Soup the Comic Strip by Alun Clewe
About
Archive
Forum
About
Archive
Forum
Comic strip for October 8 2023.
PANEL ONE: In a garden setting (with smoke from braziers spelling the comic's title), Erlak stands with his arms raised. Erlak's dialogue is split among six balloons. ERLAK: Actually, it's kind of nice to be here... ...away from the judgment and the comments of the other gods... ...alone, with no one to criticize me or make me feel low... ...free to be myself with no other gods watching... ...and to shout with all my voice to the unhearing winds... ...that _I am Erlak, god of soup!_ PANEL TWO: Another god (Jasda) comes up behind him. JASDA: Congratulations. ERLAK: Urk. PANEL THREE: Erlak turns to Jasda ERLAK: Jasda! I'm really sorry! I didn't know you were here! I didn't mean to— JASDA: Relax. PANEL FOUR: Close on Jasda. JASDA: I just like to come here sometimes and enjoy the peacefulness. You're not bothering me at all. So what brings you here? PANEL FIVE: Jasda walks behind Erlak as he sits on a log. The edge of her sleeve catches on a boulder. ERLAK: Well, I made a complete fool of myself at the Dive Divine. PANEL SIX: Jasda tries to pull her sleeve free of the boulder. Erlak, facing away from her, is oblivious. ERLAK: I accidentally told the whole bar that I was in love with Conniff, the grain goddess. PANEL SEVEN: The boulder rolls onto the hem of Jasda's gown. ERLAK: PANEL EIGHT: Jasda tries to pull her gown free of the boulder. ERLAK: So, I don't know. I guess I just came here to think for a while. PANEL NINE: Jasda reaches for a torch on a long pole. ERLAK: You know, I feel really stupid talking to you about this. PANEL TEN: Jasda tries to pry the boulder off her gown with the pole. ERLAK: I mean, you're the goddess of time, one of the most powerful divinities of all! I'm sure my follies mean nothing to you. PANEL ELEVEN: Losing her balance, Jasda falls into a pool of water. ERLAK: You're above it all; you never have this kind of problem. I— PANEL TWELVE: Close on Erlak, who looks at the source of the sound. SFX: Splash! PANEL THIRTEEN: Erlak looks at Jasda lying in the pool, holding the pole. ERLAK: What are you doing? JASDA: Savoring the irony.
October 8 2023

Hm... I said last Sunday that the reason the file had so much pixelation and so many graphical artifacts was because I'd originally saved it as a gif file, and then when I moved on to using pngs for the comics I resaved the gif file as a png instead of going back to the original Illustrator file. On further reflection, though, I don't think that's exactly right... though it's close. The grayscale daily strips I originally saved as gifs, yes, but the Sunday strips I originally saved as jpgs. Still, the issue remains that I resaved them as pngs from the compressed versions instead of saving them as pngs directly from the original Illustrator files, hence the artifacts. Again, when and if I finally locate those original Illustrator files, I'll replace this image with a better, unartifacted version.

That is far from the only problem with this strip, though. Perhaps a bigger issue is that I don't think it's at all clear what's supposed to be happening. I did realize the issue when I first posted the strip twenty-plus years ago, but I (probably correctly) didn't think I had the artistic skills to make it more comprehensible, so instead I just included an apology and a description below the strip of what was supposed to be going on.

Which I guess I may as well do again. See, what's supposed to be happening is that in the third panel of the second row, the edge of her sleeve gets caught on a boulder. She tries to pull it free, but while she gets her sleeve detached from the boulder, it rolls forward onto the hem of her gown instead. She tries without success to pull her gown free, then reaches for a nearby pole. With the pole, she manages to pry the boulder off her gown, but in doing so she loses her balance and falls into a pool of water. Erlak, meanwhile, is facing away from her and oblivious to all this. Hence Jasda's line in the last panel, "Savoring the irony": Erlak has just been talking about how Jasda is above it all and never has this kind of problem, while Jasda's just been having some ridiculous problems of her own behind his back.

Okay, not only is it not good art, it's not a great joke either, especially since while Jasda may be experiencing some problems, it's an entirely different kind of problem from what Erlak's talking about, so the punchline doesn't really make sense. Sorry.

If I were to redraw this strip today, could I have made it more visually comprehensible? Eh... I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. for instance, it would have helped to add some closeups of the snagged sleeve and other significant elements. But honestly, I'm not sure I could really pull a slapstick action sequence like what this is supposed to be off well today, either. I'm a better artist today than I was twenty-three years ago, but my artistic skills still leave a lot to be desired.

Also, I think that "Splash" in the second-to-last panel may be a reuse of that "Splut" font from the first strip again. In which case, I guess I used that font one more time than I remembered. Still not enough to really justify my having made a font for it, though.

Oh... is this the first time the name of the gods' bar, the Dive Divine, is mentioned in the comic? I think it is. Honestly, at this remove, I think that name may be... kind of stupid? But eh, I guess now I'm stuck with it. (I mean, not really; if I'm rebooting the strip anyway I certainly could rename the bar, and replace the name everywhere it's mentioned. But nah. Aside from the lettering (and a few other details like fixing the occasional backwards hands), I'd prefer to leave the original strips the way they were, even if I might do many things differently today.)