Comic of the Month

[dmeck7755]

Merry January, everyone!

Meanwhile I'm at page 370 of Gifts of Wandering Ice and my major gripe right now is the junk psychology. Mirror neurons, empaths, etc. But it's too late. I'm hooked on the story. I still think the character writing is not a strong point bit I'm attached anyway. Nothing for it but to see this through to the end and find out what happens to these dorks.

Yeah, I either try and order it in my mind or gloss over stuff that don't make sense.  There are a lot of comics out in the world that way.  I had done that a lot with SSSS.  Which is why some of my stories are a bit weird (Or very weedy)

BTW happy new year also.

So I don't think I'm telling most of you anything you don't already know when I say that Daughter of the Lilies exists, and it is good. But it hasn't been featured here yet, and it's just resumed updating as of November, so now seems like a good time.

Apparently it was on hiatus. (Her work contract forbade outside work).  But the contract was ended early.  So for fans it is back, but the author now is looking for another gig.

The story strikes a delightful balance between being a fun romp and dealing with some incredibly heavy stuff. Tone-wise, it's more or less in line with Phantomarine, a little more pulpy than Suihira and less so than Freelancers. It's a more overtly fantastic and magical world than The Sword Interval or Widdershins, to the point that (to Meg's chagrin) it has been mistaken for a Dungeons and Dragons fan comic. There are hints that it's post-post-apocalyptic, but thus far the story hasn't really leaned into that; you just see wreckage of present-day stuff on the periphery.

I have to say Phantomarine, Suihira, Widdershins, and  Sword Interval were and are very enjoyable.  I should pop over a take a look then


Thank you

[Keep Looking]

I'm up to page 466 of Tiger, Tiger, and the amount of nudity in the comic (which is far from a lot but more than none) is getting uncomfortable. Like, it's not porn, but also here's a dude who clearly just had sex and while he's definitely not doing that at the moment here's his penis anyway. This on top of all the boobs from earlier. On the plus side, I'm looking forward to seeing Sausage eat Ratattack or whatever his name is.

Yeah, I hadn't caught up to that part when I recommended it - I was a little behind and at the point I was reading it was still genital-free. In hindsight, I should've gone back and added a warning about the penis, not everyone likes to see those. Sorry about that. I'm glad you're enjoying it in general, though!

So I don't think I'm telling most of you anything you don't already know when I say that Daughter of the Lilies exists, and it is good. But it hasn't been featured here yet, and it's just resumed updating as of November, so now seems like a good time.

I'll have to catch up on DoTL, then! I used to read it but since it went on hiatus I stopped checking. I can second your recommendation - I think it's a really well-written and enjoyable comic.

[dreki]

Just caught up with Gifts of Wandering Ice and

Spoilered by Jitter the mod!

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it feels like the author got sick of the original premise and so forced it to be more scifi/adventure.

I'm still confused about what the time skip is, if any I guess, between everyone dying from the plague to them fighting mind controlled puppets or something.

We still don't know if Rikta survived. Starting to think we won't find out.

[Jitter]

Gifts of Wandering Ice spoilers p 350=>

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I’m around the start of the plague and frankly it’s uncomfortable with the cytokine storm and all. Wouldn’t one apocalypse per comic be sufficient?

[dreki]

Gifts of Wandering Ice spoilers p 350=>

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I’m around the start of the plague and frankly it’s uncomfortable with the cytokine storm and all. Wouldn’t one apocalypse per comic be sufficient?

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Cytokine storms are a response to infection.  It's the same plague.

[Jitter]

Gifts of wandering ice

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Cytokine storms are a response to infection.  It's the same plague.

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I know the cytokine storm is caused by the avian flu. It just freaks me out because it is the same mechanism with Covid, and this one was written in 2017. I mean, the mechanism was known before but still it felt eerie.

I meant the tsunami / ice age (would that be one or two apocalypses?) that had led to the situation Rikter, Rita, Tim etc are in as the first and their pandemic as the surplus apocalypse

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And I agree with you, suddenly it becomes a whole different story! I’m not up to date yet but from p 459 where ault Ash wakes up it’s just ”and where did all of this come from ???”

[dreki]

Gifts of wandering ice

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I know the cytokine storm is caused by the avian flu. It just freaks me out because it is the same mechanism with Covid, and this one was written in 2017. I mean, the mechanism was known before but still it felt eerie.

I meant the tsunami / ice age (would that be one or two apocalypses?) that had led to the situation Rikter, Rita, Tim etc are in as the first and their pandemic as the surplus apocalypse

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Ah I see.  Yeah no everything kind of slammed down on humanity and it gets to be too much. 

Honestly it bothers me how long they seem to have been at their current level without working to get more industry going. Seems like they just coasted on old world technology for centuries and just shrugged about what would happen when the batteries ran out.

 

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And I agree with you, suddenly it becomes a whole different story! I’m not up to date yet but from p 459 where ault Ash wakes up it’s just ”and where did all of this come from ???”

