I genuinely don’t know what happened to that stupid toy. I’ve been through damn near every box I have stacked in my room and haven’t found it. I’ve seen boxes with other things that arrived at around the same time and it’s not in it. The only thing I remembered about it is that it had another rare toy with it that is also missing now. I know at this point it probably seems silly that I’ve been obsessed with this thing for over a week at this point, but it’s not easy for me to earn money. All the stuff I gather is a representation of hours of struggle. To carelessly lose something is infuriating and it’s directed at the person I hate the most; me. It’s still possible that I just misplaced it in the endless shuffle of moving things from place to place but at this point I have passively accepted that I somehow threw it away, and possibly an entire box of things. As I’ve stated before it’s my habit to actually write trash on any box that has things in it that have been designated trash. It’s been a pretty good system because I never write it on a box until the moment I have ensured beyond doubt that the box contains trash as part of the contract with my paranoia. Mistakes happen though. I’ve been extremely tired and when I get like that I often lose focus. The fact that I have no specific memory of most of my actions is proof enough of that. All that said, I haven’t searched 100% of my living space and I’ve moved many many things around. I may yet run across it while I continue my overarching task. I guess all I can do is live in hope. Maybe I’ll find a clearance one at the store.

The last thing that I remember losing in my room is actually a lens from my magnifying glasses. It straight up disappeared. I cleaned every inch of the floor and the damn thing just disappeared into nothingness. I keep thinking I may find it at some point when I’ve completely removed everything from the room, but I’ve needed it several times since it was lost. It probably would have been more efficient to just buy another set of lenses, since they entire thing was only $17 when I originally purchased it, but as previously stated, money is hard to come by when you draw nonsense for a living.

As sort of an all encompassing fuck you from me to me I also managed to hurt my shoulder while moving things around. Generally it doesn’t bother me, but when I lay down it is excruciating. The tragic irony being that resting is what allows your body to heal faster and I haven’t had decent rest in almost 3 weeks now. I should count my blessings in that it hasn’t hindered my ability to draw. That would be a true disaster. My entire life hinges on basically the three feet of my right arm. Fucking it up is something I live in perpetual fear of. Of course it’s my dominant arm so using it is the natural thing to do. I wonder sometimes if it would be wiser to learn to use my left arm for menial tasks. I like my left arm and don’t want to lose it, but he’s not a trustworthy fellow. His best function is steadying things for my right arm.

Well, anyway, this page will go up for Friday, which is Halloween. Obviously it will be the final page for the October pages post on Patreon/Subscribestar as well. I was thinking the other day about how I used to stress about having a holiday image made for each one, every year, for years. That was such a big deal in the early days of webcomics. After all the various disasters of the last decade I’m just glad that I get the comic out at all, generally within an hour of the agreed upon posting time. Since it’s basically just me running the show now holidays sneak up on me because I don’t really care about them anymore. The 4th of July is basically the only one I really look forward to because it’s a special time for my mother and I to bond over our shared love of history and explosions. With all the other ones it feels like I’ve done everything thematically I can think of with my characters. Plus I still have a hard time seeing my art as a treat for others, especially if they don’t react very much. My audience tends not to be super effusive, probably because a person’s audience tends to be a reflection of themselves.

A lot of the stuff from the early days of webcomics were just little rituals that someone started and we all followed along because it seemed to get attention. In the era of the algorithm nothing but the whim of the robot seems to get a person any attention beyond the whim of the robot. All my social media accounts have been shadowbanned, on and off, for at least 5 years if not more. It is hard not to succumb to the feeling of futility. Additionally I have lost my connection with webcomics as a “community”, although I never felt like I was part of a community. I just saw that there were other little groups and sort of stood on the sidelines as I always have, observing.

This happened a few weeks ago but I noticed people talking about Questionable Content in the comments, so I was reminded of it. I never really talked about it at the time because a lot was going on, but I finally stopped reading QC. Not because I hated the story or anything though. I certainly hadn’t been well pleased with the direction of the writing for many years, but not to the point of not wanting to read it, and I generally like all the new and odd characters. The thing that finally severed my ties to the last connection to webcomics outside of my own was accidentally seeing the social media of the creator. I had blocked him on everything years ago because I find Jeph absolutely infuriating as a person. That said, as long as I never saw his socials, I could still enjoy his work. At least in so far as I was still capable of enjoying it in its current state. Unfortunately I stumbled across him on Bluesky and he was being so vile I found I could no longer abide. It never occurred to me to seek him out there to shield myself, and I was sideswiped by a quick barrage of garbage takes that seemed practically tailor made to get my dander up. It may seems silly to some of you, but his work was the last connection to a group of people who functionally inspired me to make my own comic. I read QC for well over 20 years, and suddenly I felt like I couldn’t, in good conscience, support him in any way anymore. Maybe that was unfair of me. I’m not sure. There were a lot of things happening and I was pretty unprotected emotionally in the moment. I had already had ties cut with other longtime friends, which probably left me badly unbalanced. Regardless, I dropped his work after over 2 decades of dedicated reading. I didn’t feel vindicated, or just, or whatever. I felt like I lost something again because of all the wedges social media has driven between everyone. It hurt. Genuinely. The years of habit didn’t understand what I was doing. The part of my brain that remined me to check QC daily is still doing its task and I have to say “No, that’s not for us anymore. He hates us.”

