This whole sequence really reminds me of why webcomics are great. Digger makes a pretty good print comic, and I’m very proud of our print collects, but there’s just something about putting things on the web and having people invested for weeks at a time–instead of for the time it takes to turn a page–that’s just so awesome for a creator to see. Much as I look forward to finishing Digger, I admit, I’ll miss that immediacy.
Speaking of print volumes, SIGNED COPIES of Digger 4 are on-sale tomorrow (Wednesday.) It’s a very limited quantity–as usual, I was plied with alcohol at a convention and signed a box worth–and they tend to sell out really quick, so order now!
The dialogue on this page reminds me of the Hellboy movies.
Although Shadowchild is infinitely cuter then Ron Perlman
Ooh! Now we know where demons come from! And that means that Shadowchild is definitely second generation at least, unless it has a serious case of amnesia and/or hallucinated the dead bird.
“Don’t wanna don’t wanna you can’t make me!”
The bird might have been famous.
Also, Sweetgrass must be wanting to bash its head up against the wall by now, which would probably make Digger feel vindicated for all of HER arguments with the adroable little creature.
good choice little one.
That made me smile. So I guess Shadowchild is learning how to make moral decisions instead of looking for external rules.
“I don’t want to.” Such powerful words indeed.
Now, thats a plan. Just let Shadowchild keep doubting and Sweetgrass Voice will end up explaining everything in an efford to convince him kill the others.
It’s just me, or there is something awfully wrong in SVG calling him “Shadowchild”? I mean, *That* is _NOT_ a name. Digger called him that cause she had no idea what he was, but SGV *knows* his nature, and his species. SGV must be finding him a suitable name if it ever cared about SC half as she pretends to. If SC knew better he ought to feel insulted 😛
Ops! I ment SGV calling SC “Demon child” which is about the same for the matter
whew. i do not like sitting on pins and needles for this long. bravo to digger and crew for making such a strong impression 🙂
shadowchild will save the world.
Not ashamed to admit it: my reaction to this page?
Eeeeeee! <3 <3 <3
I love that kid.
Not because it’s right (to not eat the shadows of its friends), or wrong (to eat them), but because it *doesn’t want to*.
Simple, clear and elegant reasoning. And Digger (and Murai and Grim-Eyes) don’t get et.
Works for me, totally 🙂 . And good for you, Shadowchild! There’s one being that doesn’t need an Assertiveness course– it knows what it wants (and what it doesn’t). Hurrah!
I wonder how SGV will react…..
Weeks? Try YEARS. (Your comic is long, yo <3)
yay shadowchild! at least we only have to wait until thursday….
I almost shouted “YES!” out loud at the last panel. It would have been a little embarassing, since I’m at work. Still… YES!
> Simple, clear and elegant reasoning. And Digger (and Murai and Grim-Eyes) don’t get et.
This reminds me of something that occurred to me back near the beginning of the comic (only a few days ago for me) – there is a (probably unintentional) coincidence between the southern slang term “et” (short for eaten) and the new name for The Eaten: Ed. Hmm …
Demon cunning versus wombat pragmatic morals … as always, my money’s on the wombat!
🙂
It does seem like one of the major perks of being a demon would be not having to do things you don’t want to do … Shadowchild is starting to grow up. And, I suspect SGV is gonna be in trouble if he/she/it tries to push the point.
@ Niall : I’m at home and startled everyone in the house by shouting YES!! haha
I just about stood up and did a dance.
Yay Shadowchild!!
Cerulean++
I get the feeling that we’re into the denoument phase. I doubt we’ll be introduced to important new characters from here on out…I feel sad that Digger seems to be past the halfway point as a comic. Still…we probably have a couple years left to go, at least.
Ursula, I actually enjoy having it strung out. Gives me something to look forward to each week.
The bird might have been the vessel of He-Is
There’s a way of keeping that intimacy… All you need to do is start another comic.. 😀 We’d support you all the way!
(somebody remind me to actually read before I post…)
Man, raising kids is a pain in the shadowy keister. “WAH I DON’T WANT TO.” If I said “WAH I DON’T WANT TO” every time my boss told me to go corrupt a soul or kill an innocent, how would I put shadows on this table for you, huh? Just think about that!
Motub posted:
>Not because it’s right (to not eat the shadows of its friends), or wrong (to eat them),
>but because it *doesn’t want to*.
>Simple, clear and elegant reasoning. And Digger (and Murai and Grim-Eyes) don’t get et.
Makes me think of the line from St. Augustine:
“Love – and then do what you please.”
I knew Shadowchild wouldn’t let me down ! I could just hug it (that is if I could figure out how to hug a shadow!?)
I just finished reading through the archives and I am thoroughly caught up in this wonderful tale. Thank you Ursula for creating such a visually stunning and captivating story and for sharing it with all of us. I do love all the commentary as well.
I really want to hug Shadowchild right now.
John — I’ve always loved that Augustine quote (which is rare, for me, with Augustine, but then most of my exposure to Augustine comes from the anti-Pelagian arguments). It makes me wonder if perhaps Aleister Crowly was more familiar with church theology than he’d like to let on: “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law: *Love is the law; love under will.*”
The best reason in the world for doing good or for refraining from doing harm is “but I (don’t) *want* to!”
