Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Missing Monday
Elle Skinner
Two girls fall in love through a magic door connecting their worlds. When Monday suddenly goes missing, it's up to Foyle to find her. How she's going to navigate an entirely unfamiliar world is another matter.
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
The Last Diplomat
Cat Farris
Samma and Tark didn't ask to be stuck together, but now they're partners on the adventure of a lifetime.
Within
Verena Loisel
A young hitman meanders between a reality that seems to happen without him, and his dreams where he is lost in an endless house. When he makes an accidental friend, his world is shaken up and he realizes there are things he can't remember about himself.
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Trying Human
IntroducingEmy
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
Quick$ilver
Crypto
The flirtatious, directionless, and ever disastrous Luci searches for excitement in a life of crime, and finds himself caught in a web of messy romance and bad blood.
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Star Impact
Jack McGee
A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Gzhel Guardian
Atla Hrafney, nushanchel
The Railway World is a complex, mysterious network of trains, towns and mechanical monsters. Leo is a Guardian of one of these towns, and although their burn-out and depression has taken hold of them, they have one last job to finish.
Scape
Lauren
Sula has always preferred to forge her own path, but before she knows it, she is pulled into the middle of a civil war between man and monster!
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
The Forgotten Order
Christy
A young witch for whom every spell is a misfire finds solace and friendship in her new companion - a cursed doll.
Aquapunk
Lo
In an underwater world of unknown coordinates, inhabited by aliens, ghosts, and robots, a young member of a warrior underclass is framed for a crime and goes on the run. Little does he know he is part of a grand design that only gods and ancestors could choreograph.
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Ride or Die
Mars Heyward
Ride or Die is an LGBTQ webcomic about two street racers who team up with a demon-possessed muscle car in the search for a missing woman, while being hunted by a deadly religious cult.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
The Substitutes
Myisha Haynes
What happens when three roommates accidentally acquire otherworldly and powerful magic weapons destined for someone else?
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Headless Bliss
Clover
A story about story-telling, and other metaphysical themes such as Nightmares! (Failed) Teamwork! Comedy! And more!
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
Reimena Yee
The 21st century retelling of the life and legends of Alexander the Great.
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
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I don’t know those acronyms, but it sounds like you are having a hard time. I am sorry about that. I hope it gets better. Thanks for still bothering to show up on the comment boards. This community would not be the same without you.
Quick search tells me JOMO is “Joy Of Missing Out,” presumably as opposed to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). So presumably the joy of not participating in a specific social activity or trend that you really didn’t want to participate in.
OT means Overtime, where they make you work more than the usual number of hours. Which usually means more money, but can be a bummer if you’d rather sleep or something.
Just as a note, I’m reflexively against it after a dark period in our (branch of the) company’s history when we were SO miserably behind and being audited that we worked LITERALLY EVERY DAY for as much OT as they could squeeze out of us (though weekends were at least few…er hours)
Also I am super comfortably set for the time being, so it’s a total disincentive to trade my precious time off for ANYTHING
Tim Horton’s is basically their Dunkin’, and I think there would be riots in the streets around here if Dunkin’ started serving their coffee cold and stale. (Ice coffee is fine, that’s cold on purpose.)
The only place that could get away with that was Building #19. But we shouldn’t make fun of it, because like the signs said “someday you’ll be old and weak too”. Sometimes I miss that store…
These two have the same energy as when you can’t fit two puzzle pieces together so you just cut one into shape and plug it in backing side up so there’s just a little cardboard splotch in the middle of your 4000 piece picture of ducks.
I’ve been wondering that as well. There’s usually some kind of art if the comic isn’t done, or at least an announcement. I even braved the Site Formerly Known As Twitter to see if there was some sort of explanation on the feed, but nope.
Sorry, but I think you mean he’s to English to learn a Scottish sport.
Quick refresher for anyone confused:
Britain: Geographic term. Mainland England, Scotland and Wales.
Great Britain: Geographic/political term. England, Scotland and Wales including small islands.
British Isles: Geographic term. Great Britain, the island of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
United Kingdom: Political term. Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
British Islands: Political term (rarely used): The United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
British (demonym): From the United Kingdom.
If I said someone was too American to learn a Texan sport, would that be “colloquial shorthand”, because obviously what I mean is they’re a New Yorker?
Actually, that analogy would probably work better the other way around, now I think about it, because the British stereotype of “American” is closer to the American stereotype of “Texan” than of “New Yorker”.
And now I’m imagining Jason’s counterpart Jay-Bob Chuck, attending Oxford in his ten-gallon hat and neckerchief.
