Friday needs to get more organized. The doomsday devices do not belong with the teddy bear cuddle pile. Also the venomous snakes are not supposed to be wandering around anywhere they please. They belong in the ball pit.


-----
Vote for Sluggy Freelance at Top Web Comics. Remember to vote EACH day.
Thu=[#50 +2 *597]
Fri=[#45 +5 *702]
Sat=[#43 +2 *810]
Sun=[#42 +1 *885]
This definitely can not be right.

Did the motorbike ride happen, perhaps after the hospital stay, or is it symbolic? Because they were on two bikes first, and then on this motorbike with a sidecar. And before that they were in a whole-car, always with the red lights behind them.

Wow, letting him go like that, no hesitation. But Izzy has probably been slowed down by her brother her whole life and knew this moment may come, and if it did she must not hesitate. They have seen so many be captured, they both know what happens if you hesitate.

Wow, Izzy. That was... cold.

I agree with Silverwalker, I think that all the vehicle segments were allegories for their perpetual flight from the enemy; 'living on the road' as it were, with the ever-present specter of Urja looming behind them...

Or maybe the vamps like weird, tricked-out cars with red highlights. Who knows?

Given the choice of an intact target and one that requires slow and careful handling, I can understand HC's leaving Ant for the vamps.

Also, if he keeps his costume on it takes them a while to chew through to reach the juicy parts, kind of like when your dog is trying to chew through crabfish from the kitchen counter. More time for Izzy to escape.

It's totally symbolic. The car device seems to show both where they are and what Izzy and Anthony's relationship are at the moment. When they're in the car together Izzy is flashing back to when they were children and Izzy had to take care of her brother. There was no way they could be separated since Anthony needed her so much so they're in the same car. Izzy even flashes to Anthony as a child and herself looking quite grown up to sort of symbolize how she felt about it.

Later, when they're on the separate bikes is when they're splitting up. While they're still in close contact, Izzy has mostly cut Anthony loose and they're living separate lives. Even though these flashbacks are entirely within Izzy's head, we still see Anthony questioning it probably because she feels guilty. The pair continue on their own ways, Anthony with Minion Master and Izzy with her secret hacking until Anthony's injured and we get the sidecars.

The sidecars are sort of like a hodge-podge between the car and the bike. Izzy is once again in charge and taking care of Anthony, but they're only joined up with a single connection. They're not entwined in each other's lives again. Plus, the side car device gives Pete an easy way to illustrate that Izzy cut Anthony loose. If they were back in the car they would be far more dependent on each other (symbolically) and Pete would need far more panels to show Izzy tossing Anthony out of the car. I imagine that soon we're going to see how Urja captured Anthony and turned him while Izzy got away. It may or may not have been as easy as what this strip shows as this entire sequence thus far seems to be a flashback in Izzy's head explaining how she got to this point.

So yeah, it's completely symbolic and a way of illustrating the actions, place, and mindset of Izzy as she flashes back though her backstory with Anthony. If I were to make a judgement I would say that the car/motorcycle/sidecar portions of the strip are emotional and symbolic reflections on how Izzy felt about various parts of her life looking back on them now while the panels without the Urja pursuit shows the events that actually happened. No sidecars were injured in the drawing of this strip.

I guess the whole carchase symbolism is something Izzy is dreaming while unconcious.
Including the flashbacks on a different level of the dream.

But I hope Pete will clarify whether the it was Izzy's dream or something entirely different.
Maybe she wakes up saying "what a dream"

Again.

makes perfect sense. Nice storytelling/device work, Pete.

Excellent analysis, Jade_rust! I wonder if Pete learned anything?? LOL

No matter what, Jade_rust's interpretation is my new HeadCanon.

Analysis was good, yes.

It was completely unnecessary though. It's been very short and well contained, with very little room for misinterpretation, if you just stop to think about it for a moment. A few of Pete's postings the past while shows that he's been a bit nervous about how people have been interpreting this. This particular piece has been VERY well done. Keep doing what you're doing. Don't change a thing. There is nothing for Pete to learn, other than a quick refresher that as with all artforms, not 100% of people will get it. Only a few people post on here, so you're not getting a proper sample size. I know you might have another day or so left, but you nailed this one Pete. Don't fret about finishing it up ASAP.

*thumbs up*

I feel like we pick on Pete too much for the little things. Need to remind him once in a while when a particular creative piece goes very well :)

I didn't intend to pick on Pete. I was just joking that Jade_rust's analysis was so complete that he might have explained some things that even Pete hadn't thought of. :-)

I tend to agree with Spirantz that it was "unnecessary." I don't think there's anything in that analysis that Pete hadn't thought of, because it's all pretty straightforward. That said, "unnecessary" is relative. Apparently, some people still aren't sure that the vehicles aren't literally part of the flashback.

Yeah, I only wrote it up because it seemed like some people were still confused. With Pete's storytelling what we see is usually what we get so I'm loving that he branched out in this flashback sequence. I'm also continuing to love his use of color. The black and white strips with a single color in them have appeared in a lot of Sluggy history but every time I see a strip where he uses that technique I'm always struck by how beautiful it is. Pete really is a master storyteller in my book and has absolutely nothing to learn from me. If anything I've learned a lot about storytelling from Pete over the years! He's doing fantastic work, especially with this flashback.