2294 Watery Grave.

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I can’t think of a youtuber intro at the moment, so PATREON & SUBSCRIBESTAR in all caps to make you think of them. Advertising!

Well, this gets posted on the 19th. On the 20th I will be 45 & the comic will be 15. Crazy to think that if I had started a family at 30 I’d have a nearly adult child. Of course that wasn’t a possibility then any more than it is now because I am a fundamentally broken human incapable of being loved. Which is why my comic is a friendship & romance fantasy. My suffering allows me to create this. If I ever experienced that kind of joy my powers would disappear in a puff of fulfillment. XD

The world at large will not notice this milestone in my life any more than any of the other milestones. Only you readers who are invested enough to read the blog, which is enough to provide me a decent living, especially considering what it is I do for that living. For that I am grateful. For me any chance to connect with other humans is a blessing because I am terrible at it in my physical form. This nebulous voice I have here gives me a glimpse of that power that I can only use over great distance, behind the mask of my creation.

As I said at the start of the month, my intention is to keep right on posting comics until I feel like I’ve told my entire story. That will take a good long time more. Maybe even more time than I’ve been allotted on this earth, but that is something no one can say. You can, however, rest assured that I will continue as long as I am able. If I manage to tell my entire story, & god sees fit to give me more time, maybe I’ll tell another one. The future is not written, & hard times are around the corner. I will try to ease your burned as much as you ease mine.

XOXO
Jackie

36 Comments

Glad youre still here. I guess you and this comic have been companions of mine for 14 years. I hope for many more.

Love you Jackie. Happy birthday. You always brighten my day, even in the worst moments, and I will forever be grateful for that.

Happy Birthday, man. Hang in there. I appreciate your work, and the glimpses into your life. I wish you all the best going forward.

Happy Birthday! Been following this comic since forever and I’m happy to still have it in my daily routine even after 15 years so thank you for your stories and slice of life in the blog.

Happy early birthday Jackie, not sure when I started reading this but i’m gonna keep on reading as long as you have the will to write it. it’s a great comic and is a nice reprieve at times. I wish you a long and hopefully happy life.

Some incredible longevity, especially for a webcomic. This is a market where produce collapses within the first year for many.

Congratulations on a serious milestone, which will be around as long as the internet is.

Happy Birthday, good sir

I wanted to say I really enjoyed the exchanges Reggie and Carol have had. It has greatly increased my estimation of Reggie as a character.

Let the story go on as long as you may, thanks

Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary. Pushing sixty myself, I will say celebrate what you have. Having an aging body does suck. On the upside I find that my creativity is still there and benefits from the discipline that comes with age and experience. At this point I can imagine more projects than I have lifetime left to complete. The life expectancy of a comic strip is probably a good thesis subject for someone working on a serial art degree but I would bet that 15 years puts this comic in the top 5% if not the top 1% for longevity. The longevity wouldn’t happen if people didn’t enjoy your stories. If you will accept a birthday wish, it is that you will have stories to tell for as long as you feel like telling them.

I’m going to be 49 in August. There are no more milestones after 40, to be honest. Just blurry road signs.

This is the only webcomic I donate to. It’s well worth my measly dollar a month. Anyone reading this, really consider giving this man one of your dollars.

Thanks for the years of regular posts, I’ve visited this site every other day for the last 10 years or so. It so cool to still read new updates to a comic that I’ve grown up with. I started out younger than many of the characters in the series, and now I’m older than a number of them. What a neat experience it’s been reading these stories before, during, and after early adulthood. Happy birthday!

Happy early birthday. I really do love this comic, and the work you do to make it real. I’m glad you’re still here. Here’s hoping you’re here for a while longer.

For a brief moment, I thought Carol morphed into Alex in the third panel. O_o

Oh yeah, happy B-Day, Jackie! :)

Happy birthday and well done!

“incapable of being loved” – interesting choice of words. By design, that’d be for the other person to do, or how would you be capable of doing it for them? Did you mean “accepting love”?

“If I ever experienced that kind of joy my powers would disappear in a puff of fulfillment.” – which, however, might decrease the joy again, reigniting the dramatic power. It could be a tragicomic balancing mechanism. or it could be a different source altogether, tapping into a reservoir of past emotion.

In any event, happy explorations – fictional, standard-life or mixed ones.

Incapable of being loved? Wow uh, have you ever tried therapy? (Of course, I say this knowing you might not be able to afford it, and that the quality of therapists varies quite a bit and some of them are just awful)

About a decade ago I read the first hundred or so pages and saved the link in a file I kept… and don’t come back here till a few days ago. I didn’t sleep the other night binging non-stop for 30 hours and now I’m caught up. thank you for this gift you have given us, and happy birthday.

Happy birthday my man, wow the comic is 15! I thank you for the journey that you shared with us, your choices of words and dialogues in your comic soothes the mind with it’s lucidity and charming flow especially in these tough times.

Longtime reader here. Best wishes upon your new anniversary, heheh! Somehow, I think of your comic as a “webplace” I always visit to see & grin seeing the story unfold. I sometimes wish I could brew a beer or two for Thomas & Co., they seem chill people to have a nice chat/banter with :P

Heh, heh!
…Interesting that a person, named GRAVES, is worried about people getting into an early grave! ;D

Yep. Us Furries are DEFINITELY more…

… more.

Just… more.

We’re weird… and we don’t care.

YAAAAARRRR!!! I be lettin’ me freak flag fly!

First off, happy belated birthday.

Second, never feel bad that you’re flawed. I’ve had a theory for over a decade now that all humans are crazy. It makes the entire world make sense and is the only theory that both explains this world and has such obvious proof.

Politics? Crazy people.

Pop culture? Cray people.

Religion? Crazy people.

The business world? Crazy people.

We’re all broken, crazy people and one of the things we do as we grow up is figure out how to incorporate our crazy into society without ending up in prison, a mental ward, or dead.

What I’ve seen from you has always been entertaining, endearing, and has exactly what I want in a story; longevity and reliability.

You’ve been someone I’ve trusted for years with my dwindling time for entertainment and you’ve never let me down in the slightest. I hope you know that many of us value that very much in this oh so uncertain world.

With appreciation and no small amount of love, I hope this day is a good one and the next is better.

Happy belated birthday and happy birthday to the comic as well. I haven’t been reading for anywhere near the entire run, but I’ll be here as long as you continue writing and drawing. I hope you understand that you have a lot of fans and friends and that you are not in any way broken, or incapable of being loved. In any case, keep on writing and drawing and we’ll keep on reading and commenting!

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