June 11th, 2008
False Prophet
I’ve had this scene rolling around in my head for so long; it’s a relief to finally get it out into the world.
I’ve had this scene rolling around in my head for so long; it’s a relief to finally get it out into the world.
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June 11th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
oh damn!
June 11th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
What on earth?
June 11th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
the tentacles are kind of lovecroftian…
June 11th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Whoa !! . Karl - that is a “barn-burner” moment . Noticed the snow difference around the twig in panels 4 and 5 - and what appears to be “shadow steps” in panel 6 - with the uncovering of TACC’s pacifier in panel 7 .
Perhaps this could be pre-cursor of it’s delivery to TACC later in the story by “Moon Bear” . Or am I just blowing in the wind . Guess I’m just going to have to wait - As usual . ( :>))
June 11th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Wooooooooow! I have no idea what quite happened (hopefully that will be revealed in time) but that was very cool! Kinda disturbing.
The loss of his pacifier though, kinda shows how Chris is growing up a bit, or losing that childlike innocence he has.
June 11th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Sorry - meant panels 8 and 9 - followed by 10 and 11 . Not used to you displaying 11 panels at once - not that I’m complaining . LOL
June 11th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Very powerful Karl! Beautiful too!
June 11th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Kinda disturbing too!
June 11th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Creepy.
He was some kind of evil-false-prophet-monster-creepy-thing all along. :(
It reminds me of this strip:
http://horhaus.com/abominable/2008/02/27/what-are-little-boys-made-of/
June 11th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I don’t get evil at all. The appearance is clearly creepy and more than a little sinister, but, so are a lot of things in nature.
It appears that the lion’s head expands until it becomes the night sky. It actually reminds quite a bit of the appearance by the giant ghostly Moon Bear earlier.
June 11th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
oh. my. goodness. so reminiscient of miyazaki again, and yet so beautiful and original and unexpected.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Definitely reminds me of Princess Mononoke.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I get that Mononoke-hime feeling a bit, too. =)
Drat good Karl, drat good. <3
June 11th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
uhm, i’d like some of what you’re having….
beautifully disturbing my friend!
June 11th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
A W E S O M E
June 11th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
holy stars and garters!
June 11th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Wow, I read this just as I was talking about evil and demons with a friend on the phone…
And regardless of my Atheism, it scared me.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Very much so disturbed…
Lion-tentacle-face-man scares me.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:15 am
the foreshadowing started for me in panel 4 of May 28- the lion’s eyes got to me then. Chthulu, Lovecraft indeed. Neat seque into the archetypal tenticular face. …still, the ‘take care’ from the next installment leaves room for doubt about the good/evil balance in the lion.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:23 am
can’t we just call it witchcraft and burn it?
June 12th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Kind of gives new meaning to that scene where Christopher and the Lion first met.
Right off the bat, Christopher sensed that “this is a trap”, and turns out, he was right!
June 12th, 2008 at 1:20 am
I think that the pacifier left behind in the snow clearly symbolizes the loss of innocence.
Sometimes loss of innocence is necessary in the transition to adulthood, but with the rather sinister aspect of the lion emphasized here, and Charles’ first inclination to look at what’s coming out of the lion’s mouth as a trap, I’m a bit concerned that the loss here might indicate betrayal in some fashion, if not directly. At any rate, it’s clear this will be a new moment for Charles and he’s going to have to leave childish things behind to face whatever comes, in the city or on the hill, no matter how fearsome in aspect. I hope he can see the real truth of things, whatever it might be, and do what’s best.
Oh yes, and I like your comic too, by the way. :)
June 12th, 2008 at 1:40 am
wow, i think i just s*** myself
June 12th, 2008 at 1:40 am
Your strip really does remind me of Princess Mononoke, but not in a copycat sort of way, but in an inspired sort of way.
I love your comic so far, it really is inspirational
June 12th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Nice & creepy.
I think that this - from the looks of it - is what that lion is to become at nightfall.
His expression somewhere amidst the transformation, especially those bulging eyes, permit the assumption that this is not a process he enjoys.
just my 2 euro-cent. ;-)
June 12th, 2008 at 3:24 am
I’m seeing an Asian-style dragon, there. And weren’t they supposed to be element-related guardians and stuff? So, maybe he *is* the wind..!
I would say maybe okay, maybe not, but the title’s “False Prophet” - to me that says HE LIES!!! He’s no lion, he’s a-lyin’! D:<
(Then again, we’ve seen the traps, so I really don’t know what to think except that Townsen is adorable.)
June 12th, 2008 at 4:43 am
WOW! Total Lovecraft meets Princess Mononoke all wrapped up in your unique style Karl - an inspired piece and what an ending to year one :D
June 12th, 2008 at 4:52 am
WOW!!
