Lewie: I am having an unexpected feeling. I think it is pain. I don’t like it. It seems to be centred here. [ Points at upper abdomen ] Is this hunger?
Eddie: That or you have gas. Let’s start with some water. Here drink this.
Lewie: *Hack* *Cough* Are you trying to drown me?!
Eddie: Make sure you are not trying to breathe when you swallow. Now let’s try that again, more slowly. How does that feel?
Lewie: <b>*BURP*</b> That feels better. Maybe is was gas.
No, I am not trying to paraphrase Q on the episode the Continuum made him human so he could learn humility.
You forget, Q was never human before. So those experiences was completely new to him. While Lewie hasn’t experienced it in very long time, Lewie use to be human. So eating, drinking, hunger and needing to use the bathroom is something he use to do, but will have to get use to doing again.
Remember when Lewie had the Drow Queen under mind control? He made her take her top off, but couldn’t remember why he wanted that, or what he had been planing to do next.
He has’t been human for a long, long time.
…plus, becoming a lich is a lot of hard work, while I can see why the Goddess of Health and Purity would see it that way, but I’ve never heard lichdom described as a “curse” before…she just cost poor Lewstrom a template that he gave up two full spell levels for!
Yes, but Q hadn’t been properly human before, while Lewie has, even if it was a very long time ago. He will get it sorted (if he survives), his sister will help him.
Yeah, he needs to ‘test drive’ his re-old skin suit, and they need to re-start the royal bloodline (joke, it’s a joke people… well, he does need a heir afterall, so, only partially Joe King)
I can see perhaps Ch’Thier putting Ranna in the trap, sacrificing herself to power its construction and allow the magic the wizards were using to build it to flow back into the world. Ch’Thier would be gone, but so would Ranna.
I remember an odd comic somewhere back in the archives where archaeologists in the future were digging in the ruins of the Black Mountain, and one commented that magic was far more common long ago.
I think we may have just found out why it went away.
Indeed, after all the cruelty and despair that we’ve all been enduring with Ranna, it’s quite understandable why you were eager to get this strip posted, Rich.
If I was him, the first three things I would go do right now was breath, eat and sleep. I mean, liches (and general undead) don’t NEED to do those things, but after centuries can you imagine the cravings?
Even after discussing Lewie a couple of strips back, how far he’s come since we met him, and in particular his circumstances before we met him, this came as a complete shock. But a perfect, beautiful one.
To reiterate the sentiment of what timemonkey said so well last strip, Curses are effective, but Blessings are so much better.
I want nothing more right now than, in one of Rich’s ‘Several Years Passed’ epilogues, to see Lewie tending a lush garden, content & at peace.
And I’ll also be honest too. I didn’t see it coming either. I had no idea this was going to happen until I started drawing that last panel and most of my brain tried to stop me. "NO! Lewie’s one of my favorite jokes!" it tried to say. But a deeper, more subconscious part of my brain told it everything would be okay. This is what Lewie deserves and it’s what Ch’Thier had to do.
Well thank you very much Rich! I did not even remotely see this coming. Lewie was always the lich of curses. There is something so RIGHT about that though. I look forward to how he turns out, and I’m crossing my fingers that he can still scream so loudly that he’ll revive the dead if we ever see Arachne again.
I love Lewie as a lich- the rubber brow, the garden-skeleton crew, the teddy bear… I can relate to your pain, but I agree, this is better for him, with all the growth over the storylines, it fits and works. Thank you for thinking more of that than the easy if funny jokes. Not that I’d expect anything less from you. As I didn’t say in the foundation vs wallpaper discussion, (cuz I haven’t had time, not from lack of support) as much as gren’s boobage caught my eye, it was the novelty and depth of Green herself and Bob that kept my interest.
I am curious what you had originally intended, and how much of today’s comic was altered because of Ch’thier’s interference lol
Rich, this is definitely one of those cases where the author’s characters take over and assert their independence. In other words, they’re just as real to you as they are to us. When you try and direct them into doing something that goes against their personality, they just up and say nope, they’re not going to do that.
This is also why this is one of the best comics around. As was pointed out in the comments for the previous comic, us fans keep reading because of your characters and your story lines. Seeing how the characters grow and evolve, to the point where we mourn with them in their sorrows, and rejoice with them in their joy.
Sorry to bother you, but with Lewie alive again, what about Martya? Will she come back? Or has Lewie moved on? Someone who persisted on vengeance for centuries (even if he forgot the why and who) suddenly going back to what he was physically might feel suddenly alone. I’m honestly curious about what will happen when the realization hits him.
