Page Fiftyfour
Dr. Schtein is practically prancing up those steps.
Thanksgiving update: I’m not going to be around/haven’t been around enough this week to get an update out on time, and I won’t have time at all after wednesday since I have family coming to visit me from out of town. See you guys week after! Sorry! D:
sketch blog proves, that 12:00 am is a lie
;) it was fun watching though, great work warrants extra time
it’s not so much a lie as a ‘I’ve never bothered setting the time in wordpress for some reason’. It always seems to say 12:00 am when I post stuff. I’m sure this is somehow my fault. :D
…oh. You’re messing with my emotions here, putting all this Phineas-backstory-horror onto such a beautiful page!
Poor Phineas. That face in the second (third?) panel… ;_;
I was kind of wondering the same thing as Schtein. “Phin…how is this relevant?” But I think I know now.
Also…’passed on’ as in ‘brutally murdered in front of her son?’
It’s really sad, but I loved that combination of the understatement along with the visual…. Very well done.
(Pretty sure the answer to your question is “yes”)
I agree. It was a great use of image and dialogue. It’s the kind of thing you can’t really get only from text or from pictures.
Damn, those small bombs did a lot of damage.
prison’s obviously made of paper and gasoline.
Is it sad that all I can think of is “Teehee, Phin, you’re adorable”?
My God, this is just unbelievably beautiful…the artwork, the colouring…I just can’t get over it.
And we get a glimpse into Phineas’ background, which is AWESOME beyond all reason. I am so incredibly hyped now. I’m gonna be freaking out all over the place for days because of this page.
And now, I’m just gonna have to draw Phineas.
I love the perspective in the first panel!
am I a bad person for imagining the ginger kid calling him ‘onii-chan’?
probably
I love the huge disparity between Phineas’s narration and the content of the nondiegetic flashback images. It’s a very emotionally charged way of revealing his past.
Of course, in the grand scheme of things you don’t need to understand Phineas’s past to understand his character. That makes it all the more natural and interesting that he is just sort of recalling a memory and not vomiting out a history exposition.
I love the last panel. The background is so unfitting, yet so perfect with the scene.
This page. It’s simply awesome. You’re such a great storyteller!
I love how well suited the bit of back story went with this. Your confused at first and then everything comes together very nicely! Wonderful as usual!
I really like the backstory going on here. It’s subtle, but meaningful. The expressions in the “family photo” are great; the reader can immediately tell how the others feel about Phineas.
As for the burning of the prison, they’re probably regretting the removal of all the asbestos, now.
A full-chapter-worthy bit of backstory on one page. Pretty spiffy.
Come here Phin, come to my bosom :U
He’ll bite it off.
This is going to bother the hell out of me, so I’m going to up and say it:
I see a missing comma and a hyphen!
you’re going to have to be more specific, or I could ask my proofreader I guess. I did change several bits of dialogue after he’d read it over.
I read through the page a few more times to try to find the errors Maelstrom was talking about. They’re not very big errors, actually… seems kind of “Grammar Nazi” to even bring them up…
But anyway.
Panel 2: “You know… when I was thirteen (comma needed) I was placed into foster care.”
Panel 5: “The family I was placed with was… ill (hyphen needed) equipped to deal with me.”
At least, I think that’s what Maelstrom meant.
yeah, I had my proofreader look over it and he told me the same thing.
I’m pretty ‘eh’ about it. They’re not very major mistakes.
Indeed, they’re nothing show-stopping, but it was an itch I had to scratch.
Jazzy, the reason I point them out is because I view String Theory as among the rarer breed of quality webcomics. Though minor, they are, beyond the shadow of a doubt, errors.
Oh Professor Pain, you make me quiver in fear whenever you have that look in your eyes.
P.S. I love the way this page came out; great job as always comrade.
Happy Stein makes happy Jan. Nice chemical fire!
I thought Phin couldn’t get any creepier, but apparently the missing ingredient was backstory 8I
There’s probably a match equation involving “Finn” and “Creepiness”, and the answer is “INFINITY.”
*Infinnity
it gets much creepier, really, but I figure… better not just flood the comic with his horribleness.
Oh man, Phineas is telling his childhood. That’s a sign, he’s going to die.
Actually, one person will die for sure: The Warden (that’s it, if she’s still alive after the explosion).
I am gonna guess that blowing up the prison after this long is catharsis for you too Grundy.
yeah too bad metal bars don’t burn! bars!! Never want to draw them again.
