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Annotations Every Day - Written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn - Illustrated by John & Jason Waltrip

Where's the Like button? I need to repost this for my backstory-loving friends.

Chapter 7 – Page 1

on September 8, 2010
Chapter: Chapter 07
└ Tags: Gravedust
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Discussion (54) ¬

  1. Joe
    Joe
    September 8, 2010, 12:06 am | # | Reply

    Holy crap, a FlashBACK.
    The sky is falling. Up is down. Red is chartreuse. Byron is Berserking.

  2. Dojang
    Dojang
    September 8, 2010, 12:19 am | # | Reply

    we’re not doing the flash-forward thing this time? awesome.

    centered text. that’s interesting to me. it looks natural here, but noone writes like that, because to do so, you’d have to plan your whole line down to number of characters. so why does it look natural here? was this something you guys thought about?

    • T
      T
      September 8, 2010, 3:13 am | # | Reply

      Yes.

      It’s not impossible, it just takes a lot of practice. Generally you DO know what the end of a sentence is going to be before you begin writing it. The idea of Gravedust actually learning to write center-aligned appeals to me.

      • Dojang
        Dojang
        September 8, 2010, 4:15 am | # | Reply

        it does sound like him…

        except that gravedust doesn’t always know what his sentance will be…he managed to compensate for his mistaken “is our”…

        but that’s picky as hell.

        • ahdok
          ahdok
          September 8, 2010, 1:43 pm | # | Reply

          That’s a deliberate slip. In case anyone manages to find the paper.

          You can tell because it’s still center aligned. :)

    • Deraymou
      Deraymou
      September 8, 2010, 4:17 am | # | Reply

      I also imagine Gravedust has a knack for it. He seems capable of being fairly poetic. So knowing poetic verse makes you more aware of syllable and sounds and word lengths, making it even easier to know where to write your words.
      But Gravedust activates hardmode by only having ink to write in.

      • Baronyx
        Baronyx
        September 8, 2010, 1:57 pm | # | Reply

        ^ This seconded. I think out of the 5 of them, Gravedust seems the most cultured, and the most poetic. I’m guessing Gravedust has kept journals before, (Either that or this is the first day he’s ever travelled… ever) So he’s probably used to the spacing his words will take, Allowing him to actively plan out the structure of his page.

        Scratch that.

        He got an eager-to-please spirit to possess his quill.

        OORR… he wrote from the middle out, on either side.

        • Sineplex
          Sineplex
          September 9, 2010, 1:54 pm | # | Reply

          It’s not just “seems” – remember the chapter that starts with the slavery scene? Syr’Nj makes reference to some writer, but it’s Gravedust who knows more about the context in which it appeared. Syr’Nj is knowledgeable the way Wikipedia makes any schmo literate, but Gravedust is well-read.

    • zead
      zead
      March 8, 2014, 9:26 pm | # | Reply

      it looks natural because hand written notes rarely line up exactly along the left side, you expect a certian uneveness of the lines and an exaggerated stylized interpretation of handwritten variation combined with the majority of the lines being long enough to \almost\ match makes it work.

  3. Chevalion
    Chevalion
    September 8, 2010, 12:35 am | # | Reply

    Nice! I could’ve never guessed Gravedust was so artistically gifted

    BTW, Did the 3rd creature at the top die of a broken heart?
    And does that ink blotch at the last paragraph meant to read: “Gastonia is our ‘enemy’? or something else I’m missing?

    • kagato23
      kagato23
      September 8, 2010, 12:52 am | # | Reply

      He was originally going to say “Humanity is not our Enemy, Gastonia is our enemey” But then he changed his mind. Or at least his mind on how to word it.

      One assumes he refers to the fact that the majority of Gastonians are people like anybody else, and it’s the big boys up top and not Gastonia on the whole that’s responsible for whatever bad shit in the past has made them and Dwarves not get along so well.

      • Gravedigger
        Gravedigger
        September 8, 2010, 1:07 am | # | Reply

        Alternatively, he forgot his belief for a second and quickly corrected himself.

      • Joe
        Joe
        September 8, 2010, 7:24 am | # | Reply

        I like to think it was more out of habit than anything.
        Trained to believe it so thoroughly that even when he’s trying to directly go against it, it still comes out that way.

