Thanks for reading.

12/6/06

Recording the creative process The neat thing about Tristram not having gone on the Roman expedition is that when I'm out of steam on Roman expedition gags and regency gags I can do Cornwall gags. The trouble with that is I've taken this long to figure out where in Tristram's story I've dropped myself. You may recall I wrote in this space when Tristram first showed up as a knight in Camelot that it's unclear in the Morte quite how his chronology relates to Arthur's; that he was definitely among Arthur's knights at the time of the Roman war but didn't go along. Well, I've been browsing the Morte lately trying to find a point in Tristram's timeline which can be the exile to Camelot on account of Mark's jealousy which occurred during the first year or so of AKOTAS, and not having much luck. So today I've been looking for the incident at the ford in the Morte. Figure out when that happens, I told myself, and since you've already used it just pick up Tristram's timeline from after that. Except I don't find it. That's how it is with these stories. Not every version makes use of all the same tropes in the sources. Or, come to think of it, in the same order. Which is why I didn't feel too badly when I forgot that there are two battles with Lot in the Morte. Today's cartoon goes back to the beginning, with the first incident in (as Vinaver has it) Malory's Book of Sir Tristram after Mark and Isolde's wedding that isn't directly related to the wedding. I'd already had an idea I'd do it this way, which is why I made sure already to establish that Lamorak has started boinking Morgause, a development that predates today's run-in with Tristram. And I'm sure if I'm wrong about the incident at the ford not appearing in the Morte that one of you will point it out to me.

Webcomics I read mornings: Kevin & Kell, For Better Or For Worse, Shortpacked, Scary Go Round, Tux & Bunny, Sluggy Freelance, Irregular Comic, Real Life, Peanuts

Webcomics I read M-W-F mornings: El Goonish Shive, Theater Hopper, Nukees, Newshounds, Girl Genius, Todd and Penguin, Pibgorn, Ctrl+Alt+Del

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa mornings: AppleGeeks, Achewood, Kismetropolis, WIGU, Striptease, Digger

Webcomics I read middays: Calvin & Hobbes, Least I Could Do, User Friendly, Anywhere But Here, Starslip Crisis, Questionable Content, Devil's Panties, Schlock Mercenary, Narbonic

Webcomics I read evenings: LuAnn, Count Your Sheep, Goats, Pearls Before Swine, American Elf, Sinfest, Bruno, Boxjam's Doodle

Webcomics I read M-W-F evenings: Reasoned Cognition, Two Lumps, Zortic, Order of the Stick, College Roommates from Hell!!!, Home on the Strange, Penny Arcade

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa evenings: Girls With Slingshots, The Green Avenger, Dandy & Company, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Get Out of My Head, Megatokyo

Webcomics I read bedtimes: B.C., Something Positive, Medium Large, Station V3, Dinosaur Comics, Wapsi Square, Help Desk, Sheldon, Little Dee, PvP

Webcomics I read Sundays: xkcd, Minus, Smithson, Something Happens, Li'l Mell, Butternut Squash, General Protection Fault, Perry Bible Fellowship, Ctrl+Alt+Del

Webcomics I hope will start updating again: Mac Hall, The Angriest Rice Cooker In The World, No Room for Magic, The Magnificent Adventures of Hieronymus Bosch, esquire, The Whovian Observer, Gossamer Commons,

See also The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, Talk About Comics, The Living Comic, Online Comics Day, The Belfry Comics Index, The Webcomic List, Mister Bloo, Nth Degree, 100% Originality Theatre, Girls Read Comics (And They're Pissed), Fleen, Comixpedia and Websnark.

Arthuriana sources I use or recommend:
Arthurian Legend
Arthuriana - the Journal of Arthurian Studies; the website of the quarterly journal of the North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society.
The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester.
Camelot In Four Colors: A Survey of the Arthurian Legend in Comics
Mystical-WWW - The Arthurian A2Z knowledge Bank which has encyclopedically-arranged entries on the characters of the Arthurian legends.
Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table, Volume 1 and Volume 2.