. Also: MUWAHAHAHAHA I AM ALL THE COMMENTS.
Well, now. Ain’t that interesting? It does make one wonder just how Hunter learned pyronecromancy. And whether Miz Black set out to make a virus or a vaccine in the first place. But I don’t think “anything” is quite accurate. I don’t quite foresee Hunter standing back and letting her shoot him, for one thing.
Hence the reason he’s getting closer to her, imo. That’s the problem with rifles in close quarters.
I meant more along the lines of his “anything”is rings rather hollow, since all the lady apparently wants is his corpse. She didn’t look like she was going to shoot until he started heading toward her though.
I’m also starting to wonder if maybe Hunter was a widower when he met her. Shame we couldn’t see his gloveless hands in the first few flashbacks.
But it’s curious. Now that I think about it, Hunter walks around with enough literal firepower to vaporize a regiment. Miss Black may be a pyromantic reanimated corpse with huge amounts of steampunk tech knowledge, but at the end of the day, she’s still just a human being with guns. Look at what Hunter is capable of doing- yet the most he’s done against her is flee and cover his tracks.
Maybe he’s going for her rifle, but I doubt he wishes to hurt her.
i would guess that that ‘anything’ is a reaffirmation of love, that she doesn’t seem to return at the moment
ohh… this is sad. and delicious. like if your grandmother made you a batch of cookies right before she kicked the bucket.
Seeing the two just talking is almost surreal.
Absolutely. For once it isn’t shoot first, ask questions never.
Definitely clarifies one of those barbs from Whiskey Bend… xP
Secrets revealed! This is probably my favourite page so far. 🙂
Great to hear! This was another one I felt I had to rush too much.
I sooo hope that when Doc comes back Hunter will introduce Miss Black as his wife…
On other hand Dogs and animals in general don’t like supernatural much so I’d say that’s why he growled at our favourite walking dead.
My thoughts exactly!
My God, I love this story.
😀 Huge compliment. Thanks so much.
BUDDY COPS
THIS SHIT JUST GOT CRAZY
Why then is this encounter so nobly entertained? “Come sir, let’s toot.” And yes, none of you will even begin to understand what I just wrote. Anyway, it is odd to see John Henry’s calmness towards Vane when all she wants to do is kill him. Vane, Vane my dear woman, what’s it going to take to extinguish the fire of hate in your eyes? Hmmm.
Ha!
I have said this before and I shall say it again: This is the single most intriguing and lovely comic I have ever laid eyes on.
Whoa. Thank you very kindly.
I love her sneer! and how it’s shown in close-up. this is such a grand page, yes siree!
Many thanks!
This just keeps getting betta and betta…
But if there’s two bettas … won’t they fight?!
(Thanks so much! 🙂 )
Sounds fishy to me~~~~
This is storytelling at it’s finest!
Bravo! I say!
Wow, thank you so much!
Uhhhm… help, please? I don’t quite understand what they’re saying to each other, or are there spelling mistakes? That English’s not my first language isn’t helping, I guess. I mean, first panel, “lick and a promise…” should that read “luck and a promise”? Or is lick a synonym for alcohol? Also, what are the “reddest districts of red fork”? And my dictionary has nothing for “conscion” either… Help!
No spelling mistakes, but if English isn’t your first language I may have lost you, yeah!
“Lick and a promise” is an old-timey English idiom meaning, more or less, to half-ass or do something poorly. I.e. “No time to clean up after dinner; all I could give the kitchen was a lick and a promise.”
“Reddest districts of Red Fork” refers to prostitutes, which usually reside in a city’s “red light district.” Black and Hunter [presumably] hail from the river city Red Fork, and Black is [trying to be] clever with her phrasing.
“Conscion” is a pretty rare, archaic verb that just means to find something conscionable, more or less. “Justify” would act vaguely synonymous here.
Ooooh, thanks for that! I think I got the gist of it, but really wasn’t all that sure. And my goodness, Hunter is really heartbroken over her death, isn’t he? A case of not being able to let go, poor dear.
THAAAANKS Lleyn you asked,,, and Thanks Erin you answered. I was in same problem.. ajajajaj fortunatelly my doub only remains a couple of seconds.. from strip to your explanation…
THAAAANKS Lleyn you asked,,, and Thanks Erin you answered. I was in same problem.. ajajajaj fortunatelly my doub only remains a couple of seconds.. from strip to your explanation…
Even for those who are native english speakers, “conscion” is pretty esoteric.
I seem to recall seeing it used somewhere ere this, but can’t think where – maybe Shakespeare? I couldn’t find it on dictionary.com, though, so perhaps I am just mis-rememberin’ a use of “conscience”.
“Lick and a promise” is an interesting phrase. I know the idiom, but never considered the derivation. I wonder if it has something to do with “the checks in the mail.” As in, “I told the creditor the check was in the mail, but all I could send was a postcard with a lick and a promise.” (The lick would refer to the stamp needed to mail it, and the promise to the IOU.)
“half-senseless and still buried to the best of my ability in work and hog fever specimens, the better to turn a blind eye to your prowling the ressest districts of red fork looking for… what, precisely was it? Whores you could conscion killing?”
I don’t understand… what is she talking about?
Jeyl, it sounds to me like while Vane was working on finding, presumably, a vaccine for her condition, she was working using other subjects (either people who had already contracted “hog fever” or perhaps animals with a similar disease). I assume Hunter started trawling the red district for people he considered trash to infect with the disease in order to provide Vane with more subjects to work on…
I think she’s talking about Hunter killing whores for her to use to develop the vaccine she was working on. They used to work together and they seemed to be very, very close (maybe even married?).
