Latest Page Discussions/Comic Update Chitchat

[SkyWhalePod]

Barricaded into a walk-in fridge thing with no immediate threat coming behind them . . . I dunno, this feels like a heart-to-heart moment between Reynir and Onni/Tuuri. It's been bears bears bears for months now, though, I can't think of what they might have a heart-to-heart about. . . . Maybe Tuuri's about to tell us a story?

[Vulpes]

Barricaded into a walk-in fridge thing with no immediate threat coming behind them . . . I dunno, this feels like a heart-to-heart moment between Reynir and Onni/Tuuri. It's been bears bears bears for months now, though, I can't think of what they might have a heart-to-heart about. . . . Maybe Tuuri's about to tell us a story?

Hm. Interesting point - the bears are occupied elsewhere. The gang in the pantry are bound to realise that soon enough. I hope we do get a bit of a story-time.

[Jitter]

Mama bear went upstairs, but have we seen where rug-bear is?

[thegreyarea]

Jitter, it's a good point. But since Rugbear usually follows Mama they probably are together on the upper floor. I hope (and I guess Vulpes agrees) it's time for a  shift from the bears to something else, be it the Kade, a flashback, some conversation or even a bit of sleep that takes us to the dreamworld (that I miss). As SkyWhalePod said, it's been bears all along for months. I like them, but some change would be welcomed.

[JoB]

Mama bear went upstairs, but have we seen where rug-bear is?

Last seen at mama's heels as she started to climb the stairs on page 418, but yes, it seems to have slipped underneath the camera angle ever since.

(Can you say "what if some magic carpet were sneaky and evil" ... ?)

[Jitter]

Heey, happy days, I’m getting some of the excitement back! Once in a blue moon today’s page feels like a proper cliffhanger. Also it seems likely it will be the first show of major magery since a long long time. I’m actually looking forward to this!

User Epimetheus (are you here as lwise?) has mentioned a couple of times already in the Disqus comments the nature spirits at Koli, which are supposedly very strong. It would be great to see Onni getting help from them. In the initial introduction to Finnish magic, spirits are mentioned as a prominent feature for the noitas, but so far we haven’t seen anything about them except for the Luontos, which are part of the person anyway and not nature spirits.

[Vulpes]

Heey, happy days, I’m getting some of the excitement back! Once in a blue moon today’s page feels like a proper cliffhanger. Also it seems likely it will be the first show of major magery since a long long time. I’m actually looking forward to this!

Ditto - plus we see Onni in his element, rather than moping around feeling out of place in Sweden or Iceland. I just hope his open challenge to the kade doesn't blow up in his face.

[Róisín]

Well, the nature spirits are an important part of natural magic all over our world, they just manifest differently or are perceived differently by mages of different cultures. Like here in Australia, they far less often look like regular people and are more likely to show themselves with stronger elements of animal/plant/landform in their appearance.

[JoB]

In the initial introduction to Finnish magic, spirits are mentioned as a prominent feature for the noitas, but so far we haven’t seen anything about them

Onni did give us a glimpse of them way back when, and that was in Sweden, so I'm fairly sure that "they're around", but it certainly isn't much intel to go by. I suppose that that lehto's chock full with them, if not downright run by them, though ...

[Jitter]

Yes, I’m sure they are around! But all Finnish high magic we’ve seen has been by incantations to deities. Lalli has used his own Luonto to fight, and Onni to cross distances (and fight) but we haven’t seen them call on the spirits or the spirits to do anything visible. I agree with you that the Lehto is probably protected by them on behalf of Mielikki and Tapio (supposing those are more or less personified gods as seems to be the case) but again we didn’t see them, or have them mentioned in the explanation.

I once asked in a stream for an illustration or info page showing what Lalli sees when there are no grosslings around, just the normal friendly/ neutral nature spirits in a peaceful scene. But Minna didn’t find the idea inspirational then, and probably less so now so I don’t think we’ll be getting that. Still, they could come to aid a powerful noita in a fight against the even fouler unnatural evil than normal grosslings, no?

[lwise]

User Epimetheus (are you here as lwise?) has mentioned a couple of times already in the Disqus comments the nature spirits at Koli, which are supposedly very strong.

Someone else first mentioned that Koli was a place of ancient power, though I haven't been able to find that comment again.  I did a web search to find information about the ancient sacrifice location and the nature spirit.  It just seems to me that Minna must have brought them to that specific location for a reason, so the nature spirit should play a role in the battle against the Kade or the bears or both.  My record on predicting the way the story would go is poor, however.

[Jitter]

It was probably me Several other Finns have also commented on the location, Cancvas is from somewhere around there too.

I’m originally from Joensuu and Koli was a frequent day trip when I was a child, it is the landscape of my heart! It’s an extraordinary feature in the landscape in the area, so I figured it would probably have been spiritually important to ancient Finns, research indicates so too.

One of the important features is the Uhrihalkeama (The Sacrifice Crack) which is very close to the hotel. Quite a lot of money has been found that was thrown in there, presumably as sacrifice to some nature spirits. It’s however a bit uncertain whether this is based on an ancient custom, or more or less made up in the 1800’s when the Finnish National Romanticism movement got excited about Finnish mythology.

Whether the Uhrihalkeama is the genuine article or not, Koli, or as it was earlier called, Mustarinta*, features in folk tradition from the area as a place of power. Praying on the peaks was supposed to bring good luck in hunting. Some catch was probably sacrificed as well. The local spirits, “Mustarinnan murhat miehet” were feared and respected widely.

* Muatarinta, “the black-chested” is one of the names for bear too. Coincidence or not?

[SkyWhalePod]

I was gonna say, there's some potential right now for the comic to get nice and mystical again! I like grey's optimistic 'things have been slow lately because of X Y and Z but they seem to be picking up' comment on the most recent page. I'm also hopeful.

To be honest, I think I might also be feeling a little hypercritical of the recent pages, possibly/probably because other people have expressed disappointment with the quality of the drawings and the story arc itself. I looked at Friday's page and thought, first, 'Oh boy, are we going to get more spirit world stuff?' and second, 'Hmm, if we're getting more spirit world stuff, I would pace this moment differently. I would give the kade a bigger panel just to Be In, looming around Onni, maybe rearing up as a background of eyes, sort of David Mack- or Dave McKean-like. This would be a good moment for some emotional tension. This feels rushed.'

(I dunno if anybody knows either of those guys. They do a lot of surreal illustrations. Frequent collaborators with Neil Gaiman. I can't say I'm a super big fan of either but they're definitely good at making you feel uncomfortable when they want to.)

But like I said, I'm hopeful that the next couple of pages will be nicely-paced with a different, spookier, more magical tone, to give us a breath from the running of the bears.

I love that the Finns among us get to feel excited again about their culture's folklore Fingers crossed!

[SkyWhalePod]

I was on my weekly Saturday walk to the university garden when I found a KADE TREE cool-looking cedar tree

Spoiler: EYES AND STUFF • show

[Opaque]

You need to secretly draw eyes on that thing.