Gawain Project: The Darkest Hour 88-90

[sigune]

"This, indeed, happened. They came back with an immense fleet and more men than could ever be counted. They invaded certain parts of Albany and busied themselves in burning the cities there and the citizens inside them."
- Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain (ca. 1136)



Late again. AUGH! This time it is because I was without Internet for all of yesterday afternoon -_-. So instead of posting, I was forced to console myself by watching my first ever episode of the BBC's Merlin. It was fun! It's possible that I simply stumbled into a good episode, "The Sins of the Fathers"... It had Morgause and Ygraine in it and happened to deal with murky bits of Arthur's family history. True, that family history is not the story I am familiar with, but though the writers carefully avoided themes like rape and incest, they used other means to make clear that Uther is ruthless in the pursuit of his desires. Not bad at all. I rather enjoyed Rupert Giles's Anthony Head's Uther and liked Arthur and Merlin as well. And Morgause (Emilia Fox, yay!) - hah! She was great, in a sword-wielding (!) sorceress-like way *g*. In short: I'll be wanting more of this :-).

Oh, and I can totally see why this show is popular with slashy shippers :P.

Alas (?), less slashy goodness in the continuation of The Darkest Hour. Concrit is welcome!

What went before
Uther Pendragon, High King of Britain, has slain his rival, married the woman he desired, had a child by her, and has got rid of his creepy, magical stepdaughter. Just when he thinks he can sit back and enjoy the fruit of all his efforts, stuff happens.

The Darkest Hour 1-3, The Darkest Hour 4-6, The Darkest Hour 7-9, The Darkest Hour 10-12, The Darkest Hour 13-15, The Darkest Hour 16-18, The Darkest Hour 19-21, The Darkest Hour 22-24, The Darkest Hour 25-27, The Darkest Hour 28-31, The Darkest Hour 32-35, The Darkest Hour 36-40, The Darkest Hour 41-44, The Darkest Hour 45-47, The Darkest Hour 48-50, The Darkest Hour 51-53, The Darkest Hour 54-57, The Darkest Hour 58-60, The Darkest Hour 61-64, The Darkest Hour 65-66, The Darkest Hour 67-69, The Darkest Hour 70-73, The Darkest Hour 74-75, The Darkest Hour 76-81, The Darkest Hour 82-84, The Darkest Hour 85-87







>

Comments

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Poor Uther, but he did rather cause his own problems, didn't he?

And your response to Merlin makes me want to watch it even more. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any way for me to get hold of it. ( The DVD is PALS and won't play in North American machines, and, though I downloaded the "Mordred" episode on iTunes, it played quite choppily on my old machine - choppily enough to convince me to wait for the DVD, when and if they ever release a North American version.

Anyway, I continue to enjoy your comic. )

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad! Thanks very much :).

I'll actually miss Uther when his part in the story is over... I mean, he's pretty horrible, but I love writing and drawing him :D.

As for Merlin, I'm lucky: I can just watch it on BBC. Too bad I wasn't aware of that until last week :/. In the meantime I have also ordered the first season box from Amazon. I don't suppose there will be an American release unless the series gets sold to an American channel...? There doesn't seem to be much attention to international audiences (yet) anyway - apparently the DVDs are only targeted at the British market (e.g. no subtitles in languages other than English).

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I adore this update! The first pages--the wordless arrival of ships, charging horses, the drawing is absolutely incredible!! So awesome.

The noose tightens around Uther.

If I had one thing to say, it would be that Uther's face looks just a little strange to me in the final panel.

But WOW. This just gets better and better. Awesome!

[sigune.livejournal.com]

You can always tell which bits I pencilled first and which I drew directly in ink, can't you? :D

Thank you very much!

[ysilme]

... and so Uther begins to taste his own medicine. Well done, story-telling wise, this works so well! The attackers make a suitable impression and look very impressive as well. Lovely horsies, too. ;o)
My favourites are the boats in the first two panels, they're awesome.

Just one small thing about them: their sails feel entirely to white and "blank", and this gives me the feelings the sails aren't there at all, but the ships are hung by enormous pincers/hooks from the sky. *g* I would expect to see at least very faint or just hinted at vertical seams of the cloth panels the sails are made of, or some shading to illustrate their puffiness.
In the second panel, though, I'm afraid it is a mistake to have the boat still under sail when it's already landing or landed. I don't know the English terms to describe it, but the sail should be already secured.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

...You can tell I read no Age of Sail novels (I know I'm missing out!) :p. Thank you for this correction, I really appreciate it!

*makes notes*

[ysilme]

*lol* I didn't expect you to! ;o)