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Here is the initial sketch of the same comic:
For the final version, I tried a new watercolour strategy this time: colouring in all the blue shadows first, then adding other colours for the areas in light. It helped make the whole thing less clashing and muddy compared to my usual approach. I like the businessman panel where the colours are minimal. Other panels may be a little overwhelming.
Always exciting to have a new comic artist tag. Thanks for sharing some of your process, i really enjoyed the premise and the great art!
Woah, I always forget that art is an incremental refinement process, and love seeing the early concept sketched raw. The final piece is amazing btw
Her first mistake was talking out loud
I don't see how these panels are connected
It's telepathy. They're communicating telepathically. Including with members who currently aren't around.
Personally I picked up on that, but I still didn't really understand what's going on until I read OP's explanation. I generally thought telepathy was limited to your immediate area I guess, and expected to see characters from the first three panels in the others.
Thanks! I couldn't get past the idea that they were somehow using telepathy to see their own futures without her in them.
Thanks for your feedback. Here is a walkthrough of what I intended for the reader to experience. Perhaps it falls short.
First, she asks a group of five people if she can join their telepathy club.
At first they are all looking at each other, as if to gauge each others' willingness to accept her into the group. You may assume they are looking at each others' facial expressions to see what the other people think about her request.
However, then it shows seemingly random people in other places, doing other activities: swimming, business deals, hair salon, working on telephone wires.
Then it switches back to the first group, who have come to a decision. You realize that the random people were all part of the telepathy club too, and they were communicating telepathically to consider her request. It turns out that after long consideration, and perhaps many debates between them all that the reader doesn't get to see, the answer is a simple "no."
Oh, I thought maybe they were reading her mind and the images were memories.
I thought these were images communicated by the group we see standing there as their answers and was trying to decipher the visual puns
I like that idea. Maybe I'll make a sequel where someone asks to join, and they delve into that person's deepest memories. Examples: childhood sibling rivalry, first kiss, being fired from a job, etc. All is good, and they will probably be accepted. Then, they see a memory where the person did something slightly embarrassing (saying, "thanks, you too!" to a server telling them to enjoy their meal). And they get rejected based on that.
mindreading and telepathy are different things; seeing the applicant's past played out is a different kind of psychic power than being able to say "yo bob what do you think?" in someone else's brain
Good point. I will have to explore this distinction in future Telepathy Snub comics.
That said, personally I do like this comic and it worked for me.
I do wish there was some kind of ~~~~ wavy-line professor x kind of visualization of all the telepaths exchanging info.
one last note: it'd be cool if there was some kind of 'well if you have to flap your lip meat to ask.... then probably not'
Oh ok, thanks for the explanation. I did not associate the other random people as being telepathic and in the club.
I would have had all the telepathic people doing something like, have their hand on their chins as if they were thinking. That would be a visual trigger that allows me to link all of the characters together.
Obviously some people got it without an explanation, so perhaps it's just me who has an issue understanding this. 🙂
Good feedback. I think a visual cue in the background could have worked. Like a lightning bolt pattern going from mind to mind.
It took some thinking to figure out what was happening, I initially thought they were reading her mind and judging her. But after noticing that the first two panels were people of the group I figured it out. It wasn't that hard to figure out but required paying attention, a pretty good little comic if you ask me.
Maybe you should make the background colours of the second and third panels match that of the first, so that it's clearer they're the same peoe.
I got it after a couple seconds of thinking about it. I enjoyed it, and hope you keep it up.
Art that works for everyone is boring.
Keep being you.
Wow, how did I not understand this by myself. I am currently even watching Pluribus where this exact same situation happens >_<
Haha, I watched Pluribus too, and while this comic isn't a direct reference, the show certainly influenced me.
I also didn't connect the dots when I read it, but I would encourage you to not listen to anyone who tries to tell you how to "fix it". Keep doing what you're doing. Your style is good and I love the facial expressions!
It didn't fall short, it fell flat for me. I am sorry but I don't see a punchline even with your explanation, which, surprisingly, I didn't need to understand the plot. I thought I was missing something...
I didn't get it, but that doesn't mean you did a poor job conveying your intent, and I like the artwork.
I got it immediately, I thought it was clever.
Don't be discouraged by the minority of people and AI posing as people who have a hard time with subtlety.
I hope that nobody is using AI to read and comment on a comic on Lemmy! If so, what has this world come to?
I'm glad that many people got it, but I do sincerely appreciate hearing the alternative interpretations. I like breaking down the ways in which info is communicated in this medium, and ways it could be made more clear. At the same time, the subtlety and uncertainty is part of the setup, so I'm not super bummed that the intended meaning wasn't crystal clear to all.
How it feels trying to make friends as an adult lol
they're presumably people in the telepathy club having telepathic communication (maybe to discuss including the person in the first panel?)
thus no speech bubble
Yes, exactly! Thank you
I like how the person who clearly doesn't have telepathy, asking to join, actually has a smile on their face. All the telepaths look dead and miserable inside.
Thanks. With telepathy, I do sometimes wonder if the telepaths see no point in making external facial expressions for the benefit of their fellow telepaths. It may be that on the inside, in their own telepathic group chat, they are joking and singing and laughing and having fun.
I recall a scene in Gunnerkrigg Court along these lines (don't ask me to find it) and I also wonder if it's the case in Pluribus.
Maybe it's similar to when you text someone, "ROFLMAO" but you aren't actually smiling in real life.
With telepathy, I do sometimes wonder if the telepaths see no point in making external facial expressions for the benefit of their fellow telepaths.
People born blind still make facial expressions. It's hard wired into us to make the expressions, even for a tiny moment, and suppressing those facial expressions is learned.
That's probably why I still laugh, cry, wince, widen my eyes in surprise, etc., when watching TV by myself.
So I don't think telepathy would change that behavior.
I really like the coloring and style. Also i think there's enough visual cues to suggest what is going on.
Very nice. I love it.
She was blackballed by a lineman.
Come to think of it, if they're telepathic, why do they need telephone wires anyway?
Shit, my comic makes no sense
Because that's that telepath's job and not everybody is telepathic. A bald person can still be a barber.
Gotta make a living.
They're removing them. Telepathy just has been discovered :3
I love this. It leaves just enough out so that it's not immediately obvious what's happening, but gives enough clues so that you can figure it out as you scroll.
It builds up nicely, and once you understand it, it leaves you feel clever & very fulfilled as a reader.
You've basically figured out Valve's (the video game company) definition of "fun" for a short comic strip. You should be proud of that! Also love the style. I hope to see more whenever you find inspiration.
hah ! took me a minute, love it
Very creative, and I love the art. Well done!
The water colors are fantastic, and the joke is great! Thanks for sharing! :)
This is really great. Awesome style
I was expecting that they would find too few degrees of separation from Epstein
When did Tatsumaki change to blonde?
Is is cuz she's black? 🤔
I did not get it before reading OPs explanation
