In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be Transported by ship and it was also before the invention of commercial Fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when Wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, But the process of fermentation began again, of which a byproduct is Methane gas of course. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles You can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came Below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined Just what was happening
After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the Instruction ‘ Stow high in transit ‘ on them, which meant for the Sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water That came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start The production of methane.
Thus evolved the term ‘ S.H.I.T ‘ , (Stow High In Transit).
Looks like it isn’t true, though. Hence the ‘Urban Legend’ bit. Neat story though. Snopes has an article on it, using ‘Ship High In Transit’, but looks to be the same exact story.
You can look up the origin of the word rabbit to trace the origin of the C-word as well… (By C word, I mean the one you use to end a relationship with a woman, if you’re so inclined to take your own life into your hands)
I heard one that said it was “Fornication Under Consent of King”
I forget what the supposed rational for why people would need royal permission to have sex was though.
Conjugal visits maybe?
Exploding ships could and did happen – just not for that reason. Fire at sea was always the biggest, most fearsome, scariest thing that could happen in many sailors’ minds. And while methane from decomposing manure might not have been a concern, if you think about how many other things do off-gas in various ways, and how wet the hold of most seafaring vessels were before the era of fiberglass hulls (heck, before steel hulls)…
In fact, even after the Industrial Revolution and in what we now consider the modern age, various ships have had similar problems. As an example, look into the flammability (and explosiveness) of coal gas, and think of how much coal got shipped as freight over the years. Holds were (and probably still are, but I can’t speak definitely here) dank, well-enclosed, and poorly ventilated. With light sources being spark-produced (and spark-producing), shipboard fires and even explosions were not unknown, and were quite rightly feared.
A scenario: 800 miles off the Cape of Good Hope. The wind is blowing to lay the ship almost over on its keel; it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation, as is usual for the Cape (also known as the Cape of Storms). The cap’n sends someone belowdeck to make sure the cargo is still secure…
I leave the rest to y’all’s imaginations, but I will note this: there would probably be no survivors and no witnesses to tell exactly what happened, when, and how. And thus, another ghost legend is born, and the superstitious fear of the sailor gains another added foothold.
Anyway! Enjoying the exchange between Agent Avery and Trepidatious Todd!
Modern cargo ships with “volatile goods” must be well-ventilated (and follow a ton of other safety regulations) to be allowed into ports anywhere in the developed countries.
Shit (along with “arse”/”ass”, piss, f*ck, and c*nt) is amongst the 5 oldest known cuss words and has it’s roots in Proto-Indo-European’s word “skheid”, meaning “to separate”.
If you are going to be so childish about the swearing anyways, why not just use something else? I hate your **** ass symbols.
If you wanted to make this child friendly then you shouldn’t have the violence or smoking in it either. How about you replace the cigs with candy canes and replace any forms of violence or child abuse with happy rainbows?
Most of us like it. If it bothers you so much, stop reading the comic, it isn’t that difficult. In fact, it takes MORE effort to read it and then complain about it, than to stop visiting.
Dave does moderate the comments section so Im pretty sure this comment will not be sticking around. On the other hand why is it nobody told me our comment handles are suppose to represent who and what we are? I mean his describes him perfectly. Does this mean I need to wear green and red striped speedos, a red boa, and paint myself yellow while also dying my hair green and chasing jesters?
I don’t seem to be able to post my well-reasoned rant, so please accept a rain-check for it and some complimentary frothy rage.
HUAAAAAALLLHHGUAHALALLHAHAGLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
And by “rant” I mean “long post in which I pick apart TheJerk’s post piece by piece and tell them in no uncertain terms why they are not only not handling their distaste for swearing symbols well but are also an equivocating menace who implies that we should sanitize things more fiercely than Dolores Umbridge”.
You’ve got yourself a troll here, Dave. He obviously likes your comic, and for some silly reason he’s purposely being inflammatory. He’s only doing it to get a rise, not cause he honestly cares about his issue. I think what we have here is a failure to not feed the toll.
😛
Unless I’m forgetting something, TheJerk only really goes off like this when I do the pictograph swears, and although I don’t intend to stop doing them I can understand if it’s frustrating to read.
But dropping the C word after I’ve expressly asked that it not be used combined with the flinging out every curse word in the repertoire just to lash out at the pictographs is losing its charm fast.
Personally, I like how you handled the swearing Dave. TheJerk is probably just very young. Kids tend to love swearing for the sake of swearing, and don’t realize not swearing can be an artistic choice rather than aversion to the actual words “fuck”, “shit”, “asshole”, etc.
