The Dreadful -- Chapter 5
 

Page 107!

Flashbacks! Cliffhangers! Cormac McCarthy references! Kit and Poe as school girls (which makes what Kit is reading really odd based on their ages here)!

We're gonna have a three page update this week too. Which is good, right?


(bonus points to anyone who knows what book Kit is reading from. Hint: It's the book I finished reading right before I started The Dreadful.)

Kit looks really weird in a skirt, especially since I always thought Poe was the girlier of the two.

Well, they're both wearing skirts, only one is short the other long. It still fits with my perception of the characters.

Oh, so they were. Poe's looked like jeans at first. Sorry.

Yeah, Kit's got a kind of anime sailor suit going on. Poe does too, actually, but like Dongs pointed out she has a long skirt on rather than a short pleated one (also Poe is wearing long sleeves).

It might seem odd that they would wear those kinds of things since they look so anime, but I did some research on clothing and sailor-suit style outfits did exist in the U.S around the late 1800s/early 1900s. Though I think they were designed for much younger girls (I didn't kill myself doing research, I just googled some pictures and found a site and ....there ya go).

So, I guess I'm somewhat historically accurate but not perfect. Ah well! :D

Girls having access to sailor schoolgirl outfits and pleated skirts makes me think of some kind of Wild West Sailor Moon combo...

The Dreadful being unconcerned with accuracy makes all sorts o' things possible.

So I guess the only question now is what manner of hilarious Mooman prayers will Boozloaf say when getting caught in a hostage situation.

I'm gonna throw a random guess at the book being Blood Meridian since you mention that one a lot. I really ought to read more Cormac McCarthy stuff. The Road was just aces as hell.

Yeah, it's from Blood Meridian :)

Blood Meridian seems like the kind of book someone would either really like (if they can stomach it) or really hate.

It's definitely not something your average school girl would read (and certainly not Kit), but I figured it'd be fun to mention it in the comic. It's sort of a combination shout-out. It's a shout-out to Cormac McCarthy and Blood Meridian, and it's also a shout-out to Jeff Smith, who frequently referenced Moby Dick in his comic "Bone" (which was also a kind of fantasy story).

Moby Dick and Blood Meridian are sometimes compared, for instance:

" In the entire range of American literature, only Moby-Dick bears comparison to Blood Meridian. Both are epic in scope, cosmically resonant, obsessed with open space and with language, exploring vast uncharted distances with a fanatically patient minuteness. Both manifest a sublime visionary power that is matched only by still more ferocious irony. Both savagely explode the American dream of manifest destiny, of racial domination and endless imperial expansion. But if anything, McCarthy writes with a yet more terrible clarity than does Melville.
—Steven Shaviro, "A Reading of Blood Meridian""

(that's from the Wiki article on Blood Meridian)

(McCarthy writing "terrible" clarity is...very accurate. Blood Meridian is just a heavy book.)

A quick question for you, and sorry if you answered this before (I don't remember you addressing this), but I was wondering if Kit and Poe are twins.

Just something that has been sitting at the back of my mind since the scene where Kit killed the guy with the bag over his head.

Yup. They're twins.

Such as reading a book a hundred years before it was published! ;)

And in a world where it wasn't published at all! (The Dreadful doesn't take place on our Earth).

Page 108!

Hopefully Kit will be in top form despite having just woken up!

Still dark out!

Yup! But it will be day soon, and then the year long night will finally come to an end...

Page 109!

Action!

Actually that's not the type of warning I'd expect from a member of the Jeanne Noel gang.
If it was Jeanne Noel I'd expect more exploded brains instead of having their guns destroyed.

Also, is that The Judge?

If it was Jeanne herself there probably wouldn't be a warning. :)

Is that the Judge? Hmm...Wait till page 110 to see! :D

Clearly these people have never had dealings with the Jeanne Noelle gang.

Also, that's a hell of a warning, Kit.

I seriously cannot wait to get into what Jeanne herself is capable of :)

Well, in fairness, Kit only shot one gun. The other two seem like the type of warning I might expect from either Kit or Jeanne.... if, for some reason, Jeanne ever wanted to give a warning. Jeanne might be inclined to give warnings in many circumstances. I mean, when you think about it, 'warning', 'blackmail', 'forced submission', and 'hellishly disfigured, but still alive', are all roughly synonymous.
.

I'm going to hope that this is the judge's second personality the "executioner", assuming she has one, that'd be pretty awesome :P
^
|
all guesses.

haha, this reminds me of the Tall Tales movie, where Pecos Bill shot the trigger fingers off some bandits.

Ah. It was their thumbs and not the revolver hammers. That IS a bit more Jeanne Noelle gang like.

To be fair, they had it coming by threatening a pacifistic moomon preacher. The guy who wasn't so keen about it got off a lot easier.

She figured it'd be hard to put the moves on him after shooting a digit off
 

Are you sure it's because he wasn't so keen on it? Maybe he just got off easy 'cause he's kinda pretty and seems closer to kit's age.

Not saying it's why, just saying he did.

This is more Jeanne's style of "warning" :)

But I'm not sure that was so much of a warning but a "I know what you're up to".

EDIT: Also, poor pacifist Boozloaf has had a rough night.

Or off, as the case may be
 

I'm giving this page two thumbs up!

Panel 4 is my favourite. Oh Boozloaf, never change.

Yeah, I like the way panel 4 turned out too :)

I think Chapter 5 is the best chapter yet, so I'm looking forward to hearing what people think as it develops.

