1193 Sassmouth.

I can’t help but imagine Jess with the troll face in panel 2.

Well… let’s see now. What has happened to me since Monday. Not a lot, if I’m honest. It snowed today, bringing life to a virtual standstill. I actually moved all my appointments forward a day because of the forecasts of snow. Since I was out and about at abnormal times, at least for me, I got some street passes on the 3DS. Which is about as successful as things got.

There were reports of a mountain lion in the area, but hopefully it kept moving on. The dogs are protected by a fence, but I wouldn’t want to put chain link to the test. I’m not sure if a mountain lion would bother to jump a fence to get at a yapping dog, but who knows. They rarely come this far in, maybe it’s crazy, or something. There are bunnies and feral cats all over the place so the area near the house is actually a good spot for a predator. I like our local bunny though. I would be sad if it disappeared. It keeps the dogs busy by walking the fence. It figured out that as long as it stays on the other side they can’t get it and other dangers stay away. So it keeps within sight of the house almost all the time as far as I can tell.

I finally did get far enough into Dragon Age 2 that I had to fight some things. I’m still not super sure I’m allocating points properly, or skills, but whatever. I found an elf mage, an elf warrior, and Anders from the first game, to add to my party. I can’t tell if he’s special because I loaded my save or not, but if that a factor in his construction I did it. I like that part of the grey warden’s story got carried forward at least. The world seems familiar too. I like that they made it cohesive with the rest of the franchise. Anyway I only had time to play for just the one sitting, but I’ll get back to it eventually. I actually wanted to see where the story went from the first game, so I’m more interested in going back in than with Assasin’s Creed, which I had no prior experience with.

I’d like to finish Borderlands so I can move on to #2 as well, but it looks like I’ll be going it alone. The Teen has lost interest in gaming recently. Or maybe more accurately she’s had enough by the time I’m free so we haven’t done any co op in a while.

Did I tell you guys I did a short comic for an erotic fetish anthology thing? A friend of mine set it up and I decided to help. I kind of missed to tone of the work, I think. In any case my part is very tame and I just used Carol and Thomas rather than exerting the effort of coming up with new people. In my defense this was all happening in the middle of the saga of gathering up my cousin and whatnot. It’s just a preorder now, so I’ll likely give you a link when it’s out for reals too, but you can contact the guy who set it all up right now to get in early. http://agoutirex.tumblr.com/post/75128121350/the-fatty-anthology-muffintop-that-i-have-been In all honesty I don’t know if any of you will be interested in this thing. I’m not exactly sure what the other comics will be like, but I’m guessing they will range from relatively classy all the way to outright base exploitation. I’m not familiar with all the people who contributed. Anyway, pursue that at your own risk, I guess. Just so you know, my bit is 4 pages long, so it may only be worth it if you’re an absolute die hard fan of the comic.

I also set up a patreon page for the comic. http://www.patreon.com/Jackie_Wohlenhaus I’m not really sure what to offer outside of just making the comic, but people say they want to help and this is a way you can, if you want to directly support the work. Right now the page is just a basic thing until I get some feedback. I can add rewards and junk, but I figured I’d ask you guys what you’re after before I started suggesting stuff. I already give most of the things people use as incentives away freely. Wallpapers, and whatnot, you know? I hate to suddenly stick that stuff behind a wall. Still, the fact of the matter is that I need stuff. Stuff that I could use to work faster and hopefully improve the comic generally. If only half the regular readers threw a dollar my way each month I could replace a lot of my old computer stuff that doesn’t work anymore, upgrade my tools, and so on. I could also find someone to set up the books for me, I expect. Maybe even find a way to get those shirts made that people have expressed interest in. Hopefully I could find more time to write more of the Adventures Of Julius Drywood as well.

Anyway, I’m leaving the floor open to suggestions. Do you want more levels of donation? What would you want in return for the extra money? Give me some feedback. A lot of people would like to see me go back to a daily posting schedule. With enough support maybe that could happen. I’m open to the possibility at least. Or if you just want me to do what I do already I guess that’s an option too. All I know is that my work has value. If you think so too I’d appreciate the patronage.

43 Comments

You don’t necessarily have to reduce what you give to most people, just those who back you on patreon something extra. Sketches, WIP stuff, even the comic a day early would be cool. You do have to set goal, figure out your needs and what it would cost and what you can afford to give in return.

For example, say a goal of $100/month will get you on the road for upgrades to your computer. In return, backers get weekly exclusive wallpapers. At $200, you work towards getting your comic into PDF books, which backers above a certain pledge amount (or any backers, up to you) can get for free. $300 gets an extra update a week.

Just examples, but the point is to set goal that you know you are able to accomplish and shows benefits for you and the reader.

Loving the interaction between them :)

A book might be a good idea. I would gladly pay for between failures in a paper bound format.