I am utterly thrilled to be following the third-most family-friendly webcomic I have yet found (the most family-friendly comic to be Count Your Sheep, and the second-most to be PS238). I think it covers a good set of issues that would resonate with a lot of kids — especially my own nieces and nephews, who are currently going through their own bullying situations.
I don’t think it needs swearing to do that. And I don’t know that I would have stuck around for the ride of there were swearing in the actual comic. I certainly wouldn’t be reading it to my mom, and I would be thinking twice about recommending it to the children in my life.
People who say that mature storytelling NEEDS to have swearing simply haven’t gotten it through their heads that there are different types of mature material and not all of them need to be in the same story — any more than a story that has swearing NEEDS to also have gore, or a story that has gore NEEDS to also have sex, or a story that discusses death NEEDS to include drugs. Certainly you CAN combine these elements, but it’s ridiculous to suggest that any story that contains one of them must contain all of them.
1. Agent – I mean, Avery Brown is much easier to recognize when wearing long sleeves.
2. I JUST REALIZED that his civvies consist of an orange shirt… Reference to the “Agent Orange” joke back jn the hospital, anyone? -_-
3. How big IS the shit, under the circumstances? I mean, Selkie knows her species and a little bit about their society now, and she knows enough to keep it secret, but she doesn’t know about the civil war which would be more imperative to keep secret. Todd, however, DOES know about the civil war, and while adults in general can be considered more trustworthy for the purposes of secret-keeping, I believe security breaches don’t consider those sorts of things, i.e. ‘info leaked is still info leaked’. I think maybe only the reaction would be different? – like, if it’s just one person who hasn’t told anyone else, they buy their silence with threats?
I guess I’m not sure how big this shit the agent speaks of may be. Help/discuss?
As a guy whose hobby is writing paranormal agent stories, here are my thoughts:
Agent Brown did allow the leak to occur, and that’s on him. However, since he works for a government agency, the reaction depends mostly on how dangerous this is for Todd to know – he is there to protect American citizens, right? If he’s failed to protect Todd, then Agent Brown is in deep shit, but if he’s only loosened the Masquerade, well, then, at least he did it to a guy who’s raising a Sarnothi child. He can assume that Todd is, on some level at least, already in on it.
The question here is who needs more protection: the humans or the Sarnothi? All data indicate the latter, since they just have one city-state. A 150-mile-long one, I’ll grant you, but they’re confined to not-not-Lake Superior and don’t have nearly the resources of the US, even with magitek. So, then, is Todd going to release this information, thus triggering massive public outcry and hordes of humans descending on Sarnoth? All data indicate “No”.
Yes, information was leaked. But Agent Brown hasn’t done anything to endanger US citizens or Sarnothi allies. I would call this a grey area, and if I were Agent Brown’s boss, I would let him off with a warning.
It’s not just that he has this opinion. It’s that he expresses it every single time the pictographs are used. The first time, he was thanked for his feedback and politely told that the creator will continue to use the pictographs for swear words. The second time, there was a “we already said he’s going to keep using them.” Later, the C word was used and was edited out, with a warning not to use that one.
At this point, for those of us who have been paying attention, it’s a case of “we get it all ready. But this is Dave’s comic, thus, his vision, not yours. Deal with it.” Because we’ve dealt with it so often.
I’ve never understood people bitching and moaning about something they’re getting for free! (Not you, but you commented on his post so I’m putting my observation here.)
Is he CIA? I kind of assumed it was a small agency of it’s own. Well I suppose so since it’s technically an international issue, dealing with what is essentially a small landlocked nation on our border, and it’s refuge problem… But for some reason I assumed this was a joint effort with Canada (probably underfunded)
In comic #287, Mary did say CIA. Perhaps they’re in cooperation with a corresponding team from Up North. (I hope it’s the Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen.)
Todd: “Should you be smoking on school grounds?”
Avery: “I’d be more worried about the students who shouldn’t be smoking on school grounds…or the teachers that do it anyway in their lounge.”
Second hand smoke isn’t proven to be bad. The studies that say this (the ones the government accepts) have been debunked many times and are nothing but a case of bad science.
“Second hand smoke isn’t proven to be bad. The studies that say this (the ones the government accepts) have been debunked many times and are nothing but a case of bad science.”
So says someone who apparently doesn’t get either asthma attacks or migraines from second hand smoke. For some of us, it’s downright debilitating…and unavoidable because it’s in the danged air.
YES. People go on and on about how it’s their right to smoke… that’s cool, but what about my right to not have my airways close off because I happen to be walking behind you as you walk and smoke at the same time?
Smoke? Hey, that’s entirely your business. But it’s not just harmless, so please think of others and don’t do it near me.
