Page 437
I’ll let you all decide if “chocolate chip muffins” is a euphemism for anything… We had some interesting comments/crits last week that I imagine will just intensify with this page and I felt like it’s worth discussing. First off, keep the comments coming. I don’t mind thoughtful critiques at all so by all means let me know what you think :) I do it find it funny that a few people are extra viscerally reacting to this current situation; this has never really been a lighthearted comic. Half of them have been beaten and/or set on fire… multiple times. There’s been some pretty over the top addiction issues, relentless teasing, mental breaks, the odd dismemberment, and all of them have ridiculously tragic backstories… and now I sound like a crazy person. Ultimately, this too will pass. I can write some extra fluffy/cheesy arcs to follow up as a palate cleanser, but then I’ll probably just get comments about how boring my writing is and how the characters aren’t developing. I can’t please everyone, but I can at least entertain myself… and apparently I’m a sadist, so there’s that.
Happy dancing Gay dances happily.
Tomorrow is the first day of school!!! So excited!!!
Vote incentive: A little Mucha inspired Galaxy fan art. I would totally go see that movie in theatres again if I had the time (the blue ray will be out before Christmas I imagine??) and yet Transformers 4 is still beating it? I’ve only seen the first one of those.
Disgruntled panda shirt won a spot in Woot’s Honorable Mentions sale! Get him screen printed for this week only on Shirt Woot:
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September 1st, 2014 at 12:12 am
C-chocolate chip muffins…?? I’m crying a little :// Allison, I think you’re doing awesome with the story and keep it going!! We need drama and lighthearted moments equally!
BTW, have you heard of the movie “The Book of Life”? It’s an upcoming animated movie based on Mexico’s day of the dead tradition. The art is gorgeous, and the story sounds great :), I think your kids will love it :)
September 1st, 2014 at 12:18 am
FIRST
Man I feel so bad for gay seeing him beat up like that
keep it coming :D
September 1st, 2014 at 12:23 am
Dat second-to-last panel…
September 1st, 2014 at 12:48 am
To the degree you’re getting criticism, it’s mainly due to the Pheromones from Hel having no immediately obvious weakness. It should calm down once you show how Hel gets her comeuppance.
September 1st, 2014 at 12:49 am
Now you’re just teasing those Glech shippers, much fanfiction and art will inevitably be made just from this page.
September 1st, 2014 at 1:51 am
You just do your thing Alison. People always need to find a reason to hate on something that’s not relevant to their lives. However, this is always the highlight of my week and I often ccan’t wait for Mondays to see what happens! Sometimes I pray really hard that you’ll do Fridays again but you’re a mommy :D. I’ll always be a fan of what you do.
September 1st, 2014 at 2:19 am
Nooooo!!!!!!!!! Gay please don’t die!
September 1st, 2014 at 2:33 am
Wha? Who’s complaing and about what? This comic is the awesome sauce, what’s there to complain about?
September 1st, 2014 at 3:23 am
No! Noooooooo! Don’t let this pass! Don’t stop being a crazy person! Think of the children!
September 1st, 2014 at 3:47 am
Y’know, I always had a sneaking suspicion about Lech being gay, or at least bi. A few things really stand out:
He constantly insults and picks on everybody, in particular Gay and Nerd to assert what is traditionally seen as “Masculine” and “manly” because he doesn’t want to be seen as less so.
It suggests he worries if he is, he’ll have to be like Gay (effeminate, flamboyant, fairly weak compared to the others physically), so he projects through constant insults, especially use of “gay” at anything he deems unmanly.
This definitely adds to that little hypothesis. Even if he isn’t gay/bi, he experimented once and now overcompensates for fear that the others will find out and/or to convince himself he didn’t like it.
But that’s just ramblings of someone that has no credentials.
September 1st, 2014 at 5:07 am
Jesus!? Ive been gone longer than I thought. When did that happen, the third boy? I must say I feel sorry for you! I was the first of two boys and I was only part of the nightmare of raising male children, add more and you get mischevious pairings, and groupings. Let us just hope they dont kill you before they growup. Wow… three is a dangerous concoction.
