2649 The Reality In Your Head.

by

Patreon
Subscribestar
Comic Vote
Reddit
Wiki
Presents List
Shirts & such.
Ko-Fi.

Well, here we are. Eighteen years of Between Failures. Against all odds, and in spite of all the people who told me I wasn’t good enough, we’re still here and they faded into the background of the world. I’m rarely celebrated by the outside world, but have been well supported by my readers. Probably more than I’ve earned. So thank you, old readers and new, I hope I can keep bringing you these tales of low stakes adventure for a long time to come.
The comic is eighteen today, and I am 48. I wish my advanced age alloweded me to offer you some kind of sage advice, but alas, the only wisdom I have I’ve poured into this work. If you’ve ever found anything of value in it then that’s pretty much all I’ve got. XD Or at least all I’ve got that I can reveal up to the present time.

I was thinking about upgrading my work computer this year, but events in the previous year hampered my plans. Plus I’m not 100% sure that the machine I want actually exists. I’ve become very attached to the ease of use of the Microsoft Surface. What I want is basically a version of one that’s too big for me to just hold in my hands and use. I already own a swing arm, but the only bigger version has all this weird bullshit stuck to it that I’m not sure about. The touch screen on the Surface is so perfect and that’s the thing I want to absolutely keep. It allowes me to work at a pace that is unmatched by other types of screens. Anyway, it’s a moot point for a while now anyway. I just want to draw on a bigger space. I want to be able to whip my arms around like a muppet on a giant screen. Especially since my eyes just aren’t as good as they once were. It’s getting harder and harder to see small detail, which bothers me immensely. Science promised us new teeth and cloned organs when I was a kid and really dropped the ball. They’re getting closer on the teeth, but I’m disappointed. Another set of eyes would be nice because these ones were really good. My teeth are so good I don’t need a replacement set just yet, but I’d like to have that in my pocket. If science would get with the program…

Anyway, I won’t take up more of your time with my nonsense. Thanks for sticking with me for another year if you have. If you’re new around here I hope to see you here next year, and remember; you’re only young once, but you can be immature forever.

41 Comments

Happy Webcomic Level Up!

As an it worker who actually doesnt like the surface line (imo, too many cues from apple in the “non-reparable side of things) I know the feels of liking a familiar setup for work.

Sadly you may not be far from right as far as a lot of “bigger” surface screen options. Seems they got from a 15″ LT screen size to the big 28″ Surface Studio 2+ and that boy starts at an ouchie $4500… I mean taht pretty much a good rig AND a Cintique from Wacom LoL!

Thank you for this little foray into your characters world these last 18 years and my how things have changed since the start time.(I lurk…..LoL)

I wish you success, be it great or small, and hope you continue to let us see how your characters world evolves.
Best wishes!

I know basically nothing about this stuff as touch screen computers haven’t been something I felt was particularly useful for me and my life style, but aren’t there touch screen monitors out there? Like, if the issue is all the computer bits, why not get a touch screen monitor that’s big enough to suit your needs and then hook it up to a computer loaded with whatever OS and software you prefer? Like, if it’s not meant to be portable, no need to lock yourself into the options that have everything baked in for the sake of portability like all laptops out there. I could be wrong about those existing, but I could swear I’d seen those when I was looking into D&D gaming table set ups since some people liked the idea of a touch screen TV monitor in the table top to send the maps to, but I could be misremembering or misunderstood what they said.

There…are, but they generally don’t run the same kind of response or precision that the ones use for art or use a stylus for precision line drawing. Is why actual digitizing / art tablets stay so expensive. Niche and precise hardware.

Been a reader on and off since I think 2017. I don’t think I ever quite caught up till a few weeks ago. Really don’t know what to say but thank you. It has been and continues to be a wonderful reading journey. Every few months since I found this comic, I’d sit down and read a few hundred pages. I knew I’d enjoy it every time before I started. I most likely wont comment much if it all, but will still be here, reading away for as long as you create. Thank you for all your effort into making and sharing this comic.

This page hurts a little because it very much puts my existence into words, that I have to try and keep control of everything, and stay busy all the time, because the places in my head are too much for me to cope with….

Congrats on the anniversary, though. I think I’ve been reading for over ten years at this point, and I’m glad you and it are still here. It’s a nice constant to look forward to in an increasingly unstable and inconsistent existence. I hope there’ll be much more to come, as long as you’ve still got story you wish to tell.

Wow. I’m not sure how long I’ve been reading, but BF is one of the first things I pull up after booting up 3 days a week. I’m very glad you’ve kept going with it. Many thanks and best wishes for the next 18 years!

I have (slowly, admittedly) learned that some shit is outside of my control, and to let it happen and pass by. Especially in my work environment, when a mistake that happened in some shipping port or warehouse hundreds of kilometres away and several weeks beforehand, would fly me into a rage because I felt it was my responsibility somehow.

Congratulations on these past 18 years, Jackie. I know you’ve had your ups and downs in this time, but I know you’ll find smooth roads on your journey. Please continue to take care :)

18! Gosh. The comic can drink and vote in Canada.

“Oh I see, you live in a future you made up in your head” is a real troutthwack of a line to read at 6 am eh.

Congrats on the milestone! 18 years is something to be proud of. I’ll be sticking around for the long haul, I cant actually remember when I started reading, but it’s been a good long while. Thanks for the work you put in on this, it really shows through on the comic. Happy Birthday, Jackie!

18 years? Jeeze. I remember when it was just black and white.

Congrats.

I don’t think it was “just” black and white – IIRC it became color the day the relationship happened. I always thought that was intentional, and I really liked the artistic choice.

