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<   No. 658   2004-11-14   >

Comic #658

1 [caption]: Meanwhile, on Santorini... {in a field, where magnificent statues of bulls stand guard}
1 Ginny: The Minoans built an outpost of their civilisation here on Santorini. They were bull worshippers.
2 Ginny: {pointing at the statues} These statues were carved out of stone so tough they've lasted thousands of year. What miraculous tools did they use?
3 Haken: Ah. I begin to understand die Führer's interest in these things...
4 Erwin: Ja. His political philosophy is based on lots of bull...

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The Minoan Empire lasted from around 3100 BC to 1420 BC. The bull was the most sacred symbol to their culture and religion, and the likenesses of bulls are found in many Minoan archaeological remains.


2013-12-05 Rerun commentary: I was very pleased with the LEGO bulls I built for this strip. They also appear in several of the following strips in this storyline, I liked them that much.

Appearances are deceiving. The bulls are highly asymmetric - a consequence of their construction with a single 45° 2×1 slope as a head, surmounted by the clip that holds the horns. With a single LEGO stud central to the body, the bulls have to be an odd number of LEGO studs wide. But the side of the body you can see in the strip is made of a 45° 2×4 slope. If the opposite side of the bulls was also made of such a slope, abutting the side you can see, the bull would be 4 studs wide. But the bulls are only 3 studs wide... so the hidden side is actually not there at all. The 2×4 slope is merely attached to a couple of 2×3 plates, and the feet attached to the far corners of those plates.

If you turned the bulls around to see the other side, they would be vertically cut off, without the rounded body shape provided by the slope. To avoid the missing bit of the bull's neck being visible in shots such as panel 3, there is a 1×1 brick there, the top, unsloped, part of it being hidden by the bull's head. So overall, they're pretty awkwardly shaped and would look decidedly odd from other angles. This is why you only ever see them from this angle in this and later strips.

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My comics: Irregular Webcomic! | Darths & Droids | Eavesdropper | Planet of Hats | The Dinosaur Whiteboard | mezzacotta
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Last Modified: Thursday, 5 December 2013; 02:12:33 PST.
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