She's a ray of sunshine, this one.
I've been busy putting the finishing touches on the Kickstarter for Volume 5! Look for that very, very soon- I'll link it on my Twitter, my Tumblr, and will post an update on the last Kickstarter project when it's live! There'll be a banner here too, of course!
Cast: Henry Barber, Isabelle Holt, Mr Avaritia, Ms Invidia, Ms Superbia
Comments (70)
ThoughtBubble
14 Nov 2026 – 15 Nov 2026
Harrogate Convention Centre
Manchester Megacon
31 Jul 2027 – 1 Aug 2027
Manchester Central
...Anyone else think Invidia and Superbia might be dating?
Kinda a Lady Oscar and Marie-Antoinette feel.
Hmm, maybe not Marie-Antoinette. But definitly Lady Oscar :)
Please, these guys are strictly Deadly Sins, not any of that pedestrian crap from Leviticus (although it would be hilarious if every single sin listed in the Bible had a corporeal personification in this universe. I wonder what Mr. Cutting Your Hair and Ms. Not Keeping the Sabbath are like).
Ms. Not Keeping the Sabbath is a workaholic . . .
Mr. Cutting Your Hair is a hairdresser, of course.
Delilah's Spa for Men Only? Ms. Cutting Your Hair also.
Not really getting that vibe.
Not at all. However their banter does remind me of O'Malley and Wolfe in a way.
The layout in panel 5 is excellent. Great use of sound effects.
I loved panel 6 as well. Both characters made me smile.
I'm really starting to like these characters. Well... not like like, they're still awful, but they're very interesting.
interesting yet insufferable
Ach, so zis waz a french accent.
I was pondering between zat and german. Hehe.
So in the Widdershins world France also had a revolution, hmm. I wonder how long ago exactly.
Now I really want to see a storyline set during one of the World Wars. I don't care which.
Well, if it's anything like our timeline in terms of basic dates, it's more or less happening right now. Depending on how you'd define it. The Reign of Terror will happen next year (1793). Again, assuming that the Widdershins universe hasn't jumped the gun.
Hmm. I wonder if King George III still had his little problem in the Widdershins timeline? That would have a profound effect on the American Revolution, if he didn't. We might have avoided the whole unpleasantness, in fact.
No, wait, sorry: he first went mad after the Revolution, didn't he? My bad.
Yeah, the American revolution really had nothing to do with the mental state of King George, or, in fact, the fact that he was a king at all.
England was already a constitutional monarchy by that time and though the king still held more power than today, they were not remotely tyrannical. Limited parliamentary democracy did not, of course, mean that England was a happy place; the reign of George III was the dawn of the ultra-captialist era, and poverty is a tyranny all of its own.
Much like in at the time in France, the American revolution was not truly a proletarian one; it was led by a bunch of wealthy citizens who included both some idealistic social experimenters and some greedy self-serving opportunists. The anti-tyranny rhetoric in the American revolution came in large part from a few really weeeeeird libertarian types (Jefferson, Maddison, Paine to some extent) who wanted no government or communal society at all - just every man a subsistence farmer on his own land.
The first real proletarian revolutions don't come until... exactly the era of Widdershins, with the June rebellion in France 1932 (Les Miserables!)
< / totally superfluous social history lesson>
Correct, it's happening now, as far as this story goes!
Now as a technical point, Envy would tend to identify with those "stupid peasants". The essence of envy is pretty much that you have something I don't, which is fairly easy for the peasants to feel, but a lot harder for the king. Of course, Envy would tend to envy everybody, but her hatred would be aimed more at the rich and powerful.
I will also offer the theory that these people are actual people rather than bits of the sins. They have each absorbed more of each sin than is good for them, but they remain human. That would explain how several of the sins are pictured quite differently in other stories.
Nah, these are deadly sins. They are quite capable of hypocrisy - being irritated by a human being exhibiting the very sin you want all for yourself is perfectly in character.
Besides. They tried to cut off her head. HER head. Her PERSONAL head, the one that she was using just then. Besides, Lust would never let her hear the end of it.
Panel 2 is really bothering me. Her hand cannot be doing that, unless the sins don't really have bones. In which case they're all just creepy.
Yeah it should be straight out and inverted if they have normal bones.
Considering all the contortions she did whilst in Fox-Mode, it's not really that suprising
I agree. There's no way she could do that herself with human anatomy (aside from some weird Deadlies anatomy). Someone could do that to her, but it would hurt like a mother....
i dunno, i can mostly do what she is doing, but can't really rotate my shoulder past 30 degrees backwards (whereas she looks like 45-50 degrees). i dont really know how flexible people are i guess. though it would be more natural to just turn around in any case
I'll look at it again when I'm properly awake.
Nah, you're just seeing it from a funny angle. I can position my elbow behind my hip, wrist behind my shoulder (not literally behind, but appearing so from the viewing angle), thumb pointing backwards. It's the limit of my movement, but I reckon if I got someone to take a picture from the right angle it would look the same. You're not seeing her from behind, more like her side (white part of dress still in view).
What are you talking about? I just tried to imitate that pose and it was simplicity itself. Uncomfortable to leave it there, though.
I'll have to make a note, if I ever become a lovable rogue, to keep a small knife in my back pocket. :)
Small knives in every pocket! You can't have too many knives!
If I recall Babylon 5, Sheridan defeated an entire ancient and advanced civilisation using the old 'spare gun down the sock' trick.
