I’m thinking it’s probably been a long time since Ed got a complement of any sort. To me, it looks like he’s feeling flattered and trying to remember how to say: “uh, thank you..”
I am intrigued about the “secret painting” thing. Reminiscences of his old life? Maybe his old name is still there, uneaten? OK, naybe is justa a hidden dodleing from the time he was practicing his art but guessing is just fun. 😉
So, not just painting the fur but tattooing the skin? And then letting the fur grow back so the tattoo is hidden?
Sounds like showing someone your tats is more work (and more intimate?) in hyena society…
@ShinyHappyGoth: Yes, thats what I suppose, but fur takes some time to grow back, so possibly the “secret paintings” are quite old, and therefore there is a chance they have some interesting meaning from the time Ed had a name.
His name, meaningful scenes from his past live, the story of a first born who survided, tales from a wise mother… So many possibilities. 😀
Ursula, I officially 😉 promote you to Goddess of Facial Expressions.
It’s perfectly clear on this page; not only is Ed totally nonplussed in the last pane, but Digger is – um, disgruntled, I guess would be the best word – in the first pane.
VOTE early, VOTE often! Maybe if we can get Digger high enough in the rankings, Ursula will reward us with vote incentives!
Tekserver, I second that. I am now monotheistic as opposed to being atheist. My Goddess is the Goddess of Facial Expressions! Oh, and I agree, I would very much like incentives. You know, they’re not very hard. “Immy,” the artist behind a closely ranking comic called Concession, simply has his(her?) favorite panel from the latest page as an incentive (minus the speech bubbles, which is interesting to look at.)
Tekserver, Jewelwolf, I’m intrigued, what exactly would a run of the mill vote incentive entail? I do think that, while Ed is feeling a bit uncomfortable here, the skin lizards and the skin painter may get along famously. “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Ed: “Bwizup?”
But his ears are up, so I totally agree with “nonplussed” rather than any more negative reaction. I b’lieve I said on Thursday that the skins would like his hide. 😀
I always wondered about the profession of ‘skin painter’ in a fur-bearing species. But if he really is a tattoo artist, and the fur clearly grows back…this raises some interesting questions on the role of tattoos in hyena culture. It suggests some religious or magical meaning – perhaps they serve as talismans or serve a protective function? Perhaps they are done to commemorate some important life-step – becoming a warrior, making your first kill, whatever – the tribe will all know you have done it, even after the fur grows back, but perhaps it notifies gods or other such beings that you have achieved these things.
which in turn makes it quite interesting that the skin lizards can see them….
mouse: All those sound quite plausible, and would explain, far more than art alone, why skin-painter is such an important and highly-regarded hyena profession.
“A secret painting Look!”
Methinks this may be a run-on sentence. Perhaps a correction is in order.
“A secret painting! Look!” or “A secret painting. Look!” or “A secret painting? Look!” or “A secret painting… Look!”
*GASP* A peaceful thought turned to an exclamation with no pause nor warning. The very last comment on the page. Could it be………
FORESHADOWING?!?!?! 8-0
ahhh… of course in ancient Mesopotamia shaving a slaves head, tattooing a message on and letting his hair grow back was considered the best and most secure form of secret message that kings could send their emissaries and spies, and visa versa I t was considered totally secure, and like many things that were was soon widely used by nearly everyone with a positive number of neurones (and, presumably, a sufficient number of follicles as well).
A pity something as simple as one-time-pad took so long to invent, really. A few miniature clay tablets each with one cuneiform letter on and a bag to draw then out of, plus a destroyable tablet to record the pad, say made of wax, and I could have given them an unbreakable code with no need for modern computing, provided they didn’t let anyone capture the pad intact and destroyed in after use. Why did no one invent that before the start of the twentieth century? However, that said it’s perfectly possible several different people invented it before then and being actually GOOD at espionage took the secret of it to their graves. Can’t wait to find out what Ed’s hidden picture is. I bet it’s Grim-Eyes as a cub. He just looks the sort who would keep a locket or a wallet photo of his kids if he were human.
