The Evil that Men Forget To Do

Discuss Scott McCloud's current online comic project. Be sure to check out <a href="http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi.html">the latest improv</a>!

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wansley
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The Evil that Men Forget To Do

Post by wansley »

Does anyone think they know what the background image is in "The Evil that Men Forget To Do"? (For those who haven't seen the Friday update, Scott McCloud added a tiled background to the comic, made up of, apparently, tinted photographic images.)

A venus flytrap, maybe?

(My mind is obsessed by superficial trivia. Could you tell? :wink: )
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Post by Hunter of Wisdom »

My immediate reaction upon seeing the background was "internal organs". That's probably not it though. While that blob on the left is a decent likeness of a lung, the tubular thing is sprouting too many off-shoots to be a blood vessel, or - for that matter - anything else in the human body that I know of. Maybe they're alien internal organs :).
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Re: The Evil that Men Forget To Do

Post by Rip Tanion »

wansley wrote:Scott McCloud added a tiled background to the comic, made up of, apparently, tinted photographic images. A venus flytrap, maybe?
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I hope so. I love stories about carniverous plants, especailly when they're giant man-eaters.

Funny, she doesn't look like a Hortence. More like a Sion, or a Morticia.
"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)
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Post by Wikkit »

Here's the picture, for reference:
Image

Scott's nice enough to not use index files, so all the panels in process are still easy to see. Somnivore TETMFTD
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I'll show you what it means to be loved by a REAL MAN, baby!

Post by Rip Tanion »

Special guest star, Kirk Douglas as the Tommy Gun wielding psycho.

Image
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Post by Corax »

I'll second the internal organs guess. The really old anatomy diagrams sometimes have funky proportions and odd things, and it looks like an old engraving. It seems to show the left lung cut open with the bronchioles and blood vessels snipped off.
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Post by Greg Stephens »

Are you a student of human anatomy or is slicing up internal organs just a hobby?
Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.
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Good night, tough guy, we hardly knew ye.

Post by Rip Tanion »

I don't know if Scotts' title was inspired by the quote from Julius Caesar ("The evil that men do lives after them;/The good is oft interred with their bones" -act III, scene II.), the title of the Iron Maiden song (from what I know of Scott's musical tastes, I doubt it), or the title of the 1984 Charles Bronson flick;but I'd like to take a moment to mourn the recent passing of the man the Italian's called "Il Bruto"

Bronson was one of my favorite "tough-guy" actors, even if he did make some lousy and clich?d movies near the end of his career.

One of my favorite moments from the Simpsons happened when the family went looking for Grampa Simpson, who had run off with Bart to Branson, MO. Homer gets off the bus and says (I'm paraphrasing, mind you) "Well, here we are in Branson, Missouri." Then a man looking and sounding just like "Il Bruto" says, "No, punk, this is BRONSON, Missouri!" The camera pulls back to reveal a town where everybody looks and sounds like Charles Bronson...even the women and children.

I hope Scott pays tribute to ol' Chuck, and puts him in this strip. I'd love to see him blow away that woman stealing punk (who looks like Kirk Douglas)!
"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)
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Re: Good night, tough guy, we hardly knew ye.

Post by Hunter of Wisdom »

Rip Tanion wrote:I don't know if Scotts' title was inspired by the quote from Julius Caesar ("The evil that men do lives after them;/The good is oft interred with their bones" -act III, scene II.), the title of the Iron Maiden song (from what I know of Scott's musical tastes, I doubt it), or the title of the 1984 Charles Bronson flick
Wouldn't Alex Duncan's musical tastes be far more relevant :)?
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Re: Good night, tough guy, we hardly knew ye.

Post by Cyborg Caveman »

Hunter of Wisdom wrote:
Rip Tanion wrote:I don't know if Scotts' title was inspired by the quote from Julius Caesar ("The evil that men do lives after them;/The good is oft interred with their bones" -act III, scene II.), the title of the Iron Maiden song (from what I know of Scott's musical tastes, I doubt it), or the title of the 1984 Charles Bronson flick
Wouldn't Alex Duncan's musical tastes be far more relevant :)?
As it turns out, after some initial confusion, Alex Duncan is in fact me. I had used an alias and completely forgotten about it, thus my shock when Scott said that Greg O. did not submit the title. I nearly had a conniption, thought I was going insane, and even sent Scott an email asking about it. When the current improv got started I immediately recognized the forgotten alias. Duncan is the last name of my sister's boyfriend.

