BEAT DRUM! – Page 1080

TRANSCRIPT:   IPOLA: You don’t think it’s a good idea? ZONN: Wha - no, it’s just … IPOLA: Undignified?  I would hate to embarrass myself … ZONN: No, no! Not that … I mean … do you … dance First Dance a lot ... these days? IPOLA:. Well, it has been awhile - I may not do as well as these young folk here, but perhaps someone will find me interesting enough to dance with … MENTL: This oughta be good … JEEVIK: (hands him a drum) Here you are, Lord. ZONN: Huh? JEEVIK: Forgive the presumption, lord, I had assumed you wouldn’t want someone else to “get” her.

35 thoughts on “BEAT DRUM! – Page 1080

  1. Zonn has just been well played. Besides the “Animal” reference, there’s a huge invisible “HINT!” button in panel 3. And Jeevik is definitely a Jeeves in spades. Also reminds me of Terry Pratchett’s Igors who always anticipate what their master needs without being specifically asked.

    1. I couldn’t resist making Jeevik a recurring character. And yes, he is a perfect valet.

      Warm regards,

      JED

  2. That’s quite the Yanora Pout you’ve got there Ipola.
    Must be a Queen thing.

    1. The same artist, more likely.

      🙂

      Warm regards,

      JED

  3. Now that’s the signs of an excellent executive assistant right there.

    1. A touch magickal, perhaps?

      Warm regards,

      JED

  4. That Animal quote is perfect.

  5. That Animal quote is absolutely perfect

    1. Thank you. It was a sudden inspiration.

      Warm regards,

      JED

  6. 4th panel: Say, people, wouldn’t the person leaning against the rampart be this friendly
    interdimensional-traveling lady our heroes met in the Otherwhen?

    1. Well –
      she is Everywhere.

      Warm regards,

      JED

    2. That should be panel 3, right? She seems to have an interest here, second time she is around.

  7. Yeah, she obviously had been too subtle last page. And maybe this one too. Thanks Rogue Jeevik was here.

    Also, I love how her expression in panel 1 shows lines of age while expressing concern about same. (That is, if Zonn could look her in the eyes.)

    1. “Time hasn’t done a thing but wrinkle you.”

      Warm regards,

      JED

  8. Hmmmm! Question: Did Zonn never have to drum in first dance before? Did he just get dragged out of the firelight by whatever woman beat the others off first? I am not the one, as an Aspie, to comment on *anyone* else’s lack of social nimbleness here, but he’s acting like it’s not a part of his universe, and he just read about it in a comic!

    1. That’s a good question, but the simple truth is he’s a bit gobsmacked. He certainly has not drummed in a good long while for reasons I am not revealing in a comment. But also, because it’s funny.

      Warm regards,

      JED

  9. epic page, at first i was going to remark damask plus loin cloth doesn’t compute, then i remembered – Queen!

    1. Correct. This is a little number she brought with her.

      Warm regards,

      JED

  10. Don’t be a Wooster, Zonn

    1. Come now – he is smarter than Bertie.

      Mind, that is not difficult.

      Warm regards,

      JED

  11. Just noticed the location is “The Otherwhen.”

    Is that a mistake, or didn’t they make it out of the mirrorscape?

    1. My click fail when entering the metadata.

      Fixed now! Thanks for pointing it out.

      Warm regards,

      JED

  12. Oh, that was smooth, Zonn. Very.

  13. “Woo-mann!!!” – Animal.

    Warm regards,

    JED

  14. I love how Ipola is … playing with Zonn. Not as cat with her pray but more as a musician with a well known if forgotten instruments.
    I think she wants to awaken him, perhaps even confirm what they have… She might be a queen, the Queen but I feel that, in there, she is a woman simply.
    It is a beautiful page and I love Zonn, hesitant, perhaps shy. He’s so cute!
    As Mentl say: “This oughta be good”
    *Where are my popcorn?*
    *Please, pretty please, Master JED don’t cut to another story now!*

    1. Nope. You have to see the dance. 🙂

      Warm regards,

      JED

      1. Will Jenny dance, drum, or observe? Of course, as metafictional as Jenny is, she might just do all three!

  15. I can only concur with Mentl. In a way I hope the next update will take a while as it might hint on another video 😉
    Cudos also on the lady in the back of panel 4, a typical preperation pose, love it!

  16. Ooh, I like it! 😀 Zonn is still adjusting while Ipola has had time to plan it all out.

    Mentl, conjure up some popcorn for watching?

  17. Zonn, buddy, I know women are generally playing the game at a higher level than we are, but do you have to make it so obvious?

    1. To put things in perspective:

      His perspective:
      Zonn has spent more or less all of Zona’s life trapped away from the love of his life. He’s longed for her, he’s tried to return, but the same forces that had separated them in the first place continued to be an issue, and life in their new home has been difficult enough that they’re busy enough surviving they don’t have the time to make many attempts at returning. Also, having successfully rescued a people, he feels more obligation to not lead them to their destruction. He had more or less written off any hope of seeing her again. And then suddenly she showed up. Sure, her daughters showed up first, so he had a slight warning. Except that he thought that they were as lost and unable to contact their mother as he was.

      Her perspective:
      Her lover disappeared many years ago, to who knows where. She’s trapped by her hereditary job, so she can’t go off and find him. She’s also clearly an order of magnitude better at her job than anyone she could think of to abdicate to. She’s been able to send out search parties, but ultimately, she can’t spare a lot of resources in that direction, as she’s more or less been at war the whole time. She’s had a daughter since who has shown some potential, that she could possibly put in as a regent for a time while she goes off and looks… sometime later when she’s better trained. But then her two wunderkind children (in very different ways) go off on their own mission with the potential to turn up who knows where. And they do, and send her a message. And so she responds to that message, knowing who she was going to see, and what she wanted.

      Added stuff: he clearly hasn’t really moved on. He’s a reluctant king with no partner. She’s had a daughter by another man. So she absolutely knows he wants her, but he’s less certain. And he probably had the stupid idea that if she wanted him, since he had won her interest before, they would just go from there.

      This comes from someone who dreamed of Her since he was 7, and possibly longer. For 11 years, I thought they were just dreams, and was completely unprepared to meet Her. I never found out if She was actually interested or not, but I’ve had more than two decades to think about it since.

  18. She is enjoying this FAR too much… Give him more.

  19. “If you are more subtle then a brick to the face, most men won’t get it. And yes that includes myself.”

  20. So that’s what Animal meant; explains the panting!

  21. So that’s what Animal meant; explains the panting!
    still getting duplicate comment error; I know I haven’t been here or said that

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