A MAY VOTING INCENTIVE CAVALCADE!
We’re doing a Tracee retrospective this month! Every few days, another classic voting incentive will pop up! Make sure to vote often and catch them all!
As for this comic…
Though I enjoyed prom night, I for one am happy that I no longer have to draw those dresses anymore. Puck and Daphne also both look mildly relieved that they don’t have to wear them.
Oh no.
Daffy is happie.
How Horrid.
🙁
Did you see my reply in last week’s post.?
One Word: BRILLIANT !
I knew this would make you frown.
@EG
Just call me “Frowny Kat”.
Wow. Is she…happy?
Possibly? Maybe? It’s hard to tell because it’s never happened before.
I see Puck’s not one to jump to conclusions and think “maybe I should give her the talk”.
Though she probably thinks that Daphne will learn from her mistakes.
Daphne is a pretty pragmatic street-smart cookie. If anything, Puck is the less logical and more whim-oriented of the two. I think Puck knows that Daphne needs no talks.
As an educator in Ontario, you should know that “the talk” is presented much sooner than Daphne’s current age.
True enough.
Charming as the happy ending to this chapter may be, I got stuck on “World’s Best Mug”. Want!
Puck has long had the world’s best mug. It’s appeared, like, twelve times before or something. And as for your want…
https://www.teepublic.com/mug/9821058-worlds-best-mug-blue-edition Here it is in webcomic-accurate colors, and…
https://www.teepublic.com/mug/9821058-worlds-best-mug-blue-edition Here it is in classic white.
Just for you.
Now *that’s* a whole new level of fan service!
I’m thinking we need one more prom strip. Daphne runs into the little blind dutch girl who notices a change in Daphne’s voice, that only Daphne, Tyler and Hannah(?) Would know about.
I must’ve skipped that one. Sorry.
Ah, the smile you just can’t stop. They made a horror movie about that, you know.
I saw that! Gripping it was.
They did? Was it called ‘The Smile You Just Can’t Stop’?
No.
Commenting is fixed, but now there’s no longer an option to get an email for relies. Interesting.
You know why? Because the plugin that did the whole “email response” thing was CAUSING the error messages. I figured it out by process of elimination, because I reinstalled the entire base WordPress system and the error kept on happening. That meant the problem was with one of my plugins. It was that one.
Hi…
I accidentally clicked ‘Reply’ here and, I know there at least used to be an error where, if I clicked ‘Reply’ elsewhere, my comment would show up, here…
So, I have to say something so it doesn’t happen by accident.
Soooo…. You like… stuff?
*Ralphie .gif*
The error message is gone now. Rejoice.
Oh! I forgot! Puck, obviously, needs the word’s best mug. But it may not be big enough.
I feel that there is a certain size of mug that is perfect. It’s not the standard-issue size, but slightly larger. For hot drinks like coffee, that’s the size that maximizes the temperature-retention. Any smaller and the increased surface area means it cools down too fast. Any larger and the volume means it’ll be stone cold by the time you get halfway down.
Good point.
It may burn, Daphne, but it looks lovely on you. ^_^
A smile is lovely. But for my money, nothing is more endearing than a good scowl.
I honestly remember being in high school, all of five foot six inches my senior year (I grew some more out of high school) and a smile would actually hurt my face. I was a grim 14-15-and 16 year old (and yes, I graduated the year I was allowed to drop out and take my GED [16] ’cause otherwise, despite my 3.85 GPA, and then after my senior year, in which I was in a coma for six weeks, expected to both make up all the work I’d missed and also keep up with my current works [AND ALSO be registered to vote for the next election or lose a grade in my Government class, which was impossible due to me being a year too young to vote in the next election, and I didn’t care enough to point that out to the teacher by then] my 2.85 GPA), and smiling simply was not a part of my teen repertiore, and it HURT to do so for very long at all.
Now, some more than 25 years later, it is almost a constant thing on my face, and in a very convincing way.
I feel for Daphne just now right this minute.
I am feeling grim.
So you have not gotten any happier, but you have learned to fake happiness more efficiently as a means of getting on in the world. Well, I can’t argue with the approach.
You know what, a week later, maybe Ihave gotten happier, but I definitely project it more convincingly.
Especially now, starkness and frustration, and maybe even despair are part of my life.
But also, I’m going to try and project positive energy into the world, even while wearing a stupid nose chafing mask.
In fairness, I might be trying to make up for being a bad guy when I was younger.
Once a bad guy, now a positive energy projector? You are a fascinating person, Miles.
