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Saoshyant posted:Steeple aw, I'd go for a pint with the Extreme Freaks.
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Feb 9, 2024 08:34
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they seem like perfectly nice people, which is probably the entire reason tom doesn't like them.
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Feb 9, 2024 09:39
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:they seem like perfectly nice people, which is probably the entire reason tom doesn't like them. at worst they seem like the kind of people that won't shut up about whatever poly drama is going on in the kink collective today and it's not like I haven't hung out with people like that before.
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Feb 9, 2024 09:43
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:at worst they seem like the kind of people that won't shut up about whatever poly drama is going on in the kink collective today and it's not like I haven't hung out with people like that before. Thinking about the time I had an MMO guild fall apart because of poly drama among the leadership and agreeing with this wholeheartedly
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Feb 9, 2024 09:45
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Scary Go Round (May 12-16, 2005)  You didn't really think there would be a normal Beckwith, did you?  This little mini-arc with Nat gets tacked onto the end of the Election arc in the eBooks, since it's not really long enough to be its own arc, but it's an important bit that comes up a few times in the future.
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Feb 10, 2024 06:37
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Yvonmukluk posted:Bad Machinery heheheheheh
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Feb 10, 2024 21:02
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Steeple John A posted:Are YOU a humidity princess? Meet humidity princesses in your area now!
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Feb 12, 2024 00:03
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Sesh Gremlin in the back there
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Feb 12, 2024 00:09
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I want a spinoff starring Tom.
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Feb 12, 2024 00:11
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:Sesh Gremlin in the back there There's also one of the witches from Steeple 4 in the lower corner: 
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Feb 12, 2024 00:42
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Scary Go Round (May 17-20, 2005)    Extra comic today for pacing (and because I forgot to post yesterday). Tomorrow starts a new arc about abductions, alien and otherwise!
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Feb 12, 2024 07:40
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Steeple John A posted:Well, that comic has answered every question you ever had about Magus Tom Pendennis. There’s nothing left to ask, nowhere left to go.
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Feb 13, 2024 01:59
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Welp, time to start silently screaming and never stop.
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Feb 13, 2024 02:18
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Scary Go Round (May 23-25, 2005)  
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Feb 13, 2024 03:46
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This arc is kind of weird in retrospect because after it Riley immediately swerves back into her lane of being the one person in the cast who hates everything supernatural that goes on in Tackleford and refuses to recognize it. (and of being the worst person alive)
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Feb 13, 2024 06:19
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Kazinsal posted:Scary Go Round (May 23-25, 2005) the driftwood will remind him of eternity
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Feb 13, 2024 07:04
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Saoshyant posted:Steeple Tom's tiny todger
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Feb 13, 2024 07:11
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Steeple John A posted:Whatever the witch influencers did to Brian in this comic just came home to roost. I’m sure everyone’s fine.
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Feb 14, 2024 00:05
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Also, Allison sent out an email a few days ago with some really good behind the scenes stuff about little tricks done to speed up the drawing process, but he ends with a note I liked enough to share here:John A posted:For me, making art is man vs the mountain. It's a challenge and the challenge is the thing. The mountain is always going to be bigger than me. Every time I take a shortcut - usually for an expedient reason - I like the result a little less. I was all for returning to working completely traditionally this year, but an arm injury just before Christmas has made that impossible. In the era of AI art, I think greater value will be placed on the visible human hand. It's not about perfection, it's about connection. Connection frequently has nothing to do with perfection at all.
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Feb 14, 2024 03:47
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Scary Go Round (May 26-27, 2005)   There's a gap in the dates between these comics and tomorrow's; I'm omitting two weeks of guest strips.
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Feb 14, 2024 05:31
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Bad Machinery  [ 
Yvonmukluk fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Feb 15, 2024 |
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Feb 14, 2024 19:17
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Scary Go Round (June 13-15, 2005)  
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Feb 14, 2024 20:40
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Steeple John A posted:So here we are. The final Steeple page. I wrote about “finishing” the story on my Patreon at the start of the year (the post should now be unlocked). As always, I am very grateful to you for reading.
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Feb 15, 2024 00:01
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Well that was a whole bunch of nothing. I guess Allison's solution to resolving all the plot threads was to just not? It's a shame, Steeple had been my favourite of his comics and having a more focused story was a big part of why.
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Feb 15, 2024 00:11
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I love John's work but I guess he has a fae pact against ending his stories. Sheeple was way too good to end with "poo poo happens." 
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Feb 15, 2024 00:14
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That's not an ending, that's just a stop.
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Feb 15, 2024 00:14
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Yeah, I have no idea why he would do this. There's always room to draw those ideas than leaving them all hanging and forcing himself to draw a "last" issue. But he could always return later to it, as he said on Patreon, so I guess that will have to suffice. Can't say I'm happy with it, though.
