Even if safety reflectors become widely adopted- let’s suppose that workers leaving the office at 5pm put one on, clubbers at midnight have them, whatever - then won’t motorists come to expect to see them? And if they hit someone, people might say, “Well, she wasn’t wearing safety reflectors - what do you expect?”

Yeah, the idea of policing pedestrian outfits irks me. You don’t need a license to walk. You don’t need training, or to pass a test. There are no regulations written about what equipment a person must wear out in public to avoid collisions.

Operating a motor vehicle does come with those rules and responsibilities. Including headlights!

Besides, a lot of winter coats are mostly available in dark colours. They are fashionable, practical, and show stains less. Is someone supposed to buy an expensive second coat for walking around at night in? Stash a high-vis vest in their purse for when night falls at 5pm, and they are still out, on their way home from work?

When I have these discussions in-person, sometimes they say, “Oh but when they dash out across the middle of a highway and they’re wearing all black, even headlights don’t help!” Well, of course if they are suddenly darting across the road, crossing mid-block, of course that’s dangerous! It wouldn’t be okay if they were wearing a suit of glowsticks! There are rules against “jaywalking,” but not against wearing navy blue!

Oof

Good point. I will have to explore this distinction in future Telepathy Snub comics.

This is the best compliment ever. I hope your day job involves inspiring youth to reach their potential and believe in themselves, and to transform their cynical self-image into optimism. Thank you.

I figured it may be their own comic, and they were linking to their own page. Oh well

I promise you, I’m not.

I’ve been accused of “being AI” before, but I hate AI and never use it if I can avoid it.

I write in a dorky, earnest style with big words. A lot of early Internet users write that way. AI was probably trained on such writings. Therefore, people who write like old internet nerds tend to sound like the AI that scoured their forum postings for inspiration. That is my theory, at least.

Also, I went to art school, so I can talk about shit in a pretentious way.

It makes me sad that people are accused of using AI when in reality they are just mega dorks like me.

And if you don’t believe me about beinf human, check out my recent posts I guess.

Because this comic combines the cynical semi-randomness of Gen X with the Hate-My-Wife humour of the Boomer generation?

Fantastic. I like the way you took advantage of the comic strip medium to turn a quirky cat thing into an interdimensional revelation.

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.

Thanks, I appreciate your encouragement and compliments, especially the comparisons to such great comics.

I guess that in soliciting feedback, I’m not really aiming to make sure 100% of people “get” my next comic. I don’t really see it as a failure if a few people don’t connect the dots the exact way I intended. And especially because I’m not trying to gain internet fame with it (I don’t have a website, or even title or sign these things; it’s not my main creative pursuit right now).

But I do think it’s valuable to learn from strangers how they connect the panels to create a narrative, and how the panel order, subject matter, colour scheme etc. can influence that. The way this medium is interpreted can also be deployed for misdirection, the way PBF does. Learning about how a comic is received can help me analyze that.

Thanks again for taking the time and sharing your thoughts, I appreciate it immensely.

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.

Good feedback. I think a visual cue in the background could have worked. Like a lightning bolt pattern going from mind to mind.

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.

Haha, I watched Pluribus too, and while this comic isn’t a direct reference, the show certainly influenced me.

Yes, exactly! Thank you

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.”

Come to think of it, if they’re telepathic, why do they need telephone wires anyway?

Shit, my comic makes no sense

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.

This could have even been a one-panel comic.