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The Chimney Page 19
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The Chimney Page 19

on July 28, 2019
Chapter: Book 11: The Chimney
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Discussion ¬

  1. Manabi
    Manabi
    July 28, 2019, 12:29 am | # | Reply

    I know it’s a comic and a fantasy setting where magic works, but that’s still a damned impressive feat by Vane. It looks like the artificial spine’s even plugged up to keep it working prior to install.

    Gotta wonder what happened to her last test patient, though, because that one must have survived the operation before she’d attempt this on Hunter himself.

  2. CptNerd
    CptNerd
    July 28, 2019, 2:15 am | # | Reply

    Doesn’t look like she’s giving him any choice in the matter.

  3. hellsheep
    hellsheep
    July 28, 2019, 4:55 am | # | Reply

    It’s so interesting to see that turn. Hunter made Vane what she is today and he did it out of love, didn’t he… and Vane made Hunter what he is today. But I am not sure she did it because of love.

    • drealm2459
      drealm2459
      July 29, 2019, 1:52 pm | # | Reply

      I think you have it backwards. I think she did THIS out of both duty and love. Hunter resented what she turned him into at first. And punished her and turned her into what she is. (an basically undead woman with an living flame inside her keeping her going.) Which is why she chases him with a vengeance. Because that’s what she wants. VENGANCE.

      • Mustachio
        Mustachio
        July 29, 2019, 8:05 pm | # | Reply

        Well, the alternative to flaming undeath was real death, cold and alone, buried 6 feet deep. I’m just annoyed that removing the living flame from her didn’t remove her hatred. Grrr.

      • hellsheep
        hellsheep
        July 30, 2019, 5:00 am | # | Reply

        I think you got it wrong. First, I don’t think he wanted to punish her. After all I’ve seen from him and his interaction even with her “corpse” he loves her. And returned her because of that. But he didn’t return Vane, he returned a spirit of vengance into a dead body, when the spirit was out of her body for a short moment, she was someone else, she was his wife again.

        • drealm2459
          drealm2459
          July 30, 2019, 1:59 pm | # | Reply

          read what he says in the very first panel. Then look at his face in the 3rd panel. and then the close up of his eye. and tell me he isn’t feeling hate resentment and a need to punish her for what she is doing in spite of what he told her in the first panel. I think you are forest for the trees here. The fact is yes she started this by doing what she did here. BUT unless we see that she died and he brought her back. Your take on this is wrong. because the only other way she could be what she is now. Is if hunter turned her into it as an act of punishment. As in she was alive and he did this to her. Also the interaction with her “corpse” can be seen as the actions of man who was feeling guilt. over things he did to cause this mess.

          • drealm2459
            drealm2459
            July 30, 2019, 2:16 pm | #

            P.S. The line between love and hate is thick as one hair. it is not a cut and dry thing. I have seen people who love and hate one another at the same time. I and my ex are very good example of this. love each other deeply. and have admitted it to each other. But put us in the same room homicide is on the table. And it is not clear who going to kill who. This is why we live in different states, talk rarely and walk on eggshells when we do talk.

    • Honzinator
      Honzinator
      July 31, 2019, 2:46 pm | # | Reply

      He felt obligation and perhaps love … but drealm2459 has a particularly creepy female perspective on the motivations involved that also works.

      • drealm2459
        drealm2459
        August 1, 2019, 3:56 pm | # | Reply

        why it gave me a female avatar I have no clue. but I am very male. but yes the ex was more then a little out there. totally unable to take responsibility for her actions. she would mess up and it was always someone else’s fault. I on the other hand would mess up and take the hit. my problem was her blaming me for her screw ups. no one is right 100% all the time and perfect.

        • drealm2459
          drealm2459
          August 1, 2019, 4:06 pm | # | Reply

          I broke the first rule of relationships. ” Never ever sleep with someone crazier then you are.” But in my defense when met and dated she behaved “normal” the crazy didn’t pop out till after we got married.

          • Honzinator
            Honzinator
            August 3, 2019, 1:59 pm | #

            Ouch. I feel for you drealm2459.
            Not that it matters, but I read your comment and went “girl motive!” before I saw your avatar.
            Since our author is a lady … well, the distaff side thinks differently than chaps do. Usually, we’re a lot more linear. It’s one reason male serial killers are so much easier to catch (another is that cops tend to be men).

  4. Canfan
    Canfan
    July 28, 2019, 9:14 am | # | Reply

    “I made you, you made me first.”

    • drealm2459
      drealm2459
      July 29, 2019, 1:54 pm | # | Reply

      the quote is ” You made me!… You made me first.”

