02-10-15 Put it on my calendar

[Spidrift]

Suddenly Julian! This is bad, Ruby, encouraging the boy.

But a known error on Ruby's part. She got a clue with regard to Nathan when Dillon found the right words to explain that mistake to her; hopefully, she'll be pulled up before she does too much damage here. But after she completes the calendar.

I guess that the trick then would be finding Julian a boyfriend, for whom he doesn't have squicky associations.

[JerrBear]

Hey, JerrBear, how's it going?

I'm okay. You?

[JoybuzzerX]

Not a good poster when one of them doesn't look to be enjoying themselves. Ruby obviously can't notice.

[Spidrift]

That expression reflects Dillon's actual feelings about the situation. But he's a professional actor, and Ruby has a good eye for this stuff. You can bet that, at the moment when she hits the button, in the picture she actually uses, he'll be looking fine.

Oh gods, we're not going to get twelve of those pics as bonus images with the next print volume, are we?

[JTheCreator]

Well since you asked so nicely haha. Come to think of it, this volume ends soon. But I don't feel like anything has been resolved.

Quote removed. The DAMNed

[Zippy]

Not that soon. Just past the two-thirds mark, minimum of 23 weeks (plus con/Xmas/Kickstarter-induced skips).

[Spidrift]

Yeah, we'll be well into next year before the volume break. Anything could happen between now and then.

(But trying some onager guessing: Volume 1 had the rise and fall of Dillon's relationship with Jerzy, Ruby being established as a character who was prone to getting hosed, and Amber kind of marking time and chasing short-term options while trying to reestablish herself in conventional society. So far, volume 2 has Dillon beginning to confront the core of his problems, Ruby beginning to resolve her first-order problems and make a place for herself in the world, and Amber making a first attempt at a relatively normal relationship. I think that 47 strips is about enough for each of those to suffer setbacks: say, Dillon hits more and more trouble with Ruby and Julian wanting him to be the old Dillon, Ruby has to confront the reality of her own libido, and Amber suffers a disastrous end to this amateurish first attempt at being normal. But that sort of guessing is asking to be made to look like an idiot.)

[Azrael]

Hey, JerrBear, how's it going?

I'm okay. You?

Not bad. Good to see you back around.

[Don Alexander]

1. Bananas
2. Calendar
3. ??????????
4. PROFIT!!!

So, chapter end? Smells like it.

And WB to JerrBear, no posts for three years.

[Spidrift]

I don't think of the Ma3 comics as breaking up into chapters the way that the *C universe stuff does. We don't have one or two central characters having a Wacky Adventure(TM) and then going home for tea; we have a bunch of people with interweaving plots and concerns. I know that the print books have chapter divisions, and we do get the occasional standalone story, like the Vyndicator or Precious Overlord Incidents, but mostly those divides look a bit arbitrary.

Which said, okay, it seems likely that we may get a scene cut here - but you could equally say that the cut has already happened, after panel 3 in this strip. So we may get a cut to Amber and Ray, or Jerzy and Angel - or we may get more on Ruby's yaoi calendar project, or that family dinner...

[JTheCreator]

I wonder if Jerzy will be made an important character again. Angel took a lot of the spotlight for a bit. Would be a bit odd of he's just gone from the comic.

[Spidrift]

I imagine that he'll be back sooner or later, unless the creators have just got really, really bored with that plot strand. Apart from anything else, he lives in the next apartment to the power trio, so he ought really to pop up occasionally. Plus, Angel's date with Richie was set up over a whole string of strips, which seems a bit pointless unless it causes trouble between Angel and Richie (or something).

The obvious possibility would be for him to come back into Dillon's life as a romantic prospect - but it might be more of an interesting twist if he, say, ended up dating Julian for a while. Or Ruby could run into him when she needs to talk to somebody she knows a little who isn't Amber or Dillon.

It might be a while before any of that happens, though. Two strips a week and all that.