Alice Grove MCDT - NEW COMIC! - October 2014

[Pilchard123]

Perhaps he's telling them his preferred editor? He likes Emacs, though he's used another one in the past.

I know I am a couple pages late, but:

*groan*

[Skewbrow]

Alternately, this is a The Long Earth scenario and Alice is an aid worker from a parallel Earth here to help bootstrap this one to closer to average inter-dimensional technology levels. Read Terry Pratchett and Steven Baxter's books if you need more details.

If this is such a scenario, then the chances are that Argent is human but from a distant parallel where evolution took a few different turns.

Yes. I just read Long Earth, and quite like this theory. Ardent would have just "stepped" into this version. But why would he claim to be from space?

[BenRG]

Alternately, this is a The Long Earth scenario and Alice is an aid worker from a parallel Earth here to help bootstrap this one to closer to average inter-dimensional technology levels. Read Terry Pratchett and Steven Baxter's books if you need more details.

If this is such a scenario, then the chances are that Argent is human but from a distant parallel where evolution took a few different turns.

Yes. I just read Long Earth, and quite like this theory. Ardent would have just "stepped" into this version. But why would he claim to be from space?

It depends; it could just be that this is how he refers to being from a different dimension. There is no easy way to describe it in a three-dimensional context anyway.

If he is someone who has 'stepped over', then, from his reaction when Jack woke him up, I wonder if he is the first of his Earth to do so. It is quite clear that, up to that moment, he had no idea whether he would wake up! It would also explain why he does not know the normal terminology for such displacements and it would also explain why Alice became immediately suspicious of him.

[Stoutfellow]

This probably marks me as an old-timer, but the "weird dog" bit reminds me of the Smothers Brothers routine, "Mom Always Liked You Best". One of the bits of evidence Tom presented was the fact that Dick got a dog, while he got a "crummy chicken".

[Kugai]

I'm just waiting for the green haired android lady running the local Coffee Shop to appear.

[MooskiNet]

One of these days, Superman's going to be too cocky and it'll turn out to be a kryptonite bullet.

...and as much as it will give me the willies, I'll read that comic, 'cause I've always thought Supes was a smug bastard.

[Method of Madness]

DCUO was probably a shitty MMO but what an opening. Sure, it ended up never happening because it's an alternate future, but the opening sequence ends with [spoiler]SUPERMAN DYING. Not just dying, but being weakened by Wonder Woman's corpse which was filled with liquid kryptonite. Holy shit [/spoiler]

[MooskiNet]

daaaaaang.

Smug or not, that's messed up.

[Neko_Ali]

That whole future was messed up. Basically it was Luthor's ultimate victory after killing nearly all of the planet's metahumans in his quest to take down Superman. Only to find out that it was exactly what Braniac was waiting for to finally take over once they were all dead.

[Method of Madness]

Messed up, yes, but also a really cool battle.

[Storel]

Getting a tad off-topic here, aren't we?

[Mlle Germain]

While the comic started off really differently than QC, to me it has a really strong "QC with a blue guy" feel to me since Ardent woke up. Slightly silly and with a punchline at the end of each strip.

Not sure I like it for "Alice Grove"; I was hoping it would be something serious and I liked the start so much...

[MooskiNet]

Messed up, yes, but also a really cool battle.

Wow.  Thanks, that was pretty damn awesome.

Getting a tad off-topic here, aren't we?

Yeah, but straight up worth it.

Not sure I like it for "Alice Grove"; I was hoping it would be something serious and I liked the start so much...

I am intrigued, but I am also letting a buffer build up before I revisit it.  With no prologue, few words and 4-7 panels every three days or so, it'll be a month or so before there's enough story there.

I still have high hopes.

[Eternal_Newbie]

I'm just waiting for the green haired android lady running the local Coffee Shop to appear.

Aah, so I'm not the only one who's getting a Yokohama Kaidashi Kikōish vibe from this story. Which is good, because that's one of my favourite manga's (just wish one of the Western Manga publishers would pick it up so I can give them money).

[Kugai]

The thing is, it's early days yet, and we have no real idea where Jeph is going to take this tale.  I like it so far and it's going to be interesting to see where this goes.

[ysth]

F5?

[jwhouk]

Comic!

