• Hjels

    You worry too much. This is a great page. Of course she’s going to deal with some heavy baggage after what she’s been through.

    • Heh, I don’t REALLY think anyone will hate me. Just call me a monster ;P

      • Hjels

        Were I one of your characters, I certainly would. :)

        • It’s just so lovely to see a pot and kettle having a nice conversation like this.

          • We can’t all have protagonists who LITERALLY get to fight with rainbows :P

          • Matt [in Middletown]

            But what did the rainbows do in the first place?
            Who knew rainbows could be aggressive?

      • Matt [in Middletown]
        • Sebastián Piriz

          what an awesome game.

        • Sebastián Piriz

          “ok, look, we both said a lot of things that you’re going to regret”

          • Honza Prchal

            It’s both American major party campaigns, summed up nicely!

        • Honza Prchal

          Is that the new Hillary for President PSA?

          • Matt [in Middletown]

            “We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” -Hillary, June 2004
            Possibly.
            She did zip as senator from New York, and before anyone asks, yes I am in New York.

          • Bah, politics in my comment section. Gross :P

          • Matt [in Middletown]

            We also brought dead birds and unwashed gym socks!
            Where do you want this clothes hamper?
            :-D

          • Honza Prchal

            In the current context, doing zip might actually be awesome!
            Never underestimate the power of nothing! Don’t just do something, stand there!

  • Melissa J Massey

    Oof! Right in the feels.

  • Amberlight

    Lily will need a lot of red pencils.
    A few years later she will get good at drawing and will start a comic of her own, where a lot of people will be dieing left and right and the main character will have a severe mental breakdown.

    • Adriano

      If you go back in the pages you can see one of my comment going “Lily is drawing TDA!”
      So yeah, I’m pretty sure she’s gonna lay down Cap’Dorje story

  • Adriano

    Yeah, draw happy things for Angie!
    Like, robots and AIs taking over mankind! That’s gonna please her.
    And also Eddi3

  • Matt [in Middletown]

    Hunh.
    Her drawing of Tenzin doesn’t match the fact that his arm and leg were still more or less attached via synth muscle from the suit after he hit the dirt.
    There’s also a drawing of a Pres Smith goon behind it.
    Wonder when someone will point that out inside the comic.

    • Sebastián Piriz

      nope, not really. altought those pages weren’t very clear on that because we were saving the revelation for the following chapter

      • Matt [in Middletown]

        Dan will nuke this right quick when he sees it.
        No spoilers!
        ;-)

        • Sebastián Piriz

          hehe I meant on chapter 3 and 4, when Tenzin lost his arm and leg

        • Nah Seba is vague enough in what he’s referring to. Conspire and theorize away about what these may potentially mean ;P

  • I stand by what I said before. This is still an okay method of coping. Morbid art as self-expression and a means of exorcising personal demons or venting toxic thoughts and emotions is something adults use all the time. If Lily were older and making macabre paintings to help herself cope, we’d call her an artist. Since she’s a kid with crayons, we call her disturbed, but I don’t see how this is any different. I know it’s unsettling to see a child behave like this, but this isn’t abnormal human behavior. Many people work through their problems doing things like this. It’s a constructive way of handling trauma, rather than destructive. At least, that’s my take on this page, and based on what the therapists said to Angeline and Lily’s generally composed demeanor despite her creepy art, I think that’s the idea being communicated.

    • Sebastián Piriz

      My wife says that drawing is my therapy. I just dive into it and escape from problems

      • Crass Spektakel

        My therapy is trying to teach my cat not to shred my shoes to pieces. Totally hopeless adventure but still highly enjoyable.

    • Chris Kotthoff

      Maybe we should gave gave Ten some crayons.

      • That dude could use them. He prefers the “blow stuff up” style of therapy at the moment ;P

      • Adriano

        Tenzin to himself: “If life gives you crayons, stab your enemies in the eyes with them!!”

    • Honza Prchal

      We didn’t expect artists to be off until Beethoven and the reactionaries and Romantics took over after the horrors of the French Revolution.
      That said, the focus on the idea being communicated is right on. That’s how we can tell the difference between gratuitous onanism and meaningful art.

      • I’d just like to go on record to say that I blame you for the fact that the term “onanism” is in my search history. But hey, I learned a new word today. So there’s that.

        I don’t much care for the stereotype that all artists have troubled psyches, actually. Being troubled doesn’t make you an artist. Being an artist makes you an artist. But regardless, it’s a fact that people use art for many things, including working through personal issues, and that’s what I’m seeing here. It’s distressing to see her like this, but I think there’s hope for her.

        Also, on a side note, I really like the subtle change in Lily’s head positioning in the bottom two panels. In the first, she looks deflated and shamed. In the second, she looks reassured. Angeline is clearly a mother figure to her, and she is doing her best to play that role. Seeing her, a parental figure, dial back on a bad knee-jerk response and reassure the child that they’ll be okay while still gently suggesting a change or two, I think, was a good choice for her to make. It shows Lily that while she’s still got a lot of issues to work through, she’s not a bad person for having issues and she doesn’t need to feel guilty or ashamed about it.

        Honestly, I really like this page. It’s probably my favorite next to the one where we find out Viktor is alive.

        • Woot! Glad you like it XD

        • Sebastián Piriz

          Subtlety is the most difficult thing in comics. one of the most repeated tutorial is how you must exaggerate the poses and expressions of the characters for the readers to notice what happens.I always had the idea that it woks as a rule but you have to forget about it on some special moments.

          happy you noticed it :)

          • Subtlety is underrated, to be honest. Even if the reader doesn’t catch it at first, having subtle elements gives a work staying power. It’s what makes you enjoy the second read more. I’ve caught many details in re-reads of this comic that I missed the first time. Keep on being awesome, you guys.

        • Seba left a top level comment in reply to you, I believe, btw, appreciating you noticing his subylety.

  • Matt [in Middletown]

    Eddi3: “HAL, have you seen anything…odd about this thing yet? It gives me the creeps. And I am incapable of getting the creeps.”
    HAL: “You’re distracting me, Eddi3.”
    Edii3: “Sorry HAL.”

    • “Sorry, Gramps” -< What they all call HAL.

  • T.R.

    TWC voting update. We are ROCKING it for Dan, Seba, and Nick. 143 votes so far and now at #156. 5 more votes and we’d tied with #149 - so even a few votes can make a big difference.

    Most excellent, and keep it up!

    • NickDA

      You guys are great. It does mean a lot to have this core readership group… helps make us seem more hospitable when new people arrive…

      Helps mask Matt and Adriano’s “weirdness”… I mean… um…. *throws tactical brick and runs away*

      • Delta-v

        You speak thusly of our comic relief? Remember, they have their own fan club. It’s small but we’re, er, I mean, it’s there. :)

        • NickDA

          For me the sarcastic “poke” is usually accompanied by a weird facial contortion meant as a wink with a smile, and is analogous to “hey you… you are important enough to me to deserve reserved space in this messed up brain for this one reference/inside/anecdote/mention”… hopefully they take it as such… if you … I mean… someone goes to the next fan club meeting… make sure to let em know for me… :D

          • Matt [in Middletown]

            The tertiary facial cilia wriggling that way really brings out the skrk in the glibula.

          • I know some of those words.

          • Delta-v

            Oh, I know. I just couldn’t resist the temptation to add some folly. ^^