Seems like the sort of thing Amanda would laugh at.
– – – – –
So, a little bit of bad news for which I am wholly responsible. I may possibly not be able to make a Friday comic this week and almost definitely won’t be able to make a Monday comic for next week. My younger sister is getting married this weekend and I am not as far ahead as I had intended to be by today.
I was thinking of doing sketch updates for these days, but I thought too that the guest comic thing might be a better idea if possible. So, if anyone out there wants to do a guest comic and can short-notice it to me this week, that’d be amazing. Otherwise instead of regular comics on next Monday (and this Friday if I don’t make it) I’ll post some sketch updates so there’s at least some content on the update days.
Well…
At least she’s still okay enough to spout her hatred of winter, right?
I hope she’s okay.
So that´s what she´s trying to say? To me it looked like “I´s winner”.
Yeah, I translated it as “Hates Winter”, sans hard-consonants (which are hard to produce when you’re going into shock).
Get. Her. Inside. NOW!
Isn’t it great being an adult? I mean, isn’t it just terrific? Anyone so much as lays a hand on you, and sympathetic but heavily-armed people in blue bring all the power of the law into play.
i liked it better when i was allowed to fight, all grown ups get to do is hold all the stress in till they snap x.x
You were allowed to fight?
You’ve never tried to get the police to take a domestic violence report, have you?
I haven’t, I’m glad to say. And if there’s a part of adult life that stands close comparison with bullying, domestic abuse must be it- my GF was once a victim.
But the South Wales Police force are getting a good reputation locally for their domestic violence interventions. I’m that sorry if you’ve had a different experience.
On the other hand, it’s not as bad as this town which has a cheery ordinance. If you call the police more than three times to report domestic violence against yourself your landlord is supposed to evict you.
O_o That’s horrible.
I was all ready to assume it was one of those old archaic laws from centuries ago like the “no thicker than your thumb” law. But this is a MODERN DAY ordinance… ugh.
The US of A, last time I looked it up, puts in place an average of 40,000 new laws a year these days (totaled across all states and degrees of jurisdiction). Almost none are ever repealed, because each new administration (various levels and locals) attempts to demonstrate their worth based on the number of new laws they put in place.
You recall the fuss made when they tried to pass SOPA and CISPA? That’s two. There were approximately 38,998 OTHER new laws you probably didn’t hear about, and thus they sailed through. It would be impossible to keep up with them all.
OLD laws actually had to make sense (to the people of the times). We left that standard behind a good 25 or so years back. T_T
And Amanda’s still completely void of empathy. Why am I not surprised?
I’m not sure what that first pannel is, is it Silkie’s fists, Truck’s hair or his legs before he falls? I also know it’s not really important, but I can’t seam to focus on the rest of it while that niggles at me. {quirky smile}
It’s Selkie’s leg. Truck has just dropped her and she’s landed on her feet but she’s weak and trembling and just barely holding herself up.
I would highly appreciated seeing the next couple of pages in sketch form and being able to see the next part of the story then having to wait another week to see what happened next. Please do that if at all possible. Keep up the wonderful work.
His tears a probably frozen to his face. So, not gravity defying.
Or he fell to his knees, started crying, and then fell over. Tears don’t freeze easily at all (and there’d be more cold and wind markings on their bodies universally were it that cold or windy, methinks).
But it’s a comic, so maybe it’s just for effect anyway *shrugs*
Right, they don’t freeze. . . nor do they need to for Dave to get the effect he wants. Tommy’s tears could easily just be clinging to the skin beneath his eyes from surface adhesion. As long as the water is spread out it will stay in place.
Salt water doesn’t freeze easily
Congratulate your sister for us!
I’m having trouble understanding what Selkie’s trying to say. I say someone above mention that it could be “hates winter,” and I think that makes sense. Maybe I’ll go back and read to see if anyone else has another translation.
99.995% sure it’s Hate’s winter.
Hey, congrats to your sister.
Loved panel 4. The expression of frustration, hurt, and rage on Selkie’s face is amazing.
Amanda needs serious professional therapy. She’s shaping up to be a right little sociopath. Well, maybe not quite, but it’s a terrible trend. Somehow, she seems to keep escaping consequences, too, which is even worse.
I’m beginning to think the only thing that will turn her around, and the major force behind her issues, is her lack of a parent. She HAS no one to punish her and have it have meaning. She’s got nothing to lose pretty much. Give her parents and there’s a butt-load that can be taken away from her. Personally, I don’t like her, and I get that I’m not supposed to, but I decided to throw out that insightful thought I just had.
I’m not sure that her mother will provide that support, unfortunately. We really don’t know what her parenting skills are at this point. Her DAD, however, might be a really good person to have around.
I’m not ready to sell her out yet myself. This could be a look of shock and surprise, taking it all in. Remember, she was trying to help just a few moments ago. She was helplessly trying to do so and then all of a sudden Selkie freaks out and kicks Truck in the beans. A little surprise is allowed.
Hell, I’ve been accused of having no emotions when I’ve had that expression on my face from a bad situation. But I was just taking it all in and figure out where I stood. So I’m not ready to call Amanda out on anything. Wait a strip or two.
To add further, yes, even with the laughter. Sometimes laughter can be nervous. Not in this situation, no, she’s overtly laughing at Truck’s pain. Considering what he was doing to Selkie, it’s understandable. Then she sees the damage is major and it becomes less funny.
