Right, been far too long since I've posted a scanlation here. This time it's the next volume of The Snake and the Spear, a Mesoamerican detective thriller about a serial killer roaming the Aztec Empire. Previous volumes available here: https://www.mediafire.com/folder/d67984yufn8b8/The_Snake_and_the_SpearPlease share any comments, corrections, etc. and I'll share the final version in the win'o at some point.
A little summary of what's gone before.
>>152509395>more snake and spearMy body is ready. Also reporting in. Should have notes ready by next weekend.
>>152509395Nice, it’s out.The lack of euro scanlators is bizarre considering more bilingual people speak English + Euro language.
>>152509996Scanlation is more than just translating words. Cleaning and typesetting takes more effort than your average whippersnapper is willing to commit. And euro comics doesn't have the weeb factor to rope in helping hands, so your average scanlation is a one man job.
>>152509996I always presumed that was the big reason, beyond the obvious of it being a lot of work. Manga has that zing of the exotic being from the Far East, whereas French stuff is just from Europe.
So the reveal is pretty much what I expected. I do wonder though, there are 3 killer outfits hanging up in the hovel, perhaps there might be a third killer.
Thanks for posting this, this is great.
I really didn't enjoy this bullshit reveal of, oh yeah, my memories were mostly right, but I blocked out this one specific guy.
>>152509395Hell yeah I've been waiting for this
nice
The Tarascan blade should be bronze and not iron. They got it from the South Americans.
>>152511964Did they not have iron?
>>152512817No, the Tarascan (maybe offensive maybe not)/Purépecha we engaged with long-distance trade via intermediaries to the south. Something that seems to have inspired their own metalworking as they lacked obsidian.Unlike the copper-forging North Americans, the Tarascan alloyed it with gold and silver to produce beautiful ornaments. Tin and arsenic have similar luster and were accidentally practical. Though they imported obsidian and exported copper decorations.
Thanks!
>>152509996I think there just isn't a lot of interest from the Euro sphere in bringing their comics to the wider world. Similarly with their shows. A lot of shows just never get put online or subbed for other regions.
>>152509395Thanks OP. Been getting more into comics lately and this sounds pretty cool.
>>152509395Hell yeah I forgot about this for a while. Good to see a followup.
Did Snake's parents warp his skull on purpose for some ritual or fashion-motivated reason or was he just born a pinhead?
>>152514386There was that Europe Comics publishing co-operative that did digital versions of French comics for the purposes of selling the English rights to Anglo companies. But I don't think it ever really took off.
>>152515060That's still going on.https://www.izneo.com/fr/editeurs/europe-comics-218
>>152515193It is, but they've cut marketing budget and headcount, and I'm pretty sure at least a couple of the publishers involved have pulled out.
>>152514977Birth defect, same as his lack of arms. I think it was mainly the Maya and Inca that did intentional cranial deformation in the Americas.
>>152509395I'll give it a read, been a while since we have seen a Franco-Belgium comic storytimed
>>152509472I love her cute nose
>>152515957I so miss when we used to get scanlations all the time.
>>152510126This page refers to Act 1 Shadow Mountain pages 65 to 69: https://desuarchive.org/co/thread/115608718/#115609938
>>152516477What cute nose?
>>152516951Were the other volumes storytimed?
>>152517885https://desuarchive.org/_/search/subject/franco-belgian/text/spear/
>>152518261thank you
>>152518261reading allthese in order, this is a very continuous story
>>152510218Considering in the new killer lost part of his skull mask in an earlier volume i don't think those Skin Suits will be used
>>152510267tiny hands
>>152510385>>152510394I do like that the Butterfly show up in eailer Volumes, so it is something a reader could vaguely work out
>>152519214It's been clear for a while that one of the students was the kid of the guy who got the dagger and became the killer, for me the interest was in trying to figure out which one it was. Bringing in a new student that we happened not to have seen so far is bullshit. I do think there will be another conspirator though, maybe Cozatl.