Martya has been dead for ages, so unless she re-incarnates, I doubt she will be back. But Lewie has his sister still, he isn’t alone. Actually, if both goddesses go into the trap, and magic has been greatly reduced, it wouldn’t surprise me if the afterlife was re-organized along the lines of reincarnation. Only time will tell.
"The stuff that comes out the best, I think, is stuff that you feel you just happened to be sitting there for when it came by… Some of the best writing is not made so much as discovered… it just sort of lands on you."
> Part of the beauty of all things is their impermanance, which makes them precious.
Something a centuries-old gardener surely spends much time reflecting upon. The sheer poetry of an undead caretaker of fleeting natural beauty is such an utterly Rich gesture, and one of the more understatedly brilliant things about Lewie…among many.
I’m still kind of stunned, and a bit too emotional about this to offer much meaningful comment.
Good to be back!
Just tried to re-register back at the forum, but it seems a bit twitchy, text keeps vanishing, but maybe that’s just a first-day glitch.
I’ll be back!
I see. That explains why there are no posts for the current year. Maybe a Discord site, then?
Anywho, just wanted to say that Lewia was always my fav., just hope that he remembers he can’t get blown to pieces anymore.
His sister is gonna freak… and hten probably tell him to change his name and move to the coast, and chase girls.
I also loved what happened to Megs. So ironic that she became a timeless symbol of love and sensuality.
First thing she ever did that made me like her! 😛
Oh dear. I’m afraid magic is going to pretty much vanish from the world. That is… kind of saddening. All things change and die but I loved the high fantasy.
If it does go away, I wonder what will happen to people like Lewie and Eddie.
Not so much concerned about magic *users* (they will just become normal people), I’m concerned about the magic *people*
Will they die straight away, or kinda become infertile and just slowly die off as a species
The future archaeologists didn’t say magic had vanished altogether; just that it had been ridiculously powerful (by their standards) before the end of the Seventh Age. The "Arcanologist" they interviewed seems to regard magic as a testable branch of science, not as a purely historical subject.
Hopefully whatever happens next, magical creatures will be able to hold onto their existence, even if their numbers or range of viable habitats decline over time. We know that demi-humans exist in the future — elves at the museum, and whatever species Vill Ardammer belongs to — so hopefully there’s a place for addled chimeras, lecherous harpies, and cubical scavengers who fit conveniently on grid paper.
You know, after the Fang/Jone fight I thought "This is it. The greatest page of YAFGC ever."
And while I still think it might be, that just does injustice to the whole of this comic. One only needs to look at the last few pages to see that. Take the cast of characters for example: I mean, its HUGE, and still everyone is so distinct from another, both in personality and appearance, while even the more cartoonish characters never feel out of place at all. And I don’t think we’ve ever been *told* how a character is, but always been *shown*. I mean, Ch’Thier has been around for a long time, but we never really got to know her. The last few pages were enough to accomplish that.
And all the character growth… It always feels natural and dynamic. Sometimes its seemingly small things that make someone change their outlook. And sometimes its huge turningpoints like what Ch’Thier just did to Lewie. Amazing twist, by the way.
Well, I’m a sucker for good character design, and Rich leaves nothing to be desired in that field.
All right, thats a lot of gushing. I won’t go on about everything else that makes this comic great, like the facial expressions, the sprawling story, the world design… I don’t think I could list it all.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to witness the mastery of storytelling, so I guess what I’m trying to say is: Thank you, Rich.
Yes you’re correct. It’s supposed to say: "While our ground forces…." but my finger hit the wrong key and I didn’t notice the typo until it was pointed out here in the comments.
There’s also a t missing in the next panel. "I could work." should be "It could work."
Sigh. Sorry about that.
Vanessa, Lewie, Eddy, they were all back and forth on the ship. There’s a teleport gate that leads from the deck of the ship to the large chamber in Ch’Thier’s tomb. You can see it pretty clearly in the panels with Lewie and Eddy.
Wow. I was not expecting that Mr. Morris. I certainly hope Celena gets that same forgiveness, I just re-read her story and I feel really bad for her. I mean, she was tortured into joining Ranna.
Celena herself seems to have a foreordained date with a museum curator, centuries down the line. Though after that, I do still hope she (and yeah, even Meegs) will get another shot at life. The future people still know about magic, even in its weakened form. There may be no one in that time capable of simply waving their hands and casting a stone-to-flesh spell, but their scientists and doctors will probably understand how to store, channel, and use arcane energy in ways that Eddy-and-Naomi-class wizards never NEEDED to learn.
