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Diamondback Ridge Page 31
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Diamondback Ridge Page 31

on July 31, 2016
Chapter: Book 8: Diamondback Ridge
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Discussion ¬

  1. Morrilo
    Morrilo
    July 31, 2016, 12:07 am | # | Reply

    Hey look! they still love each other!

    Joking aside, i find the combination in the frames between present and remembrance amazing.
    i really want to see what happened before Vane died and rose from the flames.

    • Rhee
      Rhee
      July 31, 2016, 8:38 am | # | Reply

      Still lust for one another at least… and I have a feeling this is less lust and more manipulation on Vane’s part…

      • jsfury
        jsfury
        July 31, 2016, 12:52 pm | # | Reply

        Umm, could be.

      • kyriss12
        kyriss12
        August 4, 2016, 5:31 pm | # | Reply

        seems like a lot more than lust to me.
        At one point those two cared for each other deeply enough to wade through heaven and hell to bring each other back from the beyond. Despite everything that has gone wrong since, and all the years of hatred, there’s still some part of them that remembers the good times they once had together.
        you occasionally catch glimpses of it in those rare moments where they aren’t trying to kill each other.

    • Erin
      Erin
      August 2, 2016, 10:19 am | # | Reply

      Thanks Morrilo!

  2. Bex
    Bex
    July 31, 2016, 12:44 am | # | Reply

    Seems like their wounds are burning.. I wonder why? Does fire regenerate them somehow, instead of burning?

    Anyway, I can’t say this was what I expected to happen, despite all evidence to the contrary. I guess I just expected another last minute assassination attempt.

    • caribouchat
      caribouchat
      July 31, 2016, 7:30 am | # | Reply

      I wonder if she’s just distracting him to take the watch? Or maybe not just, but both distracting him and enjoying it…

      Splendid page, Erin, as always, but this one’s really incredibly… hot?

      There’s just a detail bothering me though: I don’t understand what I see under her arm on the left of fourth, no, fifth ‘panel’. Suppose it’s her breast, but not quite sure.

      • Some Guy
        Some Guy
        July 31, 2016, 8:49 am | # | Reply

        Think it’s just the line of her pec muscle above her breast and it’s just too defined. Here look: http://orig07.deviantart.net/1d9b/f/2014/340/6/1/ftorsowip2_by_follygon-d88wl0i.jpg

        And I think this page is pretty creepy and sad, personally

        • Erin
          Erin
          August 2, 2016, 10:36 am | # | Reply

          Yeah, this. I mean that was the intent, anyway! Thanks guys!

  3. ScholarO'Fortune
    ScholarO'Fortune
    July 31, 2016, 5:08 am | # | Reply

    Didn’t Vane have a hole you could ride Diamonds through in her abdomen?

    • ScholarO'Fortune
      ScholarO'Fortune
      July 31, 2016, 5:10 am | # | Reply

      Oh, I missed where JHH “heals” it in the 4th panel. Ignore me.

  4. gothold
    gothold
    July 31, 2016, 11:45 am | # | Reply

    Hey, things are getting wild here! When the barn burns down will they be laying among the smoldering ruins basking in the afterglow?

    will Hunter or Vane be smoking a cigarette?

    Will the posse show up?

    will i stop rambling and finish this comment?

    • jsfury
      jsfury
      July 31, 2016, 12:50 pm | # | Reply

      Your rambling is funny. I like it. XD!

  5. jsfury
    jsfury
    July 31, 2016, 1:09 pm | # | Reply

    And still that insidious brand on Vane’s derriere JHH burns. Is it John Henry’s narcissistic dominance still coming through? That burning brand. Is that what drives Vane’s vengeance? You’re a cruel man John Henry Hunter.

    • Drunken Nordmann
      Drunken Nordmann
      August 1, 2016, 5:42 am | # | Reply

      I always figured he branded her postmortem and it’s part of the ritual that brought her back.

      • jsfury
        jsfury
        August 1, 2016, 7:46 am | # | Reply

        Interesting theory. Yet the branding remains a mystery as to Erin’s whims. Unless I missed something.

        • JefLebowski
          JefLebowski
          August 4, 2016, 12:34 pm | # | Reply

          Branding is what he did to bring his FIREHORSE to live as well. Same brand, also in flames.
          So I am pretty sure it is part of the ritual.

          The position of the brand though…
          Way I figure it he could have placed it anywhere, but chose to brand her the same as a horse. Might jsut be me though <.<

  6. Because
    Because
    July 31, 2016, 4:04 pm | # | Reply

    I’m interested in the significance of the watch in the last scene. Especially as Vane looks almost as white/grey as she does now. Possibly like she is already dead and in a burial clothes. I think the watch and the pentagram beneath their feet and even the branding is also to do with his attempt to save her rather than a display of dominance.
    As he ended up burying her he obviously thought it had failed. Still not certain he views her as alive now. Almost more like you might view someone who you cared about that turned into a vampire. Dead, probably evil and likely to kill you, but still with the face and voice of someone you love and so very hard to bring yourself to destroy it.
    Seems to me his drinking and womanising is a way to try and forget what he has done and how much of a mess his life is. Although he is still obviously working on a plan to change things.

