Hidden Details: The Oracle of Truth (Patreon)

This week, I drew a very meta webcomic that was about other webcomics. Might have ben a bit confusing to some people, so I hope this Hidden Detail blog clears some of the confusion. That's why I chose to make this particular Hidden Details blog available to everyone. Next week's blog will be for Patrons only again, so enjoy this little treat while you can, non-payers ;)

First up: the artifacts from the comics that this comic is about, can be seen hanging on the wall, as well as prints of the comics in which they appear. Here are the comics for your viewing pleasure:

It was pretty cool to draw artifacts that were drawn by other artists. Feels a bit like a crossover episode.

When I came up with this comic, I decided to put in as many webcomic-references as I could. That's why there's a reference to one of the biggest webcomic series of all time in the pedestal. The pedestal is being carried by four little statues of Cyanide & Happiness characters.

And while we're on that subject: The Oracle is actually Adam Ellis.

Adam Ellis is another HUGE webcomic artist. And I mean that in terms of followers/fans. He's a fairly regular sized dude, I believe.

Also, and I'm backtracking one frame here, the outfit the character (me?) is wearing is a combination of the outfits of the characters from the other four comics:

The awesome Stetson hat is blatantly stolen from the Crystal Which Utters Only Truth and the Sword Which Only Speaks Truth comics.

The shirt is from the Sword of Truth comic.

And the bag is the same one as the character in the Scroll of Truth comic carries!

Also, there's a dog in the background in every frame. Hope you've noticed him. He's straight from ANOTHER comic that roughly follows the same template, namely this one, from War and Peas:

Because this great comic isn't exactly the same as the other four, I decided to include a reference to it, but in a different way than the others. Hence the dog as the trusty companion of the main character. Still wearing his translator.

Here's another small detail: the Sword of Truth watches the horrible scene in the final panel with as much shock and disgust as a Sword of Truth can portray.

Now, let's dive into the connection to Loss. If you're unfamiliar with Loss, read this article by Know Your Meme. It's great.

This is the original Loss:

And if you ever see a comic...

...that has four frames
...with a single character in the first frame
...two characters in the second frame with the character on the right being a bit lower than the other...
...two characters of equal height in the third frame...
...and one vertical character and one horizontal character in the fourth frame...

...there's a big chance you're looking at a Loss edit. Just like this comic.

Next to following the above mentioned template, I tried to put in some other Loss-elements:

Like the position of the hand in the first panel:

The position of the hand in the third panel:

And the pose of the horizontal character in the fourth:

I've always wanted to make a Loss edit, and now I've finally gotten the chance. I think it's a great addition to any webcomic-portfolio.

But also, it was fun to make a webcomic "celebrating" webcomics by including stuff like Adam Ellis and Cyanide & Happiness. I doubt these guys will ever see this since we're still such a small time webcomic, but that shouldn't be an issue. It was fun to make, that's the most important thing.

I hope this comic made sense. I can only imagine the confusion if you're not familiar with Loss or memes in general. I'll be back next week with something more people will understand! See you then!

- Abel