I mean, I had my own dorm room in college, but I preferred to hang out in my girlfriend’s. Because it had my girlfriend. And her floormates were less obnoxious than mine.
I had a roommate in college who was always over at his girlfriend’s place, such that to this day my friends deny his existence. (To be fair, I had spent half of the previous year without a roommate.)
I’m just noticing his getting dressed which implies he’s left clothes there which raises questions like if he’s switching clothes he must shower there too right? Then I remember the whole hiding Becky when she wasn’t enrolled there thing and I’m wondering how okay this all is. Is Ruth abusing power here? Is it okay cause he works for the school again?
Jason/Sal and Jennifer/Ruth were problematic (as far as the school’s concerned) because of their inherent power imbalance. In both cases, Jason and Ruth could theoretically have abused the power granted to them by the school to coerce the other into a relationship.
Sal was one of the students Jason oversaw, and Ruth was Jennifer’s RA. Jason and Ruth don’t have power over each other in any official capacity, so that conflict of interest doesn’t exist. (And in theory, moving Jennifer to another building would’ve resolved their power imbalance. Their relationship imploded for other perfectly valid reasons.)
To clarify here I’m not asking about any potential power imbalance in the relationship. Them dating is okay. I’m asking if Ruth is using her privilege as RA to let Jason squat in her dorm. He was staying there before he lucked into another TA job. I imagine no one is allowed to just let non students stay in their rooms proven by how Becky had to hide her presence there. Is Ruth just ignoring that rule because she’s the RA and Jason’s her boyfriend?
Sleeping over with your boyfriend/girlfriend certainly wasn’t allowed when I was in school (admittedly, many many decades ago), which is not to say it didn’t happen fairly frequently. But then, the closest they had to a coed dorm at the time was 2 separate buildings that shared a lobby. (A year or 2 earlier they had some that were coed by floors, but a state legislator complained about “taxpayers’ whorehouses”, which put an end to that.
To be honest, I have no idea whether it was allowed when I was in school in the late 80s, but it was commonplace, as long as the roommates didn’t raise too much of a fuss.
I actually continued on weekends for several years after I graduated, since I was dating a girl who was still in school. So I wasn’t even a student there for part of it.
Spending the night was allowed when I was in college ~10 years ago. I think you were supposed to log your overnight guests or something? Like, with the front desk. But also, no one cared if you didn’t.
I had an RA roomie in college (the perk of the RA was having one roommate instead of two). She overlooked me letting my boyfriend stay over and cuddle in my bed (and me basically moving into the boys dorm to stay over there) as long as I ignored her doing the same with her boyfriend who wasn’t even a student, and also told nobody about the pot and alcohol.
Like, it’s not great behavior, but I’m not gonna vilify Ruth for behavior that’s probably roughly as common as speeding. Or at least, every other RA I mệt was abusing their power in the exact same ways.
Becky stayed (or rather, intended to stay) more than five days, which was the guest policy maximum at the university (at least when that storyline was written). So long as Jason doesn’t sleep over every single night for more than five days, they should be good.
I know what he did with Sal was bad, but I don’t like him even if he didn’t do that. I’m not going to rationalize it, he just rubs me the wrong way. If he’s going to be on screen, I want bad things to happen to him.
I don’t know, Sal jumped him. Like, yes, he should’ve turned her down and tried to find someone to do what Danny ended up doing, but I can see why someone who’s barely 20 would forget that when faced with the enthusiastic consent of someone who’s only off-limits because he marks her homework.
1. I said that wasn’t the reason I dislike him, because since its not, I didn’t want someone to decide to relitigate it.
2. uh, no. you don’t forget, as a TA, during office hours, when you’re tutoring a student, that you’re not supposed to fuck students. You don’t have to have been a TA to know that, but I was one.
Plus they started boning after he stopped being a TA and before he became a TA again.
So as long as long as the only T and A in their relationship stands for Thoughtful and Affectionate, there is no issue (What? What did you think T and A stood for? Get your mind out of the gutter).
This comic is reminding me of my bizarre method of consuming morning coffee back when I was in college, which was to make coffee when I went to bed and leave a cup of it on my improvised bedstand, so I could drink some to help me get out of bed when I had a morning class.
I mean, almost all of the developed world’s societies are built on the assumption that there are only morning people and you have to wake up early to be a worthy human being.
On that note, I haven’t used an alarm clock in a decade because I use my seniority at work to say fuck that shit I’m not attending your morning meetings. Worth it.
