Sorry to be late again. I was traveling out of state this weekend and got stuck away from home. The comic for today is penciled but not inked; I’ll upload the pencil version as a placeholder as soon as I can then finish it later in the evening.
-EDIT- I got back home late in the evening. Sorry again for the delay, working on finishing the strip now. Here is the sketchy version as a placeholder.
-EDIT AGAIN- Inking took longer than I thought, sorry but there will be a further delay on the final colors. I’ll make it happen, though.
The old place holder image, a skyline at sunset, is here. I thought it made a pretty placeholder.
Also, thank you to everyone who has alerted me to the issues with the Security Certificate. My webhost is working on fixing the problem. For now, you can avoid the issue by accessing the website with an http:// prefix, and NOT https://
It is! And even prettier, seen sideways! ;D (Just teasin’.)
Great comic. best one yet
Dave the comment system just ate my last comment. Did two attempts one was java plugin error the other was so called “Spam”. Im on a mobile chrome browser if that helps.
question… How do you answer the math anti-spam question? do you hit the ENTER KEY to try and move the cursor to the “post comment” button… or do you just type in the answer and do NOT hit “ENTER” key at all… and then just move your mouse to the button and click it to submit your comment??
i have found it to be a repeatable error, in that if i hit the enter key, the comment system errors out and my comment is swallowed by the black hole of error-dom… but if i DON’T hit “Enter” and instead just move my mouse to the “post comment” button to click, then my comment goes thru correctly…
I always manually click the submit button with my mouse. I get these errors a lot when on mobile.
AH! Mobile… sorry no can help any further, as i’m on a PC… i’ve GOT a cell phone, but i only use it AS a cell phone, and a camera, and since i don’t have a data plan i can’t do “mobile” type things like you’re doing…
I like it 🙂
I’ve been practicing my photography lately too. If you ever want a selection of placeholder photographs, I have floral closeups, tons of greenery textures (grass, bushes, foliage of every sort), fruit displays in grocery stores, colorful clothing displays, hiking trails and landscapes, oddities from antique stores, and interesting angles of all sorts of neat buildings and trees. Also cute kids, because I’m lucky enough to be related to a lot of cute kids 🙂
For you, Dave, in consideration of how much enjoyment you’ve given me over the years, I’d be happy to hand over a couple of them free. In case at any point you thought it would be useful, to give you a break or something. (You can see examples of my photographs on my Zazzle store: zazzle.com/ZeyovianPathways* )
cool stuff in the store.. and i couldn’t help but notice you’re a Washingtonian too… I’m in Federal Way, myself…
Dave, you shouldn’t drive on just two wheels!
I thought your photo was a runway at first. I thought, “Cool! Dave is a pilot too!”
Lol, I definitely saw that too! You fly professionally, or for fun?
That is indeed a lovely filler photo. It looks even better when you rotate it 90° clockwise. Also, I see why you’re late with the update: Judging by the streak in the top (or left, as the picture is posted) centre, it appears your white pencil has gone into orbit. 😉
Any time I try and access the comic it gives me an error saying your site isn’t safe and it won’t allow me to visit unless I do it in a very roundabout way. It’s on multiple devices this happens. PC, phone, sister’s phone, sister’s laptop, mom’s phone, dad’s pc… these are all on different networks too. What gives?
I don’t know, but I’m contacting my host about it.
It told me the security certificate expired 4 days ago, that might have something to do with it. I had to select advanced (on mobile browser) and choose to connect anyway
Orthogonal man!
Um, I mentioned the access anomaly a few days ago. The problem seems to be linked to the secure connection prefix https:// the security certificate warning does not come up if you access http:// without the (s)
Doh. I’ve already gt my host’s team working on a new SSL certificate, forgot to mention that in the commentary. Thank you.
Glad to see that time is finally progressing in the comic!
This is going to blow up something fierce in Todd’s face. Selkie looks like she is about to blow.
All I can imagine is a montage with Why Can’t We Be Friends playing.
Yup, turns out Amanda remains a horrible human being and being rewarded for her drunken escapade with ice cream worked out real well.
Really not liking the direction the comic is taking. Hope it turns around soon.
So, how’s that giving Amanda another chance working out for people?
Yep Amanda is still a little s***. Forcing them to hang out until this is adressed and she changes her behavior towards Selkie is just wrong and unfair to Selkie.
true, but she *is* still Todd’s biological daughter, and expecting Todd to not treat her nicely at all … that’s just not gonna happen.
I’m not asking him to not treat her nicely. I’m expecting him to stand up for his adopted daughter and letting his biological daughter know that what she’s doing is NOT OKAY.
… That said, he’s been a pretty attentive parent and fairly sensitive to Selkie’s moods so far, so if he hasn’t already noticed something is wrong I’m going to be more than a little disappointed.
… And apparently this has already been going on for almost a month and he hasn’t noticed? Is Amanda that good at concealing how much of a horrid little shit she’s being, or has his brain suddenly shut down completely?
Actually, if you look in panel 4, he has noticed. Aside from the incident on November 28th, every thing else pictured results from Selkie’s jealousy.
