#114 “Someday”
Time for the maestro to work her magic!
Oh yeah, and just another quick thing, not really that important or anything, but, well, Tim and Shadow are now 12 years old canonically, both retroactively and going forward! So, next time you read through the comic (if you ever bother) you might notice a few slight differences here and there, mostly relating to dates/ages/quotes/etc. which now reflect the changes.
Hopefully, this’ll clear up any confusion if it happens to come up in the future!
I am enjoying the look on Shadow’s face in the last panel. Excellent expression!
Thank you for ironing out the age confusions. Now I will need to re-read and play spot the difference
Blackheart has to be Timothy’s mom. Same matching mole near the bottom left of her lips, somehow has access to human clothing, has knowledge of human world and precise timing, knowing exactly what is going on, and that Shadow needs human clothing for Halloween, and Timothy’s mom having knowledge of her stash being raided just shows she has powers. Too many coincidences for Blackheart to NOT be Timothy’s mom. Or evil twin monster sister. IDK man, the ball’s in your hands Brandon 😛
Although not being the primary source of information, I would love to share my stream of consciousness. I still believe that Blackheart is a red herring or has a more intricate connection to Tim’s family that most individuals around the realm of comments section imagine. Yes, I’ve seen plenty of arguments, some very potent, but I am not so convinced, having heard from some that Tim is adopted — that was never mentioned in the story. The book which Blackheart gave to Shadow may answer some “itchy” questions. What if Blackheart is not Ruth, but is instead works undercover! As the former panels hint, Blackheart’s story is similar to one of Shadow’s. Perhaps she is making sure that nobody finds out tries to resolve possible problems. Perhaps she is a part of a grander scheme trying to establish diplomatic relations between Nox and the Earth and we will witness the story of Romeo and Juliet… with a less tragic ending. I hope.
Just food for thought, not canon 🙂
Whoops, I meant to say that there could a more advanced story that people here haven’t mentioned. What I said above makes no sense.
Furthermore “is works undercover” isn’t even grammatically correct: I meant to say, “she working undercover impersonating Ruth.” I haphazardly posted the comment without proof-reading. Oh the hilarity!
Lots of maybes, but that’s the way I like it!
Here are a couple of data items you may have missed. In #87 ( /?comic=87-encounter <–append that to the website-name in the address bar), the last panel has Lady Blackheart saying that who she is depends on who is asked. And in #91 ( /?comic=91-speak-of-the-devil –I think I'll have to make for myself a little database of those comic-names/addresses), the last panel has Lady Moonlight starting to call her something that begins with the letter "R". Might have been "Ruthless" ….
Are we just going to ignore the last panel on #95 (/?comic=95-the-same-mistakes) where the silhouettes of Blackheart and her lover CLEARLY look like Timothy’s Mom and Dad? Also Blackheart’s color scheme is comprised of mostly yellow and every appearance of his mother she’s worn yellow as well (since characters seem to always dress to the same color scheme).
And once again as mentioned before… it won’t be neither denied nor acknowledged fully until eventual reveal by Brandon:\
For anyone interested, here’s my little database mentioned above. For myself I built it into a dinky web page that I can load from my computer’s file system into my browser. I decided to emulate what the main comic page does (with its “first” “random” and “last” selections built into an HTML “table” object, but I replaced “random” with a drop-down list of selectable comics). I can’t post all the code here because of message-filters that probably block HTML code. But, let’s see if this code snippet can be posted…
———-
[Editor’s note: There’s an archive of every page already at the top, don’t need to put anything in the comments]
That’s better, but now the rightmost parts got snipped –but they were only “closing tags” for all the “option” tags at left and are not really necessary for presentation here. The key thing that makes it work on my little web page is the “select” tag, and maybe I can post it by describing it:
—
Just before a “select” html tag a bit of text is often appropriate; I used the phrase “Pick One”.
The “select” tag can have several “attributes” and “methods”, of which I specified three:
First is the “id” attribute, which was set equal to “comics”.
Second is the “size” attribute” which was set equal to “1”.
Third is a method called “on change” (actually one word), which was set equal to a small chunk of JavaScript code.
All the code must be inside quotation marks.
The code specifies that the browser should create “window” object and “open” it. A single period must separate the two words –“open” is a “method” of the “window” object, and the period is called a “dot operator”, which both identifies the word “window” as an object, and tells the computer to look inside that object to access the “open” function/method.
