Sweet Jesus Fracking Christ, is that a complete waste of a strip.
It certainly doesn’t seem to be advancing the plot by much. But could there be something significant on or near this mountain? Other than Roy’s sword, that is, which should be roughly right below them. Perhaps a dragon…
Metaphor for the mountain of other work he’s committed himself to?
If so, metaphor understood, MOVE ON ALREADY.
Or in a month we get “Hey friends! LOOK! Its Rich Berlew and he’s been slowly grounding down this mountain to where we can finally pass!”
It’s going to take a lot longer than a month to get through all the Kickstarter stuff he has left. He said he’s going to concentrate on the main comic for a while. I guess he has, since this strip came out only a week after the last. With the art upgrade for this book, I’m not sure he can produce them much faster than that. There’s just so many more details that have to be included that weren’t before.
As for my suggestion of a dragon or other inhabitant of this mountain, there hasn’t been any foreshadowing, so I don’t really expect any. But he doesn’t always foreshadow things like that. For example, the Frost Giants in this Pass were not foreshadowed.
I actually have to side with Andi on this one. There does in fact have to be a way, because the shipt always arrives just in the nick of time. It’s an established trait of the ship. It just so happens that it has to have a story where it happens and the jealous upstart learns a lesson.
And, yes, I sympathize with those who don’t want more ship stuff. But I’ve decided to work with what we’ve got, and try to enjoy the ride.
(Though I may look into ways to read the other work he’s been doing. I can always pay later.)
Show us on the doll where the free webcomic creator hurt you…
In what way? Seems perfectly fine to me. Andi’s mistakes have got the ship trapped, and the crew has turned against her. That seems like an important advancement on the plot.
I’m just happy there’s a recent update. One a week feels like watching a cartoon, compared to his pace we saw last year. Even if I, along with many of you, don’t really care about what happens to this airship or its crew, and you may even hold a passing desire that V short-circuits this interminable side plot in much the same way s/he “resumed saving the world” after Kubota’s recapture…
Piling onto dtilque’s point, the art work is much more detailed than before. In the large splash panel, you can see the scrape marks where the Mechane barely made it into the box canyon. You can also see that one of the Mechane’s propellers is canted nearly vertical, perhaps to help add lift, while the other propeller on the damaged engine hangs loosely, trailing a lot of smoke. I couldn’t find Roy or the Frost Giant though, but there’s still a lot of detail that Burlew is rendering in most of these strips.
Do we know that, though?
*Julio Scoundrel *always arrives in the nick of time. He’s the dashing swordsman. It just so happens that has coincided with him being on the Mechane. But now he’s not. Is Elan’s levels as a DS sufficient to bring that to bear?
I don’t think protagonists can count on the nick-of-time property of the Mechane to rescue them from their problems. They have to work those out the hard way.
I think they’re already exactly where they need to be. Andi thought she saw a glimpse of plains up ahead, even though there’s solid mountains there. I’m thinking she actually saw planes. As in, a portal of some sort.
EDIT: Or maybe just a tunnel through the mountains, if you want to be more prosaic. This is dwarven land, after all.
I’m shocked, shocked, that they finally crashed. Well, I suppose if they run aground on the mountain, they can’t fall further, at least.
People on GitP are calling the lady giant “Furkini”. I think that’s as good a name as any.
New strip!
I still think they’ll get more lift once they offload some Frost Giants. Those have got to be pretty heavy.
Aw, man, I just repaired that link.
I predict an explosion of some sort in the engine room. The ship has been giving off a small smoke trail for some time (probably since the encounter with the ridge) which probably indicates a smouldering fire. But the chief engineer is not in the engine compartment and is unaware of it. Instead, she’s kludging things to increase fuel flow. So what’s going to happen when they increase power?
BOOM!
Well, at least Haley & Co. will have something to guide them. Just look for the big explosion.
So, you’re saying there was actually some plot advancement in that strip. 
The crew is not actually turning against her. They pointed out a problem with her orders. That’s all. I’m not sure they’re on either side, actually. Right now I think they mostly want someone in charge who is giving clear and sensible orders. Andi isn’t always doing that.
Never said there was none. I said it was not advancing it by much. Less than usual, that’s all. I’m not complaining, just making an observation.
Nice; three comics pretty quickly after one another. And after that terrific O-Chul reward from the Kickstarter campaign!
Thread title “Catching Up”. Not yet Burlew, not by a long way.