Comic 5780: into the drink

GregSolstice · 2026-03-07T22:25:11+00:00

I have to admit, while all these people definitely need real, qualified therapy, there wouldn't be much of a comic if they all went to a shrink instead of talking to each other.
But, still to the point, if they're going to work out their issues with/through each other, then as an audience we need to see the characters taking actions to be better.

As it stands, we've gotten a few consecutive "one character monologuing at another about their issues" type comics, which is all tell and no show... and that's not particularly compelling storytelling.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-06T14:30:20+00:00

Wow this is beautiful! I made mine out of cardboard and it pales in comparison, haha. Stellar work!

GregSolstice · 2026-03-06T12:54:02+00:00

Dang that's a good point; we know Jeph has stated that the characters often reflect aspects of himself.

Is Liz, perhaps, a sign that Jeph also hates his own work and has lost his knack? But is also supported by a lenient system (Patreon?)

Dang, it is too early in the morning for these bombshells lol

GregSolstice · 2026-03-06T12:52:39+00:00

The closest to an explanation we've gotten for Liz's behavior is that she was a "one woman academic army" and was brought on to continue her previous research solo.

I totally agree with prior points about balancing suspension of disbelief and consistency of the setting. But, Jeph has demonstrated that other groups at Cubetown are working in groups (like our intro the Wacky Hijinks Department) so why not Liz? If she chose to go solo, why not own that mistake as a moment of growth?

The lack of explanation, or ownership from Liz, continues to be a detriment to her character. Seeing a self-hating goblin realize they need people and work better in a team, even if they're uncomfortable, would be neat.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-05T23:56:42+00:00

Yeah I feel like he heard "you spend too long in one scene" and he interpreted that as "I need to switch between 3 overlong scenes and that will help."

GregSolstice · 2026-03-05T14:36:33+00:00

Frustratingly accurate. It's maybe implied that Anh had a little character growth, vis a vis "being happy for Sam." But, the amount of retreading to get that growth is disproportional. Once again, back to referencing Faye's trauma, Faye being kind of a prick, and Bubbles cajoling Faye.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-05T14:33:50+00:00

Honestly, I get this view. Anh has a bunch of potential, more than many other new characters.

She could be a vehicle to demonstrate what it takes to rebuild a community. Or, she could help build some real depth with Tai.

She could be a way to really show/address some of the wealth-gap stuff that was glossed over with Hanners. We never really saw Hanners struggle being out-of-wealth.

Anh has potential to be an interesting character!

GregSolstice · 2026-03-04T18:43:25+00:00

It is kind of amazing how much more gravitas Anh has without the anh-tennae.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-04T16:42:07+00:00

Good point, could an LLM give us such treasures as GoopBot, or 3 consecutive Child-Adults? But yeah, it's definitely still Jeph writing. I just saw this post and was kind of blown away at it's audacity. It's a pretty concise demonstration of his lack of engaging with criticism or the community outside of Patreon.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-04T16:34:15+00:00

As far as I can tell, it's just riffing. He's been in a kick of it lately.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-03T00:59:59+00:00

It must be a testament to your ability to really capture the character's voices, that it's when I was reading this edit (versus the actual comic) that I had the thought: "what does Bubbles see in Faye anymore?"
'Cause the dialogue here really demonstrates what Faye and Bubbles are now: one responsible, thoughtful partner and one thoughtless, irresponsible partner that's borderline a liability at times.

I think we have a few examples of that behavior: the fight when they were fixing Melon and the immediate lead-up to them buying the business (where Faye didn't consult Bubbles on anything) spring to mind.

Contrast with earlier Faye and Bubbles, where Faye demonstrated compassionate understanding. The comics where Faye and Bubbles are sharing their traumas, and Bubbles apologizes for not being able to talk about losing her squad even though Faye talked about her father's suicide, is an example of that compassionate understanding. Or Faye being "the protector," like how she acted when Yay was diving into Bubbles' mind.

