May 24th, 2016
25 May 2016 · page 603 of 1306
Luck ran out.
Come see me at MCM London this weekend, I'll be at table CK01 in the Comic Village!
Cast: Henry Barber, Isabelle Holt, Ms Acedia
Comments (74)
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NO
nooooooooooooooooooo
RIP Henry Barber
(hopefully that's a single-shot pistol, so Isabelle has a fighting chance)
Yup, looks like a muzzle loader as well, so it takes a good 20 seconds until she's ready to go again. (Wish I had that kind of reload time)
If yer smart, and you only have single-shot, muzzle loader pistols, you always carry more than one.
Though this IS Ms Acedia, hopefully she's too lazy to prepare a second pistol?
I'd be more worried at the possibly wrathful feelings that Isabelle is feeling at the moment...
NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo... he's gonna get possessed by Wrath too, isn't he ?
he? Nope, the wrathful one is the one who just saw her husband shot, and is about to get revenge.
that's NOT a pleasant alternative.
High on the right. Not necessarily fatal, though he's no spring chicken and she could have hit a lung . . .
However, if emotion is more important than blood, someone may still end up feeling wrathful enough to fulfill the requirements of freeing Wrath . . .
If she didn't hit the lung, she hit the stomach. My money's on 'slow and painful death' for Henry.
At that height, no way no how did the bullet get his stomach. The exit wound indicates that it tore right through his thoracic cavity, likely puncturing a lung and tearing through some important blood vessels.
And, see. Wrath is grinning.
Dispense not wrath, but justice. Let not your fire be hot with anger, but cold with necessity. Let your head rule, and listen to your heart with due measure.
Is that a quote from something, or just something you've made up? It's quite poetic.
Pretty sure that's Lust disguised. After all, what better way to release the penultimate spirit than with the witch's descendant's Wrath?
You can't win, Acedia. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
Those are not trembling-with-fear fingers. Those are I-am-an*old*-mage-adventurer-and-you-just-shot-my-husband trembling fingers.
She is about to tear it up
More like "you just shot my husband, I hope your life insurance is paid up" trembling fingers.
As a rule of thumb, it's a bad idea to get a witch mad at you, even a good witch (especially when you just used up your only shot).
Izzy ain't no witch.
And sloth is just to lazy to figure that part out.
Unsure about too lazy: the truly dedicated lazybones is who you hurl at detective work to overview the results of the stupidly energetic.
But, Mal has pretty much stayed off various untrapped radars as being a witch. :/
Oh that's right, her mother or grandmother was a witch or something, but she wasn't.
My bad.
The correct term is wizard
I'd accept that translation of the trembling fingers. But if we're ever going to find out what kind of ad hoc thaumic smackdown an experienced Widdershins mage can do when she's sufficiently motivated, well, this seems like an ideal time to try the experiment. :)
Da-na na naaa! Da-na na-na-na-na! It's the Thaumic Smackdown!
Good gravy it's not even late here. What is wrong with me?
...Wow, I just realized: you CAN totally do time travel in the Widdershins universe. Physical objects, even. So it's just a matter of time before somebody shoves the USS Nimitz through...
This is a fascinating, revelation... I think. What does it have to do with my cheap 80s music joke?
...Wow. I almost feel bad about revealing this movie unto you.
Almost.
[https://www.youtube.com/wat...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=min2ohR8j3U "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=min2ohR8j3U")
...................................................
That wasn't so bad.
I can't tell, actually. The movie has too much sentimental value for me (my dad didn't find science fiction interesting, but he would always watch a movie starring an aircraft carrier) to be able to fairly assess it. :)
Well I try to assess movies in context, and that takes a lot of the sting out of the gratuitously 80s-ness of it. And they didn't play the song (Which I loathe. Why did I quote it? I blame my husband. Don't tell him about this.) so I was willing to put up with the trailer. And the concept seemed pretty decent, if sort of tactlessly explained by "Perfect Hair and Aviators McGee" there.
Although her getting angry isn't too likely to hel the situation, methinks.
Depends on whether it's sinful anger or not. From what I remember of the medieval interpretations of Wrath, Isabelle wouldn't be directing her anger against an innocent and it's hard to say what a disproportionately angry response would even be in this case. So that might protect her.
The final decision on this is totally up to our Gracious Host, of course. :)
Now that you mention it, the composition of that panel does rather call to mind an old spaghetti western gunfighter, standing in the street staring the other bastard dead in the face and fixin' to draw. Very Clint Eastwood.
[https://upload.wikimedia.or...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Ennio_Morricone-The_Good%2C_The_Bad_And_The_Ugly.ogg "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Ennio_Morricone-The_Good%2C_The_Bad_And_The_Ugly.ogg")
Or maybe she's trying to control her anger.
Anyway, I hope she will stay calm enough to think of something to keep as a conduit for Wrath. And transmit it to O'Malley, one way or another. If they survive, that is, which I hope.
