The Ikaris (Todd and Selkie’s neighbors) were first introduced in strip #72, and last appeared back in strip #110. Apparently they’ve been tapped for language lessons.
(As is always the case when I tap non-English languages, corrections are welcome and encouraged.)
I have to say, sometimes this comic is just like sickeningly good or something. I don’t know how else to put it.
I mean, you have “mean” characters, but everyone else is pretty much just like the best possible kind of human beings.
I mean who really complains about smoking around kids like that? You know, besides the most annoying people on the face of the god damn planet.
I mean, yeah I see the joke here, but I would have told the bitch to get out of my hallway.
I have to disagree- I find the cast consists neither of the mean nor the sickeningly nice, but the human.
…noid.
No-one is nice 100% of the time, not Todd and certainly not Selkie. Amanda is (I think) the most consistently nasty, but there are plenty of mitigating circumstances.
You can do what you want, it’s these instances such as someone whining because of smoking in the hall that makes these characters unreal for me. Maybe I was just raised in a horrible family.
Perhaps. If I saw someone smoking in the common area of a residential building, I wouldn’t be happy about it. If there were children around, I’d certainly comment.
Perhaps your culture is different, but it doesn’t make the characters unreal.
Sure it does. Reality is a matter of perception.
I find most of the characters are usually unrealistically polite. Perhaps it’s just the area I live in, but most people in my area aren’t that polite, add in a dash of cursing in every single sentence and a smidgen of indifference and you’d be solid.
Have you ever had to live in an apartment building with a mother with an asthmatic child? Or someone who is? As Sami said doing stuff like that in a common area will get you a look, one of those ‘really?’, or the shrillest nagging.
The woman works at an orphanage for cryin’ out loud. She’s probably used to nagging people about conduct around sensitive kids as second nature. I can see HER owning a “Swear Jar”.
It’s actually not the first time I noticed this kind of behavior of the characters, this is just he first time I ever decided to comment on it.
A friend of mine, her sister works for the heart and lung association. She’s really annoying so we tell her to get out when she comes over to the house.
Why thankee Jarman!
I wouldn’t categorise the lady’s comment as whining, since she is undoubtedly in the right- as is, I suspect, your sister’s friend. If this is a matter of perception, I feel I would have the consensus.
Since reality is a matter of perception,
Oops, thick finger!
continues …yours is of course valid to you.
I have to agree with Jarman. Have yet to find a character with any serious flaw. Everyone seems too…perfect. Almost bizarrely so. Even the antagonists (which I guess would be Amanda and Keisha) aren’t really bad.
Other than that, I’m enjoying the strip.
The trouble with a serious flaw is that it would tend to drive the story. Even if the flawed character were the antagonist (yes, I dislike such categorisation) it would warp attention from the real issue- how Selkie interacts with “ordinary” people. Serious flaws aren’t ordinary.
I agree, Dondonesque. What is the definition of a serious flaw, here? Amanda has some, in my mind, serious behavioral and jealousy issues. What should she be like, abusive? I find extremely serious flaws to be really distracting and less realistic. Every character has flaws, but ordinary ones.
That being said, even though she works with kids, I believe Mary is out of line. There were not kids in the hallway until they came and it’s rude to ask someone to put something away just because they run by. It would be different if she came into a room that the kids were in and lit one up.
Well put.
I still think Mary was polite enough- but I do now wonder how she would’ve reacted to the smell of hemp!
It’s rude to smoke in a common area, not to mention probably against the law, bylaw, and/or apartment policy, not to mention creating a nuisance and health hazard. Sure, it’s an e-cigarette, but Mary didn’t know that. Calling people out for being jerks is not out of line. Mary was pretty polite about it – and the kids aren’t the real issue, just a way of appealing to whatever human decency the putative carcinogenic-stench-maker has tucked away.
She wasn’t being a jerk. She was smoking. Since when did having a habit make you a jerk? Your attitude on the other hand makes you a jerk.
I don’t personally smoke, but I don’t condemn people who do.
They are talking about banning smoking in our public parks in my area soon. I find the concept totally ridiculous.
This is getting unpleasant. Can we not just agree that “Selkie” isn’t that kind of comic?
Dave, I think your creative and stylistic approach is right on the nose for your chosen, very original, topic. I’d hate to think that I or anyone would impinge on that destructively.
When you inflict your ‘habit’ on others without their consent, or force them to leave common areas to escape your ‘habit’, that makes you a jerk.