The “open” operation is a JavaScript function that takes several parameters or arguments.
The group of parameters must be enclosed by parentheses and separated by commas.
The first parameter is the web-site address that is to be opened by the new browser window (your browser settings are likely to actually open it as a new “tab”). Part of the full address is in those “option” values listed in the other message, so that means the whole address must be assembled from parts.
The first part of the address must be enclosed in “single quotes”, which is simply a pair of apostrophes, and it is the normal
‘ht … et’
The ellipses have http at the left, net at the right, and the rest of the site-name in the middle –but just after the word “net”, and before the closing-apostrophe you see above, I also include part of the specific-comic address (since it is the same for all comic pages). Those characters are: first a slash symbol, then a question mark, and then this:
comic=
The closing-single-quote, an apostrophe, must follow the equals symbol.
The next thing, following that second apostrophe, is a plus symbol, since JavaScript can assemble long strings of characters like they were being added.
The next thing is a function common to all web pages, because all web pages have a “document” object. The name of the function is “getElementById” –it must be spelled exactly that way, with uppercase and lowercase letters as shown.
That function receives its own parameter inside parentheses and single-quotes: (‘comics’)
Remember the “id” assigned to the “select” object near the start of this message? The function can access that object because that id equals “comics”.
Immediately after the closing-parenthesis for the getElementById function, a dot-operator is required. The effect of the getElementById function is to obtain the “select” object, and if we have the object, then the dot-operator tells the system to look inside the object for something we want. In this case, the thing we want is its “value” property –the word value should immediately follow the dot-operator, not surrounded by any type of quotes.
When someone actually selects an option from the drop-down list, the “value” of that option becomes the value of the overall “select” object. So if #110 had been selected, the string of characters “110-role-reversal” becomes the value of the “select” object, and because of the “+” symbol mentioned earlier, that string gets concatenated to the first part of the address string, and now the browser has the whole complete web-page address.
A comma now follows the word “value”; we are done describing the first parameter of the “open” method.
The second and last parameter is the word ‘Comic’, in single-quotes as you see here. This specifies a name for the window that will be opened. If some already-open window has that name, then whatever web page is currently displayed there will be replaced by the page at the comic-address that had just been assembled. If no window has that name, a new window (or tab) will be opened having that name. What this means, for ME and my little HTML page, is that the first time I select any comic, a new tab will open, and I can switch back to the tab holding my selection-page, select another comic, and it will replace the comic in the other tab.
The final part of the “open” function is the closing-parenthesis, which must be followed by a semicolon symbol (marks end of JavaScript code), and then followed by the closing quotation mark (all the JavaScript code was a string of characters enclosed in quotes, remember), and a right-side or “closing” angle-bracket symbol (mathematical “greater than” symbol), which marks the end of the specified attributes/methods of the overall “select” object.
That “select” object-description immediately precedes the list of “option” objects. After the last “option” is a closing-tag for the “select” object.
I see one of my messages was snipped, with the “editor” claiming that all comic pages are already selectable. NOT TRUE FOR ME. I only see “chapter” selections, not the full list of comic pages. That means, every time in the past when I wanted to reference a comic for a message, I had to use the “previous” or “next” functionality many times to discover exactly which page# it was that I wanted to reference. And if someone else referenced a page# that I wanted to review, again I have had to use “previous” or “next” many times to reach that page. Now, if that “editor” would actually fix the web site to actually do what he claims it does, I would have felt no need to post these messages, including this list of “options” for a “select” tag.
