Comic for Monday, July 25th, 2022
So…
Obviously the format on this one is slightly different. It’s not as different as it might seem. As is probably obvious, I still drew it as the normal half page comic, but expanded out the panels. The main reason to do this to combat text shrinkage. As some of you have noticed, over time I have tended to make the text smaller to basically just turn a half page into a page.
Since there’s really no good reason to try to conform to the half page model (it was just a result of literally cutting the pages in half previously) and it doesn’t seem likely that I will return to doing full page updates in any time soon, I’m thinking about going this route and just officially deciding a half-page is a page, that way I can increase the text size again (as I know some people were not a fan of it).
I will still probably draw the comics in full pages, split into half pages, but may keep going with this more expanded web format.
There’s a bit of a backstory here in that this was a page I was originally going to skip, but decided to go back and do it because I felt sad skipping it, but fitting this whole page into a half page was a bit of a challenge and I didn’t want to spend two weeks on it, so it was going to have be a combination of smaller text and cutting text… and I decided that I don’t see what the point of trying to condense it was, since this is on a webpage anyway.
I dunno. If you like it, let me know. If you hate it, let me know. Those that have been around a long time will remember this isn’t actually the first time I’ve done this. But I feel the math has changed slightly. With the full page style comics, this wasn’t as necessary, as there was more room for text and page flow is a bit cleaner on a full page comic. On a half page comic, page flaw is always a little awkward as increasingly the just rely on two panel strips stacked, and text has been getting smaller and smaller to accommodate that I often try to just put a whole page into the half page.
I know there will be a few places that’s hard to follow where the text goes here. Ultimately this was converted about half way through the page, so won’t be perfect. In the future I may consider to an even more vertical format. Or I might go back to the traditional format. I’ll fiddle around with it a bit, and feel free to complain about the ones I try you don’t like. I also made it with a white background. Feel free to let me know if you prefer that. I also made it with a black background. Feel free to let me know if you prefer that.
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Hey Folks-
There will be a comic this week, as I don’t want to skip two weeks in a row, but it’ll be late. Probably late tomorrow.
Better late than never!
Hope you are well.
Past, I love the backstory in the previous comic. The behind the scenes goings on can be as important as seeing ILA throw rocks or vending tokens. Also, it was great to read the aftermath of the mall battle in this comic. This is preferred to jumping to another storyline or otherwise skipping the aftermath with a fast forward.
White background is fine. Black theme is a deal breaker – please, no way.
Page layout is fine. Actually, any page layout that contains another of your comics is fine.
Do ILA and the Miums have telescopic vision? Two instances in the comic make it appear to be so. The most recent incident is ILA looking directly at the last sniper through his scope at the mall scene. A previous incident is a Kor’s world soldier seeing Mium staring back at him through his scope.
I like both the old and the new style. I prefer the black background because on my mobile phone browser the black frames look uneven and too thick. So with the black background it looks
a bit smoother.
But most of all I like it when the style saves work for you, PastUtopia, because ultimately that results in more pages of this great comic for me to read.
I can’t address the black border issue since I can’t/don’t read on a small mobile screen. I don’t know how you can read the text bubbles on a tiny screen. Try viewing the strip on someone’s laptop to see what you are missing. On a mobile, you wouldn’t have been able to see ILA discovering the snipers. I use my old/cheap laptop in a Chevy Volt hybrid electric vehicle while charging. The mobile hotspot and charging are FREE!
The new style has possibilities not available in the old style. For instance, two vertical columns showing two groups of people merging to one column when they meet. This would show two sets of circumstances occurring simultaneously. Maybe even three columns but then mobile readers would have problems.
If you turn on the accessibility features on your phone, you can probably zoom in a decent amount. Just comparing my phone to my laptop, it looks like I can go up to about 300% zoom on my phone relative to the “full size” version on my laptop. I didn’t purchase my phone focused on the accessibility features, so it feels likely there are people out there with phones that can zoom in more than mine.
That said, I don’t generally read this comic on my phone. It’s difficult on my phone to flip over to another app to maintain a database of all of the characters’ appearances and what they did in each one. Mostly because on-screen keyboards are in general more horrible than I can adequately describe, while being considerably less horrible than I can imagine.
