Playing with your Dollies

May 19, 2010 12:55 PM

In an alternate universe, where steampunk is the norm at the court in Versailles, the Sun King has gone missing. Welcome to the world of the Puppet Makers, an online comic from the imagination of MeFi's own The Whelk and his familiar illustrator/partner Molly Crabapple. [Flash interface]

Only 8 pages are available now, but updates are posted every Wednesday.

Via MeFi Projects (additional links on Projects page)

posted by hippybear (49 comments total)

It seems so... Whimsical!
posted by kaibutsu at 1:06 PM on May 19, 2010

I thought it was spelled eminence....
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:14 PM on May 19, 2010

Oh man I was totally going to make this post but I was holding out for more pages.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:15 PM on May 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

(beautiful artwork, tho, and intriguing start of storyline...)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:15 PM on May 19, 2010

Unless the imminent eminence emanates.
posted by joost de vries at 1:19 PM on May 19, 2010

I'm thinking M&Ms.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:23 PM on May 19, 2010

Can't wait to see the whole thing. Wonderful work, Whelk!
posted by hermitosis at 1:25 PM on May 19, 2010

I'm still pretty sure this is actually A Batman in King Arthur's Court.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:28 PM on May 19, 2010

This is great work, Whelk and Molly. Be proud.
posted by rokusan at 1:28 PM on May 19, 2010

Oh, this is really lovely to look at! more more more!!
posted by bewilderbeast at 1:30 PM on May 19, 2010

FLASH, WHELK?! DO YOU KNOW WHAT EVIL YOU HAVE WROUGHT?!

no, but seriously, this is excellent.
posted by shmegegge at 1:31 PM on May 19, 2010

Wow, that's moved on a lot since I saw it as rough pencils. Good stuff!
posted by Artw at 1:34 PM on May 19, 2010

i'm with the chick in the last panel. AAAAAHHHHHHH! indeed.
i'm all atwitter to know what happens now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by sio42 at 1:35 PM on May 19, 2010

Have we gone a whole half hour with no "hurf durf steam punk" commentary?

Any praise I might give pales by comparison.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 1:37 PM on May 19, 2010

Beautiful work.

I have to ask, Whelk -- why Zuda? I've considered it before, but have always come back to self-platforming my material. Without getting into a tedious rant, I have some serious reservations about Zuda as a comics creator. Was the dropping of the competition format a decision-changer for you?
posted by Shepherd at 1:40 PM on May 19, 2010

Zuda approached Molly and we basically got the chance to do our dream project for pay with a major publisher. I could not turn that down.


P.S Thanks everyone for the comments! I've been stomach-shakingly nervous ever since this went live.
posted by The Whelk at 1:44 PM on May 19, 2010

This looks quite good. I think this sub-sub-genre is technically known as clockpunk, though, if you really want to get into all the -punk names.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:46 PM on May 19, 2010

This is pretty cool!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:46 PM on May 19, 2010

Oh man I was totally going to make this post but I was holding out for more pages.

Heh. So was I. :D
posted by zarq at 1:47 PM on May 19, 2010

Damn cool!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:50 PM on May 19, 2010

I use the term RokokoPunk myself.
posted by The Whelk at 1:50 PM on May 19, 2010

Plot summary so far:

The clothes have no emperor.

Very nice work!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:52 PM on May 19, 2010

I use the term RokokoPunk myself.

To be fair, this is mostly because you're illiterate.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:53 PM on May 19, 2010 [5 favorites]

What is this Zuda interface? I love the story, but wow.
posted by boo_radley at 1:53 PM on May 19, 2010

My sweet round Southern ass loves this.

Why oh Why isn't Miss Crabapple a MetaFilter member? (or is she cloaked?)
posted by ColdChef at 1:57 PM on May 19, 2010

She's cloaked in eminence. It's an eminence front.

I have no idea what I'm talking about. Again.
posted by Babblesort at 2:01 PM on May 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm hooked already.
But is there a trick to seeing the pictures? I'm seeing very muddy images -- dark and light yellow on dark and light brown, and looking desperately for a contrast control slider somewhere. Some kind of copy protection?
Firefox on a Mac, if that makes a difference in how it appears onscreen.
Haven't been 'validated' there yet, hoping for more control once registered.
posted by hank at 2:03 PM on May 19, 2010

This is great. Congrats to you The Whelk!
posted by Mister_A at 2:08 PM on May 19, 2010

Very nice and Whelkish! Congratulations, and keep it up.
posted by languagehat at 2:19 PM on May 19, 2010

hank: here is what page 5 looks like on my computer (screenshot). The whole comic uses limited color schemes (so far), so maybe you're seeing it correctly? Not sure what it looks like on your monitor.
posted by hippybear at 2:39 PM on May 19, 2010

This really does look fantastic--I saw it on io9 a few days ago, but didn't realize that it was by someone I "knew", so to speak.

However, unless there's a hidden method of subscribing to an rss feed somewhere, I'll forget all about it and never find out what happens! And that would be awful.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 3:14 PM on May 19, 2010

Well, it's no Pluggers, but it'll do in a pinch. Nice work, The Whelk!
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:55 PM on May 19, 2010

I use the term RokokoPunk myself.

To be fair, this is mostly because you're illiterate.

posted by shakespeherian at 1:53 PM on May 19

Pot, meet kettle.
posted by hincandenza at 5:01 PM on May 19, 2010

She's cloaked in eminence. It's an eminence front.

It's a put-on.
posted by MikeMc at 5:58 PM on May 19, 2010

the court in Versailles

Speaking as one of your fans, The Whelk, let me just say that there better be some cute (preferably nude) Frenchmen with asses like so many delicious baked goods.
posted by Avenger at 7:58 PM on May 19, 2010

MY POSTCARDS FROM PARIS ARE HAUNTING ME

BTW that trip to Versallies was TOTALLy work-related, right IRS
posted by The Whelk at 8:42 PM on May 19, 2010

just need to point out that your Harlan Ellison reference HAS BEEN DULY NOTED, SIR.
posted by shmegegge at 9:03 PM on May 19, 2010

Is there a whistling slyly emoticon?
posted by The Whelk at 9:04 PM on May 19, 2010

Pot, meet kettle.

Nice to meet you, kettle.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:11 PM on May 19, 2010

Oh tell us what you really think shakesperherian IF THAT IS YOUR REAL NAME
posted by The Whelk at 9:13 PM on May 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

It is. My parents didn't capitalize on the birth certificate. It made kindergarten very difficult.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:29 PM on May 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

constantly having to deliver soliloquies, hard on any man, let alone a boy.
posted by The Whelk at 9:37 PM on May 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

Was that a pass? You're outta line, mister.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:37 PM on May 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

whatever you say beautiful.
posted by The Whelk at 9:39 PM on May 19, 2010 [2 favorites]

I use the term RokokoPunk myself.

I believe the technical term is BaRawk.
posted by ersatz at 2:36 AM on May 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

That was some beautiful work, right there. I was totally bummed that there were only 8, and only once a week, but that detail must take forever! I can't wait to see more.

Also, having just played through Bioshock (1, shutup, I'm always way behind) some of the imagery is triggering flashbacks to underwater freaky masque-ness.
posted by This Guy at 5:33 AM on May 20, 2010

Awesome!
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:07 AM on May 20, 2010

Sweet.

Not my favorite interface, though.
posted by HFSH at 8:48 AM on May 20, 2010

Molly Crabapple's DIY Empire: A How To
posted by ColdChef at 9:58 AM on May 21, 2010