I want to live in one of those societies. Around here the whole country (except maybe still Utah?) observes Daylight Saving Time so slackers can steal our morning light from our most productive hours, to give it to whatever it is they do outside after dinnertime.
I dunno, a few years in, when the clock says it’s 11am and it’s still dark out, I feel like you might think “Maybe when we stopped springing forward, we should have stopped falling back as well.”
On the other hand, after 24 years, you’ll have acquired a whole extra day, so that’s something.
You would have loved it, Jason.
It had your gf, 3 of your former students, one of which is your gf’s ex gf (both of whom probably still love and want each other ), the other students being your 2 favorite tutees (the distaff twin being the one you had sex with), her boyfriend (who helped her understand math better than you did), and the spear twin’s ex (who is going through a breakdown and/or crisis).
Imagine the epic playlist that occurred last night, let alone what might have come out if you’d been there.
Side note: I was today years old when I learned that distaff has to do with sewing and that it’s used as a term for female because sewing was seen as “woman’s work” AND that the opposite of distaff, in this regard, is spear.
Well, technically it’s to do with spinning, which is one of those jobs that you do a surprising amount of when every thread of every cloth has to be produced by hand, which is why women who’d opted out of the ‘making more hands’ industry were generally assigned to be spinsters
I was reading an analysis which suggested that in order to clothe a family of six (one married couple, one grandparent, one teen, one child, one baby) in a single new outfit a year a person using a hand spindle would have to do nothing but spin thread for eight hours a day, six days a week – and that’s before we get to weaving!
You can spin ten times faster (or ten times more, depending on how you look at it) using a spinning wheel, but those were invented surprisingly late.
And each of those people’s clothes is also an average of a quarter-acre (about 1000 square metres, or four tennis courts (doubles)) of flax, which had to be sown and harvested and worked into fibres before it can be spun, and then when it’s spun it has to be woven, and then when it’s woven it has to be dyed and measured out and cut and sewn into shape; all of this by hand.
And while you probably know this, people reading might not – working flax into fiber is not an easy job! It’s all soaking and beating and all.
Other fibers are no better – wool has to be washed (even if it’s coated wool, that is, where the sheep wear little jackets to minimize the amount of crud that gets trapped in the fleece) and cotton needs the seeds removed and it all has to be combed and carded.
I’ve been doing experiments with nettle fibers, which are similar to flax production-wise, but also a huge pain in the ass (or any other exposed flesh they might accidentally brush) to harvest. It’s allegedly possible to get fine, soft, linen-like fibers out of them, but I haven’t managed yet. All the stuff I’ve been able to produce is either coarse or too short or brittle to spin. I think I’m over-retting them.
My hypothesis is that Germanic languages glommed onto the gendering of words thing from Latin because it helped make common sequences of words more pronounceable, ignoring the typical actual gender of their referents because it didn’t work so well for them. See Twain’s “The Awful German Language” for excellent examples.
Actually, coffee was big over here before tea took off, to the point where there were kings who tried to legislate against coffee houses as places where people might meet and have political discussions and talk themselves into republicanism
(Am I right in a vague recollection that you got Those Nescafe Gold Blend Adverts on the other side of the pond as well? Only it’s called Taster’s Choice or something?)
I really, really, don’t think he’s anywhere near perceptive enough to notice that OR inquisitive enough to ask about the general topic. He’s kind of an oblivious dude.
I feel like the problem with Ruth and Jason is they’re like… Too alike. Both kinda prickly, but it falls flat cause that’s just normal, it’s like passionless pricklyness, nothing to bounce off. Not that it’s necessarily a problem to have a relationship that isn’t all ups and downs, or even one where you’re not really trying to have a romance, it’s just… Not a fun ship, heh.
When you put it like that, it occurs to me that he’s kind of a stereotypical “rebound” boyfriend for Ruth. She likes being with him because he’s SAFE, not because they have any particular chemistry or deep affection for each other. He likes being a doormat for her, has no passion or optimism which might interrupt her frequent depressive spirals, and at the same time isn’t nihilistic or self-destructive enough to actively make those spirals worse.
Or, to look at it yet another way: she ended her last relationship because it was getting too happy and that made her scared, so it makes perfect sense that she would immediately gravitate towards the guy with a gigantic stick up his a**.
Are they living together? He was in her room when she wasn’t even there. I know college couples can spend a lot of time together, but waiting in an empty room until they come back late?
If you’re wondering where he eats and sleeps
and other living facts (la la la)
just repeat to yourself
“it’s just a comic, I should really just relax.”
