Close! Brush pen, then pencil crayons!

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

I have to admit I had my doubts too. I could have just put these words over the Kombucha Girl meme, and called it a day. Then it would not be a comic.

But by the simple act of redrawing the meme, I get to claim it’s a comic.

Words and images, paired together, in a way where each hopefully adds something to the other that it doesn’t provide on its own…

Thank you for accepting my comic <3

That’s just smart. I should follow your lead and secretly practice a few songs. They might not be the same ones, but those are solid examples.

Thanks, I added it to my post. Hope I did it correctly.

Thank you for the lovely compliment! :)

Thanks. I made this. I am the artist. All credit goes to me. Gaze upon my shitty art and know that it is I, the very poster of the art, who made the work that I myself have posted.

None of these is 100% waterproof, of course.

Hopefully at least the yacht is.

Why not Peter Baggins?

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.