I’ve been on both sides of these sorts of things. Every so often I’ll shoot my mouth off out of anger and someone will send me a long message telling me how much I hurt them, and how sorry they are that they can’t enjoy my comic anymore. I don’t like getting that sort of message. My guess is that no one does. Having stood on both sides I get extra emotional about it because I never purposefully would want to take a comfort away from someone. I know how it feels. At the same time it’s very hard to put aside your humanity and be perfect all the time to everyone. On my best days I’m wildly emotionally unstable. I has taken years of effort to get myself to keep my mouth shut on the internet as much as I do now and I still talk too much. After covid I think people finally got a taste of what it’s like to be me though, and they understand why I am how I am better. When I explain my normal level of isolation people get it now. So it feels like I get more of a pass when I explain my situation now. The entire world got a little taste of it and they did not like it.

Anyway, I’m basically completely disconnected from webcomics as a reader now. It has left a void in me that nothing has ever replaced. When I was working retail I would come home and page through QC, PVP, Shortpacked, Starslip Crisis, Penny Arcade, and many other comics that I can’t even name anymore without straining to do so. When I started making my own comic I was even friendly with some of those people. It’s possible that Between Failures wouldn’t even exist anymore if not for Scott Kurtz, Dave Kellet, Brad Guigar, and Kris Straub, although he and his cohorts probably have no knowledge of the moment they potentially saved it. My guess is that Brad would be the only one of them to spare some piss if he found me on fire these days. Even so I still feel like I owe them some loyalty in spite of the fact that I don’t believe they would extend a helping had now if I really needed one.

I guess this is just the way of things. Time wears away our edges. Then again maybe that’s just my perspective on things and other people don’t feel like this. I don’t know. All I know is that it seems like all that ever happens is I lose things and never gain anything to take their place.

In any case, I hope you have a spooky Halloween, if you observe it. We’ll be in a new month when I return with more comic. I hope to see you then. Until that time, keep away from rugs or fabrics.

22 Comments

Everyone needs a little goblin in their lives. ?

Especially in a little cafe like that… everyone’s got to be goblin one way or another.

Don’t know if this helps, but i came here from Questionable Content when Jeph recommended the comic some time before 2010. Marten amd Dora were still together and Between Failures was still black and white. I followed at least w dozen comics back then. I’ve lost interest in most of them, QC included. Marten and Dora breaking up was pretty much the end for me there though i lingered out of habit for a few more years. Partly because Jeph had, and still has, I guess, an iron clad work ethic. QC, along with a slew of other web comics were a decades long habit that I’d go to when they published. I’m down to a literal handfull, now. It’s an eclectic mix I’ve kept up with out of a combination of a regular publishing schedules and characters i genuinely care about. I stopped giving a flarp about the QC crew some time after the Marten/Dora split and at some point stopped checking in because I stopped feeling that little charge of excitement when i clicked the bookmark for QC. Meanwhile, I still get that dopamine hit when I click the BF bookmark skull icon. I work nights, and part of my Monday/Wednesday/Friday routine is to start obsessively clicking as the clock rolls over to 11PM Central time. Between Failures is only one five webcomics I check on almost obsessively, and one of three that updated M/W/F. Those being Girl Genius, El Goonish Shive and Between Failures. EGS has characters I like as well as Fantasy/Sci Fi world building and is the cleanest fetish comic in existence. And Dan Shive actually occasionally finishes a story arc and fires Checkov’s Gun. I started reading Girl Genius because of What’s New With Phil and Dixie in the back of Dragon magazine back in High School (yes, I am an old f**k) and am enjoying the insanity. Between Failures is my Webcomic comfort food. I like these people. They feel like people I’ve worked with, and live relatively normal lives. All this is to say that I’ve kept reading your comic for years long after I’ve dropped most others. For whatever that’s worth. Oh, I also like the art style. It reminds me, favorably, of the mid 1970s Rankin and Bass Christmas Special animation. Part of being webcomic comfort food, I suppose.

I still read yours, QC, Dominic Deegan, Selkie, and occasionally Flipside (though that plot went too off the deep end for me for me to check it often). I don’t always comment, but I’m always reading

And happy Halloween Jackie :]

I still read QC. Not because I’m specifically invested in the story, but because the antics of the characters regularly gets a chuckle out of me.
With RSS, it’s pretty easy to follow without dedicating a part of my brain to it. When his RSS breaks, I’ve been going for more than a month without reading it before realising it was missing.

Regarding the writer himself, I never checked him outside of the main website, but I now that he managed to piss off a whole subreddit community, so you’re definitely not alone!
I’d be curious of a short summary of why he gets under people’s skins if someone feels like ranting about it.

