So Ghost of the Gulag is back after a two year hiatus. I don’t think I’ll be writing about that comic again any time soon. But it’s at least worth checking out in case this is the first time you’re hearing about its return.
Africa | Page(s): 325 | Patreon
In a flashback, Faida remembers her conversation with Mosi and Bibi. The hyena matriach insists that Mosi see Africa. Furthermore, if Africa finds out she was lied to she’ll (rightfully) hate Faida for the rest of her life. Mosi insists that he needs answers before he’s ready to confront his mother. The two go back and forth, before Faida notes how then the cub looks very then. Bibi admits Mosi can’t run much, and she’s not able to hunt enough for food for him especially in the drought. Faida slyly suggests he should hunt for food by leaping from tree to tree before she leaves the two bewildered cats.
As suspected, Faida knew Mosi was alive and opted not to tell Africa. The twist is that she’s only withholding this information because Mosi asked her to. The parallels between Mosi and Chui are pretty clear now. Yet the two male leopards differ in a lot of ways. Mosi’s sibling was killed saving him, not not while he was out hunting for food as a punishment for stealing. Africa didn’t abandon Mosi, she couldn’t find him and had to rely on Faida as she opted to take care of Mondo. Mosi intends to talk to Africa someday, and he’s on good terms with Bibi.
That said, it’s hard to know what the little guy is thinking. Bibi can barely feed him, much less protect him. He’s dead if the lions find him. I can only guess that grief at Binti’s death and jealously over Africa adopting Mondo are clouding his judgment right now. Hopefully Mosi comes to his senses sooner than later.
Repeat | Page(s): 162, 163, 164, 165 | Patreon (N/A)
Titler wakes up and asks what happened to them. Sol and the Dawn reveal that the young wolf was tossed around by a boar under Lun’s influence. More importantly, Tilter’s wound is hot to the touch, but yet they don’t feel pain. Instead, they choose the word “flowery” to describe how they feel. The Dawn conjectures that it must be a high fever. Tilter then asks if Sol really came from the sky. The sun god reveals that they and Lun’s celestial bodies were in constant conflict. So much in fact that they nearly tore the sky apart and were cast down and given new forms to continue their quarrel.
Tilter asks if they like being on Earth now, and Sol admits they didn’t think much of it, but now likes being around. The Dawn explains how the Earth worked its influence on Sol, but laments how it hasn’t done the same for Lun, only for the two wolves to have fallen asleep during their monologue. Meanwhile, Lun issues a challenge to Bor. Just afterward, Sol and the Dawn are stunned to discover Tilter’s wounds have healed themselves. As the trio sets out, Tilter remarks that they would have liked to have met Babble.
The tension of having Tilter seriously wounded is replaced with the explanation that Sol’s protection somehow healed his wounds. Which is baffling, and barely explained since the Sun god seems to have no idea about this protection either. I hope that this gets explained later, but I’m not holding my breath. Other than that, it’s amusing that Sol is often born in a variety of colors, including pink. I am curious what the trio will find in this forest that the Dawn wanted them to visit. Otherwise, not much else is happening here other than Lun taking on Bor. I’m getting major Princess Mononoke from Bor (I wouldn’t be surprised if the movie had some inspiration on this particular god). I fear that he’ll be corrupted by Lun somehow, not unlike how Lord Okkoto was corrupted by was corrupted by Lady Eboshi’s warriors. This corrupted forest god may then try to take on Sol, only adding more tragedy to this world. Or maybe Lun will just get curb stomped. Who knows?
The Realm of Kaerwyn | Page(s): Issue 20, pages 73, 74, 75 | Patreon
It turns out Renard actually blew Tunc’s arm off, effectively disarming him (I’m not sorry). Since he’s a werewolf, he’ll be alright, eventually. Neek complains that Renard took off the arm with the arcane symbol, and Renard notes that it should be easier to complete the symbol now. The gun-toting human also notes that he can just reattach Tunc’s arm since werewolves have regeneration abilities. Neek then wonders why Renard just didn’t do it himself, and the smug reply is “Because this is your plan to ‘save him.'” Neek’s annoyance turns to trepidation as he prepares to draw the sigil. Meanwhile, the group consisting of Endy, Niixa, Calle, and Lorelei have arrived at Creedmoor. Endy establishes a psychic link with Niixa, so they can communicate without Lorelei noticing.
I’m not going to lie, when I saw these pages on Patreon, I was certain Tunc was dead. Renard is a shoot first, ask questions later type of man. And given his bloodlust, I was certain he’d just kill Tunc without remorse. Admittedly, it was pretty clever, albeit gruesome of him to blow the werewolf’s arm off. Hopefully, completing the sigil will allow Tunc to rid himself of Sisari’s influence while in werewolf form.
To Catch a Star | Page(s): 312, 313, 314, 315 | Patreon
Lupi and Shadow immediately recognize Hearth. Shadow then scoffs knowing that Hearth is the Supernova’s “chosen one.” Surprised that Shadow knows who he is, the Supernova admits that what was done to purple Nova wasn’t right. However, it wasn’t his call and Shadow agrees, as he just joined the zealots for fame. Hearth swears he didn’t, but their conversation is cut short as Blaze and Cloud take stock of the battle’s aftermath.
They admit, the pack is going to have to move, so the Supernova won’t easily find them again. Hearth is indignant at this, as they should have a stable home. Cloud thanks Shadow for chasing off the majority of the Supernova zealots. The blue Nova from the pack that was recently separated by the Supernova asks if Hearth is going back. He figures he should, as he can tell Lady Flare the truth about what Scorch is really doing, and even make things right with the rejected Nova.
