Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
You don’t just MAKE a new weapon that was an entire symbol of YOU AS A PERSON. Those were THEIR weaposn. One of a kind. Irreplaceable. A part of their body and soul. Byron took them as a way to remember them and feel like they were with him at all times NOT because they were the weapons they had when they grew up. But because they WERE their weapons. They were for all intents and purposes THEM. You do not just remake something like that.
Maybe they were irreplaceable. But if we presumed they did come back from the dead, then they came back weaponless. As adventurers, they’d need new weapons. So why not buy/craft new axes? Sure, they won’t be the same extensions of their persona as they were before. But a generic axe is still better than no axe in a fight.
In either case, I guess it’s a moot point now, given the events that unfold in the following page.
Byron: “You two really think I’m that stupid?”
B & B: “Actually – yes, you doofus”
Byron: “Waitaminit. NOW you sound like the older brothers I grew up with.”
Whoa. On one hand, Byron’s justified in his disbelief and anger.
On the other…their names are in the tags for this strip. Too bad we can’t shout, “Byron! Don’t be too quick with your axes just yet.” (Well, we could…it just wouldn’t do any good.)
How sure are we that they’re dead? The tags are not helpful in finding comics where they were merely mentioned. Did Byron bury them? All I can remember is that “There was a town called Battleshire. Then the cultists came. And now there isn’t.”
I mean, if Byron didn’t bury them, and they didn’t die on-panel, then by movie logic they’re not really dead.
The funny thing is that the only person in this comic who we’re really sure definitely died is Byron!
He’s holding Bayen and Brayen’s axes. So are the two men he’s seeing.
Also Byron’s kinda a big deal name wise, being the leader of the Gastonia Adventurer’s Guild and member of the Peacekeepers. If these two had been alive and looking for him all this time, they’d certainly have been able to find him.
Ooh, I like that idea. Maybe that’s what HR did, just wrote the two NPCs that were supposedly part of the cult all along, ever since Battleshire. But we won’t know for sure if they’re real until we see the rest of Byron’s team interacting with them.
Anyone else notice that B & B (the illusions, not the axes) are holding the same exact body poses in panels 2 and 3? Like they’re vogueing. Wonder whassup wit dat.
Ooh that’d be a nasty trick. And the spells could be set to only work for someone with the madness already in them. We still really don’t know the nature of that condition.
Since the nature of ‘the madness’ is still a mystery, perhaps the cultists can perform unusual actions with it? For instance: magically control the subjects, subdue them, and revive them?
We’d have to wonder why the cultists hadn’t used the ability on Byron of course, but maybe his brothers were singled out for a ‘special’ form of the Madness.
Could well be the two of them for REALZ. The year-in-preview page showed what looked like the two of them in full-on-frothing-at-the-mouth-Madness-mode. And, as quoted by Mordecai, there’s a prophecy of sorts about Battleshire returning (and bring death and madness with it). So maybe, like Byron, they survived Battleshire’s destruction, but were kept under the effects of the Madness by the cultists this whole time (frothing berserkers used as mindless weapons), now brought out as bait for a trap to repeat the whole affair on THIS town and start a Plague of Madness or something
It was kind of implied (but never outright stated I think) that the Cultists used the Madness to have Battleshire tear itself apart (or maybe just infected Byron and/or his brothers to do it). All we really know for sure at this point was that the town existed, Byron grew up there with his bros (who trained him and whose axes he seems to carry, named after them), then the cult showed up, the town is/was GONE, and Byron presumably got infected with Madness at that point.
Alternate theory: They survived, rebuilt Battleshire, but everyone in it is a sleeper, so to speak, carrying the madness. And now the Guild will be infected by it, Rage virus-style.
ALTERNATE ALTERNATE THEORY: Bear with me here: Brother Tom knew B&B were alive, hunting down cultists, and set up this elaborate bait so that Byron thinks they’re cultists, kills them, realizes they weren’t, and loses his shit so hard that not even Syr’nj’s potion can suppress it. The army that he has raised, as Brother Tom predicted? The new Battleshire. Also infected by the madness. Destruction ensues.
