Skin Deep is back! And there’s a scene change! Wowzers!
Jim is taller than he looks in those last three panels, he’s just scrunched up in agitation. Good ol’ Ravi brings out the best in him it seems.
Skin Deep is back! And there’s a scene change! Wowzers!
Jim is taller than he looks in those last three panels, he’s just scrunched up in agitation. Good ol’ Ravi brings out the best in him it seems.
73 Comments
Well there we go, absolute confirmation of Colin having the gift! I can’t wait to see how everyone reacts to this knowledge. And how the Finns are going to handle… well, everything.
I’m actually really curious as to if Colin’s element is water. Which would have made Phineas’ element fire.
Also something I am curious to discover. In which case… I can see some lovely pranks where he hands his brothers a cup of water… that he made from his hair.
Maybe it wouldn’t taste any different, but he would know. I’d find that amusing, anyway.
The light blue makes me think more wind. Since Jim’s hair is such a dark green, I’d think water would be a much darker blue.
It depends strongly on the magical tradition; different cultures symbolized air (or, more often, the sky) with blue, yellow or purple mostly. And when you get into Asian elemental symbolism, some of the cultures didn’t recognize air as an element at all– their elements were stone, metal, water, wood and fire.
Based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_element#Hinduism and the fact that Ravi is a creature found in Hinduism, I’d say the elements are Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Void.
Can’t edit, so I’ll add here: Does not confirm whether this light blue is air or water.
Rereading- Void is sort of special though, isn’t it? Would anyone have it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akasha
Another possibility would be ice, since it is such a light color.
I’d rather thought wind would be white.
They are currently next to a fountain; I am expecting something a little different.
Also, I just noticed–Mrs. Finn is still in human form. Heh.
Solidarity with her newly-hominid youngest, maybe? Or just so she could wear a particular outfit. ^_^
What would turn things in a totally unexpected manner would be if Tobias is also found to have an aspect of the Gifts which Ravi ‘bestowed’ on the Finns.
Lol, I still call my DS a GameBoy. And Tobias, I know that rage. Pkmn Ruby had just come out, got it as an xmas present. One of my cousins played it and there’s no multi save on those you well know. I still haven’t entirely forgiven him for it. Damnit Zack, I was in Rustboro, had the badge and you just… :[
Dude, the exact same thing happened to me. A cousin stole my copy of Sapphire and overwrote my save…and this was right before I was ready to beat Steven.
2 things I can relate too here:
1. Calling a DS (and it’s descendants) a Gameboy.
2. accidental save file deletion; Although I was the one deleting files this time…(sorry people who owned that game)
THERE IS A SPHINX IN THAT FOUNTAIN!!!
There’s two, and a gaggle of other beasties.
Ooooh, I hadn’t seen the second sphinx. I saw the other beasties, and then, wings, human head, lion… And I got real excited about that.
Don’t worry about it, I had the same reaction when I first looked at the fountain. But then I figured the comments would be full of that, so…
There’s a Grecian sphinx, and an Egyptian sphinx, and Jimothy grew up seeing them. Then, he told Michelle, “I’ve never seen anything like you.”
Like Paulbert said, Jimmy has the attention span of an adolescent satyr.
Maybe, back in orientations, Jim meant he’d never seen any LIVING Grecian sphinx like Michelle?
But yeah, how often is it, that you pass by Historical Civic Architecture like that every day, and never actually LOOK at it? I would not be surprised to learn everyone does that.
People in general DO have a tendency to ignore things. I doubt that he’d have really taken notice of it because it’s just part of his normal environment. There’s no NEED to study it and really commit it to memory because it’s just the fountain. A foreigner/tourist type would notice because it’s not something they see every day but as a native he just kinda glosses over it and it gets relegated to the back of his mind. So unless he had some sort of classes within the Avalon (which I doubt, considering how exited Colin was about getting to go to school) then he’d never have any reason to pay more attention to it. And even if he did have some kind of history of the LA I don’t doubt that Jim would just… forget it after awhile.
Jim also strikes me as the type to sleep through things that he doesn’t care about. If there was any history teaching, he probably either did that, or forgot it as soon as he learned it.
But as a cub he honestly never looked at it once? He never waited there to meet up with a friend and idly stared at the centrepiece of the Avalon? He never, after passing it a million times, never looked at it clearly enough to have seen a bloody /sphinx/ which is the stuff legends are made of?
I think he meant he never saw anything like a sphinx turning but I don’t buy that he could truly be unfamiliar with what they looked like. In the moment he was maybe just surprised?
There IS an elementary school in the Avalon. Jim & Lorne hid behind its corner, then strolled through its playground, back in Exchanges: Handshakes. I would expect civic statuary to be a part of the curriculum that gets the kids out of the classroom.
How much of that curriculum is retained, is another matter.
Old GameBoys are fun and full of nostalgia, but I do have to admit that DS’s are an advancement and much more enjoyable. I can still play my old GameBoy games on my older DS, and oh my.
I’m sure James knows Ravi, possibly Mary, but James seems more likely
I still have an original GameBoy, and a GameBoy Color, and all 6 of the official English language Pokemon carts.
I still occasionally dig them out to play.
Jim: “I coulda given you mine if I knew you wanted one.”
Colin: “Yours is old”
Yeah, so what? It has Link’s Awakening and gen 1 Pokemon. What are you complaining about?
I do love that fountain; it looks for all the world as if the ones on the outer edges are splashing the inner ones– look at their expressions! And I’ve seen some really funny and/or rude European classically-styled fountains (as opposed to most American classical fountains, which are almost always serious)– there’s a great one in Trier, Germany that’s centuries old. It has monkeys in Bishops’ robes on it.