TECHnically, there are people who have that same reaction to perfume. Like serious allergic reaction, migraines, breathing problems, the whole nine yards. I know that from two separate sources, and because of that I caution people to be careful how strong a scent they carry into public.
I don’t smoke and I think smoking is a really stupid decision (and I wish my brother would quit). But it seems like this society, or at least the part in Washington that is close to where I live, is determined to ensure that smokers can only smoke in the most inconvenient places, which only ensures that they are going to smoke “under the radar” in places inconvenient to anyone who wants to stay away from smoke.
The most ridiculous thing I heard was when it got banned from bars. Really? Not just this or that bar saying “No smoking in here,” but bars in general not being permitted to allow smoking in their establishments? If you had some bars that did and some bars that didn’t you’d have the smokers flock to one bar and the non-smokers flock to another and it’d be great for everybody. But when you cut it out as a possibility, it’s just one fewer place where smokers can go to enjoy their drug of choice. LEGAL drug of choice, I should note.
I have the same reaction to perfume, but there’s no hope of getting that banned. 😉
To be honest, I wasn’t psyched when they banned smoking in bars, since I don’t go to them, and it just meant having to hold my breath for a block every night on my way home, since all the smokers were out on the sidewalk. I WAS, however, glad it was banned from the workplace, and restaurants. I get that it’s legal, and that they’re addicted, and they don’t want to have to stand outside in the snow, but second-hand smoke does hurt the nonsmokers who are exposed to it. I’ve been driven out of restaurants by it, and I’ve had to refuse paying jobs because of it in states where it’s still allowed inside the workplace. I also don’t think many smokers really realize that a nonsmoker can smell them from ten feet away. Literally. Ten feet away. We can smell it from the car ahead of us on the highway. I can’t go into a smoker’s house, or get in a smoker’s car, or eat cookies made in a smoker’s kitchen. I can’t read books from theclibrary that were taken out previously by a smoker. And it’s not just me. One person I know who quit said she had had no idea she’d smelled like that. Another, still smoking, said it was easier to get off heroin than to stop smoking. So they have my sympathy, they do…but they have it from the other side of the room… 🙁 (Sorry this is so long. It’s just when you have to refuse the perfect job, in THIS economy, because they think limiting smoking to the break room is sufficient (because, like, the smoke stays in that room, right?), it just kinda gets to you…) *getting off my soapbox now*
It updates on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, so my suggestion for what to do next is take a 20 minute break, then come back for oooooonnneeeeeeeeeeeeee more strip. >:D
I don’t think there are many strips yet, but Dave does have a secondary project up there about some undead chick (Selkie’s favorite TV program, if I recall). It was kinda cute but I’m putting off reading it until there’s a decent archive to binge.
My suggestion is: Go pick up some other webcomics, then return for a new binge in a few days (or even a month, if you prefer the longer binges, as I tend to).
For family-friendly comics, I can recommend PS238, about a school for metaprodigies (kids with super-powers), done in a charmingly clean art style. The first issue is mostly like a (rather amusing) advertisement for the school, which introduces most of the main characters from staff and children, so if you’re put off by the format then skip forward to the second issue. The main character for most of the story so far is the one kid who doesn’t appear to have any super-powers at all, yet is forced by his superhero parents (who are convinced that he MUST come into his DESTINY some day) to attend even though it’s got an above-average chance of killing him before graduation. He later gets mentored by an expy of Batman 🙂
For “the most perverted family-friendly comic ever,” try El Goonish Shive. It’s got a ton of gender-bending going on as well as a sweeping world-creation, but it’s just the tale of a pack of friends going about their lives. The latest storyline is them actually playing card games (which allows some plot-related stuff to happen as well, not related to the card games but to who gets to talk to who during the tournament). Heck, at one point they had a villain for a short time but the author decided he really didn’t want it to be that kind of comic, and since then he’s changed the overall tactics quite a bit.
For a story steeped in the details of history, try Lackadaisy, which is gorgeously artistic and features anthropomorphic cats going through the Prohibition era. The main characters host a speakeasy and are trying desperately to make ends meet while dealing with rival gangs and sketchy access to supplies of liquor. I have never seen a webcomic artist as good at gesture, posture, and expression as the gal who draws Lackadaisy.
For slice-of-life comedy with social satire of the newspaper-comic style, try Kevin and Kell, which envisions a world made of anthropomorphic animals and all the ways our world would be different (and yet much the same) if it were so. The main characters are a mixed couple, a Wolf and a Rabbit; the Wolf (Kell) works at Herd Thinners, Inc. and just hunts for random people to kill for food (that the company sells on the market); to hunt for specific people (instead of random people) would be murder and isn’t allowed. The Rabbit (Kevin) runs an internet service provider from their basement. They’ve got a little family of a Fox/Wolf hybrid from Kell’s previous marriage, a Hedgehog who was adopted by Kevin and his previous wife, and Coney, a Wolf/Rabbit hybrid who looks like a rabbit but is a carnivore (omnivore?) and accomplished huntress before she could walk.
