Some questions...

[K-MacK]

[Happygun]

Eat the - THEN I'll be impressed.

[Wizard_of_odd]

[tyrant]

[K-MacK]

[Wizard_of_odd]

Happygun , I think I'll pass on that pepper , I just checked the scovile chart on it ...SCARY!

I think I'll stick with K-mac and continue eating habanero peppers ( I like my lining of my stomach and I don't want another ulcer )

although I could be convinced that you have found one of the few things that could make a rather tough werewolf cry...

[K-MacK]

[Zenoseiya]

I will attempt to ask several bizarre questions relating to the comic, and sometimes provide related information for reference:

1) Do thralls transmit lycanthropy, or do only born lycanthropes?

Is lycanthropy specifically a virus/retrovirus, bacterium, nanite/nanobot/nanoship/nanogene/nanomachine, protein, fungus/algae, fluke/leech, or a parasite, etc? Is the condition genetic? Can it be cloned?

How can claws transmit the disease if they don't have any fluids? Do werewolves have platypus poison or something?

Why would lycanthropy be transmitted like a disease? Hollywood created that concept. In fact, the only ways to become a werewolf in folklore was either to be a witch, devour a wolf and wear its skin, or be born one. Incidentally, they didn't serve the devil, but were servants of God chosen to fight demons and protect mankind. Since your comic is supposedly based on folklore, why is this?

Example: In D&D/d20 Modern, only natural lycanthropes can transmit the disease, and are incurable, whereas afflicted lycanthropes can be cured by ingesting deadly nightshade (and die while they're at it). In Ravenloft, however, the saliva, blood, sexual secretions, urine, all other body fluids, etc. of a lycanthrope, no matter whether born or afflicted, would transmit the disease. Just like HIV/AIDS, but horrifyingly more virile/contagious.

Example: In the book Peeps, werewolves were created by a parasite infesting wolves, whereas in Necroscope they were wolves infested with an algae-fungal leech. Also, real-life Mad Cow Disease is caused by a mutated self-replicating protein infesting the brain.

2) Again, is this comic based on the werewolf template present in D&D/d20 Modern? Because from the way it looks, that's pretty likely. Although White Wolf practically created the whole werewolf fandom, so anything relating to werewolf packs and such was their original brainchild.

EDIT: Am I right in assuming that the comic is also partially based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse? Aside, that game is SO dead. They have the superior Werewolf: The Forsaken[i] replacing it now.

3) What kind of forms can werewolves take? Normal Human, Giant Hairy Human, Anthropomorphic Giant Wolf, Anthropomorphic Wolf (Human-size), Giant Wolf, Normal Wolf, etc.

Can werewolves change parts of their bodies into other things, like arms into claws/swords/wings, or use their scalp hair as bladed tentacle-like weapons, etc? Can they grow extra limbs or tentacles, etc?

Can the severed body parts of a werewolf grow into independent creatures? Can these "parts" infest a human corpse or a live human?

Example: In [i]Werewolf: The Forsaken, werewolves can take on five forms ranging from human to wolf and everywhere in between. In Blood & Chocolate, they are limited to normal human and normal wolf. In D&D, they can take on human, hybrid, and wolf forms.

4) Are werewolves separated into clans or bloodlines? Do they have any powers beyond shapeshifting? Is there such a thing as a "pureblood" werewolf?

5) What other creatures can werewolves breed with? Normal humans, other werewolves, normal wolves? If they had a child with a human (without infection), what would the child be? If they had a child with a wolf, what would the child be? Can wolves be infected?

6) Are there other werebeasts besides wolves and foxes? Do the same metaphysical rules apply to all of them universally? Why are they different?

7) The old myths actually do tie vamps and were together: in ancient Greece and Rome, for example, werewolves who died would rise as vampires. If vampires did exist in the comic, which I would lobby for, why would they have to be undead? Why can't they be living, breathing creatures (just like werewolves) in the tradition of Blood: The Last Vampire, Vampire Knight, Lost Souls, and Necroscope? The comic wolves break the original folkloric stereotypes in many ways (and conforming to Hollywood, which I hate), so why not vamps?

EDIT: If vampires died exist, why would they have to be at war with the werewolves? The folklore actually said they more often than not worked together, in some cases even being related species.

