For those interested, this comic has seen some post-update changes. After taking in some feedback on the pre-colors version, I decided to give Then a more appropriate face expression in the last panel. Here’s the original version for those that prefer it:
Wait'll you hear about their pancreatic enzymes.
Oh. So Trunchbull is just there to fearmonger. Because of course he is.
Yeah he is, but he’s also got a point. These sarnothi kids don’t seem very willing to get along with the humans which could lead to a lot of problems, and the fact that they have poison spit (along with their other special needs) REALLY should have been mentioned to the school before.
Equally important to mention: Despite the orphanage being… less than pleasant… for Selkie, she has never bitten or scratched anyone there, because if she had, Amanda would know about her saliva being venomous.
And regardless of whether or not he’s got a point, he is the absolute last person who has any room to talk bringing it up, given that the only violent incident in that school was his, very human, son.
This ^ right ^ here. ^ Thumbs up on all points.
One person being unaware about her saliva being poisonous, and generally not into “biting” doesn’t mean everyone else will.
It only takes one bully from the sarnothi to become a whole hazardous/fear problem for all of them.
And regardless of what his kid did and how he reacted, he’s the very first person to talk about this issues because he’s the only one with the knowledge, his son and him were already corrected on their error, that doesn’t automatically invalidates his concerns.
The parents deserve to know about the kids that are, not only from another country, but a whole different species, so that they can choose willingly to leave their kids there, or not.
And what Til’Raeda is doing… is absolutely wrong “Here’s a bunch of kids from a different species that didn’t exist before now, deal with them” isn’t exactly a very compelling argument.
I personally wouldn’t mind my kids being with Sarnothi in their school, but I would be pissed if information like this was kept from me, I can talk to my kids about their physiology and general concerns, to treat them better and give them the tools to deal with this new “alien” life form, because they are very much aliens, even if they don’t come from outer space.
Not citizens = aliens. Probably illegal, but since they didn’t cross a border, moot point, there.
Also, not poisonous, not toxic, probably just an irritant… Unless allergic reaction sets in. Todd only ever showed a rash, as did his sister. So non-toxic, as far as we know. Even the cat didn’t do much but puke up a hairball.
He has a point, sure. I just question how he’s choosing to present that point. “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” Trunchbull is setting the stage for humans – even friendly ones like Jessie – to fear the Sarnothi.
What makes you think the Sarnothi kids aren’t willing to get along with humans? So far the only information we have on them is 1077, and they just seemed scared and hurt by being kicked out of their home into a less than ideal environment. Nothing any of the three kids who spoke indicated hostility towards humans.
He has a point. These kids are all used to swimming. That makes for a fairly STRONG DENSE body able to move pretty quick. They’ve been basically full body resistance training their entire lives. Ever met a competitive swimmer? MOST of them are JACKED. I met Mike Phelps ONCE in Baltimore Train Station when he was still competing. I’m pretty sure he could have picked me up with one arm given the right leverage. In short the Tadpoles are not without their own defenses. He may be a Peckerhead but Trunchie has a limited point (other than the one on his head) They ARE Apex predators in their own right just like humans.
it also means they have never adapted to falling, I expect fragile hips!
I would never refer to Trunchie as a peckerhead. I think his appellation comes from the dorsal, not the ventral, side of the anatomy. If you hadn’t commented on that I’d never have given it a second glans.
Second glance. Sorry, typo.
Don’t need any of that to hurt others as his own kid already showed.
Seriously. In all the time Selkie’s been attending that school, she’s the only one to get hospitalized. By his son. I hope Then brings that up.
So do I.
She’s the only one that’s been shown in a few months focusing on a few classrooms. We have no idea for the rest of the years she’s been there, or the rest of the school since August.
But yes, she has claws, fangs, poison, and a super-fast temper. And still managed to not send anyone to hospital that we’ve seen.
Unless they find some bodies, we may never know if she did or not… :–)
Srzly, she’s a good kid. As I suspect the Sarnothi kids to be, war refugees are often happier out of the war zone. At least of the very few I have met.