For the rest of Ranna’s brainwashed minions, I really do hope that the postwar agenda isn’t revenge and internment camps, but forgiveness (in 99% of cases, anyway) and careful deprogramming. Certainly I would expect Ch’Thier to encourage her followers in that direction, should she survive the war in her current form. If Ch’Thier sacrifices her existence or her power to act directly in the world, then I hope those who met her today remember and live up to her example.
Oh, dang. I’m a dummy. I completely forgot about Celena’s petrification!
Well, I was hoping she’d get redeemed. Now I *really* feel bad for her, once a Priestess with some power, friends, adventures, etc., now she’s forgotten by her family, friends and even her Goddess! The kicker is that it’s not even her fault!
I know, right? I wonder if Morgana’s still looking for her.
On a separate note, it strikes me that an internment camp for Dark Mistresses would be the weirdest place ever:
Jais: "Welcome to your worst nightmare, war criminal scum. Every moment you spend here, asleep or awake, is gonna be a PLEASANT, RELAXING EXPERIENCE. Step one inch out of line, and we’re gonna be EVEN NICER to you!"
My first YAFGC crush was Lewie. Then Fang came along.
Now I have a bit of a girl crush on Ch’Thier.
I do’t know if this is good or bad. I think i need my Support Pooka and a nice Charie Chaplin marathon… oh T’Chall??
Crushes are always a good thing. Even the ones that baffle us. (Heaven knows I have quite a few YAFGC crushes, myself, and heaven knows many other regular faces here do, too…)
I would say that I can see what you love about your three, but…I cannot lie. I can *imagine* why you might love Captain Fang, but those who know the good captain well enough to "know" anything at all about him beyond "he usually looks like a kobold, as far as we know"…well, the fellow is a walking, talking, nonsequitor-spouting, storied and layered mystery cult of one, into which I am, with regrets, insufficiently initiated.
But seriously…good on you for having YAFGC crushing, feels whom you wish to feels [sic], and enjoy the hell out of it. 🙂
If the orcs decide she’s a god, then who’s gonna stand in the way?
Orcs: "All hail Goddess-Queen Bloodhand!"
Well-meaning theologian: "Well, it’s not actually that simple. You see, the divine energy must first attach itself to a suitable vessel over a period of several…"
Orcs, roaring in unison: "HAIL THE GODDESS-QUEEN!"
Theologian’s colleague: "Ray, when someone asks you if Maula is a god, you say YES!"
hey wait, if Lewie died a long time ago his mortal body will only have immunities and disease resistance to the diseases of the past, as the various bacteria and viruses evolved and mutated over the centuries they would have gotten progressively more powerful and only through constant reinfection would a person’s immune system be strong enough to survive it. that’s the reason why time travel is impossible, going to the future would instantly kill you with the hyper advanced super sicknesses, and going to the past would cause a massive pandemic like the black plague. Lewie is gonna die instantly upon getting the common cold.
I mean she didn’t see her sister convert one of her worshippers, she didn’t see any of the stuff her sister did up until she was dunked in the tentacle ocean, she’s obviously not the most competent goddess. Lolth is pretty much the only goddess that managed to avoid getting eaten and she even figured out how to manifest again without the thing she used last time so I vote Lolth as new leader of the gods.
If you referring about Celena, I would like to point out, that we didn’t see Ch’Thier since that strip, at least not interacting with her followers. I assume Ranna answered Celena, because she has already trapped her sister by then.
Diseases don’t grow "progressively more powerful" over time; they just evolve to fill different ecological niches as they arise. Antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" are dangerous because they’ve evolved to resist drugs that didn’t exist in the past, but they’re not actually more evolved in some universal sense.
(Nor are humans more evolved than dinosaurs; we’re simply evolved for different circumstances.)
A creature that was transported a thousand years into the future wouldn’t find worse diseases waiting for them, on the average, than one who was transported a thousand years into the past. EITHER of them would be in more danger than they’d been in there own time, though, because their immune systems would be keyed to the wrong set of pathogens.
(In human time-travel scenarios, what I’ve said may prove wrong…not because evolution is a one-way path toward more powerful forms, but because we’re in an era where the human population is skyrocketing. The future may be a vast petri dish with vastly more humans, and thus more human-attacking pathogens, than the past was. But that’s not necessarily the case in the YAFGC setting.)
There was one story in 2000AD (the comic anthology, not the year), about this super fit guy going to the future, and dying almost instantly, not because of diseases or anything stupid like that, but because the air was too clean for him, his lungs couldn’t handle it
well luckily our air will never have that problem, if anything it’ll be people from the future coming here and dying from the good air. I imagine we’ve got about 300 years left before the Earth is unihabitable.