ALTERNATE ALTERNATE ALTERNATE THEORY: Some other thing I haven’t thought of.
Crap, I finally caught up to the most recent page. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading this comic up to now. On to the page at hand though, I can’t tell if he’s going to give them the axe or a teary-eyes speech that really cuts deep
Its his allies disguised as his brothers in order for him to believe they are cultists in disguise to make him seemingly go crazy and kill his OWN TEAM-MATES. Calling it!
“I still have your axes! You should have come unarmed if you wanted me to believe you!”
They could of made/bought new axes that looked like their previous ones.
You don’t just MAKE a new weapon that was an entire symbol of YOU AS A PERSON. Those were THEIR weaposn. One of a kind. Irreplaceable. A part of their body and soul. Byron took them as a way to remember them and feel like they were with him at all times NOT because they were the weapons they had when they grew up. But because they WERE their weapons. They were for all intents and purposes THEM. You do not just remake something like that.
Uh… you’re making a hell of a lot of assumptions there.
Maybe they were irreplaceable. But if we presumed they did come back from the dead, then they came back weaponless. As adventurers, they’d need new weapons. So why not buy/craft new axes? Sure, they won’t be the same extensions of their persona as they were before. But a generic axe is still better than no axe in a fight.
In either case, I guess it’s a moot point now, given the events that unfold in the following page.
They DON’T think you’re stupid, Byron, they think they can make you angry. That was the whole point of bringing the anti-crazy potion.
Yeah, making it personal.
PUNY ILLUSIONS!
BYRON DISBELIEVE!
I disbelieve the walls! And the ceiling! And the air!
Byron: “You two really think I’m that stupid?”
B & B: “Actually – yes, you doofus”
Byron: “Waitaminit. NOW you sound like the older brothers I grew up with.”
That’s because WE ARE! *tears off face masks* just kidding we’re cultists! stabbity stab stab stab!
People in movies fall for this all the time so it was worth a try.
But if this isn’t necromancy, what is it?
Reusing assets.
oh hell… (possible spoiler warning here just in case?) IT’S TIME TRAVEL.
yeah probably not.
Illusions, son.
Also known as “magic tricks” by certain… professionals.
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110430051827/arresteddevelopment/images/thumb/d/d2/1x1_Alliance_of_Magicians.png/670px-1x1_Alliance_of_Magicians.png
I vote for shape changers, the axes and clothes are all part of the creatures.
I vote for DreamWorks Animation.
Can’t be DreamWorks – they’re missing that insufferable smirk.
It’s madness.
-waits patiently-
no it’s patrick
Whoa. On one hand, Byron’s justified in his disbelief and anger.
On the other…their names are in the tags for this strip. Too bad we can’t shout, “Byron! Don’t be too quick with your axes just yet.” (Well, we could…it just wouldn’t do any good.)
That’s just the thing. Those might be Byron’s axes now… but they used to belong to Bayen and Brayen… who are very visibly holding them.
You think axes can’t be remade?
Axes are better than swords largely because they’re easy to maintain AND cheap to replace.
Naming their kids “Bayen, Brayen, and Byron” must have been a decision their parents thought was hilarious for a day and then very quickly regretted.
Byron isn’t their real brother, though.
… does the rest of team see the same thing or are they seeing people from their memories? If it’s the later, things are about to get real messy.
How sure are we that they’re dead? The tags are not helpful in finding comics where they were merely mentioned. Did Byron bury them? All I can remember is that “There was a town called Battleshire. Then the cultists came. And now there isn’t.”
I mean, if Byron didn’t bury them, and they didn’t die on-panel, then by movie logic they’re not really dead.
The funny thing is that the only person in this comic who we’re really sure definitely died is Byron!
He’s holding Bayen and Brayen’s axes. So are the two men he’s seeing.
