Annotated 25-21
Your mileage may vary, I don’t want to make light of emotional abuse and gaslighting… but I still snicker at panel 2. Honestly, this whole page of Phil’s is kind of macabre fun for me, the way it stretches a skin of normal human emotions over the rattling skeleton of HR’s insane actions. Look at that awkward, head-on-shoulder pose in panel 5 as he feels around for something in his drawer: a pen, perhaps, or a pair of scissors… no, it’s a hacksaw, because of course it is.
Not sure why Ferris was without his ID tag. I don’t think we’ve shown those, though we wouldn’t have seen them in the opening scene if the employees were wearing them on their belts, like they did at the last ID-requiring company I worked for.
If I had to guess, I’d say he’s part of a caste of “first employees” who came in before employee IDs were standard and who therefore aren’t as strict about them nor held to the same standard as others. This and attendance record would be the only two ways in which he and Carol were peers.
We have ID Cards where I work, but they arent required to be carried all the times. For example, you dont need those to go to the bathroom or maybe take a snack or something like that.
You are required to enter and exit premises and, of course, some of the rooms. Maybe its like that, there.
How did HR kill Ferris, by the way? I’m not a coroner but in panel 1 it seems like he’s got an exit wound on the back of his head, and with the blood splatter in panel 4 it makes it look like he was shot through the head just in front of the red tank. Those glass tubes took a bullet without cracking. Pretty impressive for medical-grade equipment, since “resistance to firearms” is not generally part of their design specifications.
He choked him, then repeatedly smashed his head into the tube. Multiple depressed fractures of the skull, brain trauma, hemorrhage, edema, shock resulting in a very messsy death.
Ohhhhhhhh!
I always thought he somehow got shot too. It always bugged me, since HR walking around packing was never established or referred to again.
The tanks were designed to be filled with some kind of fluid, probably made up largely of water. Anything supporting that amount of water would need to be pretty sturdy.
He might have had his ID card clipped to his jacket which is probably back at his desk.
I would think Bertram would be the man to call in a situation like this. Maybe HR didn’t have his number.
One of the funniest pages in GA! Given the subject matter, this is no small feat. The dialogue, the acting, it’s all so very good. HR is obviously one of the great movie actors. A top performance.
I see HR played by William H Macy.
That’s intentional. http://guildedage.net/comic/annotated-chapter-9-cover/ and
I keep thinking about Carol’s line from much earlier “You barely did your creepy snake-man impersonation at all.” At this point, his dialogue feels more like a creepy snake-man doing a human impersonation. Or a sociopath attempting to make the proper mouth noises to get someone else to do what they want. It all feels …sort of like a parody of the “heartless boss” stereotype, which makes it frightening as well as funny.
I think you guys hit the exact right spot in the uncanny valley for him at this point.
For reference: http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-9-page-7/
Case Study #3 – Unidentified victim of workplace fatality
Q – What could Ferris have done to avoid this situation?
A – Should have worn the REQUIRED name tag, and would then have been easily identifiable
I can’t help but wish we got to hear HR’s account to Carol of “what he did”, from this side of the conversation, on the previous page.
If for no other reason than I really want to know what he thinks he did to Ferris.
…and to know just what he told Carol. Because what she does next pretty far from what I would have thought she was capable of doing, and I thought it could have used a bit more justification.
I mean, of course she kinda blames it on herself, for leaving the keys in the lock. And she’s way too loyal — but HR killing an employee, just like that, must have been a few levels of escalation above what she would have tolerated. I guess if he maybe told her it was an accident of some sorts, but I’d have like to watch him craft the narrative that would keep her on his side in this situation.
I note that he’s apparently taken the time to wash his face, and change suits.