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That didn't bother me too much because I initially assumed it was a flashback. But yes it all gets insane.

[Jitter]

Gifts of wandering ice, up to today p 869

Yeah, like others have said, it’s not necessarily something I like a lot, but it definitely held my attention! I liked the first part better, all the hard scifi stuff was weirder.

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I get that the part with 30 something Ash was a flashback, but all of this fighting just takes place during the pandemic and within a copuple of days, right? So Rita is still dying and Rikter wounded and lost after his fall?

I see possibilities for another complete overhaul: Ellie will get loads of batteries, the medical machines cure the avian flu, and suddenly it’s back to being free to become whatever completely different. Although it seems no actual opening is needed, if the author just wants a change of pace, premise and world Which the author obviously has every right to. But it’s confusing.

Still, worth a read, unless you HATE it when things are left hanging and the story goes into a new direction.

[dreki]

Gifts of wandering ice, up to today p 869

Yeah, like others have said, it’s not necessarily something I like a lot, but it definitely held my attention! I liked the first part better, all the hard scifi stuff was weirder.

Spoiler: show

I get that the part with 30 something Ash was a flashback, but all of this fighting just takes place during the pandemic and within a copuple of days, right? So Rita is still dying and Rikter wounded and lost after his fall?

I see possibilities for another complete overhaul: Ellie will get loads of batteries, the medical machines cure the avian flu, and suddenly it’s back to being free to become whatever completely different. Although it seems no actual opening is needed, if the author just wants a change of pace, premise and world Which the author obviously has every right to. But it’s confusing.

Still, worth a read, unless you HATE it when things are left hanging and the story goes into a new direction.

I agree it's worth a read and hopefully it'll circle back to the early stuff eventually.

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  I have to be honest I am SO confused abiut the Elie -> Ellie timeline.  It seems like Elie expected it to just be a few minutes, maybe a few hours, in the real world.

But she went to sleep in a world consumed by plague and woke up with only vague mentions to the avian flu, no one seeming to be worried about catching it, and this new sci fi villain mind controlling all the men.

Which we're going to need an explanation of how the men got psi-whatevered since it seems to be a difficult and somewhat time consuming process?

I'd expect Elie/Ellie to have been out for, like, at least a few weeks.

And back to your previous comment about apocalypses - so they had Martian war, Martian made killer flu, and ice age/tsunami.

It's a bit much!

[dreki]

On page 400-somwthing of daughter of the lilies

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I'm really happy we know Thistle is a valued member of the team before we get her tragic backstory because that would be really hard for me to get through not knowing if it ever gets betrer for her.

Eta - caught up and feeling disappointed in the second book.  Nothing much seemed to happen compared to the first.

Also a bit irritated that the horrible disfigurement that has to be hidden is that she's conventionally attractive but a different race.  Pretty severe racism of course but eh.

[dmeck7755]

Gifts of wandering ice

Gifts of Wandering Ice spoilers p 350=>

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I’m around the start of the plague and frankly it’s uncomfortable with the cytokine storm and all. Wouldn’t one apocalypse per comic be sufficient?

 

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cytokine storm is a very real and worrisome thing.  It happens to Flu patient a lot and also occurred with many early COVID patients. (Many lost limbs)

[dmeck7755]

Gifts of wandering ice

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I meant the tsunami / ice age (would that be one or two apocalypses?) that had led to the situation Rikter, Rita, Tim etc are in as the first and their pandemic as the surplus apocalypse

Spoiler: show

And I agree with you, suddenly it becomes a whole different story! I’m not up to date yet but from p 459 where ault Ash wakes up it’s just ”and where did all of this come from ???”

Spoiler: show

The way I read it there was a war and people on Mars attacked the earth.  I felt the tsunami and the 'super flu' were the result of that war.

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The Ash arc was a flashback within a flash back.  I had to re-read it a few times to get that.  She does flip the story around quite a bit.  That was one of my complaints when I wrote about the comic.  I am sorry it fell short

[dreki]

Gifts of wandering ice

Spoiler: show

The way I read it there was a war and people on Mars attacked the earth.  I felt the tsunami and the 'super flu' were the result of that war.

Spoiler: show

The Ash arc was a flashback within a flash back.  I had to re-read it a few times to get that.  She does flip the story around quite a bit.  That was one of my complaints when I wrote about the comic.  I am sorry it fell short

Spoiler: show

 The super flu is definitely a result. I think it's explicitly stated that it was developed as biological warfare in that war. I think you may be right that they said the tsunami was as well.  It still feels like too much. 

(There's also too many walls of text in the second part as well.)

I'm still glad I read it but honestly I'm only glad I read the start.

[thorny]

Maybe somebody should start an open-spoilers separate thread for Gifts of Wandering Ice, and maybe relevant  posts could be moved over there?

[dreki]

I don't have a particular desire to keep discussing it long term.  I think it's a side effect of having a comic of the month.

How do we book a slot? I have a good one for next month.