ChronosCat

I mostly play video games that originally came out on the NES or SNES, are part of series that had installments on those systems, or are in the style of games I'm already a fan of. (This is partially because whenever I get into a franchise I like to be as thorough as I can in my consumption of media related to it, and partially because renting games isn't really an option these days and I'm not going to spend $60 or more on a game that I don't have very good reasons to think I'll like.) My tastes include platformers, Zelda-style "adventure" games, Metroidvainias, and old-school JRPGS. Thinking on things further, there are a number of games Dan and I have both played, and series we've both played installments of. For instance, he did parodies of the Legend of Zelda and Pokemon series, and even did one about Grace playing Chrono Trigger (my favorite game). He's also mentioned the Mario series and Smash Bros. However, with the exception of Pokemon (which I have only played the earliest installments of), I get the impression he doesn't play those sorts of games much these days. He certainly has a lot more to say about Fallout, Skyrim, and other games I've never played and probably never will, than about the games we've both played.

Well, the "story" title is "Assorted 2022 A", and in the commentary Dan said he decided to do this joke as a standalone comic rather than as part of an Elden Ring inspired story. So maybe we'll be lucky and the majority of this collection of assorted comics won't be full of jokes we don't get. (Incidentally, it feels weird to me to be hoping Dan doesn't do many video-game inspired comics, as I really like video games. The problem is, there is very little overlap between the video games I play and the ones Dan plays.)

Not on his neck; the brace was enough to treat his neck injury. He did also break his wrist, though, and they needed to do surgery on that, so he has quite the scar there.

Other than the green tint, your neck brace looks a lot like the one my father had to wear after he crashed his motorcycle last summer (he's fine now).

Eh, it would probably only be the end of our current civilization, not humanity as a species. Still, I'm not exactly eager to try to survive a nuclear winter, so I quite appreciate NATO's caution.

There aren't many circumstances where 100% perfection is possible to achieve. Also, if "good enough" isn't good enough, can you really call it "good enough"? People who achieve power through means other than inheriting it are always at least "good enough" (often "very good") at acquiring power. It's just that there's no guarantee they have any other qualifications for whatever position they reach.

It's a relief to know Mr. Verres is alive (for now, but I expect it to stay that way for the foreseeable future) and that the attacker isn't one of the griffins the group made friends with. Speaking of which, points to mlooney for predicting it would be someone new.

So this raises a few questions: 1. Is that one of the griffins we know, or a new character with a griffin-like silhouette? We don't know them very well, but it seems out of character for them to attack anything besides an aberration without at least a warning. (I mean at the mall it didn't take long before Tara started attacking Elliot, but she at least tried to ask questions first.) 2. Why are they attacking? This seems directed at them, not just a stray shot. It would be a strange coincidence for someone unrelated to the griffins to be here now, and anyone from the other side of the world shouldn't know who Mr. Verres or Grace were. And yet, they seem to consider at least one of the three an enemy and enough of a threat there's no time/need for a warning shot (unless this WAS the warning shot, in which case they appear to have gone a little overboard). I've speculated that other-side Uryuoms are enemies to the griffins, and I still think that the most likely option; however they could also hate wizards. Elliot could also be a target (it wouldn't be the first time), but without Voltaire to paint him as a villain, I'm not sure why. 3. Is Mr. Verres dead? On the one hand, the composition of this page seems to imply it; also there's been a lot of emphasis on things Edward and Tedd wanted to talk to each other about but hadn't gotten around to, and killing him off would make that more painful (and thus add to the drama). On the other hand, Dan already did that with Mr. Raven and Pandora, and doing it again would feel cheap. Also, if the recent phone call was about Lavender and Edward being in a relationship and/or Lavender moving in, that conversation becomes far less important if Edward isn't around any more (unless Tedd was going to have a half-uryuom half-sibling soon or something).

We can't yet rule out the possibility this is one of the griffins (though that would require them being even more angry and willing to act violently without warning than at the Mall). Dan doesn't treat each week as an "installment", so from one point of view every comic with a suspenseful end is a cliffhanger, from another only those stories (or at least story parts) that leave off on a suspenseful note are cliffhangers. He also doesn't deliberately pace things so that the suspenseful comics happen on Fridays. Friday's comic might still be more suspenseful, or it might be the same level, or even less.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/flexing-grace-63184001 https://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/2022-003 I think Grace looks good like this.

My current guess (thanks to having been skimming the past couple years' comics): the unicorn from the conclusion of Parable is from the Griffins' side of the world, and either he arrived with the grypons or they just happen to have met up in the woods. However, he and the Griffins have some serious differences which have led to an argument (possibly one with the potential of turning violent). ...Of course, mloony is probably right about it being someone new, but you never know.

