NEW YEAR’S VOTING INCENTIVE IS LIVE!
I felt like the New Year and the new decade needed to start with a little bit of class, so … here goes! Vote for Puck on TWC to ring in the new decade with Phoebe. In … some sort of style.
VOTE TO SIP THE FINEST OF DISCOUNT SPARKLING WINES!
As for this comic…
Sad Daphne is sad. But just so you know, this is the last we’ll see of sad Daphne’s sad wallowing. From here, things will change. Promise.
In other news…
I’ve started putting older Puck comics on WEBTOONS because, well, it’s the biggest platform for webcomics in the world, and it works well on mobile. That said, I found out the hard way that Webtoons is VERY touchy on the whole censorship front, so it looks like I won’t be able to post a number of the older black and white comics there due to their questionable content. That stuff will still be readily available here, though. So no worries.
Posting to Webtoons is an insanely laborious process, requiring me to resize and re-cut each individual comic panel by panel. So it may take me a long, LONG while to get most of the back catalog up. If you do use Webtoons, though, you could check it out in the meantime and give me some likes, or subscribes, or whatever they call it over there.
Sad Daffy is certainly a cutie; I hope that the rehearsal helps when she’s actually under fire. Me breath is bated.
As to Webtoons, it shares with Tapastic the misfeature of an execrable user interface, so if a comic has only a Webtoons or Tapastic host, it has to be exceptionally attractive to entice me.
Well, I would totally agree with you on the Webtoons interface, but from what I gather, the internet-based interface isn’t the primary face of the site. Rather, it’s the app that is key. Webtoons is super phone-friendly. That’s the ONLY reason I’m putting stuff on there. I dislike pretty much every part of the experience of dealing with Webtoons – not to mention the frustration of spending time uploading comics only to have them systematically deleted for being ‘too naughty’. So this experiment might not go very far, but we’ll see.
Smartphones are not good device to see comics on anyway. It’s true that your may fit, but anyone who takes comic seriously (pun intended) reads at least several fullscreen comics as well.
Yeah, but you could replace the word ‘comics’ with pretty much anything, and that’s the dilemma with young people today. Smartphones are not a good device to watch movies, play video games or listen to music on, but they’re fast becoming the ONLY way young people do any of those things. Thankfully my panels are almost exactly the dimension of a phone screen. So it works for me.
I am calling it.
Hannah hurts Tyler then Daphne goes medieval on her ass.
We shall see.
If anything, Hannah’s going to tell Tyler that Daphne isn’t the terrible person that she seems. Her behavior (Hannah’s) to me has said she is empathetic, and super chill. She never meant to and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Even though she walked blindly (GET IT?!) into an absolute emotional shitstorm, one in which she was being targeted despite doing nothing wrong, she’s been understanding, good-humored, even sassy and fun.
I’m calling it for the other way. I think Hannah is going to tell Tyler that Daphne cares about him a lot, even if she acted badly. Hannah might even come out to talk to Daphne herself. She could tell her that while she can’t speak from personal experience, it’s important not to lose sight (HAWHAWHAW) of what you really care about. I can’t think of anyone better to remind her of this than the one she came to hate on, even if they will never see eye to eye (ohgods I can’t stop).
P.S. – Totally cried on that last panel. Poor Daphne.
You have good instincts. Maybe not all details correct, but … we’ll, you’ll see.
You know who won’t see it?
… Hannah. It’s Hannah.
Because she’s blind.
You know at least one more of those jokes is coming…
Not from me, Geck… I’m turning a blind eye to the entire thread!
Groan.
Is her nickname Hannah Barbar-ic?
You could write that down and mail it to him, you know.
What century is this? The 18th? People don’t write down sincere thoughts on paper! People tweet emojis and meaningless memes to each other! They’ve entirely lost the use of the written word!
Paper? You mean like dead trees?
I think that email is not completely dead yet. Unlike the mundane mail.
I can’t help but feel like this is a true Monkey paw moment…
When Phoebe told Daphne she would only use her power for good, Daphne said that she wanted to Self-Actualize. Does anyone else besides me see the Irony here?
My only regret is that Daphne isn’t “Crying in the girlsroom” (under dramatic lighting, of course!)