Well I don’t comment often – I’m more the silent connoisseur type 😉
But that LAST panel man… I’ll just add my voice to those who will miss our comic-relief lich but I’m soooo happy for Lewie. Ever since we got his backstory in Lich of the Rings he was a tragic figure really, even if we tended to forget that over the punchline.
Also this ONE act singlehandedly transformed Ch’tier for me from ‘standard goody two shoes kinda a bit of boring really’ to ‘holey camoley she IS good’. If I ever get teleported into the YAFGC world by some freak accident I know which goddess I will worship.
Also had to show this to the wife, she fell off the bandwagon for time reasons a while ago but she needed something lovely and nice like this to brighten her day and she loved this too.
I usually see the comics when others have made my points far more eloquently than I ever could and I don’t want to be one of those ‘me three’ posters 😉
But binging through the comics and checking how often I didn’t comment when I was sure I had… I’ll try to do better in the future 🙂
Pick up your copies of YAFGC Volumes 1 - 5 at our online store. Multi-book bundles and sketch editions available.
Well damn.
Though honestly, might’ve been better to wait until AFTER the battle to remove the Lich’s immortality.
C’Thier may not expect to be AROUND after the battle. This situation has "mutual sacrifice" written all over it, and she’s done it once before.
well his sister is immortal thanks to guarding the body of Ranna, maybe flesh Lewie is the same way.
She didn’t said anything about removing the immortality, did she?
Aw, we’re gonna need a new Comedy Lich.
Oh right, the curse was the slapstick!
UberBOOP
didn’t see that coming, at all.
Lewstrom: Well… Fleshy again… this is going to take a LONG time to get used to.
And Kogan, I have to agree. Removing an immortal being’s best power is not a good idea.
Accidental meetings with Jone might be a bit more messy, but he won’t scatter as far!
Lewie: I am having an unexpected feeling. I think it is pain. I don’t like it. It seems to be centred here. [ Points at upper abdomen ] Is this hunger?
Eddie: That or you have gas. Let’s start with some water. Here drink this.
Lewie: *Hack* *Cough* Are you trying to drown me?!
Eddie: Make sure you are not trying to breathe when you swallow. Now let’s try that again, more slowly. How does that feel?
Lewie: <b>*BURP*</b> That feels better. Maybe is was gas.
No, I am not trying to paraphrase Q on the episode the Continuum made him human so he could learn humility.
You forget, Q was never human before. So those experiences was completely new to him. While Lewie hasn’t experienced it in very long time, Lewie use to be human. So eating, drinking, hunger and needing to use the bathroom is something he use to do, but will have to get use to doing again.
Remember when Lewie had the Drow Queen under mind control? He made her take her top off, but couldn’t remember why he wanted that, or what he had been planing to do next.
He has’t been human for a long, long time.
…plus, becoming a lich is a lot of hard work, while I can see why the Goddess of Health and Purity would see it that way, but I’ve never heard lichdom described as a “curse” before…she just cost poor Lewstrom a template that he gave up two full spell levels for!
Yes, but Q hadn’t been properly human before, while Lewie has, even if it was a very long time ago. He will get it sorted (if he survives), his sister will help him.
Yeah, he needs to ‘test drive’ his re-old skin suit, and they need to re-start the royal bloodline (joke, it’s a joke people… well, he does need a heir afterall, so, only partially Joe King)
OH SNAP!
I can see perhaps Ch’Thier putting Ranna in the trap, sacrificing herself to power its construction and allow the magic the wizards were using to build it to flow back into the world. Ch’Thier would be gone, but so would Ranna.
I remember an odd comic somewhere back in the archives where archaeologists in the future were digging in the ruins of the Black Mountain, and one commented that magic was far more common long ago.
I think we may have just found out why it went away.
Bet you that now Louie’s first course of action after all this is over is ‘Get Laid’
And he may even remember why he wanted to see Elzear’bith’s breasts, too. 🙂
Seems like Ranna may be the brains of that family
?
C’Thier has made more sound decisions in three minutes than Ranna’s made in her whole campaign of conquest….
Or hit on the wrong female and fail.
Un-Life wasn’t Lewie’s curse, was it? Wasn’t it ‘cursed to fail if he tried to do evil’?
"I can have more than one, you know. I’m not even gonna TALK about the one I picked up from those dung-dwelling werebeetles."
He…looks rather confused there
"Did my balls just drop, again?"
Wow! Ch’thier’s just doling out the presents!
I wonder if I can get a new leg and a bike if i asked nicely!
(Also, mind a couple of typos in panels 2 & 3.)
Ah crap.
You were probably eager to get it out there.