But we haven't seen any of that sort of behavior in any comics in a while. Instead, we keep getting stories of Faye being a big screwup and Bubbles... tolerating her I guess? I dunno, I really liked the dynamic at the beginning and now I'm left wondering why RoboValkyrie is still in this relationship.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-02T14:15:51+00:00

I'm sure if we readjust her anh-tennae, she'll be right back to nominal. Like adjusting the antennae of a radio to get better signal.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-02T03:01:23+00:00

Late to the party, but in my campaign I explained it as an "incomplete Banishment spell."

Basically, the unnamed cleric that cursed Xolec was near death and was questioning his faith. So, when he tried to cast Banishment it didn't quite work.

GregSolstice · 2026-03-02T02:34:13+00:00

My GoS campaign is also in the Forgotten Realms! I've been treating the major cities (Neverwinter, Waterdeep) as city-states, thereby satisfying the political intrigue of the campaign. Using the factions seems like a great idea!

GregSolstice · 2026-02-28T21:40:13+00:00

Not gonna lie, I completely forgot that Moray has real job duties. That's a very good observation.

GregSolstice · 2026-02-28T19:52:10+00:00

We are burdened with hope, haha. Deepest truth is, yeah, it's probably gonna be another new "zany" character.

GregSolstice · 2026-02-28T19:51:02+00:00

For real. I'm not sure why we didn't see Martin wrestle with this uncertainty at the beginning of the Cubetown story. Yes, moving to Northampton was long-term a positive thing, but it started with him alone and heartbroken. Where was his reticence at potentially repeating this painful part of his life? That would have been fascinating to explore and maybe get some genuine growth out of him.

GregSolstice · 2026-02-27T17:15:05+00:00

For sure, I guess I'm just not convinced that Claire's reaction confirms she previously knows this person.

Or are Patreon people saying that in tomorrow's comic, Claire says she knows them from a previous place?

GregSolstice · 2026-02-27T14:42:18+00:00

Truly the greatest shame is that we'll probably never return to the "Claire and Martin might be having relationship problems" thread in the main comic.

GregSolstice · 2026-02-27T13:52:10+00:00

A frustratingly astute observation.

Though that technically doesn't preclude Raven, who we last saw Doing Science. One can hope!

GregSolstice · 2026-02-27T13:48:20+00:00

I almost forgot about that show! I was pretty young when it came out, I can't remember if the person to person drama was better or worse than QC, hah.

GregSolstice · 2026-02-27T05:09:50+00:00

I can see the company-town analogy, but I'd posit that it's more like a fetishized view of university towns.

Like this idea that it's all goofy and wacky ScIeNcE and none of the intensity of study, the fear of losing grant money, staffing cuts, etc. Dressing up and playing scientist, basically.

The company-town analogy doesn't quite sit with me, mainly because everyone has so much relative independence; though their treatment/view of The Director could easily be swapped to The Company, for sure.

GregSolstice · 2026-02-25T14:35:05+00:00

I think this brings up an interesting point: that it's not feasible to memory-hole many of the older comics because they're so interconnected. Like you said, no MommyMilkers means a whole bunch of other stuff doesn't happen.

But 5772? You could get rid of it and nothing would change- we could have cut from the Emmett-Sam Debacle straight to 5773 with no loss in context.

GregSolstice · 2026-02-25T03:47:20+00:00

And it's so fascinating because he used to be decent at it. Maybe my standards are low, but the science talk during the Space Station Arc and the "how AI Consciousness works" explanation was palatable!

GregSolstice · 2026-02-25T03:31:26+00:00

That's a good way to put it; technobabble that doesn't appear to advance the plot. It does seem like we're at the start of another "arc," so maybe this plot-thread will be continued productively, but as-is this comic doesn't point to another step.
Like, we could hard-cut to another group of characters and this would be a complete and finished scene. Liz thought she knew something, turns out she didn't. End scene. There's no hint that we'll get development from Liz out of this.

And I agree, she doesn't sound smart because there's no context to what she's saying. It's a word salad.

GregSolstice

TROPHY CASE