Directember: Ring My Bell
Added 2024-12-10 01:31:38 +0000 UTCThe start of what would turn out to be the single biggest change in all of QC (thus far). God it does NOT feel like this strip is from 2 years ago already. Weren't they JUST meeting the Cubetown folks?!
I’ve said elsewhere that I originally imagined Marten and Claire moving up to Cubetown as a way to gently write them out of the comic, because they’d achieved a degree of stability and I was having more fun writing all the other characters. But then as I went through the whole visiting Cubetown arc, I was like “oh right, actually they are both super fun to write and it turns out putting them in a new situation gives them new things to do!” I am a professional. This is definitely not some Writing 101 ass shit that it took me 4800 comics to figure out.
Comments
I remember we had someone in the Patreon comments quite a while back saying that Claire's story and representation here had helped her come out as trans.
Clifton Royston
2024-12-22 07:56:40 +0000 UTC“Marten” is both a noun (one of the world’s most adorable weasels!) & a name & I find the fact that it gets autocorrected to “Martin”highly offensive.
Melissa Wilson
2024-12-14 03:24:36 +0000 UTCI’d join in, but all my rage is potent. 💯
Melissa Wilson
2024-12-14 03:19:15 +0000 UTCgod, of course he wouldn't, thank you person with a functioning brain 🙏
Boots McGoot
2024-12-13 10:19:09 +0000 UTCThere are some of the best Claire faces in the entire comic if you just read forward from here for a bit, for the phone interview with Moray.
Clifton Royston
2024-12-13 10:03:57 +0000 UTCI'd be fine with Marten riding off into the sunset but Claire needs to stay
Lily Ballard
2024-12-12 22:12:49 +0000 UTCI 100% expected Claire and Marten to gently ride off into the sunset because their story was told and they deserved to be boring for a while. I am so very pleased you proved us both wrong.
Mattezhion Zane Corgan Campbell
2024-12-12 08:20:41 +0000 UTCI am personally invested in Marten and Claire's relationship for the long haul. #relationshipgoals
SilverbackRon
2024-12-12 01:56:51 +0000 UTCI love these commentary strips so much!!! You have my blessing to go on vacation way more often, especially if we get more commentary-loaded classic reruns like this!
PsychOut
2024-12-12 01:05:02 +0000 UTCNot in MY hotel, please. :)
Joseph Bonnar
2024-12-11 23:45:53 +0000 UTCI love these. It was my favorite part of the physical books. Any plans to come out with physical copies for the more resent comics?
BioGeek42
2024-12-11 01:52:13 +0000 UTCI hope you never let Martin exit the comic. Been following this comic for so long it would feel like losing touch with a family member.
Justin Seifert
2024-12-10 22:22:53 +0000 UTCglad to know cubetown was you attempting to write out Martin and Claire but also glad to know that writing them out is impossible
Robert Weber
2024-12-10 17:06:49 +0000 UTCBeing stable is fine when they have stealth-adopted the roboarmed neo-partyhearty goblin Liz.
Halloween Jack
2024-12-10 16:40:16 +0000 UTCClaire's my fave i think....
Marty BlackEagle
2024-12-10 15:56:42 +0000 UTCMarten and Claire are indeed fairly stable and normal. Thankfully Cubetown turned out to be a complete shitshow.
Marc Ducharme
2024-12-10 15:50:02 +0000 UTCDoes that mean it could be a... sustainable business? In this economy?
David Michaels
2024-12-10 15:11:35 +0000 UTCYeah including the new ones, Jeph'd actually never run out, and in fact never get to comment on 90% of the pages
marcus erronius
2024-12-10 15:08:13 +0000 UTCExactly!!
alphanor
2024-12-10 13:06:08 +0000 UTCI think there are a bunch of us who are trans who've taken to the comic because of how great Jeph's story of Claire is. Before her I enjoyed the comic, now it is my favourite by a mile.
Carrie
2024-12-10 12:57:28 +0000 UTCProbably just spell check, relax. If the spelling/grammar doesn't interfere with understanding, it's not worth bringing up.
Marc Tabor
2024-12-10 12:32:23 +0000 UTC208 years with sundays off? and that's not accounting for the new ones you'd be writing as you go? help
Boots McGoot
2024-12-10 12:16:33 +0000 UTCdid you know: you could do Directember every year for over 175 years without needing to reuse any strips. wait, is that right? that's insane. i'm bad at numbers somebody check
Boots McGoot
2024-12-10 12:14:55 +0000 UTCI am here for the long haul, but I might have trashed a hotel room in impotent rage if you actually wrote Marten out of the comic.
