Websnark

Comment from: LurkerWithout posted at December 22, 2005 6:46 PM

You should start a S*P Deadpool. And then when Randy bets on it under an alias we'll know where the comic is going...

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 22, 2005 6:49 PM

It's an entirely new funding model for Something Positive! Peejee takes a dive while Randy cleans up under the name "Betty Yeoh."

Comment from: Spatulus posted at December 22, 2005 7:22 PM

Actually, I'm pretty sure she's not dead. For one thing, isn't Cab a doctor?

Comment from: Sundre posted at December 22, 2005 7:27 PM

I wanted to shout out loud when I saw that one. But could only squeak, because there is no way to shout a word that means the same thing as YES! and NO! at the same time. You cannot intertwingle joy, horror, and anticipation with a rousing cry of MAYBE!

Comment from: John Lynch posted at December 22, 2005 7:38 PM

I saw her fainting as a sign that she's quite likely pregnant, which would be strange given that (as far as I can remember) she hasn't been dating anyone. But just because we haven't seen her dating, doesn't mean she hasn't been, or that she hasn't been having one night stands (either on a regular basis or once or twice).

So why would her being pregnant cause her to faint? I think pregnant women are prone to doing that, especially if they aren't eating enough (which can happen if they don't know they're pregnant?). Then again, I could be wrong there. I haven't known too many pregnant people in my life.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 22, 2005 7:39 PM

I had forgotten Cab was a doctor. You're right. She's likely to be okay.

Of course, he also looks pretty freaked out.

Comment from: SeanH posted at December 22, 2005 7:46 PM

Given that we haven't seen any kind of male partner, to the best of my recollection, a pregnancy would be a weird move - to borrow Chekhov's metaphor, a gunshot when we haven't seen a gun.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 22, 2005 7:47 PM

Actually, I think Cab looks fairly together. He's worried, sure, but I think he is together/skilled enough to make sure PeeJee lives in this situation.

Though it isn't so weird to notice Cab calling her "Penny" first. I mean, he does it in the previous day's comic too in the first panel. That's when I noticed it and wondered how that happened without Cab losing important organs.

Comment from: Plaid Phantom posted at December 22, 2005 7:58 PM

Sundre: I find that such an exclamation can usually be satisfied with something along the lines of "GREEAaahhhhh!" It would, however, be a tad less appropriate for a workplace environment than others, I suppose.

Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at December 22, 2005 8:01 PM

It's a virgin bi --

ummm... it's a spontaneous birth!

Comment from: Doc posted at December 22, 2005 8:14 PM

Cab being a doctor was actual the first thing I thought of since it allowed me to go 'Oh goddamn so that's why Milholland made him a doctor that evil bastard.'

Comment from: Escushion posted at December 22, 2005 8:26 PM

My first reaction to this one was "Oh, of course he puts up three just so he can be giddy with a nasty little cliffhanger. That bastard."

Of course, I love Something Positive. But that doesn't keep it from aggravating the hell out of me sometimes.

Comment from: Tyck posted at December 22, 2005 8:57 PM

When I read this comic, my thoughts went:
1. Huh? Penny?
2. Ooh, that's a Snarking. (imagine Jasper..."That's a paddling.)

Eric wasn't the only one.

Comment from: alschroeder posted at December 22, 2005 9:21 PM

It's not pregnancy, it's not something life-threatening (well, not EXTREMELY life-threatening.)

It's chicken pox. (Which can be dangerous to adults, but still, not terminal cancer or anything...)

Read the ones just posted.

--Al

Comment from: Forsaken_One posted at December 22, 2005 9:47 PM

Tyck: I really would have preferred it if you had just posted that Randy updated about the issue, not what you did. I hadn't read the updated comic(s) when I clicked on this snark so your post sapped some of the fun out of the comic for me. I was just expecting speculation on the comic listed at the top.

I donÌt know, maybe everyone else feels that it was perfectly fine and IÌm an idiot for not clicking on S*P before reading the snark comments on an old S*P. But thatÌs how I feel. Just sayin'.

Comment from: Forsaken_One posted at December 22, 2005 9:49 PM

I guess that could be for alschroeder as well as Tyck looking at it. Meh. My point, such as it was, came across I think.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 22, 2005 9:49 PM

Tyck didn't out it. Al did. For the record.

