Too Obscure For You?

Aerimus’ bizarre comments in the first panel come courtesy of my longtime inspiration, Rohan, who is a deep well of madness. I can’t say exactly where he got that line from, but it’s haunted me ever since high school.

Later, Aerimus prays to Offler, the crocodile god from Terry Pratchett’s wonderful Discworld series. Gods need people to believe in them to exist, and no one prays harder than a man being perforated by dozens of rows of jagged spikes.

The classic Giant battle is from the early episodes of the still-running 8-Bit Theater. Is it a rite of passage (again), for sprite comics to tackle the Large Creature Encounter? Also, the more 8-Bit savvy will notice the mild werewolf battle allusions as Aerimus unsuccessfully fights the Chimera. Personally I don’t like dragging things out too long.

In the wake of Deus Ex 2… er, excuse me, “Invisible War: A Deus Ex Game,” we are very lucky to receieve two giant sequels with a minimum of fuss. I speak of Homeworld 2 and Max Payne 2, neither of which broke their formula (or their players’ computers) in delivering a sequel. Invisible War’s design decisions make… oh, I’m sorry, I’m supposed to be explaining these obscurities. Ahem. When you hear that something is a “film noir love story,” you expect the woman to betray the man in the end and be the cause of his ruin. When you’re talking about Max Payne, who lost his wife in the first game while still killing more people than Saddam Hussein (but they were all bad), you wonder if things can get any worse.

I don’t know if it’s going to pan out, but have you heard about the new season of Family Guy that Fox is producing in response to DVD sales of the first three seasons? Man, I’m waiting for that like the third Tenchi OVA series. The raccoon bit is from “To Live and Die in Dixie,” where Peter goes to an outhouse in the deep south. He was just mauled by a raccoon that jumped out of a hollowed out television, and now he has the pleasure of having a bird tip over the outhouse while he’s still inside. Augh indeed.