[0671] The Last Panel
└ posted on Monday, 30 March 2015, by Novil
This strip is an homage to Luigi Serafini’s groundbreaking art book Codex Seraphinianus, first published in 1981. The Codex is is an illustrated encyclopedia of an imaginary world and written in a cipher alphabet in an imaginary language. The 360 pages long book resembles the Voynich manuscript, which was the inspiration for our strip #500, The Book of Woo, in serveral regards.
- Woo: Are you drawing a comic strip?
- Sandra: Yes.
- Woo: What’s the hardest part of writing a comic strip in your eyes?
- Sandra: Hmm…
- Sandra: I’d say having to come up with something surprising every time.
- Sandra: Like, for example, in the last panel of this strip.
- Woo: Whoa!
Definitely did not see that coming.
Looks like a crossover of Little Nemo and Yellow-Submarine :-).
This is just plain mesmerizing. Loving it.
Oh no! Fungi is taking over the world!!!!!!!!!!!
This…. is…. AWESOME!
Completely off the wall, but Awesome none the less!
This brings the total number of times I’ve seen mention of Codex Seraphinianus without my having brought it up to 2. This brings the number of reasons I love this comic to… like fifty billion or something?
“It’s All Too Much,” as George Harrison put it in the animated film Yellow Submarine! >;=)>
Sure, crush my dreams of doing a weekly comic strip! Lol.
I have to say, you’ve certainly succeeded in putting surprise in your comic. Bravo!
*Starts looking around for a certain smoking caterpillar.
Welcome to Wackyland Population 100 nuts and a squirrel.
IT CAN HAPPEN HERE
I just added Codex Seraphinianus to my Amazon wish list.
Fourth wall? What’s that?
WHAT?!
125 wat lightbulbs?! TOTALLY unrealistic!
Did we even reinstall the fourth wall?
Am I the only one who sees the tree inside the tree?
Yeah, you cant get anymore out of left field than the Codex Seraphinianus. LOL
The works of René Laloux is equally surreal, but lacking the same mystery that makes the Codex Seraphinianus so immensely fascinating.
… I honestly can’t tell if they’re breaking the fourth wall or not, either way works.
ERMAGERD THE FOURTH WALL IS AWOL!
I’ll have whatever Powree is on!
Since everyone likes this so much, here’s another webcomic recommendation: Floraverse – the story’s a bit all over the place, but there’s lots of oddities there, and it’s in English!
Pretty! It puts me in mind of Salvador Dali, only not so wretched- and melted-looking. 🙂
@ MawileCeyvis:
Or maybe… Those are sliced fruits!! AHH!!!
I was thinking Windsor McCay, actually.
@ Lookfar:
I 2nd that motion.
How many times have we seen Sandra in a plain black shirt?
Brilliant.
Infinite canvas FTW! I like when webcomics make creative use of vertical potential their medium brings with it. 🙂
Whoa. That’s weird. Did not see that coming
Until it was explained that this was a homage to Codex Seraphinianus, I was under the impression that Novil played Starbound. The giant flower, weird terrain, and bizarre critters seems reminiscent of the game’s flower biome and the random planets and critters it procedurally generates.
!!
xpacetrue wrote:
That wouldn’t surprise me. Especially since the novakid species reminds me of woo in terms of their personality
I like that if you only scroll down a little bit you only see the giant flower. It’s when you scroll down more that the whole world below the flower head opens up! 🙂 NICE job Oliver and Powree!!
I kind of hope you guys stick to the gag a day format for a while. I find them much more entertaining than the interconnected story arcs.
Coincidentially, this sort of comic design was recently presented in anime “Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun”, ep.11. Nozaki, as a comic artist, is challenged to create a surprise for the readers, and he uses the exact same technique. The final panel offers a larger perspective with the talking head in an unexpected place. Not to imply a critique of Powray’s design, but Nozaki’s interlocutor asks him for something “something more unexpected and more forceful”. You need to watch it on Crunchyroll or other streaming service in your country to see what happens, as Nozaky explores the unexpected in his cartoon sketches and real-life skits.
Lightbulb plants…
That reminds me, time to re-read Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.
This page reminds me of the apparently-defunct webcomic Listening To 11.975 MHz
Althalus wrote:
Population: 100 nuts and a carnivorous squirrel
And here I thought this was a Terry Pratchett reference, like in xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1498/