Also Byron’s kinda a big deal name wise, being the leader of the Gastonia Adventurer’s Guild and member of the Peacekeepers. If these two had been alive and looking for him all this time, they’d certainly have been able to find him.
Did you know you can just MAKE unadorned axes with plain wooden handles? S’truth.
I didn’t say they were looking for him. My actual suspicion is that they were not killed by the cultists because they joined the cultists.
Ooh, I like that idea. Maybe that’s what HR did, just wrote the two NPCs that were supposedly part of the cult all along, ever since Battleshire. But we won’t know for sure if they’re real until we see the rest of Byron’s team interacting with them.
“I didn’t say they were looking for him”
~Points to the line in the comic where THEY say that they were.~
Anyone else notice that B & B (the illusions, not the axes) are holding the same exact body poses in panels 2 and 3? Like they’re vogueing. Wonder whassup wit dat.
Peasants tied to the trees, glamored with B&B, *just for Byron.*
The rest of the party sees Byron hauling off and slaughtering innocents for no reason. InstaTPK, just add water.
Hopefully he can come back as a blackguard.
Ooh that’d be a nasty trick. And the spells could be set to only work for someone with the madness already in them. We still really don’t know the nature of that condition.
That is uncanny, and maybe it does mean something, but their silhouettes in the previous page were in different poses.
Wonder where this is heading.
… where this is be-heading ?
I can´t help noticing they still have their weapons ready…
How do we know they didn’t just join the crazies?
“Behold, Battleshire. Once a town, then a pyre. Its return will sink cities in death’s endless mire.”
Thing is, their faces look older now.
Older than what? The two flashbacks we saw of them where Byron was a little kid?
Yes. Which shows that they’ve aged.
Since the nature of ‘the madness’ is still a mystery, perhaps the cultists can perform unusual actions with it? For instance: magically control the subjects, subdue them, and revive them?
We’d have to wonder why the cultists hadn’t used the ability on Byron of course, but maybe his brothers were singled out for a ‘special’ form of the Madness.
Could well be the two of them for REALZ. The year-in-preview page showed what looked like the two of them in full-on-frothing-at-the-mouth-Madness-mode. And, as quoted by Mordecai, there’s a prophecy of sorts about Battleshire returning (and bring death and madness with it). So maybe, like Byron, they survived Battleshire’s destruction, but were kept under the effects of the Madness by the cultists this whole time (frothing berserkers used as mindless weapons), now brought out as bait for a trap to repeat the whole affair on THIS town and start a Plague of Madness or something
It was kind of implied (but never outright stated I think) that the Cultists used the Madness to have Battleshire tear itself apart (or maybe just infected Byron and/or his brothers to do it). All we really know for sure at this point was that the town existed, Byron grew up there with his bros (who trained him and whose axes he seems to carry, named after them), then the cult showed up, the town is/was GONE, and Byron presumably got infected with Madness at that point.
Alternate theory: They survived, rebuilt Battleshire, but everyone in it is a sleeper, so to speak, carrying the madness. And now the Guild will be infected by it, Rage virus-style.
ALTERNATE ALTERNATE THEORY: Bear with me here: Brother Tom knew B&B were alive, hunting down cultists, and set up this elaborate bait so that Byron thinks they’re cultists, kills them, realizes they weren’t, and loses his shit so hard that not even Syr’nj’s potion can suppress it. The army that he has raised, as Brother Tom predicted? The new Battleshire. Also infected by the madness. Destruction ensues.
ALTERNATE ALTERNATE ALTERNATE THEORY: Some other thing I haven’t thought of.
Byron’s love for them is like a truck …
“You think I’m really that stupid?”
“Well, we were kinda hoping…”
Crap, I finally caught up to the most recent page. I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed reading this comic up to now. On to the page at hand though, I can’t tell if he’s going to give them the axe or a teary-eyes speech that really cuts deep
Its his allies disguised as his brothers in order for him to believe they are cultists in disguise to make him seemingly go crazy and kill his OWN TEAM-MATES. Calling it!
This is what I came here to say.