Comic for Monday, July 18th
I think Security and Acquisitions Contractor is a title sort of like “Information Security Specialist” or whatever it was that Peter and Miko call themselves… 😐
I reckon Jayce is pretty fairly desperate if he’s willing to work with a lawman sort of fellow, but I don’t think he fancies his chances of heading deeper into this on his own after having some trouble in a straight fight with a minion. Considering the options I reckon Tyler looks like a downright reasonable demon to be making a deal with. At the end of the day, Jayce is nothing if not pragmatic.
Tyler has, unknown to Jayce, seen Jayce before. Jayce was napping at the time.
As was established way back Tyler’s been on TV and stuff; he’s relatively well known in Malsa, especially to those that would have a vested interest in it. Sort of has a suspicious amount of PR actually, but it’ll be awhile till we get more into Malsan politics. What, you didn’t think we were going to get into Malsan politics? 😛
Been posting some guest arts for fellow webcomic artists over Patreon; they’re all under the free tab, of course, and I’ll be linked to them in the final destinations if they are put up by their hosts (who, of course, they were sent to when they were made 😉 ). Fife (from Vatican Assassins), Mike (from Re:Set), Mercy (from Autumn Bay).
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BTW: You could probably be receiving a lot more votes on TopWebComics if you changed your “Vote for us on TWC” thumbnail link. Right now, the only way I could find this link was by hovering my mouse over it to get the mouse-over tooltip.
Whenever I look for the TWC link to vote on a webcomic, I look for the highly popular (if small) TWC banner. It’s instantly recognizable, no matter the webcomic. At the least, though, your link should say something like “TWC” or “Vote for us!”
Granted, you are showing us a thumbnail of the current vote incentive image (Naomi). But, without any context, it just looks like an illustration of Naomi and we wouldn’t even know that it was a link unless we happened to hover our mouse over it. You could put the letters “TWC” or the word “Vote!” below her face and we’d know what it was for.
Just a suggestion…
I appreciate the suggestion! I think you’re definitely right, I used to write “vote on TWC” on top the little thumbnails. While we once got up to 50’s there and I was super proud of everyone that voted for us during that push, I didn’t want want to keep pushing the voting angle as much. Rallying the readers once is a fun achievement, but I didn’t want it to be a chore 😉
That said, clearly marking the vote incentive is probably a fair compromise either way 😀 I like having the thumbnail so you guys can know when it changes (since I don’t want people just in it for the bonus art to be disappointed), but I really should indicate it’s a TWC voting link. I need to update the little chibi’s along the sides, will make a vote TWC one maybe (just pointing the thumbnail).
I definitely appreciate everyone that votes for us on TWC. Admittedly I became a little jaded with it when I realized how prevalent bots were in the top 100, but the token of support from readers is always something I really appreciate, and it is still good for new people to find the comic through it as I haven’t really had the budget for adspace over there anymore.
“…will make a vote TWC one maybe (just pointing the thumbnail)”
Actually, I think that’s a great idea!
“Admittedly I became a little jaded with it when I realized how prevalent bots were in the top 100…”
I suspected that this was how certain top webcomics stayed on top. I’m sure many honestly earn every vote. But I felt some of those top slots could only stay on top with the help of bots. Now that you mention this, I seem to recall other webcomic authors pulling out of TWC because they realized that it was a rigged system.
That said, TWC seems to have recently made some changes to their site software and said something about better security. Though, to keep things fair, I wish they’d require voters to register and actually log in rather than vote anonymously. It’s not at all difficult to use several proxies and IP addresses. (I say this, though I’m usually too lazy to log in to my account to vote.)
There are alternatives, though. Perhaps you could do like other webcomics and participate in both TWC and some other comic rank system, like Comic Basement?
Voting from more than one IP address is perfectly legal–even suggested by TWC itself. It’s the more exotic voting bots they disapprove of.
I hear that most of the legal multiple voting types use smartphones and hotspots. >>
The last timeI tried to vote on Comic Basement they said I had to be a comic creator to vote–has that changed?
