that layout?

losttoy · Post by **losttoy** » Sun Aug 29, 2004 6:07 pm

Looks like a rough sketch for some comic to test out panels and layout ... yet no reference in the blog part of the page. Want to clue us in?

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 12:18 am

Tell you what: First person who works out what it's about and tells me will get a Gmail invite. You know, if you want one. Post the first correct answer here and Bob's your uncle, you've won.

kaos_de_moria · Post by **kaos_de_moria** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 4:14 am

the yellow parts are pieces of a old broken celtic grave stone which you believe to have found the right way to put them bak together. on the pieces you have roughly sketched the original runes. under that is a short concept, how you will explain your results to your local celtology expert.

kaos

as i have won a gmail account now, please give it to someone who needs it more than me, as i have one already.

William G · Post by **William G** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 6:31 am

I've got five of my own to give away.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:30 am

It's an evil Rorschach comic designed to steel the ideas of posters trying to guess.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 11:33 am

Interesting guess, Kaos, but incorrect.

The "evil Rorschach comic" guess is also incorrect (though I guess in return that Guest is a not-yet-logged-in ShadowCaster).

By the way, there is an answer, a simple, logical, discoverable answer as to what that comic-like thing is. No mind-reading is required.

Bard09 · Post by **Bard09** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 5:05 pm

Well, I'm a long-time lurker. Felt compelled to register to throw my ideas in.

It's definitely an outline for a comic. The first panel is an overhead view of a bar. Some schlub is sitting with his drink when someone comes in and starts talking to him. Maybe it's a confrontation (the "facing each other" panel).

Or maybe it's a "Man walked into a bar..." joke put to panels.

Deciphering the text is difficult.

This is what I'm taking the last few lines as:

Zwol
Gary & Benson

Maybe it's the start of a new extension of Zwol? With unknown male characters?

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 6:57 pm

Hi there, Bard09- Thanks for lurking! You guess is good, but not the answer I'm looking for.

Rip Tanion · Post by **Rip Tanion** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 7:46 pm

Three crooked men, in an unsavory hideout, plotting nefarious schemes.

Three can keep a secret if two are dead.

losttoy · Post by **losttoy** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 8:07 pm

It's probably a layout to one of your Hamlet adaptions you are obsessed with. I wish it was a layout to my script I am working on, but I doubt it.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Mon Aug 30, 2004 9:44 pm

It is neither. I did have a Hamlet layout started, but it was mostly a grid of empty boxes. Fitting, since both Hamlet and I are frozen to inaction by our various neurosis. By the way, I have registered HamletComic.com and someday hope to use it.

William G · Post by **William G** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:25 am

"hmmmmm.... if I were to suddenly start updating again, what would the comic be laid out like? Great! I'll post it on the main page"
-GS

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Tue Aug 31, 2004 11:09 am

Good guess. Not it, though.

ShadowCaster · Post by **ShadowCaster** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 4:38 am

Greg Stephens wrote:Interesting guess, Kaos, but incorrect.

The "evil Rorschach comic" guess is also incorrect (though I guess in return that Guest is a not-yet-logged-in ShadowCaster).

By the way, there is an answer, a simple, logical, discoverable answer as to what that comic-like thing is. No mind-reading is required.

Be carefull when putting a Shadow Caster in the light

Eric F Myers · Post by **Eric F Myers** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 1:48 pm

With all of the talk about Star Trek around here, I'm going to guess that it's a comic set on the bridge of the Enterprise. Look at the first panel that's Kirk and Spock standing by the captain's chair.
Spock then goes over to the science station.
In panel three, he is looking up from the display and says, "fascinating."
The second row of panels starts with Kirk sitting in his chair, Uhura in the background, and Bones stand at the side. Uhura says that there is a message coming in from some where.
Next panel McCoy says, "What is it, Jim."
Third row is one long panel, Sulu and Chekov are staring at the main viewer. A planet is visible.
I the next two panels Spock and Kirk are talking then they both run off as Bones stares at them.
That's it.