—-
option value=”test-post”>#1
option value=”2-integrity”>#2
option value=”3-its-complicated”>#3
option value=”4-a-thief-in-the-night”>#4
option value=”5-grounded”>#5
option value=”6-wrongfully-accused”>#6
option value=”7-rats”>#7
option value=”08-a-better-mousetrap”>#8
option value=”9-eyes-in-the-dark”>#9
option value=”10-a-monster-problem”>#10
option value=”11-above-board”>#11
option value=”12-proof”>#12
option value=”13-square-one”>#13
option value=”14-tables-turned”>#14
option value=”15-sticks-and-stones”>#15
option value=”16-idle-threat”>#16
option value=”17-the-oldest-trick”>#17
option value=”18-say-uncle”>#18
option value=”19-its-over”>#19
option value=”20-a-wonder”>#20
option value=”21-double-trouble”>#21
option value=”22-no-deal”>#22
option value=”23-the-right-thing”>#23
option value=”24-shadow”>#24
option value=”25-million-dollar-question”>#25
option value=”26-one-last-thing”>#26
option value=”27-off-the-hook”>#27
option value=”28-the-waiting-game”>#28
option value=”29-full-circle”>#29
option value=”30-butter-side-up”>#30
option value=”31-away-she-goes”>#31
option value=”32-the-learning-curve”>#32
option value=”33-its-funny”>#33
option value=”34-crazy”>#34
option value=”35-curiosity-killed”>#35
option value=”36-bed-bugs”>#36
option value=”37-casual”>#37
option value=”38-empty-bag”>#38
option value=”39-field-trip”>#39
option value=”40-midnight-snack”>#40
option value=”41-instant-karma”>#41
option value=”42-parents”>#42
option value=”43-the-smell-of-fear”>#43
option value=”44-truth-be-told”>#44
option value=”45-something-else”>#45
option value=”46-midnight”>#46
option value=”47-partners”>#47
option value=”48-pushing-her-buttons”>#48
option value=”49-nipped-in-the-bud”>#49
option value=”50-trouble”>#50
option value=”51-stupid-human-stuff”>#51
option value=”52-playing-dirty”>#52
option value=”53-aftershocks”>#53
option value=”54-vow”>#54
option value=”55-quid-pro-quo”>#55
option value=”56-cards-on-the-table”>#56
option value=”57-moving-forward”>#57
option value=”58-an-old-classic”>#58
option value=”59-scream-queen”>#59
option value=”60-noctis-interruptus”>#60
option value=”61-nightmare”>#61
option value=”62-mothers-mercy”>#62
option value=”63-checks-balances”>#63
option value=”64-a-mothers-intuition”>#64
option value=”65-blackheart”>#65
option value=”66-an-unexpected-party”>#66
option value=”67-old-bones”>#67
option value=”68-second”>#68
option value=”69-first-reaver”>#69
option value=”70-the-good-girl”>#70
option value=”71-prove-yourself”>#71
option value=”72-no-one-knows”>#72
option value=”73-many-doors”>#73
option value=”74-a-little-busy”>#74
option value=”75-a-little-nostalgic”>#75
option value=”76-its-a-living”>#76
option value=”77-do-you-see-me”>#77
option value=”78-weirdo”>#78
option value=”79-grudge”>#79
option value=”80-a-dark-mirror”>#80
option value=”81-that-thing”>#81
option value=”82-a-third-hand”>#82
option value=”83-ready-or-not”>#83
option value=”84-or-not”>#84
option value=”85-a-dusty-old-book”>#85
option value=”86-by-the-tail”>#86
option value=”87-encounter”>#87
option value=”88-the-missing-mother”>#88
option value=”89-whispers”>#89
option value=”90-serious-mojo”>#90
option value=”91-speak-of-the-devil”>#91
option value=”92-the-good-stuff”>#92
option value=”93-wrong”>#93
option value=”94-a-helping-hand”>#94
option value=”95-the-same-mistakes”>#95
option value=”96-take-care”>#96
option value=”97-temptation”>#97
option value=”98-off-balance”>#98
option value=”99-wish-come-true”>#99
option value=”100-something-special”>#100
option value=”101-stranger-danger”>#101
option value=”102-escort”>#102
option value=”103-boy-trouble”>#103
option value=”104-to-be-continued”>#104
option value=”105-off-limits”>#105
option value=”106-boiling-point”>#106
option value=”107-serious-threat”>#107
option value=”108-my-darkest-angel”>#108
option value=”109-sweet-dreams”>#109
option value=”merry-christmas”>Xmas
option value=”110-role-reversal”>#110
option value=”111-a-little-too-real”>#111
option value=”112-all-in-due-time”>#112
option value=”113-something-borrowed”>#113
option value=”114-sometime”>#114
*sigh*
Brandon, if I could send you private emails I’d be happy to help you with any issues you might have in making your comic site look and function the way you want, simply in appreciation for the effort you put into your comic. Perhaps you don’t actually want individually-specifiable page-access, to every page? I’ve seen a number of different comic-stories on the Net and none of them seem to have individually-specifiable page-access to every page –perhaps it just wasn’t something that generic site-development tools like WordPress offers? Well, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done! Especially by someone who knows how to create web pages from scratch without using limited generic tools.