It really varies by your city. I’ve been in places where smoking in any public area is illegal and places where people would think you were demanding or weird if you asked them to put out their smoke at a children’s school or playground.
I think that the kind of laws in your place will determine whether you see the smoking woman as in the right or wrong here.
Reading over this again, I’m a little curious if I am understanding your point properly. You feel like the characters interact too politely? Or is it that they don’t always display enough bad traits to offset their good ones?
I actually feel like the characters interact too nicely with one another. Granted that there are moments of people being upset or mean with one another (or specific characters who are mean spirited), but for me, it’s really just one extreme to the other. I very rarely tend to see a middle ground with the characters. I just don’t realistically seeing people this polite, all the time.
I think the only *problem* (Its not really but i may be what’s makeing you feel this way) with interactions is that there is no awkwardness. They all seem to have a nice rounded response, witty, charming, and delivered without a hitch. That may be the actual problem your having. Not that they are polite but the conversations mesh so well. Feeling rehearsed maybe? But that kind of writing allows for fun and amusing banter that is far more rare in the real world. Classics like M*A*S*H and similar shows are bound in this unrealistically always smart and witty banter of the cast. If it was more realistic with more gray it may perhaps be a *deeper* or *artistic* work, but far less fun and ultimately, for most, far less interesting.
This is a good point- that the dialogue is stylistic as an aspect of the fictional method. The story must be told concisely, after all. Within the constraints of entertaining and advancing the story, “Selkie” rings true to me, despite obviously lacking a documentary edge!
Wasn’t a similar point made some time again about profanity in dialogue?
Some time ago. Ago. Must read before posting…
Also, I have to agree that it’s a tad unrealistic. Not just that, it seems like you try to appease every sort of person. Bisexual, homosexual, transsexual, albino, swingers, adoptees, vegetarians, muslim etc… It seems far too unrealistic to me. And the fact that everyone is incredibly nice and have no real bad habits. I know there’s all sorts of people in the world and they’re often in more close proximity than we realize but… I don’t think they’re always interacting with one another. It seems very off and rather forced. I’m sure lots of people will disagree with me and call me racist and backwards, but I live in the biggest collage town of my state. I see ALL KINDS of people every single day. Yes I have a gay friend and I have a lesbian friend, I have a couple black friends too. The thing is, not everyone I meet has to be gay or an albino. More often than not, most of the people I know are heterosexual couples or single people with no super defined sexuality. I also see many, many white people and Asians. All I’m saying is having such a diverse cast seems incredibly forced. I understand it’s not necessarily unrealistic, but it sure seems like it to me. Especially when we know every characters religion or sexuality right off the bat. Most people don’t go around announcing things like that to strangers or people they’ve just met.
This is all just my opinion, so please, I’d appreciate it if no one flames me or calls me closed minded. I live in a VERY Liberal town. I’m exposed to everything possible here. Being straight, white, male and Christian in this town is more or less a mortal sin that guarantees you’re going to be alienated or lynched just because you’re not different enough. So anyone who wants to preach at me can take their hate speeches elsewhere.
I will say that you are kind of missing a major theme/subplot of this comic. A fun and nice representation of minority groups of both race and sexual orientation in varying but ultimately loving homes.
I understand that. I said I feel as if that is very unrealistic. It just seems weird to have so much variation in the cast in such close proximity. To me that seems very forced and it seems like it’s only there to please the different groups of people so no one feels left out. Something like that just strikes me as unnatural.
Like I said, I have a gay friend, a lesbian friend, a bisexual friend, an Asian friend and a black friend. It’s not too weird to have a mix of people you know, but when you have nearly every type of variation of people, including cis or whatever the hell that is. A girl in a man’s body, whatever, I don’t know the correct terminology on that sort of thing since it’s updating constantly and it’s impossible not to offend someone anymore since everything is always horrible to someone. It just seems to me like there’s too much going on and it takes away from the comic. Side characters are just that are barely seen, getting a specific sexuality, a religion or a practice (vegan or something similar.) just seems very necessary to me.
“Hi my name is Beth, I’m a bipolar, bisexual dominatrix single mother who adopted a child from Guam and who is also a practicing Muslim and vegan.”
