Firstly, I want to thank everyone who opened up in yesterday’s commentary about their own experiences with bullying and harassment. I know this stuff isn’t always easy to speak about or relive, and I wanted to say something openly to express my appreciation for sharing those with everyone. I am aware that the bullying aspects of the strip can bring back a lot of painful memories in readers, and I appreciate everyone trusting us with those stories. Thank you.
Secondly, today’s strip is a half-strip due to, basically, epic fail. ;P I knew I had to work today (or tomorrow at the time I was working on the strip) and at about 1am, as I was finishing up the character shadows and starting in on the backgrounds, I realized that I could not recall what TIME I had to be at work. My job is at a 24hr business (thankfully) so I gave them a call. Usually I don’t go to work until 4pm, but apparently I start work at 7:30 AM today. And it is now… 1:30 am.
So, bedtime, and backgrounds later in the day. Thanks for understanding and see you all Monday.
Oh, and for those that don’t follow the Selkie Facebook page, I sometimes make commentary on it while working on strips, and I shared an idle thought about the post-snowball fight strips you may be interested in.
Also, if you haven’t visited or liked/shared the Selkie Facebook page, great time to do so. PLUG! 😉
-EDIT- One little alteration, to fix some perspective issues I can only attribute to drinking a big hot steaming mug of FAIL.
I went through multiple iterations of what action Selkie should take to defend herself against Truck in this strip and had a hard time weighing pros and cons of different reactions. First draft of this scene, she bit him. And I did not miss all the readers calling for that particular action beforehand, either. ;) But I decided biting him, with her sharp teeth and venomous saliva, presented too many problems story-wise. How does she explain it to witnesses? How drastic of an effect does it have? Does Truck even LIVE through it? A different iteration on this theme had her spit a huge loogie in his face instead of biting, but that had the same problems. Another draft had Selkie screeching right in his face and slashing with her claws. The problem here is that Selkie, by the nature of her character design, walks a very fragile line where she can easily become too "monstrous" and lose empathy. Plus slashing with her claws creates more witness and severity of reaction problems on top of that. In another draft, she dodged the grab, returned snowball fire, and knocked Truck over on top of Amanda and Tony. It's funnier and more light-hearted than the other ideas and was a strong candidate for awhile, but made her victory too easy and robbed "Tommy the Truck" of his chance to establish himself as a valid threat in the Rogues Gallery. Ultimately, I went with the groin kick because it allowed Selkie to obtain a victory over her aggressor without overdoing the combat elements of the scene or making her victory too easy (you could probably argue that I made it a little TOO difficult for her actually...). Eventually, though... I'd like Selkie to utilize her saliva in self defense. But it's still too early for that. Someday, though. Someday...
Kicking him in the goolies – that works for me.
Selkie is brave – once someone is cowed, fighting back is not really on the list of things to do.
(That’s cowed in the “To frighten with threats or a show of force.” not any sort of bovine)
That certainly did the trick. O_O And kudos on the realistic way it was done– losing strength, and taking on a much bigger opponent, she had few options.
Also, teachers!
noone taught me not to fight back lol this had very mixed results ranging from selkie’s success, to knowing what a large tree branch feels like against ur legs x.x
I made the mistake of telling my oldest girl when she was three to hit back when an older girl was bullying her. I should have been much clearer about the parameters of how to hit back as I could have been sued for how my daughter actually hit the older girl back.
Instead of waiting for the other child to hit her again and simply returning the hit, my daughter found the top of a plastic spray bottle… you know the part that you screw on that has the spray nozzle and the thin tube that fits inside the bottle?
She got a hold of it by the thin plastic tube, walked up behind the girl and just smacked her as hard as she could with the nozzle end kind of like hitting her with a club, gouged a chunk out of the other girls head.
The girl started screaming as we all came running to find out what happened. The older girl had blood streaming down her head and was completely freaking out but my daughter was just standing there proudly holding up her weapon and says “I hit her back just like you said mom”.
hahaha your daughter is/was the awesomest kid ever!!
think of it this way, that older girl was probably scared straight after that and behaved ^^
I like this and she can easily say she did not do it on purpose that she was just struggling and trying to get free. She wasn’t aiming that’s just where a desperate kick landed.
