4th Wall-Breaking Commentary! Today’s episode:
Alcatraz High School ~ Episode 4: Page 50 - Britney’s Fear
*opening theme: the intro to the song “Lord of Eternity” by Kotipelto*
With your host: Anubis
Anubis: Well it’s the 50th page of this overly-long story arc, a little while ago we finally finished September 12th, 2000 after something like two years, but we’re very close to wrapping things up and having one or two shorts to highlight some different Alcatraz High students. In the meantime, here to provide commentary today is myself, Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead, and my good friend Phobos, Greek God of Fear and Panic.
Phobos: Greetings all, hope you had some sweet nightmares last night.
Anubis: So to explain why I chose Phobos, I knew I had to really terrify these kids, and I mean maybe I could have done that myself by showing up all fire and brimstone, maybe resurrect a few dead corpses from around the cemetery and do the whole Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” thing, but you know, Harry’s a good kid and I really wanted to hold up my end of the contract and go the extra mile. Egypt has some very scary Gods, don’t get me wrong, but you know, not really a God dedicated to just the concept of fear.
Phobos: You sure about that? Really? Because some smartass is probably going to find one now and be like “why didn’t you use so-and-so, Gods are supposed to be all-knowing!”
*both chuckle*
Anubis: Or, okay there’s thousands of Egyptian Gods and our civilization lasted more than 4,000 years, maybe they slipped my mind, but if there is a lesser-known Egyptian God of Fear out there somewhere, who’s going to be really angry at me for forgetting about them, Wepwawet wasn’t able to get me their phone number. But I’m good friends with a lot of Greek Gods, so I decided to give Phobos a call.
Phobos: Well I was more than happy to help. It’s been a while since I made any personal appearances. I mean besides having a potato-shaped moon orbiting the planet Mars named after me and being the root for the English word “phobia” I’m not exactly a household name anymore. Maybe this could be the start of a comeback for me.
Anubis: Well you have those two claims to fame. Just make a few more cameos in people’s webcomics and you’ll be the subject of Marvel movies in no time.
*both laugh; in the background, Sia and Hu sigh because of how much reality warping they’re going to need to do to make up for this commentary existing*
Anubis: So, would you like to explain your choices here with…Britney I think her name was?
Phobos: Ah, yes. Well you see showing up as the angel on the grave was my idea. I don’t traditionally appear like that, I’m a God so I could appear however I want to look. When you see me I’m usually a tall, muscular guy in a Greek battle helmet, but I thought it would freak them out a bit more if the angel on the grave came to life suddenly.
Anubis: Good choice, I liked it. It didn’t give off overly-Christian vibes, it still looked Greek.
Phobos: I bet a lot of you thought these fears were going to be common phobias like spiders, snakes or clowns, but no, I really meant that I was going to dig up their deepest, darkest fears. I thought to myself, what would it do to these shallow kids who’ve never had a single existential thought in their lives to suddenly be faced with things like mortality? And as you’re going to see in the next few pages, these little bullies are going to face fears many of them didn’t even know they had. And maybe, if they’re lucky, it’ll change them for the better. Give them something deeper to think about than sports and pop music.
Anubis: Right. You’re doing them a favor, really.
Phobos: Britney’s fear happened to be aging and death, a pretty common fear as you well know from your line of work, but most kids her age push it to the back of their minds and pretend it’s never going to happen to them. She must have seen a grandparent age and die and it affected her. The mirror thing was your idea though.
Anubis: Yes, I had that levitating magic mirror that shows you yourself in the future just lying around in my garage. Nice to finally get some use out of it.
Phobos: The eye falling out in her reflection may have been a little over the top I guess.
Anubis: No, I liked it. I thought it added to the fear that her body was going to decompose one day.
Phobos: Yeah, that’s what I was going for. Anyway, stay tuned. That Billy kid is next. He is absolutely ruled by his fears; it’s quite delicious, really.
Anubis: Ah yes. His is a heavy heart. My dear pet Ammit has been eyeing it and asking if I’ll be having Harry feed it to her one day. I told her no spoilers.
*both laugh*
Anubis: Anyway, that’s about it for this page, stay tuned this Friday, and Phobos will have more to say about his next bit coming up.
*theme song repeats*
Welp, my tablet that I used for drawing as well as writing was left on top of the car and fell off and got run over. Funny story. I'd take a picture but, well, I would need my tablet to take a picture and it's in itty bitty little pieces right now. So the next page of the webcomic might be just a wee bit late, suffice it to say. Too bad about all the model sheets and backgrounds and updated novel drafts and stuff that was on there too. I was smart enough to save some of it in case something like this ever happened, but I hadn't backed up my info in a little while.
I now have a blog! Follow Tales from the Masked Bard at https://surenity2.blogspot.com/. I'll be posting reviews, essays, opinion pieces, and whatever else comes to mind.
There's still more art to come from me here on Deviant Art too, so stay tuned.