Now I know that the comic isn’t THAT extreme, but a lot of the times it really seems like it is. Don’t get me wrong, I like this comic a lot. I check the updates faithfully; sometimes at 1 in the morning. By no means do I think it’s a bad comic or story, but on the topic of realism, I do believe it is unrealistic with how diverse all the characters are and how nice and polite all of them are. That’s my opinion and I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I’ve been thinking this for a very long time now. The topic at hand just gave me the chance to come out and say it.
“Hi my name is Beth, I’m a bipolar, bisexual dominatrix single mother who adopted a child from Guam and who is also a practicing Muslim and vegan.” – Aside from the single mother bit and name, I actually know someone that fits in this description. O_o I haven’t yet figured out how the gets around Islam being against female domination and anything to do with homosexual activies. (Homosexual desire, as long as not acted upon, is pretty much accepted by the religion, even if not by the culture. Or so she explained it – I haven’t personally read Quran.)
But her aside, if you were to go over my friend circle (and I do mean good friends), I don’t think you’d find a single “normal” or “vanilla” person. Everyone’s got something, be it serious psychological issues, past trauma, unconventional orientation or really kinky desires. And these are just people I’ve run into over the course of my life, who have become friends with me. I haven’t found them in some sexual fetish or trauma survivor meeting, just classmates, random acquaintances, friends of friends and so forth.
So personally the diverse characters in the comic don’t register to me as anything odd or deliberate. I could understand it even if it was deliberate, to point out the fact that even though Selkie is radically different from regular humans, there really aren’t a lot of “normal” people in this world.
“(Homosexual desire, as long as not acted upon, is pretty much accepted by the religion, even if not by the culture. Or so she explained it – I haven’t personally read Quran.)”
I suspect it’s a lot like what’s in the Bible – male homosexuality is frown on but female homosexuality is given a pass as long as the woman shuts up and puts out for the man. The books were written for him afterall and her enjoyment just isn’t considered.
I find it very ironic that in a humorous comic about the adoption of a fish-girl, it is the level of diversity that you find unrealistic. While this is a very modern story with (mostly) human characters, it is still in essence a work of fantasy. Not only that, but having such a broad range of characters drives home the point message that we’re all a little bit “fishy” in our own way. There is no normal. I love that the world this comic is based in is a tolerant and accepting one.
Also, I believe the term you were looking for is “trans”; “cis” refers to someone who is born with their gender matching their physical traits. And regarding your tone on such people; if you can’t talk about a person or group of people respectfully, please refrain from doing so.
I’ve actually mentioned this a few times myself, in older comments, that it always felt like the author was trying way to hard to introduce as many possible characters/minorities as possible.
While it’s obvious that these folks do exist, in a lot of areas of the country, it’s usually a predominate race/religion/sexuality, my areas is mostly dominate in white, straight, christian people. We have a few people who of course break away from the stereotype of our area, but the vast majority are the same.
This comic tends to be a rainbow of characters of every size and shape constantly and consistently. I stopped voicing my complaint about it, simply because of it’s the author’s prerogative to represent every single human being on the planet, that’s their business, regardless of how unrealistic it is.
I mean, we are talking about a comic that has talking fish in it.
Who really complains about smoking around kids like that? Anyone who cares about kids. And people who care about their own health, or their comfort level, or having to wash everything they’re wearing AGAIN because of some eejit complain on their own behalf, but might use the presence of children to stir up some decency in the heart of a smoker – it’s a common tactic to implore people to act better because of children.
I don’t think Mary is “too nice”. She’s just nice, a caring person. And she can’t tell the “bitch” to get out of her hallway, because it isn’t her hallway. Asuka lives there, Mary doesn’t.
Although I don’t think Asuka’s a bitch, either. A bit snide about her e-smoking maybe, but she seems to be a teenager, it goes with the territory. Is the problem that you wish her to really be bitchy, and she isn’t acting that way?
People like that are only looking for an excuse to whine about it. Reality is, children walking past a smoker in a hall are most likely not going to get sick from it unless they have some sort of pre-existing condition.
You try to make smokers look like bad people, you sound about as extreme as the westboro baptist church on this matter.
I don’t know how things work over in the States, but over here I can’t think of a single place where smoking indoors was okay by others. Heck, if you smoked in the stairwell, you’d definitely get told to go outside. And if you did it more than once, and someone complained, you’d be looking at eviction. Smokers aren’t necessarily bad people, they just make bad choices health-wise, but it’s not fair to force their choices on other people and threaten their health.
