Land Shark society is sorted by a complex upvote/downvote system. As a result there is lots of repetition for the sole purpose of collecting arbitrary points. Any individual arrogant enough to to put forth original content or start a new discussion has their sexuality called into question.
I thinks its Pb (for Payet Best) done as lightning jagged musical notes surrounded by a circle. The top of the P is hidden behind his hair/collar when he flips.
Way back when Best worked with the rest of the main characters, he created a ‘diversion’ by beating up 15 people singlehandedly. Before that he beat the very strong guard with the power of ROCK. He played his axe, and caused a cave in exactly where he needed it. Best isn’t the nicest character in this series, but he’s pretty much always been the strongest (or close to it).
I bet Payet would utterly suck at any task requiring tact, diplomacy, or empathy. Recall how he used a chain of children on the airship? He kicks ass in combat, can perform music, and is apparently a good lay. I believe that entirely sums up his skill set. Not a complete person at all.
The alt-text, if it is too be believed, suggests they don’t have a hive mind. They’re just very simple, and only capable of a few distinct thoughts, resulting in them all generally thinking the same thing.
y’know, right now I’m hoping best is just pixels, as if he too, turns out to be a ‘player’, I’ll be upset. making the main party player’s just made their backstories totally irrelevant
I’d like to point out that we still don’t actually know that the rest of the party are a bunch of players. They may have been hijacked from their own world to create the game world from their memories.
Also, I’m fairly certain it was Best in that yellow tube.
oh maaan all are picking on the poor Land sharks.
I think they are Awesome and wish they would eat that show off shit elf so we finally get rid of him.
A Douche is still a Douche regardless of what skills he has.
Even that some people seem to consider him as a “hero”…
ähm hello? flying ship? throwing children? sometimes i think i’m the only one who remembers these things. Oh well i guess we will see soon enough what kind of “likeable hero” he really is.
Modern sense heroes do things because they’re morally right. They take the hard choice because it is the right thing to do. Modern heroes do good things.
Classical heroes do things because they’re better than you. They’re more talented, stronger, faster and luckier. Classical heroes do great things.
I was reading something where it was pointed out that the Iliad uses multiple perspectives, leading you to sympathize with both sides in a war — which seems surprisingly “modern.”
That struck me in particular because I’d long thought of the Iliad as it was used in an argument that self-awareness is an historical invention — in the Iliad, none of the characters reflects on their internal states. Instead, gods suddenly appear and talk to them.
I’ve always kinda hated Achilles, never really saw him as a hero. Easy to be a “great warrior” and take up a career of killing others when you’re fucking invulnerable….well, almost.
Unless he got the reputation and legend for being invulnerable because he was such a great warrior that he never got hurt in battle until someone shot him from behind with a poisoned arrow during a duel. Sure, they only hit his ankle, but a warrior with one working leg is not so good anymore, and it doesn’t matter where you get poisoned.
No, the Iliad may have been the story of “The Rage of Achilles”, in which Achilles was definitely not the hero (hero was probably Athena, but that’s hard to verify. It could have the Lesser Ajax), but Odysseus is incontrovertably the hero of the Odyssey (Telemachus just runs around whining), and he’s still a douche. Classical heroes were generally all bastards (figuratively), it’s just that modern society (and the Victorians before us) decided to make the legends nicer. It’s like Cinderella. The original is absolutely not a children’s story. Thus Ahdok is correct.
Hey, having invested in charisma and luck allow a guy to go with those kind of shennigans and actually suceed. Live a life suceeding at desperate things like that, and you will keep pushing the envelope. So far, he didn’t make any big mistake, so he’s still a hero, althought careless – both for other, and for himself.
As Byron said, he has the skills, but takes unnecessary risks. On the other hand, when those risks become necessary, it’s good to have the BEST watching your back. Just, be careful if thats not your thing…
exactly. When he threw that anchor off the ship, the thing that he did was extremely quick thinking. People have proposed alternative plans, but all of them were slower.
It just so happens that acting immediately was the right speed to get the anchor lodged in that tree – and that was the only tree around. The ship was very low down as well.
It could easily be that Best took the only action that let people survive, and any other plan would have resulted in the deaths of the children, the party, the rest of the NPCs on the boat, and several people in the nearby town.
I just feel that a truly charismatic, persuasive person could’ve gotten the party to do the anchoring instead of the kids…
./beating dead horse
Sorry.