OH NO! The universe is beginning to unravel at the seams. Think unhappy thoughts save us all.
Let’s hope the fabric of reality is strong enough to survive this.
Translation of D’s T-shirt, please.
“Shut Your Mouth Please.” The big question, though, is where the line is from. (Hint: if all of Daphne’s sleepwear quotations come from rappers circa 1988-1992, there’s only one really popular Latino rapper from that era.)
Wait till she finds out what her other cheeks can do…
Oh boo.
“Heaven…I’m in heaven / And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak / And I seem to find the happiness I seek / When we’re out together, dancing cheek to cheek.”
I am reminded of the end of the original Toy Story. Well, actually, the end credits short “Barbie Buh Bye!”
(If the conflation of Barbie and Daphne hurts your brain, all I can say is “You’re welcome.”)
Ow. My brain.
Apropos of nothing really … how long until Miranda starts expressing opinions? Verbally, I mean.
Oh, that will open up so much comedy potential.
Hence my unseemly eagerness.
A female version of Stewie Griffon?
Future Tourist: “So, can other people understand the baby?”
I like the pastel changes in the background. It’s almost as if the room is blushing and then becoming radiant.
I do likes me colors.
If that’s her face now, just imagine what it would look like (and how much it BURNS) after Tyler and her enjoy some…adult time…with each other…
Let’s not imagine. Respect fictional privacy. 😉
The voting incentive picture of Tracee is helping me get through my withdrawl pains for Phoebe’s absence, but the thought of Poppa Schnorf having her all to himself is still disturbing.
Should that be “sierra la boca” or “cierra la boca”. My computer says “cierra”.
Yeah, I think you’re right. I got it from a copy of the lyrics but it looks like they’re wrong. I will fix that with the magic of editing.
“Cierra la boca por favor”.
Yeah, I fixed it. Stupid badly spelled translations.
I don’t know if you have read Council of Fire by Eric Flint. The term “couriers des bois”(messengers of the woods) which confused me until I realized that it should have been “coureurs des bois” (runners of the woods). I don’t know if they corrected it in later editions.
Easy to get this stuff wrong when you don’t bother to check.
To go along with translations,
Cierra la boca would translate to shut the mouth.
For it to make more sense its should probably read
Cierra tu boca. Shut your mouth.
Then again if you see all the fun engrish Chinese translations
You can just go with, it was done on purpose
Well, to be clear, this is not MY bad Spanish. This is Gerardo’s bad Spanish. It’s a lifted quotation from his horrid ‘Rico Suave’.
WOW! Hotties x2 on the voting incentive! Double your pleasure; Double your fun! Welcome back Phoebe!
I need to reuse old incentives more often. I run these retrospectives and I almost never get people complaining. Most people seem to have never seen the images the first time, so … score!
Another thoroughly amazing Voting Incentive “Blast from the Past”.
Although Phoebe has always been good, TRACEEE has not always had her virtue realized.
SHE IS AMAZING – both body and soul.
(well, mebe mostly body)
😛
I am very glad you approve.
Daphne in the fourth panel is me when I’m on a zoom chat with my boyfriend. The struggle of those of us who don’t smile a lot IS REAL.
People who almost never smile are some of my favorite people. People who are always smiling are immediately suspect to me.
Yes! What are they trying to hide?
Observations on people who smile too much:
If the perpetual smile person is male, I usually find they’re selling something or are a member of some hardline religious sect and are looking to convert (i.e. selling God).
If the perpetual smile person is female, I usually find that she has learned to plaster the perpetual smile on her face as a defense mechanism, and deep down is very unhappy. There’s such a smile-oriented culture in our society, especially for girls, that I think many find it hard to willfully break the ‘thou shan’t not smile’ commandment. Sad, really. That’s why I love the scowling girls. There’s such a pressure for girls to not scowl in our society that if you see a scowl on a girl’s face, you know it’s genuine. And bold. I like that.
But, there are fake smiles, as you suggested via plastered faces, and then a genuine smile.
I’ve never met a person with a perpetual genuine smile. I’m sure they exist, but they’re rare.
EG – I have been reading the older comics over on Webtoons, well because I have an account there and to see the larger format. Just wondering why (I can’t find the days you mentioned it here) and do you see any benefits from that or was it just something you decided to try?