  5. jsfury
    jsfury
    July 28, 2019, 3:35 pm | # | Reply

    Tough page indeed Erin, the lift alone must have took you a couple weeks to do. I was wondering how Vane was going to do this. Now I know. Then there’s that spinal column. You have such vivid thoughts on how you are going to draw up each page.

    I still wonder how John Henry got to be paralyzed. Maybe we’ll be privy to that pretty soon. Then there’s the question of Vane. How did she die?

    • Honzinator
      Honzinator
      August 3, 2019, 2:00 pm | # | Reply

      Didn’t Vane die by plague?

  6. Brent O'Gara
    Brent O'Gara
    July 28, 2019, 3:59 pm | # | Reply

    Amazing page, totally worth the wait. These two will love each other to death, won’t they?

    JHH is a stronger man than I… I’d have been crying and begging for mercy just looking at this operating theater of horrors.

  7. B0mar
    B0mar
    July 28, 2019, 9:46 pm | # | Reply

    Yikes! I was VERY taken with your choice to render John Henry Hunter with all the intensity, wit, and charm of an athletic Vincent Price. I even consider asking for a commission [from Price’s Comedy of Terrors – Vincent / JHH with Stovepipe Hat , and Funerary Garb, in a large, empty, hall, shouting to the Heavens: “Is there NO morality left in the world?!!”] I understand your choice now. This, by degrees has become a Steampunk-Western-HORROR Story. You have something really unique here [if I may qualify a superlative.] While Hunter IS dangerous, and certainly has that Aura, he has never brought the fight to Vane. He is always oddly defensive. Vane is the one who is emerging as Genuinely Dangerous, and she was before she was demonically possessed. Vane is not one of Phil Foglio’s “Sparks.” She is an actual “because I can” Mad Scientist. It begins to look like some aspect of who she already was attracted that Demon, and made it feel at home.

    • Honzinator
      Honzinator
      July 31, 2019, 2:51 pm | # | Reply

      I still like her, but … yeah.
      I may still prefer Vane because I somehow like the Imperiales. Of course, I’m not a fan of Cinco de Mayo for that very reason, so … or I just find her … pun consciously adopted, but not initially intended, hot.

  8. Skatie
    Skatie
    July 28, 2019, 11:17 pm | # | Reply

    So. Creepy. I agree with Bomar’s comment, and yet the horror aspect was so well hidden up until now. But damn, you’ve ripped that bandaid right off with this page, haven’t you? No more hiding from the truly awful things that are about to happen to poor JHH.

  9. Kedamono
    Kedamono
    July 28, 2019, 11:35 pm | # | Reply

    I think a George Takei “Oh Myyy” would be appropriate for this scene. I think Vane probably practiced on animals before prepping JHH for his “treatment”. It does mean the removal of his existing spinal cord, not something you do lightly…

  10. Manabi
    Manabi
    July 30, 2019, 1:31 am | # | Reply

    While we don’t know what happened for certain yet, we have some good clues as to how Hunter got paralyzed by piecing together flashback scenes.

    In Via Dolorosa #01, Vane’s moving freight using a steam-powered exoskeleton. Then she has her arms (and those of the machine) stretched out in front of her, looking at them. In the penultimate panel, Hunter comes in the door behind her. Later in Via Dolorosa #19, the final panel goes back into a flashback and Hunter’s lying on the floor, apparently paralyzed since the next page shows him stuck in bed due to paralysis.

    So it looks like Vane accidentally broke his spine with that exoskeleton, a machine she probably built herself.

    • jsfury
      jsfury
      July 31, 2019, 6:54 am | # | Reply

      I had to go back and review those pages f Via Dolorosa, a most violent chapter, to see what you were referring to. I believe you are right. It does appear Vane may have caused John Henry’s situation. Hmm.

      • Honzinator
        Honzinator
        July 31, 2019, 2:52 pm | # | Reply

        Soo much guilt.

    • ParietalSeerOfLeyLinesSpellingGoetia
      ParietalSeerOfLeyLinesSpellingGoetia
      September 2, 2021, 2:14 pm | # | Reply

      Interesting. Quite plausible. And Hunter, the “flame,” getting crushed by said mechanism is quite a bit like the “confinement” Coyote teased him with.

  11. B0mar
    B0mar
    July 31, 2019, 12:19 pm | # | Reply

    So what was “The Promise,” and when was it made? Does she mean the “… in Sickness and in Health …” Vow?

    • Manabi
      Manabi
      August 4, 2019, 8:07 pm | # | Reply

      My guess is she promised to cure his paralysis. If I’m right that she’s the one that was responsible for his paralysis, (see comment above) it’d make perfect sense why she’s damn near obsessed with doing so.

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