On the “classical hero” note: can’t think of any classical hero that wasn’t a ginormous prick in some manner. Many of them were also rapists, one step above pirates, and generally would be considered completely despicable in the modern world.
Most of them were also not terribly smart. I think what makes me grind my teeth most about Best is his little smartass, smug comments and puns. I like puns – it’s the SMUG that gets my goat.
Well that all maybe true ,the archilles thing i mean,i give you that.but what i find most surprising is how suddenly all comments about Best seem to change.
I mean back than he acted like a prick,his attitude really really sucked, and most people agreed to it and hated him.
Now he show’s off some skills and suddenly he is considered a hero and liked so much?
I mean i#m sorry if i don’t seem to much care for “old school” hero’s but i think a hero should be more than just skills.
The whole duel with Byron thing showed pretty much why i could never like Payet.
But you know what? i guess it doesn’t matter,the landsharks wont get him, he will continue to show off skills. And People will start a Payet best fan club,just to get him back in the original group or even to give him his very own comic ,thats my Prediction.
What? no! he’s still a douche. He’s the character you love to hate. I’m just pointing out that the anchor thing might have been the only way to save the kids – I wouldn’t peg best as “evil” because of it.
His attitude when they landed of course, I would use to peg him as a prick.
My good sir, rapists are bottom of the barrel scum, down there with pedophiles and sadists. Pirates weren’t always the most noble but not all were evil, murderous bastards. Most got started in the employ of one of the crowns. So they should be further up the ladder than rapists. And ‘surprise sex’ is still rape. End rant.
oh you mean the “saving” were by pure-luck no children got hurt when he throwed them overboard with a god-damn anchor? And don’t even pretend that he would have cared if one would have actually died.
Like Byron said in the exact same page. Payet is only serving himself not the client and neither the group.
No don’t get me wrong,i like hero’s AND Villains all the same.
But when some douche acts like an A-hole and than starts to call himself a hero or “the chosen one” (granted it wasn’t his own idea in the beginning),thats were i draw the line.
are you sure? if it’s the boot, it’s too long, and should have the boot top drawn in. If it’s his leg from hip to knee, it’s the right length, but too thin… :)
I’m wanting the landsharks to be riding things that more closely resemble coyotes, with the next update being best jumping off a cliff and the bird flapping its wings enough to get across safely while the landsharks plummet to their doom. But maybe that’s just me.
His hair is spiking the wrong direction to ride that bird.
Grargh, and now that I’m looking at it from a FF angle, he looks very Sephiresque in panel 3, doesn’t he?
I still think best has the skills to be a villain (i.e., could probably give the entire party a decent go). He’s just a little anakin right now. Also, how can he not be a villian. That attire is like “arkerra” shore… i’m just waiting for snookie to show up with the hot tub. The ways you guys rationalize him being a non-traditional hero is kinda goofy. Had he crushed those kids abdomens or ripped their limbs out of their sockets (you know, with our world physics), he’d be hunted man number one. I guess what I’m trying to say is that maybe its only a matter of time before that ridiculous risk taking and selfishness bites him in the rear. There is one thing you guys were right about. those classical heroes were defined by their results (i.e., they got shit done). Only time will tell what this douche shall bring.
We weren’t saying he was a non-traditional hero… we were saying he was a very very old-school very traditional hero.
Old school heroes from Greek/Roman/Mediterranean history and myth were people who you definitely did not want to be on the bad side of.
We’re not talking about mamby-pamby modern-day heroes who help old ladies cross the street or guys who rescue kittens stranded in trees… we’re talking about the guys who can capture an enemy city with only 40 cpmpanions, and who then celebrate afterwards with the traditional burning, looting and raping.
John — Today’s strip inspired me to make my first comment. I actually created a gravatar so I could render long-overdue kudos for the work you are doing. The acrobatics of Best in panel 1 and the landshark’s missed blow in panel 2 are very dynamic and well-rendered. The shark-finned swords with fish-hook barbs are very creative. Panel 4 is just a masterpiece — the background is gorgeous, the cowboy leap onto the avian steed is hilarious, and the bird anatomy is convincing (down to the raised hackles while crowing). Furthermore, I love the “RAWK” (Roc! Rock!) — Best’s steed RAWKS. A delicious pun. Kudos to whoever came up with that. Finally, just a general shoutout to the whole Guilded Age team — I discovered the strip just before the artist changeover and the radical story developments — congratulations on a wild ride and I plan to be here til the end.
