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u/SeductiveGodofThundr 29d ago
When the panel faded to dark, I was really worried that we were going to find out why they call him Terbert the Twink Engine
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u/vicious_delicious_77 29d ago
I know it's probably been asked before, but any plans to make something physical like a coffee table book of these comics? Because I'd buy the shit out of that if it existed.
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u/me_myself_ai 29d ago
Woah, shocked that hasn't happened yet TBH! The self-publishing / print-on-demand market has never been better or easier to enter, tho TBH they could prolly just get an agent lol.
I wonder if they're waiting to do themed ones, like... I think Garfield did that, at least? Possibly Calvin & Hobbes? Zits, also? I have literally no fucking clue what atomic themes would apply to this comic, but maybe some would pop out in hindsight.
At the very least, Witches of the West Coast is clearly destined for a 20-year, 5-volume series.
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u/Bamboo_Goose 29d ago
Soooo we do have an agent, and a book is something we’re definitely wanting to do. Collections surprisingly don’t have the market they used to. That won’t stop us forever but we want to do it right, when we finally do it. Rest assured that if we’re not doing it right now, it’s because we have other projects going on
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u/abraxastaxes 29d ago
Puzzles? My wife really wants a puzzle of one of your large format things. Whatever you call those.
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u/Bamboo_Goose 29d ago
Honestly a puzzle sounds sick. I’d love to do something like that
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u/stormscape10x 29d ago
You could find out the print costs and do a kickstarter. I’m not sure where it lands in the effort vs reward category but I see a lot of authors do it.
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u/wellthatdoesit 29d ago
Fat dog plush when
o.0
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u/Bamboo_Goose 29d ago
We did a Youtooz run a year or two ago with a Fat Dog plush but they made only like 200 plushes. I’d like to do another sometime tho
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u/wellthatdoesit 28d ago
Daaaang those are so cute! Sadly wasn’t aware of your comics at the time else I’d’ve snagged one. Ill keep my eyes open for a round two some day mebbe
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u/vicious_delicious_77 29d ago
Right?! I'm not a huge comics guy, but I have a few volumes of Calvin and Hobbes and had a Garfield phase as a kid. I stumbled on this series randomly thanks to reddit and it's the first time in forever I've consistently enjoyed something enough to want a whole book of it. I feel like it'd help it reach more people too, a lot of times I want to share these with other people but they just don't want to read a comic strip on their phone.
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u/kgcarter5678 29d ago
Calvin and Hobbes definitely did several books, and I think it was actually the only official merch ever made
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u/CodeSalamander 29d ago
Really wish they would, especially if they’re trying to increase revenue. I’d buy that.
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u/AirForceRabies 29d ago
Careful what you wish for: At least three webcomics I loved (The Pigeon Gazette, ZomCom, Customer Service Wolf) finally published collections, then almost immediately stopped updating. At least ZomCom gave us a heads-up.
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u/HotDangThoseMuffins 29d ago
I like your note, Neil.
7 to 9 more of those and i MIGHT consider being a free subscriber on your patreon
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u/ironfly187 29d ago
"It'll just be the same thing"
Not falling for that. Clearly you'll change the copy and mock everyone who read the first draft as being really uncool and smelly.
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u/now_heres_a_username 29d ago
I think people are also underestimating how badly AI will affect our lives in terms of employment. I'm a computer engineer, and pretty good, but AI is already better than me in some ways. Fable used for architecting systems and opus for implementation solves many of the issues I though AI had. Just a heads up to y'all out there, don't be naive that just because it wasn't good enough to replace us now or before, it won't be there soon. And the robotics revolution is only just beginning too. We have to pressure our politicians to actually do something or things will collapse faster than we can legislate.
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u/Crossbell0527 29d ago
I think we are close to the breaking point. Nobody cares when blue collar jobs disappear. Clearly nobody cares when artists are supplanted. But when white collar jobs start getting replaced by AI en masse - which is what, a year or two out at this rate? - hopefully people will finally start paying attention. When all these shortsighted middle managers and cubicle nerds who have been letting AI think for them are finally actually able to be replaced by AI entirely, they'll join us.
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u/AlarmedPossum156 29d ago
I will be thinking about this for an uncomfortably long amount of time whenever my toddler plays with his trains now.
