tonycliff
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Puff Guts (DD4, Chapter 2, pages 78-82)
🕑 Added 2022-10-13 19:22:00 +0000 UTCThe Provveditore has returned to Archipoli, and Alexandra (on a rooftop, conferring with a Winged Wisdom-Keeper) is in the perfect place to overhear his interaction with Nikos. The caped blowhard seems thoroughly perturbed by the presence of a British sailing vessel in his bay.
This sequence features one of my favourite choices: please take care to note that the Provveditore is always (okay, mostly) composed together with the horse's ass. This I think is what professionals call "telegraphing."
Last week I mentioned the Provveditore's swearing habit. "Puff guts" is my other favourite of his epithets. It's a term that was apparently in real-world use, meaning "a fat man," (here's a Project Gutenberg link) but it has such a good sound that I figured Vignelli would use the term more liberally, outside its strict definition. Does it make sense to give English street slang to a Mediterranean "noble?" No, of course not, but I'm not about to pass up rum lingo like "puff guts."
Other hits from The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue include…
- "cribbage-faced" (Marked with the small pox.)
- "dry boots" (A sly humorous fellow.) (I had heard a similar term on the video game podcast Idle Thumbs, where "sly boots" had become an in-joke for some reason. Perhaps the reason is that "sly boots" is a funny thing to call someone.)
- "Dutch concert" (Where every one plays or signs a different tune.)
- "Fermerdy beggars" (All those who have not the sham sores or clymes.) (Highlighted here for the joyful uselessness of the definition.)
- "flummery" (Oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; also compliments, neither of which are over-nourishing.)
- "gravy-eyed" (Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running humour.) (Eew.)
- "guzzle guts" (One greedy of liquor.) (A little sing-songy for my taste but still pretty good.)
- "lully triggers" (Thieves who steal wet linen.) (What?)
- "potato trap" (The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a holiday; i.e. be silent.)
- "pudding sleeves" (A parson.)
- "scaly fish" (An honest, rough, blunt sailor.)
- "shifting ballast" (A term used by sailors, to signify soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen on board.)
- "slattern" (A woman sluttishly negligent in her dress.)
- "square toes" (An old man: square toed shoes were anciently worn in common, and long retained by old men.)
- "timber toe" (A man with a wooden leg.)
- "vice admiral of the narrow seas" (A drunken man that pisses under the table into his companions' shoes.)
The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is fun to take a spin through. There are more than a few terms which, according to their definition, sound like they're supposed to be pejoratives, but they're too sing-songy or too wordy to have any tooth (e.g., "back-biter" or "foot wabbler"). Elsewhere, there are terms that pop up and feel so commonplace that it's strange to think of them being novel (e.g., "sweet heart" and "straight-laced," both of which mean what you think they mean).
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Meanwhile, my County Work continues as I hammer chapters three and four into shape. I'm doing them simultaneously since they lean pretty heavily on each other. I feel like I know exactly what is going into Chapter Three, the only challenge is keeping it lean and fun. And I know my start and end for Chapter Four, but the details are a lot trickier between points A and B.
Since Chapter Four feels intimidating, I want to form a strong image of it in my mind now so that it can "simmer" while I'm drawing Chapter Three. That is, during the time-consuming process of drawing Chapter Three, Chapter Four will be in the back of my mind, where connections will mysteriously form themselves and as long as I can catch them and integrate them, the whole thing will be tighter as a result. I'm trying to turn hindsight into foresight. Most people have had that moment when you finish a project and deliver it and then think, "ahh! I should have done X instead!" I'm trying to do that, but before I deliver the project, and the "simmering" helps that along.
As a bonus, during this process, I think I discovered the end-note for this story. I had one ending in mind already, and a whole bunch of different alternatives, but I think I found the "right" ending.
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Next week is the final installment of finished pages from Chapter Two! Yay slash awww.
Thinking about the short-term future, friends have suggested they would be interested in process videos. At first I thought, "who would watch that," but then I remembered about Bob Ross. So I'm thinking, like, "here's my process for turning the writing into thumbnails" and actual page-drawing videos; that sort of thing.
What say you? Do you have any feelings one way or another?
I'll probably make at least one (if I can summon the nerve for it), because for reasons I do not fully understand, I am currently obsessed with video production tech. Unless I can get sanity to prevail, I might just have to work it out of my system and learn whether or not it's something I want to spend more time on, if only so I can get this monkey off my back and move on with my life.
Your trusty Word Pecker,
TC
Comments
Tony Cliff
Ohhhhhh sure, that makes sense. You'd think that would really encourage people to stick to their LG brand washer-dryer combos. Except of course you can see the problem there: you don't want to put linen in a dryer.
seanwangart
I'd love to see your process videos! I am working on figuring that out myself between the filming and editing and what to focus on. I know some artists do time-lapse to capture all the work on a page. Others do real-time to just show a portion of the penciling or inking process, but in more detail. I'm not sure which I prefer as a viewer but probably the latter. Time lapse can be a bit too jerky to follow. Real-time gives a much better feel for the artistic process. It's also (to use your Bob Ross comparison) more calming to watch, unlike the spastic nature of time lapse.
CatCova
I vote "YES!" to process videos!!! Delightedly anticipating them now! :D
Zee Coshow
i would love to see process videos! even just one, haha. i enjoy seeing other people's processes, and yours especially feel like i would definitely learn something from them.
Jana
Also I would be VERY excited to see process videos, especially if there was some commentary!
Jana
As I understand it, linen and cloth historically was a very valuable commodity. So stealing wet linen from people's clothing lines was probably a common practice. Like modern day bike theft. 😬
Tony Cliff
Hey, at least you don't forget your own characters' names, as I am almost certainly not supposed to do, but which I evidently have done once or twice.
Nancy K
Aaaaaand I just realized that the Provveditore and the ship's captain are not the same person, and that ship was the same ship from the beginning and not a new one. Oops.
Lisa
If she had a Twitter feed she would change her name to 'A Real Sack of Nuts'