States-wise, it varies. I’ve found in Montana and the Dakotas, bars and the street were generally the best places to light up. Vegas pretty much lets you light up anywhere. Certain restaurants didn’t allow smoking in their premises, but just about everywhere else was fair game.
And while I’ve not been myself, my sister tells me that the ceiling of the International Airport in Paris is stained yellow from all the cigarette smoke.
I should’ve been more clear, sorry, I was only referring to Finland where smoking indoors anywhere outside of your own home (and even then in apartment buildings and rented apartments it’s usually forbidden) and the open air outdoors, is forbidden. Most buildings where people work or go to on official business, have a “smokers’ spot” outside with a metallic ashtray container, since littering the premises is usually also not allowed.
There was a lot of opposition when this was debated in national politics, mostly restaurant and bar owners complaining they’ll lose their customers, but since it passed, pretty much everyone has grown accustomed to it. Bars and restaurants didn’t suffer, since they got a whole lot more nonsmokers as customers to make up for the smokers that quit going (and even those were a very small minority of all smoking customers).
And take into account that this is a country where the winter is anywhere from 3 to 6 months long and can have as low as -30C (-22F) daytime temperatures, sometimes for weeks. So going out to smoke in that weather has made more smokers change for nicotine patches or gum.
Seriously? I get sick from cigarette smoke. I get sick from the breath of people who just smoked and then get onto the train.
I absolutely detest people who smoke. If you want to kill yourself, fine, but don’t force your nasty habit on me. Cigarette smoke really bothers me and makes me cough and gag uncontrollably. It’s really a horrible thing for me, so I make it a point to glare at people who are smoking near my apartment or make loud comments such as, “Wow look at all these cigarette butts on the floor! Whoever smokes this much is going to die of lung cancer soon!” so that they can hear me. I’ve had one girl say, “Wow gee thanks for that.” and I said, “You’re absolutely welcome!”
Seriously, smoking is a dirty, disgusting habit.
Sounds like you are an overly dramatic. If you were rolling around, making a scene like that and I was a smoker, I’d make it a point to blow my smoke right at you.
Jarman, no offence, but if you mocked someone having an asthmatic attack due to you blowing smoke at them, I for one wouldn’t hesitate to smack you in the face. I have some issues with strong smells, never been tested for allergy, but I get breathing trouble and sometimes coughing fits if there’s too much tobacco smoke, or “chemical haze” in the air. I can’t go into the make-up/perfume sections of some department stores, if people have been abusing the tester vials.
Ah, but there’s the trick isn’t it? They didn’t said anything about an asthma attack did they? There are people who are simply over dramatic and will do whatever it takes to make a point.
But that is the whole bloody point. You can never know who has asma, who has an allergy or condition. Smoking is not just about what you choose to do to your body. It has a proven effect on others and especially little others. No chances of a single incident doing somthing is pretty small, but next they will walk past someone smoking, on the street, at the corner shop, in the parking lot so on and so forth. Every one of those people having the attitude, my body my choice, doing compounding damage to those around them.
If someone was sick, or was allergic or was having an allergy attack, chances are they’d try to at least remove themselves from the location instead of having a fucking scene right there.
That’s the point, self preservation over trying to make people feel bad.
And that’s all you guys are trying to do. In your eyes smokers are evil and I get that. You guys just don’t understand that your reasons don’t justify everything.
Really? REALLY? Just walk away while having an asthma attack?
I don’t even have asthma (in so far as I know), but smoke–all types of smoke–shut me down hard; even I can tell you that just walking away from it is not going to happen. Best part is, I can’t smell. So if you were smoking recently, and I walk through the area and inhale that shit…then no, I’m not going anywhere.
I have friends who smoke (legal and otherwise), and they have this thing call consideration (something most smokers don’t have until they’ve dealt with an asthmatic). They tell me when they’ve lit up recently; they keep downwind or in another room at gatherings, and they mostly just try not to do it around me in the first place so we can enjoy each other’s company.
I didn’t just say walk away, I said they’d make some attempt to remove themselves. Because reality is, trying to preserve their own health is more important then trying to make someone feel bad about a habit.
I can feel for people who are actually sick, but there are plenty of people who are going to make a scene just to make a point. People are far too concerned about “winning” and having people agree with them or be on their side then just leaving people to their devices.
If I thought someone was fucking dying, I’d help them. If on the other hand I think someone was just being a dick about it, I’d let them choke on their own spit.