Even if she doesn’t explain it away, the teachers saw her being manhandled – it might be a bit of an exaggerated reaction, but it is a defensive action. Heck, it’s one of those taught to women in self defence classes.
She’s also very possibly freezing to death, so she’s pretty well justified in doing whatever it takes to get away.
*Crosses legs* Well then. THAT was certainly an effective way of getting him to relent.
Right in the family jewels… I even felt that. ouch.
Why didn’t she just shriek again?
That would’ve made him to drop her and cover his ears.
She’s obviously having problems talking right now because of the cold. Her skin has gone pale, so she’s getting affected.
I’m sure she would have shrieked if she’d had the strength to do so.
Ah, yes.
When I replied it was not colored yet.
Now I see it.
I’m guessing that her slurred(?) speech is due to the cold, if not due to being practically in tears. Falling into the snow isn’t going to do her any favors, I think. It’s good that the teachers have arrived/are arriving.
I can’t wait for the next set. I feel sorry for Mina and Jessie. The chances of this NOT leading to Todd having to visit school again are nonexistent. I know that teachers do attend recess but I can understand how easy it is to lose track of people.
i actually recently had an experience that i can relate to selkie, had a jaw infection lead to a fevor and chills so bad i couldnt move and talked like shes talking. coldest ive ever felt in my life and i grew up in blizzard turf! i do not envy her >.>
(dont worry im fine now XD)
She’s white… she’s white… @.@ *sick feeling in pit of stomach*
I missed the fact that she had kicked Tommy in the last panel – I thought the word DOWN was yelled by the teachers and that was why he dropped her.
What does “cuhled teeshers” mean? Good teachers? Call the teachers?
I read it as “called teachers”. As in, she’s telling Tommy to put her down as she called the teachers. Then he says “make me”, which leads to the groin kick.
I read that as “Cold…. Teachers…” Meaning she was letting him know that she was in serious trouble from hypothermia and asking him to call the teachers…”
Oh no…Selkie is losing color in her skin! 🙁
Appropriate and valid form of self defense. SING it. “solar plexus – instep – nose – groin”
Todd would be within his rights to call a serious meeting with the principal. THe bullying in this school is severe and overlooked. I don’t think we’ve ever seen a teacher standing up for a student to another student, or at least not enough that it sticks in my memory. They left Selkie to sit shirtless in the office FFS.
One question: What kind of sound effect goes with a kick to the groin?
I would imagine if you took a handful of walnuts that had lain on the ground awhile and softened in the sunlight and threw them at a brick wall like a baseball, it’d be about right.
Pardon me while i go do that to make some sound assets for a video game i will probably never get to make, Thanks for the idea!
Works for me, but how would you write that in a panel of the comic?
*shplup*
I think *kick* works pretty well. I´d prefer *kickinthenuts*, but that´s not family friendly enough.
From experience I’d say either a “ka-krunch” or a “thump”
One I saw was “7-10 Split!”
Good for her. Of course, if this were one of the many schools with a “Zero Tolerance for fighting” policy she would be suspended or expelled.
I really do wonder about Selkie and cold. From the hints we’ve gotten her species is temperate and aquatic. That means she should be able to take water temperatures near 0C not just all over her body but in direct contact with her entire bloodstream. That’s how gills work. That would make her more resistant to hypothermia than humans, not less. Water heats or cools you MUCH faster than air.
This may be true, but (at least with pets) fish are extremely sensitive to rapid changes in temperature. In that putting the fish directly into warm water can make it quite sick. So maybe that’s what’s happening here?
Also in water gills are constantly wet. Her the water will be chilling on her gills, potentially clogging them with frost and making it hard to breathe.
One other thing is that lakes actually maintain a fairly stable temperature, especially near the bottom. Sure it’s cooler than the avg surface temp but it’s consistent. So seasons don’t really apply except in where light avalibility is an issue.