Thank you, Plover. That’s very nice of you. It took a few sketches to get those acrobatics right. (Just HOW DOES one jump a shark?) Coming up with species specific designs in weapons and whatnots is the really fun part of this job. “RAWK” was Phil’s idea, he gets the kudos.
Looks that we’re both recent arrivals to GA, thanks for your compliments, and welcome to the comic!
Some jump the shark in the artistry. Some jump it all metaphorical. Some jump the shark in reality. Some jump it while observational… Then again, some jump it with a 360 kickflip, slide to nosegrind to frontside chocobo mount.
You know, I’m a Final Fantasy fan myself, but, I must say, Best isn’t dressed correctly to be riding a chocobo. For one thing, that outfit doesn’t have near enough zippers or belts…
just to fire up a discussion, i’d offer the hypothesis that PB is, in fact, the high-level char of H.R. himself (and the lean guy in the yellow tank is, unlikely or not, bandit’s “player”)
Can’t buy H.R. as P.B. All five characters in the tubes have been represented by text boxes of corresponding colors through the course of the comic so far. Red = Byron. Green = Syrn’j. Brown = Gravedust. Blue-Grey = Frigg. Yellow = Best. (Yes, there has been at least one blue-grey text box so far containing Frigg’s dialogue). The shades of text box are virtually identical to the shades of light in the life-support tubes. Furthermore, the sillhouettes in the tubes appear to physically correspond with the characters represented by those colors.
I would further point out that H.R. seemed to be listening to Best’s dialog with interest before he turned off the monitor and he did not seem to be operating any kind of controller device in that scene.
If you want to theorize about the possibility that Dedulus has an avatar in Arkerra, then you could speculate that his glowing purple tie corresponds to the color of Bandit’s cloak, or to the color of the gem in Harki’s belly, but I find it hard to imagine such a flat and expressionless character as H.R. role-playing either of those colorful characters.
I thinks its more likely that Daedalus (or one of his employees) was playing the ghost that gave Best this mission, hence the hesitiation before the ‘yes’ answer. They weren’t aware of his thoughts apparently, and were just happy to find a
hook’ to get him to head where the rest of the 5 were.
Oops, almost missed something. I’m not into video games myself, but i remember that in some of the earlier ones, from around the mid 70’s, your character would often run into minions who would continuously recycle the same few phrases. Like “stop that guy!” or “he’s getting away!” And yeah, they had a hive mind– they were all run by the same subroutine.
I’m also reminded a bit of Asheron’s Call, in which enemies would spawn in groups of three, would not move unless they spotted a PC, and would go back to their spawn point after chasing a PC for a while. Combat was all about kiting.
What’s in a face? If a face can launch a thousand ships, then the answer is a lot, and that’s why we like Best now, he’s got a a roguish, happy-go-lucky look, perhaps even a blankness on which to write out a new personality, whereas before he had a douche look, with a douche hair curl that screamed ‘I am a douche’. no matter what he said we saw that face, the one on the cover page, and it bothered us. now he’s quirky, so the smugness more tolerable, or lets face it, enjoyable.
Has anyone else noticed that doing a full body slide to avoid the landshark in panel two would have hurt a hell of a lot considering he isn’t wearing a shirt under the jacket?
Am I the only one who’s noticed the unnatural angle of the Landshark’s swordhand in the second panel? It just looks funky. But I guess if you have a cartilaginous skeleton, you can do things like turn your hand around 360 degrees and not break your wrist…
Okay, I resisted asking this question before, but I can’t NOT any longer.
Why in the seven hells is he suddenly behaving in an identical manner to Vash the Stampede? This is unacceptable; he doesn’t even have a revolver or insane accuracy!
Discussion (186) ¬
DAT BIRD
Land Shark society is sorted by a complex upvote/downvote system. As a result there is lots of repetition for the sole purpose of collecting arbitrary points. Any individual arrogant enough to to put forth original content or start a new discussion has their sexuality called into question.
Land Shark society is the worst.
The contrast between these comments and the possible meta implications of the second are staggering.
+1.
Sounds like Reddit
Land Shark society is, indeed, the worst.
But luckily for us/them, they are not smart enough to try anything else.
Heh, sounds like some guys i know in real life! :)
You haven’t tasted the best until you’ve tasted the best.
L.O.L
League of Legends?
A rockstar on a raucous roc on some rocky terrain.
Ska de Chocobo
*snap snap*
DATS A CHOCOBO RIDAH!
Spoony Bard gots him a nice ride.