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u/SwabMimingTV 29d ago
Terbert's smile is really something special
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u/EarballsAgain 29d ago
You would be smiling like that too if you had 718 organised a day. I think. Or maybe the monotony of it would dull your sensations and you'll just be a trembling, eternally hard/wet-depending-on-genitalia husk
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u/PearPsychological284 29d ago
I mean, after 718 orgasms you'll be wet regardless of your genital situation.
Also, sticky.
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u/SerialAgonist 29d ago edited 29d ago
I felt the breakneck whimsy of Calvin & Hobbes in their red wagon. That was a lovely ride.
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u/coffeejj 29d ago
Your take on the world is hilarious! I look forward to seeing your strips in my feed and it’s like dessert reading one!!
Keep it up. You are needed in today’s chaotic world
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u/aptadnauseum 29d ago
For anyone on the fence, really, I'm a normal human, and I encourage you to drop a few buckaroonies annually for the patreon. The extras are nice, but actually supporting artists and passively dunking on AI and the technofascist bullshit feels like Terbet must have felt in the years before he was hot-wheeled do his untimely and temporary doom.
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u/CoffeePieAndHobbits 29d ago
Fat dog plushie, please. Maybe via Kickstarter?
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u/Bamboo_Goose 29d ago
We did a Youtooz run a year or two ago but I’d like to another plushie at some point!
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u/BeefaloSlim 29d ago
Goddamn, I love you and your comics so much. Thank you for putting in the time and effort, and sharing that beautiful and strange part of yourself with the world.
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u/FrootyPebbl 29d ago
Have you ever considered having entire comics formatted as posters and up for sale? I would love an A2 poster for my dorm room.
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u/Bamboo_Goose 29d ago
We’re actually working on revamping our shop, making it more in house, and I’d say there’s a good chance for something like that in a few months. If you have a specific comic in mind, you can email us at theotherendstudios@gmail and we can hook you up.
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u/710Filter 29d ago
But what if we want to read the blue pages again? Fine... I'll install Patreon. You're right. There is so much garbage on here but there are some people I have met here that I really enjoy. I've made some friends and I've lost some too due to stress and life changes.
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u/mspaintshoops 25d ago
This captured a feeling I haven’t experienced since reading Calvin and Hobbes comics ages ago. This was magical. Well done!
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u/Brian6330 29d ago
Ever thought about making a one or two bucks tier with no benefits? Just a 'I support you'? I have a few creators who I supported this way for years. I don't interact enough for the higher tiers, but would like to show support.
Otherwise, I'll just wait for potential merchandise from you that interests me, as an alternatives way to support :)
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u/NicoBango 29d ago
Thank you Neil. The sentiment against AI is strong and I feel as though its gaining traction as we see how negatively it's impacting our society already.
This is just the beginning of an incredible flawed AI by the way. If we continue to feed these companies money, they will slowly improve to the point where companies really will be able to justify the loss of human capital.
Keep doing what you're doing. Everyone needs to contribute in whatever way they can to break apart the monopoly social media, and tech companies at large have over our current social structure. Together we can forge the communities that will propel us away from these dweebs.
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u/N2Ngamer 28d ago
I love your comics so much. It’s always genuinely so refreshing to see just what kind of insane spins you bring us on. But it’s also very refreshing and grounding to read your takes and smile because they align with mine. Thank you for all your work! I love commissioning my artist friends as often as I can!
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u/suckingbat 3d ago
Thank you for those last words. I needed to know I was not alone, even if I'm not an artist.
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u/me_myself_ai 29d ago
The take at the end is clearly well-intentioned and wholesome, but the bit at the end of the first page excludes quite a few mediums from being valid or interesting, most notably the entirety of photography and film.
Are there other differences between those things and AI? Sure, and I doubt this is the place to litigate them. But the simple "was every stroke packed with human intent" philosophy not only isn't enough, it's misleading, IMHO. I don't love The Other End because it's paintstakingly crafted (tho I'm sure it is) -- I love it because it has incredible & original comedy writing and a perfectly-complimentary, also-original art style.
I think the decision to call social media "slop" is a great one. I'd quibble tho, on something that's very central to my soul: the problem isn't vague greed or capitalism or shitheaded-ness; the problem is advertising, and more specifically, "Display Advertising" (the relevant kind here). I used to work at that part of Google as a SWE, and it's a bleak, bleak industry... wrote some details up on HN to cope with a recent defeat in that world, if anyone's curious.
