Wapsi Square Forum

I followed a link in a daily discussion thread and came across this page

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dark-matter/

and can't but not be curious about the artwork on the bench top.

Does anyone know what is is about/means?

It means that Tina has a really good interior designer, and one that knows their Meso-American artistic motif.

Well, it looks Meso-American, but I believe it's actually more (or less) exotic than that.

Tina is following along in a restaurant tradition - displaying pictures of notable celebrities who have been patrons in the past. This is clearly a photo of a group of Star Wars fans, who were taking part in a big group cosplay at the CONvergence SF con in Minneapolis a few years ago, and who stopped by for coffee and pastries one morning.

Tina just couldn't resist showing off the fact that she had successfully brewed up a Mocha Jawa.

I should be asleep ... instead I appear to be tinkering with GIMP:



Looks like a single figure in quadruplicate. (Of course, only the closest was rendered with enough pixels to make out anything.)

Not my continent, nor my area of expertise, but it has a kinda iconic feel to it, doesn't it? Of course, I'm sure our generous host could fake it, but I'm curious if anyone recognizes the figure? Or is that notion just more evidence that I should be asleep?

Definitely not an expert either, but I have watched more than my fair share of Discovery and History Channel (that is, when most of their shows were actually about science and history, not reality tv and aliens, respectively)

The nasal (possibly nasal septum) piercing, the headdress, and the overall art style are reminiscent of the ancient Central American cultures. Don't ask me which one, I have a real hard time telling the difference between them all. All I know is the olmecs had big stone heads, and I think the Aztecs had the step pyramids and the Mayans were responsible for constructing Macchu Picchu (spelling?)

we may have seen some more counter artwork - this time from the front.

last panel
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/get-this-sorted/

I'm nowhere near 100% certain, but my guess is that is part of the counter.

Call me cynical, but there is too much effort(detail?) on the counter
for it not to be of some significance?.

*WARNING*
Above link goes to TV Tropes
Do NOT click that link unless you are will to risk losing several hours of your day.

Nope, the last panel in "Get this sorted" takes place in Monica's mystic headspace; read the NEXT two or three comics to see.

NOTDilbert wrote:Nope, the last panel in "Get this sorted" takes place in Monica's mystic headspace; read the NEXT two or three comics to see.

You're right.

In fact, following a link I found this page (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/simplify-things/)
which has a good view of the front of the counter, which appears to be ... brickwork?

It also has a view of the top of the counter again that seems to show the same artwork.

and between that page and Nudge entering the shop (http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dish-it-out/) the artwork can be seen in a number of panels.

From my point of view, and from what I know about producing images and artwork, it would seem Paul is expending a fair bit of effort on that countertop. If he draws it himself, that would be a whole lot of detail in a very small space. If he copy/pastes it and then skews, stretches, and rotates it, that's still a lot of effort and time to spend on something that, if left blank, wouldn't be out of place.

...it's just... weird for something so ordinary and, under normal circumstances totally benign, to have so much work put into it. And not only once, but on multiple occasions. It just makes my teeth itch.

(Side note: the word genre-savvyness totally freaks out my iPad's spellcheck. It's underlining each word individually, the hyphen itself, and the whole mess as a whole. All at once. I think I may have borked the English language a little bit...)

GlytchMeister wrote:(Side note: the word genre-savvyness totally freaks out my iPad's spellcheck. It's underlining each word individually, the hyphen itself, and the whole mess as a whole. All at once. I think I may have borked the English language a little bit...)

"You broke it, you bought it." "Verbing weirds language."

You can put the broken pieces in the Pun Jar, along with your payment. We'll try to glue them back together, but that's never guaranteed to purple monkey bus dishwasher.

GlytchMeister wrote:...it's just... weird for something so ordinary and, under normal circumstances totally benign, to have so much work put into it. And not only once, but on multiple occasions. It just makes my teeth itch.

It's possible that this detailing is, somehow, one of the Chekhov's Guns in Paul's massive armory. It may be a "planted out in plain sight" clue for a plotline reveal that he has planned for some point in the future.

Or, it could just be Paul's way. He often puts a lot of attention into detail. Take a look at the work he did on Shelly's wings in this commissioned drawing... completely incredible. It looks even better in the original ink-on-board

Back when Becky lost her meds and was revealed to be dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Paul posted in the late-lamented Comments area of the main board, saying that he also was vulnerable to OCD. I think he said that he'd once been "trapped" by the same sort of compulsive light-switch-flipping loop that Becky showed here.