I did feel that crying in the bathroom would be too on the nose.
Maybe if she called him “Taylor”…
If she wants to make him angry.
That could still be fun. 😉
The poor kid needs hugs. My money is on Colin being in the background. First as a teacher, then as a dad. Backing up his dad-ability that he used on the trip home from funderland.
Happy New Year.
Can’t count on Colin EVERY time. We need a new rescuer!
Daphne’s real father, the cop that brought Colin and Miranda home from the all night Timmy’s.
Tyler Durden appears as he single handedly destroys the Canadian Socio-economic system.
The head monkey bear walks into the frame stating, “My child, you were always a font of goodness. It was the act of a webcartoonist placing you on a doorstep that altered you into an agent of chaotic neutral. For you see,.. ACK”
Satan’s stooge Sigmund is seen collecting the contents of his sniper’s nest as he contacts his controller. “Marlboro Man, this is pall mall, package has been delivered to the ash tray. Repeating, the Kool has been extinguished.”
Cut back to Daphne silently freaking out before fainting. In the background a darkened figure steps partially into the light, his green dad bod slightly discernable as he replies, “Roger pall mall. Mission Accomplished. ” he takes off his head to reveal his identity as Zombie Richard Burton. “Mission Accomplished. “
Dang. That’s heavy.
Oh, and Happy New Year.
Just providing your proper new year downer!
@EG
Daffy sobbing a “Downer” ?
Au Contraire, Mon Frere !
Yep.. Well, I’m over it. Don’t let the door hit you, 2019! Seriously, I’m slamming this door pretty hard.
May we all waltz into 2020 with joy.
Why not just use Tapas or, god forbid, Smackjeeves for your old comics?
The old comics are on Smackjeeves, actually. Webtoons is simply THE biggest platform anymore. It is fast becoming the primary market for webcomics, period. I don’t like it, you don’t like it, and most people over the age of twenty-five don’t like it. But the youngsters on their phones, they like it. So I thought it was grudgingly time that I bowed to the mobile beast.
Just slap, “Censored for your modesty, not mine.” bars over the naughty bits and is cake.
NO!!!! Get this: you can’t just put censorship bars on the stuff because it’s not the nudity that is a problem: it is the SUGGESTION of nudity!!! It’s like on Youtube where even bleeping your profanity can get you demonetized because the bleeps imply that naughty words were there originally. I can only alter the comics to make the characters wear clothing, OR just cut the content. When a whole story arc was about a nude campus protest, I decided to just cut them with a little note as to where readers can find them if they’re curious.
… I find hard to believe that those “people under age of twenty-five” will stay on their webtoons so long if it’s censored this hard.
They seem to thus far. Also keep in mind that Webtoons is a different demographic. More kids, and WAY more female readers on there. In fact, I think the majority of their readers are female. So it’s … different.
I wonder what would happen if the sick figure comic I’m thinking of had micro writing that was made up of dirty words.
It would be interesting to try.
Next week, we find out that Tyler was hiding behind the lamppost the whole time.
Nah, I wouldn’t do that to y’all.
“I’m leaning on the lamppost at the corner of the street in case a certain little lady passes by!”
@Wyvern
Yep.
Behind the Lamppost making out with Hannah.
Happy New Years in advance, EG! Hope next year is better for you.
Also just realized I should have told you happy birthday like 3 weeks ago. Sorry about that. So (very belated) happy birthday. Note: I remember from last year.
As for the comic, it’s… one way to end the year. I’m now curious if Tyler will actually hear this. Probably not. Still.
Whoa. You’re, like, the only person outside of my family to even know around when my birthday is. Like I work in a close-knit department of ten people. I’ve known them for over a decade, and they STILL don’t know when my birthday is.
And yeah, nothing like ending the year on a big downer. Though we’ll get to start the new one on a more positive note!
Proper webcomics like this have RSS feeds. None of that subscribe nonsense that only works for the one website.
For old school webcomic veterans, yes. But the hip cool young kids (read: millennials) don’t even know what an RSS feed is. If it’s not an app, it doesn’t exist. And Webtoons is first and foremost an app. So the millennials love it.
Centennials. Millennials are nearing 40.
Then again, screw labels. So, whatever.
