Kevin startled Alec so bad he changed the shape of his word balloons.
I’m back from SDCC! I’m writing this in the past before SDCC because I know I’ll be exhausted and possibly still driving home when this page goes live, so hopefully it updates correctly. I hope I had a good show! I hope if you saw me there I said hello!
30 Comments
Had to get one more Sippy in for strength
Sippy for a constitution check
Honestly when dealing with Bug Bears it feels necessary
What’s that deathshead moth doing there? I see you lil fella!
It is one of the many “bugs” on the bugbear over the last few pages.
You can SEE the anxiety rising from Ike with having even more bugbears in the Avalon. Also I love how chill and relaxed Kevin is.
I want to poke that moth just to hear it squeak…
Pleasure indeed, Kevin! A pleasure indeed
“Omg, like everyone everywhere think Manticores are the same and believe whatever sheit anyone has ever told or witnessed about them. …. … Oh, hi every bugbear ever that are Alec. Because every bugbear is Alec and are indentical to Alec despite having obvious visual difference from Alec, despite being Alec, THE bugbear. ‘Cose that’s how your species work, right Alec 2?”
To be fair, Ike’s not been able to leave the Avalon since he turned, so unless a bugbear traveled into L.A, he couldn’t have met more (like right now). Additionally – when you’ve been harassed by Alec for that long, and have seen a lot of Magic Shit, I suppose you suspect anything could happen. (Plus, the situation between manticores and bugbears is different, since bugbears have medallions.) Still completely possible that Ike is hypocritical, of course – I just don’t think it would happen / be shown so bluntly.
Ike can leave the Avalon, he’s a shapeshifter.
The allegories can be a bit rough on occasion, but I do agree it wouldn’t be this way around on purpose.
But yeah. I have met very few asian people too, but if one starts talking to me and suddenly there’s a second similar looking person, I’d at least give them the benefit of doubt of being siblings before falling into mind blown “this can’t be actual reality” -mode.
Heck, even in Alec’s magic case, HE is the one being rattled and clearly antagonistic to his supposed creation. I really want to see some of the past pranks, if this is the level of 4D chess of pranks Alec has habit of pulling.
This is getting out of hand. Now there’s two of them.
I’m pretty sure it was stated that he’s just able to achieve a midform, not go completely outside. In that case – wouldn’t he shape-shift away his poisonous spines, so that he doesn’t have to deal with wrapping them up each day? And we’ve never seen him outside the Avalon. Maybe I missed something?
We’ve seen him as full human before, IIRC, but I could be wrong. He just doesn’t like doing it because he has to shed his hooves, pelt, and teeth to do it. (Think “Painful, itchy, and leaves a mess I have to clean up.”)
Dunno about the actual comic, but fully-human Ike has served as a “shapeshifter, doesn’t need a medallion” poster hybrid in the RQs several times:
https://www.skindeepcomic.com/reader-questions/2024-reader-question-55/
…/2024-reader-question-61/
…/2018-reader-question-103/
(Sorry for the incomplete URLs, but IIRC comments go to the moderation quarantine if they contain more than one link.)
Shifting the spines away is a neat idea, but everyone who knows Ikes midform would also know that shifting back would return them at once. Having them wrapped is a way to demonstrably disable them long enough that people have time to run, if it comes to the(ir) worst (fears).
Ike did show up as fully human in the short story “The Bugbear Medallion.” He can shift to a fully human form but beyond his mother Lynn asking if he was still shedding entire pelts every time he shifted, we’ve rarely seen much of his transformations, mostly only his hands as he was working on Lorne’s keyboard and fur creeping back over them as he got annoyed.
… well, maybe not fully human, if his teeth on page 9 are an indication … (Note that if he had had human ones earlier, he would have had to shed those.)
Kevin is downright charming – it is obvious that he’s not on a bugbear business trip but just on holiday! 8-)
Alec, on the other hand, feels his carefully built up disreputation eroding away…! ;-)
I still love how out-of-sorts Kevin’s appearance has made Alec. I’m also wondering how long it’ll take for someone to notice the insects.
Random human visitor: “Ewww can someone call the health authorities on this pub, please?”
Reinvigorated Alec: “… hey, good idea. I could use a snack right now!”
Abbie: “Shush, both of ya!”
I adore how Alec’s spooky speech bubble that we’ve associated him with all these years has disappeared. And Kevin, who’s been speaking like a normal person since being introduced, has him freaking out. I love their dynamic already!
Yeah, family reunions can get revealing, sometimes! ;-)
I’m pretty sure that Alec goes out of his way to be Extra Bugbearish around Ike. Because Ike does things like he’s doing today and it’s really amusing.
Bugbears seem pretty close in mindset to internet trolls, just slightly more to the scary side than just annoyance! ;-)
Ike here real shocked by the idea of extended family existing in the same room together.
You know, Ike, we *were* kinda all thinking it, but it’s probably kinda rude to just say it like that, even if (IIRC) bugbears *are* habitually/culturally “spread out” even within families.
Now that I think about it…it feels sort of like this might end up being not just segued from, but thematically connected to the whole issue of “monster-hood” this arc has just focused on? I can’t quite link the dots there, but my gut says so…
Maybe the big secret is that multiple bugbears in close quarters don’t escalate, but actually cancel each other out! ;-)
Okay… I’m seriously feeling like I missed something. WHY is Ike so ‘creeped out’ or ‘unnerved’ by the presence of a second bugbear?
WHAT is so horrifying about them? I genuinely don’t get it. Also, how could Ike not know that his best friend (of years) has cousins? I find that rather strange — I’ve always known about my bestie’s family…
As I understand it, a bugbear’s historic function is to scare children (of all ages) away from dangerous places & situations. Some of them seem to focus more on the method and less on the purpose.
Ike: There’s TWO of them!?