September 1st, 2014 at 5:33 am
:'(
September 1st, 2014 at 7:03 am
Oh Thank you! Now I ship these two (Gay x Lech) twice as hard as I did before… God, what am I doing to my life?
@Vausch: no credentials? What you said makes complete sense to me. Lech is not gay, or he wouldn’t be affected by the pheromones, but I am pretty sure he is bi, or, like you said, at least experimented once and is afraid of the others finding out, so he acts as a “manly” bear. Also I read in a book that animals, with the ausence of the opposite sex, tend to go “homosexual”, at least until a female, in this case, is introduced.
Anyway, from this page I can see Gay will get help from others animals, like Madge or probably even the polar bears.
September 1st, 2014 at 7:24 am
Alison, as to your comment about this not being the first time it’s happened to someone, I guess the strong reaction is that compared to most times, Gay being thrashed is not about him getting comeuppance. It’s not the act of physical violence here so much as the dramatic undertones that surround it. It’s brutal because of the sense of helplessness and injustice that you’ve framed.
That’s a good thing, though. That means you’ve set the stage in such a way as to evoke that visceral response. Also, at the same time, you’re showing a new side of vulnerability around Gay; how much he treasures his friends in spite of everything. And you’re framing him losing all of them to someone who doesn’t remotely appreciate them. It’s a stark contrast that is a compliment to your storytelling.
September 1st, 2014 at 7:36 am
yay sadist! lol I find that part amusing myself =w=
September 1st, 2014 at 7:58 am
No words… only emotions.
September 1st, 2014 at 8:41 am
Wait, what? How can people complain! They’re getting FREE art and story and amusement! If they don’t like it, they can shove off. I for one, whenever it’s Monday, sometimes race to the computer to come see the next page! Of the dozens upon dozens of comics I read, this is the one I will drop what I’m doing once I realize what day it is and come read! All the others will be read when I eventually remember them~
But that aside, yes; the bears have maimed each other and others and even themselves in almost every arc, so what’s the difference between them choosing to do it and being forced to do it? I would say being forced is even LESS grounds to complain. They’re not in their right minds.
September 1st, 2014 at 10:06 am
Hey Alison, you can’t please every one. That was Lesson One when I wrote my very first FanFic. Readers will complain about the oddest things. Ironically the things you would expect to cause complaints bring no Comments. I intentionally wrote a masturbation scene into “Grizzle’s Fall to Grace” just to see how many complaints it would get. It got no complaints, instead I got Blogged! That “scene” has been quoted and misquoted on several Sites. Writers have used my words to their own advantage. It really is an Honor of a sort!
So consider the Complaints and Criticisms as a Badge of Honor! Personally I have not enjoyed this ARC as much as some, but what the Heck. My favorite was very violent… that being “TV Time With Tanked”.
September 1st, 2014 at 10:25 am
Are the new characters going to be named at some point?
September 1st, 2014 at 10:43 am
Wow, Gay fainted.
September 1st, 2014 at 11:12 am
Even if I’m not fond of Gay’s character but, last question he asked a pheromone -drugged Lech bear pinched my heart as if he’s still trying to knock to their hearts. I noticed that it seems like one of his zoo friends will help him like those elephant couples. I hope my theories about the next page are right; though it’s just a hunch. /:(
September 1st, 2014 at 11:12 am
The idea of Lech being gay or bi is quite interesting.
Alison I got an idea for the next page: One of the squirrels throws something at Lech, knocking him back into reality. Looking back where it came from, he sees the unconsious Gay, who is being approched by a carnivora animal (i.e. hungry Tiger, Lion or else). He jumps to the rescue but when he tries to carry him out Lech is hit by the angry animal in the back leaving a large claw wound. Still he manages to get Gay out save.
Pages later Gay takes care of Lech back in the cave. Lech suggests they could do chocolate chip muffins again, but dares Gay not to tell anyone.
September 1st, 2014 at 11:48 am
@nekoD I am pretty sure that she writes pages ahead of time, and then goes back to color them for mondays. So she probably would have the next few pages drawn already.