Comment from: Forsaken_One posted at December 22, 2005 9:51 PM

*facepalm*

Grr, I meant only alschroeder. God I wish this had an edit function right now. Apologies Tyck. IÌll shut up now before my foot goes even deeper into my mouth. :P

Comment from: Will "Scifantasy" Frank posted at December 22, 2005 9:53 PM

As Al said, the next three have been posted, with the hint of more tonight. I suppose Milholland hit a groove.

What's interesting about these new three is that Milholland tells us this isn't really Davan's story. While Davan has any number of problems, and he will be fundamentally rocked by the discovery that he was so caught up in the past that he's missing out on the present, this is about Peejee, in a hospital bed, alone.

Worse, it's about her all alone with the crowd not far. I'm known to quote Babylon 5 and say that the only feeling worse than being all alone in the night is being all alone in a crowd. Peejee...gets both. How wonderful.

Comment from: Escushion posted at December 22, 2005 10:02 PM

Okay, so I was wrong, there wasn't a long-standing cliffhanger.

And yet the new third comic does worse to me as a reader than the last third. :(

Comment from: alschroeder posted at December 22, 2005 10:18 PM

Sorry, I did indeed out it, but that's because I clicked on the link to SOMETHING POSITIVE in the body of the Snark and that's the first thing they mentioned.

But apologies to those whom it spoiled the speculations thereof, especially Forsaken.---Al

Comment from: abb3w posted at December 22, 2005 10:40 PM

Eric, you probably ought to change the links from pointing to the Something Positive front page (where the spoiler answer of what-it-was appears at this point) to link to the page for the particular comic originally being snarked.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 22, 2005 10:55 PM

Done.

Comment from: PatMan posted at December 22, 2005 11:04 PM

"Is it weird that I realized her boss called her "Penny" instead of "Peejee" *before* I realized she'd just collapsed and lost consciousness?"

I realized that in the previous strip, as soon as he first said it. It was bugging me the whole time. The first thing I thought of , actually, was that I don't think we've ever heard PeeJee's first name before.

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 22, 2005 11:11 PM

Actually, we have. Her name is Penelope Jennifer. (I think Jennifer.) Her father used to call her Penny-Jenny.

Comment from: Pyrthas posted at December 22, 2005 11:30 PM

See, e.g., http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02082003.shtml.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 22, 2005 11:33 PM

Chicken pox is one of those diseases that's nastier if you get it when you're older. Heck, I remember getting it when I was 13. I was laid out for three weeks. If PeeJee somehow managed to avoid contracting it until adulthood... well, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they kept her hospitalized until after Davan got back.

Comment from: Bo Lindbergh posted at December 23, 2005 12:03 AM

The only redeeming feature of chicken pox was being encouraged to infect the girls next door (since their parents wanted them to catch it in a timely manner).

Comment from: TheNintenGenius posted at December 23, 2005 12:44 AM

If PeeJee somehow managed to avoid contracting it until adulthood... well, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they kept her hospitalized until after Davan got back.

Getting it when you're that old doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be laid that severely. I managed to give my parents both the chickenpox when they were in their 30s (I was a regular typhoid mary, I guess, since I also gave it to my brother, infecting EVERYBODY in the house in one fell swoop), and while they were both definitely out for a while, they didn't need hospitalization.

Honestly, what really was kind of an insult to injury for me about getting chickenpox was I managed to get my case of it the exact same year they finally came out with the chickenpox vaccine.

I'm at least glad that it wasn't anything too serious with PeeJee, though. I like her.

Comment from: Joseph White posted at December 23, 2005 1:52 AM

This is completely and utterly off-topic, but I wanted to know if anyone else has noticed that Marten and Faye have shown up in today's Scary Go Round.

Comment from: Spatulus posted at December 23, 2005 2:13 AM

This is just a thought, but I was just thinking about the last snark on SP when Kim returned, and the idea that everyone's changed but Davan. Well, I'm not entirely convinced he'd bend over backwards for Aubrey or Peejee anymore, not like he used to.

Comment from: Mroo posted at December 23, 2005 2:17 AM

NintenGenius - Pintsize is there too

Comment from: Mroo posted at December 23, 2005 2:18 AM

geh...meant Joseph White...blah..

Comment from: Dan Severn posted at December 23, 2005 2:33 AM

Wow, I can't believe I've never gotten around to reading S*P before. I started reading the archives a few days before, and checked websnark the comic before the one linked.