She’s redeemable – I mean she’s just a KID – but the trend needs to start changing faster, I’d say. We’ve seen her bully Selkie, smash her DS, freeze out Heather and then deliberately rat her out, try to bully another girl she got into a fight with, cause more grief on the snowball field…
The orphanage is being derelict in their duties at this point, methinks.
This. While they do care for their charges, the orphanage staff has been grossly negligent in not getting Amanda the help she clearly needs.
Don’t worry about the update. Relax and enjoy every minute of the wedding — it isn’t every day a sister gets married!
If there’s extra content posted, I’ll read it, of course, but if it turns out you don’t have any to post, that’s all right.
Webcomics are made by real people with real lives, y’know? When one of my favourites has to miss one or more updates, what I care most about is knowing when I can check back to read the next bit of the story. I really appreciate when an artist is courteous enough to tell us that. “Why” is a bonus. Not really necessary, not really any of my business — but in this case, I’m so glad you did. It means I can imagine you being happy on your sister’s special day.
🙂 Thank you. I’m going to be one of the groomsmen, and I can’t wait to stand next to my sister and my brother-to-be on their day.
there are a couple things that i love most about the past two comics.
one being you’ve gotten so much better at inking and line art. the lines are smooth. i don’t know if it’s because you switched from online to actual ink, your increased skill, or both.
second, your facial expressions. oh my god your facial expressions. They’re perfect! you’ve got faces and the lines down pat.
the last thing.. the implied movement. when you first started out your characters were somewhat static and awkward in the way they moved their limbs, but now you’ve gotten to the point where the fluidness is palpable. The way Truck fell, the way selkie’s hair swings in the direction she’s falling..
you’re really coming into your own, and the art just keeps getting better and better! great job!
Thank you. 🙂 I really think the decision to switch to traditional drawing/inking over the tablet was a good one. Not just for the art, but I am really loving the more tangible drawing experience.
I’d love to do a guest comic. 😀 I’ll make one and get it to you in the next couple days- if you decide to use it and all.
Sounds great!
Please, can I do one too? I was going to send it in as fan at
Art anyway, but if you have a day to fill up, then it would be epic if you could use it! 😀
Sure!
WOOT! Thanks ^_^
Does no one else think Selkie’s face looks very creepy while she says, “Your fault.” to Amanda? Also, it’s not technically Amanda’s fault, is it? I thought the French kid initiated the whole snowball fight party crashing?
I think it’s not necessarily a bad thing that Amanda was laughing at Truck… I remember being that age, almost no matter what was going on it was hilarious when someone got kicked in the nads, unless of course that someone was you. I do, however, think that Amanda missed being Selkie’s first bite victim only because Selkie was going into shock.
Actually, this time around it was Ricky and Tony who started the entire escapade. If they hadn’t gotten involved and rounded up the recruits this might not have escalated as quickly as it did and turned out so badly.
I can’t help but feel a little concerned for Tommy. How hard can Selkie kick?
Well, I figure that if he can still talk, no lasting damage was done.
I don’t think Amanda wanted to see Selkie hurt so badly. I really hope she’s not blamed for this.
I don’t think she should be blamed for the entire situation, but she certainly took part. She deserves to be punished for chasing Selkie and cornering her against the building, and for her role in the gang-up snowball fight as well. As do Tony, Truck, Heather, and all the other kids that decided to antagonize Selkie and her friends. Selkie being injured is due to Truck’s bad decisions, but Amanda contributed to setting up that situation.
I meant blamed for the whole thing as if she instigated it. Every kid involved deserves to be punished though, yes, since they all took part in something prohibited.
And by all the kids I also mean Selkie and her friends as well. Except Selkie probably should be exempt until she’s not… well, passed out and in danger from the cold.
Totally agree
Hard enough to knock back an experienced soccer goalie of similar size with a well-placed goal kick…this is tempered by the cold, though.
Sorry, meant that as a response to Danny.
Her kick also probably did less damage in winter because of the layers of clothing involved – primitive armor in its way!
Selkie kicking hard can be attributed to the fact that she’s aquatic, and she’s used to underwater swimming, so her legs are designed to be strong. And if her legs are this strong now, geez, what’s puberty going to be like?
Nice work on this one. Walks the line well that you talked about last update wanting to avoid making Selkie too monstrous, but still giving her a very scary evil eye. Very emotional, and the perspective for the panels was well thought out.
One of my favorite updates so far.
Hopefully this will be a wake-up call for Amanda. She’s seen that things can, indeed, get out of hand. (I don’t think her suppressed giggle is out of character for her at this time — look at practically every modern “comedy”, the nads figure in big time.)
As for blame, if it had been my school, *all the kids* would have been blamed for not having any better sense anywhere along the line. But I’m getting old and it’s probably not that way now 🙂
i wonder if selkie’s frightening expressions would look less sinister if she had a more human face? the one who i find worrying isn’t amanda so much. she has significant issues, but they look resolvable. the worrisome one is truck. the narcissism, lack of empathy, impulsiveness, and disregard for consequences suggest at least a severe personality disorder. couple that with his obvious immense strength (even an adult would find it quite difficult to hold a child selkie’s size up at arms length that long) and you have the makings of a very dangerous child indeed, not an ordinary bully.
She’s……
A BRILLIANT ACTOR!
She casually says hey even when frozen cold!