SCIENCE FICTION DOUBLES FEATURE pt.20
For everyone who has struggled and strained their eyes to understand Inverto’s dialogue…this one’s really going to make you hate me!
Thus ends the short and tragic life of Inverto, a creature too special for this cruel world, too poetic to ever truly be understood. Weep not for Inverto; next week sees the return of ANOTHER twisted, bizarre villain with indecipherable speech and disturbing tendencies. But you’ll never guess who it is, never in a million, billion years.
Next Week:
DADA DODO DOODAH
In other news, John Hazard, a monster-ously talented artist and teacher at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, recently featured our favorite skull-faced loser in his superb webcomic, FRANKENSTEIN SUPERSTAR. If you like gorgeous graphic artwork and hilarious jokes, definitely check this one out. John’s amazing art skills are put to good use drawing cool monsters, retro comic book characters, and big beautiful women…what’s not to love?
Check out Scapula’s guest appearance in FRANKENSTEIN SUPERSTAR…and be warned: no one is safe!
Ah, the Immortal Bard in Inverto-speech. If we cannot read it in the original Klingon, then this shall have to do!
Scapula manages time and time again to survive others’ attempts to kill him.
Inverto manages to kill himself on the very first try.
What ever happened to poisoned daggers and wine? A gun suicide following a Shakespearian tribute is about as subtle as…well, a bullet to the head. Couldn’t you have thought of something better, Inverto? Immolation, perhaps? (Although granted, that would make a big mess and a smell worse than body-processed tacos with extra chili).
And so Inverto bites the dust with more dignity than his template has ever shown in his life. Let’s hope that its a good long time before Scapula goes the same way, eh pals? Gotta wonder though. Scap’s journey will end somewhere…hope its in a better situation than Inverto.
More indecipherable speech??? Oh no!!! Don’t tell me you’re giving a cameo appearance to Sylvester Stallone???
Wife??? He married her??? I must admit I got to the 4th panel & gave up. It was straining my eyes. So I guess we won’t see Inverto next episode then…
with some luck thats not where his brain is.
i would totaly buy inverto’s book of poetry if he ever released one *also would buy a mirriror, reading it like i have realy takes it’s sweet time*
I do hate to rain on his postmortem parade but, really…… after the Shakey-spearing, I’m wishing the bullet was in MY brain. Seriously, is there anything a woman would like to hear LESS than Romeo blather on at her gravesite?
“Yeah, cute, jerk, but maybe you could have a few origional thoughts for ME?”
Of course, maybe it’s just because I’m american. Still, makes me nauseous.
Hm…… looking forward to next week if it’s who I assume it might be!
“For everyone who has struggled and strained their eyes to understand Inverto’s dialogue…this one’s really going to make you hate me!”
I didn’t read this until after scouring through that strip and getting a headache. The entire time I kept thinking in my head “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!!”
I see that Inverto is a grave fellow indeed. If it were not for my stainless steel camping cup and it’s mirror like bottom I would have certainly called a pox upon you. Inverto was too special to be in this world and he had a fine end. sigh.
@Hoomi Backwards, forwards, Klingon or Cantonese, Shakespeare makes no flippin’ sense to most of us!
@Reikenbach True that! Scapula should take a cue from Inverto: either sh_t or get off the pot. Or maybe “shoot and get off the planet”.
@Treike Lord knows when, where, why or how Scap shall leave this mortal coil…but when he does, there’s going to be a huge celebration by everyone who hated him!
Inverto, being a hopeless romantic, probably would have preferred a more dramatic, ‘Marat Sade’ type of exit, but I doubt the ruins of the building contained much poison, daggers, warm baths or classical music.
@TonyMcGurk Stallone doing Shakespeare would be pretty awesome. Whether or not people thought he was doing a good job all of the theatres would STILL be packed. I’d go see it.
@Inverto We never did learn where most of Inverto’s anatomy was placed, or even if he was a “he” at all. Something to ponder.
“The Inverto Book of Fine Poems to Swoon Duplicates With”…I may just have to publish that.
@LadyJenn Well, now, there must be SOME women out there who still find Bill Shakespeare romantic. Anyone? A show of hands please?
