Comic shard text

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Comic shard text

Postby Dryunya on Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:14 pm

There's this second-to-last comic book shard with the Cheshire Cat and some guy. It's sort of special, because it has a text panel. There have been suggestions that it is a cipher, and so I've tried to treat it like a substitution one. This theory is backed by recurring symbols - there's even one sequence that is repeated 3 times.
I didn't really get any results. The main problem is that it's hard to tell where each letter ends and the next one begins. In more extreme cases, I think there are more symbols than there are in english alphabet.

In short, this is what I got. If anyone wants to try, suit yourselves.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Pixelmage on Sun Sep 30, 2012 4:43 pm

Did anyone scan and upload the shard? Or can do it?

I, for one, did not get a shard, so I can't even try to help right now.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Adell on Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:04 pm

I'll take a look at it.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Dryunya on Sun Sep 30, 2012 5:09 pm

@PixelImage: This is what you seek, I presume.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Pixelmage on Sun Sep 30, 2012 6:30 pm

Thanks. That's perfect.

On a first look it seems like either handwriting or manually blurring on photoshop with a brush instead of running a filter over the normal font.

I'll give it a try... The gaps really bug me, though.
Don't know if I'll be able to crack the code, but I have nothing better to do anyway.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby narrativedilettante on Sun Sep 30, 2012 6:52 pm

I get the feeling that the text is more "damaged" than "encrypted," so I doubt we'll be able to find anything unless we get more information.

But it looks like maybe in the second line starts with an "A" and ends with a period, or possibly an ellipsis. The mark that looks like an "A" to me is the one that's tentatively labeled an "R" in that speculative key. I don't put any more confidence in my assessment than I do in anyone else's.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Victin on Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:08 pm

For me it seems to be dots and spaces, like in the 'written' language for the blind (don't know the name in english). But only if it's a cipher, if it's normal text forget it.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby NeverSlender on Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:10 pm

It's called braille. And it's not that, that's just dots not dashes as far as I know.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Victin on Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:19 pm

NeverSlender wrote:It's called braille. And it's not that, that's just dots not dashes as far as I know.

Oh, so it's the same word, I thought it was like the 'deaf languages' that varies (including the name) from country to country, but there is an international one. Also, I didn't say "dots and dashes" I said "dots". The writing is made by dots who are made with relief printing (I hope this is the name).
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Pixelmage on Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:20 pm

Braile is based on dot maps for each character. This has dashs, so no braile.
And surely it's not Morse notation: Vertical dashes do not fit.

If this is plain Arial 12 English and damaged to this point, then it's hopeless to try without some sort of context. In that case it might even be irrelevant.

And as a cypher, it's not really clear where one simbol ends and the other begins... So there's trial and error there, extracting two simbols as if it's just one makes the work all but impossible.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Sicon112 on Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:23 pm

Pixelmage wrote:Braile is based on dot maps for each character. This has dashs, so no braile.
And surely it's not Morse notation: Vertical dashes do not fit.

If this is plain Arial 12 English and damaged to this point, then it's hopeless to try without some sort of context. In that case it might even be irrelevant.

And as a cypher, it's not really clear where one simbol ends and the other begins... So there's trial and error there, extracting two simbols as if it's just one makes the work all but impossible.


Wow. You just typed up a near perfect re-creation of my analysis from when I first saw that picture, with the points in the same order and everything. Glad someone who is better at this stuff than I am agrees with me. Makes me feel a bit more confident.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Adell on Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:23 pm

Examination in Photoshop leads me to believe it's damaged text. I don't think you'll get anything out of a cipher. Perhaps if new shards appear eventually you'll be able to recreate the speech box. I will say one thing though, it looks like a narration box, since it's not attached to any character visible. I believe the repeating phrase of symbols may be someones name or a place. Perhaps wherever that scene in the comic is.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Dryunya on Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:47 pm

Just clarifying a few points:
1. I don't really think it was worth the effort - just had nothing to do.
2. I named the symbols in order of appearance - it was more of renaming the symbols than cracking the code. If we write it in clear text, decoding won't be a problem.
3. I believe the repeated pattern is more likely to be a grammatical construct. My thought was "are" and "aren't", as one of the repeated words is slightly different from the others. But well, I've abandoned hope to reconstruct it.
4. If it's a distorted text, it's unlikely it was damaged by hand - just some Photoshop filter. That explains the recurring patterns. In that case, there is some chance of reconstruction... A slim one.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Victin on Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:29 pm

I wanted to discuss more about the comic, do I do it in this thread, I create another only for discussing the comic or we ask the adms to create a section for it, so we could discuss each page individually or wathever?
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Dryunya on Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:30 pm

This thread has mostly run dry. I don't think creating another thread just for the comic would hurt.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby NeverSlender on Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:33 pm

I think we should ask for a comic section and have this thread moved there.

EDIT: And have a thread for each page.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Victin on Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:55 pm

NeverSlender wrote:I think we should ask for a comic section and have this thread moved there.

EDIT: And have a thread for each page.

Exactly what I was thinking. But some pages may correlate. You know. This is a comic.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby NeverSlender on Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:58 pm

Victin wrote:
NeverSlender wrote:I think we should ask for a comic section and have this thread moved there.

EDIT: And have a thread for each page.

Exactly what I was thinking. But some pages may correlate. You know. This is a comic.


A thread for each page and an "overall comic" or a "connections" thread. To be fair we can make topics as and when we feel it's necessary.
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Re: Comic shard text

Postby Victin on Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:01 pm

NeverSlender wrote:
Victin wrote:
NeverSlender wrote:I think we should ask for a comic section and have this thread moved there.

EDIT: And have a thread for each page.

Exactly what I was thinking. But some pages may correlate. You know. This is a comic.


A thread for each page and an "overall comic" or a "connections" thread. To be fair we can make topics as and when we feel it's necessary.

Agreed. I will make a page, set up a conversation, the go, because my planet needs me. But I wil be back.
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