Good question. I’m putting the comic up on Webtoons because, quite frankly, the independent webcomic on its own site is a dying trend. Like blogs (remember blogs?) it’s a hallmark of times past. Webtoons has emerged as the de facto ruler of the online comic landscape due almost entirely to its friendliness to the mobile format. I’m having little to no success on the platform so far, but I just felt it wise to have a mirror presence on Webtoons anyway. Especially as the platform I already have (this site) is dying a slow, inexorable death.
Honestly, I might not be able to save it, even if I fully jumped to Webtoons. Things are looking very bad anymore for the future of the comic. But even in that case, I’ll at least have uploaded some hi-res versions of the comic on Webtoons for nostalgic people to view in the future after the creditors shut this site down.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Mind you, I have not the faintest hint of a clue what to do about it, but it must be distressing to have an art form that is perfectly delightful on its merits but cannot survive for economic reasons.
—
(I had intended merely to inquire about the possibility of seeing Clementine walk by …. http://frivolesque.com/archives/comic/guest-21-by-electricgecko )
Well, it’s not really economic reasons, exactly. I mean, it definitely would be economic reasons if I were foolish enough to try and live off the comic. I mean, I wouldn’t be able to pay the rent for a cardboard box in Mexico if I had to live off the comic. Money isn’t the issue because money was never really coming in. It’s more that the popularity of the comic keeps cratering. Fewer and fewer people read the comic every week, and while there are people (like yourself) who are true fans who stick by me no matter what, the majority of my readership went away and I no longer have any mechanism to bring in a new one.
For instance, on Youtube there’s the dreaded ‘algorithm’ which can make or break you. The algorithm suggests videos to people based on their interests. But as an independent site, there are no platform recommendations. It’s hard to win a new reader. So the site slowly dies.
I remember hearing some creative type once give the advice, “Fail faster.” He meant that you needed to try a thing, and if it didn’t work, don’t keep banging your head on it forever. Do something different. I sometimes feel like I am literally the slowest failure in the world. It takes me decades to fail.
That said, there’s still that tiny group of people who seem to like what I’m doing, so maybe it’s worth continuing? I dunno.
It would make me very sad to see Puck go away. If you do decide to stop doing it, though, please let us know. There are some comics that I’d been following that just stopped being updated, no announcement, just silence. I kept them in my bookmarks for a ridiculously long time, hoping they might start up again.
Well, if I do, I will totally let people know. And I’d probably be ending Puck in order to start a new project that I felt might be more market-friendly, so I don’t think I would just ghost everyone.
I too would miss it. I have rarely (maybe never) commented before my question, but I have had your site booked marked for years. I look forward to Tuesdays because of it. But as a self-employed person, I totally get that markets change and you have to bail. It will be a sad day when that happens.
Well, thanks for letting me know. That’s what keeps me going: the knowledge that there are some people, even a handful, out there who actually enjoy it. I think as long as there’s a handful, and I have the time, I’ll manage to keep going.
@rewinn
HOT HOT HOT
Incredible Voting Incentive !!
Are all these available on Patreon ?
Dude, they’re all there. I uploaded them years ago. The only catch is just that Patreon is garbage for browsing the back catalogue. So … yeah.
@EG
(i know. but i thot mebe if we pointed that out, we might be able to pry a dollar a month from some that are otherwise on the fence about the value of joining. i know the money is not important to you, but that dollar is a statement of appreciation for your hard work – and i know you value that)
You’re a much craftier salesman than I.
Green Tracee FTW.
A Me-too dragon; even the baby is cringing.
Well, the “me too” movement is unrelated, but whatever you call it, it’s definitely … political. And where politics goes, conflict follows.
Is…is that a parental joke from Puck?
Yeah, that’s a Mom joke if ever there was one.
“…odd and hitherto completely undocumented!”
Ðæt is pretty much how I’d describe a genuine smile from Daphne. Sure, we’ve often seen ðe trademark Daphne Evil SmirkTM æs well æs a læugh æt oþers’ expense, but not often do we see Daphne smile because she’s genuinely hæppy.
Also, I made a WordPress account just to make note of Puck’s use of “hitherto” – ‘tis lovely to see Puck making use of ðe Olde tongue. Too often ‘tis all too easy to forget Puck is indeed æn æncient færie of lore.
Hey, well now that you have an account, you can comment whenever you like! Though you can comment without one. And yes, it’s easy to forget that Puck is an ancient fairy of lore. Some say that I have spent the majority of this comic’s run forgetting that very thing. And they wouldn’t be wrong!
Strongly related to this comic: https://youtu.be/zTaZVlpzOZE
I jest, of course. It is good to see Daphne actually cheerfull for reasons not involving arson or larceny. Or both. L-arson-y?