I’m under the impression Hunter was killing prostitutes to figure out how to bring them back to life via fire magic.
Um, errr, you do know that a vaccine does nothing to help already sick and infected people. They need a viracide. Those are tricky. Of course that is here in my world. I can’t fix my horses leg with bolts or throw fire around either. Carry on.
You’re right of course and no one’s suggesting a vaccine would help already sick and infected people.
(Part of me also wants to be an irritating pedant and point out that the rabies vaccine is almost always given post-infection in humans but not only is this an obnoxious borderline example — the rabies virus moves incredibly slowly.)
I’m intrigued by the foot language. It reminds me of feminine automatic emotional gestures – but also of a horse’s movements. The gaiters seem to accentuate the latter… She seems to be all and none of the above any more, and closer to Diamonds than to anyone human.
I love this turn in the story – and the pause in the running.
Your analyses always blow me away.
Thanks much!
Damn, girl.
Just sweet work here!
Thank you kindly & good to hear from you again. 😀
I suspect that Hunter would..and DID…do anything for Vane. I’m guessing that whatever magic he possessed before was completely insufficient to raise the dead-and that he dabbled in the most repugnant of human sacrifices in order to wreak the spell that raised her…
And her resurrection is incomplete for all that. Her skin is lifeless, her eyes burn with Hell’s own flames and I doubt that she feels human in the least-indeed, she may lack the comfort of a heartbeat, and feel her environment as numbly as if the world were coated in sackcloth. Even worse, perhaps she burns inside, from her internal wrath or the remnants of the Violet Fever in her body.
IF I am correct, then Vane died a horrible death, was denied her Eternal Rest and walks the earth a mockery of humanity, her life reanimated with the lives of murdered women, an abomination whose existence mocks her own scientific view of the world as well as any ethical or religious convictions that she may ever have had. She feels and is utterly inhuman and can never interact with humanity in more than a cursory or casual way, lest they come to know her for the walking blasphemy against nature she is…
And Hunter DID this to her, out of his loss and because he could not let her go. And as long as Hunter is alive, and his sorcery active, she cannot die…and Hunter will not withdraw the animating force from her as long as he breathes.
If I am correct in my guesswork, then there may only be three outcomes to this story:
1) Hunter learns to let Vane go, and either withdraws the animating force from Vane or or reduces her to dead ash, freeing her spirit
2) Vane kills Hunter, whether by skill or by Hunter finally letting her, and is in turn released from death
3) Vane kills Hunter, discovers to her horror that his magic lives after him, and wanders off seek a means of permanent death
Sadly, I do not see a happy ending. Mind you, Erin is incredibly creative and could easily turn my theories to just with a wave of her pen!
As always, flawless storytelling and art!
Obviously I don’t want to tip my hand confirming/denying but whoa! That’s quite a breakdown. I hope it generates some discussion — it ought to!
Thanks so much for the kind words, too!
That would do a lot to explain why she’s been so doggedly pursuing and attempting to kill him and why he refuses to do anything to really hurt her. From what I can tell, you don’t seem too far off in most of it.
hmm, not quite happy but another possibility, Hunter accepts that he can’t keep her in this world, but instead of letting go he goes with her. all sorts of symbolic ways you can do that and i think they would be a bit happier than ending it in violence
Most of what you have said i agree with, but while it is still a possibility i don’t want to believe that she was brought back with the death of the whores. to start with he started killing whores before she was dead so he was probably doing it for her research, but also when he brought back the horse he didn’t need to kill anything
He killed the horse before bringing it back. But I agree, the whores were probably “collected” by him for her research, not to reanimate her. But woah, interesting theory, order99!
Funny how a person can think that they are doing everything for a loved one without considering once whether that is what the loved one wants. Perhaps if he’d just stayed home and made sure she was as comfortable as could be in her situation, he’d have done more for her than go hunting for specimens for her research. Especially since he did seem a bit condescending on her research / illness judging from his comments about it in the flashbacks.
I wonder if Hunter can make good on his assurance that he -will- do anything for her, even if that anything means killing her / dying for her.
I think if there was an outbreak of the illness, she would have had plenty of specimens to work with. Also most scientists test this kind of deadly shite on animals first, and I doubt she was any different, whatever the state of her current morals is. (On that one, the only human she’s physically harmed was the blacksmith, and that was due to a traumatic flashback. She doesn’t seem too caring about animal welfare, but killing folks ain’t exactly her m.o.). It also seemed like she was pretty established in her trade, and I can’t think of a single IRB that would okay such shady research practices.
Beyond that, what’s a dead whore going to get her? Not exactly the best specimen for a vaccine, by virtue of already being being expired. Might as well use cell cultures, while you’re at it. Besides, Occam’s razor suggests if you need body parts, why kill a whore when you can rob a graveyard? I would assume even in their world that’s a lot less risky of an endeavor. I doubt the woman would just accept a couple of fresh corpses from her lover without asking questions. Especially not one who seemed to be held in rather high regard in life. (See, e.g., all of the people at her funeral.) Granted, she tried to ignore his Jack-the-Ripperesque tendencies, but if work was a distraction from his antics, having the corpses of his victims there wouldn’t exactly serve the purpose of distracting.
I’m sticking to my practicing his fire magic theory in regards to the deceased prostitutes. Granted, all of the above just may be wrong in case she was involved in the manufacture of weapons of biological warfare. But I do think she’s lighter grey than Hunter on the morality scale.
Oh YEAH!! Love it love it.
why this thug is so sympathic? oooh good job.