Into Silence - Chapters 3 & 4

[Jitter]

There are also photos of a troll (or giant) in the report(?) partially visible from under the train designs on page 156. Interestingly familiar hand / claw btw!

I love the succession of the landscape panels here. On p 153 there is just the derelict building in the woods. Then on 155 there is blood on the saws (the first kronk), several wrecked houses and remains of a car. And oh yes, some sleepers inside the house. And finally on 157 the train is crossing a city (or town, probably), the moon is becoming overcast and the local residents are making inviting gestures in the windows. This series moves the train and the story deeper into darkness and the Silence, and also reminds the reader that Cities are Bad.

[dmeck7755]

Also on page 157 Lalli has one eye opened (probably senses monsters.). The kitty in the background does also...

Danger..Danger!!

[thegreyarea]

So, trying to catch up with the reread here! And what a great point to do so!

Page 157 is an incredible sequence of panels with dynamic and organic framing that tells a story by itself. The train crossing the snow on a seemingly pacific night, lightened by the moon, and then entering a city, and the moon, whose protection Lalli called, gradually slipping behind the clouds. All that in shades of blue, except for the touch of blood on the train, showing that it already (!) cut through something...

And then we get a good view of the city, and the panel "ends" on the right showing us that "growth", marked, again, by the change from blue to red. Together with the moon's absence it's telling they entered in dangerous territory, which is reinforced by the following panels, where the radio's normal speech is "contaminated" by that dark, unreadable mix of sounds, up to the point that the officer turns it off. This is all so well done graphically! I've seen this page several times but Minna's talent still amazes me.

After that we see that Lalli is still awake, perhaps having some trouble to sleep inside that strange machine, or maybe sensing something else... But back them we didn't know it!
At the end the view "dissolves", indicating that he's entering in a dreamy state...

Them we get to page 158, and we scroll down, and down and (in my case) still having trouble to understand what the hell is this thing while still scrolling down until we see Lalli and got punched by the terrifying understanding of the whole monster!

I remember back them we haven't saw much of these "monsters". It was all just suggestions, and even at the "accident" on page 145 the nature of the thing that hit the train wasn't very clear (back then I had overlook the spine... Just saw it on a second or third view).

But there it was, the Enemy! And it was so. very. frightenning! One of those things that you know you should look better, because it's so interesting and well drawn, but at the same time you don't want to look, because it's already nightmare fuel... And gets worse, when one notices the suggestion of it being pregnant. 

That page to me is one of the most best on the whole SSSS, and would make a great poster, if people were able to look at it for some time...

[Jitter]

Page 158 is indeed a masterpiece. I’m glad it didn’t put me off the entire comic I don’t like horror. Apparently a comic is just the perfect mix for me, a movie is too graphic while a book allows me to imagine too graphic things. But drawn it doesn’t look quite too frightening, and gives my imagination some grounding.

If anyone here hasn’t noticed the recommendation to loom at it upside down, do! It’s worse. A lot worse. The vestiges of humanity are much more prominent that way.

The discussion is a delight. So many ways of saying Nope! Also there’s an interesting tidbit from Minna. Someone is asking about whether all mages see things like this or if it’s only Lalli. Se says that lesser mages would only see some wisps, while the more powerful ones get the full picture. Now we obviously don’t know how much more there would be in the “full picture” but this is definitely more than some wisps. So, Lalli’s innate power must be towards the “powerful” rather than the “lesser” side.

There are also many links to other interesting creatures, mostly from other webcomics. I didn’t click on those, because of the not liking horror thingy.

[Suominoita]

So how bad does Onni have it? Lalli needs to see lots for his scouting; Onni likely sees even more and that's why he never wanted to leave Keuruu. Also, why he would never let Tuuri go anywhere. Lalli is a slightly different matter, what with being immune, mage and began the scouting trade with grandma Ensi. Ah well, that's Lalli - usually he does things when his older relative tells him to, and when no one has given him something to do, he sleeps. This counts Tuuri and Onni after that dreadful year -- and well, Tuuri doing something Onni doesn't approve of simply is not comprehensible to Lalli until that happens and then he's very confused about it.

It's not until after Tuuri is dead and Onni lies to him in a letter that he makes any kind of decision on his own. A letter where Onni lies about his whereabouts instead of telling Lalli to keep away -- well, certain things happened after Hilja was acting oddly... so if Onni thought lying to Lalli would keep him away, he didn't know him at all.

[thorny]

On page 168, the person closing the compartment door: when I look at that panel I always first see their arm bending around in an impossible circle, partly because it's drawn a little oddly and partly because of the way it lines up with the circular design on the door; I have to look twice to see the hand and realize that the arm's just going behind that design. So when I first saw the page I thought the person must have somehow been caused by the troll to start mutating instantly.

[thegreyarea]

Jitter, I must look at those links to other horrors...
Suominoita, yes, Onni must have seen a lot, and thus be full of reasons to keep himself, and Tuuri, on a safe area. At that light his objections to Tuuri "going outside" at the begginning even seem a bit bland...
Thorny, yes, those arms do look a bit strange.

Back to page 159
It's a comforting page after the previous madness, all in blue tones and regular frames, with the interesting dashed text bubbles to tell us Emil is whispering. The funny part is how one realizes that Lalli isn't understanding a bit of all that talk
(And, believe me, I just now noticed the sleeping cat in panel 3 foreground!)
Then in the last panel Emil pushes Lalli, and I can imagine the Finnish and others familiar with their (very) large definition of "comfort zone" squeaking in terror!

