Missed the actual anniversary day, but Friday marked the 15th year of doing Selkie comics. Probably wouldn’t still be here without all of your support and readership, so thank you everyone for helping me reach this milestone. Life has been getting in the way lately of my three-a-week plan, but despite that I still love creating this story and posting it for all of you, so… here’s to another fifteen.
Also-also, happy Pride Month everyone!
Congrats on 15 years! I love this comic and have been reading since the early b+w days.
I know that look…. Don’t fall for attempting matchmaker Selkie! That never ends well!
Congratulations on the anniversary! This has long been probably my favorite webcomic, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve gone back and reread the whole thing.
As to life getting in the way, take the time you need.
Selkie you sound like one of my dnd players!
tehk would be a ruthless dm. (also you play dnd too eepic)
Many congrats and thanks for 15+ years of storytelling!
How do interspecies couples do romance? Kissing is a major part of human romantic behavior, especially in the US where these people are, but Sarnothi have dangerous saliva. Actually, what happens when Sarnothi kids get sick? Will Todd have to don protective gear when Selkie gets sick in case she vomits on him?
Or is it okay if you don’t get bitten proper, like mouth to mouth contact (or saliva to skin in general) is okay?
If I remember right, Agent Brown and his sarnothi wife Carrie “kiss” with a hand between them, there’s one strip where she gives him a quick peck on the cheek that way. Any contact with sarnothi saliva will irritate a human’s skin, but it’s not a severe reaction, just uncomfortable.
Thinking about that, though, I wonder if kissing is a behavior developed in sarnothi culture as well, or if they have a different way of showing affection, like how their handshake equivalent is different.
1. It’s possible to cuddle or do other intimate things without kissing. Never really found kissing appealing, myself.
2. Kissing can already be a health risk for some humans with severe allergies. I remember hearing about a girl who died because her boyfriend kissed her on the lips after having eaten peanuts earlier that day. People still make it work… usually.
3. Vomit would contain little actual saliva. Different bodily fluids. Of course, vomit is quite unpleasant for its own reasons, but the saliva really won’t be your biggest worry.
4. Sarnothi venom is intended for prey much smaller than humans. On humans, it’s painful/irritating, but usually not lethal unless you’re allergic.
5. It’s possible to make antivenom, and people can develop an immunity after repeated exposure even without it. Sarnothi lovers would very probably end up immune to each others’ venom before long. Probably works for humans too…
tbf If I thought that was a risk with a regular kid I would still probably put on some PPE
Honestly, kissing is just a well-tread habit of many cultures; it’s not the only way to show affection. I have an aversion to Mouth Germs, and that includes an aversion to the thought of kissing someone on the mouth, even my (theoretical) husband. Let alone “French kissing” (ewww).
So should I ever get married, I hope my husband will be amenable to other types of physical contact — such as kissing elsewhere on the body, or touching foreheads, or holding the back of the neck, etc. There’s a lot of potential variation.
Go read “ElfQuest” (link under my name there — it’s all free on their site) and notice that the elves never actually kiss — but tell me there’s no deep physical affection going on. Seriously.
Huh… so you can post a link/advertisement to an external website that isn’t even your own using the “Website URL” field of the form and it’ll get displayed immediately with no fuss, but my post which contains links only to other pages of this same comic gets held up in moderation for containing “suspicious links” and still isn’t visible even though I submitted it a full day earlier than your post (or so I estimate without being able to see the timestamp).
My setup involves manually approving comments with links in them, so that’s on my head if it didn’t get approved swiftly. Sorry for any inconvenience.
No idea on the url thing. :/
Ideally, you’d configure the site so that links to the selkiecomic.com domain are exempt from the approval requirement, but I have no idea if that’s actually an option your comment architecture offers. My frustration was more with the situation, not you personally.
I do still think it’s silly that people are allowed to post a “website” link even though other links are moderated. Looking through today’s comments, it doesn’t seem to be a widely-used feature.
15 years? Really??? It doesn’t seem that long. Thank you for giving us such a wonderful story for all of these years.
Congratulations on the anniversary! It’s hard to believe it has been this long…. Love seeing when you update, would never get mad if something gets in the way, only at the thing getting in the way of the comic you want to update! Here’s to another 15 years, or however long the story takes to tell!
Boy, I don’t remember how long I have been reading this but probably pretty early, but I am really glad I have been. Good show!
CONGRATULATIONS ON 15 YEARS !!!!!!!!
Congrats on 15 years Dave and Selkie 🙂 from a long time reader in South Africa
Wow. Fifteen years. In that time I broke up with my ex, met and married my wife, and we had our ten year old son. When we met we compared web comic reading lists and Selkie was one of those we had in common. So glad it is still around for us both to enjoy. We hope you enjoy many more years of writing this endearing and thought provoking story, because we will enjoy reading and rereading it for as long as you write it.
Belated congratulations. Wasn’t there at the beginning but spotted the strip a few strips past that. Good stuff, fun stuff, all the way. (What was I most into then? Can’t remember…was after my Internet Fan Fiction period but before I obsessed over “Skin Horse.”)