RaptorShadow
2024-12-10 08:48:28 +0000 UTCI'm sorry for being That Person, but his name is Marten, not Martin edit: apparently everyone says Martin, so it's maybe some inside joke I'm not in on
Jan Szejko
2024-12-10 08:27:17 +0000 UTCI'm currently job hunting and this is basically my worst nightmare, though I suppose it did work out for Claire in the end.
Charlotte Grubbs
2024-12-10 08:22:17 +0000 UTCClaire is so cute.
Munchkin Threats
2024-12-10 07:41:52 +0000 UTCNo, it's a thing; but also, it's a job opportunity anxiety. In many cases missing a step of the process, even for simple and explainable reasons (couldn't get to the phone) can impact your chances of getting the job. But picking up unprepared could also impact them. I never thought this was anything other than very real x3
enchantedsleeper
2024-12-10 07:10:43 +0000 UTCIn comic time it probably has. Or something in that region xD
enchantedsleeper
2024-12-10 07:08:24 +0000 UTCI'm not sure if Jeph has written out other characters (proactively) so much as just... not featured them in ages xD I guess Angus got a proper writing-out. Not sure what other candidates there would be, other than eaten-by-an-allosaurus Sara.
enchantedsleeper
2024-12-10 07:06:35 +0000 UTCTo be fair, a lot of places wouldn't be as chill as Cubetown was about you missing the initial call x3
enchantedsleeper
2024-12-10 07:02:31 +0000 UTCThen they met Moray, then they met Liz, then they met the Director, and then the Director messaged Yay... THIS WHOLE CUBETOWN ARC WAS TO GET RID OF YAY!!! :P
Joseph Bonnar
2024-12-10 06:43:37 +0000 UTCalso i can't imagine Martin without Claire now, that was seamless.
SpookyPenguin
2024-12-10 05:58:43 +0000 UTCahahah god Jeph you can still make me laugh even by analysing your work, you're a natural :D
SpookyPenguin
2024-12-10 05:54:59 +0000 UTCLol, that was a hasty fix while I am working, lol. But thanks for pointing that out, I thought I had fixed it 😄
Bridgette Ryan
2024-12-10 05:42:15 +0000 UTCGood for you for catching yourself and making corrections. You only get half credit because you missed the first pronoun, though. (Kidding about the half-credit -- although you *did* miss correcting the first pronoun. But you made the effort and that's gotta count.)
JCfromNC
2024-12-10 05:36:41 +0000 UTCI absolutely cannot imagine QC without Martin (and now Claire), TBH. For the very reason you mention - they ARE the stable core, and as much fun as the swirling "outer planets and comets" of the various other character arcs are, it's really nice to have the (relative) stability of Martin/Claire to come back to. And given that they are leaving the country, to move to Cubetown, which is not exactly a super conventional/conformist path to follow, they still have a lot of room to grow and surprise - and delight!
Scott
2024-12-10 05:34:26 +0000 UTCWait, holy shit, you were going to write them out?!!
Graydon Armstrong
2024-12-10 04:57:36 +0000 UTCEnjoying writing ALL the characters: good problems to have!
Minzoku Bokumetsu
2024-12-10 04:46:18 +0000 UTCI've always thought that QC is the story about all of the people in Martin's life. Like a reverse narrator.
Octoprocessor
2024-12-10 04:30:38 +0000 UTCYeah, it's crazy the way time flies. Like, the one that always gets me is Faye's alcoholism saga just felt like the biggest event of the series and while I know it was like a decade ago at this point, I still sort of see QC as sort of pre and post firing.
ElChorizoTX
2024-12-10 04:27:59 +0000 UTCSeriously! 2 years is simply unpossible.
William Cole
2024-12-10 03:48:36 +0000 UTCThank you for sharing your creativity! The older stuff may not hold up to your self reflection as an artist but please know that it appreciated by so so many!! I've been following for years and the first thing I do most weekdays is to check for a new comic. Thank you again for so many years of hard work.