It reminds me of that scene in Urotsukidoji when Amano vapourises that naughty perv monster.
Seriously though, it appears to me that this entity has worked to doom the people of the town - made visual by becoming the night sky over the town. This may or may not be malicious, depending on your POV. For the Studio Ghibli fans, think of the situation the racoons faced in Pom Poko. It was kill or be killed.
Then again, I could be looking in the mirror image. He may have been a source of light and protection for the animal kingdom, having stood guard atop the mountain for an eternity. Now maybe he passed the mantle on so he can die and fade into oblivion. maybe it was night all along? Maybe he is unable to protect the animals anymore and so TACC has taken over, leaving him without purpose…
Or perhaps it doesn’t mean too much at all yet. Although it’s looking ‘bad for the people’, it maybe a flashback and the lion guy might have sent TACC to free moon bear from the circus… Or maybe battle moon bear; he who would maybe destory all humans, rather than create balance.
On a final twist, maybe Karl is simply insane and changes the story after each strip to keep it weird and unpredictable. The kind of genius that only the mad may possess.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Nice, creepy, fairy-tale style. I love it.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:50 am
Also, since the lion is apparently a deceiver, I have to wonder why Moon Bear dropped Charles here in the first place. Is the lion evil, or just a force of nature (and nature can be pretty nasty in itself)? Is he false just for hiding his true nature, or was he lying to Charles? Is it for a good cause? Are he and Moon Bear working together?
June 12th, 2008 at 5:53 am
I know this isn’t very eloquent, but the awesome just makes it harder to wait. (I say early Thursday morning.)
June 12th, 2008 at 8:08 am
That is f***ing beautiful and freaky.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:21 am
lovely transition
June 12th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I dont think the lion is evil either. More of a force of nature or something like that (not evil or good)
June 12th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Ha! I knew it!
And as to previous posts…
Guiding people to evil places or things is not necessarily evil (y’all saw Empire Strikes Back, ya know what I mean). Moon Bear knows the big picture.
Poser big-shots turning into a nasty Cthonian…thingie, seems typical of the Bush Admini - uh, I mean, uh, yeah. Ya know what I mean.
More ominous and terrifying than that? The pacifier is left behind! :(
June 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Holy Mother of George!
I wanna call Charles back and keep him safe.
First comment here, even though I’ve been following the strip from the very beginning, but today you literally scared the words out of me. This is the best graphic story I’ve read/watched in a looooong time. Please keep it coming and let us know when the book’s available.
Excellent, wonderful stuff.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:57 am
The last panel is yet another reason why I adore you.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Cthulion?
btw, I think the “shadow step” thingy that as363 was talking about is alittle over-the-top? I just saw it as the remnants of Charles having visited, because that was about where he landed when the moonbear dropped him. Dunno if anyone wrote that yet. I could be wrong anyhow.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
When I first saw this strip, I didn’t see that “false prophet” title, so I was stuck inbetween deciding whether to believe the lion is evil, or whether he’s just -that- awesome.
I liked the idea of a mythical mystical being, at once profoundly powerful and bizzare beyond comprehension. I liked the idea of shedding my assumption that the lion must be “bad” in light of this strip. It seems to me that the strings of reality do not have faces, let alone relatable, human-like faces. Which is what makes “truth” so mysterious and exciting.
That’s what I -thought- this strip could have been about, before I read the title. A lion exploding into tentacles is still one of the more awe inspiring things I have ever seen though. :D
June 12th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
There does seem to be a certain human assumption that because something is bizarre, it must be evil.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Yes, the title.
That is what I meant when I called him an evil-false-prophet-monster-creepy thing. *sighs*
June 12th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Well Karl, I don’t know what it means (just like I don’t know who/what Moon Bear is), so I won’t try to guess like some others here. But I think you know what you’re doing, and I’m just very happy to be along for the ride.
That is a very nice effect in panels 8-10; it looks like a rift into another reality.
I do get a rather malevolent feeling from it, though, because of the tentacles and most of all the expression on the lion’s face.
Umm… well, I guess I do have one guess:
Is the lion Chaos?
(I feel like Townsen asking “are you the wind?” :)
June 12th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I love this; it’s genius. It’s genuinely breathtaking and foreboding all at once.
But why does it have to keep getting compared to Miyazaki? I know it’s a theme he’d probably love to play with, but it’s not that great a compliment to an artist to keep comparing his work to someone else’s, even if that someone else is brilliant. Makes it sound like you’re saying he’s a copycat, you know?
