So just to be clear, they’re not in some world where the sun is super bright or anything, Sydney is just… that way. Melodramatic just for her own amusement. She’s probably not even aware that she does stuff like that… or that she has the option to just walk straight to her car and not act like a maniac.
Admit it, there are days where you’ve walked outside on an especially bright day and felt that the sun was just showing off.
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Discussion (89) ¬
Not my jaundicy glow! Do you know how long it took to get this pale look?
Jaundice is actually a condition where your skin turns orange or yellowish, which is the result of excess consumption of one vitamin or another, possibly vitamin k since eating two man carrots can cause jaundice.
two….man carrots? what like at the same time?
They are probably related to mandrake.
They used to tie dogs to mandrake, to pull it out of the ground. Due to the tales that they would emit a deadly scream when uprooted. So the dog owner would stopper up their ears, retreat to a distance, and let the dog die in their stead.
Which does make you wonder what they thought when the dogs remained perfectly healthy mind.
Of course we will never let on the secret of how we can stopper up our ears, even though we only have paws.
actually true jaundice is only caused by hyperbilirubinaemia, from the break down of red blood cells, and can be alleviated in mild cases by sunlight (an old midwifes trick is to put slightly jaundiced babies on the windowsil). what you are describing as jaundice from carrots is actually pseudo-jaundice, and carrots are not particularly known for their vitamin K, more for their vitamin A, (alpha/beta-carotien), which can dye your skin yellow, but tends to spare the eyes, which is how you tell the difference without blood tests.
as a baby who was diagnosed with Jaundice, they just put me under sunlamps in the hospital. with a pair of baby-sized sunglasses.
apparently my grandfather was envious?
Me too!
My dad thought my mum had been fooling around with a golden retriever.
I thought she was pretending to be a vampire.
Maybe it’s the first sunny day in a week?
Is that a particular model car or just a generic
Webcomic prop?
It’s a Honda Element. I’m sure I eventually draw it from an angle that you can tell what it is.
I love that car. That’s what I drive. I noticed my self. lol
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. With the trend of “build cars that look like boxes on wheels” going on, it’s pretty much impossible to tell what they are in real life without getting a full view of the auto company’s logo.
Well, part of that is car companies figuring out what shapes really are best combined with figuring out what not to do[1]. This results in cars/vans/etc. converging on the ideal shapes.
[1] Which is mostly: Stop having all those ornamental bits sticking out from the car.
sadly I was a little bummed when I saw her car for the first time, I pictured her having some lil’ ol’ truck that her father gave her and she cherished it. but that’s just me, so don’t change a thing cause it’s worth every reread as is.
Is there any chance you’ll ever draw some sports cars? I don’t expect this to turn into Inital D or anything, and I know cars tend to date comics, but car nerds need love, too. I’m not asking for much; just a little bit of tail lamp or a headlight flash as a service for the fans. I’d even take a topless roadster spread!
That’s fairly unlikely as I dislike drawing cars. They are tedious at the best of times, but you never know. I imagine some of the team have sweet rides.
What about doing a cel shading filter over a 3D model of a car instead of the tedious drawing?
That’s actually exactly what I did in the second to last panel.
Gawd, she is bad as some of the Chinese women who even on the hottest Texas days cover every inch of their body and use an umbrella or newspaper to keep the sun off their face just so they can maintain their pale white skin.
umbrellas keep ya cool so using them on hot days is a good idea maaaaan
Like…Totally.. Duuuuuude
(and I like to be melodramatic for the sake of being melodramatic/my own amusement… I’m not the only one… ? Right. :S
I am not ashamed to say I do the same XD I will yell and argue with myself…completely alone, just because it’s like a make-up for not having TV plugged in….although if I was REALLY bored or just felt like it, I would end up just watching anime all day or whatever then, online XD
@Thrythblind: how did you manage that? I have a trenchcoat, and finding out a way to make it cool would be handy…
indeed…so does covering up if you do it in a way that allows air to be trapped between you and the outside…once was running concessions at the beginning of a Utah spring, the one year I lived in Utah, and the only one in the concession group wearing a hat and trenchcoat (pre-columbine). kept getting told I was crazy, but I stayed cool all day and never got a sunburn…
I’m probably worse than Sydney….
If it is a bright day out and the sun is shining on me directly, I actually feel the burning. Though I don’t actually get sunburns which is odd.
You do know the sun is trying to kill you right?
that burning is the sun slowly trying to cause you to combust!!
Phear the SUN! PHEAR IT!