Are you sure about TWC? I know that they only allow anonymous voting once per 24 hours per IP address, so why? It used to be only once per 24 hours…
As for Comic Basement: I checked their FAQ page. Under the “How do I move up on the Comic Basement rankings” it explains that when a visitor clicks the Comic Basement’s link to their comic the visitor is asked to vote. Also, votes are limited to one per day and tallied monthly.
I’m fairly certain that TWC endorses multiple votes as long as you do them from different IP addresses (at least this is what other webcomic authors have claimed, who have in turn claimed to have talked to them directly – this is fairly second hand). I imagine this counts as traffic for them, and they do not have an exceedingly high moral bar on this sort of thing from my observations (to be fair, this would be pretty hard to enforce against even if they wanted – I’m not really blaming them).
This is part of why I feel that I don’t want to make a big deal of it, as it can really go towards a chore. I prefer to use it as more of a vehicle for distributing more fan-based bonus arts (like with the character pool and taking requests). I’m certainly happy to get it front of more people, but people are working cheap to try to out click on the bots (and I do have solid proof that bots are used, though maybe by fans without the authors knowledge in many cases).
To be honest, I don’t know anything about Comic Basement. I’ll look it up in a bit, but my general inclination is that I don’t know that I’d want to be on a bunch of voting sites as I don’t really have the bandwidth for multiple incentives, and it’d sort of be a gyp deal for people that vote on both without that 😉
I can’t speak for others, of course. But, myself, voting is not about incentives. (Many comics don’t change their incentive often, anyway.) Rather, it’s a little way to support the comics I like best and help spread the word. I sometimes browse TWC to find a new comic to follow. But with several thousand listed, only those on the first few pages are likely to get much attention.
Vote incentives use your bandwidth? I thought they were hosted on TWC. Maybe use the same incentive for both sites, instead of multiple? Or rotate old ones? I’m not even sure if Comic Basement has a vote incentive system.
Haha oops sort of made the confusing. By bandwidth I mean time to draw different incentives 😉
Yeah, I don’t know anything Comic Basement. Will take a look at it though.
I feel bad when people vote for me but I don’t change the incentive. I know that many kind souls do it anyway, and always appreciate the votes!
Perhaps you could create a chibi vote button similar to this?
http://tinypic.com/r/2cas6f/9
Except, instead, perhaps draw Naomi or some other cute character in a pleading gesture?
Ahah, this is a pretty great. Yes. I think something like this will have to happen. I will have to work on my psychological warfare skills… chibi’s are a dangerous weapon used only for the most grave and dignified of causes. Like this one (it’s an old recycled one from the last voting drive, where Naomi was our marketing consultant 😛 ):
I just want to say I REALLY LOVE the little chibis on the side. The kally one is brilliant and the naomi one is super cute. I don’t mind if you update them cause i’m sure I will love the new ones ^^
I would totally read a comic drawn like that! maybe could at least do some bonus comics with them??
*Looks at drama below(I think you’ve changed the order of comments…) in comments.* Nope. Moving on.
Now, about the comic. I think this is probably the best bet Jayce has. As long as Jayce isn’t a known criminal (in which case I don’t think he’d use his real name here) he should be fine. Tyler’s main beef with the school incident at that point was that the IDS just showed up and grabbed him; he knows next to nothing about Jayce beyond that.
Sure, he’s 100% going to be curious and any other time would probably stop to interrogate Jayce on what he knows, but he’s sort of past needing hints of big shit going down now, as he now standing the middle of big shit going down.
Oops. I had this comment open all day before I posted it and it looks like the comments were cleaned up. Feel free to delete/modify my comment.
No worries. I’ll release a little thought on it at some point soon, but just needed time to settle my thoughts.
As you say, we are here for the comic after all 😉 Jayce and Tyler are two of the more rational and pragmatic characters we’ve dealt with, but I suppose it depends on how big a fish Tyler is after here.
PSA: I’m been made aware that I have been ‘reviewed’ by a certain site (dedicated, shall we say, to harsh critiques). I’m taking some time to consider what the, if any, appropriate response to this is. Things, once put on the internet, tend to be somewhat permanent, and I’d rather not immortalize a rash response.
For the time being I’m not allowing links to it, and if you really want to comment on it, email me rather then do so here. Mostly putting this up as I’ve had to remove/block a good few comments already this morning, and I feel pretty bad about doing that.