4th panel is obviously shows Amanda being mean to Selkie while Todd is busy and not paying attention to them.
Yes, aside from Amanda booting her off the couch and then sticking her tongue out at her, she’s not done anything as far as we can see. That was one day and honestly, kicking your sibling off the couch doesn’t make you a ‘horrible human being’ it just makes you a bit of a jerk. Although I don’t see what you mean about Todd? Are you assuming he was on the phone with Andi discussing how Amanda booted Selkie off the couch?
Speaking as someone who grew up with fierce sibling rivalries with my biological brother… siblings can get really really good at making their rivals fume without ever doing anything bad enough for parents to step in. And yes, thinking back, as older sister I definitely used my verbal advantage to drive my little brother crazy until he’d let loose with his small fists, and then he’d be the one getting punished… And I’d hit him too, but being older and cannier, I’d usually make it tiny, and pick a moment when nobody was looking. Then he learned the power of taunting faces made behind the parent’s back… We were neither of us very nice, and my poor mother had no idea how to make it stop.
But then we grew up. (Actually, come to think of it, the ceasefire came after he got strong enough for his fists to hurt me, so, looking back, probably most of it was my fault — though it certainly didn’t seem that way to me at the time.) We’ve been very close our whole lives long! There’s no-one, not even my husband, I trust at such a deep level. So… being horrid brats as kids doesn’t necessarily predict how things will turn out.
Yay! Sai Fen! I missed those guys. 🙂
Yeeessssss, Sai Fen and Suko return!! Awesome.
Please don’t play favorites Todd and realize something is up soon.
I am on lunch break at work right now, so I can’t go into more detail other then the fact that I am absolutely disgusted by Amanda’s behaviour. And what’s worse is Todd isn’t even noticing that, nor how miserable Selkie is!
The fact that he apparently hasn’t noticed the change in mood does have me worried, especially if Selkie has be like this for almost a month. But maybe he has noticed and maybe called Sai Fen to schedule a play date a way to work things out. We all knew this would happen (Amanda being a jerk) when Amanda was brought in as Todd’s biological daughter; and we can see she is milking it for all its worth. I wouldnt be surprised if she bullies Selkie by saying she would be returned now that the biological daughter is here.
I wouldn’t say she’s milking it. She looks genuinely happy with Todd in panel 5. Is merely asleep in panel 6 and in the first panel she’s not doing anything. We saw one day where she’s being a butt, but only one day. Selkie, on the other hand, is angry at Amanda simply BEING there even though in many frames she’s not done anything at all. It’s a safe assumption that she’s been a brat off and on to Selkie, but it’s also a pretty good bet she’s ignored Selkie’s presence altogether and focused her energy on building a bond with Todd. To say she’s milking it, simply because she’s happy with Todd, is a bit cruel. She has just as much of a right to exist in Todd’s life as Selkie does.
Everyone is assuming she’s been terrible to Selkie 24/7 and that seems very unfair. It’d be hard for even Amanda to be a brat to Selkie all the time with Todd around and have him not notice at all.
And, if Selkie is thinking, “Hmph… she’s stealing my dad.” Well, Amanda thought the same thing and they’re BOTH very wrong in that assumption. He’s BOTH their dad.
That being said, I’m sure Amanda will slip up or retaliate against something Selkie says (Because she’s GOING to say something, she’s angry and letting it boil.) and say the dreaded, “You’re not even his real daughter!” phrase and either Todd will hear it or Selkie will be deeply hurt and eventually tell Todd about it in anger, most likely when Todd is telling her she needs to play nice with Amanda and THEN is when we will see if Todd has what it takes to be a good parent in this situation.
If he turns on Amanda and screams at her, welp, he’s failed. If he ignores Selkie’s feelings, welp, he’s failed again. He needs to reassure BOTH girls they are important to him and tell them BOTH to get along and put their differences aside and try to start fresh. He needs to explain to Amanda that she needs to sincerely apologize to Selkie and that Selkie shouldn’t have to apologize simply for existing, even if she inadvertently caused her pain. He needs to thoroughly explain to Amanda the entire situation behind that AND to Selkie as well. Selkie needs to understand Amanda has a grudge against her for what Amanda deems as a good reason. And Amanda needs to understand that her anger is misplaced and that her reasoning, no matter how sound in her logic she believes to be true, is in fact, incorrect. Amanda needs to be reassured this isn’t an attack on her, nor is it him loving Selkie more. Until they stop feeling threatened by one another, then this is going to go on and on and fester on both parties.
Since we just did such a big fast-forward in one single page, I think the way the page ends is an important clue to where the story’s going.
In other words, the last two panels aren’t only about a dramatic contrast of attitudes towards having a sister.
Selkie has TRIED to get along with Amanda, valiantly so given the way she has been physically and emotionally abused by her. The only one who needs to change at this point is Amanda, and clearly that isn’t happening. So no, I disagree, Todd doesn’t have to tell Selkie to try to get along with Amanda, he has to, in unequivocal terms tell Amanda that her present and past behavior towards Selkie is unacceptable and it needs to change because Selkie isn’t going anywhere.
