Annotated 20-18
Looks like I caused some confusion by quoting frequent commenter Ahdok yesterday… I liked his take on troll biology, but it was not our official rulebook (for one thing, later chapters will show trolls exhibiting sexual behavior). So for today, I’ll just quote Phil’s script for this page:
LET’S. GET. MORRISON. It’s time for some trippy vision quest shit, so I want to see some convention-defiance with paneling and art style! Get KUH-RAYZY with it!
I’m not even going to bother noting panels because I want you to go totally free-form and abstract with it. But at the top of the page should be Harky’s body, in “reality,” still lying and healing in the grass and earth. His spirit, in whatever way you wish to interpret that, falls down, down through the earth, down through the nourishing layers of dirt and mantle and magma and so forth (you should probably consult a map of the earth’s underground layers for accuracy’s sake). Beneath the soil lie the bones of the fallen, of countless species of countless wars of countless conflicts in countless eras. At the bottom is the top of the head of great tectonicus, his massive size and intense heatred burning the bottom of the page to cinders. And Harky’s spirit falls, falls through it all, falls to the bottom, to be rejoined and fuel the fires that Tectonicus must consume.
Harky is such a great character. His burning devotion and unbreakable faith, coupled with his love for his “people” (which is very inclusive and embracing) would normally be seen on a classical hero. The only difference is that his god is a god of hatred and death. And it’s not even as though as he chose this god, much like the heroic avatars of gods of justice or life.
> would normally be seen on a classical hero. The only difference is that his god is a god of hatred and death.
And I’m not even sure that excludes him. Even kinder gods can go all Old Testament in response to injustice. Really, the only things that keeps Harky from being the hero of the story here is his inability to change or adapt and the simple fact that he’s been placed as an antagonist.
From the script…
Burning “Heatred”?
Nice.
“Let’s get Morrison.” Always a good plan.
Unsurprisingly, Waltrip really nailed the art on this page. I especially enjoy the way the ‘soul’ mimics the body, reducing to its more biological components before becoming ethereal.
I truly enjoy the skeletons locked in eternal combat. Particularly since they have some INTERESTING skulls…