[thegreyarea]

And then, on page 160, the sequence continues with Lalli staring at Emil in a murderous way.
To Emil's luck something else captures Lalli attention, and since he's a good guy we see him trying to convince Emil to buckle up.
Again to my shame I must admit only now noticing the frightened cat behind them...
And then in the last panel the regular frame shatters to give space to some... letters?

(BTW reading the comments I find not to be the only one feeling a sense of shipping on those pages...)

[tehta]

I don't read Lalli as murderous there! More annoyed/confused, but still interested.

And yes, the shipping... I am pretty sure that my shipping started around this time, when Minna's author's notes excitedly mentioned the possibility of a sort of hug (which then happens during the attack). Basically, it made me think that she had been adding subtext on purpose, and I thought, "oh, it's going to be a comic with a canonical same-sex couple, like Nimona, I guess that's a common thing now, cool!'

But while I am talking about that 'hug'...  People refer to it as 'character growth' for Emil, but it seems more like part of who he already is to me. I mean, he clearly has protective/caretaking instincts, and not just towards Lalli: I think his relationship with the triplets demonstrates that, too. As will his interactions with dogs and cats, later. (There could be military training involved, too: he likely sees Lalli as a 'confused civilian' at this point.)

Anyway, one of the reasons why Emil is so fun is his combination of intrinsic kindness with selfishness and insecurity. And the main sort of growth I see in him is a decrease in annoying posturing, and maybe a realization as to what is actually important to him. (At the end of Adventure Two, he doesn't seem to care about money beyond having enough to pay for a basic single room.)

[Jitter]

It seems to me we are having trouble keeping up, with the amount of comments growing fast. I added a second week to this part, as I suspect the relatively low amount of discussion is not because anyone thinks is section is boring or insignificant.

[dmeck7755]

Just to comment on page 172.  I love how Lalli thinks something looks not quite right.

Ah! He knows

Fluff..Fluff..Fluff

 

I wonder if Lalli like the sparkles, or he feels that is part of Emil...

Or both


On page 175, I never noticed the buzz-saws on top of the train

[dmeck7755]

I don't read Lalli as murderous there! More annoyed/confused, but still interested.

Anyway, one of the reasons why Emil is so fun is his combination of intrinsic kindness with selfishness and insecurity. And the main sort of growth I see in him is a decrease in annoying posturing, and maybe a realization as to what is actually important to him. (At the end of Adventure Two, he doesn't seem to care about money beyond having enough to pay for a basic single room.)

I always though he was in some kind of pain (Spiritually or mentally) from the trolls invading his space

[tehta]

So, in the current pages, there are a lot of comments about Emil being protective, and a lot of predictions that Lalli will end up saving him. (I guess that came true eventually.) I liked the argument about whether Lalli would have a knife on him at all times, or not. (I don't actually know if he does, outside the dream world. I am guessing yes, though?)

The troll's death seems  a bit of a deus ex machina, though. I mean, it might make sense for the train to have tunnels for this purpose, but its death seems to surprise the guards, so I guess not.

Emil might be clumsy and not particularly cool-headed, but has good reflexes! (We'll see his punching reflex a couple more times.) Why is he choking Lalli, though? The way he holds Lalli is kind of the way you are supposed to hold someone when saving them from drowning, so they'll focus on pulling on your arm and not on drowning you. But that seems less applicable here.

The creepiness of the whole attack (and of the monster, with its earrings and black speech) seems to have convinced some commenters that SOMEONE is going to die. Top contender is Siv, though.

[thorny]

Page 173, in the comments: discussion of the opening of the forum. (The link given on that page doesn't work now, though.)

[Suominoita]

Page 162: Emil falls out of bed and is seen holding his right cheek in apparent pain in the last panel.
163: Emil tries to find out what's going on, only to be told to go back to bed and scolded for not wearing thee bed belt.
164: Lalli steps out with a worried look, stands still, stays silent and points at the ceiling. One of the guards takes notice.
165: Now the guards act, Emil has fallen down and calls for Lalli, his hair covering the bruise.

Isn't it funny how Lalli manages better communication with the guards, despite Emil being the one speaking the language? SSSS is a good thing, see? 166: The guards tell Emil to get out of the way. Emil calls Lalli his friend and explains he's just going to take him out of the way with him because Lalli does not understand Swedish. Emil hugs Lalli behind the guards... Well maybe knowing the language helps too.
167: Well isn't this monster huge, taking the whole page all on its own and that's not all of it!
168: Someone closes the door to the next compartment just in time when the monster hits the glass and it begins to break! Though apparently the monster is getting hurt.
169: It's quite the chaos, the guards using swords and guns against the monster.
170: One of the guards is hurt a bit, the monstrous thing gets a bit too close to Emil holding Lalli like a child holds his plushy toy -- brave little Emil punches the poor help-begging monster.
171: Now they need to move, though they don't know what's going on. Taru is practical, seeing to it that Emil and Lalli will have clothes in the morning.
172: Situation over, Emil heads quickly to a bed and fastens his bed belt. Lalli grooms Emil's messy hair back to order. The wounded guard is patched up.
173: We're getting there.
174: A monitor informs where things happened, people are already prepared to clean and fix the poor train.
175: Thigh-high boots for Lalli, and new uniforms are on. The train is lifted up into the sunlight.
176: Everyone comes out and we see the others we need to meet.
177: So this is where they are now. Interesting bridge over there, lifted up... Danish flags here and there. That's it for Chapter 3.