ChronosCat

Just for old times sake: Yay for starburst background in panel four! (I probably will cheer if Dan uses some more imaginative special backgrounds in the future, and definitely would if he brought back the flowery backgrounds, but I honestly don't have much enthusiasm for the starbursts anymore, thanks to Dan using them so often.) Or, you know, her actual father could have died, never been around, or just done such a poor job at being a father she latched onto someone better at it. Dan hasn't really done big bads since Damien was defeated. Lord Tedd and/or General Shade Tale were set up for the role but haven't been important in years (and we have reason to believe when they return Lord Tedd at least will be portrayed fairly sympathetically). Magus was originally the "mastermind", but now we know he's a fairly good guy who crossed a few lines in his desperation; while he may come into conflict with the main cast again he's hardly a supervillain. Pandora seemed like a big bad for a while, but went out as a hero. Sirleck was never redeemed and fulfilled a role similar to a big bad, but I don't think the comic focused on his threat enough for him to really count. Voltaire seems like a big bad right now, but we don't really know much about him yet and haven't seen him in a while. On the other hand, it does feel like Bishop is being set up to be a major adversary or at least an obstacle for the main cast at some point in the future (particularly if as Arthur implied the plan is for her to become the next head of the Paranormal division of the FBI).

Yes Back in the 90s he was in his 20s; I'm not sure how old he's being portrayed as now. He's actually lucky to not have reverted to a kid, given there have been at least two partial reboots of the DC universe that greatly compressed the timeline (and dropped and/or rewrote a lot of events) so superheroes could once again be a fairly recent phenomena and to help justify the characters who started as adults not growing old. I get that keeping a story set in something like the real world in sync with the real world is difficult when you only have so many installments a year to work with, and many writers and readers wouldn't like what started as set in the modern day becoming a period piece because things got out of sync (though personally I'd be fine with that). But as a fan of stories showing the progression of time, it really bugs me when writers (or executives) go out of their way to slow, stop, or reverse that progression in a story. (In fact, the feeling that I'd have to read for decades and get lucky to get the amount of change in the comics that happens in just a few years in real life is one of the reasons I stopped reading superhero comics.)

In addition to the use of the unforgivable curses, one thing that really bothered me was how Harry promised to give Griphook the Sword of Griffindor in return for help getting into Gringots, and deliberately left out that he intended to keep it until he was done with it before "honoring" the deal. And then somehow Harry and the narrative acted like Griphook was the one being treacherous when Griphook grabbed the sword and ran as soon as he got them where he'd agreed to take them. EDIT: I just double-checked the book and the end of the incident didn't go quite the way I remembered. Griphook didn't just run away, he joined up with the goblins trying to catch Harry's group, and any feeling of betrayal on Harry's part is implied rather than stated (at least in the section I read). So the scene was slightly worse than I remembered in one way, and slightly better in another. I've noticed this too with several authors, though I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. One author I noticed it with was Anne McCaffrey, though her works at least didn't get too bloated or crazy, just a little more rough-around-the-edges. Another was Akira Toriyama, leading to the jarring shifts in direction following Dragonball's Cell saga, and contributing to the Buu saga being so tedious (even for Dragonball).

Dick Grayson was in the role for over 40 (real world) years in the comics (and grew from child to young adult along the way), and remained the default person for the role in material not canon to the comics well into this century. Tim Drake also managed to keep the role for 20 (real world) years (incidentally spanning the entirety of my period of seriously collecting superhero comics). Damian Wayne has now been in the role for over 10 (real world) years. Admittedly, others to fill the role tend to be much more temporary (or consigned to rarely-touched-upon AUs).

You didn't miss much; as the series went on it got more dark and serious and lost a lot of what made the early books fun, and the final book was a mess in multiple ways (the most glaring for me on the first read being how bloated it was with plot threads that didn't go anywhere and scenes that seemed to exist mostly to make sure we felt just how tedious everything was for the characters; Harry also made a number of decisions I considered immoral but the text never called him out on it, which has bothered me more since I began to more critically examine the series).

Nanase seems to take more initiative in their Scooby-Doo adventures (from what we've seen), and is also the more powerful fighter and mage, so I think she would be Batman and Ellen Robin. Of course it would need to be one of the versions of Batman and Robin where Batman treats Robin as more of a partner than an inexperienced apprentice, and isn't constantly trying to push Robin (and all of Batman's other allies in Gotham) to the sidelines.

I wonder if Grace has given up on describing what she's saying before saying it, or if she just forgot/isn't bothering in this strip.

Two hours of snowblowing in the snow (the places I started with had almost an inch of new snow by the time I was done), followed by an hour of shoveling (and clearing off my car) in the rain (it's not warm enough for all the snow to melt, and waterlogged snow becomes a problem when it freezes). Not fun. It's still raining out; hopefully I don't need to clear a layer of ice off my car tomorrow morning.

I forgot to mention: Dan isn't in the habit of taking suggestions from fans (other than for Pinup/Sketchbook images), I'm not the sort to try to threaten an author to write things my way, and I'm not skilled enough at manipulation to make him think it was his idea. So time-travel or not, I really am just in it for the ride with EGS. Anyway, as I said, I trust Dan to write EGS in a way I'll enjoy. (I would have traveled back and put this in my previous post before I posted it, but just creating a new post is easier.) Unless she has multiple personalities, she isn't the only mind out there, as the mind who thought me up does not fit that description.

It's snowing right now (we're supposed to get several inches); late this afternoon it's supposed to change over to one or more of sleet / freezing rain / rain.