…well, some angry commenter will defend the Immortal Bard soon enough. Until then, I’ll be sure to leave my copy of The Tempest at home next time I have a dinner date.
@Bearman HAW HAW! I did it all to spite you, Bearman! Yes, YOU! You’ll never stop me…not even YOU! The guy in the third row!
@OlGui Oh, geez, please don’t call any poxes upon me! I don’t have any ‘sick days’ left and my underpants are itchy enough!
Inverto lived, loved, fought the good fight and left when it was his time. That’s pretty lucky, if you ask me.
this is like the epic climax of a movie! i can hear the movie, then everyone gasp when the gun goes off…we need a soundtrack for this scene
I did… kinda hate you by the end of the third panel, [grin] but then I lifted my fat ass to the mirror and made life easy. Looking at me, looking at me, well, it makes everything better! o.O [smirk] …and then I read the words upside right!
Heh, I suppose it was inevitable really. Scapula loves none but himself, and will be dragged into that long goodnight; kicking, screaming, begging, cursing, snivelling and fighting all the sordid way. So of *course* Inverto embraces death with grace, dignity – and almost unseemly eagerness.
Inverto was a brilliant idea, and I hate that he’s gone, but this seems *right*!
Damn, Scapula would have loathed and despised Inverto if he’d got to know him, wouldn’t he :)? Well… even more than he loathes, despises (and fears) everybody else in the world :D!
And from deep within the recesses of Scapula’s psyche, Inverto pulled forth his 10th grade English homework! Long forgotten by Scapula himself, who bored himself to tears trying to read the dry and flowery prose, Inverto none the less remembered that famous, touching scene of anguished love and spoke it with passion!
Ok, personally, I’m female and I’d love it if somebody spoke Shakespeare over my grave….so long as it was done well. Nothing worse than badly done Shakespeare. If it was badly done, I’d come back to haunt them until they learned to emote correctly along with the ghosts of my own high school English and drama teachers.
@paulkeller Thanks, man! As long as we don’t have the audience for a 90’s FOX sitcom or The Jerry Springer show sitting in…man, they were the worst.
As for soundtracks, what would be a good song to play with this scene? Suggestions, anyone? Something ironic, maybe? Throw out your ideas!
@jynksie I should have probably warned people that he was just reciting Shakespeare and that giving a damn was optional. Evil ol’ me!
@AndyW I would prefer a “one-shot” character who makes his or her presence really count in a single story over dragging out a mediocre character to death, story after story. While I didn’t plan to kill off Inverto at the beginning (since I rarely, if ever, write the endings in advance), I still felt like it might not have been such a good idea to make him a recurring character. Can you imagine if this backwards-soliloquy got an encore?
I wouldn’t say Scapula loves himself in the least, but his love for the world is pretty much slim to nil. Would he and his flipside have ever been friends? Could any of us be friends with a polar opposite of ourselves?
Ponder on that, folks!
@Longtail He remembered it word-for-word! Hey, those crabby teachers must have beaten it into his brain pretty damned well for even his test-tube duplicate to recite it!
I concede to your point: there is a world of difference between Shakespeare and badly-acted Shakespeare. One of the most difficult episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 to sit through is when they watched a poorly-dubbed German television version of ‘Hamlet’…even Mike and the Bots could hardly make it worth sitting through.
Oh, come on. Don’t tell me that I’m the only one that didn’t have any problem reading it backwards!
Using a mirror to read this kinda helped.
This episode was so powerful, I was left nearly speechless. Good storytelling.
You stopped yourself by killing off the character..haha
@Hoomi Looks like you are! Even I’m having a hard time checking for any typos I may have made. Oh the irony!
@George Glad you liked! I sort of anticipated people would either struggle with, or skip, the dialogue, so I threw what I had into the acting…and dramatic lighting!
@Bearman The backwards dialogue has been stopped once and for all. The curse is over.
.htaed dna worros fo sraet eht peew ecnetsixe ruoy dedne dna etorw ohw eh yaM .efilretfa eht ni niaga teem ew yaM .otrevnI ,erutraped yht fo gniraeh nopu sehca traeh yM .ecnarongi hcus htiw dellif dlrow a morf traped taerg os dnim a ees ot gnitnioppasid ylurT
Shakespeare’s hard enough to follow when it’s forwards–backwards is a double-pain!
