The French version of Sailor Twain launches later today! Feel free to go welcome aboard some of our gallic twainers!
Also: Claire came by the Flatiron building! It continues to be such a thrill meeting you Twainers in real life, and the conversation is no less a pleasure in the 21st century. Thank you!
Since I had an entry about the great Conté pencils, I must include the other great favorite tool used in every page and every panel of Sailor Twain: my favorite charcoals of all—General’s Charcoal.
In the mid 19th Century, one Oscar Weissenborn, immigrated from Baden-Baden, and founded what would become the GENERAL’S PENCIL COMPANY. It’s still run as a family business with a passion for art and for the craft of making artists’ tools.
Who knew how much went into that pencil on your desk? See this piece on how they are made, and look here for some fine history of the General Pencil Company.
The messiest and hardest to control is straight powdered charcoal. But worked with a smudger or a chamois cloth, it’s almost like sculpting shades of grey…
… but best of all—General’s Jumbo Charcoal has gone into just about every part of Sailor Twain. For some reason, more than any other charcoal I’ve tried, this one has a softness about it that is a pleasure to work with. It spreads and darkens deeply or can be smudged lightly, plus it stays in place after spray fixing.
Okay, enough art supply geekfest now?
South certainly doesn’t look like herself anymore, I hope she listens to Twain!
Good grief. She looks like a shell of herself. Or she revealed she was little more than a shell. Either way, that last panel is heartbreaking.
Oh Twain – “nobody” can understand? The muse, the reborn spark, that new need, the way you fell in love with her the way someone falls in love with a piece of art, or an artist, for that matter: beautiful and inspiring but ultimately untouchable. How can you prove all of that to her? I don’t know if you can, especially when this thing you love is about to kill you, in all senses of the word.
Doesn’t mean you’re not going to try, though. And she seems to know it.
They’re both crying, if I’m not mistaken?
Anyways. Mark, it was so wonderful to meet you and the Flatiron! I can only say thank you.
Claire, I believe that Twain would be sweating bullets, though I imagine he is similarly distressed either way.
(Mark, using the latest version of Firefox (9) in Mac OS X, it appears that the field names for the Gravitar comment box are black, making them invisible against the background.)
Beautiful, and I’ll swing by to say hello to the Gallic Twainers!
@Claire : Cry underwater, I might add.
It saddens me that we are nearing the end of our journey …
Yes, me too, Sam. The more exciting this end gets, the more end-ish it seems. Everything MUST resolve. There’s no turning back.
Good heavens! This may be the most intense page yet. I wonder what exactly it is she thinks that Twain and Lafayette planned
Underwater intensity… and sweat and tears.
@Sam: me too.
But I missed a lot of the blog posts when I originally found the comic and was catching up, so it will be interesting to read along and recap the whole story with the French readers.
“And to drink… PERU!”
Lafayette! There are the two brothers with the same last name. So is she referring to the younger brother? She has a harpoon–is that the same one that was used against her? Is that the one that was on Jacques Henri’s wall? http://sailortwain.com/blog/2010/02/22/sailortwain-022/ But she has to be referring to the younger brother, as he is the one who broke her spell as she was in the act of breaking her father’s. (Love the swish at his hat! I think that if she really wanted to kill him, that’s when she would have done it.)
Lafayette needed seven loves to break the spell, yet he wanted “Beaverton” to be an old spinster, unattractive, and when he saw her, he said, “I am lost.” He broke the spell–why is he lost? Why was he afraid? And there are only two chapters and a coda left! Wah!!!!
When would Lafayette (younger brother) ever have visited South, have gotten the river opener, or known what it was that haunted his brother? He’s been sending Bibles and letters in bottles out to someone, and refuses to believe his brother is dead. (Or is it that Jacque Henri is indeed alive? Then whose body was found?) What happened in April to make Lafayette smile and take control of the business and his life?
Are a mermaid’s tears salty? How do they flow down her face in her natural environment? (This is indeed a magical place!)
And what of the corporal Twain, terrified in his hiding place?
_______________________________
A look back at another page. River on earth and river in heaven
I noticed the twins in the nurses’ arms, and that there are two children in the chant.
http://sailortwain.com/blog/2011/04/18/sailortwain209/
Oh man, it’s Friday and another long wait for Monday’s installment! It’s like being a kid and sitting next to the radio with the Li’l Orphan Annie Decoder Ring! 2-15-19-20-15-14 2-18-5-23 9-19 20-8-5 2-5-19-20 6-15-18 25-15-21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpLMnk2qi8o
In most mermaid mythologies, mermaids can’t cry, The mermaid in the “Pirates 4″ movie was coaxed to do so by an emotional challenge. Animals can rage, but they can’t cry. South is displaying a very human response by crying, and I believe there is more behind this reaction than just self-pity. She feels betrayed by Twain, but she obviously cares for him too, otherwise, she would not reveal her conflicting emotions through human tears. Now, having said this, yes I realize she was crying out of self-pity when onboard the Lorelei, but this also supports the idea that she is indeed capable of having human feelings, despite being half animal. Twain may just have to say the magic words, “I love you” to bring her around. Soul Twain was probably held back from doing so, by coporeal Twain, but that obstacle no longer exists. Twain can now give South the soul (himself) that all mermaids long for, He may not retain his own individuality after doing so, but such a sacrifice for love just might be the proof that daddy needs and also the tonic to mend South’s broken heart. I believe we’re about to have a hanky moment.