I am NOT a millennial. Or near to a millennial. Or whatever. Don’t take away or redefine my poorly defined labels!
I am a millennial…and toward the younger end. But I follow too many web comics to have to go individually to their sites, or to be stuck in one walled garden.
Thanks for having an RSS feed, and a consistent schedule, ElectricGecko.
Well, very good to hear. You’re likely more tech-savvy than most your age who seem to only interact with touch screens.
That’s just slightly less depressing than YouTube mass recommending The Bridge documentary on New Year’s Eve. This is a thing that happened this year – don’t watch it, it’s very sad.
I bring the depression to the party!
Questionable content? Like when Colin said he liked older women or when Dafne threatened Mr. Bubbles? Hot dogs? Huh? You didn’t! You had an opinion on the Constitution*, didn’t you! Oh, Gecko!
All right back to seriousness, poor lass. That’s a hard conversation to have, even when you’re the only one there. Other people are hard, ain’t they?
Happy New Year!
* Yes, I know it was never officially adopted, I’m trying to think of the most ridiculous controversy possible. I wouldn’t call all of your comic P.G., but I wouldn’t think a large portion of your early stuff needed shielding from younger eyes either.
Okay, so here’s the deal. I think that Webtoons was originally created by Korean Christians with a fairly stringent moral code. Either that, or they’re aping the code that Google came up with for ad-friendly content. But their ‘forbidden content’ includes such vague and confusing labels as ‘violence’ and ‘nudity’. So no punching. Or kicking. Even Mario would be too violent, potentially. I dunno.
And as for ‘nudity’, they don’t mean what I originally thought. I thought they meant ‘no seeing the naughty bits’, but they actually mean even that you can’t even imply that a character has no clothes on. And a startling number of the original black and white Puck comics have characters with no clothes on, even though you never see the naughty bits. All of them got shut down with startling speed. So I just deleted the whole ‘campus naked protest’ arc. I also had to delete the ‘Mamagrow’ story arc. And some other comics needed to be altered. But whatever. I don’t think there will be any issue with the color comics. But who knows?
@EG
I suppose, on the bright side, most of your TWC competition couldn’t keep a single episode online at Webtoons.
PUCK has always been fairly tame.
NO OFFENSE !
Exactly. Though compared to a lot of what is on Webtoons, Puck is pretty eyebrow-raising. Like, their biggest genre by far is what I will call “chaste romance”. You know those books your Born again Aunt Millie reads? The ones with hunky Christian cowboys or sexy preacher’s sons and NO naughty stuff? Like that. That is their bread and butter.
By design, my friend. Always by design.
Let’s see … number one, Grrrl Power, currently runs a story involving tied up Succubus. I don’t think the fact it’s nowhere near as erotic as it sounds would save it. Delve, well, MAYBE you an find some page where everyone is clothed but it would be a challenge. Maybe Girl Genius? And Mare Internum doesn’t contain any nudity. Twin Dragons are also safe. Of course The Cummoner isn’t … I think it would be closer to half. Unless, of course, they will throw them out for other reason.
Yeah, I’m not the tamest comic in the top 100 on TWC. But I’m also not the naughtiest either.
OMG are Puck and Grrlpower in the same universe? This explains why no-one ever comments on Daphne’s nose, Phoebe’s tail, et cetera: the Veil!
(Or maybe Canadians are just that nice. Who knows?)
I have had very little contact with Dave Barrack, creator of Grrlpower. I’m not sure he even knows whether I exist. I have periodically offered him grammar help on Twitter when he’s asked. So I cannot say whether that would ever be made canon on HIS end, but on my end? Why not?
Good grief. I don’t know how they’ve succeeded. Maybe something a little more reasonable will turn up.
🙁
They’ve succeeded on the basis of three things: mobile, mobile and mobile. If you own the smart phone, you own the market. And they were super friendly to phone users from the start.
Well, that’s how to do it then.
Oh, dear. Ihad a look at Webtoons. Wow.
What does that ‘wow’ mean? Dumbfounded by the awfulness or just plain overwhelmed?
Yes.
i feel like hanna is just close enough off screen to hear this interaction or something.
i also feel sad for the little tsundere there.
Most people seem to. Except SalemCat. His cold heart will never thaw to her.