Ok the incompetency on display here is kinda leaving the realms of believable. Why dose Then not have a laundry list of stock responses to this stuff? I pointed this out with Todd before and it was hand waved with ‘good guy cant lie’ but Then is a snarky government agent. Why is he floundering with basic questions about safety, biology, and human fear responses? Why is he anime teenager levels of socially incompetent when dealing with this kind of thing has been his job and his chosen filed for presumably half a decade now?
A government agency being incompetent? That would surely have to be a first!
Different sets of skills. Clearly Thens particular area of expertise is not public relations.
Looking over it a bit after-the-fact, I may tweak Then’s facial expression when I do the colors. It’s the same sort of “flustered” expression Todd would use, and I agree it isn’t very fitting for him.
Also, to be honest, I had some trouble dialoging that last panel with something that didn’t just require more follow-up. Most of my first drafts for that last panel have been repurposed for Monday’s strip instead, as they invite more discussion while something for a final panel of the final strip of the week needs something a bit more “ending”-y. I’m not sure punchline is the correct term to use here, but it’s the closest I can think of. An actual reply to Jessie’s surprise and Trunchbulls info-dropping would have needed more space than I had left.
Frankly, this is one of those strips that gets me to thinking if the entire story wouldn’t be better in a text format than an illustrated medium.
TBH, the entire strip works in an illustrated medium precisely because it deals with “periwinkle/green” people, I read a whole bunch of sci fi books and it’s easy to forget what every species looks like, and having the writer repeat over and over again “they are green” isn’t very compelling and messes with the pacing
I think in this instance a beleaguered sigh expression would have been effective. A moment’s pause as he collects his thoughts and shows some emotions without the flustered element.
Oh, I really like the updated expression. Much more Then-like, and it would lead in well to more explanation on Monday.
The new expression seems more like the Then we know. It’s equal parts “you [pictogram of donkey]hole” and “ayfkm.jpg”.
It works very well with the redo of Then’s expression as obstinant/sarcastic because it has Jessie in the middle and Prof and Then having a stare-off now. I love it:)
Have you read the series by Scott McCloud yet? Because if not, you seriously should. He goes into detail on the different ways that visuals and text can interact, everything from “doing the exact same thing” (picture of cat in pond, text “The cat was in the pond”) to contradicting each other (picture of two people happily shaking hands, “I hated him immediately”) or completely unrelated to each other (picture of watercress sandwich, “umlauts are weird”). I recall there being like seven tiers.
The comic medium is uniquely suited for playing around with time and for allowing the reader to work at their own pace (as well as using certain tricks to toy with that), but it’s also got the ability to weave visuals and text into a thing that is greater than the sum of its parts. Recall Todd shrinking down to childhood as his parents lectured him about his girlfriend? That’s something that would be far less effective in text, but is wonderful in a visual medium (and harder to pull off in film, and more expensive in animation because you need more than three drawings to get the same effect).
I think you’re doing fine with how it’s told. Which is a separate issue from if you prefer to switch to a text medium at some point (a la Erfworld) due to other concerns, such as being able to put it all together in a timely manner, or being able to cover important detail quickly.
You might consider having transcripts of longer conversations that can be summarized in the comic but given more fully for those of us interested in more specifics. Like, maybe Then actually goes over some of the biology, but it’s not important to the onscreen tale right now, but you give the text of his discussion for those of us who are interested.
*Venomous* spit, Jessie. Venomous spit. The spit does not get eaten (unless it’s by the eels).
Sorry. I keep snakes and spiders as pets so that is always an important distinction in our household.
Reba6 I keep a Vespicula fish.. so I know how you feel. (bastard thing envenomed me a few months back my whole arm puffed and felt like it was on fire)
A treatise on the distinction.
https://i.imgur.com/YRn3N1F.png
Apart from the magic thing, humans appear to be way more robust than sarnothi. By and large humans appear to be much larger and stronger. Doubt teeth create that big an advantage. Humans aren’t a small, weak species and have been known to kill other critters that do have such natural weapons without being armed. Plus there’s the clear numeric advantage.
Doubt mankind has anything to worry about sarnothi. Concern over sarnothi children welfare is more than justified.
It is still a reasonable concern of any parent to fear for their children.