Congrats Jackie! I haven’t been reading all 18 years but one of my favorite things when finding this comic was binge reading the stuff I wasn’t there for. Gonna be doing that with stuff I was hear for periodically forever (in the future my mind creates). Future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades!

In Jo, Jess has finally found someone as smart as she is. Maybe smarter.

Hmmm, she’s generally pretty perceptive, but per Ed, Jess is, intellectually speaking, on a different level. Granted we don’t SEE that in a super-overt way much of the time, but she usually gets her way so in practical terms she’s “a winner”, I guess… here, for me, Jo’s being very slightly condescending in a way I can’t quite define, even though it’s unlikely that’s her intention. Diagnoses of complex personality issues by external parties (with no particular qualifications so to do) generally come off that way, to me at least.

Congrats on the anniversary and hoping for many returns to the day.

Truly, science has let us down. Where are my bionic eyes with the zoom feature? I keep clip on magnifiers at every work area and I’m going to have to pony up and get some bifocals.

NOOO! Don’t get bifocals! I haven’t been able to see properly since I got mine!

And the constant head-bobbing is really annoying.

I got by with half lens readers like Jesse for about 15 years. I’ve gone to full lens glasses. I need more magnification for close up work but I’m going to have to get a bigger computer screen if I don’t get a new prescription. It sucks getting old.

Congrats on the milestone, and thank you for all your hard work. I’ve been reading for many years and a Patreon supporter for several. I realized how much I looked forward to the comic (and often your commentary), so I had to pony up, and gladly. 48 is how old I was when I got married, after a lifetime of being single. Now 26 years later in a blessed married life, I find myself thinking more and more about the sorts of things your characters (and by extension, you?) deal with, interpersonally. Somehow your creations have a lovely positive impact on me. Thanks again, and keep up the good work.

I’ve been reading for 6 years now. Your comic really helped me get through some tough times, including when I lived out of the country during covid and missed my friends and family for years. I think every character’s move forward gives me this sense of optimism, in a way. I worked retail for years and years, it can leave you so jaded and soul drained. I’m so happy I found this comic, and elated it’s still going. Here’s to going another year<3

Congratulations! Your comic has meant very much to me for all of these years and i’m grateful for you writing and drawing it.

This is my first time leaving a comment, but congratulations on the comic becoming a legal adult! After so many years of seeing comics come and go, this has remained my favorite as well as the one I recommend most to people. It captures a lot of feelings that I often find hard to articulate, and I love seeing the depth that you show in your characters. I can’t remember how long it’s been since I first started reading after that initial binge, but it feels like it’s close to 10 years now. Thank you for also taking the time to post your blogs underneath the comic. I look forward to reading them as much as the comic itself. I hope that you continue to create and tell stories for a long time and that you find good health and happiness in your life.

Happy 18 Jackie. I’m not the only who’s enjoyed these pages immensely. I’m sure it’s occured to you how much your readers’ lives have changed over the course of the comic—I graduated high school, college, got married, and got divorced between that first read and now!

Anyway, we’re all very grateful to enjoy your work. Here’s to your health and success!

One more thing she and Thomas have in common, but she keeps it a lot closer to the chest. I wonder how similar Jo’s anxiety is? They might all learn a lot from one another.

When Brooksie has a philosophical-analytical take she’s ready to share, she is a g d SNIPER! Every now and again I’ll grab a comic to my hard drive to reflect on later, and it looks like the last Between Failures page I grabbed was also a Brooksie panel. And… don’t say BF is 18 years old when I can run the numbers and realize it totally tracks and means I’m 18 years older than I was when… er… I mean… great work, man! Not many folks get to do a single love project for nearly 2 decades, and fewer still get to be appreciated for it!

I read your “advanced age of 48” and laugh as I was 5 years younger than your present age the last time I can remember getting killed back in 2001. I say “remember” because somewhere along the line I was given a customer loyalty card (in Greek) for as close as I can make out “Charon’s Ferry Service” with 4 marks for round trips (and a “spa day at the exclusive Elysian Fields Resort” every 10 trips), and I have no memory of the other 3 trips, but the 4th mark was made after I got the card sometime around 2006, so I died again sometime after 2006. I’m now 65.

Happy webcomic birthday! Hard to believe I’ve been checking this and reading it for so long but here we are!

Happy Anniversary, Jackie! I found this strip about 9 years ago and went back to the beginning to get the “full experience”. BF is one of my favorite webcomics and I read it weekly to get the flow. Keep on truckin’ and good luck in all aspects of your life.

Congratupations on seeing BF through to drinking/voting/fighting/parenting age! (depending on jurisdiction). And as for your sentiments:

> [I] have been well supported by my readers. Probably more than I’ve earned.

Not more than you have earned. It’s not within my budget to support you as you deserve. Only rarely when I was younger did I have anything resembling disposable income. But for those who can, please *NEVER* doubt that they truly believe you have earned it.

‘You deserve to be loved, and to feel loved, just for being you.’ –Mr Rogers mashup with my meditation teacher

Pretty sure I’ve been reading this comic since at least 2010. Man, time flies. Even when people have told me there are better comics (still haven’t found any that are actually better so much as different), I’ve never stopped checking up here. Hell, I remember the .net and .com switch that effectively locked me out of the comic for like a month because of stupid cache shenanigans, lol.

Technically, the comic may not be the best, but I’ve never found a comic that felt so close to home. Your ability to bring out the emotion in faces and words is stellar, and that makes you one of the best, imho. There are cartoonists who have twice the experience as you who can’t manage that. Don’t be so quick to self-deprecate.

All the best, from past times to future.

I know I was reading this regularly at the Brooksie Gone Wild incident, lol. But I can’t remember when that was.

Congratulations for doing it so regularly for so long. It’s an achievement.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.