Annotated 36-13
IT’S A TRAP(EZOID)!!!
Nice detail in panel 2 that what alerts Bandit and Rabbit first is a small stampede from the wildlife. They’ve known something was not right in their woods for ages, but what they’re feeling now is more intense than the smoke, sound, and air pressure change of a four-alarm fire. An earlier draft had the sun darkening, but the colors are pretty washed out in their scene already.
We also cut this Rabbit line: “They’re nihilists. Lookin’ for reasons that make sense is silliness at reason’s expense–” I was like, “Between Rabbit, Brother Tom, Gravedust, and the soon-to-return Payet Best, we just have too many characters breaking into rhyme! Guess we’ll have to do something to thin out the herd.”
Tagging this abomination “Byron” is even more of a fib than tagging his corpse with his name, but calling it “The Berserker” isn’t going to work for this story, either.
Same alt-text two times in a row?
Good catch! Don’t know how I missed that…
I don’t think I noticed the first time through that all the Zerk spirits look completely different. Like, not even like the same species.
His love for her is like a truck, BERSERKER!♫
Thank you for reminding me of that cultural gem!
_Finder: King of the Cats_ had a great sequence on this theme.
“I make ripples in the woods like a paddle in a clear green lake. A hundred small scuffles and crackles tell of the prey-animals’ noting my presence. Most of ’em don’t care.
“Far to the west, some minor predator is jumping at grouse and cursing his luck.
“Beyond him, a small herd of angu pick up their ambling pace a bit, a wave breaking in front of a big predator. A laeske, maybe, or eidectus.
“Closer to me a flock of ground-running hawks veers north-northwest, sending innumerable smaller creatures diving for cover.
“Their squawks and complaints travel out from the point of disturbance, taken up and telegraphed by many others.
“The soughing wind in the trees carries all this news and gossip.
“But there is something big out here besides Shantytown. If the animals ripple a bit to avoid me, whatever’s around the perimeter to the north must be quite a sandbar–“