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Feb 15, 2024 00:16
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Every steeple story that ended with an implication that it was setting up something for the future... I guess that's just a massive misreading of tone on the part of the entire audience?
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Feb 15, 2024 00:25
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Why even bother continuing after the timeskip at the end if you're going to do that
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Feb 15, 2024 00:29
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I guess he felt like the alternative was just stopping, without showing people all the ideas he'd had in mind?
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Feb 15, 2024 00:33
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Yeah, so, drat. While I knew this was going to be the last Steeple story, I figured since Allison was setting up all these plot threads he might later revisit the characters under a different title. Instead he just took a chainsaw to the threads he set up. I mean, look at what he's done to the cast: Clovis is in jail awaiting trial for murder. Tom has been rendered impotent (literally), just as the rectory has been closed, a hollow victory. He might also be one of the two fatalities mentioned in third panel. If Tom wasn't killed by Brian, it's possible that Billie and Maggie tried to stop him and they were the fatalities instead. Brian has now killed two people and seriously injured several others, most of who were probably his friends and coworkers. Even when he was part of the Church of Satan, while Brian had a wild side, he was never malevolent and would feel guilty if he hurt anyone. Even if you argue that he couldn't be blamed because of his lycanthropy, I think that would only compound the guilt in his eyes. The Hipster Witches have gotten off scot-free. Finally, Penrose has a “happy” ending with Shelley, but he thinks his presence in Tredregyn was inconsequential, when in fact he was crucial in stopping the town from going to hell. Furthermore if he finds out what Shelley has been keeping from him he will have to deal with that as well. I know I'm probably overthinking this, since these are fictional characters who belong to Allison, so he can write the stories he wants about them. Still, over the years I've grown fond of them and it sucks to see their story end like this. I'm reminded about the original ending to Kevin Smith's Clerks, where Dante is killed by a random robber, and how he changed it after protests from his friends who had read the script. I wish something similar had happened here.
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Feb 15, 2024 00:34
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I mean, it's a cliffhanger, but also a preview of what might have been, so there's no way any named characters are dead.
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Feb 15, 2024 00:42
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Even SGR has a more substantial ending than that, and Allison always said he didn't think it was a good ending. Maybe we'll get more Shelley Winters Adventures in the future.
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Feb 15, 2024 06:49
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What an odd choice. I honestly think just stopping after the last story was less unsatisfying than this.Rand Brittain posted:I guess he felt like the alternative was just stopping, without showing people all the ideas he'd had in mind? That makes some sense, I've gone a long way into doing something creative before realizing I wasn't going to finish it, but still want to show some of my work. I do wish he'd found a way to give it slightly more closure than none at all.
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Feb 15, 2024 07:19
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The thing is, half of these hinted-at storylines were already hinted-at, that hint being the culmination of a previous entire story. For example, I remember there the one chapter where Jason was lurking around the edges the entire time, and in the end nobody really realized it was him, except Tom who (it was revealed in a chapter-closing stinger) had captured him for unknown purposes. It was an ending that didn't resolve anything, but did set up an intriguing potential. Steeple was full of things like that. And now I guess here's a closing chapter which is nothing but setting up intriguing storylines that vanish before they land. So maybe it's revealing that to be a specific structural theme of Steeple as a series, echoed and underlined in its conclusion. ...I'll go with that.
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Feb 15, 2024 07:45
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davidspackage posted:What an odd choice. I honestly think just stopping after the last story was less unsatisfying than this. Honestly, if he'd ended the previous chapter saying it was the end of Steeple and had this be openly an epilogue from the start it would have landed better. Billie returning to the flock in time for the church to shut down is decently conclusive.
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Feb 15, 2024 10:31
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Like an abrupt stop, or the killing off of characters is definitely within John's wheelhouse, but this last issue did nothing but make every character's life a bit worse. Even by his own standards of handling character exits (dragged to hell and forgotten by everyone they ever knew, biscected by demon computer, whatever happened to Rich) this seems particularly mean-spirited.
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Feb 15, 2024 10:31
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So Shelley isn't with Tim Jones anymore.
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Feb 15, 2024 10:45
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Numero6 posted:So Shelley isn't with Tim Jones anymore. She hasn't been for a while. Shelley has previously shown up in Tredregyn in a story where she was kidnapped -- she couldn't stop flirting with the old Rev the moment both of them were together on panel. Then there was a special issue of Steeple (Patreon exclusive) where they actually went for a date and Rev learned about her kid. And now they are together after Rev lost his Church and left Tredregyn.
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Feb 15, 2024 10:53
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| # ? May 10, 2024 19:43 |
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I could post more but I think this is the right amount of effort for this ending. Laaaaaaaame.
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Feb 15, 2024 11:41
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