Guest Comic: Kate Ashwin and Kel McDonald

Kerin Schiesser

...possibly just a script/drawing dysphoria (also known as "mistake" LOL) But just sayin'... A SOCKET wrench has a bent socket thingie (hollow tube that encloses the bolt, and ratchets to tighten) at one end. Hence the name. Funny thing is, until pointed out, I didn't notice the mismatch at all! (I'm all so ship-happy with the budding Faye/Bubbles romance I didn't register it at all!)

Trigon Manthree

In the clickable link below, not in the comic.

Ol' Firebones

I'm so accustomed to this sort of lack of attention to detail that I gave that a pass. But because I recently saw "Deadpool 2", and re-read a hilarious article about how awful Rob Liefeld's art is, the thing that bugged me was that the wrench seems to bend, like one of Rob Liefeld's guns or swords. :-D

Ben Russell-Gough

The most likely explanation is "I don't know how to draw a socket wrench".

W. Scott Meeks

I found the "socket wrench" jarring enough that it took me a bit to follow the rest of the strip and now I'm puzzling as to whether it's intentional or not. Does the "filter" make socket wrenches look like open-end wrenches or vice-versa? Is it really a metaphorical "wrench" as in Pintsize is "monkey-wrenching" reality?

Ol' Firebones

This actually ties in with something I've been thinking about as I've re-read the strip from the introduction of Bubbles: the role of AI faces in the QCverse. It's hard to imagine humans reacting the same way to May, Bubbles and Roko if they didn't have past-the-uncanny-valley faces. So why do so many AI's choose to stick with their cartoonish Pintsize-style faces? I suspect there's a *lot* of deeply entrenched identity politics surrounding this, and we just haven't seen it yet. Here's the strip where this stuff really comes up in my head: the conversation between Roko and O'Malley. Think of how they see each other, as opposed to how a human observer would see each of them. <a href="http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3695" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3695</a>

Pintsize is in danger of being compressed into a small cube here. And fired. With extreme prejudice. Into the sun.

Ben Russell-Gough

The thing that confirms the 'filter' theory is Pintsize's Uncanny Valley face. That said, one has to wonder how he did it!

Ol' Firebones

A Cronenbergian ouroboros, indeed.

Jon Spriggs

Nailed it. Ta! :)

Am Queue

No, Look at Faye in the first panel. Normal face, normal nose. Look at her later - huge eyes, tiny squiggle nose.

Andrew Armstrong

Maybe that is a socket wrench in this reality? In that case what are the laws of physics like?

Matthew Foweraker

I think its the pouty anime eyes. Not 100% sure as it being a new artist makes it unclear and they look differenet, but not HUGELY so.

Jon Spriggs

I feel really bad, but I don't get this one. Where's the filter applied? Is it because Bubbles is seeing the world through a different (cartoonist's - by breaking the 4th wall) lens? Is it the pose or .... what. I'm just, sadly, not getting it :(

Ben Russell-Gough

Nah - upgrade to the hands so he has digits but the original face really works for him.

Ben Russell-Gough

That's too overt. He wants people to come to a slow realisation, not have a sudden 'What the hell?!?' moment.

Ben Russell-Gough

What is reality but our perceptions? If our perceptions CHANGE, is it reality that is changing, or are we simply having our illusions stripped away? That said, I would only suspect a filter if Faye started sparkling when she posed in a certain way.

Brent Catherman

Seconded. Although I could see the wisdom of unleashing a horde of those on the enemy.

Unanimous D

If you haven't considered this in real life, you're a LIAR!

Hannah K

@jeph - kel's URL has an extra "L" in it when it seems it shouldn't. just an fyi!

Pintsize + that face = nightmare fuel

Jeffrey Nonken

The link for Kel should have one L, not two. <a href="http://www.kelmcdonald.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.kelmcdonald.com/</a>

Philip D Jones

Trivial matter: that’s not a socket wrench. It is an open-end wrench. An open-end wrench is much easier to draw than a socket wrench.

Bruce Steinberg

Maybe Pintsize got really creative with his filter. :p

Do you think Pintsize would put an anti clothing filter in?

That's not a socket wrench!

Joseph Houk

Anime Faye and Yaoi Pintsize?

Brilliant!

Ami

I motion the redesign of Pintsize to be permanent and he always secretly looked this way. Any seconding this motion?

That face on Pintsize just cracks me up

Will Weaver

Dammit, Pintsize! (This art style is really good, too. It suits Faye and Bubbles well.)