Soup the Comic Strip by Alun Clewe
About
Archive
Forum
About
Archive
Forum
Comic strip for November 5 2023.
PANEL ONE: A messenger hands Erlak's champion a rolled-up missive. CHAMPION: Yes, that's me. How did you find me? MESSENGER: Wasn't hard, with the description I was given. PANEL TWO: The champion looks down at the messenger quizzically. CHAMPION: Really? I never thought of my appearance as that distinctive. MESSENGER: Maybe not, but there aren't too many people around riding giant rats. PANEL THREE: As the messenger runs off in the background, the champion reads the missive, riding the giant rat Nezhoni NEZHONI: So you got a message, eh, Bub? What's it say? PANEL FOUR: Extreme close-up on the champion's eyes as he reads the missive. CHAMPION: It's from some guy named Trevalien. He wants us to meet him next week in a back room in the Singing Swan in Brackborough. He says he's got a job he wants me to do. PANEL FIVE: Close on Nezhoni. NEZHONI: Yeah. Sure he does. PANEL SIX: The champion leans over to put the message in a saddlebag. CHAMPION: What, are you suggesting someone might be setting a trap for me? Why would anyone want to do that? Come on now, that's just silly. NEZHONI: Yeah, well, remember that business with the princess. PANEL SEVEN: The champion continues to ride forward on Nezhoni. CHAMPION: That whole kidnapped princess thing really got you on edge, didn't it? NEZHONI: Hey, you go to your meeting if you want. But I'm waiting outside. PANEL EIGHT: Close on the champion. CHAMPION: Yes. Yes, I think that would probably be a good idea, being as the proprietors of most inns wouldn't appreciate giant rodents passing through their common rooms. PANEL NINE: Wide shot on the champion riding Nezhoni through the desert landscape. NEZHONI: Hey, do what you want. All I'm saying is, I just hope it's not a trap. CHAMPION: Oh, you worry too much. PANEL TEN: They ride forward in silence. PANEL ELEVEN: Same angle, but Nezhoni is smirking. NEZHONI (thinking): I hope it's a trap.
November 5 2023

Whoops! I said in the November 1 commentary that I had finished relettering all the strips that I didn't have Illustrator files for, where I had to use the bitmaps. Nope! Turns out I was missing the Illustrator file for this one too! I thought I had the Illustrator files for all the Sunday November strips, but apparently not! Anyway, now I've finished relettering all the strips that I don't have Illustrator files for... I hope.

You may also notice (but probably didn't) that with this strip the copyright notice changed from "©2000-2023" to "©2001-2023", despite this originally being the November 5, 2000 strip. That's because as far as I can tell from looking at the archived versions of the site on the Wayback machine, this is the point where I really fell far and behind and never recovered during the strip's original run. Even long before this, I'd fallen behind, but I caught back up eventually; the Sunday strips especially I had occasionally skipped temporarily and come back to later. But the earliest archived version of the site from 2001 still displays the November 4 strip, establishing that despite this being nominally the November 5, 2000 strip it didn't actually go up until 2001.

(If, of course, I had the original Illustrator files, I could have ascertained this matter from their modification dates... but of course I don't. Yet. Not all of them, anyway, and those that I do have seem to back this up, or at least don't contradict it; the file for the November 2 strip was last modified on November 21, 2000, and the next strip I have the Illustrator file for, the (nominal) November 23, 2000 strip, was last modified on... November 26, 2001. Yikes.)

(Wait, if that's the next strip I have the Illustrator file for, does that mean I'm missing the Illustrator files for November 12 and 19? It does not, but the Illustrator files for those days were last modified in 2009, which means either that they were modified long after they originally ran or... that I skipped those dates during the strip's original run and filled them in later. Hm. And checking the archived version of the site, apparently it's the latter. Whoops.)

(Oh, also wait, the bitmap versions I have of the strips have their original modification dates, so I can check those. And... oh! It turns out the November 4 strip was actually created on January 13, 2001, so I guess technically that should have had the "©2001-2023" copyright notice. Well, I'm not going to change it now, but maybe when and if I find the Illustrator files and "remaster" these strips I'll do it then. Also, oddly, the November 3 strip was last modified on March 14, 2001, but given that the November 3 strip clearly did go up in 2000 I guess I must have made some change to it later. Huh.)

I'm not completely sure that writing a range of years for the copyright on the strip really makes sense, anyway. The strip was first drawn in 2001 and modified in 2023, but the modification was just a relettering, so... should I just have left the copyright as 2001? Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter; under current copyright laws the copyright notice is pretty much a formality, anyway. (And at least it's more accurate than the original copyright notice on this strip, which said the strip was "©2000" despite its not having actually been drawn till 2001.)