12/20/2015
A long time ago in a comic far, far away from sanity, Scapula formed the SINISTER MONSTER DOOM LEGION…or rather, a vicious and cunning sock puppet named Darkevilhelldeath-Man formed them. In one of the longest and most intense stories in the series Scapula was dominated and manipulated by the googly-eyed hellion until he finally broke free from its mental control. That was the end of that…maybe.
While the original story left it ambiguous as to whether the master puppet was a sentient robot (as evidenced in the prologue story, DARKEVILHELLDEATH-MAN RISING) or was in fact an embodiment of Scapula’s damaged psyche, today’s installment at least makes it clear that Scap has a nonstop internal dialogue that sounds a lot like DEHD-Man’s haunting tirade. Whether or not this is a remnant of the puppet’s control or something that began long before is debatable, but either way you’re looking at an unhappy camper.
Speaking of unhealthy psychological fixations, Scapula is still holding on to Bone China, so to speak (I’m not sure how well a body preserves under wax, but if Vincent Price did it then it’s good enough for me!). Maybe some day he’ll grow out of this sick mindset…or maybe he’ll just grow much worse.
Bonus points if you can identify the movie posters and monster wax figures in Scapula’s collection. At least one of them was a major inspiration for the Memento Mori story arc.
We have just one week left of updates, my friends. What loose ends will be wrapped up? Let’s find out.
…that was gloriously fucked up. Looks like ol Sock-Head ain’t quite so dead and gone, eh? And the worst part of his Reason You Suck speech is that he’s absolutely right.
The most painful thing you can hit a person over the head with is the truth…well, maybe not literally. There’s any number of household objects that will cause more head trauma than the truth. Screw you, truth!
Maybe he schoulda asked Gunther von Hagens. Wax alone wont do. The body decays internally nontheless. You got to extract all fluids and swap them for something that would’t change over time, poly acrylics for example. Or else you will be stuck with a rotting corpse soup inside an hydrophobe casing of wax.
‘anthropologist mode off’
Maybe he drained all the fluids out first? Okay, that’s mybad; if I don’t show it or imply it then I can’t back out of that one. Perhaps there will be a wacky scene afterwards where the internal gasses inside the corpse blow out and there’s a big disgusting explosion and Scap is just standing there covered in gore and a trumpet goes, “Wonk wonk wonnnnnnk”.
See, I should have watched Terry Gilliam’s Tideland again. THAT’S how you preserve a body (if you want to make Jeff Bridges look like couch leather).
I thought Jeff Bridges already -did- look like couch leather…
Let’s see…. Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Robot Monster, and Mr. Hyde. Can’t make out the posters very well, but… “Mad Love” and
“The 7th Victim”.
Very well done! There are posters for, fittingly enough, Mystery of the Wax Museum and House of Wax in panel 2, but they’re all but lost in web display.
Well, I guess that’s one way to show your Love/obsession for Bone China.
The question is, did she really die hating him? Or, did she have an epiphany in her last moments of life?
That’s up for you readers to decide; some might say the foremost thing on her mind at her time of death was, “F**k, I’ve been stabbed! F**K, I fell off a cliff! F******K!”.
But not me. I write poetic stories.
That was sort of beautiful in so many wrong ways.
I think that’s the best compliment I’ve ever received for a SCAPULA comic.
Perfect. Now he actually build a shrine for his biggest failure. I actually feel sad for ol’ Scappy.
If I’ve made someone feel bad for Scapula without resorting to maudlin schlock or obvious manipulation then I think I’ve done a good job.
…not that I’ve never resorted to maudlin schlock or obvious manipulation before, but I’d rather not if I can avoid it!
That was one of the past pages I have ver read in a comic.
Scap’s insecurities feel very real and relatable (or am I the Only one who talsk to themselves in their head?). I also like how we get closer to him every panel and zoom out in the second half of the page.
I thought about the whole rotting-corpse-issue as well, but eveything has been said about this, so…
Corpse rot aside, I kinda like what he did. He immortalised her – at least to himself – and made himself a reminder of what happened and what he did.
Plain beautiful.
Very kind words, and I’m glad that you enjoyed it. I can’t speak for everyone, but I do know what it’s like to be at the receiving end of a nonstop internal dialogue (but I think a lot of creative types go through something like that).
I assumed there was some intense embalming work done if only to get all the shattered bones back into some semblance of order, or replaced with struts and rods. So! Who wants a creepily relevant quote? I know I do!
“If people look upon your work and despair, your work has not really been all that good. If you do, your work has been terrible, and you should really consider undoing it.” – Suburu Takashige (Animist) in an argument with Lady Jenn (Catholic) about the bible. Followed by:
“And if your work is great and inspiring but you’re an insufferable (censored for da kiddies!), you should shut up and work!” – Lady Jenn (Psychotic/Trauma Victim) in an argument with Suburu Takashige (Professional Jerk).
One week left. I’m gonna miss this comic! Do tell me you’ve got more projects on the burner, Aidan? Please, Sir, can I have some more?
I think Ozymandias would disagree with that guy’s quote (if he were alive and reading this website’s comments section…but hey, anything is possible!).
It’s funny that you mention upcoming projects, because there will actually be a blog post tomorrow about just that. Check back and see for yourself!
It’s always nice to hear more Lady Jenn-isms. I swear, I’ll never get tired of those anecdotes (and, honestly, they never cease to surprise me).
She lived but 28 years. She lived a thousand years in a day.
All seriousness aside, YAY! Stuff! Looking forward to whatever you have coming up. As much as I’ve loved Scapula, I’m eager to see the next project materialize!
It reminds me of the incorruptible saint bodies I’ve been reading about this week. I think it was in a recent “Ask a Mortician” YouTube posts.
…Yeah, my internet history worries me sometimes.
But its still probably better than Scapula’s. Good job on the creep factor and the pathos.
I’m sure Scapula’s web search history is bound to raise a few peering FBI heads, unless if searching for “do-it-yourself embalming” is considered normal these days.
…not that I’ve been searching for that kind of thing, mind you…
Last panel … high res and widescreen, move Scap up and more to the side allowing the widescreen dimensions while maintaining the mood, could just have dark space between … there’s a wallpaper I want. Any chance?
When I get a chance I could do a quick and dirty edit to show what I mean.