Emerald City Comicon was a blast! Thanks to everyone who showed up and said hi!
I am very excited about this next comic! We get to see more of Anthony! Check out Blanche’s room. Hahaha. Blanche. I missed you too.
SEE I TOLD Y’ALL IT WASN’T AN APRIL FOOL’S PRANK. New comic story!!
79 Comments
Aww, I love the little continuity with Ike et al. in the first panel there! Also totally digging Blanche’s Daft Punk shirt. :D
His Eyes! (err, eye)
I see a record collection!
For some reason it makes me very happy that he has a sewing machine in his room.
Yeah, me too. I really loved seeing that. It’s so cool to think that Blanche is good at sewing, even with a sewing machine!
Someone has to retrofit clothes for all the monsters in the avolan :D It fills me with joy that this is a thing that we get to see.
I notice that Blanche has seriously cut back on his jewelry while he’s operating the machine. A good idea.
since its late august, does that mean that jim has already left?
Yes, it does. Back in Exchanges, Jim was set to leave in 2 days. Then, he met Merial at orientation, which would be at least a week or two before the action in Orientations began in (early) September.
For those keeping score, Exchanges was August 2004, and this is ‘late’ August 2004. So while I’m sure his mother is worried sick, Anthony hasn’t been ‘missing’ that long yet.
Thanks for the context!
That’s right, it’s only been two or three weeks. And, you can be sure that he has been in touch with her, even if he hasn’t let her lay eyes on him.
Jim hasn’t phoned home, Lynx-Eye.
Readers Questions, October 2012, page 5
https://www.skindeepcomic.com/archive/october-reader-question-5/
ACK…
misread things.
Been dredging through Orientations too much and thought Scthree was talking about that
Yay! Tony’s story continues! =D
Wheee! New comic, yay!
Also, look, there are Ike, Rhonda, Lee, & Cy! On their way to the toy store?
We see them outside of Pwyll House, which is the Noir’s home.
The only shoe shop in the map in the print and PDF version of Exchanges is at the far end of the slight dog-leg road which Pwyll House is at the other end of.
Collodi’s Toy Store is in the town centre where the Cirque Fountain is, straight down road in the general direction of the Elder Hall, from the shoe shop.
Ike, Rhonda and Lee look to be wearing the exact same outfits as in Kill Them With Kindness, so like you, I think this is taking place later in the day to KTWK.
Why they are near the Noir’s place, I am guessing here, is they are heading back to where Lynn’s apartment is.
Their direction in the strip is heading AWAY from Collodi’s and the shoe shop both on the map.
I’m wondering if that’s a Vertigo poster in panel 3.
Also, EGON on the door!
“GYAAAAAHHHHH! I’m just SO HAPPY TO BE A HORRIBLE BIRD THING!”
“Really?”
“No, April Fools, this stinks. >:(“
best comment
The screams are because he finally turned into a girl.
That might be likely, I’ve had enough bad feather incidents in some D&D (mis)adventures
Ha! This comment made me laugh out loud.
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Without a doubt, my favorite dialogue-free anime film scored entirely to a Daft Punk album.
Y’know, due to time zone differences, it’s 10:00pm for me, not yet April Fools. Aw well, I ain’t complainin’.
It doesn’t seem out of place at all for Blanco to have a sewing machine in his room. In fact, it seems perfectly in character. Blanche is, indeed, gay.
Gay, vain, and creative are all different things. Blanche may be the last two, but we haven’t actually seen any evidence of him being gay.
Personally, I like the idea that people assume he’s gay because he’s never shown interest in any girls, but that it’s because he’s primarily attracted to does, and deer species might be a little scarce in Liverpool.
Uh, I was raised in a family taxidermy business, and learned to sew from the time I was maybe 7 or 8 years old.
Knowing how to sew only means you know how to sew.
I am also a skilled knifemaker, blacksmith and armourer. Can do leatherwork, draw and paint. Work wood, stone and silver, and cook.
In fact, I can use almost any hand tool known to man, and can work in nearly any media with some skill.
(I’ve rebuilt three Ford Mustangs, two grinders and a drill press… So I’m a fair mechanic as well.)
And I am quite straight.
I’m just multi-talented.
-Badger-
Sorry, that was a bit rude of me
Thats all right.
I’ve said quite a few things I regretted afterwards, over the years. :)
-Badger-
Can I just say how ridiculously awesome that is? :3
Aw no calgary comic book expo?
Blanche’s room looking really cool.
Bare floorboards? Varnished floorboards? Neither is going to be a good combination with hard hooves. Do they have house slippers (and ongoing arguments about wearing them)?