I love that Phineas is such a sociopath that he thinks it’s normal to just spill his traumatic childhood randomly during a huge explosive escape. XD
a casual stroll through a burning building, let’s talk about our tween years, my new friend! Oh boy!
ohh, I do love some good back story. I also love some good art. Two birds with one stone, golly how lucky I feel!
you sometimes want to feel bad for sociopaths since it’s typically no fault of their own that they’re sociopaths
but then you remember that they’re sociopaths.
Yeah, I know! It’s weird.
I wouldn’t feel bad for them. It’s not like they really care anyway, and the vast majority of them function just fine in society.
sigh of joy :))) finally caught up again, such gorgeous work!!
I can’t be the only one wondering who George is. Anyone? Someone? Please?
He’s the guy in the photo panel with the gigantic blue-green tie.
The foster-dad.
Nothing like foster dad rape to send a kid off in a vengeful direction. I know a man who was raped as a boy, and he said that there are constantly two warring parts of him: the part that will always be seeking peace and forgiveness, and the other just as real part that wants that guy skewered and screaming on a spike.
Dude, that last panel makes Doctor Pain look IDENTICAL to Gary Busey when he wears glasses. Its freaking surreal.
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=806&bih=668&tbm=isch&tbnid=s711tp7QdxsuwM:&imgrefurl=http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Busey,_Gary/gallery/SGG-028591/&docid=UXA9s2hhpq-jDM&imgurl=http://images.starpulse.com/pictures/2007/01/25/previews/Gary%252520Busey-SGG-028591.jpg&w=423&h=644&ei=hnnHTrzWI9C42gWguaXEDw&zoom=1
Eh, that feels like a bit too much of a stretch for me.
If I ever have a child, I want to name him Phineas.
I don’t think its because of the rage inside poor Phineas, but rather because of the way you wrote such an amazing name to such an interesting character.
not enough people name their kids Phineas anymore! Bible names! Why, if I had any sort of procreational instinct… No, actually, I always wanted to name a kid Jack because I am boring. For some reason, when I was ten, I just thought that was the coolest name in the entire world. ~tangent~
My next Guinea pig is going to be Herville.
I absolutely love the way Phineas says ‘passed on’ but you show us a lovely panel with splashes of blood. Wonderful, as usual.
Those last pages are gorgeous… The art, the colors… It’s incredible how good you’re getting and how fast. It’s fascinating watching you progress!
So many little details–it gets more horrifying each time I look at it. It’s like I Spy: Traumatic Childhood edition!
I worry that some of the details have been lost to color and size reduction. Can anyone even tell what’s in that box in the closet anymore? :/
No, what IS in that box in the closet…?
…is that like a cat or something? :/ I really can’t see D:
http://outinthewastes.tumblr.com/post/12878349875/not-even-that-suspicious-box-in-the-back-of-that well here’s the black and white lines, probably is a bit clearer. I’m not gonna like just say what it is, though.
Nice, thank you for making my day better again! Although, I think the colours are somewhat strange on this page. All that orange and red (like the last panel background) and then areas of blue? Although it kinda works, and the blue areas are nicely distributed, so obviously you have been thinking about it a lot.
PS. The way everyone’s calling Phineas Finn is a bit funny, since my (and about 5 million other people’s) nationality is Finn. But heck, no can do. Is it a common abbreviation?
Phineas isn’t a common name, so there’s no common abbreviation. We typically refer to you guys as “Finnish”, though. Is “Finn” more correct?
I would refer to him as Phin. But thats probably just me =P
I love how phin is like :[ and then phin is all like >:] . Heh.
I must have mistyped it. Or something. Between those Sctein is all leik >:[
I dunno, I think it was funnier the first way you had it
Hehehehehehehe…Explosions are awesome. >:D
this has to be one of, maybe the deepest comic I’ve ever read. Well no, C&H was the deepest comic I ever read, but this is still close
Mother of God, his look in that last panel is awesome.
I’m loving the glow from the lamp on Phin’s desk in the foster home–and a myriad of other details too!
Psst! I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, but Dr Schtein’s bionic eyes are a reality. :D
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/8587202.stm
oh neat! Oh hahah they see in black and white as well. :O
I’m becoming fond of Phin here
Obviously, Dr. Schtein and Phineas are doing it wrong. Didn’t they know that cool guys don’t look at explosions? And where are their sunglasses?
*thumb up*
Did you take some magic pill to make you awesome? The change was so abrupt and the quality so vastly increased. Teach me your secreeeeeets.
aaaaaw~ who dosen’t turn into a psyco killer with their mother “passing on” at such a young age?^^