Murphy's Law 5: To Comic 100...And Beyond!

[Silverraptor]

I would like to advise those of you who are patiently waiting to read my comic Idiosyncrasy. Coffee was reading it a long time ago before this comic even started and I think thats why she was going over Murphy's Law with me for my advice on comic making.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Wow...Comic 100...

#100: Don't Cut Your Hands

Spoiler

Show

[blackjack217]

Nice comic. Is loyed telling them this part? Seems like something you wouldn't want spread too far.

[Draconi Redfir]

Guess we know who "Lexi" is now h'uh?
Knew it. the whole "prodigy with any long pole with a thing on the end" was a dead giveaway XD
Cue matt shouting “YOUR GAY!?” in 5…4..3…

[mucat]

I'm not sure how I feel about the little crowd of conspirators right now. Miles and Lexington don't seem to be doing much to help the situation. Granted, as they say, there's a limited amount they can do...but does "play both sides until things get better" mean they're taking sneaky but real steps to make things better, or just that they're trying to keep their heads down and avoid attention until things get better on their own? If it's the latter, then their biggest "crime" is complaining in private about the government. If that's a capital offense, then Kago really has become a full-blown totalitarian dystopia.

If there's nothing they can do from the inside, it would make more sense for all of them to defect together, and at least stop working for the regime.

I'm still a little confused by Alexis's role...when Lloyd says the Kago brass "have got her under their thumb", does he mean psychologically -- they've got her convinced they're right -- or tactically -- there's no way she could escape if they decided she were a traitor?

It might be that this is supposed to be ambiguous, especially since Miles answers "Alexis, she..." and then never says what she is. The "we're sneaky" bit that follows might include her, or might be a change of subject to avoid speaking ill of a friend.


On the other hand, one other ambiguity is pretty definitively cleared up: the "Lexi" who Lloyd is in love with is Lexington, not Alexis. The fact that their whole unit knows this too is ominous. Lloyd's defection will have to raise questions about how much Lexi knew about his lover's "treasonous" nature...so even with Lloyd gone, things just got more dangerous for the other Kago rebels.


It looks like in the next strip or two, we'll get to cut back to the present and see how everyone is taking the story. (And as Blackjack mentioned, if Lloyd has been telling all of this out loud, he's now trusting the Drow survivor to keep a secret that could get his friends killed. A lot of trust to place in someone with reason to hate him, and possibly to hate the others for failing to stop something they know is wrong.)

As always, can't wait to see what happens next!

[CoffeeIncluded]

Nice comic. Is loyed telling them this part? Seems like something you wouldn't want spread too far.

Guess we know who "Lexi" is now h'uh?
Knew it. the whole "prodigy with any long pole with a thing on the end" was a dead giveaway XD
Cue matt shouting “YOUR GAY!?” in 5…4..3…

I'm not sure how I feel about the little crowd of conspirators right now. Miles and Lexington don't seem to be doing much to help the situation. Granted, as they say, there's a limited amount they can do...but does "play both sides until things get better" mean they're taking sneaky but real steps to make things better, or just that they're trying to keep their heads down and avoid attention until things get better on their own? If it's the latter, I'm not sure what they're afraid of being executed for, other than complaining in private about the government. If that's a capital offense, then Kago really has become a full-blown totalitarian dystopia.

And if there's nothing they can do from the inside, it would make more sense for all of them to defect together, and at least stop working for the regime.

I'm still a little confused by Alexis's role...when Lloyd says the Kago brass "have got her under their thumb", I can't tell if he means psychologically -- they've got her convinced they're right -- or tactically -- there's no way she could escape if they decided she were a traitor.

It might be that this is supposed to be ambiguous, especially since Miles answers "Alexis, she..." and then never says what she is. The "we're sneaky" bit that follows might include her, or might be a change of subject to avoid speaking ill of a friend.


On the other hand, one other ambiguity is pretty definitively cleared up: the "Lexi" who Lloyd is in love with is Lexington, not Alexis. The fact that their whole unit knows this too is ominous. Lloyd's defection will have to raise questions about how much Lexi knew about his lover's "treasonous" nature...so even with Lloyd gone, things just got more dangerous for the other Kago rebels.


It looks like in the next strip or two, we'll get to cut back to the present and see how everyone is taking the story. (And as Blackjack mentioned, if Lloyd has been telling all of this out loud, he's now trusting the Drow survivor to keep a secret that could get his friends killed. A lot of trust to place in someone with reason to hate him, and possibly to hate the others for failing to stop something they know is wrong.)

As always, can't wait to see what happens next!

I'll say that what we see and what Lloyd's saying are a bit different. Lloyd really didn't go into that much detail when talking about it. They're getting the words; we're getting the words and the pictures.

For one thing, we now know that Lloyd's gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide, but they don't know that.

Of course I'm keeping things ambiguous! But don't worry, we'll catch up with Lexi and Miles relatively soon.

