by About this Episode:
Please excuse the mess while I’m re-branding the comic. You’ll probably notice a lot of Bricks of the Dead stuff around here for a few weeks until I can get it replaced. Don’t worry, before you know it that silly old zombie comic will be nothing but a distant memory.
I’m trying a little something different with the speech balloons this week. What does everyone think? Future episodes of Scrimshaw’s Scurvy Scalawags will follow suit if you guys think this is prettier, or more readable, or whatever.
Scrimshaw’s Whaling Lore:
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) shut down commercial whaling in 1986 due to fears that whales might be on the brink of extinction. Prior to that, whaling had been practiced in one form or another for thousands of years. Before the widespread availability of electricity whale oil was used for a variety of purpose, notably as fuel to be burned in lamps and candles, but it was also a popular food in certain cultures. With lamp oil no longer a driving force, modern whaling is done primarily to harvest meat.
I for one welcome our new whaling overlords.
Scrimshaw bows to no whale.
So Dave, you really are discontinuing Bricks of the Dead? If so, what happened with Stewart and the others? And to answer one of your questions, the speech bubbles do look good (a kind of semi-transparent colour). But I’m going to miss BotD. I used to check it every Monday and Wednesday. Having said all of this, I’m still going to give this new comic a shot.
I just thought; today’s April Fools day. This has to be a joke, right?
I think you guys will end up liking Scrimshaw way more than Stewart and the others.
I think Monday will tell the true story! 😉
That’s right, the first real whaling adventure starts on Monday. This is just a special intro.
Of course, the question is how long can Dave keep this up for with a straight face? 😉
I think you doubters are going to be quite surprised when Monday rolls around and you bear witness to the awesomest nautical adventure of all time*.
*Disclaimer: the awesomest nautical adventure in webcomic form, of course. Also, “awesomeness” isn’t a word.
I guess the policy for killing zombies might go the same for whales…
P.S. Whale Zombies: Rould 1!
So far as I know, zombies aren’t terribly susceptible to harpoons. Unless, you know, you get them in the head.
I agree, Dave, zombies have been done to death. 😀
I can’t wait for the new story to begin. Let me guess, Scrimshaw is going to become obsessed by chasing and killing a particular whale?
Well I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say there will be strong themes of obsession and self-destruction.
Dave… you’re funny! hahahahahahaha
I’m afraid the travails of The Albatross are going to be anything but funny. The life of a whaler was a hard one, as we are all about to learn.
What? No more zombies?!? Just discontinued, without a denoument or ending of any sort? Even if I hated BotD (which I don’t), then I’d think the series deserves some sort of story closure, a thing you don’t find often enough in webcomics, in my opinion. Please at least at an epilogue or something, to give us some closure.
We’ll see how this turns out, indeed…
Think of it as a “Lady and the Tiger” kind of situation where the audience has to decide what happened 🙂
YEAH WHALE KILLING. DAVE! I demand you make an Extra Section where we can talk about our whale hunting adventures/plans. (Lol ^.^) I know what it means when you’re in one of your own comics so I wont say much more :3
That’s not a bad idea. I’ll probably setup that page on Monday with the first real comic in this series.
whale meat tastes good good thing i can buy it leagaly here wait a sec is this a april fools prank.
Do you think someone who doesn’t like fish would like whale?
Also, what kind of whale do you guys eat?
we wat minke and whale tastes nothing like fish.
Awesome. Does it taste like anything? I think knowing what a whale tastes like will help me write a better comic.
not realy it has it’s own taste i would say but i have only eaten it at bbq’s
A whale BBQ sounds like a hell of an experience.
Happy April Fools day to you too, Dave.
Is it? Boy, I didn’t even notice the date. Talk about your crazy coincidences.
Yes… this is a joke, right? RIGHT!?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Don’t worry, you’ll come around.
Finally! A down to earth whaling adventure! That zombie stuff was getting so old, I’m glad you finally made the change!
By the way, I was just joking about that silly Lego Zombie comic before, I just put a zombie inthe teaser pic so I could post it here and have it be relevant. My comic is actually going to be about the life of an accountant at work. I won’t be detracting from the serious tone with any sort of humor, there will only be the adventure of numbers being added and sales being projected! I think it may be even more exciting than this new whale comic of yours Dave.
This is such great news, I’m so looking forward to Monday’s new whaling comic! Scrimshaw is such a badarse, it’s going to be awesome.
I bet it won’t be two weeks before people are clamoring for more Scrimshaw.
I can’t wait for the accounting comic. It’s going to rock!
The solution to our fossil fuel dependency is in whale oil dependency! Woot!
…wait, no, it was the other way ’round – trouble with declining whale populations led to the rise of kerosene lamps, and from that, other petroleum products. I suggest that you have a hapless inventor on land when they return to port who’s constantly trying to find a replacement source for lantern fuel and they deride him as some sort of proto-hippie.
