It’s funny to me how Aslan in Shortpacked! is growing this Shortpacked!-specific mythology. SP!Aslan isn’t really the character in the books or movies. He’s more of a disgruntled, reluctant Messiah who’s embarrassed by his fans. And he’s always waiting for the bus for some reason. It’s very important that he never gets on that bus. Aslan speaks in the same font (Monotype Corsiva) as Shortpacked!’s “God” figure, aka the talking sun-in-the-clouds, but he’s a different character from that guy, too. Aslan is kind of the mellowed, grounded New Testament Son of God to the Talking Sun’s HeavenlyFather/OldTestamentGod/Yahweh, who is appropriately a jackass.
You can tell I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about this recently. The cohesion between my scattered, otherwise unconnected parodies is incredibly important.
AWW NO MAH BUS
Aslan missed his bus. :c
Now he’ll have to wait another five years!
Lousy transit system! You think they’d post their updated schedules.
Skinning people, just like Jesus did.
Will Reagan also be at the bus stop?
Jesus had a flail, right? With the moneylenders?
I think he flayed the skin off instead of flensing it.
Yay! Aslan’s back!
Aww, isn’t that always the way? You wait forever, and the INSTANT you give up, it comes.
MYSTERIOUS WAYS
Refuse to see the film, but I must say that “most annoying kid in the world” is pretty true to the source material.
Compared to the Eustace of the film, book Eustace is practically Your Best Friend.
Not possible. If movie-Eustace were even half as annoying than book-Eustace, every other man, woman, and child on the set would have strangled Michael Apted and Shandar Keynes halfway through the first day of filming.
I’m getting twitchy just remembering him….
Actually, I thought movie Eustace was pretty spot-on from what I remember reading as a kid.
And at least in the movie we didn’t have to have his narration while he was a dragon.
What puts movie Eustace over the top is the visual of the expression on his damn face the whole time. And maybe the Robin Leach impression he’s got going on.
Ya know, I thought he looked more like Renée Zellweger due to squinty eyes and pinched expression he wore all the time.
Ever seen BBC Adaptation Useless? …. I mean “Eustace”? That one was rather terrible, mitigated only by being hilariously low-budget.
Honestly though, Lucy was more annoying. Nothing I hate more than blind-faith optimists.
I saw one scene where they kept calling for him. Not having any familiarity with the source material, previous Narnia movies, or other scenes from this movie, it took me a moment to realize that they were calling for “Eustace” and not “Useless.”
Also… Damn you, Willis!
That joke definitely shows up in the book; haven’t seen the movie.
Seriously? Ugh…. …. Great. Now i’m gonna have to see that movie just to see how bad he is in it. XD
To be continued in two weeks…:(
This was supposed to be cliffhanger resolution day.
DAMN YOU WILLIS!!!
Two weeks I waited to see what happens next, and you give a GAG STRIP? Not cool, Willis, not cool. I am taking you off the bestest friends forever list.
Boo! We want finality!
You sir, suck.
Screw the parodies and give us the sex tape!
Uh… I mean of course… the resolution of poor Leslie’s discomfort….
Interesting. So did Harry Potter or that polar bear from the His Dark Materials books ever manage to get on the bus? And where does Percy Jackson fit into all this?
Huh? Cliffhanger resolution? Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting it to happen today, but at the same time, I’m not really surprised that Willis pulled this on us. He did it last time there was a cliffhanger, and he’ll do it the next time there’s a cliffhanger. Remember folks, the pattern is: storyline cliffhanger -> break -> gag strip. Doesn’t matter if the break’s two days or two weeks, that’s what he’ll do. Two week break just means longer for you to stew in suspense and be inevitably disappointed when he pulls this stunt again.
He feeds on your nerdrage, y’know. It is ambrosia to him, and your tears are sweet nectar.
awww~ eustace isn’t THAT bad XD he kinda grew on me through the film
plus i’ve met much more annoying kids. MUCH. MORE. ANNOYING. >___< at least eustace provided some comedy in the movie~
He grew on me too. When he was a dragon. And he didn’t talk.
haha XD actually, that’s when he grew on me too
I’ve never understood why a CS Lewis used a Lion to represent our savior? Granted I never felt to need to look it up either…
“King of the Jungle”? I’ve got nothing.
