Soup the Comic Strip by Alun Clewe
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Comic strip for August 20 2023.
Panel One: Close up of the face of the god Erlak. ERLAK: Ah, ha! I have found someone worthy of my divine patronage. I must go down and reveal myself to him... when the time is ripe. Panel Two: Erlak sits on a bench next to another god, Nizini. NIZINI: And when exactly will the time be ripe? ERLAK: Just as soon as I've finished this donut. Panel Three: A mustachioed adventurer faces a flying imp creature. ADVENTURER: Your evil days are at an end, devilspawn! Panel Four: Close-up on the imp IMP: You shall never defeat me! I have existed for millennia, and shall exist for millennia more! And, whatever fools like you might try to do to me, someday I shall-- Panel Five: The adventurer's hammer comes down on the imp's head. SFX: THUNK! Panel Six: The imp lies on the floor. IMP: Hey, no fair! I wasn't done with my villainous rant yet! Panel Seven: The adventurer's hammer smashes the imp into a puddle of goo. SFX: SPLUT! Panel Eight: The adventurer walks toward a doorway as Erlak appears behind him. ADVENTURER: Now that the imp is dispatched, I must see to repairing the evil he has committed-- ERLAK: Hold, mighty adventurer! Panel Nine: The adventurer turns. ADVENTURER: What? Who? Panel Ten: Erlak speaks to the adventurer. ERLAK: I have been watching thine exploits from the Mountains of the Gods and have come down to honor thee by becoming thy divine patron. Panel Eleven: The adventurer kneels. ADVENTURER: I am indeed honored, Great One. May I ask the name of the god I would be serving? Panel Twelve: Erlak glows as he speaks to the adventurer. ERLAK: I am Erlak, God of Soup. Panel Thirteen: The adventurer walks through the doorway, as Erlak calls after him. ERLAK: Hey, wait! Come back!
August 20 2023

Hi, and welcome to the first strip of my webcomic Soup! This strip was drawn back in 2000, and I haven't altered anything except the fonts (though maybe I should have), so I apologize if it looks a little crude. For more on the history of the strip, check out the About page.

Speaking of fonts, here's a fun dumb fact about today's strip: I didn't just draw those "Thunk!" and "Splut!" sound effects; I created fonts just for those sound effects. Not full fonts with all twenty-six letters; I only created the letters I needed; but still for some reason I created fonts for those letters instead of just drawing the letters directly in the file. Why did I do this? I don't know. It was more than twenty years ago. Presumably I expected to reuse those fonts later, I guess. (I did use the "Splut" font in one future strip—though I probably shouldn't have—but the "Thunk" font would never be used again.)

Unfortunately, I was a bit busier the last few weeks than I expected and didn't have as much time as I'd hoped to work on the site, so at the time I'm writing this not all its features are functional. So except for the About page, the links up at the top aren't working. Since there's only one strip up so far, I guess there's not much point in an Archive yet, and there's not much to talk about in the Forum, but anyway, I hope over the next few days to get all those working. Also, those blank spaces to the left and right of this commentary are where there are going to be some navigation features, which, again, I guess isn't really important for only one strip anyway. Again, I hope over the next few days to have those working. (And by the time you're reading this, it probably has, since I don't expect to get many visitors to the strip the first day of its (renewed) existence.)

Anyway, enjoy the strip, and I promise the art does get better. Not as much better as I'd like, but better than this, anyway.

(Who is the adventurer talking to in the last panel in the second row? I guess he's the narrate-everything-out-loud type, which is kind of an overdone type in comics; sorry.)