I often have a hard time gauging how I feel about a comic the first time I read through the archives. There are some comics that I actively despise now which I enjoyed when I read the archives. It's instant gratification. If only one comic in five amuses me at all, that's still something funny every couple minutes, and tens or hundreds of times.

The way I judge my reaction is how many comics I save. When a comic strikes a chord with me, whether it be funny, or poignant, or just good, I save it into this big folder of files I never look at. With S*P, I must have saved twenty comics. That's a lot. That's a heckuva lot.

So finishing the archives right at a snark-worthy note, well, that's just awesome.

Honestly, why the hell did I never read this comic before? Why is Choo Choo Bear the greatest character ever created? Why do people insist on saying that the sky is blue because it reflects the ocean? These and other questions will be answered in the next chilling episode of Severn is too lazy to read things everyone tells him are good.

Now, about that Gatsby. . .

Comment from: Amanda W posted at December 23, 2005 2:37 AM

PeeJee is the one character I most identify with in the strip. She better as hell not be killed off!!

Randy's got one more strip in the sequence that isn't on the front page (yet). I feel so sneaky having seen it now. (I think it's the fact that it's dark and everyone's gone to bed that's aiding that feeling...)

Comment from: Amanda W posted at December 23, 2005 2:40 AM

A general note:

For being such a bunch of misanthropes, the S*P cast shows more real, genuine compassion than I see in many real life people. It's what I love about the comic.

Comment from: J.A.K posted at December 23, 2005 3:49 AM

Amanda, thanks for pointing that out. It's a really nice one: Eric, are we allowed to speculate from the one currently not yet on the front page, or would you prefer we didn't until it is on the front page, or what?

Comment from: Eric Burns posted at December 23, 2005 4:18 AM

I think it'd be rude to speculate on it before it went up. If you're asking me -- and you ARE!

Comment from: sinless posted at December 23, 2005 6:25 AM

All I have to say about the end of year 4 is 'Aaaaww . . .'

If I say anything else I fear getting pelted with rotten tomatoes for providing a spoiler.

P.S. I am in shock that Typekey actually let me in from work for once!!!

Comment from: J.A.K posted at December 23, 2005 6:46 AM

End of year four is now up ... and Randy does the unexpected as usual. It's really good.

*Barely SPOILER*

Now what will go wrong?

Comment from: alschroeder posted at December 23, 2005 6:47 AM

I agree with sinless about the end of year 4 (some additional strips he put up). (And no, I won't provide spoilers this time. I learned my lesson. Sorry again, Eric. Won't happen again.)

Also suggest you read Randy's comments about how the comic interplayed with his life over 2005. Very revealing.

Comment from: Daerv posted at December 23, 2005 6:53 AM

I concur! Aaaaww!

Milholland is the dude. Times like this just remind me why it's one of my favourite comics. Awesomeness.

Comment from: J.A.K posted at December 23, 2005 7:06 AM

[And, at the risk of further bad manners, I'll double post to apologise for non-working spoiler-space]

Comment from: miyaa posted at December 23, 2005 9:26 AM

You know, with the name like Penelope, I'd be calling myself Pee too. (I'm not sure how to pronounce Penelope...I keep thinking of cantalope.)

If there's something I'd like to see in 2006 is more Choo-Choo Bear.

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 23, 2005 9:41 AM

Well, the one girl I knew in real life who was named Penelope pronounced it "Peh-nell-oh-pee". She usually went by Penny, except when the teacher called on her.

You know, in all the discussion about how much PeeJee is changed... I wonder if she likes how things have changed. Maybe it's just me, but she seems alot more melancholy and less energetic of late. It seems almost like she clings closer to Davan out of fear.

Though what does it say that I now half-expect PeeJee to somehow show up and break a few of my limbs?

Comment from: Escushion posted at December 23, 2005 10:17 AM

Man, Milholland really knows how to pull people around.
The ending's up.

Comment from: Kirath posted at December 23, 2005 10:43 AM

My favorite comic ever, once again proving why.

Also, Penelope = Penn-ELL-oh-pee. Sort of like Calliope.

Comment from: nedlum posted at December 23, 2005 11:32 AM

I have nothing to add except that (Spoiler? Maybe?) Davan and PeeJee both look fantastic on artistic levels. Davan especially looks like he's been awake for a week.

And I like seeing Jesus Micky; he's a one-note charecter that I never get tired of, mainly because he's almost never seen.

Comment from: bartzilla posted at December 23, 2005 12:00 PM

You know, if something positive were a play, I'd be standing on my seat applauding and cheering until the ushers kicked me out at this point.

