And this is the end of this part of the story. Before moving to the next chapter, I’m going to take a week to do a short cut-away on some of the side characters. Kind of a light palette cleanser before getting into the next arc. Until Monday, Selkie fans!
I foresee road rage in Selkie's future.
Todd best dad ever.
Awesome way to handle it, Todd! It’s great that he reassures Selkie that she’s his daughter no matter what.
that non-reproducible blue is awfully reproducible
Heh. XD It’s not non-repro blue. I sketch it in standard 2B and tint it cyan in photoshop for ease of coloring.
I love the detail on the first panel, Dave:)
I thought Selkie couldn’t digest dairy?
Dairy’s fine, since it’s not a plant.
I thought Selkie took place in the U.S? In panel 5 Todd appears to be driving from the right side of the car, which would happen in the U.K. (but then the drive-thru would be on the other side of the car.)
It’ll make more sense when I get it finished up more, but it’s aimed like you are looking at the from the front.
The seat belt seems to be on the wrong side of his right arm in panel 3… Or at least inconsistent to the rest of the page.
Hey Dave! Just wanted to point out something about the last panel. I think his left arm (our right) should be under the seat belt.
The seatbelt holder on the side of the car seems to be awfully high up. I don’t know about cars over in USA, but over here it starts at the same height as the backseat (not headrest) of the car (with the lap strap holder about same height as the seat). Or at least that’s held true so far in all the cars I’ve been in.
The holder in my daughter’s minivan is adjustable. Maybe he bought the car used, the previous owner was quite tall, so had it set at the top setting, and Todd is unaware it can be moved.
😀
As for the folks commenting about his arms being on the wrong side of the belt, maybe that’s from attempting to get to his wallet. Me – I just unbuckle in a drive-thru. Makes it much easier to get to money I am sitting on.
The way he’s ootched around and has his hand, he is totally messing with his wallet. Spouse does nearly the same contortions (though left-handedly) when he’s trying to get at his wallet (or phone*) while in the driver’s seat.
* So far as I know, he doesn’t answer his phone while driving. He will hand it to me, though, and I’ll answer it.
It looks like he’s on the left side of the car to me. Mainly because of the seatbelt.
Looks fine to me, except for his left arm being over the belt on the last panel. He’s in the left-hand (driver’s) seat, which is U.S.-normal, and the drive-thru is set up correctly (and I concur with Jade Griffin above, the detail is pretty sweet).
Please make sure that you don’t draw panels so as to give the impression that the characters are wearing shoulder belts with no lap belts. That is a big pet peeve of mine and the safety issues of that sort of setup give me an eye-twitch.
So if this is the end of this arc, is the next arc part-two of this one? I assume it is because Andi and Amanda will be talking to Todd two days later but saying this is the end of this chapter makes it sound, to me, like something else will crop up in the meantime or their talk will be at the start of the next chapter and then this storyline will be put on the backburner for the rest of the chapter.
Doing a brief cut-away to side characters for the three strips next week, and after that we pick this story line back up on it’s next sequence.
She’s handling this better than expected.
Well, she isn’t Amanda. 😉
Even Amanda handled it better than expected. Nobody died, and no house got burned down.
Yet.
But seriously… Selkie now has fodder to tease Amanda when Amanda goes all “Fishface” on her. “I was just tryings to be nice to my sisters!”
Funny, whenever I attempt to have a moment with members of my family I end up with exactly the same expression as Todd.
Nothing like a yelling kid in the car. That is totally a peeve for me, but something that goes with being a parent (hopefully once in a blue moon).
Shouldn’t Todd be asking to hold the buns? They stick really well to fast-food beef.
Oh yeah, being gluten free, my family orders burgers with no buns cause peeling them off always leaves bun residue behind on the burgers.
And you even mentioned to say this on a day that really is the blue moon!