Ursula, did you just admit that you enjoy watching us go into withdrawal every week while we wait for the next Tuesday to roll around? 😀
Rista-liehna — we know where demons come from, unless SWG is using grandiose metaphor…
*wry grin* Nah, he wouldn’t do *that….*
Oh, hooray, Shadowchild!
That’s as good an answer as any.
@ Kisuneko You know, you might have something there. I don’t think SC mentioned any specifics in the bird that he hatched from, except that it died and that it was white.
I have to admit that I didn’t shout “yes”, I shouted, “Good boy!” because he made the right choice. I think it’s because I’ve been hanging around with an 8 month old who gets “good boy”-ed a lot 🙂 I’m so proud of Shadowchild!
It’s funny, reading the further comments, that we all assume that– since SC has proclaimed (or perhaps wailed) that it *doesn’t want to* eat the shadows of Digger et. al.,– SC will not be swayed from its stated position by further wiles of SGV, or flatly forced to comply.
I guess a lot of us have experience with small children and are fully aware of how well “further wiles”, or indeed simple (ab)use of greater size and strength, work when dealing with the intransigent will of a child who “doesn’t want to” do whatever “parental” authority is “demanding” of it….. 😀
Not to mention, that wail might well wake everyone up…. heh, heh, heh. Then we’ll see something…!
Slow corruption is easier as in “The first hit’s free…” but takes time.
Quick corruption is risky, but you get them to jump off the edge…
I feel like SGV is wants to say “What is a mortal? A miserable pile of secrets! But enough talk; devour them!”
I hope Volume 4. will be available thru Amazon. For some reason Sofa Wolf won’t accept my Mastercard
(I live in New Zealand)
I thought of more to say!
Another chink in SGV’s little notions about corrupting Shadowchild…
Digger answered the Child’s questions, as best she could, without even mentioning price or favors. SGV is offering “All The Answers” … but is asking a price. Even if the price were something the Child was amenable to…
Ursula, I’m going to have my son start reading webcomics, and Digger’s going to be his first!
You are incredible 😀
I think that may be the first time we’ve see Sweet-grass Voice not smiling, in that first panel up there.
I’m curious why it’s so investing in having Shadowchild eat their shadows.
Oh, and can anyone link me to the pages where the Sweet-grass Voice story is first told? I’m having a hell of a time finding it in the archives as I don’t remember exactly when in the story Ed tells it to Digger.
A friend of mine has a little boy; he’s intelligent and secure, and he hit the Terrible Twos just a little while ago. And here we are with his “NO!” all over again, the very first cry of independence a person learns to make. His is extremely frustrating most of the time, but still… it’s a becoming-a-real-person thing, brain-breaking as it gets on occasion, and that’s what Shadowchild’s reminding me of here. Not-gonna, don’t-wanna, can’t-make-me, NO.
I suppose my question now would be why doesn’t SGV just devour them himself? (also, hugs for poor Shadowchild).
I’m kinda surprised that the others are still asleep with the amount of racket going on…
SGV may be stretched so far, and so constrained by his bonds, that he is powerless to eat anyone’s shadow, even though he has managed to manifest to a sufficient extent to try to influence SC.
He might be right at the edge of his capabilities, with nothing more than his voice for leverage.
I want to hug Shadowchild, despite the fact that I could not do so even if he/she/it (English needs a gender neutral third person singular pronoun that does not imply nonsapience) was right before me…
I wonder what would happen if SC decided to eat SGV’s “shadow”…?
I’ve been reading the comments since Sweet-Grass Voice, if that IS who the shadow is, appeared and I’ve been wondering, why does everyone think he CAN eat shadows or has ANY of Shadowchilds abilities? Looking similar doesn’t mean they ARE similar. This is a horrible example but the Wonder Twins from the DC comics were both shapeshifters, but they couldn’t turn into the same things, their powers were fundamentally similar but inherently different. I now await the beatings that will surely ensue for my foolishness n.n
I just keep hearing, in my head, Kiki from Sluggy Freelance saying “Don’t be evil, don’t be evil!”
Demented Kitsune: Sweetgrass Voice said that he and Shadowchild are of the same kind. He also knew Shadowchild’s capabilities immediately. And Shadowchild knew his as well, when he recognized how “stretched out” he was.
(Or “she,” maybe. Come to think of it, we don’t know either being’s “gender,” or whether or not the concept applies to demons. (Personally I’m a huge fan of the demons-as-beings-completely-alien-to-man type of depictions.) )
Incidentally, something I can say here because by now it’s not a spoiler:
Were those hyenas really the cold servants? We’d assumed yes when they were masked, but I don’t see how hyenas, however gaunt and magical, could be “cold” like stone (versus “warm” like all other living things, according to the skins). And hyenas, being carnivores, would eat the skins, after all (which the skins said that the warm servants do).
Maybe it’s a bad case of final-boss-syndrome, but I always love an epic crescendo, and it’d be so cool to see something more badass than the impressive hyena-servants (though, they were taken down by squash).
In all likelihood, though, our assumptions have tended to be pretty accurate.
Damnit, it happened again – one last thought, and this one’s actually relevant to this page:
Ganesh’s statue had described famine as an elemental of an element we do not have in this world. There’s some resonance between that description and Sweetgrass Voice’s claim – metaphorical or not – that demons are born from stars.
I still think there’s a notable similarity between the shape of the hyena-servant’s masks, Famine, and maybe event Sweetgrass Voice itself. But I figure the similarities are more due to style/themes than anything overtly plot-relevant.