November 28th, 2017
28 Nov 2017 · page 751 of 1306
Missing something?
Hey, if you've got kids age 6-12 and they're itching for something fun to read, you should check out the weekly kids' comic The Phoenix, available online or in Waitrose/WH Smiths in the UK, and on comixology in the US! A subscription is a pretty fab holiday present. The strip I've been working on - Claire, Justice Ninja: Ninja of Justice- is starting a new run this Friday, and I'm really proud of the work me and my writer Joe Brady have been doing.
Cast: Enid O'Malley, Harriet Barber, Jack O'Malley
Comments (62)
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uh-oh, Sloth is already there! It's going to devour Harry and Mal...tomorrow.
But IS it really there? Or is it, like, hovering between planes or whatever?
It's hard to work in two planes simultaneously... Especially to Sloth :)
They'd have to fly very close to each other, which would put them in danger of collision. Very reckless.
"What... a... pain." -- Sloth, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
I think that's Mal and Harry's current situation.
Fun fact: Every wizard that's ever summoned Sloth has or will die. Usually of old age.
Sloth's been there for a while, kind of, in the lamp oil. It's why they fell asleep in the first place.
What a magnificent way for Enid and Mal to live. Free, to go wherever they wanted. And they had each other. :') Magnificent.
Also explains why she never taught him to cook; they never had a kitchen. (Also, it's still possible she didn't know how herself.)
O'Malley Cleaners! We clean every kind of dirty O'Malley!
_Especially_ the spiritually unclean!
Ahhh, look at Enid's spirit. sniff
Very interesting, seeing sloth's outline as they wake up. Perhaps this means that the sleep dart is having the desired impact. Did they had the time to draw the circle earlier? I hope so, but I'm not seeing it in this view.
Apparently not. Looks like they better work diligently to catch up! [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-25th-2017/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-25th-2017/")
OMG! This dream started 3 months ago!
Of course, this chapter started at the crack of dawn.... 19 months ago.... [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/april-19th-2016/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/april-19th-2016/")
Kate did mention that this would be a long chapter. We'll probably finish with Sloth in about a week or two, but there are still 2 more deadlies after that. I'm guessing it will be about 2-3 months to deal with Greed, but I'm expecting Luxuria to be more difficult (so probably 4+ months for that). And we'll probably need a few weeks for wrap up after everything is over.
So this chapter is going to be significantly longer than any of the earlier chapters, but given the complexity of what's going on it needed to be. It has been lots fun, and trying to compress it to make it closer in length to the previous chapters would not have worked even half as well.
Indeed! I feel like I've kept the pacing pretty steady, at least. The next few stories will be back to 100 pages or so!
This has been a truly awesome ride!
Well, the good news is that Sloth's circle is really easy... [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-31st-2012/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-31st-2012/")
I think that panel 2 shows the biggest (only?) smile we have seen on Enid's face.
I'm telling you: running the Pigeon Drop in the south of France. Well. Kate didn't say that they didn't.
I think Enid is too honest to run the Pigeon Drop. She strikes me as the sort who believes in earning your way through hard work.
She's also probably not greedy enough to fall for the Pigeon Drop.
Yeah, it's just not the same without the essentially good-natured Cockney street gang anyway.
Interesting that it appears Harry lost consciousness as well. When this first started happening, she did not appear to have; just Mal's dream sort of enveloped everything. But it appears that, just after saving his head from going bonk on the floor, she passed out too.
Yes, it looks like they've both been asleep. When last seen Mal was lying on his back with Harry supporting his head and shoulders ( [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-5th-2017/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-5th-2017/") ); now he's changed position as one does while sleeping, and Harry's a foot or so away.
Now I wonder if Ben's attachment to his broom awakened nice memories of Mal's childhood... :)))
LOLOLOL
Mal acquired his taste for travel at a young age, it seems. After Enid died he must have kept roaming on his own, until he happened to run into a certain German with the same sort of calming spirit...
Actually, for me this page raised a LOT of questions as to why he ended up in the German Confederation or whatever it was back then.
You mean like how he got across the ocean?
holds up hands in the proper configuration Boats.
I was thinking more in terms of affording said boat, although there's always the stowaway option.