The house does looks pretty neat and tidy, and I’m wondering how Blanche relates to his parents (or grandparents – the family might be a bit extended like that). I’m particularly wondering whether they replaced what would have been the paneled wood door to Blanche’s room with one that he could decorate and deface, and the original is waiting in storage somewhere, to be swapped back when Blanche moves out or grows up…
I’m sure there’s some quality laminate or hardwood that can stand up to hooves. Brazilian Walnut, for example, is almost three times harder than oak flooring (and oak flooring can last for over a century). Keep in mind, though, that the type of construction and finish also play an important role in the durability and ease of maintenance of any wood floor, and that ANY wood floor can be scratched and dented, especially if something heavy or sharp is dragged or rolled across the flooring or if stones and grit are ground into the surface of the wood from foot traffic.
I wonder how Blanche’s parents feel about Anthony. At first I thought they might of only been doing this for him because they fell to their sons wishes, but now I have a better idea.
Anthony and Blanche have been friends since grade school, so it’s unlikely that either of them had never met the others parents, in fact Blanche had already met Anthony’s mom, so what’s to stop Anthony from meeting his parents if they’re hidden with a medallion?
They might not know each other that well, but I could see them genuinely caring for his protection. :)
Oh, his room looks pretty tidy!
I like the horn cut thujas in front of the white house and on it’s balcony… :3
Has it struck anyone else that blanche’s name litterly means white black. I think not very good with French
I think that was completely intentional. If I recall correctly, part of the reasoning behind it was because Blanche is a White Stag.
That’s the best part
It does indeed, with a twist. “Blanche” in french, gives out another indication: female (yup, our adjectives are variable, isn’t it neat ? Actually it says it’s a singular, too, so make it two indications… ). The male version being “blanc”.
At first in the beginning of Exchanges, when Blanche had something to tell to Anthony, I thought it was a gender-oriented thing. I know, I know, “what’s in a name” and all that… but it’s really hard to fight against grammatical reflexes…
Yay for Blanche! Very cool to see him again :)
omfg Blanche you sewing devil you’re adorable you look so happy
I like his shelves, I wonder if they’re all vinyls and the books above his door are for decoration but i really like the idea of Blanche enjoying reading
Of course now I’ve forgotten everyone’s names :/
I always found funny that his name means White (femenine for white) Black in french. Idk if someone has said it before xD
The fact that this wasn’t an April’s Fool’s prank makes me unbelievably happy. <3 I love that Blanche sews!!
Why does he have pictures of a Peyton and a white stag in his room? Doesn’t it seem a little odd that he has pictures of his parents in his bedroom? Or maybe he just has them because he thinks they look cool and they’re not his parents at all? *shrugs*
That is the hallway to his room, not inside of his room.
Kory, why can’t you ever have discussions with us other than just correcting things? I want to see you take part in our nsanity from time to time :3.
(it is, of course, fine if you don’t. I just feel detatched without you talking one on one with us.)
Kory is busy making comics! All we do is sit around and wait for comics XD
Oh! I can see that now!
So above Blanche’s house I can see a white stag and peryton, so I suppose the family’s species is represented there. On the house to the right….. there’s an x inside a box with another x above it. Maybe that house is unoccupied? The house to the left has a bird, maybe a Pheonix, benu bird, stymphallian bird, maybe a stylized griffin? Anyone have any guesses as to who lives there?
The left most two, or three, building facades you see in the pic are part of Pwill House.
You can realise this more clearly looking at the map in the print or PDF version of Exchanges. Pwill House goes right to the corner of the block of land.
edit typo. Pwyll House.
Looking at that and that Ike and Rhonda are coming from the direction of Livery and Farrier (I’m hazarding a guess based on what they were looking at at the beginning of Kill Them With Kindness…), it seems that this entryway to Pwyll House is probably facing the direction of the Avalon’s… storage wall I think?
Nah, nah scratch that. I missed the actual cobbler’s store in the map listing. e_e
Your Weird Feet, may be my favorite shop name on the map.
Nasi, you got the direction those four are heading in panel 1, exactly right.
Going by the map, I think that the facades shown for Pwyll House directly faces the front of the Pieces Of Eight art gallery.
Blanche is a cool customer. Most other comic characters would have seen that sudden scream turn into “Oops, I flinched and sewed my hand into whatever it is I’m making, cue hilarity.”
With a sewing machine that would be quite hard to do.
With a sewing machine that would actually be quite hard to do.
Not at all…I learned to sew very early and have been doing it my entire life. I have sewn myself to my work 3 times in that period, while using a machine. Many more than that while hand sewing. And I am quite a talented sew-er. (I only drew blood once on the machine tho. & not that much)
This may have already been covered and I’m either overlooking or not recalling it, but the timeline of this comic is starting to mess with me, because as far as I can tell the brunt of the storyline (contained in Orientations, Exchanges, Kill Them With Kindness, and now Reunion) all takes place in August? That seems pretty tight. Or maybe Jim is just *that* charismatic and made best friends of Merial and Greg that quickly…
I think Orientations has enough time passing clues that we can guess that the bulk of it takes place in September, but as far as how realistic Jim’s involvement in both Orientations and Exchanges is, the first couple of months of college just sort of work that way. For a lot of students, meeting new people and making friends is one of their goals. I know I quickly got very tight with a couple of people I met at orientation.