September 1st, 2014 at 11:56 am
@Urago If I took the beating that he did, along with the emotional shock he’s experiencing, I’d be feeling a little faint myself. It’s obvious he took a lot of heavy blows to the head, I wouldn’t be surprise he had some pretty bad concussions.
Oh man, this page is killing me. The emotions, the heavy bruising, the added history between Gay and Lech is just slaying me! In the good way of course. Keep those Monday morning feels coming Alison!
September 1st, 2014 at 12:11 pm
I’m actually surprised on how thoroughly her pheromones works ‘-‘ I mean, mind override ok, but =full access=?!
September 1st, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Man, they were relentless… Must be hard on Gay to get beaten up and thrown out by his friends/family like that. Maybe he’ll make more muffins to throw at Lech to make him remember and snap him out of Pinkie’s trance.
And there’s still Tanked inside with them all. The worst part about finding a new webcomic: getting to the end and having to wait for the next page.
September 1st, 2014 at 3:43 pm
Thinking it over some, I think Lech would be more embarrassed about the face he’d helped Gay with baking than if he’d had sex with him.
September 1st, 2014 at 3:49 pm
I’ve suspected since the monkey episode that Lech was an “omnivore”… I’ll let you decide if that’s a euphemism for something. ;)
September 1st, 2014 at 3:49 pm
P.S. I guess that torpedoes my theory that Lech and Gay are bickering brothers… :)
September 1st, 2014 at 6:14 pm
So Gay and Lech had something we don’t know about…
September 1st, 2014 at 7:50 pm
I’m kind of hoping that light-hearted moment later will be what happened between Lech and Gay that day. ;) And there’s nothing wrong with being crazy, if we weren’t all a little crazy every now and then, it’d turn into insanity. So, just write what you like to, and draw what you want. As the song goes, “You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself~”.
September 1st, 2014 at 9:41 pm
…The teachers are still protesting in BC, so my loving, excessively loud and whiney six year old is not going to school tomorrow, if ever (it seems). Gaaaaah.
Adore your comic, by the way. Seriously. It makes my Monday. Or other day, if I forget what day it is and missed the Monday update… Which happens more than I’d like to admit.
September 1st, 2014 at 11:14 pm
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chocolate+chip+muffin
September 1st, 2014 at 11:34 pm
to anyone that feels sad about Gay’s misadventures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIAfiVGluk&list=WL&index=185
September 1st, 2014 at 11:58 pm
@lawr Damn you and Damn my curiosity
September 2nd, 2014 at 7:21 am
@lawr DAMN IT! I gagged at this one. now I won’t be wondering if Lech’s a homo hiding his true self OR a bi. yeeeeesh! DX
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:34 am
Gay has friends outside the bear enclosure. My guess the Elephants will take him in and possibly help free the others. Or not…
Great comic as always.
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:41 am
Not sure what people’s issue is with this arch. Sure, it’s a bit “darker” than your more fluffy ones, but we all know from experience with this comic that it’s going to swing around and kick the “villain” in the but anyhow. I think smkinoshita’s comments from the last strip would have been better served via email, not public comment. It appeared to me like he was just trying to show off in front of your fans rather than help a fellow comic writer. Plus, the pheromones are entertaining. This isn’t the National Geographic comic. Using mind-control pheromones like this is something that reminds me of classic Looney Toons, which is awesome.
Keep it up, and add me to the list of continued fans.
September 2nd, 2014 at 1:25 pm
AW. This page D: I love it. I can’t wait to someday get Gay and Lech’s own ridiculously tragic backstories.
So on the topic of the comic’s current tome/direction: I’m pretty sure I’ll never hit a point where I don’t love the hell out of whatever is going on in the story be it drama or cheese, but I have been particularly enjoying the more plot-heavy arcs we’ve gotten recently. They still have the comedy and the absurdity of the fluff arcs, but they’ve also yielded those little inches of character development that I love, like Evil and Nerd making peace and Crack actually stepping out of shell a bit.
Ultimately, I’m never going to stop reading the comic or trying to will the twins into an older, more self-reliant state so there’s more Alison free time for book printings/that ultimate green horizon light, the 2x weekly updates.
