June 2nd, 2010
All Alone in the Moonlight
I wrote and drew this strip yesterday, but I didn’t really understand what it meant until this morning.
That’s the way I try to work: go with what feels right in my gut and try not to worry that it doesn’t make sense in my head, because eventually, somewhere down the road, it will.
Of course, that didn’t stop me from stressing about it all night.
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I can’t wait to see where this one is going. Also? Mmmm maple syrup. Charles must be in Quebec. lol Now I want pancakes for dinner.
I’m so friggin’ hungry now. om nom nom nom.
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Great foreshadowing Karl – but I’m sure Charles is hungry and that Maple Syrup would be very refreshing and energizing . We get to see one of the entrances to the city – one that Charles should not use .
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:32 pm
awhh charless.
someone’s got your back.
June 2nd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Hrmm, so our friend Charles hasn’t been running around the forest his entire life? I love when you do the smaller, funny comics, but these plot-centric ones are superb and why I keep coming back. Excellent work, as usual.
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:06 pm
That is so interesting and strange. Come to think of it, I used to work like that… when I wasn’t so caught up in commissions, when I drew what I wanted to draw.
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:09 pm
For a long long while, I thought that Charles was in a rubber plantation. Took me a long moment to realise he wasn’t.
Good work on the comic! It’s amazing. Have you ever thought of putting out another strip on another day?
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Charles is no sap! He knows life is sweet…
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Mmmm… syrup.
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:03 pm
I hear the voice of Mama Bear, reminding Papa Bear that Charles won’t embarrass the family…
Listen to your Mama, Charles.
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Beautiful, as always. The image of Charles wandering among the tapped trees is surreal and haunting… You have an amazing ability to capture the strangeness of human interactions with nature. If the mysterious quality of this strip is a result of not knowing what it was about until after you’d made it… then I fully support this work ethic.
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:49 pm
ever the deep thinker, you are, Karl
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:34 pm
That’s exactly how I write actually. I just write the story and find that it inevitably wraps itself up nicely. As if the whole thing will naturally find balance in the end.
Plus that way I get to be as excited as the people reading my story for what happens. Might sound stupid but it tends to make me happiest and I get good responses from it.
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:44 pm
YAY PLOT
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:27 pm
repressed memory? Hmmm – very interesting
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:08 pm
memory flashback?!
the last one Charles was in a bib, or maybe I’ve got it all mixed up.
I say follow your gut!
Obviously, it knows what it’s doing (or where it’s going…)
as an aside, I love maple syrup.
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:17 pm
my guts tells me this foreshadow something shocking and totally unexpected. Chances are this is were they get their sap from to make sap cakes for the underground Sissi trade network.
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:47 am
Wow…
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:56 am
That’s very ornate tilling behind the faucet in Charles memory… me thinks Charles has a very interesting (possibly genteel?) past
Curiouser and curiouser!
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:42 am
Charles is in purgatory and when all the animals get together at the church, the series will end :p
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:58 am
wtf! … the sap spigots remind Charles of a wash basin??!! …and a rather ornate one, too! … Hmmm, as someone said, “Curiouser and curiouser…”
Is Charles actually “a changed man”…?
(i luv this comic so much!)
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
Chase, I first thought he was in a rubber plantation too.
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:18 am
HA! Last night I bought a whole mess of real maple syrup (a lot more than I typically get) and this morning’s ACC makes me wanna get more!
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:32 am
That’s quite fascinating. It not only adds some depth to Charles that I never even began to imagine, but it possibly clears up his little dream with Momma and Papa bear.. although it still confuses me. Wonderfully done, as always, Karl. ^^
To James: I couldn’t help laughing at your comment. XD
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:42 am
Oh good heavens.
Was Charles tossed out into the wild in secret by his royal family? The baby who was supposed to die of exposure but returns to claim his throne and birthright? Kind of cliche but I trust you to pull it off.
Or is the tiling a red herring? I understand that this is supposed to follow a Gilgimesh arc so is Charles a sort of Enkidu? Is he both?
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:48 pm
How very interesting….
Now you got me craving waffles ^^.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:22 pm
First, we got foreshadowing. Now, flashbacks. AND we get regular doses of wacky woodland hijinks. This here is what you call a balanced breakfast for the mind.
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:24 pm
As somone who spent about 2 months learning how to make maple syrup, I feel I should point out that sap does not come out of the tree as maple syrup. Maple sap is the same color and consistency as (slightly cloudy) water and is barely sweet at all. It takes several hours of boiling to turn it into anything resembling maple syrup.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:40 pm
That’s cute. And I understand what you mean.
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Rainman?
June 4th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Mmm… Syrup.
June 4th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Ethereal, mysterious, and yet somehow lighthearted at the same time – as always. Beautiful work once again. Argent Stonecutter said it well – you’ve got everything covered! Thanks for sharing another piece of your beautifully imaginative story with us.
June 4th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Well you wonder, the cats, from the middle east I’m guessing show up every now and then, they lived in an ornate house, maybe the water basin is from the same house?
June 4th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
This feels… right.
Sometimes the comic feels like you’re relying on your old skills, but this one feels like you’re going out on a limb.
June 4th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Just read through the series, and it is great. Like the memory flash there, too.
@ Usivius: I laughed when I read your comment about Charles being a changed man.
June 6th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
found out about the series recently
just caught up today
love it love it love it
$40 bucks on that hardcover seems like a steal, does anyone know if he’ll be at NYCC
June 7th, 2010 at 4:00 am
The weird thing is that they are tapping oak trees for sap and the oak trees are in full leaf. Incredible!!! Oak syrup!!! A new industry is borne.
June 7th, 2010 at 6:41 am
being jet lagged, i awoke early. reading The Abominable Charles Christopher, i did not notice the typo in the introduction. i really enjoyed going through two years of the strip and found more meaning in your latest web strips. i will report again after a second reading.
June 7th, 2010 at 8:19 am
Ok you lost me on this one – why is sap pouring out of a maple tree hot? I mean sure, sap is hot when you boil it, but trust me (I’ve licked it) the stuff comes out of the tree at a pretty low ambient temperature.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
It’s a flashback, Vashra. He’s remembering hot water pouring out of a similar spigot, and our Charles tends to overgeneralize a mite.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
I get the Edward Scissorhands/Vincent Price son and father feeling from this comic. Flashbacks of his younger days with a hint that maybe something drastic set him on his current path. When a memory returns he’s fascinated by the then and now coming together as one.
June 9th, 2010 at 8:55 am
It actually reminds me of a scene in Rainman, when Raymond panics as Charlie goes to pour himself a hot bath and tells him not to. From Charles to Charlie, I only see a step.
I love this series and am always thrilled to find the latest instalments!
June 9th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
I want to know what the flash is but I’m not going to try. I trust Karl will come up with a great story and incomparable artwork to express it.
Bar none, this has quickly become my favorite webcomic since discovering him through Scott Kurtz and PVP.
June 9th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
WHAT THE–?! Woah! XD
August 12th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
a flashback into Charles’s past? that will lead us to discover his origin? woooo