You know? I had been wondering why the chocobo didn’t seem out of place.
DAYUM..i think Best just got served COLE’d.
What is that symbol on the back of Best’s jacket? It’s sort of bugging me.
Kinda looks like his face in profile to me.
I agree.
I thinks its Pb (for Payet Best) done as lightning jagged musical notes surrounded by a circle. The top of the P is hidden behind his hair/collar when he flips.
He’s got his own logo
Almost looks like a heavily stylized “13”.
BINGO, Animaniac!
I’m not qualified to give out gold stars. That’s Phil’s job. Would you settle for a silver one?
Sweet.
It’s always been official Guilded Age policy to neither confirm or deny basically everything, but since John says it’s OK…
Gold Star.
So it is not in fact a FACT that Payet Best is the Douche, Douche, Douche of Earl?
Maybe.
*dances around* Thank you! The light of these stars will keep me through the long dull night at work.. while I wait for the next page =P
He’s got a gold star.
Huh, Best is amazingly skilled and badass. Who would’ve thunk it?
This was pretty much always the case.
Way back when Best worked with the rest of the main characters, he created a ‘diversion’ by beating up 15 people singlehandedly. Before that he beat the very strong guard with the power of ROCK. He played his axe, and caused a cave in exactly where he needed it. Best isn’t the nicest character in this series, but he’s pretty much always been the strongest (or close to it).
or at least the most skilled
physical strength probably goes to Frigg lol
I was using strongest to refer to his collective ability to accomplish his goals and overcome trials.
Byron seems to be the strongest physically in the main group, strongest in the series so far if he’s raging it seems.
I bet Payet would utterly suck at any task requiring tact, diplomacy, or empathy. Recall how he used a chain of children on the airship? He kicks ass in combat, can perform music, and is apparently a good lay. I believe that entirely sums up his skill set. Not a complete person at all.
Or perhaps you’re just determined to find flaws in him due to personal bias.
Yeah, because she obviously out-strengthed Byron. :3
If Byron’s berzerking, he’s definitely the strongest.
Landshark cavalry? Now we’re screwed.
Best doesn’t appear to have any ranks in shark shanking.
sharkshank redemption?
I just want to know why the Land Sharks have Kodo mounts.
They’re not Kodos.
They’re obviously Carcharadontotheriums.
Incidentally, I was thinking of the caption to the illustration on Everything’s Worse With Bears
The strip has now officially and in (virtual) reality, jumped the shark.
koan:
if one should venture to jump a shark, can he be forgiven for having jumped the shark?
…
this is so absurdly funny that i’m rejoining the “likes” faction.
two jumps = no jump. :)
Seems H.R. needs to consider nerfing the Virtuoso class just a bit.
Stop making me like Best!
Landsharks on Thunderlizards chasing a Metrosexual Elf on a Chocobo…
In the stolen words of the Warner Brothers and their sister Dot: … Goodnight everybody! *blows a kiss*
Blah don’t like.Seems too skilled..like a bad fanfiction haha
as is usually the way with Payet Best
he’s so win it’s fail
which I suppose is a skill all it’s own
Best comes across as a bad Mary Sue. I love this.
This. This is fantastic.
This is why you don’t send your lowest paid soldiers who moonlight as comic relief to capture a spy. Never works out well.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!1 :D
Whoop-Dee-Doo baby!
Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-YuuYMhwKI&feature=related
The landsharks’ dialogue do not seem consistent with creatures that have a hive mind.
Likely one could more accurately call it a collective consciousness. Full of tons of very, very stupid consciousnesses.
The alt-text, if it is too be believed, suggests they don’t have a hive mind. They’re just very simple, and only capable of a few distinct thoughts, resulting in them all generally thinking the same thing.
Rather like jocks.
Could just be that the hivemind’s too stupid to realize there is no individuality :/
Landsharks talk without opening their mouths? Is that their hivemind? That they literally think out loud?
you know, as much as payet best is a complete douche, he is extremely talented.
That’s what makes his so douchey. The fact that he has skills to back up his swagger is what makes him so infuriating.
He resembles his mount…
They’re siblings. Pa Best got around.
FF + Lone Ranger ref= LOLZ!
You know what? I think I’m starting to really like Best.
Is it just me… or is he somehow reminiscent of Vash in this strip?
…..Why!? I’ll never be able to look at Vash and not think about Best….you’ve douchified my hero….I will be sending you the bill for my therapy .
