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No. 111: Would ye olde boothe babbes wear wimples?

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Would ye olde boothe babbes wear wimples?

First | Previous | 2017-03-08 | Next | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/pomh/?comic=111

Strip by: Ian Boreham

title: Medieval Trade Shows

{Some colourful tents that look like Hollywood-style "medieval" tournament tents are set up as trade show booths. At one, a middle-aged man in plate armour is talking to an elderly gentleman behind the counter, and a boy in chain mail is listening to a spiel by a flash young salesman.}
elderly man: Our RAID-compliant systems provide you with 5 levels of weapon redundancy, so you never miss a beat.
Young salesman: Our patented tech.
Young salesman (pointing at head of polearm): it's a glaive and a guisarme! And if you place an order here at the show, we'll include a kit that lets you use it as a voulge or a bardiche!
writing on booth counter: The 7S Framework - Slashing, Stabbing, Slicing, Skewering, Severing, Sieging, Setting fire to
more writing: Standards-compliant polearms for all your military needs

The author writes:

It's International Women's Day, and there's not a woman to be seen in my strip. I could be hauled over the coals. But it's that strange institution, the trade show, and people who organise those seem to relegate women to being booth babes (actually, that seems to be finally in decline now), and it's probably safer to leave out those particular icons of feminism... Perhaps I should have gone for an anachronistic female weapons technology expert. After all, what's one more anachronism in a strip like this?

In other news, The problems I was having with my tablet and pen are finally fixed, it appears. Microsoft replaced the pen under warranty, and the new one not only doesn't fail all the time: it actually feels really smooth and lets me draw more naturally. That's how my first pen felt initially, but I think it became less sensitive as it started to die, and I got used to pressing harder all the time without realising it.

I thought I wasn't going to be able to colour this strip at all, but one day after placing the support call, the new pen arrived. In Australia, that's considered a miracle. The support staff were also very helpful. The web site was crap, though - the buttons to request on-line chat or phone-back support did nothing at all, and I eventually had to hunt through the web site to find an actual phone number to call, and then wait on hold for half an hour...

Drawn in Krita and Inkscape.