I’ve always had problems with sunlight as well, but less because of my very pale skin and more because of my hyper-photo-sensitive eyes. It sometimes gets to the point where just going outside on a bright sunny day can be blinding (and I’m not talking about actually looking AT the sun just looking at eye level.) My first year in college I started referring to the sun as the EVIL BURNING DAY ORB OF DOOM!
I like the clever zig-zag pattern she takes in attempt to dodge the death rays from the sky.
Reminds me of the Family circus comics or is it denies the menis comics that does that.
Didn’t think of that, but now that you mention it
This is a beautiful strip. The colour choices, the incredibly detailed and proportioned car, the facial expressions… It’s hard to believe this is a “new” strip, but I’m excited to see how it turns out. FYI – if people don’t read the commentary, they may not understand that Sydney isn’t a vampire, since you did the fangs in panels 5 and 7. I think panel 6 is sufficient to explain it, but I’ve been reading all along.
Thanks! To be fair though, I’m not good at drawing cars at all so I need to rely heavily on photo reference. That would explain the detail. I was pretty proud of the picture of the car in the second to last panel then I had to cover most of it up with dialog balloons. :P
The fang thing is from anime. Some of the subsets of the styles exaggerate the canines and it’s something I picked up on. I probably need to scale that back a bit because at least one of the characters will have actual sharp teeth, so it will be easier to convey that if Syd doesn’t look like a saber toothed nerd.
As long as her fangs only show up when she is in fury mode it should be obvious that it’s just to accentuate that.
I actually do have canines that long, and molars that pointy. Comes from a slight overbite. Of course, that made all off my teeth long, but that’s besides the point. It makes an open mouthed smile from me kinda creepy.
I kinda want to see that XD so far, I am like the only person I know with longer-than-normal canines…but they’re not THAT extra long, and are the normal sharpness lol first time I realized it was different was when someone came up and was all “heeeeey, you’ve got vampire teeth!” my response? “Uhhhhhh….what??”
Lucky.
Making her self out to be a bit evil huh?
Why do these still say 2010 in the copyright at the bottom? Wasn’t this one drawn in 2011?
I made a template with a few pre-built elements that I’ve been too lazy to update. So look for that to change… eventually.
I hate the sun too!!!
It burnnesss!!! It BURRRNNNESSS!!!!
Feels like being hit by a firehose of burning gas.
What? I live in Florida.
interesting shaped bald spot that joel has, very stylish.
And poor sydney, definitely not kryptonian.
I had suspected it before, but I think this strip convinces me, that Syd is my kind of girl. I’d totally spend an afternoon hanging out with her and we’d have a blast. I did things like this a lot in high school, and still do it when I get with a group of friends for say a convention. Imagination makes the real world a lot more fun. Kids do this kind of thing all the time, and I see no reason why “responsible adults” can have fun playing pretend too.
*can’t have fun too, rather.
Sydney reminds me so much of myself. Cept, y’know, not a guy. Even has an awesome car.
lol Syd’s on special brand of insanity very nice
reminds me not all her powers may be from the tube. “man kind forces itself to fight by entering into insanity, the power of the dragonknight comes from amplifying that insanity” elder dragonknight to new recrutes. syd mastered the get power part but skipped the maintain control classes.
Yeah, you got yourself another fan here and as one of the Joels of the world i have a Syd of my own. That’s something you cant ever stop watching
Sad part is, that literally is reality for me. The problem with sunlight. I actually have a rather serious sun allergy. I break out in horrific rashes on anything exposed to sunlight when it’s brighter than the winter sun. And it spreads from there. Really. So that “jaundicy glow” is a fact of life for me. I’m so white I glow. with a black light. Seriously.
Yeah, same here, except not that severe. I can stand up to 20 or 30 minutes of sun, depending on the day. Some days in the summer, my tops is five minutes. My rashes are so severe I get to bind them so people are not horrified of them.
And yes, “jaundicy glow”… Some people have asked me if I was dressing up as a zombie, or something, because that skin tone does not come in normal people.
My whole family’s like that. We can’t go out in the sun for more than fifteen minutes without sunscreen, but even with it we sometimes burn. I’ve even had sunburns in the winter. Of course, we are redheads… SPF 80 for the win! (Yes, 80 exists.)
I’m thinking of dressing as a vampire next Halloween. All I need are fangs!
See, It’s not sunburn, but a rash complete with radiating heat, ichyness, and hives so nasty that when I get the mess of it, i go and hide underground for basically 2-3 weeks while it works itself out. the humor in the situation is, my family used to call me a vampire back when i wore black because it was cheap and convenient, and i didnt go outside cause we lived in the countryside and thus it was boring as shit.
