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"Go home, Dora, you need a vacation."

4 (7.8%)

"Welp, I have no choice - either I hire Samantha or you cut back on your hours."

2 (3.9%)

"Don't make me bring Pintsize into this!"

2 (3.9%)

"Very simple: you let me hire someone, or I'll tell Sven to pester you into selling the place to him."

0 (0%)

"How about you go home and sleep for a few days and we can talk about this when you wake up?"

3 (5.9%)

"We need to hire Dale. The plot demands it."

16 (31.4%)

"We hire someone or I tell Tai you have a questionably-obtained social disease."

0 (0%)

"I'm serious - it's either Dale or Pintsize. Your choice."

4 (7.8%)

"No, I'm not hiring Momo. She talked about 'unfortunate circumstances' with me once."

1 (2%)

"Why are you taking business advice from Mieville?"

3 (5.9%)

"No, we are NOT starting a kickstarter to hire a house band."

0 (0%)

"That Harriet girl was in here again, and this time she dropped off her resume."

8 (15.7%)

"No, I don't know why there's a Great Pyrenees, a Bandicoot and a Dicksissel out in front."

3 (5.9%)

"We are NOT going to open a Spathe Ham and Waffles Breakfast Bar downstairs."

0 (0%)

"Something else entirely, because the forum is putting WORDS. IN. MY. MOUTH."

5 (9.8%)

Total Members Voted: 50

[Zebediah]

I haven't bothered to correlate the Faye-haters to the Marigold-haters to see how much of an overlap there is. But they both get old fast.

[Method of Madness]

They usually seem to have a fairly low post count. That doesn't mean that people with low post counts matter less! Just that it probably means that people who stick around tend to look at the characters in more complex terms than OH HEY FAYE IS AWFUL.

[Carl-E]

You forgot "AMIRITE???2?"

[KOK]

They usually seem to have a fairly low post count. That doesn't mean that people with low post counts matter less! Just that it probably means that people who stick around tend to look at the characters in more complex terms than OH HEY FAYE IS AWFUL.

Or maybe those who dislike the characters just leave after a few (if any) posts?

[Barmymoo]

I think you're both saying the same thing!

[Method of Madness]

Sort of. KOK's saying the ones who don't like the characters leave. I was saying the ones that bother to stay generally learn to see the shades of gray in each character.

[Kugai]

Or swing between one extreme to another depending on how the character's behaving at the time.  All I have to say to them is this ........

Welcome to how people really are.

[jwhouk]

Will they or won't they? Are Penny and 'Sette gone?

Yep. They won't stand to be bullied anymore.    3 (6.3%)
Cosette's probably already gone - and the curse shall be lifted!    2 (4.2%)
Penny's going to go back to her other job: PIZZA GIRL!    6 (12.5%)
C'mon, that meme's old. They're both kidding.    5 (10.4%) <=== The Winnah.
Actually, Penelope's a bit tiffed she didn't get a chance to at least interview for the job.    2 (4.2%)
Cosette's got classes to miss and other limbs to break.    6 (12.5%)
That "Cafe of Doom" idea sounds good, though.    1 (2.1%)
They just don't want to work with Raven.    0 (0%)
Or get on the bus with Raven. (and Sara - poor, poor Sara.)    1 (2.1%)
"Dale! We have a job opening! How soon can you start?"    6 (12.5%)
Nah,  hire Momo.    2 (4.2%)
NO! Pintsize is more suited to the job!    2 (4.2%)
Insert Snarky Comment Here.    2 (4.2%)
Where's the picture of Marten's butt?    1 (2.1%)
Go for $105k, Jeph. We want that 20-page Deathmole comic.    9 (18.8%) <== What we REALLY want.

Total Members Voted: 48

[SageJiraiya]

During the stream I saw the Marten/Claire panel and there she looked more sad than confused. Glad Claire no be sad.

[Rghfrgl]

 Looks like Jeph has finally got his freckletech right so it doesn't mostly get lost in the downscale.

[FunkyTuba]

Looks like Jeph has finally got his freckletech right so it doesn't mostly get lost in the downscale.

I tried drawing this comic at half the size I normally do, not sure if it made any difference other than throw off my brush sizes September 3, 2013

I quite like the effect he achieved with this half-size canvas... to me it seems he's gotten a bit of the old early QC blockyness back but with modern Jeph artte skillz

[Is it cold in here?]

Does it make me unforgivably dorky that I actually liked Emily's random factoids?