Noooooooooooooooooooooo
0.o
Oh no...
Considering that her retaliation may be the offering to WRATH.. let's all calm down and have a nice cup of tea...
So far we haven't really ever seen anyone get seriously injured. No big stabbings or shootings or anything. We also haven't seen much of what can be done with positive emotions. So, it's really hard to be certain exactly what benefits magic has had on medical technology. That might be a fatal wound or maybe they just Hope it gets better really hard and he will (or maybe they go get Wolfe's Serenity). I wonder if they could send someone back in time to save him, if need be?
I think removal of head was intended to get someone seriously injured.
True. However since Luxuria outlived everyone else who was at his execution by hundreds of years I don't think we can count that despite the intentions.
And a number of the other villains have intended to shoot, stab, or otherwise kill our heroes, but, since they never actually injured anyone until now, it doesn't really count.
It's how he would have wanted to go.
I....I'm not sure how to feel about this. It came out of no where and it seems like the most serious thing that's happened so far.
Those last three panels are really really well put together. Tells the story fantastically. And it gives the impression of a film/cartoon cut away, which I like. This would look glorious animated.
It's definitely the most serious thing that has happened so far, and I am hoping people will bear with me! Gotta set the stakes every once in a while, after all.
I am definitely here for wherever you decide to take. I totally understand that sometimes you need to raise the stakes and shake things up. And you've got six brilliant books worth of 'faith in the author' built up here so I'd be surprised if you lose anyone over this.
I guess what I'm saying is I trust your story telling ability absolutely. But I don't want Henry to die. I'm hoping that for the story he doesn't have to. I've gotten used to........expecting Widdershins will not make me sad. Because this is one of the most light hearted good-ol'-adventure sort of stories that I read. I know that sometimes you need those emotional beats, it is just...less expected here.
Here is where the one page per update thing is a bit of a shame, really! Trust me, the overall tone of the comic isn't changing, I love light stories too much to get rid of that.
Though honestly, I'll take shock and sadness over apathy, that's for sure!
I always point to Black Adder when people try to tell me tragedy has no place in comedy and/or visa versa. Or, you know, Shakespeare. xD
Mmm, whatcha say...
I think Wrath won't be the only one to get pissed
"If you want a thing done efficiently, tell a lazy {man} to do it."
Haha, I was wondering when someone would ask about that panel
nooooooooo
nononononono.................... dies quietly
I had been wondering about that too, but I thought maybe she could have lived long enough (with luxury's help?) to be there when there still was a witch in Widdershins. Your hypothesis is far more likely, and it opens lots of new questions, yay! And thanks for sharing it...
And the only answer to all of them is: "Don't miss the next exciting episode of Widdershins: Curtain Call!"
Wrath seems amused
Sudden thought : it's the kind of guns she'd have to reload the powder manually, which takes a while.
Henry, you should have taken the pistol on the upswing - about a month back...
Ah well, not to get too Harry Potter about this - but does an act of selfless love not deflate Wrath somewhat?
Maybe, but if those shaking hands indicate Izzy's wrath, might not be too much help.
Yes... righteous, fully justified wrath is still Wrath.
Edit: All the same, Izzy is probably the smartest character in the entire cast -- against stiff competition -- and she is fully aware of what has been summoned here, so she may think of something cleverer than I would!
Henry!
wimper
Well, he did say his luck would run out someday.
Body wounds with lots of blood are surprisingly survivable. They often can be handled by a talented boy scout [not that there were any for quite some time, but...] by just bandaging the wound. Those that don't visibly bleed much often are bleeding internally and it can take serious skill to stop such bleeding.
That's good news!
Of course I hope Henry will make it, but I've had bad experiences with beloved characters and stories before. Author-trust-issues. That kind of thing.
I am going to stubbornly persist in believing that Henry will recover.
Oh, she's angry. Just what Wrath needs.
Shoulder - hm. It's a serious wound and he probably won't be able to use his arm, but if someone can stop the bleeding it probably (hopefully) won't be life-threatening. The question is, how will they get out of the situation in order to do so? Don't die on us Henry!
That looks like a shoulder wound to me, about one inch in from the armpit and three inches down from the shoulder top. That would very probably be fatal on a real person, especially an old man, possibly causing very rapid death from shock. It might well have hit big blood vessels but he probably won't die of blood loss if it's staunched quickly. If it isn't, or if the wound gets infected, Henry is probably a goner.
Also, Henry really ought to have smacked her hand with the stick in the first panel. Acedia has her eyes shut and isn't aiming anywhere near them!
No! O.O
Was truly not expecting that (she HAD a gun, I don't know why I didn't). This is ...
ugh just Henry stay alive! ! ! This is horrible (well written BUT HORRIBLE).
oh welp i just shot an elderly man. my bad. never was a good shot. i blame the gun.