Ah. Ouch. Yes, we’re not quite that bad; we just burn. I can relate, though; avoiding sunlight can be hard.
Shit can be interesting though.
…If you’re a scatologist. (heehee)(just ignore my geek humour)
I’m one of those rare people who will not get a tan even if I stay in the sun for 6 hours strait. With sunblock I won’t get burned even if I stay on a beach for 12 hours. Yet I never go outside!
If you had a jaundicy glow, wouldn’t you be yellow?
Well she doesn’t actually have jaundice, she’s just being melodramatic.
Speaking of Syd being melodramatic, I’d like to see Joel’s reaction to her parking lot antics
It’d probably be the same panel as the previous comic, possibly including the word bubble “I can’t believe I went in to business with her.”
Ya know I’m kinda the same way. of course I work graveyard, so that may have something to do with it.
…
Evil Sunlight….
Wow, she finally got out of the comic store! Her previous attempt at advertising excluded.
Yup! Just a quick stop for lunch and then it’s on to the plot! And actually in the next page, one fairly important detail is… revealed? Hinted at? It’s hard for me to gauge how easy it will be to decipher what’s going on, since I know. I think it’ll be obvious but I’ll refrain from commenting on it.
We just saw here operating a door…. should this girl really operate a car?
did anyone else notice that the poster tube is not in the last frame?
Maybe it’s sitting in the seat catching the sun’s harmful rays while Sydney basks in the safety of man-made shade
She is such an adorable dork.
lol never seen the sun do that to any one but my sister when she was in that vampire phase….
Good thing she doesn’t sparkle :-D
Ecch. Three words: Southern California summer. Great if you’re trying to bake yourself, not so great if your skin is translucent white. I just use an umbrella.
For shade! Duh.
that was their original purpose long before people used them in the rain
The sun, too bright, it burns, and I don’t have chlorophyl in my tissues either.
Wait…does Joel have a bald spot?
I iz confuddled.
Yes she does. Male Patterned Baldness (MPB) develops at different speeds in different people, that includes some women too.
Question, Dave: you said in the comments on the last page that the door opened outwards, and the panels suggested that too, but isn’t she opening it inward here?
My third time reading the archives and I only just now notice that.
Hah hah, whoops.
agh!!! IT BURNS!!!!!!!! lol
Heinous terasphere of nuclear fusion. How I sincerely hate it.
Unfortunately the people who go around being merely melodramatic and facetious about it make life more difficult for those of us for whom the sun is a more serious problem.
There is somewhat of a lack of data-filtering between my senses and my brain… so light even at the level of fluorescent office lighting is painful, meaning I have to wear sunglasses during the day at all times. Plus my skin itches when exposed to direct sunlight… and all my clothing is black since anything lighter would cause uncomfortable levels of reflectivity…
BUT everyone just assumes I’m just doing it for show, and I get all sorts of mockery, glares and suchlike for it.
Needless to say I hate sunny weather, and tend to get very antsy when profligates start waxing gleeful over it.
Damn! I think I’m falling for this girl :D
Yes she does have an interesting personality. Just so long as her histrionics are excused it could work. But only if she is interested.
XD I’m actually rather light sensitive due to b-vitamin absorption issues, so I wind up doing similar myself on a regular basis…As a result, my friends regularly accuse me of being a vampire ^_^()
Even my own mother accused me of such.
The sun IS always trying to show off. Im Irish/Swedish descent, I burn in 20 minutes on a cloudy day. The sun is evil!
“The Sun can KILL you!” -Harvey Birdman
“Suns don’t kill people, people WITH Suns kill people.”
Birdman gained his solar power from the Great God Ra aka our Sun.
With my lack of much melanin I am in 90 percentile to get skin cancer if I stay out in the sun too long. And most vampires of the original stories weren’t bothered by crosses or the sun’s rays.
He he. I only just noticed the name for this page, and it got a good laugh from me. Yup, I guess sunlight is.
I love how she does all her own sounds effects XD.
I have done this.
In public.
I have no regrets.
Lol.
Be proud!
Joel’s bald spot seems to change shape. Maybe it’s an indicator of his emotions, like in anime characters with kitty ears or certain instances of “idiot hair”. If so, it’s a pretty unique take on expressive hair.
I have had only a couple of sunburns in my 66 years, I tend to get rather dark. Thanks to my Haudenosaunee, ancestry.
kitty