Randy is an amazing writer.

Comment from: Dragonmuncher posted at December 23, 2005 2:50 PM

I liked the little touching moment, too.

Am I the only one kinda depressed that Year 4 didn't end on a depressing note? First Davan was hanging around in the graveyard, then Aubrey left her apartment, then Davan's house burned down... this year, we get a touching moment that everyone goes "Awww" to.

Any other week, I'd be applauding S*P. Right now, I'm just kind of hoping that there's going to be a bonus strip up that shows Aubrey getting hit by a meteor, or something.

Comment from: miyaa posted at December 23, 2005 3:44 PM

I think the logical next step is to have Choo-Choo Bear suddenly develop the ability to speak and start his quest for world domination, or at least induction into the Justice League as Plastic Man's replacement.

Comment from: Sean Duggan posted at December 23, 2005 5:10 PM

^_^ As regards the getting knocked up without explicitly having had sex, it is possible with simple close contact. If, during one of their more lonely nights, she and Davan, for instance, had snuggled up more or less innocently and he happened to have a wet dream that night... although, of course, one or the other would have noticed and a big deal would likely have been made of it ("You JIZZED on me! The back of my pajama bottoms is sticky with your unbaked baby batter!" or the like) although I could see the consequences not occurring until later, especially as most people still have the urban legend in their head that as long as clothes stay on, no one can get pregnant, particularly since Randy is evil. Normally, I'd suspect a member of the female SP cast to be on fairly solid birth control, Norplant or the like, but if PeeJee's been this long out of circulation, it could be she discontinued, figuring it's not worth the cost. And I could see her deciding to keep the baby, at that, mystifying all of her friends. And, in that situation, after offering to pay for the visit and give a ride to the clinic, I think Davan would feel obligated to provide monetarily for the kid, as little as it is that he makes. Not, of course, that this looks to be happening any time in the near future now that we know why she's in the hospital (I figure that's a safe spoiler by now), and since I've mentioned it, if Randy ever reads this post, he'll never do it. (Not so much out of a "can't stand to be predicted by a filthy reader" viewpoint as much as that I get the impression that he simply doesn't feel he can be truly original in implementing it after reading the idea.)

Anyhow... cute strips and we see that Davan really is quite whipped when it comes to PeeJee. Not, of course, that it's such a bad thing, but when something does happen to her (we all have to die some day, or she might get married to a husband who doesn't like him a la Branwen), he's going to be crushed no matter what barriers of apathy he's been putting to the world. Randy keeps us thinking.

Comment from: J.A.K posted at December 23, 2005 5:17 PM

Dragonmuncher, from the newspost ... I'd say it looks like Randy had a tough year and decided to have the year end on a positive note. This means, since we like bad things happenning to the characters, we will want good things to happen to Randy in order to get this. Thus he gains many well-wishers, the sly fox. It all makes sense.

Comment from: Danalog posted at December 23, 2005 5:30 PM

oh, wow, and I only just now, while picking random strips from the archives, noticed where the wedding ring came from... if this takes standard html, then it's in this comic if not, then... I dunno

Comment from: bartzilla posted at December 23, 2005 6:27 PM

Dragonmuncher, have you heard the expression "build them up to knock them down"?

You don't play a tune by hammering the same note over and over and you don't tell a depressing story without lifting people up in order that you can smash them into the ground again but harder!

Comment from: 32_footsteps posted at December 23, 2005 8:24 PM

We all know that if anyone in the S*P cast is going to be hit by a meteor, it's Davan. Because God finds it funny.

As for happy endings... worth noting that one person still feeling the sting of a friend's suicide is comforting someone stuck in a hospital with a highly dangerous fever and a disease that has the potential to make her go blind. And this is a happy ending? Well, maybe for Something Positive. But it's not exactly what I'd call a happy ending.

It is, though, what I'd call a good one. On to Year 5.

Comment from: Sean Duggan posted at December 23, 2005 9:23 PM

Huh. I don't have the time to do the archive search, but PeeJee's face in the close to last panel, where she's smiling, I'm pretty sure that exact head and mouth (and spot) positiong, albeit for a character that actually has freckles. *shrug* Or it could be the symetricality of her spots is fooling me...

Comment from: J.A.K posted at December 24, 2005 6:19 PM

Whoa, Danalog, that's impressive. And I'd utterly forgotten that she was a redhead.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: