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Well, today, or rather the 20th when this page officially uploads, the comic is 14 years old & its creator is 44. I will retire the amazon list until the holiday season comes around. If I had started a family my theoretical children would be unruly teens now. No doubt screeching for minimum basic income, or some young person bullshit that would annoy me. The comic gives me a degree of control that a family would not. Is it a better choice? Ask me again when I’m too old to take care of myself. Although arguably I’m already at that point. XD In any case it’s an anniversary so feel free to join with me in making note of it, or indulging me by way of gifts, if you haven’t done so already. Like an e-girl there is no amount of world goods that will fill the void that is my soul, but that’s no reason for you not to try. There may be a limit I just haven’t reached yet.

I have not done this comic the way I was told I was supposed to, but I outlasted nearly everyone else I’ve known who tried. Some days I wonder if they were the unlucky ones, or if I was. But, you roll the dice & take your chances. When I started this comic I was at the lowest point in my life & by happenstance my mother happened to visit at just the right moment. I know I’ve helped people get through hard times by way of this work & that was easily the best I could ever hope for given my insufferable personality. Being useful to the world is important in whatever way you can be. Hopefully the world still has some need for me.

44 Comments

I gotta be honest I dont know how the Alex, Reggie, John love triangle was originally supposed to turn out, but I’m really rooting for a John/Victoria ship now xD Victoria has become one of the characters I look forward to recently because despite coming out of relatively no where shes been amazing. Great work with the characterization and writing goddamn.

Evrina retired, Victoria new favorite girl. Though here she reminds me of an old girlfriend who ultimately chose hardcore feminism over family and me, so maybe that feeling will pass.

I like John too, even if he might be a bit too self-deprecating at times. But there’s always room to grow.

Happy Anniversary! I havent been with you since the beginning, but it’s been a long time still.
Thank you for making my week brighter and I always get a little excited when I see you have a new page up.
Here’s to many more.

Ive never reached out to you, i was a patreon for several years before life changes, but i havent missed an update since i started reading this comic in middle school, over a decade ago. I hope i get to read it for several more. This comic is valuable to me, and i want you to know i appreciate it, and by extension you, immensely.

Congrats on the anniversary. I hope you will continue to enjoy making this comic; it continues to be one of my favorites.

Congratulations on the anniversaries! Here’s hoping we all survive for another 14 years! Take care Jackie. You are not alone.

Happy Birthday/Anniversary! I really look forward to the updates. The storyline interesting and believable. Keep the great work.

been reading for about half a decade now man. Makes my MWF a bit more interesting. Since I cant send actual boobs to you ( @ ) ( @ ) i send them as emoji.

I’ve been following this comic since back when there were like 5 color pages. I’ve cut down the amount of webcomics I regularly follow by a factor of ten since then, and this is still in the top 5.

Thanks for everything, Jackie.

This comic is one of a very few that I know that’ve been going on for as long they have. Anyone who can make a webcomic and maintain it – and especially maintain it regularly, without long absences, hiatuses, irregular updates, etc – for as long as they have deserves a ton of respect in my book. Here’s to 14 more!

been reading for about 5 years now. Always glad to see long running, frequently updated works.

too many times have i seen good comics fall into lack of updates.

Glad this one lasted.

Congratulations… I too find myself here every Monday Wednesday Friday. Thank you so much for you amazing story telling and awesome character building. I also ship John and Victoria, they are so cute together! Moar plox!

Happy Birthday and Anniversary, Jackie! 14 years is quite an accomplishment, and I have been reading for most of them. Your comic is one of my faves and I always look forward to it. I hope we can all continue to enjoy it for a long time to come.

BTW, I’m also shipping John and Victoria, I love your writing and characterizations!

Congrats on the anniversary; it’s been quite a ride. Opening this comic is the highlight of my Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

14 years. I didn’t discover Between Failures that far back but I’ve been reading webcomics since they were a thing. In that time I’ve seen some really good webcomics come and go. Some time the author couldn’t keep it up. They just didn’t have it in them to write a continuing story. Other times, full time jobs or other responsibilities got in the way. A couple of folks died. In another realm of the internet, Nina Hartley said of webcam porn; “You don’t have to be the youngest, most attractive, or the most talented. If you stick with it you will find your audience and they will stick with you”. Fourteen years ago a lot of what people expected to work would have been based on newspaper comics, comic books and magazines. The internet has proven to be different in many ways. Between Failures may not be the oldest webcomic but I think it has proven itself. Jackie, you found your audience and you are still telling your story. That truly is an accomplishment.