After sci-fi? There’s Freefall, set on a planet in the midst of a long terraforming operation, where human society is not too much different from ours but the robots are just at the point of developing sentience enough to ask for individual rights (such as the right to not be scrapped after a specific number of years). It’s told through the eyes of three distinct non-humans: Sam, a space squid from a culture of scavengers (where thieving and lying are considered virtues), Helix, a childlike robot who follows Sam’s lead a bit too closely, and Florence, a humanoid wolf who’s not only an adept engineer but the moral compass of this little group.
If you want to stick to slice-of-life and don’t mind some discussion of mature content, there’s Leftover Soup. Tailsteak makes for some quite thought-provoking reading, and his characters are consistently enjoyable.
Wait, actually, go ahead and binge through his 1000-strip first comic, One Over Zero. That’s actually probably closer to Selkie in terms of being a simple tale of characters interacting, without space battles (like Schlock Mercenary) or magic battles (like Dominic Deegan) or epic battles (like Order of the Stick) or tech battles (like Girl Genius), or decades-spanning weirdness (like Sluggy Freelance).
The conceit for 1/0 is that Tailsteak creates a webcomic… and the characters therein can interact with him, and philosophize about the nature of being in a comic in the first place. And at one point they even get so fed up with what he’s doing that they go on strike for several pages. Overall, the comic has a very dear place in my heart, and I can recommend giving it a shot.
Also, you could look up 9 Chickweed Lane, Two Lumps, or Erfworld.
Also, ignore everything I just said and look up “Yotsuba to!” It is the most appealing slice-of-life tale I have ever read, a charming look at the life of a young girl whose thought process is a little different.
Dang, that’s a lot of suggestions. I’ll have to check them out. Thanks!
The hard thing, though, is that I have an annoying habit of starting and never finishing something. (Case in point– I started PS238 and Lackadaisy and even though I love both of them I haven’t read very far into them.) But I’ll try to change that. Just gotta find the time for readin’.
And I love Yostuba so dearly but I experience all my print books via the library and my mom hasn’t gone for a family library trip in so long ORZ
But if I can find time after my homework is done each day, I’ll (re)try some of the webcomics you suggested. Thanks again.
BTW, 1/0 is my favorite webcomic of all time. Glad to find another fan!
Cool beans, dude. Thanks for all the suggestions from us lurkers who read but rarely comment. I already like El Goonish Shive and Leftover Soup (and Selkie!), so clearly we have tastes in common. I’m gonna check out the others!
More “on topic,” love the pictograph swearing. Love it. Great strip, thank you for doing it! (Feeling like a jerk… first time posting and I go off on smoking.)
Hee, loving the visuals’ size change XD
I wonder how much Todd is going to divulge…
You can’t hide secrets from someone whose JOB it is to hide secrets. If Todd is smart, he’ll tell Agent Brown everything.
Here’s an urban legend for you.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be Transported by ship and it was also before the invention of commercial Fertilizers, so large shipments of manure were quite common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when Wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, not only did it become heavier, But the process of fermentation began again, of which a byproduct is Methane gas of course. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles You can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came Below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined Just what was happening
After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the Instruction ‘ Stow high in transit ‘ on them, which meant for the Sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water That came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start The production of methane.
Thus evolved the term ‘ S.H.I.T ‘ , (Stow High In Transit).
Sorry for the sloppy cut&paste.
That is awesome. I also had no idea ships exploded randomly like that before. O_o
Looks like it isn’t true, though. Hence the ‘Urban Legend’ bit. Neat story though. Snopes has an article on it, using ‘Ship High In Transit’, but looks to be the same exact story.
But as they said, it’s an urban legend. It didn’t actually happen.
a) they did, b) that’s a false etymology
Right up there with For Unlicensed Carnal Knowledge and Port Out, Starboard Home.
Good story, though, even if it is bogus.
He did start off by noting it was an urban legend 🙂 I didn’t know there was such a legend explaining ‘fuck’ though!
You can look up the origin of the word rabbit to trace the origin of the C-word as well… (By C word, I mean the one you use to end a relationship with a woman, if you’re so inclined to take your own life into your hands)
I was confused for a minute. i’ve always spelled the word for rabbit ‘Coney’.
I heard one that said it was “Fornication Under Consent of King”
I forget what the supposed rational for why people would need royal permission to have sex was though.
Conjugal visits maybe?
