SPQR Blues chapter IV: CCVII

[spqrblues]

Oh, and here's another comic. Two days in a row to make up for the long gap.

Comments

[texascarl.livejournal.com]

Yay! Signs and portents, for the win!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Always listen to the voices that started talking to you after you hit your head. Eventually, they're bound to be right....

[essayel.livejournal.com]

I hope you had a brilliant rest and thoroughly enjoyed your time off but I'm so glad to see this on the go again! Thank you!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

If I'm not rested and ready to draw after all this time, I never will be. Onward into the volcano! :D

[unovis.livejournal.com]

Brilliant, it's back! Happy to see the family on the move.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Now, if only he can get the other 4980-something people to get moving, too.

[zeus67.livejournal.com]

Elisa looks so happy when she heard Felix calling her as his wife. Her dream coming true.

Her dad does not believe Felix's warning but has been overruled and doesn't like that.

I'm really amazed as how you can make their faces and body language so expressive that they can convey emotions without having to tell us directly. Many other comics artists are unable to do so and so we would get a thought balloon or a comment explaining the character's emotion.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm pretty sure I've only used a thought balloon once in the comic (http://spqrblues.com/IV/?p=1470) (at least, I can't remember any other times. Maybe I'll take a tour through the whole archives and look). I think it's more interesting flying without them.

But here's that missing thought balloon for you in panel 6: Where did I put the address of that retirement home for Old Annoying Parents...? And here's one for almost every time he has a conversation with his eldest son: Where did I put the address of that home for Juvenile Delinquent Wayward Annoying Children...?

[zeus67.livejournal.com]

Actually I thought that he was wondering why his father couldn't remain in Alexandria, where he placed him. He has the face for that one.

But the expression in panel 7 is wonderful. He wants to put his hands around both Felix and his father's throats.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Indeed, what's the point of moving across a whole sea away from the parents if they just follow you?? :D

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Hey!

:D

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

As in: "Hey! How come I'm not in this comic?!"

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

LOL, aww well shucks...

No, I was referring to the little girl going "Hey!" hiding away...again...

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Oh, whoops, we have crossed wires! I meant the little girl too :D

But now that you mention it...a cameo appearance might be available. How do you feel about being trapped in a cave during a pyroclastic surge?

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

"being trapped in a cave..."

0.0

Uuuuhhh....Well thankfully it's not real life, but I guess sure, why not? The balteus belt I wear has plates
based on the Herculaneum plates, and I have a Pompeii pattern Gladius..... :D

[zeus67.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if Felix was right. Does he have husband's right to Elisa despite the fact that they are only betrothed?

I know that a betrothal was way more serious than it is today, in medieval times it also included the right to do the beast with two backs. But I'm not so sure it was the same in Roman law. Or jewish law either.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly from my research on traditions in this specific area at that time, the marriage was pretty much a fait accompli once all parties were agreed, and the ceremony and religious ritual were more for a public declaration and union of the community; Felix should, however, have a place to call his own home, to bring his bride so they can live together officially as man and wife. I'm not going to swear I have that right, though, without going back through the research.

On the Roman side, well, those Romans could be anywhere from very relaxed to very persnickety, but until he takes her home, Felix and Elisa are really only betrothed. She's only his promised, not his wife. Unless he wants to lift her over his shoulder and make off with her, which she might not mind so much.

I have a lovely book on Roman Weddings around here somewhere--I presume it's lovely, but I barely flipped through it before I misplaced it under the approximately 10,000 other books in this house :P

Anyway, Felix is going to play the betrothed-is-as-good-as-married card for all its worth.

[zeus67.livejournal.com]

I guess the point was about who was the paterfamilias. AFAIK all the children belonged to the father until his death. The daughters were considered married when their father relinquished "ownership" to their husband.

Yay!

[helwen.livejournal.com]

*hoping really hard that Felix manages to round everyone up and out of the city*

Re: Yay!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

All 5000 of them.

Well, maybe some of them.

We shall see.

Re: Yay!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Okay, so you know how you can look at something for a long long time, and not really see it? Your brain simply accepts whatever pattern it interpreted the first time? So, for a long long time I've thought that icon was a fluffy cat sitting nobly, and perhaps a little bit in Babylonian style, in front of a table (why would a cat be doing that? don't ask me why I thought that). And just now my brain snapped on and saw it properly as the kitty with paws up peering up at the pie. Now I don't know how I never saw that before. Little cat paws. Little cat elbows. Fluffy cat. Plain as day.

And if my brain still has it wrong, maybe you shouldn't tell me.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

"Hey yourself!"

Remember the time when you were the master of your own home, Joseph ? Wasn't that sweet ? But now your own father is implying that the Lord himself is disguising as a pagan goddess to talk to a pagan!

[zeus67.livejournal.com]

That will hurt anybody who believes in God. That He choose to communicate with a pagan instead of a true believer!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

When you hear that quiet voice in the middle of the night, you just have to know how to listen to it. (Felix probably didn't tell them that it was a perfectly loud voice in a bikini.) Even a pagan can sometimes see the writing on the wall.

Grandpa Mouse has a reputation for being a bit mystical in his worldview. Could be where Mus gets his susceptibility to wild ideas.

[zeus67.livejournal.com]

If I were Felix, I would also keep my mouth shut about the bikini. You know how prude those hebrews are.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_w_o_o_d_/]

As far as I remember, Joseph classifies the world in two categories : what is proper, and what isn't. I suspect he's far to polite to say what he thinks of his father's visions. But now this business with the Lord talking to a pagan under a false identity? If you can't trust even the Lord to behave properly, who can you trust? What is this, the end times ?

mene mene tekel upharsin

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Oh, it must be that Felix just thinks it was a goddess, and his confused pagan mind was not be able to understand the vision.

Josephus says this is all quite improper.

Re: mene mene tekel upharsin

[zeus67.livejournal.com]

Joseph does look like he wants to have a little chat with the Lord about the proper way visions should be delivered. Bikinis not allowed.

Vespasian's Jewish officer

[brian kim (from livejournal.com)]

I thought this will catch your interest about Vespasian and the Jews: http://www.strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic325a.asp
Read the fifth bullet on the list.

[kit-the-brave.livejournal.com]

Joseph's face in panel 7! He looks like he wishes he could have kept Felix away from altars, and probably his dad too, so that none of them would think they were hearing things (or seeing bikinis).

And I love that little "Hey!" Good thing she's already supposed to be going with Menander, since she'd probably do it anyway.