The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer
, or Scarlet for short, is a Science Fantasy webcomic written by German author Oliver "Novil" Knörzer and illustrated by Finnish artist Elli Puukangas.
The first page of the comic was published on 29 January 2024. Novil announced that two new comic pages will be posted per week. Like Novil’s previous two comics, Sandra and Woo and Gaia, Scarlet is published in English and German.
Scarlet follows the adventures of the girl Scarlet Carolus who wants to turn the legendary Machine of Eternal Summer back on and thus save her dying world Lavarel from freezing. Novil mentioned that Numenera, a science fantasy role-playing game set in the far distant future of Earth where technological artifacts have effects that are indistinguishable from magic, was one of the main inspirations for the comic. Apart from humans, the comic features anthropomorphic foxes and wolves. One of them is the fox Tibor Frey, the second main character of the comic.
The Adventurous Scarlet Carolus and the Machine of Eternal Summer contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The website features a page with supplementary material about the comic’s setting. It also features a character index and a glossary.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The overly long title of the comic.
- Driven to Suicide: After Tibor’s girlfriend left him, he tries to commit suicide by hanging. He even writes a suicide letter.
- Farm Boy: Scarlet is the daughter of a family of farmers. Apart from the basic premise, she doesn’t adhere to the usual standards for such a character, though. She’s living with her actual parents and would never refuse the call.
- Fiery Redhead: Redhead? Check! Hot-headed? Check!
- Genre Savvy: On the first page of the comic, Scarlet listens to an adventure story read by her mother and announces that she, too, wants to become a heroine that saves the world. Dangerous levels of genre savviness are to be expected.
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: Tibor writes a suicide letter before trying to commit suicide by hanging.
- Last Day of Normalcy: At the beginning of the comic, Scarlet is shown helping her parents with the harvest. Things start to go south when she and her father get robbed on their way home after a trip to the nearest city to sell the produce.
- Little Miss Badass: Facing an armed robber, Scarlet’s first action is to yell at him. After the robbery, she then wants to run after him. Both times, she has to be held back by her more level-headed father.
- Loser Protagonist: After Tibor’s girlfriend left him, he states that he’s a robber and gambler and that his whole family is a disgrace to the whole planet.
- Magitek: The eponymous Machine of Eternal Summer, the plasma guns powered by energy crystals, and other gadgets of various size.
- Messy Hair: Scarlet has tousled hair, as it becomes a Fiery Redhead.
- Officially Shortened Title: The overly long title title of the comic is regularly shortened to just Scarlet on the comic’s website.
- Saving the World: Scarlet states on the first page of the comic that this is her goal. In this case, however, the antagonist isn’t an evil sorcerer or someone like that, but the global cooling of her home planet.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Scarlet has vibrant red hair and green eyes.
- The Fantastic Trope of Wonderous Titles: The overly long title of the comic.