Exploding ships could and did happen – just not for that reason. Fire at sea was always the biggest, most fearsome, scariest thing that could happen in many sailors’ minds. And while methane from decomposing manure might not have been a concern, if you think about how many other things do off-gas in various ways, and how wet the hold of most seafaring vessels were before the era of fiberglass hulls (heck, before steel hulls)…
In fact, even after the Industrial Revolution and in what we now consider the modern age, various ships have had similar problems. As an example, look into the flammability (and explosiveness) of coal gas, and think of how much coal got shipped as freight over the years. Holds were (and probably still are, but I can’t speak definitely here) dank, well-enclosed, and poorly ventilated. With light sources being spark-produced (and spark-producing), shipboard fires and even explosions were not unknown, and were quite rightly feared.
A scenario: 800 miles off the Cape of Good Hope. The wind is blowing to lay the ship almost over on its keel; it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation, as is usual for the Cape (also known as the Cape of Storms). The cap’n sends someone belowdeck to make sure the cargo is still secure…
I leave the rest to y’all’s imaginations, but I will note this: there would probably be no survivors and no witnesses to tell exactly what happened, when, and how. And thus, another ghost legend is born, and the superstitious fear of the sailor gains another added foothold.
Anyway! Enjoying the exchange between Agent Avery and Trepidatious Todd!
Heck, just look into the volatility of pistachio nuts (and a bunch of others): http://www.containerhandbuch.de/chb_e/scha/index.html?/chb_e/scha/scha_13_06.html
Modern cargo ships with “volatile goods” must be well-ventilated (and follow a ton of other safety regulations) to be allowed into ports anywhere in the developed countries.
That’s more likely a backronym.
Shit (along with “arse”/”ass”, piss, f*ck, and c*nt) is amongst the 5 oldest known cuss words and has it’s roots in Proto-Indo-European’s word “skheid”, meaning “to separate”.
Here’s the rest http://weirdshitblog.com/post/56677342896/the-five-oldest-curse-words-we-still-use
If you are going to be so childish about the swearing anyways, why not just use something else? I hate your **** ass symbols.
If you wanted to make this child friendly then you shouldn’t have the violence or smoking in it either. How about you replace the cigs with candy canes and replace any forms of violence or child abuse with happy rainbows?
Give me a fucking break nigga.
Most of us like it. If it bothers you so much, stop reading the comic, it isn’t that difficult. In fact, it takes MORE effort to read it and then complain about it, than to stop visiting.
Dave does moderate the comments section so Im pretty sure this comment will not be sticking around. On the other hand why is it nobody told me our comment handles are suppose to represent who and what we are? I mean his describes him perfectly. Does this mean I need to wear green and red striped speedos, a red boa, and paint myself yellow while also dying my hair green and chasing jesters?
Well, I can only speak for myself, but I am a large, round, orange cat. ;3
And I’m a Jabberwock in Wonderland’s witness protection program.
Oh skheid!
I don’t seem to be able to post my well-reasoned rant, so please accept a rain-check for it and some complimentary frothy rage.
HUAAAAAALLLHHGUAHALALLHAHAGLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
And by “rant” I mean “long post in which I pick apart TheJerk’s post piece by piece and tell them in no uncertain terms why they are not only not handling their distaste for swearing symbols well but are also an equivocating menace who implies that we should sanitize things more fiercely than Dolores Umbridge”.
You’re entitled to your opinion on the pictograph swears, but I intend to keep doing them for as long as I see fit.
And I know I’ve told you not to drop the C word around here. I don’t want to mute or ban any commentor, but if you keep it up I will do so.
You’ve got yourself a troll here, Dave. He obviously likes your comic, and for some silly reason he’s purposely being inflammatory. He’s only doing it to get a rise, not cause he honestly cares about his issue. I think what we have here is a failure to not feed the toll.
😛
Unless I’m forgetting something, TheJerk only really goes off like this when I do the pictograph swears, and although I don’t intend to stop doing them I can understand if it’s frustrating to read.
But dropping the C word after I’ve expressly asked that it not be used combined with the flinging out every curse word in the repertoire just to lash out at the pictographs is losing its charm fast.
Personally, I like how you handled the swearing Dave. TheJerk is probably just very young. Kids tend to love swearing for the sake of swearing, and don’t realize not swearing can be an artistic choice rather than aversion to the actual words “fuck”, “shit”, “asshole”, etc.
Just ignore him.
Yeah, I’m with you, Nikkasaurus.
I am utterly thrilled to be following the third-most family-friendly webcomic I have yet found (the most family-friendly comic to be Count Your Sheep, and the second-most to be PS238). I think it covers a good set of issues that would resonate with a lot of kids — especially my own nieces and nephews, who are currently going through their own bullying situations.