>>152519958Coxatl feels too obvious, it's got to be a red herring. It's probably his second in command, Eight-Flints
>>152509403Sounds interesting. I'll give the older issues a shot
bump
>>152509395YESSSSSSS FINALLY
>>152522280sure
>>152522865What did you think?
Reading bump
Mesoamerican history autist giving this a bump so I can read and reply to stuff
>>152527072Well?
>>152527072I was wondering when you would turn up
>>152509395Man, it must be pretty easy to hide a body in the Aztec empire.
>>152509531Sweet sweet historically acurate Tenochtitlan
>>152527771it would, but as stated >>152510160 since the killer prepared each body in a specific way to fuck with the cult of Tlaloc and the upper echelons of the Aztec government, the killing became noticed
>10
woah almost missed this thread
>>152527900I love jow in every painting and sculpture Tlaloc looks eternally disapointed.
>>152529451Having to deal with children will even make a God jaded
>>152510385Vol2. p.49Did anyone mention that random floating black mark when it was storytimed?Still sounds contrived, but at least it wasn't Chinese drama contrived where the information was pulled off-screen.
>>152527771It was very easy to hide bodies everywhere. According to statistics you have about a 60% chance of just getting away with it today. True crime was created to make people think it wasn't that easy. I hope whoever created this new captcha system dies painfully.
>>152529565you cant check the archive, but it doesn't seem to drawn that much attention
>>152529565I noticed it in the end page >>152510504, because it wasn't there in v1
>>152529608>https://desuarchive.org/co/thread/127753445/#127754008Looks like OP not only noticed it but was also channelling the Oracle at that point. I've become too unobservant or just unwilling to read and see with my own eyes that the black butterfly just went straight past my eyes.
>>152509918Cute moon-child. What could have become of her should she have lived?>>152509850Three skinsuits.>>152510134Only one man admitted to have been turned into a skinsuit. Maybe the other two were just random men?Also the admittance of the son makes me believe that there may a third man for the third skinsuit.
>>152509395This looks pretty cool. Thanks OP. Double appreciate the links to previous issues. I'm guessing after the thread this chapter will be added to that link as well?
>>152530262It will. It will also get posted in the win-o when I'm done proofreading it and phil has fixed whatever typos I find.
>>152530405You're doing the editing and stuff too? Well fuck, thanks double anon for doing the work in sharing these comics.
>>152531109I don't do anything besides proofreading. Phil does everything else. The reason it's only phils name on his releases is because I don't care for credit. I do it because I like it, and I think of it as a way to give something back to the community.
>>152531175I see, another weirdo like myself.
>>152510068I heard gladatorial sacrifice had the sacrifice fight with a bunch of feathers instead of a weapon.
>>152510087Grimm
>>152531494tbf he doesn't have a wepon he just got a bundle of straw, which would be less effective than a stick wrapped in cloth than the characters used for sparing practice in an earlier volumeIt's why Thunder Butterfly only uses it to choke out his opponent since he knows it's useless
>>152510134How long did the artisan teach this guy before he killed him to steal his backpack?
>>152509395Reading
Thanks op
>>152527566I still need to read the comic first, I'm doing so now
>>152532868I'd be interested in how accurate the "moon-child" part was and why it was such a crime to not immediately give the baby over to be sacrificed.
>>152533010https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/ask-us/are-there-records-of-albinism-in-ancient-mexico
This is what they took from you
>>152534186took from the Mexicans really
>>152534255Humanity as a whole suffers from the loss
>>152533010I'll comment on it when I get there in the comic, though it seems like the thread will likely 404 before I finish sadly, at this rate
>>152535789idk anon it might keep going for a couple of hours but I wouldn't bet on it lasting for another 12
>>152532868>>152535789How slowly do you read?
Riddle me this, if the Aztecs and other precolumbian brownoids were "advanced" enough to build these large structures, complex water ways and supposedly even an understanding of astronomy; how come they never even grasped the concept of the wheel or built basic iron tools? These fucks were slinging rocks and dancing in animal hydes while the spanish obliterated them gunpowder and cold steel.