      • Jack Vermicelli
        Jack Vermicelli
        September 8, 2010, 10:57 am | # | Reply

        What do you mean? What would be the significance of capitalizing Enemy in the one case, and then spelling it as “enemey” in the other?

    • Ansob
      Ansob
      September 8, 2010, 7:00 am | # | Reply

      More importantly, who could’ve guessed that Gravedust would be some manner of fantasy Marxist or socialist?

      • Nate
        Nate
        September 8, 2010, 6:02 pm | # | Reply

        You best be trollin son.

        • Ansob
          Ansob
          September 9, 2010, 3:47 am | # | Reply

          Nope.

    • themoonrising
      themoonrising
      September 8, 2010, 9:30 am | # | Reply

      Heart attack more likely.

  4. Carl-E
    Carl-E
    September 8, 2010, 2:10 am | # | Reply

    His not-quite-live journal.

  5. Dusty668
    Dusty668
    September 8, 2010, 2:46 am | # | Reply

    They should not have had the Salmon Mayonnaise!

    • TexasNinjaBuzzard
      TexasNinjaBuzzard
      September 9, 2010, 9:26 pm | # | Reply

      Salmon mousse.

  6. Guy
    Guy
    September 8, 2010, 3:19 am | # | Reply

    Insight, into Gravedust?

    Surely you jest!

  7. Doop doop
    Doop doop
    September 8, 2010, 3:19 am | # | Reply

    Jeez, Gravedust. You’re a bit of a downer aren’t you?

    Then again, if your parents named you Gravedust they weren’t exactly expecting sunshine and raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

    • T
      T
      September 8, 2010, 4:55 am | # | Reply

      Dewrose Sunshinekitten had a very different life.

      • G@T0R
        G@T0R
        September 8, 2010, 9:32 am | # | Reply

        Doesn’t she live in westchestertonfieldville, Iowa?

      • ahdok
        ahdok
        September 8, 2010, 1:45 pm | # | Reply

        She has a rain-bow in her hair.

        • Dojang
          Dojang
          September 8, 2010, 3:51 pm | # | Reply

          sometimes two. for that goldilocks look.

          that’s…twice as many rain-bows. all the way across her hair.

          • G@T0R
            G@T0R
            September 9, 2010, 8:46 am | # | Reply

            I have to at least acknowledge this for what it is… a full on double rainbow!

            • Dojang
              Dojang
              September 9, 2010, 7:48 pm | # | Reply

              what does it MEAN?

  8. DCB
    DCB
    September 8, 2010, 8:19 am | # | Reply

    Ya know, I think my favorite part of that rant is the scratch out. Most Sage/Seer types are almost always so damn confidant in what they say (even when they’re wrong), it’s nice to see one stutter over a point.

  9. TraderInTown
    TraderInTown
    September 8, 2010, 10:01 am | # | Reply

    Just shoot it or punch it or whatever.

    Percussive Maintenance at its best!

  10. Faceless Minion
    Faceless Minion
    September 8, 2010, 12:15 pm | # | Reply

    “A machine that feeds on greed and ignorance, and belches forth wrath and atrocity.”

    Holy damn. This particular bit of wordsmithing is crazy-powerful. Good job, yall.

    • Hawk
      Hawk
      September 8, 2010, 2:30 pm | # | Reply

      Agreed!

      Also, Gastonia begins to sound like some modern country I know…can’t think of where…on the tip of my tongue though.

      (Where’s the sarcasm button, again?)

      • Erica
        Erica
        September 8, 2010, 3:53 pm | # | Reply

        You mean all of them?

        • Hawk
          Hawk
          September 9, 2010, 8:37 am | # | Reply

          *chuckle*

          Well, yeah.

          • ahdok
            ahdok
            September 9, 2010, 4:56 pm | # | Reply

            Estonia or Gabon?

            • A passer-by.
              A passer-by.
              September 10, 2010, 6:29 am | # | Reply

              It is actually our capitol which has our largest ignorance-fueled machine installed, as opposed to the house of government proper. Though it might be one’s bias towards those parties in power in the given instance.

    • BT
      BT
      September 8, 2010, 7:09 pm | # | Reply

      He’s a lyrical wordsmith genius, like Kanye West.

      • Joe
        Joe
        September 8, 2010, 8:36 pm | # | Reply

        I just pictured dusty wig a pair of shuttershades on and it made me very sad.

