Thanks everyone who came out and say Ben, Anthony and I at Orycon, or took a chance on Modest Medusa for the first time by buying a t-shirt or picking up a con book. The con was low key and the dealers room was (I hate to say this) totally dead, but everyone we met was really nice, and the con staff was great.
A Modest Medusa board game? Not quite. my friend Tyler Tinsely is doing a Kickstarter for his range of amazing papercraft games and toys. You may remember Tyler’s last Kickstarter project, the excellent paper craft Mouse Warrior toy. This new line of toys and games is justa s cool. Anyway, as a special incentive one of these games, Bluffing Style Chess, will feature special Medusa and Jake game pieces if the Kickstarter reaches $1000. I’m a big fan of Tyler’s games and toys and Bluffing Style Chess is a lot of fun. For just a $10 donation you can get your own copy, and if teh Kickstarter reaches $1000 you’ll also get the special Modest Medusa game pieces! Pretty cool! Contribute here!
Occupy Portland, and other protests around the country… well, you’ve seen what’s happening, right? Speak out. Spread the word. Don’t let this go ignored.
Drunk Duck Awards. I was surprised and pretty excited to find out that I’d won a Drunk Duck Award for “Most Promising Newcomer”. Modest Medusa got it’s start over at Drunk Duck back in Febuary, and that’s where it found it’s audience and really took off. I really appreciate this award from the DD community. Thanks. Check out this link to see Paul Eberhardt’s awesome presentation comic, and please make sure to check out the comics of runners up Ayesinback, Gunwallace and Lizinverse. Also, check out the special Modest Medusa strip I did for the “Most Helpful User” award!
ooooh so she DOES know she can turn ppl into stone. Just not how to turn it off. XD Oh well that’s what purple princess gets for grabing a venomus snake. ;D
that mermaid got STONED….im sorry it was a horrible pun but hey now we know what the snakes bite does
The colouring on the turning to stone effect is great.
This raises one question for all medusa related tv,movies, comics etc. or even the whole somebody gets changed to an inanimate reprsentation of themself motif. How is it that their clothing turns to stone too?
I’d always imagined that the venom/gaze/whatever turns anything it comes in contact with to stone, flesh or not. In this case I’d guess the venom spreads through the body, changing it to stone at a cellular level. The transformed cells also carry this ability, and are able to transform materials that they touch (such as clothes, patches of the ground, othe rpeople in contact wiuth the victim). The whole process probably has a built in kill switch that triggered by the victims death.
I like that you’ve actually thought it out. And I like that you started it on the arm, where she was bitten, although if I wanna get nitpicky I could say it should have started at the shoulder since that’s where she was bitten first, but I’m not a jerk, and it looks baws. I always imagined the stare-version of the stoning starting at the eyes, and spreading through the head and down through the body, leading to a quick death if perhaps not a painless one.
so now whats the angry 1-eye mermaid going to do? Do medusa’s have fangs? Or maybe only the adult form medusa?
Medusa has fangs. You can see them when she opens her mouth.
Hell you can see them on the site’s background. Hell(er), I’m looking at them right now typing this!
<—————————- See?
aww. i would have gone to the con if i had been remotely close. im in western Canada XD
OMG…… She’s a stoner. (fail)
I love how the mermaid tries to be threatening almost until the end!
Of course this tells us about how Medusa’s mother uses her minions! She didn’t bother to warn them.
The way the mermaids were carrying on about snakes-for-hair being gross earlier, I don’t think they’re minions. They’re just in it for the money and probably didn’t read any of the disclaimers.
Now it’s a matter of, is green mermaid smart enough to leave now or is she too blinded with fury and knife to realize she could be next?
I love the 99% stand. That is great work my friend, and at a time when it is needed the most. If only the people who just got kicked out of the park in NYC could see that. Well, I will smile for them.
soooo she’s dead?
Side note: I just sent the image to a friend who is protesting:
“(H)ere in NYC History is being made. Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings has ruled that the Mayor of NYC performed an illegal action by removing the demonstrators from Zucotti Park. Yay!!!!”
…Wow.
Wow!
Responding to a request that he reverse the eviction, New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman ruled the protesters didn’t show “they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park along with their tents, structures, generators and other installations.”
“Conditions at the park had deteriorated to the point that serious concerns about crime, fire hazards and public health needed to be addressed”
Almost feel sorry for the Mermaid at the very end there when she’s pleading.
But I feel more sorry for Medusa because she’s already crying about it. She doesn’t want to kill anyone, she just wants to make friends!
Now I know where I’ve seen her – Copenhagen.
Medusa hasn’t quite learned that saying “I’m sorry” repeatedly doesn’t make things right.
The top 1% already pay 40%(or more) of all taxes already. What do these “occupy” guys accomplish besides creating a health hazard at the places they are squatting at?
