January 17th, 2017
17 Jan 2017 · page 669 of 1306
Stage directions.
Cast: Sidney Malik, Verity Cunningham
Comments (50)
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Oh, Sid. Where's your stage-face? The best tricks in the world don't mean anything if you're not charming, you know?
Then again, if he looks genuinely scared while performing, the act might have a greater impact on the audience.
True enough, true enough.
Yes, my boy, do try not to worry about such things like possibly killing your assistant and the promised eternal haunting.
Interestingly, when this trick was first invented and performed, at the Finsbury Park Empire in 1921, inventor Percy J. Selbit played it for shock and horror, with lots of fake blood spilling out, and a loud and laborious process of "sawing" through the lady's "spine". Nearly all of the many entertainers who went on to copy the trick decided to spare their audiences that part of Selbit's original presentation. ...Now, will Sidney be able to do likewise...? >:=/>
We can but hope. ^^;
May I direct your attention towards Penn & Teller's version of the Sawing a woman into halves. No gore sparsity there.
Others have played that angle as well. Even if they don't do the gore directly, they tried to play with the suspense by having ambulances predominantly standing by or visible medical personnel ready to rush in. These days, tricks like this have become such a standard, even a cliche that its hard for us to imagine how it impacted audiences who hadn't seen things like it.
Envy, if you don't listen to the contractors you hire when they air doubts, you just fall into the holes they were trying to warn you about. ;P
Yes, but contractors are there to take the blame when things go wrong, even if it is not their fault. It's in the contract.
This is also dependent on the competency of the contractor...the less competent the contractor, the better the fall guy.
...Sidney's a better knife thrower than I gave him credit for.
My thought exactly, thats some REALLY nice placement around the white ring on the target.
Actually, given the finer details of the situation, I think it's Envy who's a better knife-thrower than you might expect. Especially given that it has no thumbs....
Yeah, this would suggest that Invidia isn't seriously trying to kill them (yet), just keeping them in mortal terror for its own amusement.
Is Envy amused by terror?
That was a mighty close shave with that word balloon, though.
Yo, clever product placement for Nvidia there.
(sorry lol)
He's now updated their drivers, leading to greater performance!
More like clever brand name choice, as in "we're the envy of everyone else".
Now, now, Ms. Cunningham. Please be a dear and direct all hostility toward the Deadly Sin and leave Mr. Malik alone. He's upset enough as he is, and you wouldn't want his hands to start shaking, now would you?
It's not Sid that she's threatening to turn into a coat.
Panel 4.
Okay, I can see how the fur coat should be of concern to Invidia - if it had any sense - but I perceive the pair of gloves is somehow upping the ante. Where on Invidia's anatomy, exactly, is Ms. Cunningham planning to slice those from, I wonder.... ;)
All the leftover bits... a bit for each finger and the thumb... larger bits for the backs and palms... or multiple bits for those too... She would enjoy the process immensely.
Hummm... glowing strings and a saw. Well if one can pull a saw out of the hat, I would venture that with a cough distraction cough a quick cutting motion of a presumable magic saw could cut those cords.
But where would the fun be in with that...
/eatpopcorn
Verity in the first panel is the best I've ever seen her drawn.
She looks different without her glasses, doesn't she?
She does, a bit, but it's not the glasses or the hair. It's the... menace. The I-have-crafted-a-death-kata-just-for-Envy look in her eye. :)
Truly. And with her hair down and without the glasses, she has a softer, more girlish look, which the murderous glare contrasts so beautifully with.
Also, I think this may be the first we're seeing her directly 'facing the camera'; not sure, but I think we've rarely if ever seen her face at that angle before. (?)
Panel One: One can sort of see how Harry and Vee worked well together ... AND why they split, i think.
Haunting? Now there's a thought. How do ghosts fit in with spirits, summoned emotions and malforms? I'm overthinking this again aren't I?
What do you think? Are you over thinking this?
I don't think it's possible to overthink this. But I'm not sure. Maybe I'll think on it some more and get back to you.
So many questions about what the summoned spirits actually are, where they come from and where they go. How do they fit in with humans and the 'spirits' that O'Malley can see above their heads.
When I first read this one, I immediately pictured Verity as an angry, fur-coat-and glove-wearing ghost. I don't know if she would still be able to skin Envy if she were a ghost, but I found the image too amusing to get out of my head.
A fur-coat-wearing ghost constantly pursed by the animal rights activists, although I'm now wondering if you could argue that the fur from a deadly sin is 'ethically sourced'.
Very ethically.
I absolutely love how Verity is coping with this. Swearing and threats, baby. All the way.
And no begging or pleading either. She's stoically biding her time until she can kick ass again.
It's decided, this either ends horribly for Vee, or Envy, because if she survives this, I doubt Envy will.
Oh, Envy wil survive all right... as a nice pair of mittens XD
Envy. Envy no. Envy that's not how stage directions work.
I wonder, can strong emotions overcome the sin's aura?
I mean, isn't that how Wolfe stopped wrath? (His music instilled a sense of calm, overriding Wrath's aura)
One would think watching someone get brutally murdered would overcome their sense of jealously...
If thats the case I think Vee's anger might soon override envy's power over her XD
Presumably it'd need to be something more opposed to envy, though. Contentment, maybe? Or joy on another's behalf?
Whew, I just found this comic today and promptly binged through all the archives (staying up well past bedtime, I might add). What a good, good thing you have here, and thank you for making it.
Thank you for reading it :) Glad you had fun, apologies for the late night!
Ben, your cousin is in danger. Snap out of your funk and DO something! Wolfe and/or Voss might save the day, but you shouldn't count on it. (In fact you've got good reason not to count on Voss for anything.)
I understand why Vee is worrying about dying here, and it totally makes sense that she is expressing that worry in the from of irritation and threats.
Those bisected fox-Envy designs on the box.