[Mr_Rose]

Yes Emily, I did know that about Ada Lovelace. But that's a hardly a surprise given my signature, I suppose.

[Soulsynger]

Emily is like a walking singularity waiting to happen. Some day she'll stumble upon some random factoid that's gonna change the entire cast's lives forever.

Or just Pintsize's, I'm not sure.

Looks like Jeph has finally got his freckletech right so it doesn't mostly get lost in the downscale.

Adding that word to the list of possible company names I'll have to someday choose from when I finally have an idea what to make a company about. 

[cesariojpn]

Maybe they should just stick her in manga.......oh wait.....she might get facts from Yakitate! Ja-pan and other "factual" mangas like that....

[Carl-E]

Looks like Jeph has finally got his freckletech right so it doesn't mostly get lost in the downscale.

Like.  Really like.  I'm freckled.  He's captured it well! 

[KOK]

I noticed something different about the drawing style at first glance. So yes, it does make a difference.

[anahata]

preying mantis

A pedant writes:
Shouldn't that be praying mantis?

[Loki]

To be even more pedantic, I believe that a praying mantis that eats something is preying

Maybe they should just stick her in manga.......oh wait.....she might get facts from Yakitate! Ja-pan and other "factual" mangas like that....

Yay, someone who knows this! (I should start watching it again, it's hilarious).

[something random]

I could be wrong about this as I am going of my memories of my high school biology lessons about 11 years ago but I am not sure about Emily's "fact" about cabbage, broccoli, kale and cauliflower.  As I remember they all a common ancestor  which was selectively breed by humans but are now separate species. As I said I could be wrong about this. I will happly apologize if I am wrong especially if Jeff had checked his facts before writing this strip.

[St.Clair]

The Fact Sphere Emily is the most intelligent of all of the Smith College Library staff and is never wrong.

[KOK]

I could be wrong about this as I am going of my memories of my high school biology lessons about 11 years ago but I am not sure about Emily's "fact" about cabbage, broccoli, kale and cauliflower.  As I remember they all a common ancestor  which was selectively breed by humans but are now separate species. As I said I could be wrong about this. I will happly apologize if I am wrong especially if Jeff had checked his facts before writing this strip.

 I was very surprised, so I looked it up. It is true according to Wikipedia, Danish and English.

[pwhodges]

The definition of a species is rather variable and unclear; so different biologists and different eras will describe things as the same or as different species from time to time.  The term "variety" is often used, but sometimes one biologist will use "variety" where another uses "species".

Another source says:

Recent DNA studies have confirmed the close relationship amongst these plants, and support the plant taxonomists who have classified all these types as varieties of the same species.

[Akima]

I sympathise with Emily; there is so much to know, and so little time.

[toffee-skye]

i knew all of Emily's facts, apart from the book of auks, but auks are AWESOME so auk-related facts are welcome.

i've warmed to Emily. she reminds me of myself, but with a generous helping more of childlike enthusiasm.

[Border Reiver]

I sympathise with Emily; there is so much to know, and so little time.

I can also empathize with Claire on this. 

[Eternal_Newbie]

Only one book about auks? That's a Liberal Arts college for you.

[Is it cold in here?]

That's in the general shelves. There's a special collection in the aukward zone.

[Somebody]

That's in the general shelves. There's a special collection in the aukward zone.

Okay, that one needs double the usual pun penalty placed in the jar...

[Is it cold in here?]

The penalty won't stay it because it's ajar.

[katsmeat]

Can I be amazingly smug and say I knew all three things?  Though the Lady Ada one is surely too easy to count - hell, I've got this sticker http://www.adafruit.com/products/695 on my laptop.

I knew about the brassicas, on account of a friend with a biology PHd who grows his own vegetables and the mantis thing was an amazing coincidence - I read the Wikipedia article on them yesterday, prompted to do so by the one-previous-to-the-current Oglaf strip.  Which I'll not link to because of them being all NSFW etc.

Perhaps that's what put Jeph in mind of them as it's a fair assumption he reads Oglaf, as he links to it.

[Nepiophage]

An entire book about auks: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Auks-Alcidae-Families-World/dp/0198540329

[TheBiscuit]

I think you're getting the Faye of the first thousand comics or so confused with the more recent Faye.  She's in a stable relationship, she's been a good friend to Marten and Dora (and maybe others), she's cut waaaaaay back on the drinking, and she hasn't punched anyone since knocking offensively drunk Marten down several hundred strips ago - and those were unusual circumstances.