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

14 years now. Impressive, you are in rare territory now, few webcomics have that longevity. I haven’t been reading since the beginning, but I have been for a significant percentage of that period, and yours quickly became a favourite. I read a lot (seriously, a lot) of webcomics, and I consider yours to be among the upper tier; top 1% in my opinion. Thank you for this wonderful work, and I hope it continues for quite a bit longer.

I want these two to be a thing now, if for no other reason than if Reggie brags about banging John’s love interest, John can be like “Yea well I fucked your sister.”

I sort of think Reggie was setting them up, or at least giving John a chance, if he’s man enough to attempt it. Though I doubt he’d ever admit it, if so.

Congratulations on this milestone, well done. I think I started reading while it was black and white, but while you have been plugging away I still haven’t produced a web comic. It’s harder than it looks. So once again, well done, and here’s to the next fourteen.

You’re three years younger than I. Surprising a lot of Gen X’ers lived long enough to see almost 50 (since rock and roll promised we’d all perish by burning a candle at both ends by 20).

Happy belated birthday.

hahahaha I’m at the tail end of the generation that hoped we’d die before we got old – 10 years older than you are. We all assumed we would die in a nuclear holocaust playing chicken with the Russians. *shrug* That’s still on the table.

I have NO IDEA what comic rules you are breaking but Dang! You’ve done a fine job of proving that Art will out, and rules (in Art) are
For beginners. Not for artists. (The Pirates’ Code is not a set of laws, they’re more a set of guide lines)

Congratulations on the anniversary! I’ve only been around for about eight of those years but have enjoyed every minute of it. Keep writing and drawing for a long time!

Was that unintentional flirting, John?

As for the minimum basic income thing or whatever, we’re probably going to have a big push for automation with this pandemic panic going on. It’s definitely going to bankrupt a lot of folks before it’s done. (I’m only a decade younger than you, BTW.)

I’ve been following your comic for a few months now. First off, happy anniversary! Your dedication to your craft is deeply appreciated by your viewers, believe me. Second, after looking through some of the other comments, I’m glad to know I’m not the only one thinking these two might be good for one another. I know John’s gotta still be carrying a bit of a torch for Alex at this point, but to me he seems to have just a bit more chemistry with Victoria. Not that I wouldn’t mind John being with Alex either, but if he does get with Vicky, there will be no love triangle drama and Alex can just be with Reggie. Of course I’ll still happily read the comic either way so, you do you.

I’m a little late for b’day wishes, other than to hope you have heaps more of them in the fulness of time. 14 years on this comic is impressive, and you still find new and lovely things for your OCs to do – they are lovely and well-rounded. Some of them are literally well-rounded, but you have all sort of body types, as well as personality types. May they keep dancing on that keyboard for as long as you’d like them to.

I started reading webcomics years ago, probably in middle school, at the height of my interest I was reading over 20 different ones, and finding new ones to catch up on. Years later I decided to rekindle my interest and found many had indeed ended at a conclusion, or died out to various different reasons. I never actually found your comic back then, I only found it recently thanks to a link on QC. These days I only keep up with 4 webcomics, yours being one of them. I really enjoyed the journey of catching up with the backlog of your work and have really become invested in your characters and their story. I wish I could read new pages as fast as when I was catching up but alas, good work takes time. I look forward to reading this comic for years and seeing the story evolve. You should definitely be proud of your work and consider yourself lucky that you’ve been one of those that’s kept going. You’ve managed to keep your creative drive for this long but also to keep it as a career, which is a great achievement.
I hope it means something to you to be one of a few comics that retains my interest after a long break from them. I hope you enjoyed your birthday, and here’s to another 14 years.

Congratulations, chief. This might be curious or it might not be, but this comic is one of the very few over the years that I’ve actually come back to again and again and again despite everything. I don’t know what webcomic rules you’re breaking, but you’ve managed to cook up something really special that adds to the lives of the people who cross your comic’s path.

To my own observation you’re making art as it’s meant to be made, and that’s something to be proud of.

Hey Jackie,

I’m a little behind on my daily reading with all this virus shit going on, but I always try to give a congrats when I can. I’ve been here for while (I gotta figure out since exactly when, not since the beginning though … sorry) But you are always a part of, at minimum, my M-W-F morning. I enjoy the comic as much as I enjoy the blog posts. In fact, your kind of the reason I got splatoon on the wiiu then of course the switch.. altho if we ever played, you’d hate me because I never spent enough time playing to get better than kinda-ok. Anyways, Just saying happy comic anniversary/happy birthday!! Love your work dude. You rock!!

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