Actually I was looking back at other hyenas, wondering about the tattoo thing. Some of them clearly sport markings. Real life hyenas have fur only on parts of themselves, their bellies and faces are nearly furless and the skin is quite visible.
It may also be possible that tribe members get their partners/friends/relatives to shave the relevant spots for them, so as to display their skin paintings.
But Ed, having been exiled, has had no one to shave him, therefore his skin paintings are “secret.”
Duck Whisperer> what exactly would a run of the mill vote incentive entail?
On TWC, many webcomic artists post pictures that you can get access to only after you have voted for their comic. They vary widely in size and detail; some are simple sketches, often part of the development process of the newest comic strip, while others are beautiful hi-resolution wallpaper-worthy pictures that may be blown up from a single pane of the comic or drawn separately to show characters or scenery in a way that never actually shows up in the comic.
The best current example among the comics I follow is The Dreamland Chronicles; Scott’s current Vote Incentive at TWC is a beautiful wallpaper featuring the elven princess (in casual attire) in the foreground, and a centaur village in the background.
Hope this helps!
(Uh, oh; more than one hyperlink … this will probably go into “moderation” before getting posted … 😕 )
If Ursula reads these, then the easiest vote incentive every for our bunch here, is a sketch of Ed and his tattoos. Or, even better (for my anthropological tastes) a sketch of various tribal patterns used by hyenas. I would vote every chance I had to see those.
TekServer> Thanks for the info. I cheat the vote as much possible. I vote at work and home as much as this thing will let me. Although, I’m not sure the one at home is always accurate since my wife votes too. We have seperate accounts, but it’s all coming from the same computer.
As far as I know the votes are tracked by IP address, so you (and your wife) would only get one vote per day from home, unless your public IP address changed. (Which, of course, means that you could further cheat the system if your ISP gives you a dynamic IP address, which is likely, by voting, then logging into your router and releasing/renewing your IP address, then voting again, etc. rinse and repeat … but I would never condone such behavior, of course … )
humm, posted a comment here almost a year ago, but still in moderation. too many links to pictures of tattoos i guess… Well, if you were interested in ancient tattooing, here is the comment without the link.
@Mishal Agreed. Throw in details of the tattooing processes and pigments used and we’re yours to command Ursula. Well, to be fair we are probably anyway as far as the voting is going, but still. We’re curious about that sort of thing: left to our own devises its only a madder of time before one of us creates a Digger Wiki with fan speculation pages. I wonder if I still have my book on Pazyryk tattoos from permafrost preserved skin samples about somewhere… or my essay on Ainu clitoristattooing (Ainu women had pretty much everything that could be tattooed done, any women not by the time of her wedding was considered to have committed some horrible sin to make her tattoos “disappear” and so would be put to death, apparently, although all the records from that period seem somewhat biased so it’s hard to tell what really happened).
Anyway, here are some some really cool pictures of Ancient Pazyryk tattoos from a high status female burial, just to show what you can manage using just soot and a sharpened bone needle. The first link is a small section of the preserved skin, the second a body map showing where approximately the tattoos are on a different in individual, the third a good selection of tattoos, the forth a shot of the far older Ötzi, whose 3500 body need no introduction. The images shows where the tattoo dots are, but unfortunately obscures any of the actual tattoos. Contains images of preserved human skin, not for the squeamish, but probably safe for work, as unless you know it’s from a body preserved in permafrost its kindda hard to tell what you are looking at.
I can’t quite tell if Ed looks worried and disturbed, or as intrigued with the skin lizards are they are with him.
The last panel is so cute, and yet, I dread to see if we’re gonna see the skins pull out giant knives of flaying. Don’t kill Ed! T_T
I’m thinking it’s probably been a long time since Ed got a complement of any sort. To me, it looks like he’s feeling flattered and trying to remember how to say: “uh, thank you..”
I am intrigued about the “secret painting” thing. Reminiscences of his old life? Maybe his old name is still there, uneaten? OK, naybe is justa a hidden dodleing from the time he was practicing his art but guessing is just fun. 😉
Oh, Votey! http://topwebcomics.com/vote/10180/default.aspx
He looks flattered but slightly confused to me. So cute!