I find it weird how much I actually enjoy this pairing. I don’t know if they’re going to work out really in the long run, but I like their banter. It feels like they’re more on even ground with each other than their other pairing, not just power-dynamic-wise (TA/student and RA/resident) but just, emotionally and maturity they’re kinda on the same page.
I’m not sure about “never work.” I actually do know couples like this in real life. Yes, I know what you mean in that it’s not a “you are the light of my life and my reason for existing” kind of relationship, but they’re comfortable with each other, are a good(ish? At least where Ruth and Jason are concerned) support person for each other, and there is at least enough physical attraction to see to it that their needs are sated. As far as relationships go, it could be a LOT worse/unhealthier. XD
I kinda think they’d work….
I don’t even know, it feels like they’ll hang around each other way longer than healthy, but weirdly supportive, but more of the dysfunction.
Which… I don’t know if that’s better or worse than Billie who encouraged self-destructiveness?
I like this couple, really a lot. They both have done big mistakes, but he seems to be better now and her is on the right path and way better than how she was with that disgrace called Jennifer.
so i'm thinking, okay, i took some extra photos of this set of doors this year so i could draw some other angles, it's an important set of doors, so let's pull up my new reference photos...
....and do you see a problem, do you see an issue
Well, Lizard is here, and I've been telling myself for... years that I'd take down my Endgame shelf and put up Spider-Man:No Way Home once the final villain was out.
So.
That's a thing I gotta do.
okay okay -- spider-man reboot idea
the lizard is still dr connors, but he's dr PHIL connors, and he wakes up every day and it's groundhog day and he's a lizard
is this anything
Sean Thomason @seanthomason.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com ⋅ 1d
Dana Simpson 
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Barb O. Saur 
⚧️
unironic JOMO, rewarded with a side of bleeding out
gonna wager they had a staffing shortage like what we got which is why they’re throwing OT at me I don’t actually want
I don’t know those acronyms, but it sounds like you are having a hard time. I am sorry about that. I hope it gets better. Thanks for still bothering to show up on the comment boards. This community would not be the same without you.
Quick search tells me JOMO is “Joy Of Missing Out,” presumably as opposed to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). So presumably the joy of not participating in a specific social activity or trend that you really didn’t want to participate in.
Yeah, I’ve felt that one before
OT means Overtime, where they make you work more than the usual number of hours. Which usually means more money, but can be a bummer if you’d rather sleep or something.
OT is OK, as long as its not consuming the majority of your otherwise-non-work waking hours most days.
Just as a note, I’m reflexively against it after a dark period in our (branch of the) company’s history when we were SO miserably behind and being audited that we worked LITERALLY EVERY DAY for as much OT as they could squeeze out of us (though weekends were at least few…er hours)
Also I am super comfortably set for the time being, so it’s a total disincentive to trade my precious time off for ANYTHING
ruth is canadian, youd think shed be comfortable with cold coffee
We played GTA here too. It’s hot coffee or iced coffee. No in between.
Tim Horton’s is basically their Dunkin’, and I think there would be riots in the streets around here if Dunkin’ started serving their coffee cold and stale. (Ice coffee is fine, that’s cold on purpose.)
The only place that could get away with that was Building #19. But we shouldn’t make fun of it, because like the signs said “someday you’ll be old and weak too”. Sometimes I miss that store…
As a canadian, Ice coffee is okay but never in room temperature.
And i’m quite the exception but I take ice coffee even in winter.
Same here (earlier today in fact).
Sometimes my mouth is dry, and I don’t feel like fizz, and there’s nowhere selling hot beverages (or I don’t want to wait for one).
And yes, I’m aware there’s this stuff called “water”.
Water is just coffee that hasn’t reached its full potential yet.
I fell hella feel ya on this one.
An ADHDer who’s been without Ritalin for months, coffee is essential for self medication T_T
if you wait long enough you can stab him with the coffee
Aw, dammit!
semi-perfect murder weapon
–Dave, no, officer, he always had random coffee stains on his clothing
Split the difference. Get canned coffee, use the can as a weapon.
Does coffee even come in cans any more? All I seem to see now are bags, self-serve bulk displays, or plastic containers.
can confirm. have seen canned coffee in convenience stores in the midwest. brand is La Colombe.
I think they mean premade liquid coffee in a soda can. Lots of brands of that.
Starbucks, Folger’s, Monster Java, Coke, assorted semi-generic brands, there’s tons.
Yeah, I thinking like the bulk cans sold at warehouse stores like Costco.