For Merial and Greg, they were especially hoping to meet other non-humans, since the only ones they knew were each other. When Merial met Jim, he had answers to questions she had had since she Turned when she was 11, and I think Jim really likes being the knowledgeable one in his new social circle. It would be weird if they *didn’t* become good friends very quickly.
For orientations, the bulk of it is late August through (I think) mid September.
The email Michelle sends to mother is sent on a Friday evening, before Merial; Jim; and Greg leave for the weekend. In it, Michelle says she wouldn’t have survived the first few weeks without the help of Merial. So there’s at least 3 weeks gone in August already.
On the Saturday afternoon she picks up the dropped Medallion, back in her dorm she Turns, teleports to near Merial’s, learns what she is, and the four of them have to deal with the MoMo.
Then, I think a week passes, as the next part of the strip is dated ‘Next Monday’ and not simply ‘Monday’ which would imply the Monday immediately following her Turning. That day, she has a brief disagreement with Greg over her complaining, and the Demons learn of her.
So that’s an easy 4 weeks, taking us into September.
Chapter 4 starts on a Sunday, which I think is of that same week. Michelle’s first flying lesson.
On Monday, they visit the Avalon.
Saturday afternoon is another flying lesson, and the Bloodcarver attacks.
The final 3 pages of chapter 5 happen on the Friday.
By my rough reckoning, about 7 weeks all told.
Mostly right, but you missed the note on the first page of Orientations which said it was [early] September. The orientation that Merial & Jim met at would have been a couple weeks earlier, in August. The portrayed action lasted into late September or early October.
Then there was One-Eyed Bear at Halloween, before Homecoming in November.
I can’t find any trace of that note, Lynx-Eye.
I’ve checked Orientations chapter 1 page 1, both here on the site and in the PDF. No trace.
Do you have a link to where that note is?
My mistake, it does say August. I misremembered, and didn’t bother to double-check. Now I have re-re-read parts of that first chapter, and consulted a calendar, and I think I can help fine-tune your time estimate.
Merial’s note told Michelle “See you on Monday!” Unless she plans to show up just in time for classes on Monday, it seems likely that the Monday in question is Labor Day, 6 September ’04. They can return on Monday, in time for classes on Tuesday.
If so, Michelle Turned on Friday, 3 September, after 3 weeks of classes that began on Monday, 16 August; the story ends on Friday, 1 October. The events of Exchanges would be some time in the first week of the month, and this story occurs (or at least begins) during those “first few weeks” of class for Michelle & co.
How does that sound?
Oops! Make that Saturday, 4 September for her Turning.
Just doing a bit of an archives binge, again, and I read through the comments for Nixie Spit. Made me stop and back track and see if any more replies had been added to our discussion on Orientations timeline.
Your calendar calculations work pretty well, apart from one thing neither of us noticed back in April.
In the replies to the first page of Nixie Spit, Kory corrects herself saying,
“Okay it takes place DURING chapter four I guess. After Merial buys that book but before the dragon nonsense.”
So that means having to add at least an extra week into the Orientations event sequence, after the visit to the Avalon on Monday September 20.
The earliest dates that Nixie Spit could happen is either Saturday, September 26 or Sunday, September 27.
Those dates for Nixie Spit would move the Saturday involving Bloodcarver to Saturday, October 2, and the Friday Orientations ends on, to Friday, October 8.
That would work well as Monday October 11 was also a Federal public holiday in the US, Columbus Day. So a long weekend at the shack would be do-able.
Don’t forget, for Dogpatch we skipped ahead to May of ’05, and now we’re back in August ’04.
I have yet to see any comment on how Tony’s foot was bent in the previous picture… I thought it looked broken like I see some poor crows get.. I hope that is not the case but here he (we can assumeiit’s him) is screaming out in pain.
I hope Tony don’t end up with a broken foot. :^(
Wait bet you guys it’s a flying lesson
I woulda thought that Blanche would be totally excited about any flying lessons and would be watching, but… if Anthony isn’t really getting the hang of it, I suppose boredom could make Blanche retreat to his sowing.
He didn’t try and commit suicide folks, for those of you thinking that. Look at his feathers closely. He cleanly cut a majority of them. He either slipped and jabbed them into his wing/arm accidentally or most likely, cut far too short on those front ones!
There was some scary potential there for Blanche to accidentally sew some appendages when he heard that scream o_O
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