I was thinking the same thing. Selkie’s going to get tossed for this.
Let her. She’s miserable, she’s tortured on a daily basis and it seems like half the school either hates or is afraid of her (thanks most likely to Amanda’s rumor-mongering). Unfortunately homeschooling is probably not an option for a single working parent.
But getting expelled from this school could be the best thing that ever happens to her.
Todd could probably afford to put her into private school. I’m thinking he just didn’t want her to miss out on all her friends and having to fit in with entirely new crowd.
However, I’m with the others in that this school is way out of control, if a girl’s shirt can be stolen and later that girl gets physically attacked in recess. Imagine Selkie being a human girl in a wheelchair and you get a good feel just how “appropriate” that would be!
I read those first frames as him telling the teachers to make him put her down. If that’s how it’s supposed to be read then he’s on the route to becoming a little (big?) sociopath.
I have to agree with the crotch shot. She needs a distinct victory against Truck. But you don’t want to show her savage side just yet, and in narrative it makes sense she wouldn’t resort to them either. After all, she doesn’t want to ruin what she has so even in desperation she might block that off.
This is the 2nd comment about groin kicks today. How odd.
oh, and….
GGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
For a split second I had thought she bit him. She most likely won’t be in any sort of trouble for kicking him, the teachers could clearly see what was going on. They may not know who started what at this point, but they can definitely see she’s just trying to escape.
It also quite obviously seems that the cold is affecting her. Impairing her speech and turning her pale. Seems like Truck doesn’t know that the cold is bad for her. He doesn’t seem like he knows her much at all, really.
I can see this leading to Todd being very upset with both Selkie and Mina for different reasons. Selkie, because she knew better than to do this, especially when he specifically warned her not to do this and Mina because she should have called him before allowing her to go outside in the cold at all.
I also foresee the entire class getting into trouble for doing something prohibited. Possibly even Jessie for not keeping a better eye on Selkie. Although that seems a bit unfair, because it looks like Mina had asked her to go find her after she herself had let her initially run off.
Unless Selkie is near death, I see a harsh lecture in her future by Todd. Well, a lecture either way, but probably less harsh and long after she’s out of harms way.
I thought she had bit him at first. I like the groin kick better than her biting and possibly killing him. Now I’m worried about what’s going to happen which will make her bite someone in the future. It’s probably going to be worse than this since she resisted in this case.
Yeah, if she bit him and hurt him really badly, that would’ve been a terrible situation indeed. I would think she would know better than to bite someone when the possibility of her actually hurting someone that badly or worse, killing someone, weighs on her mind.
I’m kind of surprised he didn’t drop her the instant the teachers came on the scene, most bullies I’ve seen tend to wilt under the presence of legitimate authority.
I am pretty sure Tommy doesn’t realise that the teachers are closing in yet. Also, I have seen kids do totally foul things in front of teachers because they didn’t know they would be condemned for them.
“But she yelled at me! The noise was horrible! We’re not allowed to make horrible yells at school. And I didn’t hit her. You told me not to hit and I’m a good boy. I don’t hit. I only shook her! I was trying to be a leader. You told me a big boy like me should be a leader to the younger kids so I did. I was trying to make her do what I said!….
What does whiplash mean? And why is Mr. Kilpatrick carrying Selkie into the school instead of letting her walk…?
…But I didn’t hit her, not even once. I just threw snow at her and shook her! She can’t be hurt! How is it MY fault that she got cold? I get really warm when I play snowball fight.”
That… sounds a lot like a kid, about to be in a lot of trouble.
It also sounds a lot like a lot of kids I knew. Without a grown-up or even high-school level of biology and physics knowledge, the rules of what can seriously hurt others can seem rather abstract to kids. On top of that, Selkie’s not human and Truck obviously doesn’t know any of her specific rules.
That said, he darn well knows what he’s doing is bad. He could have put her down right away as soon as he heard a grown-up telling him to do so. That would have exonerated some of his behavior, showing that he really didn’t realize some of the boundaries he was pushing. But no, he’s on a power trip, and doesn’t care what the teachers (or anyone else) says unless/until they “make him” care.