Reading the comic on a phone is very difficult for me. I already magnify to read the comic. The side to side scrolling to view enlarged images would be annoying and cumbersome. My cheap Chrome laptop screen is about 5 to 6 times as wide and almost twice as tall as any of my phones. The Windoze laptop is even larger even without an external monitor. The Chrome is a good, cheap laptop that is okay for browsing but is crippled when wanting to use any business app or game. No delete, page up and page down keys are really annoying. However, the keyboard is 1000% better than using a touch screen keyboard on a phone. I take the Chrome with me when traveling and if it gets stolen from my car while traveling, another $50 to 100 and I’m back in business with no data (especially personal) lost.
Well, since the comic is being delayed until next week, here’s an item for discussion. Would being Naomi’s boyfriend be safe? Should she get excited, would there be a chance of her pulling your spine out through your chest? Morbid curiousity.
Naomi doesn’t seem dangerous to be around. A good example was when she met Arkady in the hospital, she was lifting relatively normal weights. When Arkady commented on it, she used her power to easily lift the weight with one hand, showing that to some extent she turns it on and off intentionally.
She even regularly fights normal humans without completely dismembering them. I’d say that even using her powers, she’s not that strong… at first. She just doesn’t really seem to stop getting stronger when she fights seriously, to the point where it’s not clear how strong she can get, and to the point where the Kor’s World Soldier had to abort the plan of trying to take her alive.
She only seems to start to lose control when she gets extremely angry (Marc attacking Tyler, Artem being kidnapped, the Kor’s World Soldier trying to capture her, getting shot by the IDS snipers). And only one of those cases did she actually dismember her opponent (though one gets the feeling that’s only because the IDS monster hunters and Kor’s World soldiers are a lot stronger than Acalia in terms of physical defenses, the only thing that even seemed to hurt a Kor’s World Soldier was a point blank blast from Fluffy).
Hmmmm… how to say this without being crude. I was thinking more of Naomi getting very excited while “doing the naughty” then losing control. Just idle speculation.
Past’s characters seem to dismember bad guys/gals on occasion. Naomi also ripped off a tank’s arm. Fluffy ripped an arm off a Kor’s works soldier. Ashvalt cut off an arm, shoulder and head of Seraine, the “vile hag” Rogue Family head. ILA splatted a kidnappers head.
PS- Yeah, I’m bored and kinda commenting just to have something to do. LOL
It’s my understanding that using boosting requires concentration, even for Naomi. She doesn’t necessarily need as much and can do it a lot more than most, but it’s still something that requires a deliberate mental act to do. As such, it’s less likely that she’d lose control in a situation like that – unless for some reason she was already boosting for some reason.
Of course, she’s still pretty athletic. I’m not one of those guys who would describe any part of their body as being ‘like steel’ or ‘as hard as steel’, and I would be rather concerned about engaging in such activities with someone as in shape as she apparently is even without them being able to do the things that she can do because of boosting.
Hey Folks-
I’m going to miss the comic this week, unfortunately. Should be back next week as normal. The end of the month just ended up a lot busier than expected.
Past, take the time you need. Keeping up house and car payments plus keeping family fed are more important than keeping non-paying readers happy. Stay safe!
My pitchfork was just about to get rusty. Good time to get out the whetstone to sharpen it up. Now where did I leave my torches?
It’s a good thing you needed to sharpen your pitchfork. Mr Bean was driving a truckload of pitchfork wielders to Past’s castle. However, instead of driving onto the ferry, Mr Bean drove the truck onto a transport headed to Ukraine.
Prefer the white background. Just looks cleaner. Thanks for the comic!
Seriously, we’re not going to have a discussion about how the comic just changed background colors? Gaslighting! Smoke and mirrors!
Um. Yeah.
OK maybe it isn’t pitchfork time. Yet. But I noticed!
But, of course we need to discuss colors. The Republicans want a red background. The Democrats want a blue background. The eco folks want a green background. The breast cancer groups want a yellow background. OSHA wants an orange background. The UN general assembly is encouraging Past to switch to blue. Someone may claim white represents White Supremacy but white is all colors.
Seriously, I have previously pointed out that white background has less eyestrain for old folks like me. About a week ago, I did an archive dive. This format with a white background was used at least once but I have been unable to find it again.
Nah, PastUtopia just had compassion with all the folks who said that they disliked the black background due to their senior eyesight. I doubt that those would appreciate smoke and mirrors while trying to read a webcomic…
I like the new format, but find that I prefer the white background.
I like big text. I know nothing about the creation of pages, but I assume blank space is cheap; so it would seem that a format like a picture in a frame with generous matting where the matting is available for text would work. If there was not much text, we get some blank space. If you think there won’t be any text, change your mind … there’s that blank space that was just sitting there waiting for you to change your mind.