Heh, at least he's honest about it.


(Wait a second...)

[Method of Madness]

Apparently his butt itched. Also he has no money. Apparently his society is post-scarcity.

[Fig]

I don't see any place to put a wallet in those red boxer briefs so begging is the best option.  Besides, I bet the exchange rate would be horrible.

[Carl-E]

Clearly, he was going to pull some money out of... somewhere. 
Alice is on a short fuse at this point...

[SubaruStephen]

"Currency!"

We have a semi-psychic amongst us.

[BenRG]

I suspect that Alice will name her first ulcer after Argent!

I wonder if Argent's name translates to "freeloader" in his language?

[Pilchard123]

https://translate.google.com/#fr/en/argent

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argent

[osaka]

Ardent clearly don't give a damn. I don't know if it's typical space tourist behaviour tho.

[Storel]

His name is Ardent, not Argent.

[Pilchard123]

Ah. So it is.

[Thrudd]

Ardent doesn't come across so much as a parallel universe explorer as more like a brat that broke in somewhere where he is not supposed to be.
A kid living in a space colony of some sort or on an interstellar passenger liner, sneaking past preoccupied adults is a known trope and seems to fit.
His name seems something a kid would conjure up when you think about it a bit.
[ Bet it ends up being revealed his real name is Ardent Smith or Johnson and he is a custodians son (Janitor) ]

I am in agreement with those speculating that this is a world where the tech level is still a mixed bag and definitely pre-space.
The farmers being more down to earth may not have much info on anything outside their own community, just like in the Real World[tm].

I also make note that none of the Townies have run away screaming Demon or Monster or set fire to our little blue Monkey-Boy in red swim trunks / boxer-briefs.

NOTE: I still can not read the comic normally and have to resort to [ack] reditt / tumbler - indirect linking [/ack]

[Kugai]

"Hospital!"

[Method of Madness]

where he is not supposed to be

Why would Ardent have less of a right to be on Earth than anyone?

[pwhodges]

Well, we don't know yet, do we!

[Orkboy]

where he is not supposed to be

Why would Ardent have less of a right to be on Earth than anyone?

Durn illegal aliens, coming down here and taking our jobs.   

[Pilchard123]

where he is not supposed to be

Why would Ardent have less of a right to be on Earth than anyone?

It may not be that he's not supposed to be on Earth (or wherever the comic is set), but perhaps he's not supposed to be where he is on ?Earth.

[Neko_Ali]

where he is not supposed to be

Why would Ardent have less of a right to be on Earth than anyone?

Durn illegal aliens, coming down here and taking our jobs.   

Except he's more coming down and become a beggar...

[KOK]

Does Ardent have a pheromone gland under his tail? It seems that he expect that if only he get some the stuff on his hand, he will get whatever he asks for.

[SubaruStephen]

Is Ardent trying to Stink Palm her?

[Method of Madness]

Say...would you like a chocolate covered pretzel?

[mikmaxs]

So far, I can't decide if I like Alice Grove or not. Jeph Jaques has enough of a tenure that I'm willing to stick with it for a while, but he's so far taken the story really, really slow, (It took us *three weeks* to get the main character's Name,) and I don't really care much about any of the characters that much.

Plus, I'm still more interested in what the heck was going on at the Wind Turbine than anything else. Questions arise, such as:
Why did the cable snap when she fell? I saw absolutely no reason that it would, other than completely random coincidence.

Is Alice literally a witch? If so, did she actually fly to slow her descent, or is she just somehow super durable? That's not a distance that someone could survive without injury unless she was *super* lucky, implying some kind of supernatural or technological intervention, but I haven't the damndest clue what it is because it hasn't been brought up since.

Related to the above question, if Alice can survive falls like that without injury or any apparent discomfort or issue, why does she have a climbing harness at all? (Also, why doesn't the Wind Turbine have a ladder?)

Wind Turbines produce electricity, but I've not seen anyone using anything which requires electricity, thus far, or even anything that *implies* the use of electricity. What?