You know, you could get the coffee on the way back.
This was also my thought
They would also buy a coffee maker.
Costs less than a room full of blue paint.
These two have the same energy as when you can’t fit two puzzle pieces together so you just cut one into shape and plug it in backing side up so there’s just a little cardboard splotch in the middle of your 4000 piece picture of ducks.
What kind of monster does THAT.
Presumably someone who enjoys ducks. I’m more of a classical paintings puzzler, but to each their own.
I imagine a talking cat in place of Jason, dialogue still checks out LOL XD
Now I’m picturing Krosp in his place.
Which reminds me, what happened to Girl Genius this week? Most current page is from last Friday.
I’ve been wondering that as well. There’s usually some kind of art if the comic isn’t done, or at least an announcement. I even braved the Site Formerly Known As Twitter to see if there was some sort of explanation on the feed, but nope.
Kaja’s in the hospital. Gall bladder surgery.
Not actually sure where I saw the report.
That would explain it.
Hoping all goes well for her.
The frozen coffee sharpened into a blade.
This is the way.
Bonus points if you melt and drink it after the stabbing.
No, no, no! You serve it to the detectives investigating the murder!
This.
Jason Chesterfield’s TAs of the Unexpected.
If you marinate the leg of lamb in coffee, then you…. No wait, that would ruin both. And the metaphor.
This is one of the healthier relationships I’ve seen in this comic, and that’s terrible. Seriously, how is this above par!?
I guess, Jason is just really bad at golf?
He’s too British to learn a Scottish sport, even if it is internationally played.
Sorry, but I think you mean he’s to English to learn a Scottish sport.
Quick refresher for anyone confused:
Britain: Geographic term. Mainland England, Scotland and Wales.
Great Britain: Geographic/political term. England, Scotland and Wales including small islands.
British Isles: Geographic term. Great Britain, the island of Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
United Kingdom: Political term. Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
British Islands: Political term (rarely used): The United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
British (demonym): From the United Kingdom.
See how simple it is?
Gods forbid anyone use colloquial shorthand.
If I said someone was too American to learn a Texan sport, would that be “colloquial shorthand”, because obviously what I mean is they’re a New Yorker?
Actually, that analogy would probably work better the other way around, now I think about it, because the British stereotype of “American” is closer to the American stereotype of “Texan” than of “New Yorker”.
And now I’m imagining Jason’s counterpart Jay-Bob Chuck, attending Oxford in his ten-gallon hat and neckerchief.
Is terrible rhe relationship or the fact that it’s one of the heartier among many bad ones?
An iced coffee is supposed to cold. Ruth never specified what kind she’d like. Think outside the box, Jason!
love panel four. just, like, visually. so cool looking and stylistic!
I feel like you can probably stab him with his own femur if the end breaks off when you remove it.
Yeah but then you’re breaking a perfectly good femur.
I know I’ve asked this before but Jason does actually have an apartment or something right?
Great question!
Iirc he does, but said her heating is better.
Yeah, he just prefers to hang out in her place.
I mean, I had my own dorm room in college, but I preferred to hang out in my girlfriend’s. Because it had my girlfriend. And her floormates were less obnoxious than mine.
I had a roommate in college who was always over at his girlfriend’s place, such that to this day my friends deny his existence. (To be fair, I had spent half of the previous year without a roommate.)
I shudder to imagine what Jaon’s floormates must be like, if the DoA Read Hall floormates are also less obnoxious than his own.
I’d take anyone on Ruth’s floor (really, even Mary) over anyone who was on mine. And the other wing of my dorm was worse.
I think so? He mentioned having a landlord at one point, but I think that was pre-timeskip so not sure if it still applies.
I’m just noticing his getting dressed which implies he’s left clothes there which raises questions like if he’s switching clothes he must shower there too right? Then I remember the whole hiding Becky when she wasn’t enrolled there thing and I’m wondering how okay this all is. Is Ruth abusing power here? Is it okay cause he works for the school again?
Or does that make it less okay seeing as Ruth’s still a student there, even if not one of his?
Wouldn’t be less okay; he’s a student as well. If TAs couldn’t date students, they basically couldn’t date anyone, including each other.
Jason/Sal and Jennifer/Ruth were problematic (as far as the school’s concerned) because of their inherent power imbalance. In both cases, Jason and Ruth could theoretically have abused the power granted to them by the school to coerce the other into a relationship.