Xkox
2024-12-10 03:45:29 +0000 UTCI’m really glad you didn’t write them out. I’ve followed the comic since near the very start, and I’m fond of Marten, but it’s Claire I’d miss the most. I’m trans, and getting to witness her journey and the pitch-perfect work you’ve done in bringing her into the story has meant a lot to me. It’s affected my own journey in very positive and meaningful ways. So, while I would have understood it from a storytelling perspective, and would have respected your creative decision and not taken it personally, I’d still have been quite sad to see her go. Thank you for deciding to keep her story going. And thank you for taking time for yourself this month. You deserve a break for some self-care, and thinking about it (and although I wouldn’t presume to put words in her mouth), I feel like Claire would be someone who’d applaud you for that, too. :-)
Foal Papers
2024-12-10 03:44:36 +0000 UTC2 years? 😲
Drazi
2024-12-10 03:43:52 +0000 UTCThey/them
BookBeard
2024-12-10 03:40:48 +0000 UTCThis feels 100% right.
Bridgette Ryan
2024-12-10 03:33:03 +0000 UTCFor some reason, my imagination tells me that the box she’s in is cardboard, but it’s wrapped in shiny purple paper. Where the actual fuck did that come from, brain of mine?!?
Melissa Wilson
2024-12-10 03:31:56 +0000 UTCSO much of therapy is just going over the basic units of plain common sense. So, yeah, if Marten can figure out shit, he can definitely help others figure out shit. Over coffee. :)
Michael Steamweed
2024-12-10 03:28:34 +0000 UTCAhhh, yes, Claire, if only you knew _then_ what you were getting into. ... Come to think of it, if only you know _now_ what you were getting into... :D
Michael Steamweed
2024-12-10 03:25:54 +0000 UTCThat’s a thing? I just thought Jeph was being silly… I’m so sorry; I can see how that would suck.
Melissa Wilson
2024-12-10 03:25:39 +0000 UTCOoh, maybe they'll meet Alice up there!!
Mandy Hoskins
2024-12-10 03:16:22 +0000 UTCBut she clearly knows their number… She can Just. Call. Back.
Melissa Wilson
2024-12-10 03:15:10 +0000 UTCBut is he technically *in* Cubetown, or merely adjacent?
Melissa Wilson
2024-12-10 03:10:58 +0000 UTCOther spinoff ideas... Yay's comic of them just being in a box hiding in the dark, and it is just daily comics of them saying "I miss my friends." I am thinking dinosaur comic style. Lol. *Edited cause I fucked up pronouns!
Bridgette Ryan
2024-12-10 02:59:37 +0000 UTCAnd I personally find it incredibly fun to read, write, and perform the straight man role in a double act. I also find it amusing explaining that neither straight nor man are operative words in the role's name
Michael Phillips
2024-12-10 02:58:31 +0000 UTCSo because you don't have enough on your plate, I say we need a cube town spinoff of questionable content. Yes! Write them out of the comic and into a new one. That way you can have even less time for a break (this is a joke, btw, Jeph. Do not do this, we love you, take care of yourself!)
Bridgette Ryan
2024-12-10 02:58:07 +0000 UTCI mean cubetown is absolutely ardly Wooster and those two are collectively Jeeves
Michael Phillips
2024-12-10 02:57:47 +0000 UTCIt definitely did come off like your original intention, like they were getting written out. I even went so far as to think this was heralding the end of QC, since so much of the cast was ending up in just such a good place. But I'm glad neither of those are the case, honestly.
Alias Fakename
2024-12-10 02:48:38 +0000 UTCOl' Boaty seems pretty stable. I mean, he hasn't capsized yet.
BookBeard
2024-12-10 02:38:29 +0000 UTCOne of the issues with long running stories is you need to continuously introduce drama to keep the story going. And this does a disservice for a long running character whos already earned their happy ending, and often annoys the audience who wants to see that character be happy. However, moving them to a new location, where they have new challenges, and introducing new people with their own stories definitely re-invigorates the characters, while still leaving them in a satisfying place.
Thisguy
2024-12-10 02:37:41 +0000 UTCOh yes, the phone anxiety is real.
BookBeard
2024-12-10 02:32:07 +0000 UTCIt's that sort of brilliant and insightful advice that will make him a top notch barista-therapist.
BookBeard
2024-12-10 02:29:46 +0000 UTCI’m glad Claire didn’t get written out.
Taigan
2024-12-10 02:29:04 +0000 UTCSo it’ll be like 2027 before Marten & Claire finally moves to 🇨🇦.
Miyaa
2024-12-10 02:17:25 +0000 UTC@Captain Button • I thought that would happen when Momo found out that May did the deed with Sven.