I've got some other, non-wind turbine questions, (Why is nobody reacting with shock and awe at the blue guy with the tail? What year is this? Is it a parallel universe or dimension?) but most of my questions revolve around that opening scene.
I'm sure there are answers to most of these questions, but they haven't been brought up yet, and to me it's far more interesting than what's going on with the annoying blue guy who, quite frankly, seems to be really arrogant, annoying, and kinda douchey. So, I guess in a way, the plot is moving too slow because it's not answering any questions, but it's also moving too fast because it's moving from one plot thread to another without even hinting at a resolution. It's frustrating. I want to know what happens, but I'm getting too fed up to keep reading.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

Better question: When Ardent says, "How do you know that?" does he mean "how do you know if that is true" or "how do you know about that"?

[SubaruStephen]

(Also, why doesn't the Wind Turbine have a ladder?)

Wind Turbines produce electricity, but I've not seen anyone using anything which requires electricity, thus far, or even anything that *implies* the use of electricity. What?

Wind turbines of that size have ladders on the inside.

And we haven't seen the insides of the buildings yet, those will have electric lights.

[mikmaxs]

(Also, why doesn't the Wind Turbine have a ladder?)

Wind Turbines produce electricity, but I've not seen anyone using anything which requires electricity, thus far, or even anything that *implies* the use of electricity. What?

Wind turbines of that size have ladders on the inside.

And we haven't seen the insides of the buildings yet, those will have electric lights.

Wind Turbines have ladders on the inside, indeed! And so why didn't she climb down it?

Electric lights inside, maybe... But outside, no streetlights?

[BenRG]

@milkmars,

The thing to remember is that Alice Grove is a graphic novel rather than a daily episodic strip. It will take a lot longer to develop characters and plot and some hooks may not reach payoff for scores of pages.

[Pilchard123]

Related to the above question, if Alice can survive falls like that without injury or any apparent discomfort or issue, why does she have a climbing harness at all?

Cover?

[BenRG]

Related to the above question, if Alice can survive falls like that without injury or any apparent discomfort or issue, why does she have a climbing harness at all?

Cover?

Or she really didn't expect to emerge unhurt from such a fall. She will probably freak out about it later but she is more worried about the potential damage Ardent could do right now.

I could see her running into another physical peril and then looking at the impact point, seeing torn skin and, beneath it, a synthetic exo-shell. "I'm... an android?" After all, if you have believed you were human and everyone treated you as human for your entire conscious existence, what reason might you have for even suspecting you weren't?

[ReindeerFlotilla]

Alice is not an android. She's a Druid.

A fall from that height wouldn't even be marginally impairing above 8th level.

[Zebediah]

Yes, and then there's her name, "Grove" - or is that actually her title in the druidic faith? Which would make her Reformed Druid, not Orthodox.

[ysth]

Wrong thread, y'all.  It's November.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

There are no wrong threads. Only Zuul.

[Kugai]

And Vince Klortho

[mikmaxs]

@milkmars,

The thing to remember is that Alice Grove is a graphic novel rather than a daily episodic strip. It will take a lot longer to develop characters and plot and some hooks may not reach payoff for scores of pages.

I'm afraid that's a terrible defense of Alice Grove, since Alice Grove as I've seen it thus far would be an absolutely *horrendous* Graphic Novel. Why? I'll tell you why!
First off, there have been a huge number of panels where our character's travel is implied, but not shown. (By my count, at least 5 out of 13 comics have skipped travel or time between pages, and all of those time-skips are in the 8 most recent comics,) This is fine for a webcomic, but in a Graphic Novel style adventure it is not a good idea. That much transition is jarring when you're reading it back-to-back. (Even something as simple as a page-click can help add spacing, but if this were presented as a book I'd find it very distracting.)
Also, there are several moments in the story that only work if we don't know what is going to happen right away. For example: When Alice's rope breaks and she falls, it would be boring to look about six inches to your left and immediately read 'Oh, she's fine.' Adding that couple-days wait (Or even that page-loading time) fixes this.
Plus, a lot of the most recent comics have been of the 'setup-setup-punchline' arrangement. Even the comics without an actual joke still have a 'punchline' of sorts. Graphic Novels don't work well as a series of jokes and brief setup/payoffs that don't add to the overall story.


If I were reading this as a graphic novel, I don't think I would like it at all. As a webcomic, though, it's other flaws are currently tolerable.

[BenRG]

That's where "Your Mileage May Vary" comes in; it doesn't bother me at all!