Douche, The Escape
Ah gee, I think you’re right! They’re certainly very different, but, there are some similarities (mainly visual). Maybe that’s why I kinda like him.
I’ve considered this since I first saw his new look, but didn’t want to make the comparison. I’m just glad his jacket isn’t red.
That’s his real power. Despite being a total Douche, he can slowly make people like him.
Payet Best is really the one and only Humanoid Typhoon, the $$60 billion double dollar man! Where’s his red jacket?
No, no, you’re getting him mixed up with someone else. Payet is the $60 Billion Double Dollar DOUCHE. Big difference.
Double Douche!
land shark… cavalry!?
that’s it, you just blew my mind…
y’know, right now I’m hoping best is just pixels, as if he too, turns out to be a ‘player’, I’ll be upset. making the main party player’s just made their backstories totally irrelevant
because… characters in stories are totally irrelevant?
I’d like to point out that we still don’t actually know that the rest of the party are a bunch of players. They may have been hijacked from their own world to create the game world from their memories.
Also, I’m fairly certain it was Best in that yellow tube.
I kind of got that sense, too. that’s why all the magic paraphenalia in the tube room.
What’s the matter, Best? Chicken?
+1 (million)
oh maaan all are picking on the poor Land sharks.
I think they are Awesome and wish they would eat that show off shit elf so we finally get rid of him.
A Douche is still a Douche regardless of what skills he has.
Even that some people seem to consider him as a “hero”…
ähm hello? flying ship? throwing children? sometimes i think i’m the only one who remembers these things. Oh well i guess we will see soon enough what kind of “likeable hero” he really is.
He’s a hero in the classical sense rather than the modern sense.
*nod* Classic example: While a hero, Achilles was also kind of a douche.
Best in his tent…. enjoying some company?
Modern sense heroes do things because they’re morally right. They take the hard choice because it is the right thing to do. Modern heroes do good things.
Classical heroes do things because they’re better than you. They’re more talented, stronger, faster and luckier. Classical heroes do great things.
I gotta say, that’s one of the best explanations I’ve seen.
Agreed.
I was reading something where it was pointed out that the Iliad uses multiple perspectives, leading you to sympathize with both sides in a war — which seems surprisingly “modern.”
That struck me in particular because I’d long thought of the Iliad as it was used in an argument that self-awareness is an historical invention — in the Iliad, none of the characters reflects on their internal states. Instead, gods suddenly appear and talk to them.
I’ve always kinda hated Achilles, never really saw him as a hero. Easy to be a “great warrior” and take up a career of killing others when you’re fucking invulnerable….well, almost.
Unless he got the reputation and legend for being invulnerable because he was such a great warrior that he never got hurt in battle until someone shot him from behind with a poisoned arrow during a duel. Sure, they only hit his ankle, but a warrior with one working leg is not so good anymore, and it doesn’t matter where you get poisoned.
I’m talking about the mythological Achilles ofc. Can’t speak for any real-life inspiration if there ever was one.
That’s because Achilles was not the good guy of the Iliad. If anything, he was the villain.
No, the Iliad may have been the story of “The Rage of Achilles”, in which Achilles was definitely not the hero (hero was probably Athena, but that’s hard to verify. It could have the Lesser Ajax), but Odysseus is incontrovertably the hero of the Odyssey (Telemachus just runs around whining), and he’s still a douche. Classical heroes were generally all bastards (figuratively), it’s just that modern society (and the Victorians before us) decided to make the legends nicer. It’s like Cinderella. The original is absolutely not a children’s story. Thus Ahdok is correct.
Hey, having invested in charisma and luck allow a guy to go with those kind of shennigans and actually suceed. Live a life suceeding at desperate things like that, and you will keep pushing the envelope. So far, he didn’t make any big mistake, so he’s still a hero, althought careless – both for other, and for himself.
As Byron said, he has the skills, but takes unnecessary risks. On the other hand, when those risks become necessary, it’s good to have the BEST watching your back. Just, be careful if thats not your thing…
exactly. When he threw that anchor off the ship, the thing that he did was extremely quick thinking. People have proposed alternative plans, but all of them were slower.
It just so happens that acting immediately was the right speed to get the anchor lodged in that tree – and that was the only tree around. The ship was very low down as well.
It could easily be that Best took the only action that let people survive, and any other plan would have resulted in the deaths of the children, the party, the rest of the NPCs on the boat, and several people in the nearby town.
I’ll grant you the speed.
