| |
Paul Gadzikowski
|
| |
http://wwwarthurkingoftimeandspacecom/
|
| |
Daily
|
| |
May 21 , 2004
|
|
'' is a "gag-a-day" Webcomic by Paul Gadzikowski, based on Arthurian Legend .
The strip started on May 21 , 2004 , with Arthur pulling the sword Excalibur from the stone while Merlin looked on, and is projected to continue more or less in realtime, with the characters aging and the plot progressing one year for each year of the strip's run.
The premise of the strip is that Arthur's destiny is too great to be contained within a single lifetime, and that Arthur and his associates exist at multiple points in space and time. This allows Gadzikowski to tell a number of parallel but contrasting versions of the story in different settings, switching between them for dramatic, humorous, or rhetorical effect.
There are three major settings/ Story Arc s:
- The " Fairy Tale arc", a straight (allowing for the fact that it's a humor strip) retelling of the legend. Arthur is the High King of Britain in a time that's nominally the Fifth Century A.D. but is laced with Anachronism s and Fantasy . At the current point in the story, Lancelot and Guenevere have only recently arrived at Camelot (although Arthur has met them previously). When Guenevere visited, Arthur got betrothed to her, and they are now married. Arthur recently set up the Knights of the Round Table, to uphold justice and chivalry throughout the British Isles. Merlin, Arthur's trusted advisor, is a wizard and knows the future, but Arthur never heeds his warnings.
- The " Space arc", a Space Opera re-envisioning of the legend with '' Star Trek '' and '' Star Wars '' influences. Arthur is the High King of all British space during the decline of the Roman interstellar empire, and commanding officer of the starship Excalibur, which is the largest and best ship left in British space. Guenevere and Lancelot are members of his crew. Early in the strip's second year, Arthur proposed to Guenevere; they are now married. Arthur recently set up the Knights of the Round Table, to uphold justice and chivalry throughout British space. Merlin, Arthur's trusted advisor, is from an advanced alien race, the Avalon ians, and knows the future because he's been there (the Avalonians have Time Travel ), but Arthur never heeds his warnings.
- The "contemporary arc". Arthur is a US high school student - since (as the strip makes a point of mentioning) the Age Of Majority in the modern US is higher than in fifth century England, it will be some time before he becomes this arc's version of High King - who has an after-school job at the comics shop owned by his art teacher, Merlin (who is also currently his guardian, as his adopted father is in the military), and spends the rest of his free time playing Online Role-playing Games in which he teams up with Guenevere (whom he is dating) and Lancelot (whom he has also met in the real world). Merlin and Arthur both draw webcomics, opening the way for metahumor, and Merlin has a young ward, Nimue ; if he knows the future, he's not letting on.
In addition to the three major arcs, there are a number of secondary arcs, which appear less often and don't parallel the overall plot as closely. So far these include:
- The Western arc, in which Arthur is Sheriff in an Old West town, with Lancelot et al. as his deputies. The western arc follows the overall arc in the broad outlines (while the newly-crowned king has trouble gaining the respect of his subject kings, the newly-appointed sheriff has trouble gaining the respect of the local Rancher s), but not in all the details.
- The Movie Parody arcs. These arcs, while containing character and situational parallels, completely ignore the overall plot arc, instead running through the plot of the relevant movie in slightly over a week. Movie parody arcs to date have included:
- ---'' The Lord Of The Rings '', with Arthur-as- Frodo Baggins bound to destroy the "One Grail " with the aid of Merlin-as- Gandalf , Lancelot-as- Aragorn , etc.
- ---'''', with Arthur as Luke Skywalker and Merlin as Obi-Wan Kenobi (and a "behind-the-scenes" joke with several female characters protesting the cartoonist's casting of Princess Leia ).
- ---'' Serenity '', with Arthur as Mal . In this setting Merlin is younger than Arthur, playing Simon Tam . The "wise old man" role of Book is instead taken by Ector. Similarly Lancelot is Wash and Guenevere is Zoë , although their baseline personalities would suggest the opposite.
- The MASH arc, in which Arthur and his friends are doctors in a mobile army surgical hospital in the Korean War . Although clearly based on '' M---A---S---H '', with Arthur as Hawkeye Pierce , Guinevere as Hot Lips Houlihan etc., this is not simply another movie parody, but a "full" secondary arc. An interesting aspect of this arc is that Morgan and Nimue are male, taking the roles of Trapper John McIntyre and Radar O'Reilly . (Now that Morgan has ceased to be a regular character in the main arcs, Gawain has joined the M---A---S---H arc in the B. J. Hunnicutt role).
- The ". Gunevere is in the Lois Lane role, and the Knights of the Round Table are the superteam Table of Justice, including Lancelot as the Batman -like White Night.
Other settings - such as the prehistoric setting in which Arthur is a Caveman and Excalibur is a Pointy Rock - have made one-off appearances to support specific jokes. A number of such one-off settings have been parodies of other webcomics.