I don’t think it needs swearing to do that. And I don’t know that I would have stuck around for the ride of there were swearing in the actual comic. I certainly wouldn’t be reading it to my mom, and I would be thinking twice about recommending it to the children in my life.
People who say that mature storytelling NEEDS to have swearing simply haven’t gotten it through their heads that there are different types of mature material and not all of them need to be in the same story — any more than a story that has swearing NEEDS to also have gore, or a story that has gore NEEDS to also have sex, or a story that discusses death NEEDS to include drugs. Certainly you CAN combine these elements, but it’s ridiculous to suggest that any story that contains one of them must contain all of them.
The beta strips always have the actual words and not the symbols, which is funny to me.
Dear TheJerk,
What you are objecting to is not censorship: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/9893-What-Really-Is-and-Isnt-Censorship
If you wish to continue arguing, please make a valid argument.
It honestly took me until this page to understand who the hell he was.
Meanwhile a certain little pink hair bow is ticking, ticking….
I am just waiting for a Jin Sorai Royal Family Bodyguard Swat Team to hit the PTA meeting…
…why does this make me think of the crocodile from Peter Pan now. XD
1. Agent – I mean, Avery Brown is much easier to recognize when wearing long sleeves.
2. I JUST REALIZED that his civvies consist of an orange shirt… Reference to the “Agent Orange” joke back jn the hospital, anyone? -_-
3. How big IS the shit, under the circumstances? I mean, Selkie knows her species and a little bit about their society now, and she knows enough to keep it secret, but she doesn’t know about the civil war which would be more imperative to keep secret. Todd, however, DOES know about the civil war, and while adults in general can be considered more trustworthy for the purposes of secret-keeping, I believe security breaches don’t consider those sorts of things, i.e. ‘info leaked is still info leaked’. I think maybe only the reaction would be different? – like, if it’s just one person who hasn’t told anyone else, they buy their silence with threats?
I guess I’m not sure how big this shit the agent speaks of may be. Help/discuss?
As a guy whose hobby is writing paranormal agent stories, here are my thoughts:
Agent Brown did allow the leak to occur, and that’s on him. However, since he works for a government agency, the reaction depends mostly on how dangerous this is for Todd to know – he is there to protect American citizens, right? If he’s failed to protect Todd, then Agent Brown is in deep shit, but if he’s only loosened the Masquerade, well, then, at least he did it to a guy who’s raising a Sarnothi child. He can assume that Todd is, on some level at least, already in on it.
The question here is who needs more protection: the humans or the Sarnothi? All data indicate the latter, since they just have one city-state. A 150-mile-long one, I’ll grant you, but they’re confined to not-not-Lake Superior and don’t have nearly the resources of the US, even with magitek. So, then, is Todd going to release this information, thus triggering massive public outcry and hordes of humans descending on Sarnoth? All data indicate “No”.
Yes, information was leaked. But Agent Brown hasn’t done anything to endanger US citizens or Sarnothi allies. I would call this a grey area, and if I were Agent Brown’s boss, I would let him off with a warning.
Ah, thank you. As I hinted earlier, I know nothing of use in this field 🙂
Hey, I know nothing either, I just have more practice at making it up. XD
Hey Dave, how ’bout banning that ass?
How dare people have opinions that differ from yours!
Not so much the difference of opinion as the use of excessive vulgar, racist, and misogynist language for no reason at all. This isn’t YouTube!
The differing opinion, we can handle. The abuse, not so much.
It’s not just that he has this opinion. It’s that he expresses it every single time the pictographs are used. The first time, he was thanked for his feedback and politely told that the creator will continue to use the pictographs for swear words. The second time, there was a “we already said he’s going to keep using them.” Later, the C word was used and was edited out, with a warning not to use that one.
At this point, for those of us who have been paying attention, it’s a case of “we get it all ready. But this is Dave’s comic, thus, his vision, not yours. Deal with it.” Because we’ve dealt with it so often.
I’ve never understood people bitching and moaning about something they’re getting for free! (Not you, but you commented on his post so I’m putting my observation here.)
Is he CIA? I kind of assumed it was a small agency of it’s own. Well I suppose so since it’s technically an international issue, dealing with what is essentially a small landlocked nation on our border, and it’s refuge problem… But for some reason I assumed this was a joint effort with Canada (probably underfunded)
In comic #287, Mary did say CIA. Perhaps they’re in cooperation with a corresponding team from Up North. (I hope it’s the Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen.)
Anyone got a link to when Pohl slipped Todd something? I’ve forgotten about it
He´s referring to the note Pohl gave Todd, back at the hospital.