Yo! Here’s a fan of the style!
Put me in the “Liking the new format” column. ^^
I like the new format since it allows larger text bubbles not confined by smaller frames around the images. However, the black “framing” somehow makes reading a bit unpleasant.
How does the white bordered version sit with you?
Link in 2nd to last line of author commentary directly below the comic.
Thanks for pointing that out. I like the white bordered version much, much better. For some reason, it is easier on my eyes.
I think it must be due to you and I having very different eyes. That said, I’ve been long aware different people are different.
If having themes was a feasible option for the website (I’ve no idea how to do that, apart from it probably being some CSS thing with a bit of code to let the user select which to see), I’d think it’d make sense to have this version go with a dark theme, and the other version go with a light theme.
My 68 year old eyes aren’t the sharpest anymore. Too much time spent in front of CRT computer screens since the early 1970’s has lessened their acuity. LCD screens probably saved me from going blind. I suspect the perceived discomfort may come from the uneven illumination between the bright comic panels opposed to the large black background border.
This layout works very well. It’s your comic, but I think this is a good direction. You get to have your art, and caption it, too. And if a half-page suddenly BECOMES a full page, all the better. The medium doesn’t exactly encourage you to be sparing with it.
To clarify. Half-page, full page. I see a full page. You see a half-page turned into a collage across an otherwise empty full page. Which of us is correct? You may have “stretched” a half-page into a full page, but the result is excellent, in my opinion. I also like the black “whitespace”, although I can see how that might be more expensive if it were printed. Something else that would have worked, although it would have required more art, would be a desaturated image of the wreckage as the whitespace.
+1
“I bet they run out of kidnappers before we run out of ice cream shops” god damn this kid has no chill and I love him for it. Ashvalt’s kid through and through there.
Love this page. Avi is clearly used to weaponizing puppy dog eyes. Artem is clearly over this being kidnapped stuff. Ila seems to be warming to a new group of ice cream providers.
Ila and Mium have great banter as usual. Poor Ila, she’s just no match for Mium in the backhanded compliments department. This is an AI that is trained by verbal sparing with Miko, Ila has no chance.
New format is a thumbs up.
Artem is spot on with his snipers vs ice cream shops declaration. That is one intellegent, brave kid who is adult seeming in his thoughts.
Avi does seem to be able to “force” Naomi to do things as Avi wishes. She loves and idolizes her big sister. She is also intelligent. My romantic mindset has Avi and Artem paired to found a powerful dynasty.
Mium always seems to be the winner in interplay with “little sister” ILA even when she was trying to kill him. BTW, it looks like that last sniper “donated” his gun to ILA! Is he alive or is he dead as a splattered corpse without a head. LOL
To be sung to Aerosmith’s “Jamie’s Got a Gun”
ILA’s got a gun
ILA’s got a gun
I think part of what is going on is that Artem has come to believe that his current guardians are infallible, and assassination attempts are no longer threatening.
I suspect that while Mium would not use the word infallible, they are indeed approaching a point where assassination is no longer a meaningful threat. However the parents involved likely do not share Artem’s nonchalance.
I believe Artem deserves more credit for his behavior. Even when the “guardians” were not there, Artem stepped up and offered to go with the kidnappers if Arkady was left alone. Artem has also been quick to support his new friends on multiple occasions.
I believe I suggested the thought earlier that perhaps Artem has demonstrated greater capacity for being the family heir to such an extent that he wasn’t offering to go with the kidnappers out of an interest in being a martyr, but rather because he was concerned about being in trouble for accidentally hurting Arkady as he mopped up the kidnappers.
Sure, we haven’t seen anything of what he can actually do. But we do know that Arkady isn’t the family heir. It’s true that Artem’s been canonically stated to also not be the heir (the author comment of Chapter 16, page 33 asserts that neither of them are the Ardunni heir), but he’s considerably younger than Arkady. There was plenty of time between their respective births for another sibling whose abilities are more commensurate with being the family heir, and once one is established in that role, having a second with the capability of handling it wouldn’t necessarily require a change being made. Also, I don’t recall for certain if it’s been canonically stated that Arkady’s the eldest Ardunni child. Ashvalt is apparently arguably the best surviving duelist among the family heads, so it wouldn’t be that astonishing for him to have multiple highly capable children.