Good luck with your comics & stuff, but you lost my votes.
That’s fine.
Actually, the top 1% make about 22% of the income and pay about 27% of the taxes. However, they own about 35% of all wealth and 43% of financial wealth in the US. Because capital gains taxes are so low, they pay a lower overall rate than the rest of the top 10%, whose overall tax burden is only about five percent higher than median Americans’. Federal income tax is rather progressive, but most other taxes are much less so, and those other taxes constitute a major part of most Americans’ tax burden. The top 1% pays around 40% of the federal income tax (excluding entitlement taxes), but they pay very little for entitlement, sales, and other taxes.
Relevant: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
That’s proportionate. They have 42.7% of the financial wealth in this country, so it’s logical that they pay 40% of the taxes.
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
I somehow doubt Rem will read this, since I get the feeling xe has stopped following the comic, so this’ll just be for the people who are here.
I’m going to leave my personal politics aside and simply say this: that the most important, most fundamental right necessary for a free society is the right to speak, to protest, to act. I feel the actions of the government towards the occupy movement, when they will defend the rights of the Westboro baptists when they protest at soldier’s funerals, is reprehensible at best.
Two, allowing your politics to get in the way of enjoying a very fine comic is moronic. Example: I really enjoy the Whiteboard. Do I agree with all of Doc’s politics? Not necessarily. But it still is a rather enjoyable comic.
Thanks. Need a like button.
The government has given the Occupy guys a free ride so far. When the Tea Party bunch came in to have their say they got permission and paid for permits. In some cases they left the place cleaner then when they came in.
The occupy guys just come in squat and make a lot of mess and in some cases terrorize people by camping in front of their homes.
I’m not letting politics get in the way of enjoying this comic. Jake decided he needed to bring it up and I’m just responding to that. As long as he keeps posting them, I’ll keep reading. I just won’t vote for it.
You know… one of the BM’s turning to stone while the other has lost (at least) an eye makes the Bitchy Mermaids tee shirt rather obsolete. I wonder if mine has just gone up in value since there are no more Bitchy Mermaids any more.
I love the 99% image and its message. I think that is one of the best summaries of the occupy movement I’ve seen. Any chance you could do that image as a t-shirt (or a sweatshirt or a hoody, given the season)?
I’ll get on it.
Great comic as always, but as I live under a rock, I have no idea what this occupy thing is about.
So that said, I’ll just continue to live oblivously and comment on the comic.
I see a bit of outrage in the comments section about pointing out this… thingie, that’s going on.
Not that I’ll be listened to, but if you guys don’t like his bringing up politics, just ignore it. It’s that simple, folks. I don’t care about politics, I never have. I’m a purposeful non-voter! If I don’t give two rips about something, I’ll just ignore it. I’m not saying that whatever they are talking about, doing, saying is important, but it’s something *I* personally don’t have any interest in.
If Jake wants to reach out to others about something he feels passionate about, then let him. You all were and are with him about getting his votes up when he deeply wanted to get up there, right? If you didn’t vote, that’s fine. I didn’t vote (call me lazy), but I still love the comic.
If he’s even willing to make pictures of his characters speaking out, let him!
My ONLY complaint would come from if you start incorperating your politics into the comic itself. I might lose interest if it gets preachy. Just to be clear.
But whatever Jake wants to do his up to him. It’s his site after all, he pays its bills.
No need to get uppity folks. If you just don’t agree, or you just don’t care. Just ignore it.
I was enjoying this.. but then I saw that you are bringing politics into the comic which always brings failure.
How about you do research on who those supposed *Megaquotes “99%” are. You might be surprised.
Then do research on who’s supporting the protests that are leaving parks and public spaces unfit for human use and assaulting people. Then you might be sickened.
Love your comic.
Hate politics.
It’s your baby, you do what you want with it. But for whatever it is worth to you, when I am coming here it is because I am looking for a bit of cute and reasonably mindless entertainment. Not politics. These days I almost make it a point to not have an opinion on politics when I am on the internet. It never ends well, and there is rarely any point to it when you get to the bare bones of it. No elected official is going to give two shits what a couple of nerds were sniveling at each other about on some webcomic page. Just reality.
I will, of course, keep reading. I really enjoy your little chunk of the internet. But you’ll have to forgive me if I pretty much ignore any political whatever you decide to include on your site.
That’s fine. I have no interest in putting my politics in my comic anyway. Honestly, I don’t consider this politics though. This is my friends in my city standing up for people like me who don’t have health insurance, or don’t have a place to live, ordon’t have a job, or work ful time but still can’t meet the cost of living, or were ripped off by their banks, or…. I mean, it goes on and on. like you, I’m not political. I usually ignore most of this stuff. But calling this “just politics” (as many people have done, including myself in the past) misrepresents what is happening right now. Anyway my purpose with the illustration was to remind my friends (like Charles) who are working as part of the Occupy movement that what they’re doing is important to me, and to encourage them to keep going even in the face of what’s happened so far.
