Comic for Monday, October 3rd.
A new vote incentive will hopefully come along soon. Will start drawing the various suggestions (character from the comic + costume). Feel free to keep making more suggestions. I won’t promise I’ll get to them all, but I’ll see what I can do.
This page is probably one of the few that took almost along to write as draw. My version of the comic is notoriously sort of vague on the dialogue, and this page had a lot of dialogue. Mostly it’s a question of stuffing as much information in as possible, while keeping it a reasonable conversation. Especially when the artist spent basically two panels on “Arron is exasperated” 😛
I was severely tempted to not draw the audience, but I did want to take the tiny chance to flesh them out a bit more… I don’t think I can resist… 😉
Work is still busy, but my computer has ended it self imposed isolationism and restored communication with the internet (I replaced my ethernet adapter… that is…)
Edit: First Costume vote incentive is up. I decided to do the suggestions in chronological order for now.
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Peter is outsourcing problems to people who consider him a problem. And in sourcing some of their problems. I think my problem at this point is the same one as always, and the same one EVERYONE Peter interacts with has, namely figuring out WTF his angle is.
I am digging through what he is saying here, because I suspect this whole thing is something of a red herring. What he is asking Arron to do basically what Arron probably would have done anyway.
Consider that Peter bothered to break into the IDS in the first place. Likely if he called, Arron would pick up. Even if he didn’t he could hack into a comm for a lot less effort. I think Peter’s angle is likely a tangent to this whole conversation.
His angle is to keep everyone as confused as possible while he does whatever the hell he feels like for whatever unbelievably-complicated long-term goals he set.
Or at least, it’s less confusing to think of it that way, to me….
I suppose at this point we have to hope that’s his plan, because I think that’s about the only way it’s still on point… 😛
I’m just noticing now that Peter seems a little bit… blurry. Looking at past pages, seems the effect might have been less subtle. Is that intentional – like his image is having increasing difficulty being sustained, or something like that? Or am I just seeing things?
Additionally, I note that Naomi is perfectly clear, which confirms the idea that only Naomi is actually present.
Peter’s… ah… appearance… is panel specific, though any… differences… are sort of subtle. There is some degree of irregularity that is intentional, but it is intended to be fairly subtle (people are sharper eyed than I expected… should have learned my lesson on this on by now…)
I’m sort of thinking that if Arron accepts then he’ll use Kally to justify the first two items on Peter’s list. I mean reclaiming the Bridgepoint data was deemed one of the highest priorities, so if he linked Kally to “his” plan on completing it he could probably have the dialogue make his demands seem completely reasonable.
/speculation hat off.
I’m think Arron was wondering he has a whisky bottle tucked into his desk drawer… I don’t think he even drinks whisky, but hey, after a day like he’s having…
Somehow I don’t think Arron will be impressed. But that is Peter’s whole shtick. Show up, be a tool, but tell them what they need to do anyway.
Peter has basically confirmed to Arron that Corporate Affairs is up to something shady. Even if Arron does not trust Peter (no one does) he will feel more confident looking into it. He already had confirmation Kor’s World was here, but that Peter is interested in Nathan is probably the more important part there.
Lastly, Peter wants to keep Kally at Levenworth. He asked Tyler the same thing. He is going to fairly substantial effort there. Mium confirmed already she was part of Peter’s plans, though he may have been teasing her. Now it is up to Arron if he thinks she can learn more by playing along.
I also get the impression Arron may have some idea what Peter is doing in general. He does not ask Peter “why did you leave?” but “why are you here?” If this was really the first time he had seen Peter since he vanished and he had no idea why, I am betting he would be a lot more curious to the former point.
/speculation hat off.
well i think theres 2 things going on with kally. yes peter has a plan to use her, and we know that they use to both work together and date each other. maybe in that order. so he does know how she thinks, and how she will act given most cirumstances.
but i also think he wants her to keep an eye on her (and maybe feed info to arron on an as needed basis) and also as mium put it she is “irreplaceable” to peter.
Well, if there is anyone Peter can make plans around, I’d reckon he has some experience there. Plus, she only wants to dismember him a little bit, on the Peter-scale (the amount which people can tolerate Peter) that’s pretty much fondness.
This is why Peter is a poorly conceived character.
I think this page is an example of why Peter is a disliked character, but I really don’t think that’s the same thing. I don’t think we are supposed to like Peter. He is arrogant and socially inept, but he is also far more believable because of it. Think of what he is, just a hacker with notedly poor social skills trying to play chessmaster.
Personally, I think he is excellent character, even if I don’t really like him. I don’t think we are supposed to like him though. He doesn’t even appear on the character voting polls.
Whether I like him or not has little bearing on this. This archetype isn’t actually found successfully in reality, it exists exclusively in Hollywood and Fantasy. I’ve dealt with lots of programmers, recruited a lot of ‘contractors’, and signed off on a lot of said wannabe black hats spending the rest of their lives in prison, or other things. He and a lot of the characters lack the elements to make them ‘realistic’ and therefore believable. The only character I find realistic, and therefore believable… that is to say a realistic human being, possibly relate-able, despite being in a science fiction fantasy is Arron Kepler.
I’m still not seeing how Peter is “poorly conceived”. It has as you said, been done before in both Hollywood and Fantasy.(Which I tend to interpret as theater and fables, because they did it first, but that’s just me.) I mean the chessmaster archetype never exists in reality, as those who try pretty much always fail.
As for being believable, eh, I guess we just have different views there. Personally I like these types of plots that are completely divorced from our reality, running on rules that are different than ours. But as I said, that’s just me.
I’m going to go with a “not explicitly a ‘rationality’-type story, so it’s fine” on this one – and probably better than most, given the extent to which it seems he is flying by the seat of his pants.
Peter has a long way to go as a character, but that’s part of the story 😉
It’s also fair to say that the writing is like the art though, it gets better, but I make no claims greatness.
I think Arron’s face in panel 5 speaks for most people on Peter… 😉
That’s our Peter, charming as always. >< His advice is good, but wow, what an arrogant delivery. O.o
Arron's face in Panel 5 is absolutely priceless. Peter pegged Arron's attitude pretty well. ^^
And just look at you showcasing a HAND. Quite a change from the old days when you tried to hide them as much as possible. 🙂
You really have to feel bad for Arron occasionally when you remember that he was trying to find Peter. If you consider Arron is also related to Kyle, I think it’s clear that he just drew the short end of the stick there.
I wouldn’t quite say that hand is anything to write home about… I suppose it’s an E for effort though…? 😛
no its a good hand. i mean its not hi def, but then theres only so much you want to spend time on something. it gives out the point of what hes wanting, and driving the point home to arron what hes talking about. all in all its a good hand, and quite an acceptible drawing. deff a “B”