It probably won’t affect my reading because I’m pretty good a dissociating the artist from the art, but seems like something that would be still useful to know.

I’m in the same boat, I read QC and enjoy it for a background chuckle, and was curious about the fuss – I’m not on social media much, so I’m usually behind on that stuff.

I dug Jeph up on Bluesky, but only saw a bunch of posts about his dog and yoga. I’m sure I’m missing something, though?

Goblinses

So that is Alex’s canonical surprised response?

/comics1/860-omg

–

I still read a pile of webcomics, QC and DofA chief among them. I got here by saving pics of Alex and Carol and bookmarking the site. At some point I just dove in, & caught up around halfway thru.

*metal gear ! sound*

Geez, Evrina looks like she going thru her supervillain origin arc.

I quit QC ages ago.

You’re the only webcomic I follow of the hlf dozen Ibused to read regularly.

I only religiously (buried metaphor here) follow BF, QC, Girl Genius, and one that hasn’t been mentioned, Spacetrawler. My go-tos for the last 20 years. Thanks, Jackie, for keeping this up for so long!

I discovered Between Failures right around when Ed and Nina got together when someone posted a pic of Nina on another website and have been hooked ever since. Easily my all time fav webcomic, smashing through QC and others i still read. Thank you for the years and the hard work you’ve put into it!

I still read QC. I know a lot of people object to some of the current storylines, but it has never been the story that bothered me. It is the size of the cast and the constant introduction of new characters. I am attached to certain characters, and now it’s often years between them getting a mention. Where is Emily? How is Brun doing? Are she and Millefeuille still hanging out… maybe dating? When is Hanners going to get an actual storyline again, rather than just reacting to people?

The only other webcomic on my regular list is Banana Triangle, which is dark and absurd, and I love it.

I remain baffled by Questionable Content and its relentless pursuit of woke.

I have the same feelings about Something Positive, because hanged if Milholland isn’t trying to inject that nonsense into Popeye too. But at least he’s done some funny things with that corpse, and that’s worthwhile.

I am regularly in on The Whiteboard, Penny Arcade, and of course right here. A real highlight of Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

I look for the resurrection of Juvenile Diversion, mourn the loss of Shotgun Shuffle, and still enjoy Girl Genius, Bittersweet Candy Bowl and the Order of the Stick.

I don’t know what the hell happened to Full Frontal Nerdity but I’m not at ALL happy about it.

So, yeah. That’s the rundown.

I’m trying to remember when I dropped Full Frontal Nerdity. It was at least a decade ago, but I don’t see any big hiatuses in their archive until now, when their last comic was in 2024.

I read a lot more webcomics than the other commenters here, I think, about three dozen that I check regularly.

…and if nothing else, you can remain thankful that you’re not Sinfest.

I don’t know what happened at Sinfest but that comic has lost its MIND.

“You little goblin.”

That is pretty much Evrina in a nutshell.

…OH MY…that makes Ramon a paladin, doesn’t it? Oh NOOOO…goblin shortstack has captured hoomin paladin! I’ve seen YouTube videos of how this ends up.

I can sympathize with Jackie on a couple of these issues. I can lose an x-acto knife on the table in front of me. Pain levels on any given day are a roll of the dice. The one that resonates the most today is the notion that you sometimes shouldn’t meet your heroes. In my case I’m an aviation buff and it was an eye opener to find out that some people like Eddie Rickenbacker and Charles Lindbergh were actually dicks in real life. As I grow old it turns out that the people I admired most were people I was around in everyday life.

I still look at QC if only for morbid curiosity.

Speaking of morbid, does anyone remember Scott something and his trio of wacky webcomics that are now gone? Dangerously Scene, Motokool and Nerf This!, those three were interconnected. Last I remember, he quit them and focused on artwork for official card game company, or just completely off line?

I do keep up with Sluggy Freelance,and XKCD. A Girl and her Fed has ended it’s 3rd part for now. The same author is doing Sidequested now; which seem to be a D&D styled world. It’s got some interesting world building.

Otherwise, I’m usually checking out Weeb Central for their mangas, and MangaPlus for official releases. I like Dandadan, 2.5 Dimensional Seduction, My Dress Up Darling (ended), and there are several others I can’t name right off the bat due to either being translated and not having official English release yet, or being something fairly plebian/unusual.

Either it was Dangerously Scene or Scout Crossing

I’ll add a few recommendations I haven’t seen mentioned: Concerning Matters of Blood, Grrl Power, Side Quested, and Wilde Life are among my favorites.

I can top the missing toy story. I lost a key from my keyboard (a chicklet-style at the time) when I kept my PC in my bedroom. It didn’t pop off during use, just one time I went to the keyboard it wasn’t there. I couldn’t find it anywhere, and of course I knew to blame the cat. Not that I said anything to her or that she would have cared if I did. Very frustrating, but it was a key I hardly ever used so I left it alone other than checking the room for it every now and then. About six months later it was back. In place, properly seated, working normally. That could very well have been the cat too, honestly, she was terrifyingly clever.

2902 Goblin Victory.

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