1.4 - First To Fall Ted is covering this one. Sorry this wasn't posted when the strip went up, we're trying to get a whole bunch of them done ahead of time but we're not fully organized yet. It's not Mingy's fault, which is why I'm writing this tardy explanation. Anyway, this comic shows the first use of the Avatar format. Those of you who have read the first three strips have heard this mentioned before, as well as the Chibi and Normal formats. Those first three strips were done Chibi-style, as is Mingy's floating head in this comic - Chibi is used to address the audience directly, and signifies that we're out-of-character to do so. The rest of the strips up to now have been Normal, which shows the real world of the comic. As you can see with today's comic, the Avatar format shows the battle that is represented by a game of Magic, as though it were actually happening. The Avatar itself is the mage character as whom you play during the game, sort of like the Residual Self-Image one projects in The Matrix. This strip continues the game that was started in the last comic, between Bryan (the blond guy on the left with the girly pig-tails) and Kai Budde (the scary guy with the cape who destroys him utterly), one of the best Magic players in the world. You can probably tell that Bryan's Avatar doesn't look much like he does in Normal strips, and this is true. All three FlopJocks' Avatars look somewhat different than their Normal selves, but after the next few comics you should be able to recognize them in Avatar form pretty easily. Make sense now? Go back to this comic. Legal Stuff Magic: The Gathering and all related trademarks and products mentioned belong to Wizards of the Coast. Any other trademarks and products mentioned are the property of the companies that produce them. Any card art is copyrighted by the artists and Wizards of the Coast. The use of these trademarks, products, and cards should not be construed as a challenge to those rights. All other content is © Copyright 2002 Burnham/Dominguez/Wacker/Yarrow. Contact Us Art: Bryan Yarrow (aftershock@tenchiclub.com) Scripts: Cal Wacker (reverend16@excite.com) Cooking: Andrew "Mingy" Dominguez (andominguez@fordham.edu) Website: Ted Burnham (tburnham@abacus.bates.edu) Come chat in the FlopJocks IRC Channel at irc.netfrag.com #flopjocks