Oh man I’m not going to go look up the references for you, but Jesus is compared to both lions and lambs in the Bible at least a couple of times.
And (IIRC) because for a large chunk of it’s existence, Narnia was populated chiefly with animals, with an English cabby and his family as the only humans.
That book wasn’t written until after most of the others, nor were the books written after the first one planned originally, so that wouldn’t have been the reason why Aslan is a Jesus Lion.
I knew Magician’s Nephew was written later, but did not know there were initially no further books planned (if I’m reading your statement correctly).
I’ve always hated Eustace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_of_Judah
Jesus is symbolized by a lion in the Bible, particularly in the Revelation of John.
“The Lion of Judah” is one of Jesus’ appellations, and there’s the whole “Lion and the lamb” thing. Plus, lions have long been used as symbolism for royalty and leadership in general.
*The More You Know
he always looks so grumpy..he needs a cookie, that’ll cheer aslan up
Two weeks of waiting and we get an aslan filler. I think this calls for a DAMN YOU WILLIS
I tried to find the strip in which Jesus eats a chocolate crucifix in front of Robin. It isn’t tagged by “religion” or “jesus” so either it’s there and untagged or just plain AWOL (like a lot of the early strips).
Whaaa…? I don’t remember that strip at all.
http://www.shortpacked.com/2009/comic/book-8/07-when-robin-didnt-meet-that-other-guy/eastercross/
Willis, Cheese bless him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wfamPW3Eaw
Poor Aslan…
Honestly when I saw that film, the last scene with Aslan’s speech was just too much. I swear, after he gives his heavy-handed speech to the characters, I actually expected them to all look at the audience and go “Did you get all that audience? We’re talking about the Jesus and the Bible. Just wanted to make sure that was clear. Cool.”
They’re very faithful to the book, in that respect. (Seriously Aslan’s speech was word-for-word the same as in the book.)
I honestly did not think they would actually go that far. But they did. It was like a satire come to life. The odd thing is that I would have loved it if the film were written and directed by Ryan Murphy.
Of all the things to leave exactly as the book described…
The rotoscoped 3D is horrible. Watch it in 2D if you want to see it.
I haven’t seen the movie version of this one yet, but being raised by an atheist and and agnostic (who are now Buddhist) the whole Biblical allegory thing went completely over my head as a kid. I just loved them as plain ol’ YA fantasy.
Same situation here, except my parents never became Buddhists.
And I always hated The Last Battle, even before I knew it was just the Book of Revelation with a gorilla.
It was an orangutan, dammit, not a gorilla![/fake rage]
Yeah, it was at that point in the books that I realized that it was all christian metaphors. I was okay with this, but yeah.
And the best part folks, is it only gets less subtle after Dawn Treader.
No wonder the rat asked to die.
The worst is Final Battle. Geez, Lewis was hitting me around the head with Christianity so much I got a real life headache.
And yet you read all the way to the last battle. CS Lewis didn’t cause your headache, all he did was write a series of books weaving his personal beliefs into a fantasy setting (I know, unheard of for an author to incorporate what he believes into his own fictional creations). Whether or not you were “subjected” to the pain of a fictional account based on someone else’s personal beliefs was entirely out of his hands.
It’s not that he inserted his personal beliefs. It’s that he was as subtle as a freight train with the metaphors. I’ve read books by pagan/new age authors with similar ham-handed tactics and they were equally annoying.
Umm… I never saw it as being about subtlety. It was what would happen if God made a multiverse. It’s not a metaphor, it’s not an allegory, it’s not Jesus’ parables, Jesus is actually the Lion. There’s no reason for subtlety. Certainly not by the third book. “Dude, I died on the altar to save the traitor, then got back up. Who did you think I was?” Definitely not by the last book. “Yeah, I’m taking you to heaven, I fricken told you guys I was Jesus a long time ago, where did you think we were going? Tahiti? Oy Dad, not even Thomas was this dense.”
The series isn’t that deep, it’s not supposed to be, it’s just a fantasy series.
But, but he MADE them read it! Oh noes, Christian conspiracy! ‘elp, ‘elp, I’m being repressed. You saw ‘im repressing me, didn’t you???