Other characters that have featured in the major arcs so far include:
- . In the space arc, he is running things while Arthur's away on the Excalibur. In the contemporary arc he attends high school and (unlike Arthur) can't wait to be an adult. In both these arcs he has a relationship with Bedivere (who's female).
- , plotting against Arthur. In the space arc, Morgan (who is married to King Uriens of Gore) is allied with the otherdimensional Fae, and has a grudge against Arthur, but until recently has been unable to act against him because of a time paradox - a younger version of herself, who was still Merlin's apprentice and only beginning to think of allying with the Fae, was a crewmember on the Excalibur and a rival with Guenevere for Arthur's affections. In the contemporary arc, Morgan Cornwall (who is engaged to Uriens Gore, a Senior Vice-President at Excalicorp), was Arthur's drama teacher, who had a relationship with Merlin as a student.
:Morgan is is no longer a regular from the contemporary arc (having left following the death of her brother-in-law, and subsequently gone to Hollywood ) and the space arc (having been returned to her own time after Merlin found she was having a relationship with Arthur, not knowing they were half-siblings). She and her mother Ygraine have since arrived at Camelot in the fairy tale arc, and she has become one of Arthur's advisors. Now that she no longer risks interfering in her own timeline, the grown-up Morgan in the space arc has become a recurring villain. In both the space and fairy tale arcs she is currently plotting with her lover Accolon .
- opposed to Arthur's rule. He is married to Morgan's sister Morgause and has four sons. He did not appear in the contemporary arc. The strip's first year ended with the rebel kings being defeated at Bedegraine, and Lot's death in the fairy tale, space, and western arcs. Shortly afterwards his death (of natural causes) was reported in the contemporary arc.
- is the one with the brains.
- '''s Gwenhwyvach, "Gwen the lesser"). The contemporary Leodegrance and his family are Nudists .
- to keep him away from the King's wife Isolde . He is openly antagonistic to Merlin (this ''not'' being part of the original legend, but represents Arthur's choices between defending Britain through arms or magic). In the contemporary arc Tristam is a college graduate who joined Arthur's online RPG group (as "sadslacker") while Lancelot ("lakeboi") was absent, and remained on his return. The contemporary Tristam's uncle is the CEO of a large company, and is married to a doctor whom Tristam loves. In both the space and contemporary arcs, Tristram is female (Gadzikowski acknowledges the similarity to '' Camelot 3000 '', but has his own reasons for the gender-change). Apparently the space and contemporary Marks are unaware of her mutual attraction to Isolde; although space Mark believes Isolde's having an affair with ''someone'', but thinks it's another man. In all three arcs Tristram is a musician, enabling jokes about the creative process. In the contemporary arc, she is in a band with Palamedes (rhythm) and Dinadan (drums), both of whom have their origins in the '' Prose Tristan ''.
- Griflet : A young and steadfast knight, who gets badly beaten on his first quest. In the space arc he runs the signals console on the ''Excalibur''. He has also appeared in the contemporary arc as a "server" at an internet cafe.
- Mordred : Thus far Mordred has only appeared properly in the space arc, where he is the son of Arthur and Morgan, but, because Morgan was sent back to her own time period to have her child, is currently a crewmember on the ''Excalibur'' and not much younger than Arthur. In the fairy tale arc, it is Morgause whom Arthur unknowingly fathers Mordred on, and he is still a baby.
- . He usually gets on well with Arthur, but tends to tunnel vision when it comes to the Beast, or other quests. In the space arc, he is also a king, and knight of the Round Table, although the Questing Beast has not yet been mentioned. In the contemporary arc, Pellenore is a friend of Ector and Merlin, and has at least once gone into the sewers to look for alligators.
- '', he is also responsible for the banishment of all children who might be Mordred, based on overhearing Arthur and Merlin discussing what they ''shouldn't'' do. Shortly afterwards he and his brother Balan killed each other by mistake (as in the legends). As well as Balan, his other brothers in the strip include Balen, Balon, Balun, Balyn and Balwn.
- Cabal: Arthur's dog. An ordinary dog in the three main arcs, although, as in legend, he has the red ears and eyes of a Fairy hound. He has also played Chewbacca in the '' Star Wars '' parody, and Bun-Bun in a parody of '' Sluggy Freelance ''
- Merlin's friends: In the space arc, Merlin has many friends in different time periods, all displaced to the same extent as the Arthurian period. In the contemporary arc these characters live in the present, and are Merlin's old friends from Fandom and Hippy culture.
- ---" period, which resembles the 20th century), and has a Superhero -like Secret Identity . In the contemporary arc, Hercules lives in the present day and is an old friend of Merlin's.
- ---Sam: In the space arc, Uncle Sam is a member of Merlin's race, who travels with his apprentice, Liberty . In the contemporary arc he is Sam Adams, another old friend of Merlin, and the principal of the school.
- --- Oedipus : A blind king, presumably also from Hellas, who Merlin took the young Arthur to meet in the space arc. He has not yet appeared in the contemporary arc.
|
