1979 SEMI-FINALIST

i was discussing the latest ab!ww issue (#18) with my coworker and noticed something about giovanni and his speech pattern

when we see things from his perspective, hes speaking forward, but then also from his perspective later, diana says his name backwards, and his speech is perceived as backwards outside his perspective.

was that intentional? does he interpret speech backwards and speak backwards without that specific intent? or did diana happen to say his name backwards in that moment?

It should be (and hopefully we’ve been consistent with this as much as possible) -- that when Giovanni hears himself, he hears himself normally -- forward for speaking and backwards for spell text. 

But what he’s experiencing is some kind of hallucination -- believing he’s in a sort of hell/limbo and on fire -- surrounded by “demons and fiends” that have or have killed his daughter who he’s eternally searching for. So Diana is speaking normally and it’s just translating wrong for him -- possibly because he clocks Diana as a magic user, despite the hallucination -- and thus he perceives her doing magic on him as backwards text since that’s a way he knows magic works. 

I’m interested in pretty much all the DC magic users, especially as I’ve been doing so much magic stuff with Diana, Circe, and now Zatanna and now Zatara. 

But a lot of the DC characters -- and I think probably disproportionately DC Magic characters -- have a lot of questions you have to ask before you know you can fold them in. 

Raven is a great example. She’s from another reality...so are you doing that? What does that mean for the Absolute Universe as a whole? Do other dimensions exist and are characters from those worlds able to access this world? Etc. And those aren’t questions for one book, those are question for the room -- as they affect the world of Absolute DC and not just an individual book.

So in that case many people need to throw in thoughts on that and a decision is likely more made by committee -- which is not necessarily a bad thing -- I know saying that has a dreaded implication -- but a diverse group of creators is more often than not a great thing imo. 

Yes. We haven’t really gotten to a point where that gets spelled out, but there are some big hints to that effect in this current arc with Aphrodite (issue 19 especially). 

Hey. Thanks so much! 

I believe the 3rd volume is 15-20 and the Annual.

Hey.

Thanks for including me!

There are very few photos of me on the internet and yes, that is indeed by design. :D

That one that’s everywhere is the one I prefer. There are a couple others out there -- although a quick google search only revealed one -- and several people/sites that think I’m Joelle Jones -- which is wildly flattering as she is stunning (I am sorry Joelle, I WISH your photos were mine). Anyway, this one is still out there and IS me, but A) like the other “good” photo it’s very dated and B) I stopped using it pretty early on in my career because I worried it would be seen as suggestive/too suggestive, which is obviously not what I’m aiming for. Anyway, that one is here: https://previewsworld.com/Article/206389-Marvel-Announces-Exclusive-Agreement-with-Kelly-Thompson

Yup, those are all correct!