Good sendoff for Inverto. If there were music to this epic scene, would that also be backwards?
Great build up and closer. Really cool and well done. Could make out enough of the dialogue and body language to get the full effect of it.
Hmmm…
I’m not even going to trust my mind with this…
off to find a mirror…
🙂
A coward dies many times before his death (Scap), a valiant villain tastes death but once, though I’m not sure it necessarily applies if it’s by their own gloved hand. Poignant strip, Dada.
@Kinare !yas ot uoy rof ysae s’taht, lleW
@macsnafu Damned straight! We need to bring back book-burning, dagnabbit.
@JerryBenedict Hey, makes sense to me. It could be one of those songs with hidden messages: “!mih ssiM !mih ssiM !daed si luaP”
@FrankMHansen Another critique from the animation man himself! Glad you enjoyed.
@SpilledInky See if you can find the hidden message regarding buried treasure in the dialogue. It might be there!
@MarkStokes Glad you felt so, buddy. Death almost seems noble when it’s done by choice and as a sign of one’s true love (note: please talk to a loved one or a suicide hotline before shooting yourself. Seriously.).
Sigh. One moment while I put on my ‘quoting glasses’.
“Death, oh noble spectre, oft claimed. Never! I refute! Death lies ignoble unless fought bitterly, ever fought until the last drop of life drips from the grasping fingers of the hand holding tight!
No love ends whilst death claims not both parties. One, the other, or neither and love stands immortal, unbroken and unbowed by cold and noble death, he who brings ignoble end to that most wonderful element of life.
Nobility I claim not, but survival I must, that my love, my husband, stand ever in this world and his influence, his power, his will ever bend it and his dreams ever take shape.”
Frankly , I ‘ll tell my secret for reading the backward dialogue: I just use photoshop and then use the “flip canvas horizontal” option , and then text is normal. But I must confess , that this time , even with that, I didn’t understand the inverto delirium.
By the way, is that a bad version of Romeo & Juliette ?
@LadyJenn Whoa, powerful stuff. Who wrote that? Let me guess…Francis Bacon? Lord Byron? George Carlin?
@mehdi Is there a good version?…okay, now I’m asking for some angry thespian to come beat me to death.
I’ll be honest with everyone: I’ve never read ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or seen it performed. Those of you who are familiar with it have every right to gripe if I’ve used it out of context, misquoted it or am insulting the legacy of anyone who has ever been in a production of it. Sooo….gripe away, people. Gripe away.
A modern Shakespearean tragedy. Onward ever onward we must go but with a heavy heart!
how did inverto bend his arm leg like that while he was kneeling?..elbowing?…his anotomy makes his actions so much harder to discribe :/
@jwbalsley That’s…just so sad….(sniff)….let us drown our sorrows in alkeyhol.
@BarbaricBob Double-jointed. Them duplicates is built like Tinker-Toys.
.siht ekil tnemmoc ot gniunitnoc yb hceeps detrevni siht rof egnever ym ekat lliw I ;wonk uoy os tsuJ !pu ti peeK .krow ruoy etaicerppa llits I taht yas ot togrof I .deedni yas ot ysae yreV
@Kinare .(reeb knird og dna pu evig I neht…tuo meht erugif t’nac I nehw tpecxe) selzzup ekil I !ti rof oG
The quote is from the never completed ‘Upon a night breeze’, act 2, the character Gertrude Hale, by the unrecognized playwright Helmut Zhamm, who either committed suicide or died in an accident in ’77 or ’78. He was a friend of my mother’s third husband (two up from my dad), and Jim managed to save a couple pieces of his work, including the rough of some of the second act of said play. Sadly Helmut was born with a spinal deformity that caused him chronic pain In his mid 30’s he (a chronic alcoholic) either burned his own house down or fell asleep while smoking, taking his work with him except for a few notes and scraps.
Jim gave the fragment he had to me when I hit 16 because I liked it, and I committed it to memory, then gave it back some years later.
