"Right over the edge. Like a stone."

September 14, 2016 9:25 AM

Stories are supposed to lift people up! They're supposed to be bright and fun! But these things you make... I'm just curious, do you have any idea what you're doing? Are you crazy?"
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey (16 comments total)

This comment may seem like a simple meta-joke, but it literally just saved someone's life. You're welcome.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 9:29 AM on September 14, 2016 [4 favorites]

Aw
posted by griphus at 10:00 AM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Akimbo is some of the best webcomickry today. Highlights from the last year: It's complicated. To do. Finding a moral objection to any profession. And a little (maybe too much) self-reflection.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:02 AM on September 14, 2016 [3 favorites]

And since we haven't heard from Winston Roundtree since this epic comic in January, we need somebody besides Boulet to keep us thinking about something other than Superhero Spoofs, Wacky Aliens, D&D Misadventures and Video Game Metacommentary in the webfunnies.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:14 AM on September 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

Beautifully drawn! Kind of facile, but who has to hit all of the boxes in one go?
posted by Going To Maine at 10:14 AM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

It hit the right spot!
posted by Omnomnom at 12:14 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

I love this.
posted by Pallas Athena at 4:01 PM on September 14, 2016

Oh wow. So good.
posted by ZakDaddy at 4:15 PM on September 14, 2016

m0.0m
posted by Deoridhe at 5:51 PM on September 14, 2016

I liked it at first.

And then I'm like "Maybe if tortured genius dude actually explained himself instead of just being coldly silent and constructing his sweet punisher-death-skull rescue dirigible, he could get some more little goblins together making these things. I mean, what if there's other lil' goblins stuck down there in the muck?"

Now I just feel empty.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:30 PM on September 14, 2016

He's not the perfect tortured genius dude, but he's the only one we've got.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:23 PM on September 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

I saw this a while ago and I thought it was excellent. The thing I like most about it is that is really uses the vertical scrolling medium as an intrinsic part of the narrative. Scott McCloud would be proud!
posted by crocomancer at 4:20 AM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ooh, I too saw this before and was just looking for it the other day, without success. Still great.
posted by Coaticass at 4:59 AM on September 15, 2016

He's not the perfect tortured genius dude, but he's the only one we've got.

Dude is constrained by living in a metaphor.
posted by Artw at 6:41 AM on September 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

> Maybe if tortured genius dude actually explained himself instead of just being coldly silent [...]

Tortured genius dude tried that, over and over, for years. Only a handful even tried to listen to the explanation, and those lacked any kind of common frame of reference that could lead to understanding.

He knows from bitter experience that silence is the least painful way to get past this pointless interaction and back to his work.
posted by sourcequench at 9:08 AM on September 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

Her hand grasped at the handle, and she was lifted out of the dark. She rose, higher and higher, and after awhile her horizons brightened and broadened. Soon she was safer and better than she had ever been, but there was still a little darkness inside her, and when she tried to make her own stories that darkness came out. The others were puzzled by this, and for awhile she tried to change the stories to make them fit in, but the stories always fell apart after that.

Then she tried to explain them to the others. Hardly anybody understood what she said, they just kept looking at her funny and she felt the darkness growing inside her again, threatening to drag her back.

Then she remembered. She remembered the story that had changed her, remembered its shape and color, how so much of it matched her own stories, and she finally understood.

So she got back to work, and she ignored everyone around her, the only thing she wanted to do was finish her story and send it over the ledge. She knew then, more then anything else, there was a hand, outstretched in the darkness, waiting.
posted by Doleful Creature at 10:59 AM on October 9, 2016 [5 favorites]