Comic 268 - Meeting the Team 2.0
20th Nov 2017, 12:00 AM
in The Magpie Heritage
Average Rating: 5 (4 votes) Rate this comic
Author Notes:
And Pierre-Renard looking a bit like a Palette Swap version of Tarik was originally just coincidence - but that doesn't stop me from turning this into a larger gag now! :-D
Oh, and bonus points if you know what all this new names a referring to! ;-)
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Also, I have a small announcement to make: From today on, there will unfortunately be only two pages per week!
User comments:
Maybe Guillaume has a father or uncle named "Robert"...
And perhaps there will be a woman named Vanessa Sousmers, whose friends call her by the short name "Van" or the nickname "Vignt" (rhymes with "Van" in French).
P.S. Of course Tarik's thoughts are an example of the Lampshade Hanging trope.
Regarding: Vanessa (Van or Vignt) Sousmers: I have to admit that I am completely at a loss regarding what you are referring to here! I tried to google it, but with no clear result.
(In other words: Whatever you mean, it is - probably - not what I am alluding to with any of the names.)
And I felt that "Robert" is closer to "Robur" than "Guillaume".
So I was trying to associate the other names with Jules Verne novel titles, and failing. "Vanessa (Vignt) Sousmers" was my attempt to make another name that is very similar to a famous Jules Verne novel title. Given this clue, I'm sure you will get it. If my failed joke is opaque even with this clue, I will finish explaining. (Any joke that must be explained is a failure; I'll try to do better next time...)
P.S. Now that I know my original assumption was in error, I think I actually get the joke with Guillaume. "steveha" is short for my full name, "Steve Hastings", so I ought to get that! But sadly, the meanings of the other names still escape me.
That being said, your Jules Verne-themed explanation would certainly make a lot of sense too! (Damn, why didn't I actually think of that for the other names!? A missed opportunity...) And now I also get your Van Sousmers pun! (I based a whole chapter upon that story after all!)
OK, a short explanation of the other names: Becquerel and Lavoisier. And Malchance is, as far as I can tell, the closest French translation to Peter's surname "Pech", which can mean "bad luck" in German.
P.S. I should have added a middle name to my suggestion: "Millicent" or "Millie". Then we should have had "Van Millie Sousmers". But I can't figure out a way to work "leagues" into the name... it would belabor the joke too much!
(Now that I think of it, using names of famous people seems to be by # 1 trick in general for getting interesting surnames...)
Also, it's just that since Isabelle is the French counterpart of Mirabell, her name gets abbreviated by her friends in the same way too.
Another fun fact: I was close to name Moustafa, Peter's conunterpart, "Pierre" instead (French form of "Peter"), but then remembered that someone named Pierre-Renard was already in this story. To bad, I would have liked to have two people who are outright called Pierre and Isa in this team! (Yes, that would have been a very obscure reference...)
I love the team, and Tarik not quite getting it. :)
re: announcement
I hope all is well.
And don't worry, it's just that for at least the next six months, I will have far less free time than before, so this is more like a precaution for preventing my strip buffer from running dry all too soon.
(The good news is on the other hand that the stuff I will be busy with might even end up improving my artistic skills - so there will be less pages/week, but maybe with faster art development!)