>>152536182Are you some chariots of the gods nigger? They had wheels, they just didn't use them for large-scale transport because the terrain wasn't advantageous for them and they had no large domesticated animals. As for iron metalworking, we don't really know how exactly it developed in the East and spread, it probably wasn't just some super smart dude, who was probably a brownoid anyway, more likely a coincidence. But again, they didn't really have a need for it, obsidian for their weapons was easily obtained, and their cloth armour did alright too. Until it didn't of course. Their agricultural methods didn't need a plough either. Not to mention there isn't much in the way of iron deposits in the Yucatan anyway.
>>152509542This is pretty cool. Thanks OP
>>152510327>all that water and heat. Imagine the bugs.
>>152536365And it’s not like euros in invented gunpowder
>>152509395>This time it's the next volume of The Snake and the Spear, a Mesoamerican detective thriller about a serial killer roaming the Aztec EmpireOkay but could Dexter beat him?
>>152536182They had wheels. And they missed out on ironworking because they were separated from Eurasia by oceans. Natives split off from the rest of humanity after copper-working was figured out, but before ironworking was. There was no way for knowledge of ironworking to spread to the Americas in time with everybody else, so the natives missed out. It's likely that iron working was only discovered one time, and knowledge of it simply spread from place to place. There's a pretty clear "wave" of ironworked goods appearing in the archaeological record at different times as knowledge of it spread, whereas copperworking was developed independently several times in various places, with no connection to one another. Copper doesn't require the same kind of heat that iron does, it can even be cold forged just by banging it with rocks. Even if copper is a lot less common than iron it was easier for primitive people to work it. The real gatekeeper to ironworking is furnace design, and access to a charcoal-making industry.
Thanks, you mad euro bastard
>>152509395does anyone know where I can by this in print?
For the interested, Fall of Civilizations made a two part video documentary on the Aztecs:The Aztecs - A Clash of Worlds (Part 1 of 2) 1 hour 44 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8JVdpWCKeMThe Aztecs - A Clash of Worlds (Part 2 of 2) 2 hour 28 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDdKZrvg1pE
>>152538301they're emotionally compelling, but they are vastly inferior to my boy dj peach cobbler's serieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTcZSDgs7_A&list=PLpN74e1-UM2LrtwKBQbZl20iH8tpsH9oB&index=1unironically the most informative and kino series on the topic
>>152538301I'm >>152527072I only partially watched Fall of Civilization's Aztec videos, so there may be positive elements I missed, but DESU what I did see of them was middling to negative.My two main critiques are, firstly, him using Danza Aztecas performers for the footage when they don't resemble actual Mesoamerican fashion at all (See pic for what the "Aztecs" actually wore), and most importantly, how he repeats the common misconception that Cortes got allies against the Mexica of the Aztec capital due to them demanding sacrificesThe Mexica didn't impose sacrifices on their subjects, everybody in Mesoamerica already did sacrifices, nor did the Mexica even demand victims for it as taxes much. Also, the Mexica were actually fairly loose, hegemonic rulers that left existing kings, laws, and customs in place most of the timeRather then Cortes getting most of his allies due to Mexica rule being resented, it was their hands off political system that enabled those alliances, because it left their subject states with their own political identity, agency, and interests, so they had both the ability and motive to opportunistically switch sides, secede, launch coups, etc if they thought it would benefit themIt was common in Mesoamerica for state X to ally or pledge themselves with state Y to topple their existing capital or rivals, so then X would have higher status within Y's new kingdom/empire and wasn't losing much for having given up their independence since subjects got mostly left alone anyways. That's what happened with Cortes.See pastebin.com/h18M28BR and arch.b4k.dev/v/thread/640670498/#640679139 and desuarchive.org/his/thread/16781148/#16781964 and desuarchive.org/k/thread/64434397/#64469714 + the other posts I link to within that /k/ post and the two posts of mine directly preceding that oneI do endorse the Peachcobbler videos >>152538365 mentions, a friend of mine MajoraZ assisted with them, and he left a comment on each video with extra info
>>152538301>>152509395buy an ad you pretentious faggots
>>152538268Who the fuck still buys comics?