I just feel that a truly charismatic, persuasive person could’ve gotten the party to do the anchoring instead of the kids…
./beating dead horse
Sorry.
On the “classical hero” note: can’t think of any classical hero that wasn’t a ginormous prick in some manner. Many of them were also rapists, one step above pirates, and generally would be considered completely despicable in the modern world.
Most of them were also not terribly smart. I think what makes me grind my teeth most about Best is his little smartass, smug comments and puns. I like puns – it’s the SMUG that gets my goat.
yes. most classical heroes are ginormous pricks.
If best hit the tree by throwing the anchor now, would he have hit the tree if he’d have taken the time to use party members instead?
Well that all maybe true ,the archilles thing i mean,i give you that.but what i find most surprising is how suddenly all comments about Best seem to change.
I mean back than he acted like a prick,his attitude really really sucked, and most people agreed to it and hated him.
Now he show’s off some skills and suddenly he is considered a hero and liked so much?
I mean i#m sorry if i don’t seem to much care for “old school” hero’s but i think a hero should be more than just skills.
The whole duel with Byron thing showed pretty much why i could never like Payet.
But you know what? i guess it doesn’t matter,the landsharks wont get him, he will continue to show off skills. And People will start a Payet best fan club,just to get him back in the original group or even to give him his very own comic ,thats my Prediction.
Well, in this case, i declare open the Payet BEST fan club, with Captain Picard as president of honor.
What? no! he’s still a douche. He’s the character you love to hate. I’m just pointing out that the anchor thing might have been the only way to save the kids – I wouldn’t peg best as “evil” because of it.
His attitude when they landed of course, I would use to peg him as a prick.
My good sir, rapists are bottom of the barrel scum, down there with pedophiles and sadists. Pirates weren’t always the most noble but not all were evil, murderous bastards. Most got started in the employ of one of the crowns. So they should be further up the ladder than rapists. And ‘surprise sex’ is still rape. End rant.
It could also be that given the apparent context… Payet is a Plot Wagon run by the game engine.
If he is a player character it means in the “real World” he intentionally chose his personality and his backstory
Yeah, I remember him saving those children and the party quite well.
oh you mean the “saving” were by pure-luck no children got hurt when he throwed them overboard with a god-damn anchor? And don’t even pretend that he would have cared if one would have actually died.
Like Byron said in the exact same page. Payet is only serving himself not the client and neither the group.
No don’t get me wrong,i like hero’s AND Villains all the same.
But when some douche acts like an A-hole and than starts to call himself a hero or “the chosen one” (granted it wasn’t his own idea in the beginning),thats were i draw the line.
Hey, thats good for their character formation. See also:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110209
Okay, peoples. What exactly is that thing to the left of Payet’s face in panel 1?
Best’s left boot viewed as if you were looking down at the toe.
are you sure? if it’s the boot, it’s too long, and should have the boot top drawn in. If it’s his leg from hip to knee, it’s the right length, but too thin… :)
Left leg from knee to boot, toe is pointed and is still in motion, at least that’s what my eyes are insisting.
I think the perspective is going to be at an odd angle because of the way he’s swinging his leg to complete the flip.
Correct, Hawk. Best is very limber… when dodging landsharks!
./humble bow
He’s like a handsome shark.
For some reason, I really want a small animated bit of Best being chased about by Land Sharks, fast motion with a Yakety Sax soundtrack.
Que the nuns!
I’m wanting the landsharks to be riding things that more closely resemble coyotes, with the next update being best jumping off a cliff and the bird flapping its wings enough to get across safely while the landsharks plummet to their doom. But maybe that’s just me.
I’m waiting for a montage of of Landsharks putting out free birdseed and building increasingly elaborate methods of capturing him.
I throw my full support behind both of these ideas.
The surrounding kingdoms mocked the chicken calvary…once.
Gragl Fragl ARRRRRRGH!
Want to hate best, but can’t… Final Fantasy…
*conflicted explosion*
Chocobo, hawkstrider, wait.no……
Big Bird
Axebeak
His hair is spiking the wrong direction to ride that bird.
Grargh, and now that I’m looking at it from a FF angle, he looks very Sephiresque in panel 3, doesn’t he?
Sephiresque?
I hate that that’s a word.
Are you sure it is?
I hope not.
He-ro
Payet Best
He looks so
Sephiresque
He-ro
Payet Best
He looks so
Sephiresque
Dedalus!
Dedalus!