Now South has made me mad. Oh yes Twain and Lafayette planned to pluck your skewered body from the river and nurse you back to health for their own purposes. Geesh lady, your’e the one that has seduced a formerly faithful husband away from his wife.
And Deschutes, you are right again. Your keen eye and memory for details never fails to amaze. I have a feeling you may have missed your calling as a detective.
@Deschutes: 3-8-5-5-18-19
@Deschutes Brilliant deductions! I think you may be on to something.
La tempête, une femme dédaignée à la lame de coupe d’une lance. Qu’est-ce terreau fertile pour l’amour.
Way back in the stone age I recall getting through half a semester of Algebra by imagining water. I didn’t know the world ‘etheric’ but I might have used it– incorrectly, maybe– to mean a substance as breathable as air but as buoyant as water, as lovely as water, with the same heft and mass as water. One could still walk but also swim; swimming might be a bit more like flying. It seemed a very mermaidy environment and was partly the result of imagining how mermaids could speak underwater. It didn’t occur to me then, but they certainly could have shed visible tears in that medium.
Then again, so can Spongebob, so there you go.
South shows here that she has inherited her father’s temper, hasn’t she?
The last few panels have glaringly reminded me that South is not human. (Sort of like how every so often in Doctor Who you are forced to remember that this seemingly human man is actually an alien and not to be judged by human expectations.) Panel four is absolutely terrifying.
Deschutes, thank you for the details — I keep wanting to go back and re-read everything, looking for clues.!
Words fail me, or at least I cannot come close to the great comments above. This has to be the most evocative offering yet. What a crew of commentors you have shanghied, Mark.
PS: “Clang” in the midst of some very dark panels — Perfect and priceless!
PPS: A litle anime influence in panel 6?
Oh, oh… I’m afraid I have an idea how ecto-Twain will/shall prove himself. The real one won’t like it.
Deutsches, mermadain – 23-8-1-20 1-2-15-21-20 15-22-1-12-20-9-14-5?
Could’ve been worse. Could’ve done a rot13 on top of everything else.
The last panel is stunning!
I’m still not clear on how this connects with Lafayette and Beaverton…
Oh man…I haven’t been saying anything lately, but I am absolutely on the edge of my seat! This cannot update fast enough!
I absolutely love the way South looks in panel four!
This page has finally tempted me out of the woodwork – I’ve been following quietly since Twain started, never suspecting how engrossed I would get in the story and art. The way you coax so much out of your charcoal is amazing, Mark – makes me very jealous!
“I’ll kill you both before the sun sets again on your river.”
Uh, oh. So the mermaid could destroy the Lorelei? And all on it, as she may have with the destruction of the previous two ships, where Horatio was the sole survivor. And all it would take would be a song. Poor Horatio. (And for all of her keen intellect, it might be where we find out the Miss. Carr is tone, er, tune deaf, and cannot hear the song.)
@Fitzlet: thanks! We’ve been waiting for you.
Welcome, Fitzlet! Finally wooed out of hiding by South’s song.
Mark, the story is amazing!
@Warren – I bow to a fellow Christmas Story fan.
@Salty – I won’t pretend to knowing French, but my google translater honors your poetic observation: “The storm, a woman scorned to the cutting blade of a spear. What is fertile ground for love.”
I just had a horrible thought. What if Soul-Twain offers to trade Lafayette’s life for being restored to a whole being (if that is possible), or freedom to leave. I keep thinking of his comment that he was not a friend to Lafayette. http://sailortwain.com/blog/2010/01/18/sailortwain-004/ I hope I’m wrong, but why would Twain say this at all, unless he is feeling some guilt about Lafayette’s death.. The fate of the principals seems to follow the path of the summoner. If Lafayette had the summoner, how did he get it, if not from Twain? If Lafayette recognized the summoner, he would know that Twain is a player in his game with South. Did Lafayette take it in order to ambush South, or did Twain set up Lafayette instead? Did Lafayette want to summon JH? Why did he give the summoner to Camomille? Did he think she could summon him back from the depths of World’s End? Is Lafayette’sware that his passionate evening with Camomille, is his swan song? Does Lafayette risk his life to prevent Camomille from hearing South’s song? Twain is not likely to tell Camomille that he was partly, or indirectly responsible for Lafayette’s death. It would seem that at least part of Twain’s disgrace is because he has no explanation of his own whereabouts during Lafayette’s disappearance. And what the heck is going on with Pearl? Whatever happens, it is very cool that so many possible conclusions still exist so close to the end of the story.
Aye Mermaidan, dem words wuz, “The tempest, a woman scorned at the cutting blade of a spear. What fruitful ground for love.” They never had dem problems on Star Trek , beam me up Twainy!