Sal was one of the students Jason oversaw, and Ruth was Jennifer’s RA. Jason and Ruth don’t have power over each other in any official capacity, so that conflict of interest doesn’t exist. (And in theory, moving Jennifer to another building would’ve resolved their power imbalance. Their relationship imploded for other perfectly valid reasons.)
To clarify here I’m not asking about any potential power imbalance in the relationship. Them dating is okay. I’m asking if Ruth is using her privilege as RA to let Jason squat in her dorm. He was staying there before he lucked into another TA job. I imagine no one is allowed to just let non students stay in their rooms proven by how Becky had to hide her presence there. Is Ruth just ignoring that rule because she’s the RA and Jason’s her boyfriend?
Jason is a student, though? A grad student IIRC (maybe just an upperclassman) but a student nonetheless.
Becky was living there. Jason is just sleeping over with his girlfriend. Guests are allowed. Moving in isn’t.
I believe there are rules about how long, but they’re basically ignored as long as no one complains.
Sleeping over with your boyfriend/girlfriend certainly wasn’t allowed when I was in school (admittedly, many many decades ago), which is not to say it didn’t happen fairly frequently. But then, the closest they had to a coed dorm at the time was 2 separate buildings that shared a lobby. (A year or 2 earlier they had some that were coed by floors, but a state legislator complained about “taxpayers’ whorehouses”, which put an end to that.
To be honest, I have no idea whether it was allowed when I was in school in the late 80s, but it was commonplace, as long as the roommates didn’t raise too much of a fuss.
I actually continued on weekends for several years after I graduated, since I was dating a girl who was still in school. So I wasn’t even a student there for part of it.
I swear I closed that tag.
Spending the night was allowed when I was in college ~10 years ago. I think you were supposed to log your overnight guests or something? Like, with the front desk. But also, no one cared if you didn’t.
I had an RA roomie in college (the perk of the RA was having one roommate instead of two). She overlooked me letting my boyfriend stay over and cuddle in my bed (and me basically moving into the boys dorm to stay over there) as long as I ignored her doing the same with her boyfriend who wasn’t even a student, and also told nobody about the pot and alcohol.
Like, it’s not great behavior, but I’m not gonna vilify Ruth for behavior that’s probably roughly as common as speeding. Or at least, every other RA I mệt was abusing their power in the exact same ways.
Becky stayed (or rather, intended to stay) more than five days, which was the guest policy maximum at the university (at least when that storyline was written). So long as Jason doesn’t sleep over every single night for more than five days, they should be good.
I like Jason way too much for this to be his fate
I know what he did with Sal was bad, but I don’t like him even if he didn’t do that. I’m not going to rationalize it, he just rubs me the wrong way. If he’s going to be on screen, I want bad things to happen to him.
Upper-class Brits often evoke that sort of reaction.
I mean just at a base level Jason is kind of self absorbed. That’s pretty off putting.
I dunno, there’s other characters at least as self-absorbed as him that I like.
I don’t know, Sal jumped him. Like, yes, he should’ve turned her down and tried to find someone to do what Danny ended up doing, but I can see why someone who’s barely 20 would forget that when faced with the enthusiastic consent of someone who’s only off-limits because he marks her homework.
> Like, yes, he should’ve turned her down and tried to find someone to do what Danny ended up doing
I am SO quoting this out of context here
–Dave, and wish to see the Slipshine
1. I said that wasn’t the reason I dislike him, because since its not, I didn’t want someone to decide to relitigate it.
2. uh, no. you don’t forget, as a TA, during office hours, when you’re tutoring a student, that you’re not supposed to fuck students. You don’t have to have been a TA to know that, but I was one.
1. I wasn’t disagreeing with you not liking him.
2. How many of your students were quite so active in distracting you from that as Sal was?
Hey so wait he’s still boning a student, how does that factor here?
She’s not his student so it’s not a conflict of interest. Same reason Jennifer could date Ruth after she moved dorms.
Plus they started boning after he stopped being a TA and before he became a TA again.
So as long as long as the only T and A in their relationship stands for Thoughtful and Affectionate, there is no issue (What? What did you think T and A stood for? Get your mind out of the gutter).
First and last letters of tibia. Obviously.
Ruth is finally branching out from only taking Femurs then. Good for her.
Huuhhh did they wait till after she moved out? I forget how that played out
No, but after her Gramps stopped the school from firing her they moved Jennifer to another dorm to remove the conflict of interest.
She’s not his students, so it’s not an abuse of his powers.
Likewise, he’s not one of the residents she’s in charge of so it’s not an abuse of her powers either.
It’s important to have non perishable shabby things!