I think…these little fellas might be tattoo enthusiasts. Surely Ed did some skin-painting on himself in his tribe days.
Aww… they look like they’ll get along just fine. I think that’s adorable.
So, not just painting the fur but tattooing the skin? And then letting the fur grow back so the tattoo is hidden?
Sounds like showing someone your tats is more work (and more intimate?) in hyena society…
I wonder what they mean by “secret painting”? Incidentally, love the last panel.
Hunter & jassius: Far as I can tell, just that he has tattoos but, being furry, they are not so obvious as human tattoos.
Of course the skins like Ed. I should’ve seen that coming a mile off.
The last panel is so creepy, but so cute.
I’m with everyone else on this–it’s creepy and cute too. I do hope they don’t have ambitions to acquire that lovely skin for themselves, however.
@ShinyHappyGoth: Yes, thats what I suppose, but fur takes some time to grow back, so possibly the “secret paintings” are quite old, and therefore there is a chance they have some interesting meaning from the time Ed had a name.
His name, meaningful scenes from his past live, the story of a first born who survided, tales from a wise mother… So many possibilities. 😀
Ursula, I officially 😉 promote you to Goddess of Facial Expressions.
It’s perfectly clear on this page; not only is Ed totally nonplussed in the last pane, but Digger is – um, disgruntled, I guess would be the best word – in the first pane.
VOTE early, VOTE often! Maybe if we can get Digger high enough in the rankings, Ursula will reward us with vote incentives!
Tekserver, I second that. I am now monotheistic as opposed to being atheist. My Goddess is the Goddess of Facial Expressions! Oh, and I agree, I would very much like incentives. You know, they’re not very hard. “Immy,” the artist behind a closely ranking comic called Concession, simply has his(her?) favorite panel from the latest page as an incentive (minus the speech bubbles, which is interesting to look at.)
Tekserver, Jewelwolf, I’m intrigued, what exactly would a run of the mill vote incentive entail? I do think that, while Ed is feeling a bit uncomfortable here, the skin lizards and the skin painter may get along famously. “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”
Ed: “Bwizup?”
But his ears are up, so I totally agree with “nonplussed” rather than any more negative reaction. I b’lieve I said on Thursday that the skins would like his hide. 😀
I always wondered about the profession of ‘skin painter’ in a fur-bearing species. But if he really is a tattoo artist, and the fur clearly grows back…this raises some interesting questions on the role of tattoos in hyena culture. It suggests some religious or magical meaning – perhaps they serve as talismans or serve a protective function? Perhaps they are done to commemorate some important life-step – becoming a warrior, making your first kill, whatever – the tribe will all know you have done it, even after the fur grows back, but perhaps it notifies gods or other such beings that you have achieved these things.
which in turn makes it quite interesting that the skin lizards can see them….
The pose of the one on the right somewhat creeps me out.
But I love this. XD
I knew that the skins would love Ed. Who could possibly not love him. I’m telling you, Skins + Ed = happiest days of Eds life post-tribe.
mouse: All those sound quite plausible, and would explain, far more than art alone, why skin-painter is such an important and highly-regarded hyena profession.
“A secret painting Look!”
Methinks this may be a run-on sentence. Perhaps a correction is in order.
“A secret painting! Look!” or “A secret painting. Look!” or “A secret painting? Look!” or “A secret painting… Look!”
*GASP* A peaceful thought turned to an exclamation with no pause nor warning. The very last comment on the page. Could it be………
FORESHADOWING?!?!?! 8-0
ahhh… of course in ancient Mesopotamia shaving a slaves head, tattooing a message on and letting his hair grow back was considered the best and most secure form of secret message that kings could send their emissaries and spies, and visa versa I t was considered totally secure, and like many things that were was soon widely used by nearly everyone with a positive number of neurones (and, presumably, a sufficient number of follicles as well).
