Annotated 15-2
HAHAHAHA, well, we definitely wouldn’t use “groot” as the name of some rando creature if we were doing this today. I knew about Groot mainly from his appearance as a rampaging monster in a 1960 comic and later references to it in Fantastic Four. By this point, the gentler and less verbal Groot was starting to show up in the comics, but I wasn’t reading those, so I thought, “sure, this reference is the right level of obscure.” J.G. Ballard was a science-fiction author who often imagined environments of intimidating scope, and it saddens me that he’s more obscure today.
With all these other references we’re slinging around, maybe you didn’t notice the Goldilocks and the Three Bears bit that pairs with the bear and honey imagery. “The first monster was TOO SOFT. And the second monster was TOO HARD. But the dire bear was JUST RIGHT.”
I gave John a lot of notes on a few creatures that showed up in the last page, but having established the general look and feel of the ur-animals, I let him do his own designs for the named animals here. He put the ballard in the previous page, too.
I mislabeled the “Hunneeeuuuh” bit as dialogue for Byron. I meant it for the bear, as if it were just on the edge of articulate. But when I brought that up to Phil, he felt it was a happy accident and we should leave it as Byron’s line. I suppose since this is a hunting story, it’s probably better not to even flirt with the idea that this animal is a semi-intelligent being. We got enough grief over the kobolds.
I don’t know if it was commented on with the original posting of this page, but the alt text has me looking at this and thinking for Byron, “Wait, I want at least a little peril, but in the Monty Python Holy Grail sense, not REAL peril. If MPHG peril, you can make it MORE perilous. I’m up for that!”
My other thought reading this page again is, “Syr’Ng just “zoik!’d” Byron. Hardcore.”
“I meant it for the bear, as if it were just on the edge of articulate.”
A semi-articulate dire bear that likes dire honey. Were you going to call it Winnie the Dire-Pooh?
Aww, you got rid of the “A Dire Bear” tag. That was the best one!
Did I? Looks like it’s there to me.
Hmm. I might need to learn how to read.
Oh wow!
I saw ‘Ballard’ and dismissed that it was a reference to good ol’ JG specifically because he’s getting so obscure these days!
I lost the faith, T! I’ve learned my lesson, you magnificent bastard!
Wait, that’s a Ballard? I thought (per John’s comment last page) that was a Tree-ceratops.
Tree-ceratops is what readers dubbed it. Sort of a nick-name. The “in story” name is a Ballard.
I read Byron’s misattributed line as him starting to call Syr’Nj “honey”, as in “honey, please, can we talk this over first?”
I also read Syr’Nj’s “Good luuuck!” in the voice of General Pepper in the original Star Fox. :D
Even after all these years, I still use the avatar of the Dire Bear taken from panel 4 on forums. It’s such a cool design and works with my internet handle.