Can’t say I blame you.
t!
Indeed, after all the cruelty and despair that we’ve all been enduring with Ranna, it’s quite understandable why you were eager to get this strip posted, Rich.
Din’t even nitce the typos, myself.
Well, if you ever feel like picking up a volunteer proofreader, offer’s still on the table!
How odd.
This seems to be the last thing I’ve been able to post.
testing…
Called It!! His sister WILL be happy!
Ok Lewie, don’t screw this one up.
dies instantly
If I was him, the first three things I would go do right now was breath, eat and sleep. I mean, liches (and general undead) don’t NEED to do those things, but after centuries can you imagine the cravings?
He might have forgotten all the pleasures life can provide. I mean, he also forgot why he wanted to see Elzear’bith’s boobs…
In that case he could stay as a joke character, just with new gags. Like how he is dealing with being alive again…
As we know from another lich, the first thing he’s going to do is enjoy a cup of coffee.
Heh! Was just thinking of ol’ Xykon…
This just happened.
This…just…happened.
Wow.
I’ll be honest. I think it just broke something inside me.
I never saw it coming.
I’m totally with you both on this.
Even after discussing Lewie a couple of strips back, how far he’s come since we met him, and in particular his circumstances before we met him, this came as a complete shock. But a perfect, beautiful one.
To reiterate the sentiment of what timemonkey said so well last strip, Curses are effective, but Blessings are so much better.
I want nothing more right now than, in one of Rich’s ‘Several Years Passed’ epilogues, to see Lewie tending a lush garden, content & at peace.
t!
And I’ll also be honest too. I didn’t see it coming either. I had no idea this was going to happen until I started drawing that last panel and most of my brain tried to stop me. "NO! Lewie’s one of my favorite jokes!" it tried to say. But a deeper, more subconscious part of my brain told it everything would be okay. This is what Lewie deserves and it’s what Ch’Thier had to do.
Well thank you very much Rich! I did not even remotely see this coming. Lewie was always the lich of curses. There is something so RIGHT about that though. I look forward to how he turns out, and I’m crossing my fingers that he can still scream so loudly that he’ll revive the dead if we ever see Arachne again.
Everything IS going to be okay.
Part of the beauty of all things is their impermanance, which makes them precious.
The Lich will always be with us.
t!
I love Lewie as a lich- the rubber brow, the garden-skeleton crew, the teddy bear… I can relate to your pain, but I agree, this is better for him, with all the growth over the storylines, it fits and works. Thank you for thinking more of that than the easy if funny jokes. Not that I’d expect anything less from you. As I didn’t say in the foundation vs wallpaper discussion, (cuz I haven’t had time, not from lack of support) as much as gren’s boobage caught my eye, it was the novelty and depth of Green herself and Bob that kept my interest.
I am curious what you had originally intended, and how much of today’s comic was altered because of Ch’thier’s interference lol
Rich, this is definitely one of those cases where the author’s characters take over and assert their independence. In other words, they’re just as real to you as they are to us. When you try and direct them into doing something that goes against their personality, they just up and say nope, they’re not going to do that.
This is also why this is one of the best comics around. As was pointed out in the comments for the previous comic, us fans keep reading because of your characters and your story lines. Seeing how the characters grow and evolve, to the point where we mourn with them in their sorrows, and rejoice with them in their joy.
Many, many thanks, Rich, for such a great work.
Sorry to bother you, but with Lewie alive again, what about Martya? Will she come back? Or has Lewie moved on? Someone who persisted on vengeance for centuries (even if he forgot the why and who) suddenly going back to what he was physically might feel suddenly alone. I’m honestly curious about what will happen when the realization hits him.
Fairly sure she dead, unless he kept her as a skeleton all these centuries, she long gone (honestly, was wondering as well)
Martya has been dead for ages, so unless she re-incarnates, I doubt she will be back. But Lewie has his sister still, he isn’t alone. Actually, if both goddesses go into the trap, and magic has been greatly reduced, it wouldn’t surprise me if the afterlife was re-organized along the lines of reincarnation. Only time will tell.
I just want to say I absolutely agree with this, Rich. I think it’s absolutely where Lewie’s story should go.
/They’ll be other lich jokes!
Alan Alda on writing:
"The stuff that comes out the best, I think, is stuff that you feel you just happened to be sitting there for when it came by… Some of the best writing is not made so much as discovered… it just sort of lands on you."
t!
> Part of the beauty of all things is their impermanance, which makes them precious.
Something a centuries-old gardener surely spends much time reflecting upon. The sheer poetry of an undead caretaker of fleeting natural beauty is such an utterly Rich gesture, and one of the more understatedly brilliant things about Lewie…among many.
