[370] Holy crap Eglamore is tall

[eightyfour]

Well, swordfighting certainly isn't what I've been expecting from mediation training. But I can see how that is something Parley would enjoy very much, considering the "physical" character she seems to be. And yes, that guy is very tall. Neither Jones nor Parley seem to be particularly small (as seen in #269 and following). My guess is he's James Eglamore's younger brother, I don't neccessarily consider that a contradiction to Tom's statement. (Yes, from what I've read so far, Tom is pretty straightforward with his readers, although all webcomic artists seem to enjoy messing with their readers' minds, no exception! ).

Jones putting her hand on "Mystery Eglamore's" arm may just be a reflex reaction to him putting his hand on her shoulder. Still it's the closest thing to an emotion we've seen from her so far. There have been speculation she might be a robot, or something like that, but I have to disagree. Robots in Gunnerkrigg so far have always been pictured as visually clearly mechanical, but mentally very human and often emotional (see "Robot's" reaction when they first plug his CPU into the docking station in #222 and following). Jones is the complete opposite of that: She seems to completely lack emotions, but looks very human, even more so than many other characters of the comic, given her soft features.

What? Yes, I am overanalyzing. Overanalyzing is fun! ;D

[mudmaniac]

admin said:

edzepp said:

popo: He could be a clone.

Welcome, cat. And, yes. He does.

I don't recall intentionally misleading anyone. I may not answer plot specific questions but I wouldn't give false information.

"Coyote is no liar. Therein lies the danger. Just be careful how you handle his advice."

I think everyone is taking Jones' advice to heart. Pretty much, its the kinda advice that causes one to become nervous and paranoid, trying to see hidden messages and deception.

[edzepp]

Ah, 'tis but light humor, my dear maniac. Merely a jape, a prank towards the author. Nothing has been taken to heart as deeply as you say.

In other words, my joke went horribly wrong somewhere. Such is my lot. I still trust you, Tom, don't worry.

[Tom Siddell]

He is James Eglamore. The same James Eglamore that has been in the comic all along. He now has longer hair.

Things may look a little different for a while because my process of making a page changed when I drew these pages.

[cenit]

It's longer hair the only thing? I was going to point out that since he's been giving sword lessons, his hair must be all sweaty, giving a little bit of a different image...

and of course, exercising as much as he does, does wonder to your skin...or so would it appear

[neal]

Man, I have never been more frustrated with the people in this forum before this thread. Guys. He said "It's Eglamore." If he wanted to mess with us and keep up unsure of who this dude was, he'd have just stayed silent. Sheesh. It has been a while since we've seen ol' Jamsie-poo, and Tom's art style is changing constantly. I was kind of surprised to get to the forum and see speculation as to who that was. We're all so paranoid about this comic that Tom has to spell things out as thoroughly as he did up there, and that is weird. It is okay to take things at face value sometimes. Scary thought, I know.

Parley looks very happy and friendly right now, which is nice. It was a bit of a strained circumstance we saw her in before, so it is nice to see how she is in a relaxed state. My reaction is very similar to Annie's upon seeing what Medium training apparently entails. "WTF?" Maybe Jones is just picking Parley up from Swordsmanship 310 so she can be Annie's peer mentor or something? Or maybe mediums do actually take sword fighting. I can see how it would be a handy skill for a mediator. Mediators aren't much good unless they can enforce the peace for long enough to come to an agreement.

[Boksha]

Not to mention fend off sword wielding ghosts.

[Asuka]

I don't see where the problem appears to be. REALLY tall guy with a sword and that particular nose? My friend and I knew it was Eglamore right off the bat, even from the early update. Perhaps people weren't expecting for Eglamore to show up in a gym practicing the sword with mediums-in-training. I certainly wasn't expecting that.

[Mezzaphor]

If Annie's going to be taking fencing lessons at some point, all I can say is

AWESOME.

