The Stranger Unmasked, Page 9

Someone’s not had anyone to talk to for a hundred years, and it shows.

8 Comments

That is probably the most talkative golem I’ve ever seen, outside Discworld. But then again, technically it is not called a golem at all, so perhaps it is to be expected.

I also rather like how Kos is looking at it in the second-to-last panel.

Well, it’s somewhat smarter than a traditional golem, and is also pretty old – so it’s had plenty of time to build up enough quirks and idiosyncrasies that it could easily be considered to have a personality of its own.

First it got itself a personality and some quirks, and then it got left alone for centuries to stew and go a bit crazy.

The glimpse into the hopes of the Sentinel makers is so filled with pathos among the signs of ruin and decay. I find the cognitive dissonance very affecting.

I like the clipped-by-the-frame word balloons, and the framing of panel 3 with the flanking skulls in panels 2 and 4 is particularly nice.

I’m so glad you’ve found the grace to return to your storytelling.

It’s a theme that seems to keep recurring in Dark Places – things are not as they once were, and something has been lost. Given that it’s effectively a post-apocalyptic setting (albeit a century later) then I suppose that’s not entirely surprising.

So basically, the golem is Wall-E? I mean, in the sense of the personality developed because of “defects”.

It had some personality to start with, but it’s got more idiosyncratic with time.

… I am a little misty-eyed. He was magnificent, and now – well. But Jain’s magic never fails to please, and I love what you’re doing with her here: it’s turned a straight exploration into something considerably more haunted and hauntING.