I’m still kind of stunned, and a bit too emotional about this to offer much meaningful comment.
WOW!
I started looking at this again a few weeks ago, and it took a while to catch up… but this. Just gotta comment on this one.
A world of YES! 😀
Lewie, welcome back to the world of the living.
Oh hi! Welcome back.
Good to be back!
Just tried to re-register back at the forum, but it seems a bit twitchy, text keeps vanishing, but maybe that’s just a first-day glitch.
I’ll be back!
The forum is a bit of a mess. I’ve no idea how to unglitch it.
I see. That explains why there are no posts for the current year. Maybe a Discord site, then?
Anywho, just wanted to say that Lewia was always my fav., just hope that he remembers he can’t get blown to pieces anymore.
His sister is gonna freak… and hten probably tell him to change his name and move to the coast, and chase girls.
I also loved what happened to Megs. So ironic that she became a timeless symbol of love and sensuality.
First thing she ever did that made me like her! 😛
well, that was unexpected
Well, damn!
Oh dear. I’m afraid magic is going to pretty much vanish from the world. That is… kind of saddening. All things change and die but I loved the high fantasy.
If it does go away, I wonder what will happen to people like Lewie and Eddie.
What will happen with all the magic useres present?
As for Lewie, we might just got the answer.
Not so much concerned about magic *users* (they will just become normal people), I’m concerned about the magic *people*
Will they die straight away, or kinda become infertile and just slowly die off as a species
The future archaeologists didn’t say magic had vanished altogether; just that it had been ridiculously powerful (by their standards) before the end of the Seventh Age. The "Arcanologist" they interviewed seems to regard magic as a testable branch of science, not as a purely historical subject.
https://www.yafgc.net/comic/2915-a-glimpse-into-the-future/
Hopefully whatever happens next, magical creatures will be able to hold onto their existence, even if their numbers or range of viable habitats decline over time. We know that demi-humans exist in the future — elves at the museum, and whatever species Vill Ardammer belongs to — so hopefully there’s a place for addled chimeras, lecherous harpies, and cubical scavengers who fit conveniently on grid paper.
What elves at the museum?
And I would think that "whatever species Vill Ardammer belongs to" is "mixed". Like, part elf, part human and that might not be all.
Oh. Right. https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3261-mysterious-artifact-found-in-a-cave-in-the-gloombelt-mts/
At least there were no *Knights* at the museum
"Ey!! Who asked you about lifting my curse? I like been a lich!!"
Also…must say that this chapter looks more and more like the end of the webcomic :O
"Spare a talent for an old ex-lich?"
Haha! Good one! "There’s no pleasing some people." "That’s just what Ch’Thier said!"
You know, after the Fang/Jone fight I thought "This is it. The greatest page of YAFGC ever."
And while I still think it might be, that just does injustice to the whole of this comic. One only needs to look at the last few pages to see that. Take the cast of characters for example: I mean, its HUGE, and still everyone is so distinct from another, both in personality and appearance, while even the more cartoonish characters never feel out of place at all. And I don’t think we’ve ever been *told* how a character is, but always been *shown*. I mean, Ch’Thier has been around for a long time, but we never really got to know her. The last few pages were enough to accomplish that.
And all the character growth… It always feels natural and dynamic. Sometimes its seemingly small things that make someone change their outlook. And sometimes its huge turningpoints like what Ch’Thier just did to Lewie. Amazing twist, by the way.
Well, I’m a sucker for good character design, and Rich leaves nothing to be desired in that field.
All right, thats a lot of gushing. I won’t go on about everything else that makes this comic great, like the facial expressions, the sprawling story, the world design… I don’t think I could list it all.
I greatly appreciate the opportunity to witness the mastery of storytelling, so I guess what I’m trying to say is: Thank you, Rich.
O.O
You’re very very welcome.
And thank you! Readers like you make me happy to keep doing this comic.
I have to save this link to come back to that description of YAFGC. Often.
Thanks for it.
t!
Curses
No, those are being lifted.
Sorry but ”White our ground forces…” is write well.
I though it was While (remember i don’t speak usually and don’t know well)
In the other hand Ch’thier is more adorable time to time.
The first is a question. I don’t know why i didn’t put the ?
Sorry
Yes you’re correct. It’s supposed to say: "While our ground forces…." but my finger hit the wrong key and I didn’t notice the typo until it was pointed out here in the comments.
There’s also a t missing in the next panel. "I could work." should be "It could work."
Sigh. Sorry about that.
HELLO! 😮
I did NOT see this coming!
Well, darn.