I’m not aware of the review you’re speaking of. But, whatever any critic says, I’d say just keep doing what you’re doing, as long as you and others enjoy it. And judging by the comments and the amount of traffic you receive, it’s obvious that others enjoy it as well.
I’ll put something up about in the commentary to Thursday’s comic, probably. Mostly I just didn’t want this to devolve into something I felt compelled to make a rash response to at the moment.
I know better than to let stuff like that get to me, but ‘knowing’ that is sometimes harder then practicing it.
Jayce seems to think it’s the least crazy train out of crazy town. Unfortunately might be a suspicious train. ^^
Well, least this one has tried to stab him yet, though by panel four it might have come close. I reckon Tyler’s a tad on the jumpy side at the moment.
It’s rather hard to be mysterious and secretive when your cover gets blown–quite literally, in this case. 🙂
So someone who is actively fighting I.D.S. wants to make common cause with someone who is only engaged in a turf battle with them? Kinda brazen, our Jayce.
Although, the last time Tyler locked horns with an I.D.S. agent things got a little…..interesting (Check THIS LINK for details). ^^
I don’t know if I’d call Jayce’s proposal to work with Tyler “brazen”, so much as… a smart move, if only slightly desperate?
Jayce was hired to work for Avon, as security, et al. As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t have anything to fear from the MSB. The IDS, on the other hand…
Jayce recognizes that the MSB is here to investigate and enforce the law. That only works in his favor.
The only potential problem is the possibility of the MSB learning something of Avon’s less-than-entirely-legal research projects. But as long as Jayce doesn’t get blamed and doesn’t get fired, I somehow doubt that he cares about that.
Edit: Wait… PastUtopia suggests that Tyler considers him a person of interest from a previous encounter? When did they meet, again?
Ah, now I remember! :duh: It was the school incident earlier. And the IDS swooped in to take him away before Tyler had a chance to charge and interrogate him.
Well, there is also Rovak and his crew who is who Jayce directly tangled with so far. If he can point Tyler at them, he could be pretty confident that Tyler view Rovak as a criminal and a greater threat then Jayce/Avon (considering he’s currently doing his very best mage-of-mass-destruction-impression), and I don’t think Jayce fancies his chances against Rovak alone.
I mean, Jayce would probably rather have the IDS problem than the Rovak problem. Rovak was last seen declaring his ability to make mayhem while exploding things.
If in the process Tyler stumbles into Rovak working with the IDS, well, that’s all gravy from Jayce’s point of view. Tyler’s temper with the IDS is pretty short, considering he just chased off their minions and crashed their party.
Plus, Jayce has no way of knowing that Tyler has reason to be suspicious of him. And all Tyler really knows that is that Jayce broke into Levenworth and got beaten up by Naomi – he hasn’t actually even met Mium yet (weird, I know.).
The main downside with him working with Tyler is taking a ‘lawman’ into the part of Avon that’s currently being exploded is likely to have repercussions, but from Jayce’s point of view (and likely Avon’s) the repercussions from the MSB are going to be vastly less bad than Rovak (explodey) or the IDS (like MSB, but from their prospective directly worse due connections to PACT and far greater interference power); most major entities don’t really take local government all that seriously anyway.
…Well, that was a sort of long one, sorry sort of combined all the replies in this chain into one 😉
I’m not sure how Tyler is going to react to this turn of events. OTOH he is highly diplomatic, but OTOH he seems to be peeved enough to stop talking.
If he’s clear-headed about this odds are that he won’t let on that they’ve already met before, at least not before getting a bunch of information.
As for my little portrait, I like it as it is. Mind if I grab it for a proper Gravatar?
It definitely makes the situation a little more awkward for Jayce… We’ll just have to see if Tyler is ‘investigate’ or ‘interrogate’ mode.
I imagine Tyler will not be keen to let Jayce slip away again, but we’ll see how distracted he gets in all this. How much Jayce really knows about Mium and Peter is also an open question, though he certainly has a few truckloads of dirt, and not just on Avon…
The default icons are called ‘Identicons’ and the are generated for a user automatically by wordpress if you have it enabled. You are welcome certainly welcome to snag it and use from my prospective (you can just right-click save-image-as) 😉