I second this – this would be one of the books I’d gladly have. It’d also be nice to have something I could hand to a person so they can read when trying to get them into Between Failures.

The problem with a ‘dead tree’ edition is that @Crave learned early on that the ‘paper page’ format was too limiting to his story telling. There are some episodes that only need one or two panels; others that need much more. Short of lots of fold-outs or hacking up the comic, it would be quite difficult to do.

Enjoy your perpetual ten monthly dollars. Should work out to about $12.00 CAD which is like, $1.00 per comic page per month for me, which I’m totally okay with. Hope it helps.

Heehee. I love “Sassmouth” as an insult. <3

Also, am drooling so hard at a half-naked Jess. I'm not even usually on the "Jess is Bes'" train. But dangit. One of the sexiest things a woman can wear is an extra-long top that barely covers what needs be covered and…y'know…nothing else?

I'll..be in mah bunk.

This is…not natural for Brooksie. It seems forced and unnatural for her to be bossy, and unfortunately she’s been poorly influenced by a domineering type. Not that she couldn’t use it if Jess goes a little too crazy, but being the alpha bitch is not her style at all.

It’s been a while (ever) since we’ve seen Jo this relaxed with another person. I guess her extended conversation with Carol may have broken something loose, and let her real personality come through. Whee!

We had a yard bunny a while ago, I even got a few (quite bad) photos of it. He wasn’t the brightest lad, though. He dug his warren in the middle of the dog yard. That should have been okay, since rabbit warrens always have a back exit; but it came up in the dog yard, too. Our three youngest dogs were all pretty fierce hunters; he wasn’t pretty when my brother got him away from the Big Goofus.

Thought you should know that Firefox flagged this as an “attack page” when I came to read the latest comic.

https://www.stopbadware.org/firefox?hl=en-US&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbetweenfailures.com%2Fcomics1%2F1193-sassmouth

The main thing I didn’t care for about Dragon Age 2 is the recycled dungeons. Man those got old quickly. Most of the rest of the game is pretty good, but honestly, Bioware’s odd approach to their characters’ sexuality makes for poor storytelling in Dragon Age 2. Every single (non DLC) romance available is apparently bi and can be completed with a female or a male character.

What it amounts to is a weird gender blindness from everyone that doesn’t really address any of the potential issues and feels a bit cheap. At least in Origins, the characters had their own preferences.

I would like to note that I’m not really against having all of the relationships available no matter what the gender of your character is, but I’m a writer and I dislike things that feel overly contrived and it definitely felt very contrived when I played it.

Oh and if you liked Anders from the Origins DLC Awakening, then you’ll probably dislike him now. That Justice spirit did a number on his personality. >_<

Anywho, cute page. Firefox kept bugging me about potential malware on here, so I switched to Internet Explorer.

It really seems like being bought by EA took the edge off of Bioware. They’re still good, but some of their choices about things seem off kilter based on older work. I was really surprised by how easily I was able to get romance options with males with a male avatar. Long before the female ones the dudes were good to go. Maybe it was on accident, but it just struck me as odd.

The main thing that gets me is that no one cares. It’s like, almost no one will ever even comment on it and it comes across as patently bizarre. People don’t walk around the real world with blinders on. They notice stuff and they actually say things. Some of those things are stupid and some are hateful, but they do actually talk about things like this when they happen.

What Bioware did in DA2 (and to a lesser extent in Origins) is neatly sidestep the issue. Everyone is gender blind. Even the Qunari in DA2, though they generally hold some pretty set-in-stone attitudes towards females, will accept a female Hawke as a champion and equal with no notice. And this is in a game that’s supposed to be all about this controversial clash of ideologies.

I still like the game and I beat it twice, but eh…feels like they dropped the ball somewhere in their attempt to avoid the issue.

What type of Hawke are you? I played through as Warrior first and Mage second.

I’m a male rogue, and I’m hoping at some point you get the ability to reallocate skill points,because I’m going about it in far too scattershot a way. Which is always a problem with first play throughs. I just really like picking locks…

Heh, me too. I mean, how can we collect all of the shiny stuff if it’s all locked up?

There is a skill reset potion available for sale from somewhere in the game, but it’s expensive and that’s another critical flaw with DA2. In order to progress the plot, you have to collect a large amount of money. Not really all that much of a problem for someone like me who likes to complete every quest ever, but it does eat quite a bit into the gear buying fund.

Do you have all of the DLC for the game? I think the potion is available at that black market store that’s in a separate area. I forget what the name of the place is.

This reads as being written bu a man who has not only never met a bisexual person in their life, they’ve also never met a woman in their life.
Also, people in real life don’t say “indeed” unless everyone they’ve ever spoken to already hates them. Hope this helps!

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