[Maxios]

Congratulations Coffe for reaching #100

[Tulio d Bard]

A good page for #100!
I can't wait to see what those two have been doing this whole time.

And you spelled "their" wrong in the third panel.

[mucat]

For one thing, we now know that Lloyd's gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide, but they don't know that.

Hmm...if he's not actually into women at all, then he could make his life infinitely easier by just telling Janine that. Or just telling her that he's in a committed relationship; as obsessive as she is, she doesn't seem like she would stood to trying to break up an existing couple.

(Not that he should have to say anything more than "Janine, cut it out.")

[Lix Lorn]

I only just realised that. Now that'll make Janine saaad. DXDD

[Tulio d Bard]

I only just realised that. Now that'll make Janine saaad. DXDD

It' like that halfling said: "A lot of girls are gonna be disappointed".

[Cizak]

Nice 100th comic, I enjoyed it. And huh, is Loyd gay? Who knew. (Maybye everyone did... maybye I missed something? )

I have to say though, the movement line in the last panel seems a little... out of place. It's as if he takes a little skip into Loyd's arms, which feels a little wierd. From the feeling of it I'd say they'd just walk up to each other and hug, not jump into each other ^^

[Eleanor_Rigby]

For one thing, we now know that Lloyd's gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide, but they don't know that.

Well, now we know that, anyway. Seeing as Lexington was the only person Lloyd has been shown to have any interest in romantically, that wasn't clear to me until you said so. Sure, he's rebuffed at least two women in the strip so far but Janine tends to be creepy enough in her adorations to put off people who might be interested in her otherwise and Fanservice girl comes off as more than a little shallow so neither would particularly be a 'catch' for him. There wasn't anything in the strips themselves to indicate that Lloyd isn't attracted to women at all, as far as I know. I'm hard to convince though - until the above statement I hadn't completely ruled out the idea that Lexington was female, armour can be pretty gender concealing. I was hoping 'Lexi' would turn out to be Lexington though as he seemed the most obvious candidate and since he was indicated to be uncomfortable with the anti-plavaan bigotry as soon as the topic arose within the flashback at the academy.
Also, personally, I thought that Lex hopping up onto Lloyd's feet for their goodbye was sweet.

PS: as far as monkeys on nitrous oxide go, Lloyd tends to strike me as being the exact opposite of this definition of gay Always so serious...
Edit: In hindsight, Miles looks uncomfortable in #94 too and if I'm honest Lexington looks outright angry more than uncomfortable as such...

[Marnath]

It' like that halfling said: "A lot of girls are gonna be disappointed".

You're right, I totally missed the significance of that line the first time around. Still, I did call this anyway.

As always, good comic Coffee.

[Tulio d Bard]

You're right, I totally missed the significance of that line the first time around. Still, I did call this anyway.

As always, good comic Coffee.

At that time I thought it was more like "Aw, now he has a girlfriend and it isn't me. "
Guess I was wrong.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Hmm...if he's not actually into women at all, then he could make his life infinitely easier by just telling Janine that. Or just telling her that he's in a committed relationship; as obsessive as she is, she doesn't seem like she would stood to trying to break up an existing couple.

(Not that he should have to say anything more than "Janine, cut it out.")

Well, the thing is that...Well, it took some time for Lloyd to come to terms with his homosexuality, even if it is more accepted in Aequar than it is on Earth. Even though he's internally comfortable with his sexuality, he's still a bit self-conscious about shouting it around to people. Plus Janine's messed up in the head, really badly. I don't know if just telling her that he's gay would be enough, and he didn't explicitly say it...

You're right, I totally missed the significance of that line the first time around. Still, I did call this anyway.

As always, good comic Coffee.

Haha! Of course I planned it!

Nice 100th comic, I enjoyed it. And huh, is Loyd gay? Who knew. (Maybye everyone did... maybye I missed something? )

I have to say though, the movement line in the last panel seems a little... out of place. It's as if he takes a little skip into Loyd's arms, which feels a little wierd. From the feeling of it I'd say they'd just walk up to each other and hug, not jump into each other ^^

It's more like Lloyd picked Lexi up a bit--They're both paladins, but Lloyd's got at least 6 inches and about 40 pounds on Lexi.

I'm glad you're all enjoying!

And yes, I know Lloyd isn't the "Tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide" camp gay. Because, well, he's not like that. I knew about his homosexuality from the beginning, but it's not like that was the main focus. Basically, Lloyd's this.

[Lycan 01]

Woo, Comic #100!


Oh wow, Lloyd's actually gay. Interesting twist. Its not very often you see a homosexual main character. Supporting characters, sure, but even then that's not very often. (For example, there are two video game RPG's that I know of where you could have bisexual party members - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age: Origins.)

