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Selkie is accustomed to reading cursive writing at a 3rd-grade level.
(You’ve all been very patient with me regarding Brown’s obstructions and obfuscations on the name of Selkie’s people and homeland and I wanna thank you for putting up with my craps. :3)
Nice idea, but I think that there is going to be some trouble for both the doctor and family out of this. I doubt the agents have left the doctor, at a minimum, untapped.
A note, while not over the top, is surely going to raise suspicions in Agent Brown, unless he is actually directing the note (at which point we can talk crazy conspiracy tactics!) He might be many things, but Agent Brown does not seem stupid or unaware.
No, Brown doesn’t seem unaware. Yet he’s not looking over Pohl’s shoulder, or even trying to. So either he trusts the doctor, or he’s been saying what he’s expected to, while giving Todd and Pohl an opportunity to “sneak one by him”. Or possibly, he or his superiors want to see if Todd’s willing to take serious personal risks to help and/or protect Selkie. If there’s some kind of violent conflict in Sarnoth that’s putting civilians/ kids at risk, well, that sort of major trouble may not stay at a distance indefinitely.
I just have to say…That is not doctor scribble. :p I read worse on a regular basis, working at a pharmacy. But I am super excited at the idea of finding out more about Selkie and her people. Love how grandma and granddaughter share the same “Rawr!” faces.
Hmmm… Sarnoth, eh? Reminds me of “The Doom that Came to Sarnath”; a short story wiriten by H.P. Lovecraft.
Story wise, I predict that Selkie and Merigold are going to experiance a case of “Buyers Remorse”.
The Doom That Came To Sarnath is mentioned on the FAQ as an inspiration for the comic.
If there’s even the tiniest but of connection to the Lovecraft Mythos at all, that pretty much exonerates all of Agent Brown’s actions, regardless of how friendly the species may be.
Even if it’s like “And then we tried to introduce Mr. Lovecraft to Coolio The Giant Friendly Squid, but Mr. Lovecraft ran away screaming for some reason…”
That is not what I meant. I’m pretty sure that Doom is merely an inspiration for Selkie’s race (the sarnothi! We have a name for them now!); I’m not sure, never having read it. I probably should. In any event, I don’t think the sarnothi are horrors from beyond space and time, or their servitors.
Doctors are trained to write prescriptions that way. It’s all part of their mystique.
Because I’m curious, I checked the phone number. 534 is not a valid area code in the States.
Now I wonder how Selkie got her name. It can’t be a mispronounciation of Sarnothi because she didn’t know that word until now — right?
any number with “555” in either of the 3-digit codes is fake, its the universal established fake number for tv movies and literature. this was done in order to ensure none of them accidentally released a real phone number, causeing undue hardship to the poor soul who owns it.
I got 534 from here, which unless I am reading the map wrong it shares the area of upper Wisconsin with 715.
Almost had a “oops” there, Dave. Strip is taking place in 2010, right? 534 is a new code – if I’m reading this right, they did not start assigning 534 numbers until August of 2010. http://www.wwt.net/pdf/New-Area-Code.pdf
Weird. I was looking at the text listing, not the map, and the text listing still doesn’t have any entry for 534.
That’s a detail, though. I still want to know where Selkie got her name — I’ve been wondering that since the beginning of the strip.
Sarnoth? As a place name, that is really close to Sarnath. And all followers of HP Lovecraft will know all about the Doom that Came to Sarnath. Any correspondence of the ideas?
Cute punchline except they don’t teach cursive in school any more–and haven’t for years. My sixteen year old niece can’t read or write cursive, so I seriously doubt that a third-grader could.
Hurray for alternate realities/fiction reminding us of all we should be and all we have lost:)
When I was in school (not all that long ago, actually), third grade was *the year* we learned cursive. It was this cutoff where teachers told you, now you have to use it.
Granted, they quit caring in later grades, but I actually never stopped, and I think my sister’s kids also learned in third grade…they’re teenagers now.
In my district they teach kids cursive in third grade, and in fifth grade it’s all your allowed to use, when you reach 6th they let you chose as long as it’s legible. We were working on z’s today and I still can’t explain why cursive z’s look the way they do.
At least some school districts still teach it, but to the best of my knowledge no on on earth uses it past elementary school except for signatures and a few very traditional old people, so it’s completely unsurprising that only a third grader would understand it.
I feel like this story is moving too fast. When it began, I felt like it was going to end up as a slice of life comic starring Todd and Selkie.
Now we’re getting into government conspiracies and lore and whatnot. It just doesn’t feel at all like what it started out as.
Sarnoth? Can Bokrug the Water Lizard be far behind?
http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thedoomthatcametosarnath.htm
I just noticed something that might be important. In this crucial flashback, lower left, Selkie’s mom is waving and calling a glyph that is apparently the name of their home. She’s looking up. Way up. While she and Selkie are standing in shallow water (hence no legs). This indicates that their home is not in the water — it seems to be in the sky. So, they’re not Earth amphibians, but space alien refugees. If whatever conflict they’re fleeing is still going on, that’s a good reason to try to keep the Sarnothi secret.
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