I don´t think Agent Brown even knows that Todd and Selkie visited Pohl´s family.
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie375/
That´s the one.
Todd: “Should you be smoking on school grounds?”
Avery: “I’d be more worried about the students who shouldn’t be smoking on school grounds…or the teachers that do it anyway in their lounge.”
Second hand smoke isn’t proven to be bad. The studies that say this (the ones the government accepts) have been debunked many times and are nothing but a case of bad science.
“Second hand smoke isn’t proven to be bad. The studies that say this (the ones the government accepts) have been debunked many times and are nothing but a case of bad science.”
[citation seriously booping needed]
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=second+hand+smoke+myth&l=1
So says someone who apparently doesn’t get either asthma attacks or migraines from second hand smoke. For some of us, it’s downright debilitating…and unavoidable because it’s in the danged air.
YES. People go on and on about how it’s their right to smoke… that’s cool, but what about my right to not have my airways close off because I happen to be walking behind you as you walk and smoke at the same time?
Smoke? Hey, that’s entirely your business. But it’s not just harmless, so please think of others and don’t do it near me.
TECHnically, there are people who have that same reaction to perfume. Like serious allergic reaction, migraines, breathing problems, the whole nine yards. I know that from two separate sources, and because of that I caution people to be careful how strong a scent they carry into public.
I don’t smoke and I think smoking is a really stupid decision (and I wish my brother would quit). But it seems like this society, or at least the part in Washington that is close to where I live, is determined to ensure that smokers can only smoke in the most inconvenient places, which only ensures that they are going to smoke “under the radar” in places inconvenient to anyone who wants to stay away from smoke.
The most ridiculous thing I heard was when it got banned from bars. Really? Not just this or that bar saying “No smoking in here,” but bars in general not being permitted to allow smoking in their establishments? If you had some bars that did and some bars that didn’t you’d have the smokers flock to one bar and the non-smokers flock to another and it’d be great for everybody. But when you cut it out as a possibility, it’s just one fewer place where smokers can go to enjoy their drug of choice. LEGAL drug of choice, I should note.
I have the same reaction to perfume, but there’s no hope of getting that banned. 😉
To be honest, I wasn’t psyched when they banned smoking in bars, since I don’t go to them, and it just meant having to hold my breath for a block every night on my way home, since all the smokers were out on the sidewalk. I WAS, however, glad it was banned from the workplace, and restaurants. I get that it’s legal, and that they’re addicted, and they don’t want to have to stand outside in the snow, but second-hand smoke does hurt the nonsmokers who are exposed to it. I’ve been driven out of restaurants by it, and I’ve had to refuse paying jobs because of it in states where it’s still allowed inside the workplace. I also don’t think many smokers really realize that a nonsmoker can smell them from ten feet away. Literally. Ten feet away. We can smell it from the car ahead of us on the highway. I can’t go into a smoker’s house, or get in a smoker’s car, or eat cookies made in a smoker’s kitchen. I can’t read books from theclibrary that were taken out previously by a smoker. And it’s not just me. One person I know who quit said she had had no idea she’d smelled like that. Another, still smoking, said it was easier to get off heroin than to stop smoking. So they have my sympathy, they do…but they have it from the other side of the room… 🙁 (Sorry this is so long. It’s just when you have to refuse the perfect job, in THIS economy, because they think limiting smoking to the break room is sufficient (because, like, the smoke stays in that room, right?), it just kinda gets to you…) *getting off my soapbox now*
From the meeting with Pohl is a small one.
But from the separation of the bow, maybe you should put your boots.
I RAN OUT OF SELKIE I HAVE BEEN BINGE READING THIS ALL NIGHT ＷＨＡＴ ＤＯ Ｉ ＤＯ ＷＩＴＨ ＭＹ ＬＩＦＥ
It updates on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, so my suggestion for what to do next is take a 20 minute break, then come back for oooooonnneeeeeeeeeeeeee more strip. >:D
I don’t think there are many strips yet, but Dave does have a secondary project up there about some undead chick (Selkie’s favorite TV program, if I recall). It was kinda cute but I’m putting off reading it until there’s a decent archive to binge.
My suggestion is: Go pick up some other webcomics, then return for a new binge in a few days (or even a month, if you prefer the longer binges, as I tend to).
