Remember Tunnel 17
At this stage, do I really have to remind readers of this page that I loves me some Digger? Of course not, and may I say that I’m thrilled to be able to link to any page in the archives now that the strip no longer has a subscription wall. Today’s installment in the inadvertant adventures of everybody’s favorite wombat is both hilarious and question-provoking. Namely: is the ghost actually speaking to Murai, or is she addressing Digger (who would certainly find the thought of being a “child of prophecy” to be mortifying)?
But my sheer delight at Ursula Vernon nailing it again is tempered by her text update:
I have been waiting to get to this scene for YEARS. An embarassingly long time. I didn’t always know what was was going to be said, but I knew the ghost scene was somewhere on the horizon. Like Ed’s story and the revelation about the tail of the peacock, it’s been one of the touchstones I used to steer the plot.
Having reached it — well, gang, this is kind of the beginning of the end sequence. I mean, Digger still has a good chunk left to run — I suspect we’re looking at close to another year, if not more, since I always seem to run long (remember that I expected Digger to be less than a hundred pages long once!) — but having reached this scene, we’re definitely barreling towards the climax and picking up speed.
DAMMIT. I’ll let you people in on a secret: for nigh on three decades now, I’ve paced my life by a series of goals that weren’t entirely in my control. Things along the lines of “I can’t die until ____”, where the blank was usually along the lines of being able to read the end of some ongoing story. Until today, Digger and Anders Loves Maria were my don’t-die milestones.
But now Vernon tells us Digger’s maybe got a year and Rene Engström told me at NEWW that we’re down to the endgame of ALM. Now I need to find another ongoing story or I will die. If Vernon or Engström would care to let us in on their plans for their next projects, that would be awesome for all concerned except for my greedy, grasping heirs.
- Speaking of Engström, I wonder if her place of birth on the majestic Canadian
prairiesedit to add: mountains! I meant mountains! see comments below would be enough for the organizers of the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards to consider her in next year’s nominations, on account of she’s not in this year’s. A’course, given the slate of nominees in the Webcomics/Bandes Dessinées Web category (scroll down), the inclusion of Engström might actually qualify as an embarassment of riches.Having any one of Kate Beaton, Karl Kerschl, Cameron Stewart, Ramón Pérez, or Kathryn & Stuart Immonen would make any country proud; having all of them plus Michael Cho, Lar De Souza & Ryan Sohmer, and Gisele Lagace almost makes Canadia look greedy (side note to the organizers of the Eisners, Harveys, Ingnatzen, and all other comic-related awards: this is what the webcomics category should look like, kthxbye).
- Final note: Matt Boyd, scribe of (formerly) Mac Hall and (latterly) Three Panel Soul is job-hunting. He’s a crackerjack writer/interviewer, and unlike some hack pseduo-journalists we could mention, actually has considerable skills in that (increasingly competitive) field.
His name/work aren’t searchable worth a damn at Kwanzoo, but you can find a lot of his stuff here. If you’ve got need for an awesome communicator, drop a note to machallboyd at the Google-run email, which is a dot-com.
Well Gary, you could try holding off until BearCats of Mandhu actually launches. That’s what’s keeping me alive.
It will only be a five year series, but I’m taking longer than that to write the script.
By mckenzee on 04.02.09 3:04 pm
Arthur, King of Time and Space will end May 21, 2029. (Unless the Mayans were right, of course.)
By Paul Gadzikowski on 04.02.09 3:28 pm
No! No! Life is worth living! There’ll be…other stuff…
While I have often said that if I even THINK about starting another webcomic epic after Digger, I am to be shot and buried in the backyard, I dunno…sometimes it’s hard to resist.
By UrsulaV on 04.02.09 7:51 pm
Prairies! I was born in BC, Gary. In the mountains!
Canada has forgotten about me. I’m not even allowed to vote there anymore. :(
By Rene on 04.02.09 11:34 pm
[…] who’s up for Canada’s own Eisner Awards. As Gary Tyrrell notes, the creators nominated in the webcomics category alone would do any nation […]
By Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » April 4, 2009: Shorter Journalista 20 on 04.03.09 5:46 am
Little Terrors! will end. In 3 years it’s gotten about half way there, so by 2012 it’ll all be over :(
By Jon Scrivens on 04.03.09 9:10 am
If I may ever-so-humbly recommend a new ongoing story:
http://smashcomic.com/
By Chris A. Bolton on 04.03.09 6:07 pm
Maybe if my blog wasn’t over your head, and you weren’t the marionette of webcomicdom’s most relentless dunces, you wouldn’t say such stupid things. Blow away or I’ll kick sand in your face.
Best,
Bengo
By Ben Gordon on 04.05.09 1:09 am
Ben,
If you so much as look at Gary or Fleen crooked I will reign such terrors upon you that you’re little blog won’t know what hit it.
If you think one pathetic email to the Harvey Awards committee would stop me, just wait until the entire weight of my readership (and fake twitter followers) descend upon your blog and its interests.
Gary is my girl. Fleen is my special lady. I’ll not allow them to be bullied by the likes of you, sir.
By Scott Kurtz on 04.05.09 11:39 am
This is hilarious.
By D.J. Coffman on 04.05.09 12:27 pm
Oh, I see what happened. Gary made his usual self-effacing comment calling himself a pseudojournalist, and someone else mistakenly thought they were being talked about.
By Kris Straub on 04.05.09 3:57 pm
You’re so vain, you probably think this comment’s about you.
Ha!
I love this.
By Jon Rosenberg on 04.06.09 9:18 am
[…] a webcomic creator were to perhaps decide that the Best Digital Comic category was not particularly representative of our medium’s brightest stars, well, there’s your place to make your opinion […]
By Fleen: Enjoy Our Semi-Abusive Opinion Mongering » Foggy on 06.11.09 3:39 pm
[…] page has, for a number of years, noted that the Joe Shuster Awards are perhaps the best-curated of the comics […]
By Fleen: Home Of The Webcomics Action News Team! » An Unbroken Streak Of Quality on 07.01.13 10:15 am
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