Comic for Monday, December 12th, 2022
Dec13
on December 13, 2022
at 6:21 am
Comic! At long last.
For those that missed the Q&A, you can find it here.
No promises on next week, but pretty sure it won’t be 4 weeks until the next one again.
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Merry Christmas!
We’ll aim for getting back to weekly eventually, but for now keep aiming for “at least every other week”. Still sick generally busy with stuff.
hey man, it’s ok. take Christmas off, you deserve it.
Be well and enjoy the holidays. Thank you for an excellent comic.
Feel better!
I guess the comic’s taking Christmas off?
No basis to guess one way or another, IMO.
Relax! The comic will get here when the comic gets here. Here’s hoping that Past is not overwhelmed by real world things again.
Looks like Jim’s been peeking at the actual update schedule rather than going by the official word. Sneaky!
Happy and not overwhelming holidays to all of you! Especially be careful to avoid being overwhelmed on International Fruitcake Day, those things *can* be delicious, but they can also be deadly.
I remember one in particular which one needed to be careful of how much one consumed before operating heavy equipment, such as a car. If I recall correctly, the cook did some calculations after the fact and determined that due to a misplaced decimal point, they’d accidentally made the cake 15 proof. I mean, as those things go, that wasn’t much, but it was supposed to be at levels that people other than those on my father’s side of the family would feel was suitable for kids.
Sure, but that’s not how the trope is played. Past needs to miss an update, we need to spend time talking about how much Amazon charges to get pitchforks and torches here before xmas, and the comic gets here when it gets here. That gives us stuff to talk about until the next update, after all…
This! Exactly this. Dave understands.
Peter has it so lucky, he could probably listen in on at least half of the hilarious conversations going on in the world (like this one), and he maybe cares about the summary, if that.
Dagan isn’t doing too terribly either, but the Consul is just hilarious for this whole page. And not even just sass for the sake of it, on-point sass about doing her job and making use of resources at hand, effectively and efficiently. And, well, since Arkady and family are apparently going to be targeted whether they’re on the front lines or just shopping, it’s hardly her fault that people keep showing up for the meat grinder.
Peter was talking to Madame Council and she asked about the young girl. (what is she, who is she)
Peter answered in a vague way, that you do not have to worry, she is not pointed at you.
The page where it came up was https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-august-27th-2018/
Ila was picked up on radar and the Consul wanted to know if the blip was something that they needed to worry about. Peter said that they didn’t have to worry, since, despite the blip not being harmless, it wasn’t aimed at them.
Also, in the next to last panel in that comic, Peter the Prophet states “I would recommend keeping him (Arkady) out of too much danger in the future, or things might get messy.” Things certainly did get messy at the mall when our darling little sharpshooter executed a multiple target bank shot.
Ah, but her brother gave her a non-lethal firing solution for that one. With the snipers outside, she was less restrained.
I tend to feel like incidents in which a half dozen or more rogue family retainers are disabled via maiming shots are probably still quite messy. It might seem less messy in the short term, but you don’t need to provide medical care or medical follow-up to dead people.
Further, even though it *seems* like sending someone on a mission to track down the patrol that disappeared with only one trace – that of a large red pool that could plausibly have been blood – would be one of the most intimidating missions you can send someone on. However, in actuality, when somebody *does* come back, or at least *most* of somebody, enough for them to be able to say what actually happened, going on a mission to accomplish whatever they were supposed to tends to be worse. Especially if there were several of those somebodies sent at different times, and your assignment does not give you any additional support from what they had.
I’m trying to remember the origin of “Not Pointed At You”? I just spent hours re-reading the first several years. It boggles my mind just how long I’ve been reading this.
A couple things i noticed: Not so much commentary at first, but it has really grown! for a while now, I check daily, not just for a new page, but for new comments. Y’all have really enriched my experience of the comic. No webcomic I’ve seen has anything like this Gunnerkrigg Court has more comments, but it’s not a conversation like this.
The other thing that struck me is just how unnatural the dialog is. This is NOT a flaw! It’s used to define the characters in bold terms, and to advance story in subtle ways. This is INTERESTING dialog, far more enjoyable than natural.
Finally, I have long pondered how Peter + Mium, with a dose of Naomi or Kally (and now Ila) as needed, are essential a deus ex machina; they can solve any problem at all. The readers know this. it can be a deadly trap for an author.
Past, you handle this better than I think I’ve ever seen. They can know and do impossible things, but they don’t, until it is time and the mystery of Peter and Mium’s origin is key to both character and story. What characters don’t know is key to any story. It makes omniscience a challenge.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and A.E. von Vogt’s World of Null A face this. I re-read that a couple years ago, and … you do it better. Splitting the omnipotence between characters is a big part of it.
Magical technology is another thing. It never seems to go well, except here. I’ve never played D&D, but I can see the influence in the careful balance of capabilities, the emphasis on team, the attention to back story, and how the tech aspect of the magic serves to maintain that balance and consistency, while allowing for surprise.
You’re a master storyteller, Past, I hereby award you 5 pitchforks, in a space where few manage even one. This is a measure of how much your readers are invested in your story.
“Not Pointed At You” was….okay, I could try finding words to describe it, but it’s probably easier to just find the comic. Uhh…
Here we go: Chapter 13, Aug 27, 2018.
Yay, welcome back Past…
Hah, I can see why Peter chose to go with rhe country he did. A likeable, competent leader who knows when the best time is to sit back and let subordinates do the dirty work for her. Also, as we’ve seen, she’s willing to do things herself if she needs to.
Also, I love how she considers the rogue families to be idiots.
Well, based on the criteria she just gave ,they are indeed idiots on an unprecedented scale. We will need to find a word for those who are merely Darwin awards nominees waiting to happen and actively kicking the button marked “invoke murphy”, but aren’t as dumb as the Rogue Families.
I’m pretty sure that Ila gets as much ice cream as she wants today. Gotta keep her energy up between these waves. Still waiting to see her chug a red bull before a boss fight.
Arkady has six ice creams on the tray. Allowing one each for Arkady and his brother then one each for Naomi and her little sister, that leaves two left for ILA. It is a sure bet that Arkady will buy more ice cream if ILA wants more tasty food.
I was under the impression that was one ice cream for Arkady’s brother, one for Naomi’s sister, and the rest for Ila.
Another typo, second last panel:
“after we were too late too anything about it” should be “after we were too late to do anything about it”
Great to see another update!
I do have to say there is a typo/odd bit of grammar in the bottom left by the guy speaking to the Consul. I would suggest replacing “Even if so, we cannot simple use a child” with “Even so, we cannot simply use a child”.
Little Miss “Not Pointed at You”
Best laugh I had this week.
She’s been called worse. Not bad, as nicknames go. Very madame consul.
Pretty sure it was Arkady who first referred to her that way, and not as a nickname, just as a statement about who she was.
It was Peter, speaking to the madame consul. Bu yeah, not as a nickname. That’s all her take.
https://pastutopia.com/comic/comic-for-monday-august-27th-2018/
A link to the page where Illa got that nickname.
It would seem that even the ice cream preferences of designer children are color coded…
You can’t be too careful. What if the food coloring from the ice cream accidentally ended up on their hair? It’s best to not take chances.