  11. SteelRaven
    SteelRaven
    September 8, 2010, 12:47 pm | # | Reply

    Dig Gravedust’s sketches and the Gastonia correction was a nice tuch.

    Gravedust went to Gastonia on his on mission for peace so I’m guessing Gastomia/Dwarv conflicts are common and though Gravedust doesn’t have a high option of Gastonia, he never said his fellow Dwarves where anything less than hostil towards others.

    Lets see who fires the first shot

    • Joe
      Joe
      September 8, 2010, 8:37 pm | # | Reply

      Greedo.

      • Wyrd
        Wyrd
        September 8, 2010, 9:22 pm | # | Reply

        Blasphemy. Greedo didn’t get a single shot off, because Han rocks that way.

      • Blogonomicon
        Blogonomicon
        September 8, 2010, 9:24 pm | # | Reply

        Han and Greedo don’t get to shoot, because Frigg already killed them.

      • Erica
        Erica
        September 8, 2010, 10:41 pm | # | Reply

        Joe is our biggest troll yet.

  12. Jean-Luc
    Jean-Luc
    September 8, 2010, 3:55 pm | # | Reply

    Really love this strip. I guess it’s this underlying maturity that brings me back to GA.

  13. The Indomitable Eric
    The Indomitable Eric
    September 9, 2010, 12:00 am | # | Reply

    The foreshadowing is strong with this one.

  14. 1d4caltrop
    1d4caltrop
    September 9, 2010, 2:41 am | # | Reply

    I hereby dub this flashback “Dwarf on Death.”

    • Dojang
      Dojang
      September 9, 2010, 7:50 pm | # | Reply

      bandit’s diary is the “Gnome Tome”

  15. TexasNinjaBuzzard
    TexasNinjaBuzzard
    September 9, 2010, 9:43 pm | # | Reply

    Oh, Erica- you know I love you like a huge fan loves a consistently awesome comic artist, but I really think the text would have been a lot better if you’d printed it out on that sheet of paper you used for texture, then crumple-and-smoothed it and scanned/photographed it and put the scroll edges around it, so the words weren’t all in exact parallel.

    …Unless it’s Campbell’s fault for being the letterer or something, in which case screw that guy, he’s just a consistently awesome comic writer and stuff. Pffft.

    I love the implication of the crumpledness, that this is something Gravedust wadded up and either threw out or abandoned for revision/rewrite, but someone has found it and smoothed it out for examination. Creepy.

    • Phil
      Flo
      September 9, 2010, 9:49 pm | # | Reply

      Clearly, I’m the only one around here who does anything right.

    • Erica
      Erica
      September 9, 2010, 9:59 pm | # | Reply

      First, T is not the letterer, Phil is, but that’s moot since I did the text on this page. I don’t think anybody would benefit from trying to read a genuinely crumpled page. Besides, if it print it out the way it is now and then scan it in it would still be center justified which is the main complaint. It’s also a terrible idea to completely lose control over the texture and have it on the same layer as the text when I first and easier option is to do it the way I had done it over a 100 times before.

      • barsukthom
        barsukthom
        September 10, 2010, 9:20 am | # | Reply

        So THERE! pflbbbt!

    • sprocket
      sprocket
      September 13, 2010, 4:25 am | # | Reply

      So I’ve been pondering over the suggestion. It would be an interesting effect. And possibly more photo-realistic – slightly warping the glyphs and lines of text as it follows the contours of the crumpled texture. But that misses a rather important part of the artwork, I think.

      Textures are used throughout the comic. But they aren’t used in an attempt to add realism. Sometimes the use of texture is even jarring. But it works because the texture choices are an emotional cue. They add to the feel of the scene. Film Noire has the play of light and shadow. GA sets the tone with texture.

      With this particular panel, it looks almost like the writing is inked on film laid over crumpled paper. But that’s too literal a take on the image. The parchment texture is there to add an emotional feel to what we’re reading. And like all the other panels, the texture adds an almost surreal feel to the ongoing story.

      Granted – that’s my take. I could be reading too much in to it. This is, after all, Erica’s work.

  16. Soul_Fire_Slasher
    Soul_Fire_Slasher
    December 13, 2016, 7:39 am | # | Reply

    And you all thought that this was a metaphor for the heads of house being close-minded…

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Guilded Age is co-written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn, and illustrated by John Waltrip. Site design by Samantha Kyle. Fonts by Blambot.com.
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