The fact that there are supposedly no time travelers in our era or history could mean a few different things: It could mean time travel is not possible. It could mean that time travel to the point in time prior to the creation of the time machine is impossible. It could mean that access to time travel is extremely limited, and those who use it to travel to our era or earlier have not made any major changes (or if they have we don't realize time travel was involved in history as we know it). It could mean that history cannot be changed (and since the form history has taken to this point does not include obvious time travel, anyone who bothers to travel back to our era is unable to make waves). Or it could mean there is a multiverse (with each act of time travel to the past being the origin for a new set of timelines), and we live in one of the timelines where few if any time travelers have yet arrived. In my personal experience the multiverse explanation is the primary one, but some universes have different rules of time travel in addition to that which provide additional reasons for the lack of apparent time travel (and of course, there are also plenty of timelines where the existence of time travel is quite obvious). Of course, I'm a fictional character, so my experience may not apply to the so-called "real world".

When I first read the strip, my thought was "Why are we getting more of Grace's classmates talking about her, we've already had that when Justin overheard them!". Hence the speculation about stalling for time (though Dan hasn't done that for while, and I think he has this story already pretty planned out, so I'd be surprised if that was the case). Now that you mention it, it could be to show what else they're saying (and not saying) about her. But if it was specifically supposed to emphasize that they aren't close to figuring out her secrets, it didn't really work for me as that point didn't even occur to me. It was an honest question! I never use my time travel to get spoilers for series written by authors I trust (such as Dan).

I wonder if this strip is part of a buildup to something, or just Dan stalling for time?

https://www.patreon.com/posts/just-not-sure-60871223 https://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/2022-001 I like Rhoda's outfit here.

I personally prefer small breasts (or even a flat chest); for me Ellen's default size is around the point where any larger and they hold no more appeal than any other random body part. (I'm not used to talking about such things, so even though it hopefully goes without saying, I feel the need to say: I'm talking specifically about what I find attractive, and I would never judge a real-world person for having body that doesn't suit my tastes.)

Not necessarily. It could simply be an oval spot for an emblem, sans-emblem. Assuming it's present-day Elliot imagining this, it's probably based on Cheerleadra's default costume, which also has an oval on the chest (which in the references I was able to quickly find was clearly not a cleavage window).

Being a vigilante is not a good thing, but Elliot not having always been a perfectly behaved child (and even liking violence) does make his history more interesting. (Also, adults tend to do a bad job keeping kids from bullying one another. While bullying the bullies isn't the best solution, Elliot protecting the victims of bullying was a good thing.)

I don't think it's so much a matter of the Dunkels being more likely than any other person to have tapped phones, as it's a matter of Mr. Verres not being 100% sure the lines aren't tapped and any risk of certain secrets being overheard being too big a risk. (Tedd/Mr.Verres saying the "odds are good" of the phone being tapped is presumably hyperbole, or the result of professional paranoia.) And I'm sure Mr. Verres wasn't worried abut his own branch of the FBI tapping those lines without his knowledge - the fear was someone who wasn't in on the Uryuom masquerade, or who might be on Damien's side, listening in (this was when Tedd was about to tell Elliot about Grace for the first time, after all).

Regarding previous jobs of the Dunkels, I'd like to point out that Mrs. Dunkel had to "drop out" of something (college according to Dan in 2014) due unplanned pregnancy. I always figured that was a reference to the US Government's habit of snooping on everybody (including phone and electronic communications of its own citizens). Of course Mr. Verres works for said government, but it's not unreasonable to think one intelligence agency would be keeping secrets from other intelligence agencies (particularly when it comes to secrets like magic and aliens) The problem is, creative works reflect the views of the person who created it, and bigotry often makes its way into said works. The Harry Potter series actually has a lot of problematic content, such as how most House Elves love being slaves and Hermione is ridiculed for wanting to free them. I know I didn't dwell too much on such things the first time through because I assumed (incorrectly) that our heroes would be making the Wizarding World a better place over the course of the series; however in the end they mainly just prevented it from getting a whole lot worse, and seem to have come to mostly accept the status quo. (Here is where I'd like to recommend some reviews talking about such things, but my exposure to them is only secondhand. I will say I've heard a lot of good things about the Shrieking Shack podcast.) There is a saying I agree with, "It's okay to like problematic things". In the case of Harry Potter, I will always have fond memories of my first time through, and I expect to continue to enjoy the original movies and select fanfiction. However, looking at the series more critically has decreased my enjoyment of it, and unless J.K. Rowling sincerely changes her views (and not just on Trans issues) I don't plan on sending a single dollar more her way.

The odd thing about this strip is, while I am definitely an introvert (I love being alone, tend to fade into the background in large gatherings, have few friends and don't really desire very many either; etc.) successful interactions with others, and even just being around others, actually seem to somewhat increase my energy levels. That said, as someone dealing with chronic depression, I can definitely identify with activities draining one's energy.

Happy Epiphany / Three Kings Day to any who celebrate. I don't, but I've always rather liked the Magi, so it's neat to know they have a holiday in some traditions.

Putting our tree on a fire would not be a good idea, as it's a plastic tree with built in fiber-optics.

It is a modifier, actually: it's a prefix that adds the "giant' (or "great", depending on your translation) to the giant monster. However, most Japanese monster movies are about giant monsters, so kaiju usually gets the point across on its own.

I'm probably not going to make a habit of this anymore, but for old-times sake: Yay for starburst backgrounds in panels one and three!

"Daikaiju" (I shouldn't have included a space), often shortened to "kaiju", is the Japanese term for giant monsters like Godzilla and Gamera, and is often used by fans of the giant monster genre across the world (since the majority of giant monster movies come from Japan). While not-turtle is not that big, prior to the shell opening up its design did look fairly similar to something you might see in a Japanese giant monster movie (particularly one from the 90s or 00s; the monster designs in that era got rather elaborate).