I’m sorry, but that’s terribly closed minded. Amanda has been emotionally and physically abused as well. Her mind works differently now, she feels like she needs to wall herself in to protect herself. It’s not really her fault for how she is. And doing what you say would only make it ten times worse and make it harder for Selkie. Selkie forgave Heather and Keisha and they tormented Selkie just as much. She is BLAMING Amanda for everything. Heather and Keisha went along with it of their own accord, they laughed and tormented her just as much and never tried to stop it.
As it is, Selkie is just being jealous and petty because Todd called Amanda sweety and now she has to share ‘her’ dad. Selkie has never once truly tried to be kind to Amanda, as far as we’ve seen. She tolerates her at best and makes rude, sarcastic comments as the norm. Now, she’s just reacting to Amanda’s torment, but that doesn’t change the fact that her behavior is also rude and petty. If she keeps up her sarcastic and snide attitude towards people she doesn’t like, she’s gonna get slapped. I have a coworker who is very rude to customers she thinks are annoying. Now, yes, often times they’re very rude, but hey, guess what, we’re not allowed to treat people like crap just because they annoy you. A customer literally told her, “Hey Randi, why don’t you get the d*ck out of your mouth and actually try to help me.” This was after Randi had made a horribly rude comment to the customer because she felt like they weren’t being nice enough to her. She responded with, “Why don’t you, you cheap wh*re.” And got slapped for it.
Was that person right? Heck no! But that’s not how you act. You don’t sink to the level of the other person. Cause guess what? The customer walked out and we couldn’t locate them to press charges, but Randi got put on suspension for 2 weeks. Unpaid. It only hurt her in the end.
Now, Selkie’s situation is different, but if she’s not taught to keep calm and not spout mean remarks in retaliation of mean marks, it’ll only hurt her in the long run. I’m not saying she needs to casually take abuse, but she needs to learn to go about it better, so she comes out the winner by taking the high road.
The world is mean. It’s not going to coddle you all the time and be politically correct for you.
Damn. She sounds unpleasant.
It’s close minded to expect people not to be allowed to continually get away with tormenting other people? For no reason? Then continuing to do so even after the other person has made multiple efforts to TRY and get along?
Nope. Sorry, Amanda’s transgressions are orders of magnitudes worse than minor snarks that Selkie has made in return. I completely and absolutely reject the false equivalency you are applying here. Amanda is SO much more in the wrong and has yet to seriously be told so. Selkie’s defensive response to her constant tormenting at the hands of Amanda doesn’t even rise to the same level.
Further you can’t excuse Amanda’s behavior on the grounds she was mistreated in the past and THEN criticize Selkie for responding in a similar (but dramatically subdued) fashion. You can’t have it both ways.
Amanda absolutely needs to be disciplined for what she has done and continues to do to Selkie, and given that past and present behavior Selkie has every reason to be hurt by Todd’s continued failure to care for her. Selkie and her needs have been absolutely forgotten (based on what we have seen as of late) while Todd focuses on Amanda. Selkie with one parent, Amanda with two. Though at this point its Selkie with none.
Also, on this one “Selkie has never once truly tried to be kind to Amanda, as far as we’ve seen.”
Nope, 100% nope. Selkie ABSOLUTELY tried to be nice to Amanda.
And Todd was aware of Amanda’s bullying of Selkie, which he has apparently now forgotten
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie261/
And Keisha, while not always kind to Selkie, at least stood up for her when her shirt got stolen:
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie167/
And Amanda doesn’t just say the occasional insult, she physically abuses Selkie not to mention doing things like convicing new students that Selkie is a monster:
https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie138/
Also consider that someone Selkie dislikes (and with good reason) has been constantly invading her personal space, even if Amanda hasn’t done anything having her constantly around in Selkie’s own home would suck.
Yeah, and she’s a predator. That kinda behavior she’s seeing from Amanda? She’s holding back, cuz she sees her dad is happy, and that makes her more sad, because she thought SHE made her dad happy:( Poor Selkie. I am not gonna feel bad for Amanda. She’s getting what she wants and obviously gloating in private/not around Todd. I do not feel a lick of sorry for Andi not being pictured here either:) Not a hater, but a proponent of them NOT getting back together.
you HAVE a sister! she’s just not fun yet.
On a positive note, the dates say that Amanda came over five days later, then about a week later, then fast forward to almost two weeks. This isn’t something Selkie is dealing with on a daily basis, but it does seem it is whenever Amanda comes over to visit Todd for a weekend. I guess it is easy for Amanda to visit often when they actually live in the same city. My dad moved after my parents divorced so I was with him every other weekend. I’m a little curious how Keisha and Heather will react to Amanda not growing up about this. Heather has a lot of potential to be on good terms with Selkie, even if Selkie had told. She wasn’t being malicious, she was just trying to relate to/sympathize with Amanda. Amanda needs to learn to do the same. I’m not sure about Keisha, but she was able to sympathize with Selkie first, so there is potential there too. Mostly it comes from the fact that everyone has seen what has failed in the past with Amanda resorting to violence, being angry, and making people feel terrible. Maybe they can be the one to push Amanda in the right direction if Todd and Andi can’t.