I’m giving Wordpress’s delayed publishing option a go, so hopefully this will be posted at midnight GMT. If not then I guess… whenever I wake up? Edit: Turns out comicpress has a whole mess of options for this, but someone didn’t install the plugin on my account. I’m looking at you, Morgan. *shakes fist*
Anyway, my computer kept bluescreening over the last week, usually while I was drawing. I think overall I lost about two hours worth of work on this page as a result, including all of the inking, which I then dutifully re-did. Agh. Also, in the fifth panel “filthy” was originally “grotty”, but I decided to change it rather than risk potentially confusing Americans with unnecessary British slang within the first twenty words of the comic. I’m curious, did “grotty” cross the Atlantic at any point?
Edit again: Right, my comment button has gone AWOL. Uh ohs. Hang on. Ok, fixed. Phew.
To be honest, I’ve never heard of grotty, but my spellchecker has. Thanks for the new word! :D
Love your art too, kudos on the minimal, yet striking use of color, I plan to keep reading…
No problem! Happy to spread the slang about, and I’m glad you’re digging the comic.
I’m sorry you left out “grotty.” I was an Anglophile long before I actually sojourned in the Manchester area for 8 months, and I’ve always loved British English. Even though I failed to pick up “grotty” while I was over there, Brit-isms add flavor and rhythm. In a steam-punk graphic novel, consider that having your characters sound a bit baroque is a good thing. Having your characters speak American English only makes them less colorful. So go for it! People will understand the context and, if they’re anything like me, will enjoy picking up the new slang.
That’s a good point. As I recall there was a fairly good discussion about this in the comments section of this page on the old site, but unfortunately that’s lost to the ether.
For the most part I decided I would include any Brit-isms that happened to pop up in the script after this point rather than self-censor, but I thought that having one on the second page might be a bit too soon. Who knows, though? Now that I’m a lot further into the story I don’t have any such hang ups, however. :D I can’t recall much off the top of my head, but I think I went with “mum” rather than “mom” at some point, and I’m sure there are other instances.
In fact, for a steam-punk novel I’m writing, I deliberately use all the British English I can, in order to make the language unfamiliar but understandable.
I’ve had you bookmared for a long time and am once again starting to read this. Excellent stuff. Great art!
I knew people using “grotty” in college in Indiana in the 70s; none were British or had visited there. Don’t know the British pronunciation, but they said it like “throaty” rather than “spotty”.
Just found this from a link at http://www.meekcomic.com/; looking forward to reading more.
WTH…I’ll add this: According to Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (8ed, 1984), “grotty” was popularized by the Beatles…since my friends were huge Beatles fans they no doubt picked it up in the mid to late 60s. Both “grotty” and “grody” are listed in my Unabridged Random House Dictionary of the English Language (2ed, 1987).
So yes, it kind of crossed the Atlantic at some point.
And despite what Mil Millington might think, we Americans aren’t that easily confused; even at my advanced age I can usually manage to keep up. So go ahead and use the British slang…if we don’t get it we’ll ask.
i’ve heard “grotty” many times before, but half the books and comics i read are british, so i maybe don’t count ^^;
I know grotty well, but I’m Australian so it’s natural English to me. Like the comic so far, btw.
oohhh… yea i always assumed it was grody not grotty. it would have only confused me for a minute, if you used it. im an american, but give us some credit. just because we laugh when you talk about a bunch of fags in your boot doesnt mean we dont understand. its just different, and so fair play to be made fun of.
I know, kind of late: grotty made it to NZ too.