June 12th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
hey- I get to be the first to offer a (hopefully non-pretentious) comment about the VERY cool use of negative space in the lion’s-face-into-starry-night-sky-via-creepy-tentacle-phase sequence.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:24 am
I’ve been thinking for a long time about how excellent an animated movie this would make. Today, more than ever.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:44 am
in this scene the lion reminds me of the forest spirit from the cartoon/movie Princess Mononoke when it is turning into the nightwalker.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:05 am
that was kinda creepy and I gotta a bad feeling about this…
June 13th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Good grief, lol. I am so going to have to dig out my copy of Mononoke when I wake up and watch it again. Totally unexpected, but also quite killer. Loved it.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Whoa! Very Carpenter’s The Thing. Creepy.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Damn.
Karl, no offense, and I’m sure you’re enjoying the hell out of it, but you’re being wasted on Teen Titans - Year One. You need to be doing something bigger for them.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Like something on the scale of Sandman, ’cause Charles Christopher is rapidly approaching that level.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Holy.Crap.
Curveball, meet my face. I cannot wait till the next installment.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Holy crap! What the hell?? Kindly old Lion McGee is the C’thu’lu?
Helluva twist.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
They made me stop doing that kind of dissolve at work, said it was creeping everyone out.
Great way to end a meeting though, just fade out into infinity, heh.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
It’s always a little heartbreaking [’Weltschmertz’!?] when another Binky gets left behind for more mature concerns. I hope Charles doesn’t have to trade-up for some sorta weapon… :(
June 14th, 2008 at 12:03 am
… is THAT what you call a “bad hair day”? Couldn’t resist… well, actually I could have but didn’t want to… let’s see Hollywierd try to digitalize THAT concept without destroying it!!!
June 14th, 2008 at 2:16 am
*boggles*
*screams*
*runs, like, 1,000,000 miles in about 30 seconds*
June 14th, 2008 at 11:48 am
CTHULHU!
June 15th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Comparison to Miyazaki’s works (specifically to Mononoke Hime) is inevitable, as other readers already pointed out.
Nonetheless, the comic so far proved to be quite different from Hayao Miyazaki’s style, except for just a few visual elements (such as this one of the lion dissolving into nightsky). So I guess I’m not considering this scene to be a “copycat”, but more of a “it just had to look like that”.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Dude in the middle panel I can’t make out the wolf’s mane, it looks like Townsen’s body a bit. On the page before Townsen didn’t appear to leave with ol Charlie. Has the Lion possess the little guy? Sweet stuff G money you were robbed. I had a whole speech ready for you too! bummer!
June 17th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Thank you so much for this, it is lovely. Stumbled here by accident and it’s the first site in *years* that I’ve stopped and read and enjoyed right off the bat. I’m going to get a coffee and come back and read the rest of this at my desk.
Astonishing.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Hm… I’m a bit disappointed that the lion is ‘evil’ - like other posters, I had still hopes for him until I read the ‘False Prophet’ title. And still do. In ancient tales the difference between a demon and a creature that is simply scary or ugly isn’t always obvious.
And are night stars not a beautiful thing?
I just hope we don’t end up with a sappy “cute&simple = good while serious = bad” message. Keep challenging us, Karl! Thanks.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I don’t think of the lion as evil, really; just not entirely truthful. He definitely has his own agenda. I love that you guys are appreciating the ambiguity of good/evil and accepting the lion for whatever ‘thing’ he might be.
Maybe I should change the title of the strip…
-karl
June 18th, 2008 at 5:14 am
it is beautiful, whimsical and touching. reminds me of able & baker, which is a classic by now - and of indietits.
http://www.indietits.com/
June 18th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Nooo! Where did the ‘next’ button go! D:
Brilliant stuff, don’t you dare stop!
June 18th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Erm.. so.. then he is a kinda-evil-false-prophet-monster-creepy-thing, though! :D
June 18th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Emphasis on *kinda*.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
woah!!
awesome!!
June 20th, 2008 at 6:39 am
great! every good story has elements of Moral ambiguity, im interested to see if its going to go with the whole “TWO LEGS GOOD FOUR LEGS BAD” kind of plotline or if theres room for several perspectives. It’d be fun to see how charles interacts with humans. Also concerning the whole studio gibli comparisons thing, yes the creator is inspired by the films - that does not mean every little design intentionally contains reference to them. Total originality is virtually impossible in this day in age. Keep looking for Miyazaki similarities and you will find them, simply because the work is in a similar vein, QUIT UNDERMINING IT WITH YOUR INCESSANT COMPARISONS
ps. is it just me that finds panel 6 kinda comical?
June 20th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I’m personally fascinated at the psychology playing out in that so many posters seem to believe the Lion is “evil” — rather than assuming that perhaps something evil *impersonated* the Lion.
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 am
Kind of reminds me of “The Thing”… both how the tentacles come out of the lion’s mouth and as Vashra mentioned that something evil impersonated the lion.
I continue to be intrigued by this story. Can’t wait for the next strip!
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Oh boy, I’m still holding out hope that all the humans aren’t evil and nature and humans can somehow coexist in this universe.