The inspiration for the title was actually a little jab at the classic Shadow tagline: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows."
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Post by losttoy »

I figured that Alex was just James (Man-Man) and Bill (Zombilly/MonsterHollow) Duncan's brother.
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Post by Cyborg Caveman »

losttoy wrote:I figured that Alex was just James (Man-Man) and Bill (Zombilly/MonsterHollow) Duncan's brother.
I'm not familiar with James Duncan or his creation, but I recall being sent some Zombilly stuff as examples of what some of the other contributors to the abortive Creature Features webcomics were doing. It was pretty durn cool. They said they wanted to bring Doc Hyp onboard and then it all sort of ground to a halt shortly thereafter. Too bad the whole thing fell through. Did the Monster Hollow stuff find a new home online? Wouldn't mind reading some more of it.
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Re: Good night, tough guy, we hardly knew ye.

Post by Rip Tanion »

Hunter of Wisdom wrote:
Rip Tanion wrote:I don't know if Scotts' title was inspired by the quote from Julius Caesar ("The evil that men do lives after them;/The good is oft interred with their bones" -act III, scene II.), the title of the Iron Maiden song (from what I know of Scott's musical tastes, I doubt it), or the title of the 1984 Charles Bronson flick
Wouldn't Alex Duncan's musical tastes be far more relevant :)?
Yeah, you're right. It was almost two o'clock in the morning, and I was still grieving the loss of good ol' Chuck. I wasn't thinking clearly. I forgot the whole premise of Morning Improv.

A lesson for us all...don't post messages when you're half-asleep.
"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)
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Post by Alexander D. »

Cyborg Caveman wrote:Did the Monster Hollow stuff find a new home online? Wouldn't mind reading some more of it.
Monster Hollow is running on Bill's web site, www.dunktank.ca. The first episode is up now, and the Archive has teaser images for the next several stories -- it looks to be a lot of fun.

[plug]For more of Bill's artwork, you can check out Amy Plays a Game of Chance (written by yours truly) in the Stream of Consciousness issue of Modern Tales Longplay. Bill's illustrating a second Amy story for me as we speak, and the new artwork is trippy.[/plug]
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Post by DecafSilicon »

So can we assume that our new guy will have a bout of amnesia in the loo?
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Post by Rip Tanion »

Damn, Kirk Douglas has been sitting on the can for a while there. Get our boy some Preperation H. This guy is worse than my dad. At least my dad has an excuse...he's reading the latest issue of Popular Mechanics while he does his business. I'm trying to rember if my dad ever fell asleep while sitting on the "porcelain throne." I don't think he ever did while I was living with him. Of course, now he's almost 60, so anything's possible.

Since Kirk is snoring, we can assume he hasn't pulled an Elvis, and dropped dead on the toilet.

And why isn't Hortense holding her nose from the stink? P.U.!

BTW, why are out-houses always drawn with that "cresent moon" window in the door. Having grown up in the Big City, I don't think I've ever seen a REAL outhouse. I've seen latrines when I went camping with the Boy Scouts as a kid, but they were of a different design.
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Post by Hunter of Wisdom »

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Post by Kevin Pease »

Hortense needs to get together with Brad from "Brad's Somber Mood." They would make a great couple.
B. J. Girard

Post by B. J. Girard »

Hortense needs to get together with Brad from "Brad's Somber Mood." They would make a great couple.
They certainly have the same head-to-rest-of-body proportion.
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Post by Corax »

This strip is getting awfully bizarre. Please don't tell me he's coughing up his lungs.

Greg Stephens wrote:Are you a student of human anatomy or is slicing up internal organs just a hobby?
Aheheh. No, I'm not a med student, I'm just... odd. We'll leave it at that.
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Post by DecafSilicon »

He's giving birth, mythic-style.
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Post by DecafSilicon »

"From her mouth sprang Kanayama- biko and Kanayama-hime, respectively the god and goddess of metals..."
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_c ... ojiki.html: "The Birth of the Deities" from the Japanese Creation Myth.
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Post by Rip Tanion »

DecafSilicon wrote:He's giving birth, mythic-style. "From her mouth sprang Kanayama- biko and Kanayama-hime, respectively the god and goddess of metals..."
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_c ... ojiki.html: "The Birth of the Deities" from the Japanese Creation Myth.
From what I remember from high school english class, as well as college art history, something similar happened in Greek mythology. I vaugely remeber the story of Kronos eating his son Zeus, and Zeus escaping out of Kronos' head. That Goya painting which depicts that story always gave me the creeps. I also seem to remember Athena and some other gods springing from Zeus' head later on.

Is there a professor of Helenic Mythology in the house?

Of course, now the question is what is our Kirk Douglas look-a-like giving birth to? Is it a candy-apple red demon?
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Post by DecafSilicon »

I vaguely recall the Zeus birth story, but note that our Kirk Douglas has anime demented eyes. (Can't find an example of them online, but Scott put one in UC, and there's probably one in "Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga.")
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