Jarman, you know this thing called “public transportation”? It’s a generally well-known concept for anyone who doesn’t own a car. Well, the downside is that you’re forced into close proximity with total strangers, who may be directly breathing into your face. And believe me, if you’ve just smoked before getting in, you will be reeking of it for 10 minutes or more.
I grew up with a family of smokers, I know what it’s like to be around smokers. Get off your soap box.
I have an allergy to it. Hence the reason why I cough and gag uncontrollably whenever I smell smoke, no matter how faint it is. I did in fact go out of my way to let that person know that I found their habit dirty and nasty and they reacted badly to it, but they smoke right in front of my door. If they did it in front of their own door, I could care less. Instead they chose to come up to my floor (I have no clue why she does. Maybe because I have some sort of balcony thing.) and smoke.
Like I said, if she wants to kill herself with cancer, good on you. That’s your right to do so, but don’t push your secondhand smoke onto me, because I’m going to call you out on it. It’s not my fault she hasn’t accepted the fact that she’ll get lung cancer eventually. It obviously bothered her to hear it.
Not to mention her littered cigarette buts around my door are incredibly unsightly and give people the impression I’m the one doing it. The apartment manager even asked me to clean them up and I promptly pointed her out and said she was the one doing it. I got a nasty glare from her for it and some snide comments, but she’s not pushing her dirty habit’s filth onto me and getting away with it.
I love how your story just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
I’ll just say it, I don’t believe you.
I think you are making shit up to try and reinforce your own argument.
That’s cool. I don’t especially care if you believe me or not. I have an allergy to smoke. We can leave it at that I suppose.
As a smoker I can assure you that your snide comments, glaring, and super-dramatic coughing and gagging are not going to accomplish anything. We already know that nonsmokers think we’re the devil incarnate. We don’t care.
I don’t think you guys are evil, I just think your habit is dirty and gross. I certainly don’t think you to be the devil though.
“super-dramatic coughing and gagging”? Have you read the comments at all? If you have an allergy or asthmatic reaction to something, you can’t choose not to have it. Personally, unless someone is in violation of the laws I mentioned above, I just politely ask them if they could change places so they’re downwind (like at a bus stop), or try to change place to somewhere that I don’t have to be right next to them (like at the bus), but I agree that while snide comments are unlikely to change anyone’s behaviour, most people with common courtesy would not refuse such a thing, especially when I do politely mention that I can have an asthmatic reaction to tobacco smoke. So far only some teenagers have been refusing that. (Them I then tell that if their smoking makes me throw up, I will aim it at their shoes. Usually makes them move.
)
No! Don’t retcon them! They’re fine! It’s not distracting at all!
Seriously. You are tipping hats, not going out of the way to make references. As long as it stays that way, the names and appearances are fine.
as a german, its “Guten Tag, Mädchen.” , nouns and noun-like words are capitalized. and i dont know if you could type Umlauts like “ä”
If you can’t get the Umlauts, you can just add an ‘e’ after the vowel which would have gotten it. However, most computers, if you go into their Keyboard settings (and Languages) allow you to unlock other languages and other language keyboards, allowing for typing in different alphabets.
It’s also “Auf Deutsch?”. A language is a noun as well.
About “Guten Abend” versus “Guten Tag”:
I don’t know about which time of day you switch from “Good afternoon” to “Good evening” but I wouldn’t use “Guten Abend” before 6pm.
On the other hand: if Todd was preparing dinner to strips ago, it might be that late already.
“Guten Tag” (literally: Good day) can be used all day long (even at night).
In that case: Selkie’s line could be “Googles tug” (“tug” is much closer to the right sound than “tag”)
I’d like to add, sometimes I go back and re-read Selkie from the beginning, I honestly don’t know why!
Anyways, I noticed you actually made Jessie fatter, exactly what did you make that decision?
Also, are we ever going to see the art style from page 60 again? I really liked that, it had a really nice, crisp, finished look to it.
I probably won’t do that art style again. It was something I wanted to try, but I’m not a huge fan of the “All-Encompassing Black Outline” style.
And as to the over-niceness, I actually sort of agree with what you are saying, but at the same time I am not a fan of mean for meanness sake. I think the characters can have good and bad days, and which one we see just depends on the arc and who is being focused on. I’m not really interested in a character who acts nasty “just because”.
Oh, and Jessie was always meant to be on the chubby side. I just fleshed that part out a bit more.
“Fleshed” pun not intended.
Or her model put a little weight on over Xmas?
