Chapter IV: CCXXXXVII (row 4)

[spqrblues]

 



As scientists in a report from the Vesuvius Observatory put it, the initial collapse of the volcanic cloud "billowed through the evacuated town of Herculaneum" at 500°C (about 930°F). Other scientists describe it in much more violent terms than "billow," especially when the cloud reached the drop-off at the shore.

Several years ago now, I went to a lecture at South Street Seaport where a volcanologist and archaeologist described the passage of the pyroclastic cloud surging through the narrow streets so dramatically, before sending the audience back out into the narrow, cobblestone-paved streets of lower Manhattan, that I've had the vision for these panels in my mind ever since.

 

Comments

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

Well, this is it, then.

At least it will be quick?

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

A fraction of a second quick, in fact.

Time enough, maybe, to understand what you're seeing. But maybe not.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh crap. :(

[(Anonymous)]

So, how many of them again made it on to that boat? Because I'm thinking everyone left in town / on shore probably has a future "date" with the archeologists now.... :(

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Let's see...

Iusta let her ship leave shore because some women came aboard (sent there by Felix) and she mistook them for Spendusa and Cynthia. Irenaeus the servant was with her.

Damon is on another ship, which Felix was last seen trying to get off.

Vibius went to put people in orderly rows so he could march them down to the shipyards to get them on boats.

Speudon was waving gold coins in some sailors' faces.

Sweetums swam for it. The cat is in the bag. The pack of magistrates who heard Iusta's court case went on a holiday pretty much immediately. Pliny the Elder is attempting to rescue his friends from their seaside villas. Pliny the Younger is helping his mom evacuate. Domitian is peculiarly happy and enjoying the fireworks.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

I realized I'd lost track and in order to have all the context at this crucial moment, I read through the whole narrative at once this week.

The pacing is really good. The buildup of the various subplots, the Justa arc, all of the characters' motivations and acts, all of it flows so well. I hope you will produce a single volume Papery Thing as Sydney Padua has done; this story is so well suited to being a book!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thank you so SO much. Very much.

I've actually been trying to figure out, this week, how to print the first four chapters on trees. I've had a couple of minicomic versions of individual chaptera, with help from friends who are good at printy stuff, and now I'd like to do an all-in-one edition. The size and shape of how I'd have to lay out the comics has always been a challenge (I'm not big on 8-1/2x11 page size, but that seems to be the only economically sensible option). So...we'll see? :)

[(Anonymous)]

.....Mus. He hasn't been seen since he was sitting on the ground around Thanksgiving of 2011. :(

[(Anonymous)]

(With his mother-in-law's shoes put on (by mistake?) while he was out looking for the guy who took Iusta's message to Seianti, but didn't return with her reply.)

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Yes...he was winded, sore-footed from tight fancy sandals, and very tipsy by the time he got there and didn't want to climb the stairs. So he sat to rest in the shade of some scaffolding.

Aha.

[(Anonymous)]

OK, I got thrown by the original out-of-order posting of the strip section with the guy who got crunched by scaffolding, because it was first posted BEFORE Mus sat down, so then I never really mentally connected the two. :( Besides as I check it doesn't seem like there's much to identify the crunched guy explicitly as Mus, other than the vague "Nonius knows him" - we don't see his face or anything.

Re: Aha.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I did drop the ball on that sequence. It didn't fit the timeline of the eruption the way it was originally written, and I made a revision that still didn't work.

That's something I'd like to re-revise, especially before doing any sort of printed version.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

*whimper*

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

°_°

I feel a little whimpery myself.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Never bicker instead of evacuating. Don't bicker while evacuating, either; it slows you down.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

The final three images are utterly riveting. And horrific, too--but I can't look away.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

I've been saying this over and over in my mind -- we knew this was coming. It's stretched over so much time its hard to judge how close we were... aw, crap. We're here. It's the Titanic stern disappearing below the water moment. It's Skynet Judgement Day.

Courage, Klio! We're here on the edge of the end. Keep going... we're ready.

Dr. Phil

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Well said, Dr. Phil!

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Oh dear...now I'm going to lose my aloof authorial detachment (which I didn't actually have)....

[corvideye.livejournal.com]

Keep looking, perhaps it rolled under the couch and is now stuck to some dust bunnies and an old penny...

**speechless**

[northwestmagpie.livejournal.com]

I can't bear to look, but I can't look away either.

There's a Pompeii exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. I went to it in February, and took a deep joy in seeing the bits of jewelry, the couch legs and headrest, dishes and vessels, and the statue of a young man of the Imperial Family posed with a dolphin. And at the end, I walked past the casts (5 of them), one of which was the size of a five-year-old child, and cried.

I'm kinda dreading your next strip, dear friend. But I congratulate you. You've kept me on hooks, and now I'm bleeding for all of them - Menander, Felix, Damon, Iusta, Mus, Spendusa and Cynthia.

Re: **speechless**

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

At a Pompeii exhibit in Manhattan, the first rooms were a bit thin on artifacts and facts, but the exhibit culminated in a room of beautiful, practical, and touching personal and everyday items, including the bracelet inscribed from Marcus to his servant, and my favourite of all, a tiny, votive figure of a plump little horse. I'll have to find my sketches of it.

In between those two areas, though, you had to pass through a small room showing a CGI recreation of the ashfall then first pyroclastic surge, then into a large, black room with probably two dozen replicas of the plaster casts. I'm not sure how many because I took off my glasses (I'm hugely nearsighted), asked a guard if we had to stay in line or could just move through quickly, and headed straight toward the light of the next room, where they had the small items on display. I could have spent hours in that little room looking at every piece in detail.

One more strip in Herculaneum. And then... I'm going to miss it.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

And at the end, I walked past the casts (5 of them), one of which was the size of a five-year-old child, and cried.

I was okay with the people-casts at the exhibits I saw, although I think they were all adults. Then I saw the cast of the dog, and broke down sobbing.