Incidentally, this also clearly shows he doesn’t yet properly understand the concept of authority in general, and probably thinks of authority = show of strength = bullying. Failing to correct this idea is actually fairly common and leads to things like hazing and other immature behaviors in adults.
Sadly this kind of behavior often comes from parents who not only don’t correct it, but actually encourage it.
There is another comic called “The Bully’s Bully” that is all about bullying and the artist described an incident in his childhood where a bigger kid attacked him and he managed to get the upper hand for a moment.
He knocked the bigger kid down and ran away but the bigger kid caught up to him and started hitting him again. When he saw the bigger kids dad pull up in a truck he felt relieved because he was sure the other boys father would stop the fight and punish his son.
Instead the bigger kid’s father simply yelled at his son to get in there and finish the job before turning his truck around and driving away.
I have not only witnessed this kind of “Might Makes Right” mentality, but have been on the receiving end of it.
Some parents (or other family members) are as bad if not worse than the kids are, and will even beat their own children for not being strong enough to beat up other kids.
I had an uncle who was like this when I was a kid, he constantly bullied my brother and I and if my brother started crying he would yell at him and call him a woosy little f*g because he was crying like a girl. The simi constant abuse both physical and verbal basically turned my older brother into a person who was just as abusive as my uncle was.
According to my uncle it was expected that I would cry because I was a girl and was weak but my brother was supposed to be a man and men didn’t cry and men fought back and men were supposed to show other men who was the strongest.
Usually, unless something is drastically wrong with a child, (i.e. sociopath) they are not born hateful bullies. Hate, just like bullying is a learned behavior.
Selkies’ kick to His gonads is more conceivable than a bite; a biting defense seems too animalistic (and to publicly acknowledge her being poisonous would cause even more ostracization from her peers), whereas a kick to the groin is universally recognized as a proven defensive move.
I envision a trip to the hospital where Selkie can meet the aquatic Doctor, and Todd can learn more about her lineage.
Would a marine biologist be a sufficient doctor for Selkie? I assume a doctor for humans just wouldn’t suffice.
Neither would a marine biologist. Much of her system is different to that of marine mammals- she’s a freshwater creature.
Dolphins and whales etc have advanced systems for dealing with salt water. Not to mention that her venomous blood and spit don’t occur in other aquatic mammals either. So they’d “get” the whole gills thing but not much else. She’d be better off either seeing a member of her own species, or a regular Dr with occasional consultations from an aquatic veterinarian in regards to water-specific anatomy features.
oops! I should have been more specific, there is a doctor of her aquatic species, who resides at the hospital.
The kick was definitely the best decision. Because Selkie first learned about her poison from kissing Todd, a loved one, it’s firmly ingrained into her mind not to get her mouth near human skin. The teachers are there, so it’s not as desperate a situation as it would’ve been without them there. I believe it would take someone making a direct attack, like punching and/or kicking, for Selkie to start biting.
Special Agent Selkie Smith, with venomous saliva, razor claws, and sonic shriek, defends the free world against the armies of Dr. Blowfish…
people seem to assume that selkie is toxic. afaik it may be that todd just has an allergy to her skin oils or something. if she (or her bite) is actually toxic, it seems like normal kid roughhousing in the orphanage would have long since revealed that, and the orphanage staff would surely have warned todd.
No, she’s toxic. They tested this on his family, none of whom are genetic relations.
the coloring on the page is especially nice.
And so Truck learned the vitally important lesson many kids of that age also learn around the same time: Saying the line “Make me.” when you think you have the upper hand sounds cool, but is, in fact, literally inviting defeat.
Better to learn the lesson now than dig yourself into a much deeper hole later. If he has any sense, he’ll be thanking her… In about twenty years.
Good GOD, Truck’s got anger issues real bad…
Selkie does not look so good. 🙁 Or happy.