Tis the season
Don’t change the names, just mess with their looks and flesh out their personalities a little more. I like what you did with Asuka being an ex-smoker, just fits somehow.
About that, she may be smoking a “fake” but I got to wonder how Selkie feel about the hall smelling of elderberries. For a girl who vomits at the taste of a grape that has gotta suck.
In my head it’s more like a light perfume than an overpowering cloud of fragrance, so I honestly didn’t even consider that. XD
Hey. Long time reader, first time commenter here
First of all, I really like your comic. It’s great to see your art evolving and even better to have such a great story from the beginning.
‘Cause you asked for it: You got the german sentences almost correct, but you’d want to write the nouns capitalized (<- if that's the word). Such as:
"Guten Abend, Mädchen." (which sounds a bit formal; but this is OK, if Asuka doesn't want to be too informal to ensure she's understood. You should be able to get the Umlaut somewhere, even if you don't use Unicode. It's part of the ISO 8859-1 charset).
Aaand "Auf Deutsch?".
Thanks for the great comic, Dave. And I completely agree with Wise288. Why'd you want to retcon their names? I think the neighbors have got good names.
So, random thought here: If Todd walked out into the hall, would Selkie’s Father smell of elderberries?
Get yer Python on! XD
Probably not, since Selkie’s mother is not a hamster.
Really? I would have said something along the lines of “ah your suppose to be outside for that. Smoking in the common area of an apartment isnt allowed incase people have asma or allergies. I know one of my triggers is smoke for my seizers. Though I would have also most likely have noticed that it is glowing blue at the end too. I have to deal with smokers all the time at work they always set me off.
Yeah, try cleaning up after them – I’m a janitor and if I’m not emptying the ashtrays I’m picking the butts off the floor or putting out fires in the waste basket.
Smokers. . . grrrrr.
I respect our cleaning people at work and always try and make sure that there isnt a huge mess. But people hand me money and paper all day that reaks of smoke! ug today I had the rudest people come in they wouldnt let me say one word before they said I wanna speak to a manager who said they exact same as me! sigh…
I am a janitor too, been one for 5 years now, currently work as a janitor at a ship yard and I don’t have any of those issues.
There’s always going to be some problems, but I have never once had to put out a fire.
Must be hell where you work.
Yay for foreign languages!
I like this idea, it’s a really good way to make the neighbors more important.
Just one thing: In german nouns are always written with a capital letter (in this case ‘Abend’ and ‘Mädchen’)
As a suggestion: Instead of ‘Mädchen’ to use ‘Mädel’. Mädchen is a neutral word, Mädel would be more casual/everyday language (which would be more fitting for Asuka in my opinion. XD)
Hahaha, don’t retcon them, I love the Evangelion references, even if that show/movie messed with my head.
That show messed with everyone’s head. I still have nightmares…
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
“Is there someone else up there we can talk to?”
No. Now go away before I taunt you a second time.
Now this is your last chance, I’ve been more than reasonable.
[now all you need is a cow and a trebuchet if you want to continue this]
*squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak*
Feu!
Moo?ooo!
Todd, there’s no easy way to say this … Your daughter is a mermaid, and your hallway smells of elderberries. Huh, I guess that was pretty easy. Fechez la vache, Selkie a faim.
(For those who doen’t speak French and will ask for translation, that means “Get the cow, Selkie is hungry.” Or, if you translate the grammar literally, “Get the cow, Selkie has hunger.”)
Dad is MAKING her teach me Germans? Making?
Gotta admit, my first thought was blackmail, second thought was mind-control, third thought was Selkie just perceives it that way because she sees Tood as all powerful. Were any of those right?
Going to go with… Todd’s her dad and she wants to make him happy?
There’s a difference between “making Selkie learn another language” and “making Asuka be the one to teach Selkie another language”. Unless you’re saying you think Todd is Asuka’s dad.
“And your neighbor smells of elderberries!”
In the mix of all the criticism for having “too much” diversity, I would like to say that I enjoy it. The world is a diverse place with people of varying sorts all around. When so much of mainstream media limits that diversity to tokens, I enjoy reading a comic in my daily life that actually includes all the different types of people. Someone said having “Bisexual, homosexual, transsexual, albino, swingers, adoptees, vegetarians, muslim” all in such close proximity to one another is unatural to them, yet in my group of friends, I know at least one of each type, save for an albino and a swinger, and even some types you haven’t even touched upon yet. I think if people find so much diversity to be “unnatural” (which I find to be a ridiculous complaint in the first place), it’s probably because they don’t have much diversity in their daily lives as it is.
