[1107] She's a devil!

The woman on the left in the second panel has got some Zimmy eyes going on there, maybe why Jones is familiar with her condition? Depending on the history of her family, maybe even an ancestor.

Non sequitur - I've been enjoying Tom's Twitter jokes.

nah, the woman might be pretty tired, but she's no zimmy. The last panel shows her with much less shadow. maybe Tom's visual methaphor kicked in?


she's carrying a wimple though!


Not even trying to date this without context, and unless Tom makes another timestop, we won't get it either, as jumps are really big now. Time to add error bars to the graph

I'm guessing not dying after she gets stabbed isn't going to convince them she's not a devil

Testing for mortality is common through history across many cultures. If one or more weirdos come to your village, or if you travel to a foreign land full of weirdos, use your blades on them. If they don't die, or if they die and come back, then you know 100% you're dealing with the supernatural.

Luckly Physics was the only thing killed by a spear in this chapter.

Actually, she's wearing a habit. Or rather, a wimple. Which is a nun headdress. Which originally was worn because many women in that time thought it was unseemly to show their hair. In the 15th century it was rid of and women began to wear clear gauze to show their braids.

This wiki article Tom linked explains it better: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimple

Jones is thinking, "Tch, that was my favorite dress."

Not necessarily Templars. It could be St. George's Cross, which was adopted as a national emblem by England in the late 13th century I believe, but was also used prior to that by English knights during the crusades. So that gives a much wider potential timeframe for this scene.

Edit: However, given the shape of the cross ends, you're probably right in thinking it's the Templars.

Edit 2: Not sure how much Tom knows about armor, but the man's use of a Norman helmet also supports the 'no later than the 14th century' claim legion makes. Assuming Tom didn't just pick a random, iconic helmet to ensure we knew this was somewhere in the middle ages.

I've been wondering exactly what are the rules for Jones's immortality, and it's nice to have more info. So she doesn't age, and time will not kill her, or her lifespan is so slow that it's not on a human scale (it might be on a geologic or astronomic scale). She's invulnerable, or she's invulnerable to ordinary human weapons (she might be vulnerable to Coyote's tooth or other things.) The chapter title "The Stone," if it refers to Jones, implies to me that she may be vulnerable to some things, she's just really hard to "hit."

I'm feeling pointed toward the question: Can Jones die? And, "Who are you?" doesn't feel fully answered unless we see her origins...something that explains or suggests how the "rules" of her existence came to be. Is she a star? Is she a god? Is she a construct? An avatar? How did she come to be? Why is she on Earth? Does she have a mission? What is her will? Why has she settled at Gunnerkrigg Court?

This is fascinating and I'm really hoping the chapter will end with her origins.

Not necessarily the Templar knights, could just be any soldiers who have joined the crusade, they all tended to wear that st georges cross uniform, according to wikipedia the english wore white cross on red, and the french wore red cross on white. But after a time, both nationalities ended up wearing red cross on white. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_George's_Cross#Crusades

And given the shape of the houses and churches in the background I would hazard a guess we are in western europe here, probably UK or france. Given the nature and history of the strip, I would assume england.

Crusaders had a cross as their emblem (hence the name, Latin crux, crucis, "cross"), but these had different shapes and colors to differentiate the different orders.

A red maltese cross on a white background was usually associated with the Templars; the Knights of Malta sported a white maltese cross on a black background; the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre sported a red Jerusalem Cross (a cross potent surrounded by four smaller crosses) on a white background, and so on.

(Heraldry is fun)

The Venus of Willendorf is rather girthly. I doubt it.

As to her being the Philosopher's Stone, yeah, it's an awesome idea, but she'd have to be a wielder of it instead, I think. Or something. That plus her being an alchemist would work.

Just how far back are we going to go?