Every time I think I know where this is going, the rug gets pulled out!
Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Excellent storytelling and twists as always.
Um, wasn’t Lewis on the ship? I guess he could have teleported over . . .
Sorry, I meant wasn’t _Eddie_ on the ship?
Vanessa, Lewie, Eddy, they were all back and forth on the ship. There’s a teleport gate that leads from the deck of the ship to the large chamber in Ch’Thier’s tomb. You can see it pretty clearly in the panels with Lewie and Eddy.
Lovely one. There is a typo in the second panel though, methinks it should be "While our ground forces", not "White our ground forces"?
Yeah, I got that, thanks.
Somehow he might not be happy with his curse being lifted.
Wow. I was not expecting that Mr. Morris. I certainly hope Celena gets that same forgiveness, I just re-read her story and I feel really bad for her. I mean, she was tortured into joining Ranna.
Celena herself seems to have a foreordained date with a museum curator, centuries down the line. Though after that, I do still hope she (and yeah, even Meegs) will get another shot at life. The future people still know about magic, even in its weakened form. There may be no one in that time capable of simply waving their hands and casting a stone-to-flesh spell, but their scientists and doctors will probably understand how to store, channel, and use arcane energy in ways that Eddy-and-Naomi-class wizards never NEEDED to learn.
For the rest of Ranna’s brainwashed minions, I really do hope that the postwar agenda isn’t revenge and internment camps, but forgiveness (in 99% of cases, anyway) and careful deprogramming. Certainly I would expect Ch’Thier to encourage her followers in that direction, should she survive the war in her current form. If Ch’Thier sacrifices her existence or her power to act directly in the world, then I hope those who met her today remember and live up to her example.
Oh, dang. I’m a dummy. I completely forgot about Celena’s petrification!
Well, I was hoping she’d get redeemed. Now I *really* feel bad for her, once a Priestess with some power, friends, adventures, etc., now she’s forgotten by her family, friends and even her Goddess! The kicker is that it’s not even her fault!
I know, right? I wonder if Morgana’s still looking for her.
On a separate note, it strikes me that an internment camp for Dark Mistresses would be the weirdest place ever:
Jais: "Welcome to your worst nightmare, war criminal scum. Every moment you spend here, asleep or awake, is gonna be a PLEASANT, RELAXING EXPERIENCE. Step one inch out of line, and we’re gonna be EVEN NICER to you!"
Dark Mistresses: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Your first torture is….THE COMFY CHAIR!
People in this time already knew how to reverse Gorgon-Gaze (remember what happened to Lucas and Cadagan, and how Charles & Caelin had to save them?)
About to say. Celena deserves better.
Justice for B̶a̶r̶b̶ Celena! ?
My first YAFGC crush was Lewie. Then Fang came along.
Now I have a bit of a girl crush on Ch’Thier.
I do’t know if this is good or bad. I think i need my Support Pooka and a nice Charie Chaplin marathon… oh T’Chall??
[Enters wearing a bowler hat, tightly buttoned coat, baggy pants, and oversized shoes, while carrying a big bowl of buttered popcorn]
Hi Fang FanGirl. Let’s start the Chaplin marathon. 🙂
I made cookies. I have a lot, so I brought milk as well.
Fantastic! Let the movies begin!
Crushes are always a good thing. Even the ones that baffle us. (Heaven knows I have quite a few YAFGC crushes, myself, and heaven knows many other regular faces here do, too…)
I would say that I can see what you love about your three, but…I cannot lie. I can *imagine* why you might love Captain Fang, but those who know the good captain well enough to "know" anything at all about him beyond "he usually looks like a kobold, as far as we know"…well, the fellow is a walking, talking, nonsequitor-spouting, storied and layered mystery cult of one, into which I am, with regrets, insufficiently initiated.
But seriously…good on you for having YAFGC crushing, feels whom you wish to feels [sic], and enjoy the hell out of it. 🙂
You just described what’s so great about King Captain Fang the First 😀
I agree with NotRichard – that was a brilliant description of my Boo
Aw, fuck yeah, Lewie!
It’s actually ridiculous how happy I am for him right now.
You know… the Orcs might be needing a new god of their own, after all this. Is there any way for Maula to ascend to the tier of deity?
If the orcs decide she’s a god, then who’s gonna stand in the way?
Orcs: "All hail Goddess-Queen Bloodhand!"
Well-meaning theologian: "Well, it’s not actually that simple. You see, the divine energy must first attach itself to a suitable vessel over a period of several…"
Orcs, roaring in unison: "HAIL THE GODDESS-QUEEN!"