Also, this reminds me of when I kicked a bully in the groin. XD One of my moments of glory, I say. Earned me a one-way ticker to in-school suspension, but it was worth it.
There are some males who are almost immune to the groin kick. With my older brother, the couple of times that anyone kicked him there it sent him into an absolute blood rage. He nearly killed a guy that jumped him when he was 16 when the guy hit him in the groin. He literally went berserk, and just jumped on the very surprised guy and started pounding him into the ground.
It got him good, though. He went down quick.
I’m luckily immune to the groin kick. A little bastard I knew wanted to be a bully and felt picking on me who was twice his size would give him cred. Unfortunately for him I had three brothers and about a dozen cousins and we all fought dirty. He kicked me and I just looked down at him and and returned the favor. Launched the little shit right into the air and he laid there for a good half hour.
Dave…as usual, amazing comic. man. But damn is this too “real”. I remember bullies from when I was younger. I was always big for my age, so I was never a victim like Selkie, but I saw other people who were like Truck who did things like this. I’m glad to see Selkie fight back, it’ll be good for her self-esteem. I don’t think I ever saw someone legitimately fight back, I always had to step in and stop things.
I think “too real” may be a good way of putting it.
sending a big hug to you Vincent.
First, Todd is going to go through the roof when he hears about this, and rightly so. If no one gets fired he’s a more patient man than I 🙂
Second, that kid should be expelled, he’s gone WAAAAY beyond normal elementary school behavior. Wow.
Third, Selkie should really learn that provoking bullies in the dead of winter isn’t the wisest course of action 🙂
i doubt that in her position, especially considering her probably weakened body from the lowered temperature too, there was a way she could even get her mouth remotely close enough to his face to bite him. this was pretty much the only way she could defend herself without spitting poison in his eyes (if she can even spit that far).
For a moment there I thought she bit his hand! ( I forgot about Selkie’s poisonous saliva) I’m glad she kicked him and fought back. Can’t wait to see what happens on Monday.
Wow that’s really bad perspective in the first panel, Selkie’s back is pressed against both the first floor window and the second floor window all of a sudden she’s and the bully are about 20 feet tall.
Still story wise great page.
I’ve been kind of getting tired of the copy-paste backgrounds over the course of this snowball fight. But yeah, the perspective fail may be a telling reason to just go back to drawing the backgrounds normally.
I was expecting her to pass out and go limp from the shaking. He head would lull to the side and he would shake her again not getting a response. Freaking out he drop her and she would just collapse and the other two freak out and try to wake her up. Then the teachers would arrive and find her ice cold and expect the worse and the call an ambulance while trying to revive her or wake her up.
The three kids would be freaking out thinking they killed her as she’s taken away by the paramedics.
But that would make Selkie even more into “the victim”. Now it’ll be known (to Amanda and Tony at least) that she can fight back if you push her (literally) against the wall. All bullies need to learn this. It makes them back off when things get really desperate.
But it could also lead to a sobering moment where they realize their bullying can cause serious harm. If Selkie ended up in the hospital due to hypothermia it would show them they went to far.
This is hard to read. Even when it seems to be heading in an ok direction it’s hard to read.
I’m a human being. When hurt, my first instinct, the basest of my basest emotions is to fight back, to wish equal, no greater, far greater hurt back on those who have hurt me— or those I care about.
I’ve been bullied. I got through it, through a combination of determination, a ton of support from my parents, and a particularly skillful and strategic intervention by my Mom at just the right moment and just the right way.
None of that mattered to me much at the time though.
Watching these strips play out has brought back a lot of the feelings of indignation, anger, and rage. I can deal with it. I recognize it for the darker part of myself and the mirror of the motivations of those who bully and have bullied me.
I will simply say it. I want him to end. Not to be taught a lesson or to experience comeuppance, or learn a lesson. I want him to end, be erased, eradicated, made a zero in Selkie’s world. Gone, not there, not ever been there, never to be there.
It’s not right. It is not reasonable. It is not civilized. Were this anything other than a work of fiction, I wouldn’t let my thoughts walk this dark pathway.
