Annotated 14-5
Title’s one of mine, aimed at how the three villains of the story are each “emulating” the picture of success as embodied by the Heads of Houses and humanity more generally. I do wish we’d spelled that out a little more, but that’s what annotations are for.
Our series of tracking shots continues, but as the title drops, we clarify who is going to be the focus of the series. Last page was mine, this one is Phil’s, transition is smooth.
And John’s rendition of the true Gnometown is lively and lovely. Reminds me of a lot of architecture I saw when I was in Europe: they didn’t take wide open spaces for granted the way early American architects did, and most buildings there were established before the skyscraper era.
I don’t think there’s a TV Trope for this, but one common feature of ensemble series (TV or comics) is the story where everyone else gets pulled into one character’s world, often due to some sort of unfinished business the one character left behind before joining the ensemble. Call it a “spotlight episode,” maybe. We did it with Frigg in Chapters 5 and 6, will do it with Syr’Nj in a few more chapters, and Rachel will get her turn in Chapter 26. Curiously, the guys won’t get as much attention in this area, for various reasons, though Gravedust and Byron sort of split a spotlight episode late in the series.
It occurs to me that I don’t think Scipio ever got much of a spotlight. Enough tidbits were dropped, but I don’t recall the specifics.
Maybe he’s just too much of a stoic badass to get a story arc about his issues. The closest thing was when he split the party to hang with the ‘Nj family.
Funny you should accompany this with a Batman cover, since the imagery here reminds me a lot of some locals in Arkham City.
I don’t recall ‘Outsiders’ getting to 16 issues, but that was around the time I stopped collecting.
Different. Freakin’. HATS.
Hey, gnomes are a diverse culture, and the shape, brim, color, and tilt of one’s hat tells volumes to other gnomes about such matters as clan affiliation, design specialty, marital status, and mood.
Or else, y’know, trying to make the hats all the same would be 1) difficult, and 2) not worth the effort.
Myself, I like the two competing fishmongers on either side of the street.
They’re not competing!
One is selling red fish.
The other is selling blue fish.
No overlap whatsoever.
One fish, two fish?
Making things all the same is generally EASIER, not harder.
The difference between making a generic object and a meaningful symbol is, fundamentally, difference itself.
Uniformity in manufacturing is usually the product of deliberate engineering precision. However, in a cottage industry, it’s a sign of stubborn dedication and skill.
I guess the implied question here is “which one of these produced the hats”, with a corollary of “which makes more sense for Gnomes in-universe”?
To quote the esteemed Professor Phil Foglio: Any plan where you lose your hat is a BAD PLAN!
>> I don’t think there’s a TV Trope for this, but…
Probably a sub-trope of A Day In The Limelight, which describes an episode where the focus is on a single character rather than the whole ensemble.
“I don’t think there’s a TV Trope for this”
Oh, honey.
Seriously, I looked for like twenty minutes and couldn’t find anything that really matched the concept, so if you know of one, feel free to share!