Dude .Wheare did you learn that?
Self-taught. A web page is basically just a text file, so any decent text-editor can be used to write the stuff that tells a browser how to present a web page. Plenty of books are available to tell you how to do it. So, write some text, save it, and then use the computer’s file-management system to click-drag the saved file into a “new”/empty browser window. If you don’t like how it looks, edit the text file, save it, and then click the browser’s “page refresh” symbol. Eventually anyone can learn how to put a web page together that looks exactly like what was wanted. And very often the result is much tidier than the messy stuff that “helper” tools generate –which is the main reason I am generally not interested in using those tools. Tidier web pages load faster and are displayed quicker by the browser.
If you want to add JavaScript for user interactivity with a web page, that’s an actual computer programming language. But it, too, is just text that a browser can process. Plenty of books on the subject are available, and the major browsers even have built-in JavaScript debugging tools. After enough trials and errors, plus a fertile imagination on “I wonder what happens if I try this …”, it becomes quite possible to make web pages do all sorts of things. The “select” thing I described above was a relatively minor challenge for me –the goal was to make all of its functionality fit inside one data-cell of a “table” object, because each TheMonsterUnderTheBed web-comic page has a table-object holding the “First” “Random” and “Last” selectors.
Which reminds me … there is a place in my description of the “select” object where something wasn’t stated, that should have been stated. The word “document” needs to be part of the string of JavaScript code (immediately following the plus symbol, and NOT enclosed in quotes), and a dot-operator must be used to separate that word from the name of the method called “getElementById” (also not enclosed in quotes).
I very much enjoy this series.
Thats right Shadow your not Superman a pair of glass wont fool them. Plus a girl has to learn how to acessorize when she go’s out with her man. After that it’s lessons on how to play hard to get. 😉
I think Lady Black Heart is Tim’s Mom. I don’t know why, but I swear she is.
See my comment below saw yours after mine posted.
I can’t wait to see the full outfit!
The 13th Doctor in Doctor Who might be a woman instead of a man.
I need to install new fans sometime soon.
I’m going to hazard a guess here. Blackheart is actually, The Admiral or Tims mother or vice a versa. She knows and approves of the budding romance between Timmy and Shadow especially since Timmy called her Shadow when she kissed him goodnight on his birthday. She is doing everything she can to both help and protect Shadow as well as nudge the romance in the correct direction. Not really expecting an answer here as that would mean spoilers but tossing it out as food for thought.
IF THAT IS TRUE I WILL DIE OF HAPPINESS
sorry for caps
Wow, noticed this comic today and had to read till the end.
Great stuff, like it.
Also quite impressive is the number of discussion elements on each image, mainly regarding relationship of Blackheart and Tim vs Shadow.
My personal feeling is that both Lord Mortis and Blackheart are somehow related to Shadow, maybe parents, maybe aunts or uncles or siblings. As we don’t know, how old these “monsters” can get, everything would be posible.
Looking forward to the following mysteries provided
Your Comic got my first Patreon.
Thanks for your comic.
do you base the positions on the tales by emotion or just whatever looks good?
Both, it depends.
Yeah! I noticed they grow with The story!
But even though it might be obvious but also you should make more physical changes as they get older! I know you did them changes but some of them are not getting noticed. For example, for the 18 year old Tim you can draw him with a mature back and shoulders (Since we all know, the back and the shoulders of male teens grow between the 14-15 years) also you could draw him a really small Beard.
For Shadow no changes, since from the beginning you have done the physical differences between ages remarkable (The waist and “voluptuous” parts grow as she gets older) Actually you know she is young on this part because she still has girlish body (such as Tim)
And I must say…
This was just a theory of mine but I’m starting to think it might be true…
Tim’s Mom is actually Blackheart
(Or someone actually related to Tim’s family)
Flip. I was thinking that first line would have been amazing if she was wearing these same stockings in the first scene or something similar. “Get used to these” indeed.
Great development of character so far by the way. Your storytelling is pretty high level.
Oh hey, i just found the comment section. Noice. Anyhow, great comic buddy. I really like it. It’s just the wait that bothers me. I can wait, of course. Just saying how entertaining this comic is. Keep it up!