September 2nd, 2014 at 2:15 pm
Fanfictions. Fanfictions everywhere
September 2nd, 2014 at 6:16 pm
man how long is lech gonna have those scratches also muffins? XD
September 2nd, 2014 at 7:52 pm
@chocoblue: :) I have heard of “The Book of Life”, it looks pretty unique and entertaining!
@Brian Hibbs: lol, all in good fun I’m sure.
@Zakurei: maybe some day! Next year the twins are in school!!!
@romabysen: there’s always room to complain!! I just usually do it in my head.
@FTS: twins man, twins!
@Doki: I’m so deep! But really, it’s all good. I don’t remember where the quote comes from but it’s something about raising any kind of emotion is better than apathy, speaks to me.
@Chase: awwwww! You’re so sweet :)
@TaggertShare: I love that one too, and yes Gay gets beat up in that one as well… by Lech, partly.
@Adekii: soon!
@Sterling Rodd: sorry theory! It was fun though :)
@Kate: really? I didn’t know that. What great timing they have! My mother’s a teacher so I can’t comment!
@Lawr: … oh for #*% sake. Is everything a euphemism for something else??
@Ben and Dire: appreciate the comments :)
September 2nd, 2014 at 7:53 pm
Hopefully after the girls leave, you think the comic will ever feature girls that just have, oh I don’t know, regular and interesting personalities like the boys do rather than just annoying female stereotypes? >_>;
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:13 pm
@Tara Cause Lech isn’t an annoying male stereotype.
And what makes you think they’re leaving? Alison’s been hinting at them for a long while now.
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:20 pm
yey new page!aheh, its nice to know your taking all the comment madness with a grain of salt.
oooooooooo! oOo lech and gay had a moment?
well considering how erm. “active” lech is….and with no girl bears and few females in general…its kinda not that far fetched to think he’s open for other options.
and UGH people are STILL griping about the female stereotypes?
Jeez how much longer will people hound on this subject before realizing they are barking at air?
September 3rd, 2014 at 2:58 am
I remember finding this webcomic by pure chance years ago. One of the things I have noticed is that nearly every page incites some kind of unnecessarily rude commentary, and I truly cannot figure out why. The brand of humour in this comic is crude and violent and exploitative of stereotypes and it’s awesome. It’s not intended to be taken seriously. The female bears are undeveloped in the narrative simply because they haven’t been in the story long enough. We didn’t come into the comic knowing the personalities and backstories of the other bears – it’s taken us 437 pages and we still don’t know everything there is to know. Introducing the female bears was probably highly refreshing for you and I’m sorry so many people have taken something exciting and interesting and turned it into a bad thing. I am especially sorry for the people who leave their critique and don’t compliment your years’ worth of solid effort, your beautifully evolved art style, your dedication to updating weekly despite raising a family, and your consistency with the characters and their storylines. So much negativity would almost make you wary to read new comments. I’m so glad you do this for yourself, though. Your comic has seen me through my teen years and is about to take me into adulthood and I am so thankful for the memories its given me, and the people I’ve shared it with!
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:18 pm
First page went up in 2008, I started reading in late 2009. A year ago I went back to reread my favorite story, where evil gets evicted and meets Gluttony. I noticed a dramatic difference in not only the Quality of the art, but also the story telling. Later stories are deeper, richer and more engaging. Art is more detailed, has more depth, and is more interesting. The most interesting arc to me is seeing how Alison has grown as an Artist and Story Teller.
I originally came here from Kukuburi. That started out with great story telling and art, but due to that artist having a life, just kind of died on the vine. Alison has without fail provided weekly installments for as long as I can remember without missing an update. If I want to tell someone about the very best web comics the internet has to offer, this is always my very first recommendation.
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:24 pm
I am referring to Chapter 14 and 15, Origin of Evil. Also, It is Sloth not Gluttony.
September 3rd, 2014 at 4:42 pm
@YetAnotherBrian and Ash: I remember finding this comic later last year. I read the over 300 pages in only a day and I was so excited for more. This is easily one of my favorite webcomics right now, I just can’t imagine starting my week without checking for updates.
September 4th, 2014 at 12:19 am
@infabulous i found this comic a few weeks ago now im an addict