I know, right?
Suddenly I’m reminded of that old episode of Spongebob Squarepants where he ends up in Rock Bottom.
Hmmm…I see SP!Aslan in this strip, and all I hear is ZZ Top singing “Waitin’ For The Bus”…
I like that Eustace is played in your strip by Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent.
TC
+1
When I see SP!Aslan all I can think is “Waiting for the Galactic Bus”
Godot Metro must be the worst mass transit system in the world.
Welcome back Willis! I’ve been missing new installments of SP! while you were off on your Honeymoon. Hope the cruise was awesome!
C’mon. I want some plot continuation!
Confession: I did not originally get that metaphor.
And by that I mean “until you posted this comic”.
Well, technically it’s not a metaphor or an allegory. Technically, He’s a fictional multiversal Jesus.
Let’s say God didn’t just create our universe, He created a bunch of them, all different. (see Magician’s Nephew) So the Second Person of the Trinity, the Logos, God the Son of God The Father, creates each universe in a different, appropriate Incarnation. In Narnia, He’s a lion. In Earth’s universe, He’s a Jew. In Charn, who knows what He chose to be.
At least two universes in the multiverse have a proud rebel against God: a fallen angel named Lucifer in Earth’s universe, and a witch-queen named Jadis who was brought from Charn to Narnia. (Although she was Charn’s world-ender, she wasn’t clearly her world’s Satan.) In those universes, and presumably all others with rebels, the Logos’ Incarnation offers Himself as a sacrifice to save traitors against God, out of love for the traitors.
That makes Edmund Pevensie the Narnian equivalent of Barabbas, by the way: the one person who was physically replaced as the object of rightful execution. Not an enviable position, but a historic one, presumably present in all universes where the Incarnation has been sacrificed.
… I haven’t read the Chronicles since I was a child. Now I have to go back and re-read them, because clearly child-me missed some kickass stuff.
I’m with Pagannerd. I don’t remember any of that awesome stuff happening.
Aslan: *Grumble grumble* “Now i’m gonna be late to Allegory-Con.”
Perfect avatar for that comment!
of course, Ghastly’s comic had Drunk-and-Bitter-Jesus, you’ve got Disgruntled Reluctant Aslan. It’s totally a trope.
I loved how Holy Grail had images of a groovy Jesus and a pissed-off God who’s sick of people groveling all the time and demands his children show some spine.
Immediately as Aslan left the bus stop, Bus Driver Stu Benedict’s red light finally turned green.
Never have I been more glad that I was assigned this avatar.
Willis, you are amazing.
The cohesion between my scattered, otherwise unconnected parodies is incredibly important.
And that is all that separates worthwhile human endeavor from Family Guy.
love the facials
I love this comic so much.
That lion avatar appeals to me a lot more now, too.
My views on his ‘fandom’ are similar to his, so, um… yeah.
Somebody been reading Subnormality? The Sphinx is ALWAYS doing this. …except she eats people. WHATEVER! SEMANTICS! (I know it’s not semantics.)
http://www.viruscomix.com/page512.html
Narnia may be a bible analogy, but the Shortpacked!s come off a little different to me.
Aslan lays down in the street. as the bus is coming.
Aslan: You’re waiting for a Bus, a Bus that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can’t be sure!
SPLAT!!!
Cut to Jesus waking up with a shocked look on his face because he is in bead spooning with Mike. BBRROMMmmmm!!!
that was supposed to be “bed” not “bead”
I would like seeing blood splattering from where Aslan is shredding him…
Wait, wait. What kind of preteen boy is ANTI-”being a huge dragon”? I’m totally calling CS Lewis out on this one.
Or did this take place when they started getting older? I never actually read past the first two or three books. >.>
seeing as he could no longer communicate with people and could not fit on the boat or literally fit into human society and was stuck in a land far away from home if he could not be turned back (note after the dragon incident was when Eustace started becoming attached to Narnia) it was somewhat of a bummer.
We also have to remember that this kid is one of those A1 stick in the butt prigs who thinks that only what fits into his small conception of the universe could possibly be true. Becoming a dragon just didn’t register in his mind any more than turning into a real life My Little Pony does for most of us.
Most of us….