I thought about making a Star Trek: TOS comic for a while. I was going to make the style like the Animated Series. Then present it on a daily schedule Mary Worth like.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 4:04 pm

Nice. Not correct, though.

For some reason I thought this would be too easy to work out. Guess not.

There is an online Star Trek animated-style webcomic, by the way. (Or is it redundant to say it's online and a webcomic?)

Rip Tanion · Post by **Rip Tanion** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 5:19 pm

Greg Stephens wrote:There is an online Star Trek animated-style webcomic, by the way.

Ah, memories of Saturday mornings past. Did they havta use that cheesy, low-budget '70s Filmation drawing style? And what was up with the guy with the third arm in his chest?

Eric F Myers · Post by **Eric F Myers** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 9:52 pm

Greg Stephens wrote:There is an online Star Trek animated-style webcomic, by the way.

Fascinating.

Rip Tanion · Post by **Rip Tanion** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:52 am

Am I allowed to make a second guess? Well, I making one anyway, because I know what it is...well sort of. I've definately nailed down the setting.

Drum roll please...
It's a courtroom proceeding!

In the upper right panel...that's the judge sitting up on high, with the seal of the State (or something) behind him. From what I can make out, the opposing counselors are arguing about something heated, and the judge is looking on.

I don't know why none of us saw it, earlier. When I was wide awake, I had no idea what it was. Now, half asleep, and ready for bed, I see it...even though I can barely keep my eyes open.

Now, I lay me down to sleep; to dream about another Zwol No-Prize for my imaginary mantle.

Oh, wait...I get a G-mail invite...whatever the heck that is. Bob's my uncle. Actually, Jerry and Joel are my uncles. In fact, I don't think there's a single Bob in my family.

ChrisCO · Post by **ChrisCO** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 3:09 am

I have been looking at it for a while now and I think it has something to do with the Dead Tree comic that you have on your recommended list. I can see the words 'dead tree so' and 'rot'.

I must say the two people at the end make me think of the two guys in the balcony on The Muppet Show.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:02 pm

No and No. Nothing of the sort. You're all trying too hard.

TacoTortoise · Post by **TacoTortoise** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 2:36 pm

Well, I do have it. Not a random guess or even an educated guess, but the answer. I might take issue with Greg's pronouncement of "no mind-reading required," though -- deciphering your handwriting came awfully close to mind-reading.

At first I thought that the person on the left in panel 4, and on the right in panel 6, had a gun. That led to some interesting hypotheses, all wrong (it turns out they're two different characters, one of the "guns" is a book, the other is a pointed finger, if I remember correctly). Then I started to focus on the text. As I said before, deciphering that was difficult. But take a look at the two lines of text between the last two panels. The second line might look like "Sonny & Benson," but that's wrong in just about everything but the initial letters. The line above, enclosed in a small box, looks to be something like "2WuL". Hmm...

So, what could

[2WuL]
Sonny & Benson

possibly be? How about...

[ZWOL]
Strange & Beautiful

Having made this discovery, the rest was straightforward. I was able to reconstruct parts of the dialog, and figure out that this was the strip where Kate, talking to the bookstore clerk, runs into Greg and recognizes him as the artist.

Now it seems that I must devise a contest so I can suitably give away my new Gmail invite...

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 2:49 pm

That is exactly the correct answer!

You may compare the sketch to the completed comic.

When I was drawing this comic, I took some photos of the various stages of creation. I ran across them on my hard drive last week and decided to post one. I was going to post the next couple over the week, but the idea of a tiny mystery appealed to me. I'll post the next stages in due time.

Already have Gmail, TacoTortoise? I could probably send you a sketch in place of the Gmail invite, if you like. Let me know.

Rip Tanion · Post by **Rip Tanion** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 3:44 pm

You mean we were guessing about a comic that you put up on the site over a year and a half ago? That was just downright sneaky, Greg.