It’s hard to confront these feelings
It’s harder still to recognize them for what they are and recognize that they do go over the line, over the lines I have drawn for myself.
If I am really honest with myself, I know there are moments, not the same moments, not in kind, not in circumstance, that might rightly cause another to have teh same feelings about me.
It’s humbling to remember that I am capabile of such dastardly behavior. That it is in check due to social conditioning.
So my desire shifts, not for destruction of the aggressor or infliciotn of approriate pain upon hi, but just to get him to the point whre he really understands what was wrog with his approach . Why it was wrong. What was wrong with it, What it is about it that he could correct. and ultimately to show him the choice that he has that he may not be aware of. And the consequences of all those choices and optopins.
compassion (for selkie) rage, indignation, justice (twoard her torturer) vindictiveness, anger, hatred, destruction, remembering acknowledgment of my own flaws, a wish for a bettre outcome, a wish for an enlightnment ot the attacker, a redemptoin, even, and compassion….full circle. It’s always a strange journey, not even making sens at every step.
Dave, you are in charge…I trustyou will treat your creation well. All of them. At this point, a competent observer would be a good additoin to the soory. one who judges correctly wha tis going on and acts appropriately to bring the situation to a conclusion that does not show signs of bein clueless.
Best of luck to selkie, her faher and family, the agents who are tasked to watch over her and her people, the teachers and social workers also involved. And to the children who are involved too. Each of whom are workign throguh their own troubles.
Ah the classic groin kick. When I was 5, a bully was picking on a much smaller boy in my class. I yelled at him to stop, he punched me in the stomach. Did that stop me? Nope, I have two much older brothers who taught me well. I kicked the bully in the groin so hard that he collapsed and threw up all over.
I find this fantasy world in which teachers have any objections whatsoever to the behavior of bullies fascinating.
I had 3 or 4 bullies designate me as “prime target” throughout high school until that school closed due to lack of funds. The teachers there were vigilant, though, so physical attacks were quick and stealthy, for the most part.
One fool decided to actually start hitting me, and before anything could really happen, we were both sent directly to the principle’s office for an extended, serious talk. The faculty got to the bottom of it, and his parents ordered him to be nice to me. We actually were beginning to be sort-of friends by the end. Also, tattling on real bullying resulted in the bully, not the tattler, getting in trouble.
Even with such an excellent staff, I had my property destroyed a few times, came home with pen marks all over one arm that was in reach (in class, so no retaliation possible, he got detention a few times when even he wasn’t quick enough) many times, and was verbally harassed quite often, several times most days.
The bullies were already spending astounding amounts of time in detention just from cutting up in class, so the risk was fairly minimal for them. Oddly for such a bully magnet, I was never pushed around physically, even when 3 of them caught me by the backside of a building where we wouldn’t be likely to be seen. They actually acted kind of afraid to face me physically, even as they tried to intimidate me. (The aforementioned principle visit doesn’t count, as I gave better than I got; he apparently hadn’t intended any kind of real fight, just couldn’t stand how well I was ignoring his usual tricks, and didn’t know how mad I was inside.)
I had been a favored target in the previous school, too, so I apparently rubbed some kinds of people the wrong way. The elementary school bullying could have been partly because I was “special ed,” (both disability and Advanced, go figure) but the more concentrated harassment in high school is somewhat baffling. Maybe the fact that I was a particularly odd loner, and ignored the pecking order completely, is what triggered such “dedication” in bullies.
In any case, stories of schools that mishandle bullying situations make me sad, because so much worse could potentially happen in those schools.
Ooooh! Right in the truck!
I got bullied plenty back in school… though generally one-on-one scenarios rather than gang-bullying. Random guys who would kick me to the floor in passing, throw me in the hedge, grind my face against brick walls, etc.
In any case, I reckon I turned out better for it. Nothing quite like bullying to teach in practical form that the majority of humanity are trash.
Also it taught me that they resorted to physical attacks because they were mentally and psychologically weak… which can be exploited reasonably safely if you’re quick on your feet and / or resistant to pain.