I guess I was thinking more in terms of why he felt the need to travel so far away... XD
Its really not that far. Seriously, Europe is TINY.
Yes, but despite the smaller-ish distance, there's lots of differences in language and culture! Pretty difficult to travel and find work when you can't speak the language... remember how Mal was starving when Wolfe found him? I was thinking along the same lines as Maria up till this update, but now I'm wondering what was the catalyst for him to decide he needed to be farther away from Widdershins than he did when Enid was alive?
Why he was in Germany: he might have gotten some temporary work (perhaps helping transport something) that brought him there, and then ended up being stuck after the work ended. Or his wanderings could have simply brought him there, before he realized how difficult it was going to be to get basic necessities such as food. Without Enid, he was probably pretty aimless in his wanderings (other than steering clear of Widdershins).
Europe as a whole isn't as tiny as all that: it covers almost 7% of the Earth's surface. I mean, yes, it's barely half the area of the Amazon basin, and it's dwarfed by Brazil, but it is bigger than the US State of Alaska. (Although not by much.)
Any given country in Western Europe now... Well, the total surface area of Germany is less than the total area of the US State of California, and Germany is the largest nation in the EU.
From England to Calais across Lamanche as deck passengers (it was cheap enough), then you could just travel trough France and Switzerland by land and so come to the German Confederation.
Sorry, I've mistaken the comment with my previous answer. :)
As for yours - to be as far away as possible of the dangerous British wizards?
In her Tumblr, Kate once replied at "Why was Mal running around continental places whose languages he doesn't speak to begin with?" with "To put a large amount of distance between himself and something else."
I always read that as "Anywhere far from the anchor in Widdershins"
And recent events suggest that "As far as possible from Acedia" was probably a factor too.
Yes, thanks for reminding us of this, I knew there was a reason we thought this in the first place. I guess what I'm wondering now is whether something changed between the time when he was with Enid and later when he met Wolfe? Or is it just that as a kid, with Enid, he felt safe, but later when he was an adult / on his own, he realized that he wasn't really safe and decided to go farther away?
I'm sure someone has brought this up elsewhere, but Enid is the reason Mal likes blue.
Oooh, I just remembered ... the mountain witch gave Mal the gift of a few moments of time. I'm thinking this might be the time to use that (to draw the circle). [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-28th-2016/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/september-28th-2016/")
Oh, good thought!
Nah. Things aren't dire enough yet. Besides, having a break is just what Sloth would want.
When things are dire enough, there will be two other witches with visit, I think.
The Mountain Witch wrote they would come.
I just finished my archive binge and now im sad :(
Such an awesome comic.
Aw, thanks! There'll be more yet :)
Entire new chapters, right? :)
Indeed! Got the next two outlined already.
Ha! So Harry and O'Malley were dreaming and the story woke O'Malley up. Now we have Ben weakening Fairbairns in Widdershins and O'Malley gotten his mojo back in the in the anchor.
This isn't looking good for Sloth.
These two and their cart, Izzy and her vardo, the joys of the road in good company.
And now we know why Mal wouldn't go into a certain basement last summer real-world time. (Has it even been a whole day comic time, Kate?)
[http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-9th-2016/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-9th-2016/")
Nope, it's the evening of the same day. As Ben guessed, it's becoming quite a long one..! [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-1st-2016/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/july-1st-2016/")
I'm trying to work out the speech bubbles across the top of the page. Assuming they alternate between the two speakers, "Places that weren't Widdershins" would be Harry, but it almost feels like that one should be Mal too, like when someone speaks in two connected bubbles: "Anywhere. Everywhere?... Places that weren't Widdershins."
"Time t' wake up?" is obviously Mal as well, though, so I'm not sure...
I believe:
"Anywhere. Everywhere? " is Mal
"Places that weren't Widdershins" also is Mal.
"Time t'wake up?" I think is Harry, although it works either way.
"Reckon so" is the other person, I think O'Malley.
I don't remember Harry ever using t' for to, though, and that's an established feature of Mal's accent, so I figured that one was him.
You are probably right. Perhaps the middle 3 comments are all O'Malley, & then the last one is Harry.
Not only does "Time t'wake up?" sound more like Mal to me, "Reckon so" sounds more like Harry to me, so I agree that all 3 in the middle belong to Mal.
t'was a nice dream