Miyaa
2024-12-10 02:16:21 +0000 UTCShe didn't even miss the call, that's just how she answers the phone.
BookBeard
2024-12-10 02:14:32 +0000 UTCSame principle. In terms of the amount of chaos introduced to a situation, Moray is easily equivalent to an explosion.
BookBeard
2024-12-10 02:11:07 +0000 UTC"Uh, pick up?" Clutch advice coming in from Marten!
Shawn K. Younkin
2024-12-10 02:06:25 +0000 UTCSad you were going to write Marten and Claire out of the story, but sometimes you have to say goodbye, I get it.
Everett Bradshaw
2024-12-10 02:04:28 +0000 UTCOne of the rare profane moments, and spot-on called for too.
Doc Gumby
2024-12-10 02:00:41 +0000 UTCYou've never been afraid to write characters out when their character DNA was all spent. Writing out the whole town? That's brave. :)
James R. Strickland
2024-12-10 01:55:15 +0000 UTCNo Jeph - it took you closer to 4900 😁💜 (been here since '05)
ArtemisFolly
2024-12-10 01:52:31 +0000 UTCIn the words of Raymond Chandler: "When in doubt have a AnthroPC come through a door with a gun in their tentacle." (May not be an exact quote.)
Captain Button
2024-12-10 01:47:57 +0000 UTCI remember he said that in the Patreon notes at a pivotal point of the Cubetown arc, probably when Claire decided to take the Librarian job. Though, again, I can't believe that was like 18 months ago.
Cathal Mc Ginley
2024-12-10 01:46:22 +0000 UTCHigh quality Claire faces in this one. 10/10
Armcannon Productions
2024-12-10 01:44:08 +0000 UTC"I'm a professional, eh." -Geddy Lee
Sean Kinlin
2024-12-10 01:43:29 +0000 UTCI'm so glad cause this really renewed my interest. I mean... I've been reading for like 18 years so I clearly like everything else you've done but this was like... oh shit, what have we here?
Aerin Moriarty
2024-12-10 01:42:56 +0000 UTCAt least you didn't follow Stephen King's advice of "if you run out of ideas, blow someone up"
Bill Silvia
2024-12-10 01:42:48 +0000 UTCReading the caption, I yelled out "TWO YEARS?!" So, yeah, that's me agreeing.
Pejo
2024-12-10 01:41:51 +0000 UTCI hope one of the random strips is a Bembo one.
Miyaa
2024-12-10 01:40:41 +0000 UTCAs a fellow professional writer, you meant to do that. I once described writing as being like a cat: you do something that turns out to be important or clever or "I should have thought of this sooner whoops" and then you pretend like you meant to do that. (While then scrambling to figure where you're going. Or possibly what planet youre now on.) I'm glad you chose another path for those two. I love them and their stupid dorky squishy faces
Sage Johnson
2024-12-10 01:39:40 +0000 UTCI’d be bummed if Marten were written out. I know the comic has evolved past him being the main character and there are whole, major wings of the QCU that don’t even know him, but he is who I came to the party with. I started following like RIGHT after “The Talk” so he still feels like one of the pillars of the comic to me.
Gone
2024-12-10 01:37:58 +0000 UTC... yeah. In writing you... you relearn that one.
Edward Clayton Andrew
2024-12-10 01:37:17 +0000 UTCTwo years? Yeah right. It's been, like, three months, six months tops.
Jonathan Taves
2024-12-10 01:36:43 +0000 UTCTHEY'RE stable. No one else in all of Cubetown is.
Dave Van Domelen
2024-12-10 01:36:25 +0000 UTCI didn’t know the original plan was to write them out! I thought that was something your insane detractors hallucinated.
chili sunrise
2024-12-10 01:35:30 +0000 UTC"Professional" just means that you're getting paid. Take it from someone who's worked with many professionals.
Andrew Denton
2024-12-10 01:35:15 +0000 UTCMan, have I had anxiety like Claire...
Tannerbot
2024-12-10 01:35:02 +0000 UTCThis comic should be read around the campfire after dark with your fellow campers
Magic Chopstick Games
2024-12-10 01:34:55 +0000 UTCBZZZT BZZZT Mayhem!
Not that Patrick Foltz
2024-12-10 01:34:52 +0000 UTCI'm excited to see what they get up to in Cube Town.
Matthew
2024-12-10 01:34:38 +0000 UTC