Arkady’s fiancee established precedent for someone of Artem’s age to be a badass in this world, or at least someone young enough to still be considered a child after earning the title Doll of Destruction. We already know that these Rogue Family members weren’t necessarily following the most prudent plan, and Saraine *was* the Family Head who was planning on ensuring that Artem stayed kidnapped. Maybe that was just for the possibility that Ashvalt would respond to the kidnapping attempt before it succeeded. But it also could’ve been because they realized this particular prize would be dangerous once he was sufficiently far from his family for him to feel able to safely unleash the certain doom that he is able to call forth.
Hm, didn’t Arkady meet Mium once before, after Ila’s battery ran out? Mium called him “Mr. Salmon”, IIRC.
Yup, they’ve met before. Mium had black hair last time, but Arkady recognizes him. He’s just somewhat wary of Mium, having a better-than-average idea of what he is.
For those looking for the actual page, look for the actual page, look for 31-August-2020 in Chapter 15. This is what I was referring to on my comment on the previous page. Some of the URL’s contain typographical errors as in “Feb 02, 2017 Comic for Thursday, Feburary 2nd”, others have a different format such as “Nov 27, 2017 Intermission 3, Minus Years 2, Page 3”, another is “Oct 11, 2018 Comic for Thursday, October 10th (the real 10th), 2018”, and there were other inconsistencies. This makes automated parsing and URL generation difficult. However, the differences are easily parsed by a human reader, and providing the information in such a manner makes with all of the information makes it easy for most human readers to find in the archive. I say “most” because I have learned to never underestimate the ability of a reader to be confused. Whether including or leaving out the URL protocol (h_t_t_p_s), I have found the processing of URL’s inconsistent and unreliable.
Artem once again reveals wisdom beyond his years when he says:
“I bet they run out of kidnappers before we run out of ice cream shops.” LOL
This was an astute yet humorous observation.
BTW, a comic in the archives confirmed that Arkady is NOT the Arduni Family Heir so maybe it is Artem. Discussion by comic characters was about Arkady marrying Camille.
To be fair, Arkady really should have figured out by now that supplying tasty food to Ila results in a zone of safety extending out to the visible horizon. And she hasn’t even gotten her own dragon yet….
Yup! Arkady has seen ILA’s “firepower” on multiple occasions and been shocked at the magnitude of her power. I remember on one occasion Arkady telling soldiers not to be shocked when seeing what ILA does to get them an enemy shuttle for evac.
Past: If you are reading this comment, how about ILA somehow getting a backpack filled with tasty food?
She is pretty easygoing when it comes to tasty food, and stuff like the drink powder could probably be carried around in a small purse never mind a backpack.
Ice Cream however is probably not the easiest to lug around purely on spec, and really the ice cream you get in a fancy glass with all the syrups and sprinkles and stuff is going to appeal far more to Ila than a tub of generic ice cream in an insulated container.
Plus as Artem says, the supply of ice cream shops is not as limited as the supply of ablative grunts.
Past, you have mentioned full page/half page many times. I’m not sure of the difference. Does this refer to your drawing software?
Past is a funny guy.
When he talks about “1/2 page”, he means when he produces a much content as your typical web comic artist would describe as “2 to 4 pages”. When he says “full page”, he’s talking about when he produces content similar to when other web comic artists would be saying “between 4 and 8 pages”.
As he alludes, there is no standard “page”.
I personally like the white background a bit better. Feels like it is easier to read IMO.
Also I acknowledge that I probably wouldn’t have known if Past had cut this page. But I feel the world would be a little darker, a little more dreary, had he done so.
Two thumbs up!
Around… 4 years ago I switched to doing pages half as large as I used to. They are just literally half a page, cut vertically in two. Originally I would draw the full page still, and just post one half a a time. Now days I just draw half a page at a time, which makes the whole thing a bit silly, particularly as the half page has, over time, gotten more panels and words until it’s not far from what the full page used to be, just in a more compressed format.
The idea of this format is just sort of giving up on the half page convention, as it’s clear I’m not going to go back to full pages, so there’s no real need to keep to the page-cut-in-half format as much.
Past, there is no need to concern yourself with the half and full page terms. You do excellent work regardless of the perceived “size” of the page. As for those very few who complain, have ILA deliver their refunds of zero etched on a rock! LOL
To be honest, unless you are prestaging for a print edition, I can’t see why you should care about an arbitrary bounding box. They don’t charge by the screen inch…
Aha! I NOW understand the “1/2 sized comic” thing.
I kind of feel like I’m in a Dilbert strip. Please reference:
April 8, 1995
November 2, 1996
And a whole bunch of other Dilbert stips.
Well played, Past. Well played.