Tangents - Thursday, May 12, 2005

Tangents

Thursday, May 12, 2005

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The problem with magical faerie girl transformations is losing your clothes!

(From Elf Life. Click on image to see full-sized image.)

I've been enjoying the newest incarnation of Elf Life for a bit now (which goes to show you, it's always good to recheck comics that went on hiatus, sometimes they revive!). However, while this may be a prequel of Elf Life... in many ways it's continuing down the path that Carson had started with the Wedding Story arc. New characters (such as Val and Ryley, two faeries who survived the cataclysm that destroyed so many of their kind as well as their world) will appear in the comic, alongside older characters.

It works in part because these characters are so much an unknown. We had an entire story arc about Valencia facing down an insane shadow-aspect of Glynhial... the good part of Glynhial who screamed for her when she could not, who sacrificed her sanity to save Glynhial herself. But outside of that, we know little of them.

Elf Life started as a story of Baughb the Elf, Filis the Elf-Maiden, and Airek Halfogre. But it has grown far beyond that, with Queen Leukothea of the Merfolk (who first appeared before the Wedding Story) sending three mutant mermaids to retrieve Baughb to help... um... repopulate the mermaid population, and Officer Troll showing up as part of the police force.

Really, Elf Life has become more of an ensemble cast. We've had long stories that didn't concern Baughb or Filis, both before and during the Wedding arc. We've had new characters show up who have won our hearts. And it's nice to see that these new characters have a home in the Elf Life prequel.

It’s definitely worth reading the prequel, and watching the interactions between characters old and new, and storylines never hinted at with the old Elf Life. Baughb did a bit in this world even before the Elf Life comic began. It should be fun to see what Carson Fire comes up with.

Carson? You get a nromlicious homemade oatmeal cookie.

Robert A. Howard
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Is that his hair or did a mutant chia-pet escape and attack his head?

(From El Goonish Shive. Click on image to see full-sized image.)

One of the key characters to El Goonish Shive is Grace, the shapeshifting girl who first appeared in EGS around a month after the comic started. She was cute, innocent, and energetic... and she was the perfect complement to Tedd, who has some of the same qualities in himself.

Maybe that's why Grace and Tedd make for such a cute couple. She is a partner, someone that Tedd can be himself around. And he also cares a great deal for her... and when she's in pain, he is. Really... in a way, that's what love is.

Grace's story grew in the three years since her appearance, culminating with Painted Black. We (and she) learn the truth behind her... why and how she came about... and her purpose. And once that purpose was fulfilled... and her antagonist was destroyed... she didn't bounce back.

It's like Torg (Sluggy Freelance) in the first couple of weeks after That Which Redeems. When you face something like that, you don't just bounce back and become the same old person you were before. Something dies within you. Something changes within you. And it's hard to just pick up things and return to the way it was.

So Grace has given up on shapeshifting. She feels she doesn't deserve this gift, this power. She didn't act when Damien first appeared. Never mind the fact she would have died, that she was young and untrained and unsure of herself. She did not act, and she blames herself for that fact. So to punish herself... she denies a part of who she is.

Vladia's "attack" on Grace was much needed, as is the presence of her "grandfather", whom she barely knows. What's more... Vladia herself is torn up by this. She didn't want to yell at her sister. She didn't want to drag up those unhappy memories, of working with Damien, of being trapped in a halfway form, more beast than man.

But now... we go from the scolding to the comforting hug, the reassurance that things will be okay. That she's a good person. That she's loved.

Tedd offered her that, but in many ways, he's too close. And he doesn't understand some of her feelings... and is afraid of alienating Grace, of losing her.

I'm not sure if Grace will start shapeshifting again. Dan Shive is far too good a storyteller to just have Grace return to "normal" after a chewing out by Vladia and a verbal hug from her granddad. But she is going to start healing, I think, to allow herself to heal. And that's what makes El Goonish Shive such a fantastic comic.

Dan? You get a nromlicious homemade oatmeal cookie as well. *smile* You deserve it.

Robert A. Howard
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