SPQR Blues 3 part XXXI

[spqrblues]

A double dose of the wobblies.

Comments

[ndgmtlcd.livejournal.com]

If these be the wobbly versions of Rebecca and Rowena you should ride trains more often. You know, seeing a double dose like that makes me think of a George Bernard Shaw play. In a positive sense, of course.

[kyleen66.livejournal.com]

I think these are lovely. I didn't see any wobblies.

I think you are moving the plot along, it just may take a bit for it to pan out.

Kissies.

[jetbaby.livejournal.com]

Just started reading your comic - surfed here via Colleen Doran's blog. Wonderful stuff!

Mus' uncertainty about Felix is agonizing - for me, at least. Part of me wants it resolved and part of me is really enjoying the tension you've created.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Well, Photoshop is a wonderful thing for hiding wobblies--much better than WhiteOut :)

A Trusted Advisor cautioned me against shifting the plot around just to speed things up (aka, "for shock value"), but within the next three installments there will be a significant jolt to the plot. Hmm... maybe the problem is that the chapter 3 cast is just too big... what can I do about that...?

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Hi, and welcome!

I'd surfed over to Colleen Doran's blog via a link on When Fangirls Attack (http://womenincomics.blogspot.com/) and posted my first little Graeco-Roman tirade before I'd realised whose blog it was--or I might have been too inhibited to post at all :) That was a very interesting conversation, though, and now I have her blog on my "don't forget to check at least once a week" list.

I'm glad you surfed on over here; the comic will be on a really-daily schedule for a while, but no promises on when that uncertainty is resolved....

[b2creative.livejournal.com]

::sense of foreboding::

Oh ... no ...

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I loved George Bernard Shaw growing up (even when I wasn't quite sophisticated enough for it yet). Maybe there are some subconscious influences. I remember reading Caesar and Cleopatra over and over, like listening to a favourite song. My friends thought I was extraordinarily weird. Yeah, there are probably some subconscious influences. Next episode: Mus and Felix find a baby in a valise. Then everyone breaks into song and Iusta discovers in soprano that she's everyone's lost sister, because I also like Gilbert & Sullivan.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

You only say that because you know how bloodthirsty I can be, literarily speaking....

[cyanocorax.livejournal.com]

I can think of a few characters I wouldn't mind if you bumped off. Unfortunately their deaths probably would do little for plot movement, so we'll probably lose someone more dear. Hmm.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

When you say big shock to the plot, I hope you don't mean a big BOOM sort of shock?

How old are the girls? They seem to be getting married off awfully young, I admit I don't know much about Domestic life for Romans, remember I'm just a soldier and I'm forbidden to marry during my enlistment! *wink*

Poor Felix...All of these women want his something viscious! It's tough being a guy! :D

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

No BOOM today. No BOOM tomorrow, either. It will be a little while yet.

Of course no one wants wives cluttering up a military unit. What would that lead to next? Flowered curtains in the tents? Doilies??

Both girls--Justa and Elisa--are about fourteen or fifteen. Calatoria is eager to marry off her stepdaughter, and Justa probably just wants out of the house. Apparently many Roman women married in their late teens, but fourteen was a fairly common age for a girl's first marriage, as I remember... I mean remember from my studies, not from, you know, having been there myself. Rich folks might marry off the girls extremely young for a symbolic alliance, and might also marry off their rich little boys as young as six or seven for the same reason, but in general one wanted the husband to be 20-ish (maybe as ancient as 25) and somewhat established, or on the way to getting himself established. Felix is getting a bit old for all this. Mus really does need to get on the ball before he ends up an old maid confirmed bachelor embarrassment to his hoity-toity family.

Of course life expectancy was so short (the average was, what, 25 years?), the earlier you got started on baby-production, the better....

Opera

[perilousknits.livejournal.com]

And you need a baritone to sing about his career ambitions . . . maybe Justa's father's secretary?

Re: Opera

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I had such a huge crush on the baritone in the first university Gilbert & Sullivan production I worked on, resulting in jackass behaviour at the cast party. Followed later by a huge crush on the tenor in the next season's production, who bore an uncanny resemblance to young-ish Patrick Stewart playing Sejanus in I, Claudius. And then there was the dashing baritone in Utopia Limited who lived in my dorm and--oh, never mind. Never, never mind, and don't believe those rumours I used him as a model for one of the slaughtered Roman soldiers in chapter ii just because the rumours are true. I am susceptible to a good singing voice. And to people who look like movie-Romans.

Hmm... maybe later Domitian can give us a rousing rendition of "I am the very model of an ancient Roman emperor." But what rhymes with "emperor"?

Re: Opera

[cyanocorax.livejournal.com]

Dashing baritone? Who might that be? (runs back to chapter ii to find slaughtered soldier)

Re: Opera

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Actually, most of the soldiers in chapter ii got slaughtered, except the accounting department. All of Felix's tent mates, except our Lucky protagonist. Poor lads...

Re: Opera

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Hmm... maybe later Domitian can give us a rousing rendition of "I am the very model of an ancient Roman emperor." But what rhymes with "emperor"?

I am the very model of a modern Roman emperor
My mores are so good that no-one has to cry "O Tempora!"

Re: Opera

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I must be hungry... the one thing that flashed into my mind when I read this was "I could go for some Japanese food right now." Then might brain unscrambled and read it correctly :)

I applaud your rhyme :D

Re: Opera

[amedia.livejournal.com]

"I could go for some Japanese food right now."

Groan! I applaud your pun. ;-)

Re: Opera

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

And my brain was still scrambled enough to come up with "might" instead of "my." My neurons seem to enjoy making things more complicated :)

Try the lark's tongues!

[prettydragoon.livejournal.com]

I went to this new Japanese restaurant the other day. The food was awful and the service was worse. O tempura, o mores!

Re: Try the lark's tongues!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Everything's funnier when it involves Latin! It's a well known fact! :D

Re: Try the lark's tongues!

[prettydragoon.livejournal.com]

It's true. Those Romans are crazy! :)