Red gem-Harky
Dark prophecy
Red gem-Harky
Dark prophecy
All five
Colored tubes
Living large
Sleeper dudes
All five
Colored tubes
Living large
Sleeper dudes
Dedalus!
Dedalus!
(interlude)
Bayen Brayen ax-a-lot
Byron past, slaughter-lots
Bayen Brayen ax-a-lot
Byron past, slaughter-lots
Dedalus!
Dedalus!
He-ro
Payet Best
He looks so
Sephiresque
He-ro
Payet Best
He looks so
Sephiresque
Dedalus!
Dedalus!
I still think best has the skills to be a villain (i.e., could probably give the entire party a decent go). He’s just a little anakin right now. Also, how can he not be a villian. That attire is like “arkerra” shore… i’m just waiting for snookie to show up with the hot tub. The ways you guys rationalize him being a non-traditional hero is kinda goofy. Had he crushed those kids abdomens or ripped their limbs out of their sockets (you know, with our world physics), he’d be hunted man number one. I guess what I’m trying to say is that maybe its only a matter of time before that ridiculous risk taking and selfishness bites him in the rear. There is one thing you guys were right about. those classical heroes were defined by their results (i.e., they got shit done). Only time will tell what this douche shall bring.
We weren’t saying he was a non-traditional hero… we were saying he was a very very old-school very traditional hero.
Old school heroes from Greek/Roman/Mediterranean history and myth were people who you definitely did not want to be on the bad side of.
We’re not talking about mamby-pamby modern-day heroes who help old ladies cross the street or guys who rescue kittens stranded in trees… we’re talking about the guys who can capture an enemy city with only 40 cpmpanions, and who then celebrate afterwards with the traditional burning, looting and raping.
Old-school heroes closely resemble modern-day villains.
;)
And traditional gods almost inevitably are modern day villains, so it fits pretty well.
Payet would indeed make a good villain.
He already got the attitude,and i hope someday he will official be one,maybe then i can start to like him.
And also, if “especially since i hear i’m delicious” is a reference to fellatio, then Best may be my favorite character.
I suppose you’re onto something: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=delicious
last panel brought back memories of wiley coyote / road-runner cartoons.
Is this the part where Best gets a Buster Sword?
Give him the Apocalypse Sword.
You know, the pink one.
John — Today’s strip inspired me to make my first comment. I actually created a gravatar so I could render long-overdue kudos for the work you are doing. The acrobatics of Best in panel 1 and the landshark’s missed blow in panel 2 are very dynamic and well-rendered. The shark-finned swords with fish-hook barbs are very creative. Panel 4 is just a masterpiece — the background is gorgeous, the cowboy leap onto the avian steed is hilarious, and the bird anatomy is convincing (down to the raised hackles while crowing). Furthermore, I love the “RAWK” (Roc! Rock!) — Best’s steed RAWKS. A delicious pun. Kudos to whoever came up with that. Finally, just a general shoutout to the whole Guilded Age team — I discovered the strip just before the artist changeover and the radical story developments — congratulations on a wild ride and I plan to be here til the end.
Thank you, Plover. That’s very nice of you. It took a few sketches to get those acrobatics right. (Just HOW DOES one jump a shark?) Coming up with species specific designs in weapons and whatnots is the really fun part of this job. “RAWK” was Phil’s idea, he gets the kudos.
Looks that we’re both recent arrivals to GA, thanks for your compliments, and welcome to the comic!
oh, and nice gravatar ;)
Some jump the shark in the artistry. Some jump it all metaphorical. Some jump the shark in reality. Some jump it while observational… Then again, some jump it with a 360 kickflip, slide to nosegrind to frontside chocobo mount.
Am I the only one who caught the obvious “jumping the shark” joke?
The chocobo is my new favorite character. :P
STOP THAT TRANSITIONING!
It’s jarring!
Looks like there’s some clipping issues with that rear lizard/boar rider – the mount’s hindquarters are melded right into the rock.
The rock is in the foreground.
It’s a rhinosaur according to the script. And it’s coming from BEHIND the rock.
Nevermind, I’m an idiot. You and Hawk are right.
Carry on, gents.
You know, I’m a Final Fantasy fan myself, but, I must say, Best isn’t dressed correctly to be riding a chocobo. For one thing, that outfit doesn’t have near enough zippers or belts…
and his axe isn’t three times the size of his body… or present at all.
Look again!
oh, i see it now. yeah, didn’t catch it at first glance.