[Neon]

asuka said:

I don't see where the problem appears to be. REALLY tall guy with a sword and that particular nose? My friend and I knew it was Eglamore right off the bat, even from the early update. Perhaps people weren't expecting for Eglamore to show up in a gym practicing the sword with mediums-in-training. I certainly wasn't expecting that.

No, it's just that this guy looks nothing like him except for being a tall guy with a sword and particular nose.



You can hardly claim the resemblance is uncanny.

[Count Casimir]

Neon; Tom said it was Eglamore.

Also, Parley with a bigass sword is the COOLEST THING EVER. Better than wolf Reynardine. Better even (though it is a close one) than Ysengrin before he lost the hood.

And I like Eggy's hat/fencing mask hair.

Edit: Also, Jones is a babe.

[Magicookie]

The body language between Eglamore and Jones puzzles me.

[Mezzaphor]

neon said:

No, it's just that this guy looks nothing like him except for being a tall guy with a sword and particular nose.



You can hardly claim the resemblance is uncanny.

You're comparing him with his first ever appearance. If you compare him with how he looked back in chapter 14, he doesn't look that different. Just longer hair, and he looks huge because he's surrounded by shorter people.

[mudmaniac]

edzepp said:

Ah, 'tis but light humor, my dear maniac. Merely a jape, a prank towards the author. Nothing has been taken to heart as deeply as you say.

In other words, my joke went horribly wrong somewhere. Such is my lot. I still trust you, Tom, don't worry.

Such is the danger of jokes. Those that do not get it would somehow endeavour to make it real. Such is the case with the Panderan Brewmaster, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the Snakes on a Plane, and the Duck-Billed Platypus.

admin said:

Things may look a little different for a while because my process of making a page changed when I drew these pages.

I kinda wanted to ask about that. Are you using a larger panel to draw before shrinking it down in size?

[fr4tbrn]

That's quite a large class there.

How many students are training to be mediums? I thought it was just Parley Parley and Andrew Smith.

[Aspen d'Grey]

Wait, that can't be Eglamore. x.x

Mm, that's... Parley, right?

Edit: Saw Tom's comments. That IS eglamore?!?

Looking at a the art a bit closer, I think I see the change that's throwing everyone off- Eglamore's cheeks now go ourward instead of pulling in. It really makes his face younger and less stern.

Also, as to the sword training, many private schools train students in fencing. It's perfectly possible this is just the fencing team. Heck, many public schools do it as well, although not on the same level. The weaponry they've chosen is interesting, however, it's also a lot more practical that the foil or epee which is commonly used in modern fencing.

The swords are interesting for another reason- I'm having a -really- hard time classifying them. They look quite a bit like a Type XXa or XXb, but also like the earlier type XVIII a or e... They're two handed but relatively short for that, I'm tempted to compare them to the Landesknech's, which were used by germanic mercenaries. The most interesting characteristic is the large chappe (or rain gaurd) at the base of the blade- that would create some interesting handling characteristics and it could easily create a strange balance. Swords of this type are often tip-heavy, which result in a stronger slash or thrust, but also require a greater degree of strength to control. The grip & Pommel seem to be pretty standard, although not what you'd expect from a Landesknech. What i find -extremely- interesting is that this is not shaped like a sparring or practice sword, there's significantly too much tip and the central ridge argues for more rigidity than one would prefer, but the lack of a fuller and obvious disrepair argue against it being a battle ready sword.

I'd say it looks most like a type XXa Oakeshott typograph with a really strange chappe, but the XVIII influence is there...



(Why all the analysis? Well, Tom rarely does something because it looks cool.)

[Count Casimir]

I wish I knew that much about swords.

When ever I draw one, it IS just because it looks cool.

[Midnight Meadows]

*facepalm*

Are we done arguing about whether it's Eglamore?

I'm really intrigued about what exactly it is that Mediums do...
I mean...combat training?
They must get into some pretty heavy stuff...or at least the Court wants to prepare them for that contingency.