Page 110!

A moron steps onto the scene.

Oh god oh god

REVOLVER OCELOT(Or, really, a non-infringing look-alike).

This just keeps getting better.

A moron that deserves death.
So much painful death.
Or just a quick shot in the head. As long as he's dead.
Or exposed to a mile long humiliation conga.

He didn't choose his words very well, did he?

Welp. He seems rather intent on pushing Kit's murder button now, doesn't he?

Is he going to somehow shoot himself with his own gun by throwing it like that?

Is Kit going to just shoot him while he's being fancy?

Both are acceptable!

Kit will shoot the hammer of his gun while it's in mid air causing it to shoot him.

Naah. In fiction, morons are always fun to have around.

IN FICTION.

All I'll say is that the page wherein this fellow meets his fate has already been drawn :)

So maybe one of you are right! Or maybe not...But maybe!

As I said on Twitter:
The gun is going to be shot out of the sky, but not by Kit. It'll be Liz, who missed the guy's head (but will be refusing to admit that she did. She was aiming at the gun the whole time, honestly she was!.)
Kit shoots the extended pinky finger off the guy's hand as revenge for calling her a "pinky".

What happens next, I don't know.

Page 111!

Imagine what kind of shooting Kit could do if she were awake and had more light to see by.

Good thing for the moron nothing seems to stay dead around there. Or maybe not so good.

We are obviously psychically linked.

I was pretty impressed that you called it. :D

The page was done a long time ago so it's not like I did any last minute changes to match what you guessed either :)

Poor Not-Ocelot, we hardly knew ye.
 

Well, looks like Kit wouldn't be out of place in the MGS-verse...

Skin-tone and eldritch horror-making gun aside, of course.

"Kit, can love bloom even on the battlefield?"

"If you're drunk enough probably."

Ah. Sometimes I love Instant Karma

How'd that be a problem? If you want to ignore the fact that ghosts exist in MGS we can still explain it with nanomachines.

If nanomachines can do what they do to Vamp, then they can be used for anything.

Page 112!

Kit seems a little wiped out there...and in a bad mood. Probably not a good idea to mess with her.

Hmmm... it seems the Dreadful wants to arrive unbidden.

Hopefully the Dreadful doesn't go off on Pussy dudeface there, I daresay he's the first attractive male this comic has seen, ya know, aside from Hotty McElfington from the Christmas special, and MAYBE Rado, for all the 4 panels of screentime he got.

To be fair, he got 4 panels of screentime AND 3 panels of headtime:dance:

Also, it looks like she's getting dreadful withdrawls/killing withdrawls? Maybe it's just a bad hangover from the tons of liquor she drank+liquid lightning? I mean sweating and irritability are symptoms.

I'd say killing withdraws. It has almost been a full minute since she killed the Revolver Ocelot wannabe.

Itchy trigger finger, indeed.

Page 113!

The 'loaf says "Not so fast, kid!"

Well, m'boyo, I'd say it's time for a informal introduction to your future career.


...Gravedigger

Time to get our preach on, so that the boy may be led to a milky white salvation.

Page 114!

Praise the sun!

I hope this is a Dark Souls reference. Because Dark Souls is awesome.

Yup. It is.

Haha, I remember when you first decided to do that.

What IS that big, giant luminous object in the sky? From the sounds of it, Boozloaf hasn't seen it before either. ;)

Page 115!

Kit's horse doesn't look to impressed by Boozloaf either...

I love the fact that the horse has a personality too!

I need to figure out a name for it. Maybe I'll have a poll or something where people can vote on what Kit should name it or send in suggestions.

Since it's ridden by a demon, "Nightmare". Or maybe that's Jeannes horse.

Other suggestions:
Wrangler
Duchess
Flicker
Sundowner
Pathfinder

Thunderhorse
Peggersis
Steven

Well, it's Kit, so it'd probably be something not all that creative and possibly immature.

Or something that doesn't make sense...like "Whitey" or "Blackford von Funkenmeister IV"

Funkmeister King would be an awesome name for a horse.

Or Kit might go with something really tough...like in a crazy over the top way, like

"Hellpocalypse"

The way so much happens visually without drawing attention to itself, along with how much plot gets plotted in so little dialogue, makes this my favorite page.

I think it would be something totally innocuous, like:
Bud
Carl
Stripe
Gwendolyn

Or pointlessly corny, like:
Found'um (how she got'um)
Hoarse (with insistence that she is not calling him "horse")
Long-face (named after his insistence on walking into bars)

Based on the horse's face regarding Boozeloaf... Squinty.

Page 116!

Kit gives us some details about her past, and Boozloaf sorta makes a point. Also our heroes stop to get something to eat! Kit wants everything fried.

Also everyone here needs to take note of:

This.

Not quite sure what Boozloaf is trying to get at here...unless he's trying to say that as a demon, Kit has power outside of what normal people have (i.e. Dreadful).

Basically. Not everyone has the same advantages, and she only thinks people never have to take no for an answer because she doesn't have to.

Yeah, that's pretty much it :)

That horse needs to know its place. Call it Steak.

I am very interested in the whole guest comic thingy. I dunno if I will do anything for it, or be able to do anything for it, but I am very interested!

Curse youuu for your lack of details.

Boozloaf gets major props for being able to travel as far as someone else on Horseback just by walking!

I take it he can't run as fast as a horse, but he probably has endurance out the roof. Hopefully a later strip proves me right!