What I'm getting from your post is that you see Faye as more a more likeable character in recent strips than in older ones. I don't take issue with that, but it is an interesting point of view from my perspective. You see, when I started reading the comic I did the obligatory archive-dive and developed a fairly strong fondness for Faye as a character. In retrospect, this was almost entirely because the first 500 comics were set up as a pretty traditional romantic comedy with Marten and Faye as the primary characters. I wanted them to get together, and when they did not I was actually pretty disappointed.

Once that passed, the strip introduced a much larger cast of characters. It became less of a single-arc strip, and I came to enjoy the secondary characters a lot more, in time. There's one or two characters I really don't like, or I feel have been mishandled, but QC has a good cast. These days I don't feel like Faye is a likeable character at all, though. It actually seems to me like she was more likeable in the older strips. She was emotionally damaged, and that caused her to act in some unpleasant ways (like hitting people) but on the whole I felt like her basic character was more sympathetic. She was a good friend to Marten in spite of everything she was going through. These days... it's been a while since she had a story I actually enjoyed. She seems to have a much harder edge these days. She doesn't seem very nice.

I'm not trying to make the case that you're wrong and I'm right, but I definitely don't perceive Faye as a nicer character these days. Her portrayal was on an upwards trend for a long time though. During the time she was getting together with Angus, she was very sweet. I don't know if it's just my perception that she's become less pleasant since then...

I often feel dissatisfied with the way that characters in this comic don't maintain a consistent personality. Individual strips and arcs are generally satisfying, but in the long term character development is weak.

[Redball]

And I came to like her character as you did, but haven't been put off by developments since. She remains my favorite character.

[TheBiscuit]

And I came to like her character as you did, but haven't been put off by developments since. She remains my favorite character.

I am not here to say that my experience or opinion is more valid than any other. I'm just laying it out because I'm surprised by it. I never really expected Faye to not be my favourite character. That's surprising to me, but right now I think I'd get just as much out of the strip if the other characters were the only characters.

[Kugai]

Be afraid


Be very afraid

[Carl-E]

I often feel dissatisfied with the way that characters in this comic don't maintain a consistent personality. Individual strips and arcs are generally satisfying, but in the long term character development is weak.

Those appear to be two contradictory sentences.  Faye has grown and worked on her problems - I think that may well be the definition of "character development".  The same can be said for Dora, Hannners, Raven has gone back to school, Steve has gone through a few transformative relationships, Wil grew up, Sven had an epiphany, .... damn, the only character that hasn't really changed is Marten's.  And Pintsize's. 

People don't maintain a consistent personality.  Not in real life, and that's one of the things I love so much about this comic! 

[cesium133]

So I guess Dale is going to be hired after all?

[Carl-E]

Well, 20 hours a week should fit right in with the rest of his schedule.  When will he sleep? 

[FunkyTuba]

So I guess Dale is going to be hired after all?

Looks like it. There's only been like maybe 72 hours since he turned in his resume... assuming that current comic time isn't happening concurrent with May's last day.

[Sithis]

I'm sure it's been brought up, but, am I tripping balls or did Jeph totally change Cosette's look/eye color? o.O

[westrim]

They what?

*Googles*

Good god, Animorphs was right, broccoli IS alien in origin! And also Kale, Cabbage, and Cauliflower. I knew panel two and three, though.

I assume that rather than being aware of her presence, Claire is being very nonreactive when Emily appears without warning in a blind spot.

[cesariojpn]

Yay, someone who knows this! (I should start watching it again, it's hilarious).

Woe if there is a stray copy of Nana to Kaoru on the racks (Mildly NSFW if you wish to google it)......

[Pilchard123]

I need sleep.

Stop mocking meeeee!

[pwhodges]

Raven has gone back to school,

Note that Faye listed Raven when going over the schedules.

[Is it cold in here?]

Yes, a hopeful sign!

[MillionDollar Belt Sander]

Raven has gone back to school,

Note that Faye listed Raven when going over the schedules.

HOORAY!  MORE RAVEN!

[Mlle Germain]

I hope they hire Dale. I like Dale.  And who else would there be to hire? Unless Jeph wants to introduce a new character....
I think Dora might have been happy about working extremely long hours after the breakup with Marten so she would be distracted and not feel so lonely. But now it's probably time she got some sleep and more free time.

[ankhtahr]

So people are happy about Dale and about Raven. When will people start shipping them?

[pwhodges]

Tsk!