The best in him?
Or the beast in him?
Jim looks like he’s about to go crazy. And I LOVE IT!
Ravi uses Two-Handed Shoulder Latch-Glom. It’s SUPER-EFFECTIVE! Ravi drains 238 points of happiness from Jim! Ravi is cheered! Jim is pissed!
Jim uses Gripesnark. It’s not effective! Ravi is oblivious!
Colin uses DS. It’s SUPER FUN! Colin is cheered!
Now, what will come of this meeting? And what is Alec Hyde doing over? The no-smoking legislation hadn’t come in at this date (regardless of whether Alec would have taken notice of it), he surely wouldn’t feel the need to banish himself from his shop to smoke, and he doesn’t need to be outside to keep an eye on things… so I can only assume that this is actually a lurking break. Bugbears must not only be unsettling, they must be seen to be unsettling!
>:=)>
Even before the smoking ban, some shop-owners didn’t like the smell or didn’t want their merchandise to pick up the smell.
Smoke is also pretty bad for electronic equipment.
That’s no joke, Quetzalrofl. I remember two blokes bringing in a Playstation 2 for me to work on (I work in a shop that is certified to do warranty repairs).
Apparently these two were hard-core chain smokers, because when I opened it up, *everything* was covered with a brown shell. I couldn’t even scrape it off with a screwdriver.
They weren’t too happy when I told them “Sorry, but this falls into the category of ‘deliberate abuse’ and is not covered by warranty. I can’t fix this for free, and it will require so many repairs that it would honestly be cheaper to buy a new one.”
Alec is simple enough to account for.
3 new people in the LA. Michelle, Greg, and Merial. And Michelle is a Sphinx. So of course that will show up like crazy on a bugbear’s radar.
And in this scene, they are near his shop.
Hey, there are Sphinx statues in that fountain, has it some historical meaning?
Considering that The Great War is intertwined with the founding of the LA, of course it has some historical significance.
You may want to pull your parents aside for this conversation. It is one that has a promising potential of things getting heated and Ravi might get pissed again.
Or use his magic to.turn it into s Bollywood musical number….
Kory, an RQ: What games console did Paul have?
The last three panels are priceless…I can’t decide which I love more, Ravi’s enthusiasm or Jim’s surliness.
Jim’s surliness is better because it’s real.
From reading the recent previous pages, Ravi turns on and off his ‘excitement’ like flicking on or off a switch. Ravi’s excitement and interest has all the feel of excess overbearing fakeness.
Sometimes it’s genuine,sometimes it’s sarcastic, and sometimes it’s conciliatory posturing.
Business as usual for any witty, intelligent being.
I mean, surely you don’t mean everything you say 100% of the time? Why should he?
I don’t get the feeling of “fakeness” when he speaks. He’s even living for ages. I imagine he is just a rather cheerful fellow. Certainly he can be upset when things go horribly awry but if he let things continue to get to him as an immortal being then he’d probably not be able to get past the first few centuries.
AS I sad before,I think that it’s often genuine, but not all the time, and can even be sarcastic. ( Did he really think they would ” have a wonderful time”?)
Seemed more like ” We’re going to have a good time, so help me Vishu, or else….”
* Vishnu
I’ve always gotten the sense he is sincere, just very, very excitable and passionate about *everything*.
Tobias, I share your pain.
Also, lookit how excited Ravi is how is it that you make me want to hug him practically every single page he appears in?
Also, also, Jim looks like an adorable giant angry slice of key lime pie in that last panel!
Must. Suppress. Pedantic GamerRage™.
*happy dance* Yay! Yay! Yay! Thank you!
I hope you had a TON of fun celebrating your Birthday!!
I love Ravi so much. He’s got the BEST smile.
Only thing i could think of was that i’m sure colin would be great at DDR especially in gryphon form and it would be one of the few games with controls that are non-thumb friendly
I thought scrunching did not involve height reduction. Because you bring your shoulders up to your head when you scrunch. Height reduction involving your upper body would involve bending forward…
Factor in that Jim has a lot more flexible neck than humans do – and he’s magic. :D
Kory said quite clearly that Jim only LOOKS shorter because he’s tensed up, much like a bird or a cat. Besides, comics don’t have to be anatomically correct.
I love this page! And the fountain, I love their happy expressions, not all grim and solemn like most big pieces of statuary. And I’m so happy for Colin that he now can go to school and has thumbs so he can play a Gameboy. But not-human-form Colin is so adorable… I hope we get to see that once in awhile still.
The way that Ravi speaks… I get the feeling he’s the closest thing to a living god they’ve got… And after Googling “Yaksha” that’s pretty close, some kind of revered spirit of the earth.
You know, I seem to recall a certain gryphon complaining to Michelle about all of her sulking. Something about not worrying what you can’t change…
I like to imagine Jim doing the green heron zoop neck thing.
(See http://willoughbyart.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-neck-is-lie.html or http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AAmUXnL-Cxo/UBXia6idNrI/AAAAAAAAAP0/khh6h5ge-mg/s400/necks%2Blie.jpg to see what I’m talking about).
It’s nive to see that the “new” Gameboy is a DS Fat, since your comic is situated in the past. (If I remember correctly)
This story happens in June 2005.
I would be overjoyed if Ravi’s next words were “Namaste, Finn Family!”
and should michelle look at the fountain statues a char like her is there. 3rd row from the top, bottom front.
YASSS!
I just wanna say: LOOK AT THAT FOUNTAIN!! LOOK AT ALL THESE DIFFERENT CREATURES INCLUDED!!
I think Ravi might be my favourite character so far. He makes me laugh every time! XD
The hair has grown back!!!