FEMURS
This comic is reminding me of my bizarre method of consuming morning coffee back when I was in college, which was to make coffee when I went to bed and leave a cup of it on my improvised bedstand, so I could drink some to help me get out of bed when I had a morning class.
I had problems.
I mean, almost all of the developed world’s societies are built on the assumption that there are only morning people and you have to wake up early to be a worthy human being.
On that note, I haven’t used an alarm clock in a decade because I use my seniority at work to say fuck that shit I’m not attending your morning meetings. Worth it.
I want to live in one of those societies. Around here the whole country (except maybe still Utah?) observes Daylight Saving Time so slackers can steal our morning light from our most productive hours, to give it to whatever it is they do outside after dinnertime.
What DST actually does is force people to get up an hour earlier.
It wouldn’t be so bad if we only did the fall part.
I dunno, a few years in, when the clock says it’s 11am and it’s still dark out, I feel like you might think “Maybe when we stopped springing forward, we should have stopped falling back as well.”
On the other hand, after 24 years, you’ll have acquired a whole extra day, so that’s something.
Wait, I went the wrong way, didn’t I? Um, same stupid point, but the other way around.
This doesn’t make sense.
Like…have a life outside of building the wealth of others?
I still do that when I get morning shifts at work.
I really like Ruth and Jason as a couple. It’s the same kind of jadedness as Ruth and Billie, but far more healthy.
Too bad it’s not going to last.
You would have loved it, Jason.
It had your gf, 3 of your former students, one of which is your gf’s ex gf (both of whom probably still love and want each other ), the other students being your 2 favorite tutees (the distaff twin being the one you had sex with), her boyfriend (who helped her understand math better than you did), and the spear twin’s ex (who is going through a breakdown and/or crisis).
Imagine the epic playlist that occurred last night, let alone what might have come out if you’d been there.
Side note: I was today years old when I learned that distaff has to do with sewing and that it’s used as a term for female because sewing was seen as “woman’s work” AND that the opposite of distaff, in this regard, is spear.
Well, technically it’s to do with spinning, which is one of those jobs that you do a surprising amount of when every thread of every cloth has to be produced by hand, which is why women who’d opted out of the ‘making more hands’ industry were generally assigned to be spinsters
I was reading an analysis which suggested that in order to clothe a family of six (one married couple, one grandparent, one teen, one child, one baby) in a single new outfit a year a person using a hand spindle would have to do nothing but spin thread for eight hours a day, six days a week – and that’s before we get to weaving!
You can spin ten times faster (or ten times more, depending on how you look at it) using a spinning wheel, but those were invented surprisingly late.
And each of those people’s clothes is also an average of a quarter-acre (about 1000 square metres, or four tennis courts (doubles)) of flax, which had to be sown and harvested and worked into fibres before it can be spun, and then when it’s spun it has to be woven, and then when it’s woven it has to be dyed and measured out and cut and sewn into shape; all of this by hand.
And while you probably know this, people reading might not – working flax into fiber is not an easy job! It’s all soaking and beating and all.
Other fibers are no better – wool has to be washed (even if it’s coated wool, that is, where the sheep wear little jackets to minimize the amount of crud that gets trapped in the fleece) and cotton needs the seeds removed and it all has to be combed and carded.
I’ve been doing experiments with nettle fibers, which are similar to flax production-wise, but also a huge pain in the ass (or any other exposed flesh they might accidentally brush) to harvest. It’s allegedly possible to get fine, soft, linen-like fibers out of them, but I haven’t managed yet. All the stuff I’ve been able to produce is either coarse or too short or brittle to spin. I think I’m over-retting them.
Spinning, actually. It’s a rod that flax (or other fiber) is wound on to be fed into the spindle.
Amusingly, distæf was a masculine noun. Spere was neuter.
My hypothesis is that Germanic languages glommed onto the gendering of words thing from Latin because it helped make common sequences of words more pronounceable, ignoring the typical actual gender of their referents because it didn’t work so well for them. See Twain’s “The Awful German Language” for excellent examples.
I have not researched this. Maybe when I retire.
Gender is widespread throughout the IE languages. The Germanic languages certainly did not get it from Latin.
I didn’t expect to learn so much from a comment thread. I’m impressed.
Asking an Englishman for coffee is as insensitive as asking an Italian for ketchup
Actually, coffee was big over here before tea took off, to the point where there were kings who tried to legislate against coffee houses as places where people might meet and have political discussions and talk themselves into republicanism
In fairness, has France ever imported anything good into England?
Presumably anything edible.