>>152538872hey Mesoamericananon, did you ever posted a review of that aztec batman?
>>152539144Nah, neither me or most of my friends (afaik) got around to it yet, we've been busy
>>152539109No! You will post on a board with threads about comics you have never heard about and you will it like!
>>152534186VGHH
>>152538268In English, you cannot, because it's a scanlation, duh. In French, amazon, but why would you want to if you can't read it?>>152537903>missed out on ironworking because they were separated from Eurasia by oceans. Natives split off from the rest of humanity after copper-working was figured out>copperworking was developed independently several times in various places, with no connection to one anotherI'm confused as to which you favour, an independent discovery of copperworking or cultural knowledge from before migration to the Americas? I'd say the former, the Americas were peopled before copperworking as far as I know, across the Bering land bridge during the last glacial maximum around 20k+ years ago. Whereas copperworking began I believe around 9000BC.There's also debate on the "invented once" theories of iron metallurgy, there's been very early radiocarbon dating of sub-Saharan smelting sites which makes diffusion through Phoenician sites unlikely and supports an independent invention.
>>152537865no since all the clues for murders lie in the main character's childhood
Oh, the guy who did Okko made a new book, I didn't knew this. Will grab this later.
>>152509640Damn, the lady sucked them all dry?
>>152514977Kek I did not even notice he has armless and I read the whole album
>>152541260tbf his arms are really only shown in the third album in any detail
>>152536182There were no oxes, donkeys in mesoamerican days to pull the carts, also the geography was less convinient for a wheel that just walking.
>>152541413
>>152510471>>152510464dang it I hate when stories loop back on the hero's life like this. Makes the universe look so small.
>>152531494they were also tied to a stone so they couldn't really move around. The idea is that they'd be completely helpless and that the whole thing was a glorified execution.
>>152542090He's been a part of it from the beginning.
>>152511964>They got it from the South Americans*might've got it from the South AmericansThe entire Western Mexico-South America connection is very speculative and tenuous.
>>152537903>It's likely that iron working was only discovered one time, and knowledge of it simply spread from place to placeiirc there's evidence that it was developed independently in west Africa around the time of Christ's birth.
>>152542306Link? Lost my bookmarks when switching browsers across computers and I'm trying to (re)collect the papers.
>>152542407https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342656145_The_Origins_of_African_Metallurgies_The_Origins_of_African_Metallurgies_Summary_and_KeywordsI was wrong, it was way before Christ. Paper above says 2000+ b.c., and i've seen others say around 800 b.c..
I read this volume, found it interesting, so I read part of the first one. Snake just killing every innocent civilian he comes across for flimsies reasons just took me out of the story. Wasn't the whole justification for bringing him in on the case that he would find the killer and prevent bad press for the emperor / king? I'm fairly certain he already surpassed the body count of the mummified girls simply with his "leave no witness" policy, which is retarded to begin with.
>>152542755It was not the murders that he was incensed about, it was that they were1) Unusual2) PublicisedPeople are murdered day to day in real life. Imagine if you became aware of their deaths at the moment it happened, would you not feel a need to stop that happen? Imagine the reverse, you never hear of another murder for the rest of your life. Would you interrupt your daily grind to find out out why, or accept this as a blessing?The intial three mummies found had at least two court members saying that these deaths were inconsequential and there were more important things for Tlacaelel to deal with. Countermanded by his son saying, nuh-uh, any murders are bad.Also the fact that Tlacaelel knew these deaths were a warning to him directly and wanted no-one to find out about it. Which is why he sealed the case and sent the guy he knows from reputation as a murderer and torturer to make sure the case remains sealed.
>>152509395thanks OP for the storytime. I didn't know this comic and it's pretty fucking good
>>152509395Thanks OP
>>152542972I think it's just a little bit jarring since this volume gave the impression Snake was a pretty moral character
>>152543875He is, but a morality from another place and time.