@EG
I’m carrying Susan’s torch for her.
I know. And I love you for it.
Okay, no snappy comment from me.
Not this time.
That was snappy enough for me.
When the party’s over, it can be depressing.
It’s good to know how Daphne really feels; hopefully Tyler is eavesdropping.
Well, at least WE know, right?
I do believe in panel three you have achieved the perfect emotional ears for Daphne — dare we call it “earvana”?
Seriously, thank you for all the wonderful comics this year and in year’s past and I hope you can keep it up for years to come until you are a grumpy old gecko!
I will try. Thank you for continuing to read despite the inherent goofiness of my stuff.
I for one enjoy the inherent goofiness.
Damn, dude.
Also, Happy New Year to all! and a happy decade. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get plastered.
Happy new everything to you too, Buggle. I wish you good things in the year to come.
I really like this. You created such a good depiction of how difficult and painful real personal growth can be. And you’re willing to have characters experience real growth. I even like that I don’t really know if this development on the part of Daphne will be rewarded or if she’s truly alienated Tyler this time. (I do have a guess on that, that Tyler is too good a character to write out, but I still wouldn’t put it past you if you felt it was the way to go.)
I feel that character growth is usually done wrong in most genre fiction. In your standard fantasy or sci-fi story, if a character grows or changes at all, it’s usually depicted as a sudden change that occurs from some big event. But as you nicely summed up, it’s not really like that. It’s slow, painful, and usually the result of many events and challenges over a long period of time. And Daphne still has so much room to grow, we can spend the next few decades watching her grow and she will still only be a marginally decent person at that point!
Thank you for your story craftsmanship and happy new year. I look forward to enjoying these for some time to come.
Thanks for reading. It wouldn’t happen if people like you didn’t read and comment and keep me motivated.
@EG
Superb Voting Incentive !
Is it tame enough for Webtoons ?
It’s not going on Webtoons. And it WOULD be tame enough, because no one is naked, and no one is doing anything untoward. They might take it down if Phoebe were actually drinking champagne, but soft drinks are permitted. I think.
I KNOW RIGHT. Diet sprite is pretty scandalous
Hey, people are very divided on artificial sweeteners.
Regarding the voting incentive: Yeah, right “Diet” Sprite. I’d be more relaxed if it WERE champagne.
Wait, wait, wait. this is a photoshoot. It likely took hours and hours to get enough pictures to find the right one. O.K., I believe the diet thing.
I put in the ‘diet’ just because we’ve seen what happens with Phoebe and refined sugar. Honestly, regular Sprite would probably be more of a wild time than the real champagne.
I just saw the latest incentive voting pic of Phoebe. “Hummina! Hummina! Hummina! Congratulations on being 28th on the best webcomic page; my daily voting is working! I encourage everyone else to do the same. Happy New Year!
It’s only that high, sadly due to the fact that it’s the first of the month. I always get a bit of a bump then. But I do thank you for the votes. Much of my audience finds this comic through TWC, and your votes ensure that it’s not too buried. Happy New Year to you too!
The lonely flower in the last frame is a nice touch.
@mermaidan
One dandelion is more than Daffy deserves.
Someone put food coloring in Phoebe’s diet Sprite. How mishievous!
😉
I was going to say ‘ginger ale’, just to keep the color factor more consistent, but then I remembered that ginger ale is one of those drinks that everyone doesn’t know about outside of North America. And I thought that some people might get confused, so I wimped out and just went with Sprite.
what is spry tee
It’s sugar water, with added sugar for the tangy sweet flavor, and artificial sweeteners
NOOOOOOOOOO!! It’s happening again! 😉
IF you are going to act like a cruel heartless B***h then you are going to have to deal with the consequences… I am always gladdened when a character actually gets their comeuppance like this and has to change for the better instead of some contrived BS…
I do sometimes rely on contrived BS, but I try to steer clear of it on the points that matter. Thanks!
Wow, who knew that Daphne had an inner emotional core within her snarky self. She really does care about Tyler after all they have been through together.
It’s there. Deep down, Daphne cares a lot for the people inside her bubble. She tends to be uncaring for the people outside that bubble, but she’s loyal to her loved ones.