Second, with the complaints of people not having “extreme enough flaws”, I’d like to point out that Person VS Person isn’t the only type of conflict a story can have. If I may, Studio Ghibli often puts out extremely well done films where there often isn’t a Good vs Evil, but instead a conflict of Person vs Themselves, or Person vs Nature. There are many ways to have a story move along, and I think whichever way you decide move yours will be fine.
Thank you for putting in the time and effort to give us this comic. I enjoy reading it, and will continue to do so for however long you make it.
Seconded!
The Ghibli comparison is very sound. Hmm- “Selkie” by Hiromasa Yonebayashi… sounds good.
Also known as “Ponyo” ;P
(I saw Ponyo for the first time a few months ago. I love how tripped-out that movie is.)
Psychedelic, man. Especially the skies towards the end!
I think part of the issue people are having, is that everyday actions with normal people are not really interesting so are not shown on “screen”. Plus we don’t really know how diverse an area is. I grew up in an area of Toronto where white people were not the dominant culture/population. This mix of people portrayed in the comic is not unusual for many parts my city, while white people are dominant in the area I live in now it certainly is not the norm here.
Just to point out: you don’t see electric cigarettes with smoke rising out of the end of them (unless something has gone very, VERY wrong). You may or may not see smoke exhaled, depending on how well-built the e-cig is. The “smoke” is basically water vapor with nicotine and a flavoring/perfume, so there isn’t much actual stuff to hang around.
Thought I’d chime in a bit. I love watching when a captivating debate comes up on the site, but participating is fun too.
I am very big on the concept of acknowledgement. It’s a very simple yet powerful thing, to simply acknowledge someone’s existence and their right TO exist. Do I go a little overboard with it in the strip? Honestly, I can see a case for that. But I’d rather do it a bit much than not at all.
As far as the flaws issue goes, this is an issue I’ve been thinking about for awhile, actually. I don’t quite agree that the characters are without flaws per se, but I do agree that their flaws don’t get as much air-time as they may need.
I probably shouldn’t talk behind-the-scenes stuff in too much detail, but… what the hell.
Todd, due to playing a reactionary role whenever shenanigans occur to Selkie, has a bit of a Mary Sue “perfect parent” vibe, I feel. He has flaws and issues on paper, but they have not yet been given appropriate screen time since he’s always been in “paladin” mode so far. Even when he does get angry or lashes out, it’s been justified in some way. I’m not giving details, but I will say that I really want to strip away a bit of Todd’s “ideal role model” qualities somehow.
Keisha, despite being a member of the bullying clique, comes off way too nice to me. There is an implied-by-association capacity for meanness in Keisha that I feel needs to be more fully explored.
Tony, Ricky, Sandy, Wu, and Moonsong need a spotlight at some point. I feel these five are a bit flat in characterization right now. You can mostly identify them by quirk more than personality trait. The kid who speaks french. The hyper sugar junkie. The jock. Etc. Wouldn’t surprise me if someone read this paragraph and asked themselves, “Who the heck is Ricky?”
Favorite hobby of mine: go into nonsmoking bars, start smoking and tell the bar-tender that it’s electric. Most people see through the ruse, but once I got through three before the lady caught on. Alternately, if it’s a place with a bouncer, we like to do the “Smoker’s Marathon.” Someone goes in and tries to finish as many as possible before getting kicked out. My record is a back and a half, but a buddy of mine was actually physically thrown out after less than one pack…we consider him the winner by dedication alone.
Over here you WOULD be “shown out” physically, if you lit a cigarette in a bar, and if you returned (if you were allowed in that night) and re-lit, they’d likely keep hold on you and call the cops.
Keep Asuka and Shinji as they are. It’s Parody(tm)!
Dave, I must congratulate you on your successful development of controversy – I assume entirely by accident! Way to drag that drama llama out of its pen! ;D
I never know what’s going to start a dialogue. XD
It also helps that for a lot of us readers Selkieverse feels very real, so we take the issues it presents, and reflect those on the realworld that we all live in. So when controversial or deeply emotional stuff comes up, you’re likely going to get a reaction. But every debate needs two sides.
It could not be their real names. You’ve got a couple who kind of match those protagonists. They are given nicknames which crowd out their originals.