For family-friendly comics, I can recommend PS238, about a school for metaprodigies (kids with super-powers), done in a charmingly clean art style. The first issue is mostly like a (rather amusing) advertisement for the school, which introduces most of the main characters from staff and children, so if you’re put off by the format then skip forward to the second issue. The main character for most of the story so far is the one kid who doesn’t appear to have any super-powers at all, yet is forced by his superhero parents (who are convinced that he MUST come into his DESTINY some day) to attend even though it’s got an above-average chance of killing him before graduation. He later gets mentored by an expy of Batman 🙂
For “the most perverted family-friendly comic ever,” try El Goonish Shive. It’s got a ton of gender-bending going on as well as a sweeping world-creation, but it’s just the tale of a pack of friends going about their lives. The latest storyline is them actually playing card games (which allows some plot-related stuff to happen as well, not related to the card games but to who gets to talk to who during the tournament). Heck, at one point they had a villain for a short time but the author decided he really didn’t want it to be that kind of comic, and since then he’s changed the overall tactics quite a bit.
For a story steeped in the details of history, try Lackadaisy, which is gorgeously artistic and features anthropomorphic cats going through the Prohibition era. The main characters host a speakeasy and are trying desperately to make ends meet while dealing with rival gangs and sketchy access to supplies of liquor. I have never seen a webcomic artist as good at gesture, posture, and expression as the gal who draws Lackadaisy.
For slice-of-life comedy with social satire of the newspaper-comic style, try Kevin and Kell, which envisions a world made of anthropomorphic animals and all the ways our world would be different (and yet much the same) if it were so. The main characters are a mixed couple, a Wolf and a Rabbit; the Wolf (Kell) works at Herd Thinners, Inc. and just hunts for random people to kill for food (that the company sells on the market); to hunt for specific people (instead of random people) would be murder and isn’t allowed. The Rabbit (Kevin) runs an internet service provider from their basement. They’ve got a little family of a Fox/Wolf hybrid from Kell’s previous marriage, a Hedgehog who was adopted by Kevin and his previous wife, and Coney, a Wolf/Rabbit hybrid who looks like a rabbit but is a carnivore (omnivore?) and accomplished huntress before she could walk.
After sci-fi? There’s Freefall, set on a planet in the midst of a long terraforming operation, where human society is not too much different from ours but the robots are just at the point of developing sentience enough to ask for individual rights (such as the right to not be scrapped after a specific number of years). It’s told through the eyes of three distinct non-humans: Sam, a space squid from a culture of scavengers (where thieving and lying are considered virtues), Helix, a childlike robot who follows Sam’s lead a bit too closely, and Florence, a humanoid wolf who’s not only an adept engineer but the moral compass of this little group.
If you want to stick to slice-of-life and don’t mind some discussion of mature content, there’s Leftover Soup. Tailsteak makes for some quite thought-provoking reading, and his characters are consistently enjoyable.
Wait, actually, go ahead and binge through his 1000-strip first comic, One Over Zero. That’s actually probably closer to Selkie in terms of being a simple tale of characters interacting, without space battles (like Schlock Mercenary) or magic battles (like Dominic Deegan) or epic battles (like Order of the Stick) or tech battles (like Girl Genius), or decades-spanning weirdness (like Sluggy Freelance).
The conceit for 1/0 is that Tailsteak creates a webcomic… and the characters therein can interact with him, and philosophize about the nature of being in a comic in the first place. And at one point they even get so fed up with what he’s doing that they go on strike for several pages. Overall, the comic has a very dear place in my heart, and I can recommend giving it a shot.
Also, you could look up 9 Chickweed Lane, Two Lumps, or Erfworld.
Also, ignore everything I just said and look up “Yotsuba to!” It is the most appealing slice-of-life tale I have ever read, a charming look at the life of a young girl whose thought process is a little different.
Sample: http://www.mangareader.net/132-6688-18/yotsubato/chapter-7.html
Also: http://www.mangareader.net/132-6687-26/yotsubato/chapter-6.html
And here: http://www.mangareader.net/132-6690-6/yotsubato/chapter-9.html
Dang, that’s a lot of suggestions. I’ll have to check them out. Thanks!
The hard thing, though, is that I have an annoying habit of starting and never finishing something. (Case in point– I started PS238 and Lackadaisy and even though I love both of them I haven’t read very far into them.) But I’ll try to change that. Just gotta find the time for readin’.
And I love Yostuba so dearly but I experience all my print books via the library and my mom hasn’t gone for a family library trip in so long ORZ
But if I can find time after my homework is done each day, I’ll (re)try some of the webcomics you suggested. Thanks again.
BTW, 1/0 is my favorite webcomic of all time. Glad to find another fan!
Cool beans, dude. Thanks for all the suggestions from us lurkers who read but rarely comment. I already like El Goonish Shive and Leftover Soup (and Selkie!), so clearly we have tastes in common. I’m gonna check out the others!
More “on topic,” love the pictograph swearing. Love it. Great strip, thank you for doing it! (Feeling like a jerk… first time posting and I go off on smoking.)