You picked up on it. 😉
It’s like every other day for us, but it’s gotten a lot better than when she was younger (she is six now). I think until they get around 8-10 they all have moments where they forget “no yelling in the car.” It’s much more forgivable (and less dangerous) in a parked situation like where Todd is.
Todd probably knows very little about fast-food burgers.
Actually… by now, he probably knows quite a lot about fast food burgers. This may be their local burger place where all the staff have already been through their double-takes and know that only one customer ever orders like that. “Cheeseburgers (plural, lots of them), no ketchup, no mustard, no pickles…” means “no anything but meat and cheese,” so it’s a kind of shorthand. They already know to leave off the buns too.
In support of that theory, note that Todd didn’t have to mention “no lettuce, no tomato, no relish” either. Maybe they even know to throw in one of the buns separately to go with the garden salad.
The “You’re my family, Selkie” is an example of why the vast majority of us love Todd.
hay Dave love this page but is todd going to tell his mom and dad about what andi did because they have held a pleas on there mantle for what they thought was there dead granddaughter ash I mean if I was todd that’s what I would do and all so here is an idea maybe for a little fun maybe do a pic of the sarnothi alphabet and who knows maybe it well be so popular maybe it well because its own thing like that star trek Klingons language people can know.
I’m pretty sure he will tell his parents. As Todd says here, “That’s what families do.” It’s their right to know, and he’ll want their advice and emotional support. He COULD decide to wait, though, until after Monday’s meeting with Andi and Amanda, when he’ll have more information. Right now he isn’t even certain it’s true.
Inaccurate. In-accurate, the prefix being in-. You’ve got one n too many.
The only flaw in the *awesome* Todd & Selkie scene I’ve been waiting to see. 🙂
Oh, dear. Selkie with a driver’s license.
That’ll be a scary day.
No no, you don’t understand: “Jerkwad” is a term of endearment and, in some countries, an expression of awe over someone’s skill in driving.
Awe?… ok, i’ll buy that (for a dollar), but only if you include the REST of the sentence. those words being either: ” S**T” or even ” F**K”…
“‘Mr Arnold’ isn’t his name. His name’s Rimmer, or ‘smeghead’, or ‘dinosaur-breath’, or ‘molecule-mind’, or on rare occasions when you wanna be really mega-polite to him — and we’re talking *mega* polite here — on those exceptional circumstances, you can call him ‘a***hole.'”
I’m sure that is Amanda with a red-hot sword.
Also Selkie and Amanda, in a car, in a bottleneck.*shudders*
Inaccurate has only one n.
Love how Todd handled it: honestly and lovingly. Also love how Selkie doesn’t take any nonsense from honkers: you GO, girl!
My favorite kind of people, the ones who can’t wait to move three feet forward to wait again.
you know, I read so many comics that the most that I do for the really funny ones is smile. This is the second strip in a row that made me laugh out loud.
Between “Not while I’m driving!” and “We’re having a moment, jerkwads”…
In the first version of this I thought Todd was looking behind his seat at Selkie in the fifth panel, but based on his location in the sixth panel, that’s not possible. So what’s she doing in the front seat anyway?
>So what’s she doing in the front seat anyway?< Because she rides in the front seat. Amanda rides in the front seat. Heather rides in the front seat. So far, all the kids we've seen in cars, in this strip, ride in the front seat.
I was looking at this little state-by-state list. Some states have requirements – child of THIS age MUST BE in the back seat. Others have recommendations – Arkansas, for example. About half have no law at all.
http://dmvanswers.com/questions/341/What-is-the-law-about-children-in-front-seat
There's no law about where the kid rides in Illinois, and based on the "Calumet Orphanage" I'm guessing that's where they are at. So, basically, she's in the front seat because her father wants her in the front seat.
No law in Wisconsin, either. If memory serves, that’s the state where Dave has said the story is taking place.
The comic takes place in Wisconsin. The front seat thing is basically a composition thing, so I don’t have people talking around chairs. As far as I’m aware, kid’s Selkie’s age can sit in front seats though.
Palate and palette. I saw what you did there.