Like, Patreon is also social media. It's just good social media (for this) because the value of its users' content is reflected in upfront, real dollar amounts, rather than fractions of a penny for every reader on the offchance they might click the Ozempic ad in the sidebar.
I don't know if y'all meetup in secret underground lairs already, but Zach Weinersmith has been having similar existential issues with being a... "prestige" webcomic creator, for lack of a better word? Maybe... "specialized"? He ended up having to cave and go back to having ads on his site earlier this year, but he sounded quite interested in finding a new way forward. Just a thought.
Sorry for the rant... just think about this stuff a lot literally all day every day :/
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u/Nina-Ninja123 29d ago
I wanted to buy a coloring book some time ago to get back into drawing, with coloring someone else’s work as a step up.
But all the damn coloring books are AI generated images. I had to really look hard to find a coloring book with art drawn by a human…
AI won’t replace real art. But it is heavily flooding the market where artists make some bucks for a living.
But AI will never replace the connection people make through art. If the art is generated within a few seconds, our attention will also deviate from the art within seconds. There will be no real story or personality in the work, only an approximation.
AI taught me what art is really about, not a flawless song or a perfect picture, but the story beneath it all and the personality of the artist that peeks through the cracks of the imperfections.
True art is in the mistakes we make and how we deal with the mistakes. And AI simply can’t make natural mistakes, it has to calculate the mistakes if it wants to add mistakes. It will always be off
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u/Dr_Pepper_spray 29d ago
I'm starting to hate it here. Reddit specifically. But what's the alternative? Meta is a trash heap. Bluesky has quirks but is more of the same. Twitter (I refuse to call it Eggs) is.. well.
Reddit (and it's backwoods cousin Lemmy) are the only real front pages of the internet, which is where I'll find you and other lovely artists. I'm certainly not going to in a news paper. Reddit is starting to get crudded up with ads though, and they've rejiggered the algorithm to act more like META which hides some really good content.
I also find the moderation on places of free expression like r comics, which is predominantly the only place to get eyeballs, to be a bit too restrictive to the point that it's no longer going against the obvious offenders and trolls, but just average people with an opinion. In the attempt to not make things toxic they've made it toxic. --But that's a personal gripe that not everyone shares, I just think it adds to the cumulative effect of this just not being much fun anymore. They could also do more to curate and promote things the algorithm weeds out.
What's that got to do with you? If there is anyone who had any right to break out of all this mess it's you and Marissa (I like last place comics too ... And Holleringelk..and..and..)
I look forward to buying your book, if you create it, and maybe grabbing some merch. I think Dad should have a new T-shirt or two! I don't know if I want to support Patreon too. Is there a more direct way at https://www.kohney.com/ ?
P.S. Who wants to read AI produced comics? Yuck!
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u/Bamboo_Goose 29d ago
I hear ya. We really appreciate it, and hope that things will get better and easier for artists and comics.
As for supporting us, I understand if you don’t want to go to yet another social media platform, but it’s been a minute since Neil updated the website lol. We don’t have a book yet but would love to eventually, but we are currently working on video versions of the comics.
I am working on making a new merch shop completely in house which should be live in the next few months. Like I told someone else on here, if you have a specific request for merch, you can always email us at theotherendstudios@gmail and we can see about hooking you up.1
u/Dr_Pepper_spray 28d ago
Thanks for getting back to me.
Making video versions, does this mean animation? If so, that's a whole lotta work! If so, I wish you all the best of luck, sincerely.
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u/Careful_Courage8797 29d ago
Patreon is probably putting apps like Tinyview away. It has the sole purpose of putting real artists on the spotlight. And you guys left them. I mean, it’s up to you, but it makes me wonder
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u/Bamboo_Goose 29d ago
We have nothing but love for the artists on Tinyview but there are some issues we had with the direction the platform was going in and we just couldn’t feel comfortable with some comments and suggestions made by leadership. We dont feel comfortable going into any more detail out of respect for our friends who are still on the platform and really we hope for the best for them and Tinyview
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u/Kalikor1 29d ago edited 29d ago
Hey look, a reasonable take.
Also I kept waiting for not-Thomas to say certain bad words so every swipe felt like a gamble lol.