Just because humans seem to be a tad more robust, does not mean their safety should not be looked at.
“Has sharp claws” is a valid concern with animals, but just because another person can hurt you doesn’t mean they will. It would be like worrying one of your kids classmates is big or knows karate.
Spit is the one valid point because that could happen by accident – so the humans should know not to drink from the same bottle and stuff like that.
Laughing Target, they APPEAR that way. they’ve had resistance training THIER ENTIRE LIVES. they don’t LOOK shredded like a human would but most of these kids can most likely bench 2-300 pounds. SELKIE is probably at a disadvantage because she HASNT.
What makes you assume the children have had military training? We don’t know to what extent, of any, widespread military or resistance action was occurring in Sarnoth. And particularly given that they were on the losing side of this particular battle, it’s entirely possible they have led lives of limited access to resources including food. For all we know they are under nourished and generally weaker. Conflicts, even full fledged violent ones, seldom involved heavy training among the entire populace. Resistance movements very often involve guerilla tactics and attacks of opportunity, none of which necessitate wide spread physical battle conditioning, which would be conspicuous to carry out anyway.
No, I imagine like most refugees these kids are scared, and underdeveloped or at least undernourished relative to those living in safe and stable environments.
I am pretty sure JoeCrouse is talking about “resistance training” as in aquasize, resistance therapy bands, swimming, etc. that came naturally from swimming in their environment. Some might also have watched their parents and other adults train for resistance against the Sarnothi clan (I can’t recall the name) that exiled their families. They’re probably too young to formally train to join the resistance.
You are confusing humanity as a whole with individual humans. Yes humanities numerical advantage would help them but an individual human child who is attacked by an individual Sarnothi child would have to deal with all three things.
That is not to say Trunchbull isn’t acting like an enormous horses read, he is. By his same reasoning his own sons physical size advantage means the other parents should be just as afraid of him and asking these same questions of Trunchbull. And indeed, as others have pointed out humans such as his son, and worse the fishermen, have harmed Sarnothi, not the other way around (so far as we know right now).
You’d be surprised how much of an advantage teeth, and more importantly the willingness to use them in a fight, are. Even when both kids are just ordinary humans. Being bitten freaks most people out, it’s one of our primal terrors. And a scared fighter is a far less effective fighter.
A bunch of kids took turns beating me up every week in kindergarten until I bit one of them. They all got scared I would bite them.
By that logic, seems more like a defensive ability.
I doubt any of these kids are likely to TRY to make enemies here. (Even if they don’t care to make friends.)
However, the parents and kids should be informed of certain differences, including venomous spit and sharp teeth, or the like. It increases tension when you feel like vital info is being withheld on purpose, especially for reasons potentially at odds with your kid’s welfare.
I’ve heard that schools with very diverse populations tend to form little cliques based on race, whereas schools with a few minority character tend to not have that problem (the minorities mingle with the majority in a normal fashion, not according to race). Wonder what’ll be the case here?
meh, its not THAT poisonous – you´ll only get a rash, like from poison ivy. and selkie never scratched or bitten someone, not even during ‘snowmargeddon’
Hear hear!
THAT’S AWESOME! is what I expect her to say
I like this guy. He’s bringing up the important stuff.
Oh yeah Trunchy, when your spoiled thugly brat sends a smaller child to the hospital, that’s just “rough play”. If these were older kids, he’d be Brock Turner’s dad saying “boys will be boys”.
Disagree with Trunchbull’s approach here but I do think that he and Jessie have a point. I know this integration is likely being rushed because of the Sar’Teri forcing their hand but you’d think that both sides would get some sort of a very basic biology primer on each other.
true, even if they have been forced out of their home, there is no reason that they would need to be sent to *human* schools quickly before some catch up training has been done.
kind of surprised that all the kids seem to know English already really. would more expect them to be in a ESL set of classes at first for a few weeks. not only for learning proper English, but cultural things as well. or have the sanothi kids been being prepared for this intergration essentially for some time?
would expect the sarnothi kids to be in a separate class for a while. don’t really see why it would need to even be in an established school, short of plot needs. and that is what is making Then’s situation seem so out of place, because the sarnothi kids being in the situation to begin with is completely out of place with the logical way to handle the situation.
actually as been said about them being water dwellers up to this point, we have seen little mention of needing to get “land legs” from a group that walking is not exactly natural. at least not walking as we know it. even assuming some means to let them naturally sink in water, they would not really be walking on the sea floor so much as bouncing naturally. imagine a human that has never been swimming being in a pool suddenly. it would take time to get used to it. presumably the green “magic” stuff could help with this, but how far?