But none of that should change how you feel about the comic.
I don’t have any particular desire to weigh out the pros and cons of the policies they are trying to change. But for the record, I have spent most of my life without health insurance and well below the poverty cap. I still say that by definition if it is a movement to change govornment policy, it is politics. Calling it anything else is imbuing it with purpose and nobility or derision supplied by the speaker. Doing so makes the statement, again by definition, a biased political opinion. I don’t care what side you are on. It just is what it is.
That being said, if your intent is to encourage your friends in doing what they and yourself believe to be right, only a great jackass would call you out for doing so. Just, as I said before, it isn’t why I come here. So forgive me if I don’t respond. Aside, apparently, from saying that I won’t respond.
/sigh.
Because even when my intentions are pure, I still can’t quite seperate myself from my online moniker.
Datatroll-
😛
Thank you for that!
I find cartoon Jake’s “Life isn’t fair” sign to be humorous. Imagine that you had a bunch of Occupy protesters on one side of a street, and then a bunch of counter protesters on the other side of the street.
That sign really would make sense on either side. They’d just be whining on one side and telling people to get over it on the other side. =P
Yahoo news reveresed its coverage of the Zucotti incident in under four hours. The NY Supreme Court reversed its decision almost as quickly. Unless you actually live in New York City then your understanding of the situation has probably been repeatedly described by purple mermaid preceded by the word “Oh” (I include myself in this).
So far as Jake bringing politics into the strip, he hasn’t. He drew one picture of the character holding up signs which was non-canon to the rest of the plot. So far as web comics in general go, he’s gone further than most in keeping his social/political views out of the strip. I disagree with him on this issue, but have to give him credit for making his views known in a format that will not “taint” future books. If you really think he’s pushing his own political agenda then just consider that whole moderated comment thing and the fact that comments that disagree with him are still making it through.
This must be Yeld, ’cause you know it’s all gone down the toilet when I have to be the voice of reason.
Hey Jake what shipping service goes to Yeld to pick up my Mermaid Statue i called dibs on earlier?
Planet Express.
On the subject of Politics Jake i dont disagree with you bringing it up but isn’t medusa too young to know exactly whats going on ? or is she just holding up the sign because its fun?
A lot of people bring their kids along to hold up signs. I’ve never been a fan of that though. In this case, it’s just a picture.
Jake I think Medusa is the .000001% [you know because shes an Self Aware Nonhuman Entity] Still she’s got the free time to hold up signs might as well we are assuming she’s getting paid in chocodiles for this right?
Bad idea to bring politics into this, Jake. You’re being naive and you’re being used. My advice is to write fiction and live reality, because trying to live fiction is only going to get you laughed at by both sides.
As for the people here saying “Oooh Jakes preaching politics i quit” The mermaid is being turned to stone medusa can’t stop it oh no is that a political statement? No im pretty sure its a mermaid being turned to stone. If you don’t like very large protester sign picture beneath it ignore it. I have no idea what 99% 1% thing is But it’s Jakes comic. hell it’s Jakes website he’s allowed to put in his two cents worth.The only potential problem i see is the people who paid huge amounts of money to the donation for the top prizes may be ones in the 1% but they should be rich enough to clean off their monocles and say “Bully these occupy chaps do seem to be in a dilly of a pickle. I hope their is a way which can satisfy them while retaining my own lifestyle.” {At least i really hope they say that because that would be awesome}
Bully, indeed.
Mermaids gonna come back for revenage :D?
Maybe. No spoilers.
Lawn mermaid?
It was as I was reading through the comments, sharpening and listening to Amon Amarth, it occurred to me: the first death we’re going to see in the comic was caused by a little girl (well, by her snake hair).
Not a hundred percent sure how I feel about that. Mostly, kind of worried that this will effect Medusa in a bad way. I’d hate to see her completely lose her innocence because of this. That said, if it had no impact, I’d probably worry anyway.
Definitely enjoying the comic. Hope Mara gets that sword sharpened before continuing on.
One of the themes of the comic that I’m trying to push is that actions have consequences.
occupy forhead dot!!!!!!
thats what she gets for kidnapping the cutest gorgan in yeld
well, mythologically a petrification caused by a medusa can be reversed within 24 hours, either by killing the medusa, definitely not going to happen here, or, more likely, the willing kiss of the medusa who caused the petrification. O_O
On the plus side, she’s cured of her smoking habit.
Wow, seeing her beg as she slowly died… I feel a little sorry for her.