*visions of Surma kicking ass and taking names*

[Tenjen]

A Healthy mind requires a healthy body.

And considering these are beings with strong psychic potential, their bodies have quite a benchmark to meet.

I dont get why people cant see its Eglamore, Tom has been developing his artwork a lot and we havent seen eglamore for a while now.

We can recognise the other charectors because they've been around for quite a while, and we've seen them evolve as Tom's art evolved. However with Eglamore, theres quite a bit of gap and its quite a jump for most of us to percieve.

Just look at annie on page one and the page before this. Tom has progressed millions of miles from what his skills once were.

You'll see the same in Girly, McNinja, Pandect, Kiwi-chan, Pawn...hell all of them actually.

Consider the fact that Tom has an image of Eglamore and who he is. But while the mind has no known limits, the body [hands] do. As Tom's art excels [his body improves], then the limitlessness of his mind can be better explored by his body and he can then bring out Eglamore better.

[eightyfour]

midnightmeadows said:

I'm really intrigued about what exactly it is that Mediums do...
I mean...combat training?
They must get into some pretty heavy stuff...or at least the Court wants to prepare them for that contingency.

*visions of Surma kicking ass and taking names*

Maybe the court learned from previous mistakes. Maybe Surma didn't have combat training and that is why she ended up in hospital. That's completely unfounded speculation though and I'd rather think that this is just some random fencing class where Jones knew she would find some of the people involved in medium training.

For what it's worth, my personal last words on the Eglamore-Drama: The art-style of most longer running webcomic changes with time, that is something almost all of them have in common. This is mostly due to the artist getting better and can lead to very extreme changes. For an extreme example, would you have guessed this page and this one are even made by the same artist? (FYI: The comic in question is Angels 2200). Now when Tom started GC, he was already a very good artist, so changes have not been this drastic. Still, to me personally the change Eggers has gone through are quite strong. So far, he was drawn with relatively little detail, hard and angular features, not to mention the military haircut. The new style changed pretty much all of that abruptly: He now has rounder, softer and more detailled features. All that remained from the old version are the general shape of his nose and the pitch black hair. This impression is of course subjective.

[Boksha]

Now that we're on the subject anyway...

Heh.
Eglamore now looks a lot more like he did in that picture Annie stole.

[dragonmage06]

Eglamore IS tall. And Jones must like him a whole lot, she's almost thawing! Maybe her friendship (?) with Eglamore is an ulterior motive for bashing Annie's dad.

[aves]

The face shape is the thing, I think. It seems narrower, but that could be an art change more than anything.

On the side, Jones is like my favourite character already. I do like those mysterious blank-faced types.

[popo]

wow there are a couple really creepy comments in the comments section.

[bluerose]

magicookie said:

The body language between Eglamore and Jones puzzles me.

I think it's supposed to. If nothing else, to suggest that the two know each other, and well. I'm guessing very frequent, long time business partners, friends, or both. Could've even have been past/current romantic interest.

I'm sure the plot will unfold in time.

[fr4tbrn]

bluerose said:

I'm sure the plot will unfold in time.

Sure, but that's never good enough for people on the forum. It's more fun to speculate, and be WAAAAAAAAY off.

[Count Casimir]

bluerose said:

magicookie said:

The body language between Eglamore and Jones puzzles me.

I think it's supposed to. If nothing else, to suggest that the two know each other, and well. I'm guessing very frequent, long time business partners, friends, or both. Could've even have been past/current romantic interest.

I'm sure the plot will unfold in time.

Well, scruffy-haired, super-buff, super-powered Eggy and super-hot mediation teacher Jones seems like a good match to me.

I think I've found my new pseudo-obsession.

EDIT: of course, what would their couple name be? Jeglamore? Eglones? It doesn't really have that ring.

[popo]

Janes. James and Jones.

[Count Casimir]

Good call, popo. Janes it is!

Anybody feel like making a Janes avatar? Or maybe I should do it myself, and stop being so lazy.