And really, no, there hasn’t been a good Romeo and Juliet. Probably because it’s the basic format of all sappy ‘dying romance’ schlock, so it’s like purified schlock. Schlock in it’s sappiest form. Yes, that’s an opinion.
Book burnings? No, my copy of the Collected Works of Shakespeare makes a great doorstop! We just need more comic book adaptations, like this one done by Ian Pollock (and yes, I have this): http://www.amazon.com/King-Lear-Graphic-Shakespeare-Library/dp/1579126170
And a good call by mehdi. I copied the strip into MS-Paint and flipped it and viola! Instantly readable!
@LadyJenn Thank you for sharing that (sorry for the curt reply earlier…I thought someone was quoting Shakespeare to me as an act of spite!). I can’t really defend Romeo and Juliet, since I’m not really a fan, but it’s the originator of nearly every romantic cliche we know of (or maybe I’m thinking of Wuthering Heights) and it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
But hey, opinions are always welcome around these parts!
@macsnafu There are probably some good adaptations of Shakespeare in comic form out there (I think Tony Millionaire may have drawn a scene from Macbeth), and those plays have been adapted into so many movies it’s nearly impossible to count.
Classic literature does make for a great doorstop, paperweight, hammer or club!
Ah, finally caught up… although after reading the first panel of speech (without a mirror or software), I realised it was Romeo and Juliet, and skimmed to the end. Was that just me?
I don’t really have anything to add that others have not already said, other than Scapula to this point has made an enjoyable afternoon’s reading, and it’s now getting added to my bookmarks of regular webcomics to read.
Maybe next time you’ll throw some Bellman into the works, and maybe confuse a few of your lit geek fans?
@UrbanPagan I don’t blame anyone for skimming, or even skipping, through this spiel. The fact that he’s reciting over-the-top melodrama is more important to the gag, er, story than the actual words themselves. There, I made a confession, is everyone happy?
Glad you enjoyed the wicked world of SCAPULA, and please do follow along! I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon!
Hm, I can’t tell your ‘I’m being spitefully quoted to’ curtness from ‘I’m just goofy’ snark or ‘I’m feeling like being a bit of a comedian’ silliness, so, no harm done.
Besides, I don’t have a hammer and I can’t get to your kneecaps. No, I kid, I kid.
Seriously, I’m not a thespian much, myself, but my mother’s a nut for going to the theatre and I unfortunately got dragged a lot. These days it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, a kind of mix of bile, vitriol, and oddly, tomatoes.
And for the cliche setting, I always want to hang both Romeo and Juliet by their ankles from a launching spacecraft.
@LadyJenn Tomatoes and bad theatre go together perfectly!
If you think launching Romeo and Juliet into orbit is the most ludicrous thing that’s ever been done to those characters…you’d probably be surprised. Troma might already have something in like that in the works.
Tromeo and Juliet?
Gah… I had to get the friggin’ mirror out for this one.
I may not forgive you for awhile.
@Squid row mama
I actually enjoyed reading all that with my mirror! How often do you need to do something like that?=P
@LadyJenn It happened. I never saw it, but it was probably stupid.
@SquidRowMommy HAW HAW!
@Jenn That’s the spirit!
I can read backwards, no problem, but that font gave me a headache trying it!
Copied into IrfanView and “Horizontal Flip”. Then I just had to remember which order to read the panels in…
@MikeDB Really? Wow, that’s a new one! Compared to all of the little babies whining about ‘backwards is too haaaaaaaard’, I didn’t think anyone would have trouble with the typeface. Shame on you, Blambot!
Flipping it over is a frequent method used in exporting manga to America (they do everything backwards in Japan, y’know), so I wouldn’t imagine it gave you too much trouble.
had to get a damn mirror to read all that you devious bastard!!!!!!!!!!
MikeDB is very efficient. How do I know? I downloaded the page to my computer first, then loaded it up in IrfanView, and then did the horizontal flip. Or rather, I did a vertical flip first because couldn’t remember which one was which, had to undo the vertical flip, and then do the horizontal flip. Artiistic gymnastics!
Then i read MikeDB’s comment. D’oh!