    • RyGuy
      RyGuy
      August 1, 2016, 6:29 pm | # | Reply

      I think he brought her back as an unbound elemental wraith, but failed to grasp how much self loathing she had accumulated in her final mortal hours over the vaccine’s profound failure. Wraiths of this nature may well only die if their caster dies; I think she is trying to kill him because she wants to be dead, as well as out of resentment for bringing her back without permission.

  7. Forest
    Forest
    July 31, 2016, 4:23 pm | # | Reply

    Very beautifully constructed page, with different and flowing panels, and I love how the anatomy looks.

    Why do I have an odd feeling that the story is almost done?

    • Erin
      Erin
      August 2, 2016, 10:20 am | # | Reply

      Thank you kindly, Forest!

  8. Darkening
    Darkening
    July 31, 2016, 6:08 pm | # | Reply

    One minor point I’d like to mention. We don’t get to see Vane’s left hand in this page, without her glove, to see if she’s wearing a wedding ring. It’d be kind of interesting to know, and it seems like that has to be a deliberate choice. I don’t believe we’ve ever seen her gloveless before, though I could be mistaken.

    • Allamorph
      Allamorph
      July 31, 2016, 6:40 pm | # | Reply

      I’m more interested in the color patterns on her hands. They seem to continually shift around. Look in panel three, where she’s got an almost human-color patch on the back of it, with a black band across her fingers, and in four and six where it seems to have disappeared again.

      • Storel
        Storel
        July 31, 2016, 6:52 pm | # | Reply

        This page seems to be a mixture of present-day events and flashback to the past, so it’s possible the shifting you’re seeing is caused by shifting between past and present.

        • Allamorph
          Allamorph
          August 8, 2016, 10:21 pm | # | Reply

          I feel like only the lower-right panel (sans the passion-twined arms) is the flashback here.

          I would like to revise my interest in the patterns, though, since it seems more likely to be just illusions cast by firelight–which, in all honesty, is fantastic attention to detail.

    • Erin
      Erin
      August 2, 2016, 10:21 am | # | Reply

      Er, actually. https://www.nexttownover.net/?p=2226

      Thanks, guys!

      • Darkening
        Darkening
        August 6, 2016, 2:41 pm | # | Reply

        Ah, I’d forgotten that bit.

      • Allamorph
        Allamorph
        August 8, 2016, 10:18 pm | # | Reply

        The poignancy of panels 2, 7, and 8 of that page just now struck me. Well played.

  9. Storel
    Storel
    July 31, 2016, 7:19 pm | # | Reply

    Wow, this page is amazing. You’ve really outdone yourself, Erin. The dreamlike way each moment seems to blend and slide into the next is stunning, as is the sheer heat — physical andmetaphorical. I realize now that “fiery relationship” barely begins to describe what JHH and Vane have between them, and have had between them all along.

    tl,dr: In the immortal words of P. Hilton, “that’s hot.”

    • Erin
      Erin
      August 2, 2016, 10:21 am | # | Reply

      Very much obliged, Storel!

  10. BanditFly
    BanditFly
    August 1, 2016, 5:52 am | # | Reply

    Erin, you are so awesome! I love this comic and this page showcases your talents perfectly (storytelling and art)! 😀 Thanks again for another great one…

    • Erin
      Erin
      August 2, 2016, 10:21 am | # | Reply

      Thank you kindly, Bandit!

  11. Saibot
    Saibot
    August 1, 2016, 8:39 am | # | Reply

    Gotta say, Vane’s missing head in the central montage is more than a little disturbing.

  12. Karyl
    Karyl
    August 1, 2016, 10:56 am | # | Reply

    Hot! 6 ways to Sunday and back again! NOW WHAT???

    • Erin
      Erin
      August 2, 2016, 10:22 am | # | Reply

      Ha. Thanks, Karyl.

  13. Emanon
    Emanon
    August 2, 2016, 8:18 am | # | Reply

    Next we get a time cut a year later and she’s nagging him about the trash while the baby’s crying and he’s dreading going into work at the Western Union tomorrow…

  14. Honzinator
    Honzinator
    August 2, 2016, 9:20 am | # | Reply

    Umm … the wedding ringed hand is the wrong colour … unless she’s reaching around and has regained her ability to flush.
    Otherwise, amazing. Caribouchat is correct about the watch, but Hunter is just as vilely manipulative and seems to be branding her.

    • Erin
      Erin
      August 2, 2016, 10:24 am | # | Reply

      Not sure I understand this comment, Honz. Panel 6, with the brand? It’s, [I feel, fairly obviously] Hunter’s hand, and it’s the right color?

      • Honzinator
        Honzinator
        September 5, 2017, 1:01 pm | # | Reply

        Got it. Seems girlier than his other hand, perhaps because of the contorted joint (which can happen if one is pressing on something), is all, so I was thrown off.

  15. Valentine
    Valentine
    August 3, 2016, 9:23 pm | # | Reply

    Ah fuck I’ve got some catching up to do because I did not expect to come back to this!

  16. Venalitor
    Venalitor
    August 8, 2016, 12:20 pm | # | Reply

    My my, that is a *fancy* way to disrobe.

  17. Ultima
    Ultima
    May 22, 2018, 12:55 pm | # | Reply

    They each left their mark on the other. Vane left the scar from the spine replacement, and Hunter left the brand. They both did it to save the other, and they both hurt from it.

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