Brigitte Bardot?
William the conqueror. Eleanor of Aquitaine. Much better than the later Dutch and German imports. Because they can’t be trusted to rule themselves.
Well, this was back before France had a go at being a republic, when the French import was the returned king
Tell that to Anthony Stewart-Head.
(Am I right in a vague recollection that you got Those Nescafe Gold Blend Adverts on the other side of the pond as well? Only it’s called Taster’s Choice or something?)
I wonder if Jason knows that Ruth is still hung up over Billie and that’s what the “Karaoke”ing was.
I really, really, don’t think he’s anywhere near perceptive enough to notice that OR inquisitive enough to ask about the general topic. He’s kind of an oblivious dude.
Yes. A solid 10% of his (minimal) screentime is him commenting on that
Most recent example
I feel like the problem with Ruth and Jason is they’re like… Too alike. Both kinda prickly, but it falls flat cause that’s just normal, it’s like passionless pricklyness, nothing to bounce off. Not that it’s necessarily a problem to have a relationship that isn’t all ups and downs, or even one where you’re not really trying to have a romance, it’s just… Not a fun ship, heh.
Maybe why they’re so rarely on panel together.
When you put it like that, it occurs to me that he’s kind of a stereotypical “rebound” boyfriend for Ruth. She likes being with him because he’s SAFE, not because they have any particular chemistry or deep affection for each other. He likes being a doormat for her, has no passion or optimism which might interrupt her frequent depressive spirals, and at the same time isn’t nihilistic or self-destructive enough to actively make those spirals worse.
Or, to look at it yet another way: she ended her last relationship because it was getting too happy and that made her scared, so it makes perfect sense that she would immediately gravitate towards the guy with a gigantic stick up his a**.
Are they living together? He was in her room when she wasn’t even there. I know college couples can spend a lot of time together, but waiting in an empty room until they come back late?
Ahh, that is the true narrative purpose of this strip.
By british law, he will bring her tea instead.
With or without salt?
sfx=’GladOs’
you monster
I understand it’s been scientifically proven that a bit of Creole seasoning will improve the taste of tea.
I’m pretty sure nothing would improve the taste of tea, at least enough to make it drinkable b
What an odd thing to say.
We can stab Jason for even longer if Barry does a better job at being a TA than him.
“Gonna make it” where? and how?
She should’ve invited him along instead.
Barryoke.
Is Jason living with her? That seems a bigger violation than painting the room blue.
I honestly don’t know. I asked the same question above and so far the answer seems to be maybe. Don’t think about it I guess?
If you’re wondering where he eats and sleeps
and other living facts (la la la)
just repeat to yourself
“it’s just a comic, I should really just relax.”
can’t really tell her boss the paint is just spending the night.
I’m sure some of the biscuits are both technically non-perishable, and hard enough to serve for stabbing.
Oh, he got his job back? I don’t remember seeing it, so I’m assuming it was off-screen.
Oh wait yeah, there was that thing with Robin’s class. Nevermind.
ngl he’s kind of a catch
I find it weird how much I actually enjoy this pairing. I don’t know if they’re going to work out really in the long run, but I like their banter. It feels like they’re more on even ground with each other than their other pairing, not just power-dynamic-wise (TA/student and RA/resident) but just, emotionally and maturity they’re kinda on the same page.
I know the joke is that they won’t make it, but… I honestly really like them as a couple lol
These two would never work as a couple, but they’re hilariously good friends already
I’m not sure about “never work.” I actually do know couples like this in real life. Yes, I know what you mean in that it’s not a “you are the light of my life and my reason for existing” kind of relationship, but they’re comfortable with each other, are a good(ish? At least where Ruth and Jason are concerned) support person for each other, and there is at least enough physical attraction to see to it that their needs are sated. As far as relationships go, it could be a LOT worse/unhealthier. XD
The thing is that i have a hard time believing Ruth is attracted to him. It feels more like a “I’ve got nothing better to do” than attraction
I kinda think they’d work….
I don’t even know, it feels like they’ll hang around each other way longer than healthy, but weirdly supportive, but more of the dysfunction.
Which… I don’t know if that’s better or worse than Billie who encouraged self-destructiveness?
I like this couple, really a lot. They both have done big mistakes, but he seems to be better now and her is on the right path and way better than how she was with that disgrace called Jennifer.
I don’t believe Ruth ever dated Jennifer. Only Billie.
wow; I forgot he got to position.
who am I kidding; he was always gonna get it, despite everything. :/
Simon Cowell is my Jason headcanon