It was addressed in comments before, this group has been preparing to be in a human school for a couple months and are not the kids from the recent influx of refugees. They were supposed to have a couple more months, but the Sarnothi government forced their hand.
Early in the strip, it was revealed that “guppy” is a code-word for a Sarnothi child. A couple strips ago, in the comments section or the author’s notes, we were told that this group of kids is who the term was developed for.
Thus, these children have already had their separate classes, off-screen. As to “sea legs”, those are from being on a ship which is affected by waves. Swimming doesn’t do that.
I think the whole thing is both forced and rushed… as in the refugees were forced to reveal themselves and rushed to explain everything and hope the humans don’t throw them to the eels…
It’s quite possible that someone can have a more severe allergic reaction to the saliva. The teeth and claws and stronger physical form via being underwater all their lives also is a thing.
Not saying they’d hurt someone on purpose, but accidentally? I can see it. Also I’m sure a few will be bullies in their own right and hate humans all the same and those ones will want to actively hurt.
true, some of the kids have probably been told that the humans actively started/caused the sarnothi conflict. which to an extent is kind of true even, granted it was by accident.
forget exactly which group was which in that council blow up over how to handle the fishing boat incident. are the ones that wanted a direct fight the ones still in the lake or they part of the ones pushed out?
Not enough to kill you, Trunchbull. Just enough to cause a skin reaction. And your only in danger of their claws/teeth if you pick a fight. Like your son did.
Fearmongering of a very small species. Congrats, Trunchbull. I despise ya more than I already did. And I wasn’t sure that was possible.
I’m a bit surprised by how harsh people here are being to Trunchbull here. Yes, he’s being aggressive here, but not in a truly bad way. He’s bringing up points that need to be brought up and don’t seem to have been brought up with the school’s general staff. While it’s quite possible some of this is because of the sudden nature of the integration has led to a bit of a scramble, it still makes the people overseeing it look a bit less than competent. We’ll see how it’s handled on Monday. And Trunchbull could have brought all this up in the meeting in front of everyone, but didn’t. Minor points there. Mind, I still don’t like him much, but his actions here I’m not holding against him.
That’s just it. He is using those points in an attempt to rally support against the Sarnothi. And that is the problem. He is framing a narrative of fear- that they are incompatible, and he is using half-truths to do it. He knows how he is framing these questions. He is omitting parts of the truth. It may make people unwilling to see the other half of said half-truths.
And a banshee wail, don’t forget that part. That was what incited Truck.
That face in the last panel really made me laugh my ass off at work. You know what? I’m glad someone finally caught that smart was off guard for once.
Yoooouuuuu may not like the updated version, then. >_> sorry
I don’t. Oh well.
I think both sides are kind of entitled here. They really aren’t telling people what they need to know. I mean I get it, they don’t want to cause a panic. But still, I know most parents would want to know if their kids went to school with poison spitting children .
While the worry is justified, if you think about kids biting each other or spitting on each other…actually yeah that worry is completely justified (from an accidental point of view)
Eh, that stuff makes me think kindergarden, not grade schoolers.
Ugh, I’m probably making assumptions here but here goes: This is probably very typical of trunchbull; using a sensitive subject to throw his weight around. I know those are legitimate claims but still he really needs to reel it in especially considering his history here. He needs to leave and let the real adults handle this subject, since he’s just someone who takes advantage of people with sympathy like he did with that “divine love for my son “ bullcrap.
this has gotta be one of my favourite pages simply because all of the dialogue and expressions are perfect. “I spare no one” “Hey! Arm!” “Y…YOU HAVE POISON SPIT?!” and of course the last panel. i love it, comedy gold while also staying on topic.
Hey! Ditto what you said, for me.