The most important thing going on here is that I firmly want to believe that that is Elim Garak’s sock in the bottom left most panel.
But, taking this from the top! I have scanned every page since their lunch so far, so you’re not missing any of the action yet.
First order of business here, Ziyal.
Ziyal is a huge problem in this comic. First, the artist literally draws her face with any kind of care 1.5 times. The first page here contains the one time. It’s also fun to play ‘Which actress did he use for this attempt?’ She leaves these two pages looking like an Asian woman and with no understandable expression or even … apparent functionality? What on earth is she doing to Garak? Who has sprouted rooster hair by the end, apparently.
Anyway, you’ll only see Ziyal get weirder and weirder and make me more uncomfortable thanks to her treatment by the artist, writers, and even characters around her. So just like the show, basically.
Also, perhaps Tumblr is the only place in the world that has noticed Andrew Robinson’s incredible blue eyes? Because the Garaks drawn in this book, and the official figure I bought (before I modified him) have brown eyes and this is some gross miscarriage of justice. I think they think the brown eyes make him weirder and more mysterious (or the’re working from photos where his eyes are super shadowed by ridges), but the fact that he has these bright stereotypically angelic eyes is kind of one of my favorite parts about his face.
SO Garak says ‘Give it to me straight, Doc, even though I already know the answer and am going to be enigmatic and fussy about it like always.’
I love the super 90’s asterix thing telling people when events happened, in that I don’t actually love it, but it dates the story as much as Jake’s wardrobe dates the show. Do they still do the little ‘*This happened last issue! —Editor’ things? I used to read the Sonic comics when I was in elementary school and they had those little notes everywhere. The one that baffles me here though is the intentional and really open reference to Empok Nor. That’s not really a necessary piece of dialog, and it’s weirdly revealing for him to say at all, let alone in front of Ziyal, who these writers seem to think he’s much closer to than he ever was. (More on that in a few posts.) So not only is just more dialog to cram into limited space, but you also have to tie it back to something and make another box to do that? Maybe there was a requirement that they had to make so many television tie-ins per comic or something but all the out of character and clunky stuff seems to be pouring from Garak in this, either way.
Notice that the artist is satisfied with his first two Doctor Bashirs and has decided that the remainder of them will coast on the initial ones’ success. I’m pretty sure this is just a random white guy. Possibly Bertie Wooster with Marc Alaimo’s neck if that last panel is anything to go on.
While I’m ragging on the art, part of me is like, ‘God, artist, do you NEVER close Garak’s mouth?’ But Andrew Robinson rarely closes Garak’s mouth from it’s default >:o position, so we’ll let this slide and consider that Garak looks weirdly kissable in all these panels.
SO basically Bertie Wooster tells Garak, “Welp, your brain is dying. I’ll give you some wacky-killer so you can go about your day. It’s not like I have something to hold you frozen in time so you don’t deteriorate in the next three hours while I try to cure you. Stasis, wouldn’t that be fun? Sad we don’t live in Star Trek, amirite? Don’t forget your Asian lady. Tell Ziyal I said hi if you see her, I don’t know where she got off to.”
ginyia