Top notch use of the fisherman, too. I can’t wait for your geisha-centric comic to start.
That hapless inventory is going right into my story outline, Lich. You have to have a B Story, after all!
Happy to provide you with appropriate research materials, too.
Ooo… a MOC of Gresner’s refining apparatus… where are my notes from that 19th c. refineries report that I did? That would be a fun build. I did have a fellowship appointment to investigate the state of refining in London, ON prior to the move of most industry for that line to Petrolia or to Sarnia. Fun times, though finding good histories of the development of the process was far tougher than I’d thought possible. You actually had to consult mid-19th c. texts on microfiche to be able to understand some of it.
I am deeply excited about this turn in the story. What’s with everyone’s comments above assuming that this is mere japery? Won’t they be startled by all of the period-specific slang that we’ve been investigating, by gum!
Not only period specific, my good man, but in Dutch to boot!
On an unrelated topic, were you living in London for a time? That’s only a couple hours away from here. Just think of the incredibly 18th and 19th century factory ships and refineries we could build!
Grad school, mon ami – 2004-5 (MA), and 2005-2007 for the start of a PhD program. Nearly three years altogether… though I didn’t start reading “Irregular Webcomic” until Christmas ’06 after my comprehensive exams were done. Coincidentally, that’s when I started watching “MST3K,” too.
I don’t miss the humidity, but I do miss long, ruminative winters. Then again, it’s raining outside right now (rare for this desert-like neck of BC…)
I’ve never really been to London, just driven through it a few times on the way to Toronto for business. Seemed like a nice enough area, although it didn’t seem like there was much around.
Ha, this is a April Fools joke, because you never post new Comics on a Friday!
Special occasion. I want to launch the new comic on Monday so the announcement’s gotta come on a Friday.
I’m gonna miss the gang. =,^{
Oh well all good things come to an end. That harpoon he has is not good. Back then they still used the manual(throwing)harpoon. Go fo a spear or sharpen a small stick. Or get a black pole and atatch a cone piece to it. It’ll basically look like this: —>
And I think that zombies ended too soon. You should have ended it with them going out of the city and then the last panel having them fading into the sunset. Please right an epilouge. Please please please please please please please pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaasssssse? (I am 12 so I actually think this will work)
You’re 12 years old? Really? 12 WHOLE YEARS of age? That’s nice. BUT I don’t see how it pertains to whether or not the epilogue is a good idea or not…
I support Dave in his “lady and the tiger” approach, so to speak. I like to imagine that all the zombies became vegetarians and started moaning “grains,” shambling away into the golden wheat-fields, leaving the survivors to rebuild and regroup, reforming society into a utopian paradise where zombies are hunted only for sport…. but that’s just me.
You wouln’t just end BOTD Like that, would ya? What about Sam and co.?
Nah, I was just messing around.
It might take Dave a short while to get around to it but I’m pretty sure he could turn this into an undead story arc, and quite easily tie it in with current BOTD outbreaks. Think “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Jolly Roger”! 😉
What will happen when regular run-of-the-mill BOTD zombies meet the zombies from POTC? 😉
Tune in Monday and find out I guess! 😉 Dave really had us fooled there for a minute! 😀
Maybe next April Fool’s I can put up the next Scrimshaw adventure.
I think my idea is still good. My idea for an end is still that “tiger and lily” thing(if that’s what its called). And walking into the sunset doesn’t mean that its a happy ending. It could mean anything! For all we know a giant man-eating-zombie-snake!
Like they say, an end is just a new beginning.
I mean a giant man-eating-snake could have ate them.
It’s “Lady and the Tiger,” kid. 🙂 It comes from a short story of the same name (actually, it’s “The Lady, or the Tiger,” but it’s close enough) by one Frank R. Stockton.
Long story short, the reader is presented with a question at the end, rather than a definite ending, and so is left to wonder or imagine what happened.
And the idea of the “sunset” episode is essentially just the same as not having a last episode at all – the true ending is still left to the individual imaginations of the readers. You might as well “imagine” the sunset scene, too. I just really don’t think Dave feels like making a finale episode of BOTD…
On a side note, I would also like to announce that I have FINALLY completed the first page/episode of my comic!
I was going to put it up tomorrow… But now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t post comics on Tuesdays instead, to perhaps give people something to tide them over between episodes of THIS (Dave’s) comic. On the other hand, part of me WOULD like to post comics on Mondays, so I’m not sure what to do.
What’s your opinion on the matter, Dave?
Anyway I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s comic! I’m so excited! I feel like a kid in a LEGO® store! 😉
I would post using whatever schedule you’re most comfortable with. If you want to do Mondays, have at it. I can’t wait to check it out today.
For the record….This post was underrated genius
Thank you, sir. I’m going to bring Scrimshaw back one of these days.
genius genius genius genius genius genius genius genius !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or maybe I will… 😛