Dammit, Superbia! Stop being awesome. You're making me want to root for the bad guys.
I'm sorry, I know you're all in love with Superbia, but so far Invidia is my favorite.
Invidia is complaining about English because of the time taken to enunciate? She must have not had much worth saying, if she finds some by-blow of Latin to be favorable.
Isn't she complaining about the English people, not language? Zese, not zis. (Avaritia, taking so long to get a horse because he wants to bargain down?)
Complaining about the time it took to rent the horse, I think...
...and of course, Greed would have taken a while bargaining to make sure that he got the best of the deal... ;-)
Where did Envy's hat go?
Crazy, I know, but she took it off her head
Yeah, but where did she put it? Hats don't cease to exist when not in direct contact with heads. At least, none of my hats do.
You can't see the full room from here, there were some pegs by the door. This is a weird thing to care about!
Mine sometimes do. They come back into being just after I get off the train, usually.
Hee, hee. Isa might be something of a kindred spirit to Han Solo, when it comes to her research. "Who's scruffy looking?"
And how dare those peasants revolute against Invi! They're just jealous of her. For shame!
This was awesome. I love Envy's face in the last panel. The cry of 'well researched scrawlings!' and ummm Pride. Pride. I may have mentioned Pride- Sorry.
Oh no. I love her XD
Just went back & started to re-read this story from the start... have I said lately just how happy your work makes me? <3
Aw, thank you :)
Ha! When you are as absolutely awsome as I, such contortions are simple! Another demonstration of how wonderful I truly am!
Oh that hand. You're just jealous because you can't do it yourself. :-)
Another Kickstarter? Damn, I need to get a job!
Good luck! I've been there, and I sympathize.
Thanks. By coincidence I've just been offered a four-month temporary job. Could lead to a permanent job and it will at least be enough to pay for my Kickstarter contribution! Of course, now I'll have to start getting up early and working for a living again...
Nice! Good luck with that turning permanent. Sorry about having to get up early again, though... ;-)
Well, as Superbia uses French in yesterday's strip for Henry's nickname (Mon petit roux - lit. My little red) and in the last panel of today's strip she mentions Paris, so I'd peg her as French too.
I'm not sure about that - she used her French when talking about Invidia ("Mon petit roux did not mean to insult the mademoiselle") and has no noticeable accent. They (and maybe some or all of the other Deadlies) were in Paris at the time of the revolution (and may have had a hand in causing it - Envy and Wrath certainly could have played a part), but I haven't seen any indication that any but Invidia are French themselves.
Both are French, but Invy has more of an accent. Superbia's French accent is on the same level as Wolfe's German- present, but not so OTT that it'd fit to transcribe it quite so overtly.
Avaritia is English, yes!
Ahh, ok. Of course Superbia's English is excellent.
To expand on Sanjay's musings on the Deadlies nationalities below, here are my guesses.
As shown by the story so far, Invidia and Superbia are French.
Gula and Ira are possibly from one of the Slavic nations. I am assuming this purely on the shapes of their faces, which have that East European cast to my eyes.
From the color of her skin, Acedia looks to be Spanish or Portuguese. Plus, if I'm remembering correctly, the pre-Victorian stereotype of the people from the Iberian peninsula was that they were an indolent lot, which neatly fits Sloth's nature.
Avaritia could be either Scottish, Irish or a lowborn Englishman. The first time he speaks in this chapter, he uses the phrase "to be sure". I've only ever noted that being used in Irish speech. And well, a cheap Scotsman is a cliche for a reason. : )
Luxuria is the trickiest one to figure out. My guess would be that he is almost certainly English-born but spent a significant part of his life/adolescence on mainland Europe, since his conduct isn't typical for a well-mannered Englishman of the period. Which is sort of amusing when you consider that in very early European history, it was the English who had the reputation for being sexually loose.
Wow, so I'm not the only one who though Acedia looked rather Mediterranean. Though I suppose she could also be a Romani or something. Perhaps Turkish?
Well, if we're going by outrageous stereotypes, Avaritia ought to be Dutch. Stinginess (or Frugality, as they like to call it) is one of the three pillars of Dutch culture. Along with the much nicer Hospitality and "Gezelligheid", which is the Dutch equivalent of the now famously untranslatable Danish "Hygge".
I love that the horse's name is avaritia (brings to mind "avarice")
Avaritia is the man tugging the horse - he is indeed named after the deadly sin of Avarice!
There's a 'Mr Avaritia' tag below the comic that you can click if you'd care to be properly introduced.
oh, thanks. I guess I should read just a teensy bit slower so I don't miss details like the fact that she was talking to a person...
A little recherche en Francais--so too bad L'Invide has her neck all buttoned up. When the Directoire goes down, she's make such a good Merveilleuse! Marie Josephe Rose should be arriving in Paris about now, oui? She would be in her twenties? They say she had some interesting jewels. Very interesting. And a taste for men with promise and ambition. Not just one, either--a succession of them. But that would come a little later . . .
I read a bio on her many years ago. She was a pretty interesting woman.
Oh yeah, that helped a bit. :-)
I know exactly what you mean. Characters who I'd want to punch in real life are the best.
Marie?! Marie, is that you?!!! However did you escape the Terror?
Another aristo who fled the revolution so quickly she didn't realise that the peasants weren't actually getting a look in?