Oh Best. My love for you is like a truck.
Next page will be the Land Sharks receiving a package from Acme Inc.
Is that…a chocobo? :D
HE JUMPED THE SHARK.
I MISSED A VISUAL PUN.
I ONLY GOT IT DUE TO THE FACEBOOK POST.
WHAT HAS BECOME OF ME?
*cackles madly*
Age?
Best just being the Best.
At riding a large c-
*kidnapped by Pun Patrol*
In all seriousness, awesome strip. Now if only his douche level wasn’t in the hypothetical numbers.
Hair looks much better this time, now that I see it’s part of a makeover. RAWK.
I’m now rather curious if Best LITERALLY jumping over a land shark is the writer making a joke about “jumping the shark.”
Not that Phil would ever confirm or deny it (out of principal), I’m sure.
just to fire up a discussion, i’d offer the hypothesis that PB is, in fact, the high-level char of H.R. himself (and the lean guy in the yellow tank is, unlikely or not, bandit’s “player”)
Can’t buy H.R. as P.B. All five characters in the tubes have been represented by text boxes of corresponding colors through the course of the comic so far. Red = Byron. Green = Syrn’j. Brown = Gravedust. Blue-Grey = Frigg. Yellow = Best. (Yes, there has been at least one blue-grey text box so far containing Frigg’s dialogue). The shades of text box are virtually identical to the shades of light in the life-support tubes. Furthermore, the sillhouettes in the tubes appear to physically correspond with the characters represented by those colors.
I would further point out that H.R. seemed to be listening to Best’s dialog with interest before he turned off the monitor and he did not seem to be operating any kind of controller device in that scene.
If you want to theorize about the possibility that Dedulus has an avatar in Arkerra, then you could speculate that his glowing purple tie corresponds to the color of Bandit’s cloak, or to the color of the gem in Harki’s belly, but I find it hard to imagine such a flat and expressionless character as H.R. role-playing either of those colorful characters.
I thinks its more likely that Daedalus (or one of his employees) was playing the ghost that gave Best this mission, hence the hesitiation before the ‘yes’ answer. They weren’t aware of his thoughts apparently, and were just happy to find a
hook’ to get him to head where the rest of the 5 were.
Plausible.
Oops, almost missed something. I’m not into video games myself, but i remember that in some of the earlier ones, from around the mid 70’s, your character would often run into minions who would continuously recycle the same few phrases. Like “stop that guy!” or “he’s getting away!” And yeah, they had a hive mind– they were all run by the same subroutine.
Good point.
I’m also reminded a bit of Asheron’s Call, in which enemies would spawn in groups of three, would not move unless they spotted a PC, and would go back to their spawn point after chasing a PC for a while. Combat was all about kiting.
So not much different then the much more ecent Guildwars?
ack, make that “mid 80’s”.
Oh, BTW: This page does nothing to alleviate my desire to play as a Land Shark.
What’s in a face? If a face can launch a thousand ships, then the answer is a lot, and that’s why we like Best now, he’s got a a roguish, happy-go-lucky look, perhaps even a blankness on which to write out a new personality, whereas before he had a douche look, with a douche hair curl that screamed ‘I am a douche’. no matter what he said we saw that face, the one on the cover page, and it bothered us. now he’s quirky, so the smugness more tolerable, or lets face it, enjoyable.
Hello,
been following since a couple of pages ago (have read the entire archive obviously). Loving it so far! Congrats to the creators.
OK, for my first post I would like to ask: was it only me that had Flash’s themesong by Queen echoing in my head as I read this page?
Has anyone else noticed that doing a full body slide to avoid the landshark in panel two would have hurt a hell of a lot considering he isn’t wearing a shirt under the jacket?
Am I the only one who’s noticed the unnatural angle of the Landshark’s swordhand in the second panel? It just looks funky. But I guess if you have a cartilaginous skeleton, you can do things like turn your hand around 360 degrees and not break your wrist…
Conveniently placed, impossibly large bird? Sure, why not.
Back to hating Best now. Augh I’m drowning in the smug D=
digging the final fantasy reference
Okay, I resisted asking this question before, but I can’t NOT any longer.
Why in the seven hells is he suddenly behaving in an identical manner to Vash the Stampede? This is unacceptable; he doesn’t even have a revolver or insane accuracy!
Ok, so I’m aware that a bunch of persons have already said it, but I cannot resist to the temptation from uttering this word myself:
Chocoboooooooooooo!!!