I have to admit, To Catch a Star on ComicFury is annoying pages behind on what’s available on DeviantArt. CF is a better format to work with, but there’s no reason to be so far behind on both sites. Anyway, I feel like this interaction between Hearth and Shadow is missing a lot of backstory. Other than banishing Shadow to the world below the clouds, her role in the Meteors is unclear. From what I’m gathering they were a rebel group against the Supernova, who may or may not have been disbanded after Shadow was banished. Maybe she was their leader? Either way, I’m hoping the details of what exactly happened between Shadow and the Supernova is revealed, including the cross-shaped scar on her shoulder.
As for Hearth, I think him going back to the Supernova is a fool’s errand, but it would be unrealistic for him to give up on the pack he’s called home for quite a while. There’s no way Shadow would let him travel with the group or take Lupi back, so him leaving makes the most sense. He needs his blinders fully pulled off, and I’m certain Scorch, along with Flare’s absolute faith in her son will be the thing that shatters his faith in the group.
Tofauti Sawa | Page(s): 378, 379 | Patreon
The cub thanks Silver for getting him down, just as his mother shows up. She prepares to attack before realizing that Silver is not a threat. He asks where the cub’s parents are, just as the lioness reveals herself. The cub, Leeto happily admits Silver saved him and his mother smiles approvingly at the pale maned lion. She admits her son is a handful, as she thanks him for saving Leeto.
Okay, so this scenario is going even better for Silver than I imaged. The lioness is not only kind to him, but she seems to approve of him. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s not a loner, that she invites him to join her pride, or offers to join up with him. To that, I’d imagine Silver turning her down, given all that’s recently happened to him. Plus, he’s still traveling with Sahara.
A Doe’s Salvation | Page(s): 177| Patreon
An uncertain amount of time has passed between Absaroka’s argument with Sawtooth, and the doe going to see Snowy. The buck apologizes to her, as he’s not sure when he’ll be able to see her next, given how badly it’s snowing. Absaroka is worried that him living in the ravine won’t be safe. He misunderstands that as predators, but she’s worried about her cultist herd. Snowy insists that everything is fine, as he’s lived on the edges of the cult herd for a long while, and Absaroka has taught him how to avoid the patrols. Snowy then pauses before bringing up an old topic with his friend.
It’s nice to take a break from the awful cult in favor of Snowy’s perspective. With him living a normal life as a deer, instead of in a cult that sacrifices its members to a fake god to keep predators away. That said, I’m sure Absaroka hasn’t relayed her plans to him yet, whatever those plans may be. That said, I’m sure he’s going to insist that she leave the cult for her own good. This is doubly true for all the tragedy she’s experienced in the past few months.
Golden Shrike | Page(s): 223 | Patreon
Much of Boneslav’s family comes to see him off and wish him well on the journey. Loudkill then turns her attention to Nero and his group. She offers a prayer for their safe passage and tells them to walk strong on their journey.
All and all, not a very eventual page this week. The send off continues, as we see how much Boneslav is treasured by his Mouth. Additionally, Loudkill is impressed with Nero. His efforts to protect Runi and Kasko didn’t go unnoticed. Otherwise, I’m just waiting for their journey to get started.
Roamer snarls and attacks the dog attempt to set his and Rogio’s tent on fire. He attempts to pin the larger dog down, but is instead rolled over and pinned. Just as the bear-like dog tells Roamer he’s made a big mistake, Kargo appears. He snatches the dog, lifts him, and effortlessly throws him across the snow. After doing so he snarls a “LEAVE!” at the dog.
For all of Roamer’s training, he pretty handily got his ass kicked in this exchange. Keeping the dog pinned down shouldn’t have been too much effort, especially having him by the scruff. Being rolled over so easily means that the Meteor Tribe’s Baron just has new muscles for show. I guess he could have used more training sessions with Kargo. Speaking of, it was said Kargo lost his strength when the bear-spirit was killed. Yet, he lifted a stocky dog without much effort. I wish Kique could decide on what he wants from Kargo. Was the bear spirit’s strength actually his own? Did the spirit just make him berserk? Who even knows anymore. As for this raid, unless the bear-like dog’s comrades come rushing in to defend him, this isn’t really much of a raid.
On Hiatus :
The Order of the Black Dog | Page(s): Issue 27, page | Patreon
What Lurks Beneath | Page(s): | Patreon
Regarding the “home” comic. But did you see that the comments got diasbled from the site? lol apparently cause readers got so heated or probably cause a lot were saying Roamer should be punished or removed from his rank, as well kicked out of the tribe. and knowing the writer himself, probably didn’t like all the negativity towards that character, but I digrace and could be wrong who knows.
But all in all, I agree with the other readers and this raid seems so pointless and random all because a “Female” just so happens to be leading the tribe. if the MT were such a big threat then why did these dogs just now attack them?, at this rate they’ll be comitting a crime due to the fact that they are salty I guess. But again, why couldn’t they attack the MT when the jarl Areneak (idk how to spell his name lol) was in charge? they could of possibly back then saved many others from being raped etc. Again this raid just makes no sense and feels like filler as this story contiunes to drag on with nothing happening and were on chapter 13?.
I’m not surprised that comments got disabled. Home’s author is such a crybaby. No one’s allowed to criticize his main characters, no matter how civil the discussion remains. And you’re absolutely right, the raid didn’t even make sense to begin with.