I have a suspicion that this "attention to detail" part of his personality is a big contributor to how he can handle the intricacy of the plotting of Wapsi Square as well as he does. He keeps surprising us with twists, and they turn out to be either (1) planned long in advance, with supporting clues scattered throughout the story to justify them, or (2) made up more recently, but done so carefully that they fit into earlier details of the story in an plausible fashion, and look as if they were fully planned.

So, it's possible that the detailing of the countertop is important to the story... or, it may just "feel right" to Paul to do it that way. We won't know until he tells us (directly or by a reveal). Until then I'm just going enjoy it!

I don't know, it purple monkey bussed MY dishwasher; did you fork?

It's definitely a Mesoamerican inspired image, if not one outright. So, something Aztec or Mayan or one of the other regional groups (understandably, they have a lot in common in their artwork). Not Inca. I'm not an expert on the subject, and the image is all smudged anyway, so I haven't any real notion of anything beyond that, even whether it is an actual historical image or just something made up for this.

I'm more inclined to say Aztec, because I've seen a lot of Aztec imagery that shows figures in that exact same basic stance.

Dave wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:(Side note: the word genre-savvyness totally freaks out my iPad's spellcheck. It's underlining each word individually, the hyphen itself, and the whole mess as a whole. All at once. I think I may have borked the English language a little bit...)

"You broke it, you bought it." "Verbing weirds language."

You can put the broken pieces in the Pun Jar, along with your payment. We'll try to glue them back together, but that's never guaranteed to purple monkey bus dishwasher.

NOTDilbert wrote:I don't know, it purple monkey bussed MY dishwasher; did you fork?

*scoops up what's left of the English Language with a broom and dustpan, dumps them into the pun jar, followed shortly afterwards by a Little, Brown Handbook and a Kindle full of classic English and American Literature, including works by Poe, Mark Twain, Dickens, and many others.
Tosses a value pack of Gorilla Glue in for good measure.*

"Monkey Villa bathroom color field..."
*waits a moment..., shakes the pun jar a bit*
"Arrghleblarghleabbpthbpthaeiousometimesyneverbcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxz..."
*glares at pun jar for a moment*
"How about now? Oh, hey, it's fixed!"

Yay, my first pun jar payment!

The comments about Paul paying attention to the details of the countertop/Mucho Mocha in general and "..it must mean something!" put me in mind of Tina's choker.

"She just likes to wear it," quoth Sr. Taylor.

Ha!

Fairportfan wrote:The comments about Paul paying attention to the details of the countertop/Mucho Mocha in general and "..it must mean something!" put me in mind of Tina's choker.

"She just likes to wear it," quoth Sr. Taylor.

Ha!

Aaah! Your right! She doesn't seem to be seen without it! Not even on the beach cafe print! And she was in a bathing suit for that!

[twilightzone]do do do do do do do do.... What does it mean?[/twilightzone]

...!

Tina's freaky Dia de Los Muertos life-size doll, that she keeps in her basement and talks to! AHHHHH!

GlytchMeister wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:The comments about Paul paying attention to the details of the countertop/Mucho Mocha in general and "..it must mean something!" put me in mind of Tina's choker.

"She just likes to wear it," quoth Sr. Taylor.

Ha!

Aaah! Your right! She doesn't seem to be seen without it! Not even on the beach cafe print! And she was in a bathing suit for that!

[twilightzone]do do do do do do do do.... What does it mean?[/twilightzone]

...!

Tina's freaky Dia de Los Muertos life-size doll, that she keeps in her basement and talks to! AHHHHH!

Some people just feel naked without something on their necks. I knew a nudist that if she did not have on some neck jewelry she felt too self conscious to go out nude. (And I am not kidding here)

GlytchMeister wrote:

Fairportfan wrote:The comments about Paul paying attention to the details of the countertop/Mucho Mocha in general and "..it must mean something!" put me in mind of Tina's choker.

"She just likes to wear it," quoth Sr. Taylor.

Ha!

Aaah! Your right! She doesn't seem to be seen without it! Not even on the beach cafe print! And she was in a bathing suit for that!

There is one page - i forget which - that (unless Paul has fixed it) has her without it.

Paul lampshaded it in the sequence when Tina was explaining herself to Monica, and Monica said something like "Don't tell me that choker is to hold your head on!"

Mark N:

Although I find your kinda-nudist story very strange, for some reason it doesn't surprise me. I guess that's what happens when you spend enough time on the Internet. Or when you know as much useless crap as I do.

Fairportfan:

...I am so glad I already know what lampshade hanging is... Otherwise, I would have been sucked into that TVTropes black hole of a link you just posted without warning to Internet surfers who aren't as skilled in the ways of the Internet as we are...

(Insert Jedi mind trick joke here)

Who, me?

<looks innocent, whistles casually, sidles away>