Theologian’s colleague: "Ray, when someone asks you if Maula is a god, you say YES!"
Or they could go the rout of the Klingons, who killed off their gods long since, as they were more trouble then they were worth. *dry chuckle*
AAAGH WHAT IS THIS THICK GOOP COVERING ME I CAN FEEL IT SQUIRMING
Now that last panel I did not expect at all.
So will his trademark "curses!" now turn to "blessings!?"
Don’t worry, Lewie! You’ll always (have\be) a skeleton inside!
Good Goddess, what a blessings fest.
This has got to be the fastest character development ever.
The fastest? This comic is 14 years old y’know.
I mean in the last panel.
Fastest physical development definitely! Even faster than leeloo in 5th element lol
Love the look on his face!
hey wait, if Lewie died a long time ago his mortal body will only have immunities and disease resistance to the diseases of the past, as the various bacteria and viruses evolved and mutated over the centuries they would have gotten progressively more powerful and only through constant reinfection would a person’s immune system be strong enough to survive it. that’s the reason why time travel is impossible, going to the future would instantly kill you with the hyper advanced super sicknesses, and going to the past would cause a massive pandemic like the black plague. Lewie is gonna die instantly upon getting the common cold.
She is the goddess of health, I doubt she overlooked that.
I mean she didn’t see her sister convert one of her worshippers, she didn’t see any of the stuff her sister did up until she was dunked in the tentacle ocean, she’s obviously not the most competent goddess. Lolth is pretty much the only goddess that managed to avoid getting eaten and she even figured out how to manifest again without the thing she used last time so I vote Lolth as new leader of the gods.
If you referring about Celena, I would like to point out, that we didn’t see Ch’Thier since that strip, at least not interacting with her followers. I assume Ranna answered Celena, because she has already trapped her sister by then.
all the more reason not to trust her.
Diseases don’t grow "progressively more powerful" over time; they just evolve to fill different ecological niches as they arise. Antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" are dangerous because they’ve evolved to resist drugs that didn’t exist in the past, but they’re not actually more evolved in some universal sense.
(Nor are humans more evolved than dinosaurs; we’re simply evolved for different circumstances.)
A creature that was transported a thousand years into the future wouldn’t find worse diseases waiting for them, on the average, than one who was transported a thousand years into the past. EITHER of them would be in more danger than they’d been in there own time, though, because their immune systems would be keyed to the wrong set of pathogens.
(In human time-travel scenarios, what I’ve said may prove wrong…not because evolution is a one-way path toward more powerful forms, but because we’re in an era where the human population is skyrocketing. The future may be a vast petri dish with vastly more humans, and thus more human-attacking pathogens, than the past was. But that’s not necessarily the case in the YAFGC setting.)
(Oops. Meant that as an indented reply to Sparrow’s comment just above.)
it’s ok, I understood the intent
There was one story in 2000AD (the comic anthology, not the year), about this super fit guy going to the future, and dying almost instantly, not because of diseases or anything stupid like that, but because the air was too clean for him, his lungs couldn’t handle it
well luckily our air will never have that problem, if anything it’ll be people from the future coming here and dying from the good air. I imagine we’ve got about 300 years left before the Earth is unihabitable.
Curses!
Pretty sure this strip has the most ever comments.
In recent memory, the record-holder is the Fang/Jone fight, with (as of now) 112 comments.
https://www.yafgc.net/comic/3324-an-explosion-of-madness/
So this one is almost there. Anyone got four more pressing things to say?
Apparently so as, before I comment, we’re on 113 !
We have a new Champion !
Why am I getting the feeling that this is the end of the age of gods.
Well I don’t comment often – I’m more the silent connoisseur type 😉
But that LAST panel man… I’ll just add my voice to those who will miss our comic-relief lich but I’m soooo happy for Lewie. Ever since we got his backstory in Lich of the Rings he was a tragic figure really, even if we tended to forget that over the punchline.
Also this ONE act singlehandedly transformed Ch’tier for me from ‘standard goody two shoes kinda a bit of boring really’ to ‘holey camoley she IS good’. If I ever get teleported into the YAFGC world by some freak accident I know which goddess I will worship.
Also had to show this to the wife, she fell off the bandwagon for time reasons a while ago but she needed something lovely and nice like this to brighten her day and she loved this too.
> I don’t comment often
Our loss. This is a great post. We’ll be glad to hear from you whenever you drop by!
t!
Why thank you t!
I usually see the comics when others have made my points far more eloquently than I ever could and I don’t want to be one of those ‘me three’ posters 😉
But binging through the comics and checking how often I didn’t comment when I was sure I had… I’ll try to do better in the future 🙂