- Marik: Tibor!? You’re showing up earlier than expected!
- Marik: Tibor’s debt isn’t due until tomorrow, right?
- Assistant: Right, Marik.
- Marik: You didn’t come to ask for another extension, did you?
- Tibor: No, I have your money!
- Marik: Sometimes you still manage to surprise me. Wait...
- Marik: ... You stole the Shards, didn’t you?
- Tibor: Well, I wouldn’t call it theft... It was more like a robbery.
- Marik: Oh Tibor, Tibor, Tibor... what are we going to do with you?
The Machine of Eternal Summer 010
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22 thoughts on “The Machine of Eternal Summer 010”
Andreas
Robbery is _worse_ than theft. Not a smart way to weasel (fox?) out
Novil
Tibor probably felt the need to tell the truth. Telling lies would upset Marik even more if he found out.
MaxArt
If that Marik dude is as menacing as he looks, it’s always better to keep your mouth shut and refrain to give unnecessary information. But I guess Tibor is a little naive in that regard.
Crystalgate
If Marik represented an honest bank, there would also be no reason for Tibor to volunteer that information as well as no reason for him to think otherwise.
Crystalgate
So Tibor performed the robbery out of desperation. He was obviously not a hardened criminal, so that explain it.
Anyway, this strip gives us a decent idea of the sizes of humans, foxes and wolves, assuming the people there are of somewhat average size for their race and gender.
Novil
Marik is a very large wolf, significantly larger than the average.
Graybeard
Well, THAT was unexpected.
I withdraw my earlier comment about banks. If this is what money lenders act like in this world, maybe it’s better off without them.
And Tibor’s face in the last panel is as good an “OH CRAP!” expression as I’ve seen in a webcomic.
Somdudewillson
I mean, so far we haven’t seen Marik actually DO anything other than reference a past extension on Tibor’s debt and look menacing in response to hearing that Tibor stole the shards. Which isn’t exactly what I would describe as terribly evil, unethical, or predatory (in the moneylending sense)?
I just don’t think we know enough about the guy to say anything about his business practices.
BlackDragonSlayer
Reading between the lines (and the dude’s facial expressions and poses) I think he’s definitely intended to come across someone who’s less than ethical, and more likely a mob boss-type character.
Crystalgate
I also cannot imagine Tibor feeling he had to reveal that he got the money via robbery if Marik wasn’t a dangerous loan shark.
HKMaly
I don’t think that OFFICIAL money lenders act like this.
Vicious Sand
And we see that Tibbles wasn’t stealing because he was in trouble- he was stealing because he got himself into trouble. The Big Bad Wolf has a good question. Tibor shouldn’t be admitting a crime that freely. And committing a crime? Why that sort of initiative can get someone “promoted”. There’s always higher paying, lower survival work to find someone. And Tibor has already done some highwayman skills. Why, one day, he might even get work as a tax collector! “The higher-up you go, the smaller the mistake you have to make to meet the Ax.”
Sekhmet
Marik has a big big “Rich Bad Wolf (Mafia?) Boss” labeled on his head.
Whether he is or not bad is yet to be seen, but he is clearly shown as Bad, compared to “poor Tibor” (the facial expressions and the ears are awesome, this fox is really expressive. I understand that he would not try to lie, it would show on his face immediately).
It reminds me of the first appearance of Eldor in Gaia, there was a very obvious Bad Guy vibe. He turned out to actually be THE Bad Guy of the whole story. Is there such a thing as a big opponent in this story, or merely some minor baddies that will go in the way of Scarlet?
Crystalgate
According to Novil, this comic is more about man vs nature than man vs man, so I doubt the story will resolve as heavily around a single bad guy as it did in Gaia.
HKMaly
I wonder if this won’t end up similar as say Indiana Jones movies, with main characters exploring and this bad guy trying to rob them and/or abuse what they find.
Vicious Sand
“According to Novil,” this comic is science fiction, but it’s been clearly Fantasy since the first page. Is there overlap? Yes. Is a lot of it gotten away with by saying “colony world”? Yes. But one ray gun does not make it science-fiction. Is it too early to be a solid judgement? Also, yes. We have yet to see if the fox-wolf-people are Uplifts, or if they’re natives of the planet, or if some strange rock in the mountains turned them into the “whiskers and tails” crowd.
Crystalgate
It’s easier to get wrong what genre you’re in than what you’re planning. As for not making a solid judgment yet, “I doubt that” seems reasonable to me.
Novil
I wrote that it’s science fantasy, not science-fiction. In particular, it belongs to the “Dying Earth” subgenre of science fantasy.
Gaia also had elements from science fantasy.
Vicious Sand
Gaia had science elements because Eldor was shown to have Done The Math. It’s a common DND/RPG moment, where someone realizes that he can game the system or exploit a hole in the story for his own gain. Nothing wrong there. “Scarlett” is Dying Earth style, which is when the resources run out. No trees left, no food, no firewood, and a lot of desperation. Everything’s used up. For “magic” and it’s extra-normal abilities to show up ruins exactly what the Dying World’s problem set is. A bit more about what planet they’re on would help. Science fiction means having started the math, stopping halfway, and writing “and then dilithium makes it go.” No magically appearing coins, but ray guns and “We had a problem with the Something Plague vaccine” wolf people are possible. SciFi needs logical not-magic reasons for everything, even if it’s not fully explored, even if it looks a little like magic.
HKMaly
There is precedent – rather famous fantasy movie series which has blasters and even space ships. It’s called Star Wars.
Mikayla
I wonder if Marik is a ruthless-but-honest type and will make Tibor return the money. Or an unscrupulous type who will commend Tibor for doing whatever it takes to get the money and hire him as a debt collector. Tibor’s expression hints that he expects more of the former, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a twist like this from a bad guy fitting the latter profile.
Crystalgate
There are other options as well. For example, Marik could be the ruthless loan shark, but simple don’t appreciate being handed dirty money that Tibor didn’t laundry first because it could cause him trouble.
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