Are we ever going to see other supernatural beings as students in the college? It would be very funny to find that the town has a whole supernatural underworld (even literally) the pack knows little about. Teachers who teach daemonology, students who are the halfbreed children of alien gods, young misguided occultists dedicated to doomsday, Mothmen teaching religion, an alien in class trying to conquer the world, a night class of vampires, etc. Really dreamy if I do say so myself.

[Kris@WLP]

[Kaeto]

[bar1scorpio]

Nah...
sorry, but I'm having to devote as much time & effort at possible to finishing he redux of Not NHS in Space #2 it's the last part of the project, and there are some readers who are definitely 'p'oed at my slacking off. (None to mention, myself.) It really shouldn't have taken so damned long, but hey, lifes been one long distraction of recent. Hopefully, the update this week will actually be to the Not NHS pages in the comics section. Idea to be showing two pages, one old, one new version... show you guys what I'm trying to accomplish here while I lollygag.

Another thing I managed to finish though were three pieces on my . Three submissions to the 'Artists Wanted Contest'. Maybe my way to get in there for free next year. And there's a deadline, so I wanted to finally wrap up those pieces this week as well.

[Kris@WLP]

Uploading an explanatory filler now, actually.

[Zenoseiya]

So... PitW lycanthropy is pretty much in the same vein (no pun intended) as the mutagenic and relatively mundane Progenitor-template retroviruses? I'm a Biohazard fan, so I'm cool with that.

Although I have to say, I'm sad there isn't any other kind of monster in the series other than lycans.

[Kris@WLP]

[bar1scorpio]

[Fionn the Otaku]

[Zenoseiya]

I'm not saying that it IS a mutagenic virus, I'm saying it has the most resemblance to the Progenitor family of mutagenic viruses in modus operandi: increase in size, loss of intellect, regeneration, extremely contagious. That and the parasite in the movie The Cave, which it is even closer to. Meaning the same as "zombie apocalypse," except with werewolves.

Where the extra mass comes from? That can be explained away easily: transmutation. Lycanthropy has accomplished what alchemists have been trying to do for centuries: converting matter. They simply convert the air or objects in contact into extra mass. Although this breaks the law of natural providence.

Aside, the comic doesn't present any convincing arguments that magic does exist or that people practice it, so where's the side arguing that the disease is magic? I personally see it as what that philosopher guy said about advancement and magic: lycanthropy is sufficiently advanced that it is indistinguishable from magic, which itself is simply something as yet beyond science.

But I detest speculation if it serves no practical purpose...

[Happygun]

[Les]

[Finnfemfel]

[K-MacK]

NOT KRIS SIGN

Okay: The way I got it was like this: they don't know what does it...some say it's a spiritual thing, and some say it's a busy little Virus or Viroid, but whatever it is, the Were's don't know.
Kinda like Pasteur and the Germ theory: Before Pasteur proved that Germs lived in the air as well as water and blood, nobody could figure out why beer sometimes spoiled for no reason, or why bread-dough would change flavor, from sweet to sour.
They could see the germs, but didn't know where they were coming from. There was even a "Vegetative Force" theory saying they just appeared out of nothing.
Eventually, Pasteur showed that microbes live in the very air around us, and could infect things they came in contact with.

Right now, the Were's in PiTW are at the pre-Pasteur position of not being able to prove anything conclusively. Hence, they don't know.
One supposes that eventually someone will find out the cause of their Lycanthropy; but probably the testing equipment hasn't been invented yet.

[Happygun]

Kris has stated on several occasions that the source, agent, carrier, etc. of Lycanthropy will never be revealed. The point being, I believe, that it serves no purpose in the storyline. It works, and that's all we'll ever know or need to know.

More to the point, what is "magic" if not some phenomena that cannot yet be explained and dissected? As far as I'm concerned arguing whether Lycanthropy in PitW is magical or biological in nature is arguing whether or not it behaves in accordance to existing scientific paradigms. Paradigms change.

[bar1scorpio]

Although saliva-to-blood may work as a transmission form, hence why biting is dangerous. And certainly semen to uterine lining, particularly since it was Sarah's first time... (there was some bleeding...)

Then again, according to Jean in the first issue, it may have been prevented through use of a condom. Now is this her mother talking, who's a strict "it's science" side of the argument? Or is it true? And if it works along those lines, that also means that it'd be harder for a female to transmit her lycanthropy to a male.

[K-MacK]

[Finnfemfel]