A pity something as simple as one-time-pad took so long to invent, really. A few miniature clay tablets each with one cuneiform letter on and a bag to draw then out of, plus a destroyable tablet to record the pad, say made of wax, and I could have given them an unbreakable code with no need for modern computing, provided they didn’t let anyone capture the pad intact and destroyed in after use. Why did no one invent that before the start of the twentieth century? However, that said it’s perfectly possible several different people invented it before then and being actually GOOD at espionage took the secret of it to their graves. Can’t wait to find out what Ed’s hidden picture is. I bet it’s Grim-Eyes as a cub. He just looks the sort who would keep a locket or a wallet photo of his kids if he were human.
I’m just imagining the three-eyed Toy Story aliens there…
“ooOOOOoooh….”
Actually I was looking back at other hyenas, wondering about the tattoo thing. Some of them clearly sport markings. Real life hyenas have fur only on parts of themselves, their bellies and faces are nearly furless and the skin is quite visible.
It may also be possible that tribe members get their partners/friends/relatives to shave the relevant spots for them, so as to display their skin paintings.
But Ed, having been exiled, has had no one to shave him, therefore his skin paintings are “secret.”
Seems fairly logical to me, actually.
Duck Whisperer> what exactly would a run of the mill vote incentive entail?
On TWC, many webcomic artists post pictures that you can get access to only after you have voted for their comic. They vary widely in size and detail; some are simple sketches, often part of the development process of the newest comic strip, while others are beautiful hi-resolution wallpaper-worthy pictures that may be blown up from a single pane of the comic or drawn separately to show characters or scenery in a way that never actually shows up in the comic.
The best current example among the comics I follow is The Dreamland Chronicles; Scott’s current Vote Incentive at TWC is a beautiful wallpaper featuring the elven princess (in casual attire) in the foreground, and a centaur village in the background.
Hope this helps!
(Uh, oh; more than one hyperlink … this will probably go into “moderation” before getting posted … 😕 )
Oh! No moderation! Cool …
😉
If Ursula reads these, then the easiest vote incentive every for our bunch here, is a sketch of Ed and his tattoos. Or, even better (for my anthropological tastes) a sketch of various tribal patterns used by hyenas. I would vote every chance I had to see those.
TekServer> Thanks for the info. I cheat the vote as much possible. I vote at work and home as much as this thing will let me. Although, I’m not sure the one at home is always accurate since my wife votes too. We have seperate accounts, but it’s all coming from the same computer.
As far as I know the votes are tracked by IP address, so you (and your wife) would only get one vote per day from home, unless your public IP address changed. (Which, of course, means that you could further cheat the system if your ISP gives you a dynamic IP address, which is likely, by voting, then logging into your router and releasing/renewing your IP address, then voting again, etc. rinse and repeat … but I would never condone such behavior, of course … )
😉
Wise words TekServer.
humm, posted a comment here almost a year ago, but still in moderation. too many links to pictures of tattoos i guess… Well, if you were interested in ancient tattooing, here is the comment without the link.
@Mishal Agreed. Throw in details of the tattooing processes and pigments used and we’re yours to command Ursula. Well, to be fair we are probably anyway as far as the voting is going, but still. We’re curious about that sort of thing: left to our own devises its only a madder of time before one of us creates a Digger Wiki with fan speculation pages. I wonder if I still have my book on Pazyryk tattoos from permafrost preserved skin samples about somewhere… or my essay on Ainu clitoristattooing (Ainu women had pretty much everything that could be tattooed done, any women not by the time of her wedding was considered to have committed some horrible sin to make her tattoos “disappear” and so would be put to death, apparently, although all the records from that period seem somewhat biased so it’s hard to tell what really happened).
Anyway, here are some some really cool pictures of Ancient Pazyryk tattoos from a high status female burial, just to show what you can manage using just soot and a sharpened bone needle. The first link is a small section of the preserved skin, the second a body map showing where approximately the tattoos are on a different in individual, the third a good selection of tattoos, the forth a shot of the far older Ötzi, whose 3500 body need no introduction. The images shows where the tattoo dots are, but unfortunately obscures any of the actual tattoos. Contains images of preserved human skin, not for the squeamish, but probably safe for work, as unless you know it’s from a body preserved in permafrost its kindda hard to tell what you are looking at.