I was just about to start a thread myself; good thing I double-checked before hitting "submit"... I wonder if Grace is actually trying to imply she's in a relationship with Ellen, or if she just hugged Ellen out of habit and the timing is a coincidence. I feel like the comic is trying to suggest the former, but the later would be funnier and more in character (in a culture that expects people to be monogamous, suggesting she's in a relationship with Ellen is very similar to denying her relationship with Tedd, which she wouldn't want to do). Oh, and yay for glowing-circle background with heart decorations in panel three! (I'd have preferred a flowery background, but at this point I've come to accept that Dan isn't using them any more.)

So (since we're discussing ways the meeting could go wrong) this seems like a good time to mention a theory I've been developing: We know Uryuoms aren't from space after all, however back in the early days there was all that talk about their "home planet". What if it's actually "home world", and that "world" is the Gryphon's side of the world? (And then it turns out that the Gryphons consider Uryuoms their enemies.) In Hidden Genesis, Pandora said she "caught him in my wings". I suspect that wherever Magus was blown to, it wasn't the realm the Immortals generally hang out in, and Pandora moved him to her plane to save him from floating endlessly between worlds or something. (Of course that raises the question of whether she could have moved him to the physical plane and chose not to, or if doing so would actually have been beyond even her power.)

Tedd used to spend a lot of time without a mouth, so Grace probably doesn't think much of it. Probably the same way Tedd used to talk without a mouth. Maybe they're able to send out telepathic messages that the recipients can easily mistake for speech?

I believe "glurk" is a sound made by something along the lines of a surprised gulp. Also, given Justin's blush, I think he's attracted to the jock.

Exactly how much of a berserker the Hulk is varies from story to story. There's usually at least one person (usually Betty Ross) who he won't hurt, and he often is quite capable working with other heroes without harming them, and avoiding harm to bystanders (if he notices them) - he's just quick to consider anyone who uses force against him a foe, without any consideration for why someone might be trying to stop him. And of course, his reaction to those he considers enemies is to try to smash them (and any objects between him and them).

I think we already did see Grace's equivalent to going Hulk. It was mostly the bad guy who suffered as a result, though she did manage to accidentally hit someone with shards of the chair she broke free from.

I still say the thing about the moving van could have been meant for emphasis, and not indicating the move is happening soon. You know, in a "this will take you so long that this far off thing will happen first" sort of way. In fact it's possible they haven't even made a decision someone will be moving, and it's just a logical assumption for Lavender (or whoever is on the other end of the conversation) based on the way things are going. (In case my train of thought isn't clear, it wouldn't be the move that Edward is delaying telling Tedd about in this case. Assuming the other person is Lavender, I think their relationship itself is what he needs to tell Tedd about.)

This thought could work with the "Edward and Lavender's relationship" idea too: what if rather than Lavender moving in with the Veres, Edward is going to be moving in with Lavender?

Ah, but dragon-type is a different thing from fire-type. (Or at least it was back in the early days of the series; I haven't been keeping up.)

People can have romance without sex, and both without any plans for having kids. I'm fairly sure Edward and Lavender's relationship is beyond friendship at this point, but I also doubt they have any current plans to have kids. I believe Dan has stated before that Lavender's figure is one she created for herself, with the help of a cosmetic morphing device (one less versatile than the TFG). To me this suggests she probably has a least a little interest in sex (or at least human companionship of the sort that usually includes sex), though admittedly there are other reasons she could have chosen that form.

I'm also guessing it's Lavender (in large part due to how friendly the two are talking; we don't know of any other characters who Mr. Verres would chat that casually with, or who would respond equally casually). Interestingly, Mr. Verres' relationship with Lavender might help explain his changed attitude towards Tedd's transformations, given how fluid Uryoms can be about form and gender. It's also worth noting that they don't necessarily already have a date set for moving; it's possible that line was just to emphasize how long it could take to find a good time to tell Tedd and Grace.

[90s anime dub reference]And lots of talent.[/reference]

I don't know about webcomics (even at the height of my interest back in 2006 I couldn't have checked out more than a few dozen of them, and it's been a very long time since I've been actively reading more than a couple of them), but long-running comic books (particularly the multi-comic superhero "universes" produced by Marvel and DC) tend to be very retcon heavy with confusing convoluted continuities. (Mind you, I haven't read more than a handful of new Marvel or DC comics in the past two decades, but I've heard enough to know things haven't improved since I was heavily into superhero comics.)

I've long preferred this format when writing dates in numeral form. After all, when we write big numbers, the most significant digits are on the left, so it only makes sense to continue that line of big-to-small through month and day. Also, if you don't shorten the year, it greatly reduces the chance of confusion over which number represents what, as year-day-month isn't very popular (whereas month-day-year and day-month-year are both popular enough that you never know which you're going to encounter). My favorite number is 4, so I'm looking forward to 4:44 AM on April 4, 4444.