As for him just telling Janine he's homosexual.... BAD IDEA!!!! She'd go PSYCHO. I'm betting she'd:
1) Think he's lying just to avoid her, and thus feel more self-conscious and become more aggressive in her attempts to woo/seduce/rape him
2) Argue with him that he's "confused" or try to "prove" that he's Bisexual.
3) Try to "fix" him.
4) An unholy combination of all of the above.

My bet would be on 4.

[CWater]

Great update, I like Soo, "Lexi" did turn out to be Lexington... That's nice, and fresh, since you know there aren't too many gay main characters in fantasy, at least those that are played straight.()

Though if he was completely gay, then shouldn't he have been immune to that potion Janine drank a little while ago? Well, nothing's saying that he can't be bi.

Oh, and I would advise to somehow make it clear in the comic how the story told differs from the one we saw. Just to avoid confusion.

CWater: the comic I posted was 100% made in GIMP because the software is free and it means I don't have to use the family scanner. Technique-wise, I colour every section by hand with the airbrush because I'm useless with the bucketfill and I did the colouring over 3 seperate layers, one for the background wash, one for the basic colours of the characters and the branch and one for shading/ highlights. Matt's freckles were done with a seperate special effect brush and I inked it with the G-pen from the plug-in linked to here: http://www.davidrevoy.com/?article32...h-gimp-painter. The artist there uses a flatting plug-in to colour his art work but I couldn't get it to work for me at all. The parts of GIMP Painter that did work are pretty neat extras though. Sorry if that was way more information than you needed!

No, thank you Actually I'm planning on starting to use GIMP myself, so this was plenty helpful.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I have to say, because I have been quite uncomfortable all evening long, I don't actually (nor expected) this outcome. I am not sure why but I am not completely comfortable with homosexuals characters in the media. This does not means I will stopping reading, it is a great webcomic, and I actually want to congratulate you on your decision to write about a homosexual as a protagonist, I suppose it is difficult to write such a character.}

Also this kills all my shipping deliriums about LoydXRadic.

[Alagaesian]

Great update, I like Soo, "Lexi" did turn out to be Lexington... That's nice, and fresh, since you know there aren't too many gay main characters in fantasy, at least those that are played straight.()

Though if he was completely gay, then shouldn't he have been immune to that potion Janine drank a little while ago? Well, nothing's saying that he can't be bi.

"It's supposed to make you more attractive to the opposite sex (And people of the same sex who prefer that), but she accidentally made it too strong!"

It is never said that the potion won't attract people of the opposite sex that don't prefer that, though. Maybe that's one of the reasons why Lloyd was so freaked out when Janine took the potion (other than, you know, her practically trying to climb on top of him).

[HypoSoc]

I'm kind of disappointed at the big 100 reveal. I expected the unexpected with too high a bar set...

[blackjack217]

Though if he was completely gay, then shouldn't he have been immune to that potion Janine drank a little while ago? Well, nothing's saying that he can't be bi.

Oh, and I would advise to somehow make it clear in the comic how the story told differs from the one we saw. Just to avoid confusion.

I actually mentioned that before as a reason he had to either be bi or strait, I assume he is either bi or gay with heterosexual tendencies. I mean if coffee wanted to avoid spoiling it she could have made a "I made my will save" joke.
(After all paladins have some of the best saves of any class and it would be deliciously ironic if the charisma that made her attracted to him in the first place made him resist her potion.)

[CoffeeIncluded]

I mentioned this before but I guess you guys missed it. The potion has a slight area effect centered on the drinker.

[M@XWeru]

And here I thought that there would be something special for the 100th episode.

[Marnath]

I mentioned this before but I guess you guys missed it. The potion has a slight area effect centered on the drinker.

I had missed it, yeah. This one was easier to research though.

Yep.

However, the effects of the potion kinda rub off on the surrounding people: At a MUCH lower DC.

..I have too much free time on my hands.

[RdMarquis]

Congratulations on your hundredth comic. It'll be interesting to see how Janine takes this revelation when Lloyd actually tells her. I'm also looking forward to seeing what happens when he gets back Kago.

Is this the end of the flashback, or is there more story detailing how Lloyd escaped and why he decided to form an adventuring party?

[Raging Gene Ray]

I didn't think Lloyd was gay until Word of Coffee confirmed it. I just thought it was a platonic manhug when I saw the latest comic.

[Mystic Muse]

I didn't think Lloyd was gay until Word of Coffee confirmed it. I just thought it was a platonic manhug when I saw the latest comic.

Same here.

Although, once it was mentioned, I noticed the eyebrows each of them had which indicated something a bit more than a bromance.

[Asta Kask]

D'aawww. Cute.

Also, how will Lloyd escape? Will it involve roller-blades?

[Zanaril]

I read the comic without realizing the significance of the last panel, and was about to make a "lulz Loyd x Lexington OTP" comment.

Then I thought: "hang on a moment..."

"...Oh."