Maybe some non-election related happy updates: I love some things about being in a relationship. And one of those is being able to buy seasonal tickets to the movies or regular to some grand theater production and have a lot of fun + spend time with her, but although it costs twice as much, which is a lot, it still makes a good present for Birthday, Christmas, etc. So basically I get to buy presents for both of us and leave the house. I never go to the movies or theater alone, I don't feel the need to and I'm rarely invited to anything I'd want to see. I hope she'll like the Christmas one, I secured some front row seats to one of the big shows. We'll also have our wedding rings in a week or two and can proceed with our plans for April. I'll have to make sure not to be even more impulsive than I already am and just work on my comics slowly. I'm almost done with Imago, Nebraska ‘til sometime in March, I’ll make enough for the new “musical” comic to be able to publish for months and I'll try to spend most of what's left from the year just not being absent when she's available. I have so much stress for not having enough time to do everything I want and she puts up with that all the time. But that's kind of what happens when you use creative work and imagination to escape from your usual headspace. I've yet to find a balance that allows me to make time for everything important.

That sounds great, Inky! I hope you two have a good time and become happily married when the time finally comes👍 I myself never go to cinema alone, I find a hard time to find any cinema film worth watching, so I usely leave it mostly up to what a friend or relative wants to see that I might find worth a shot. Last film was Horizon, saw it with my little brother last summer, it was his birthday gift to me actually.

And, yeah, fearing that I won't have the time to do the things I wanna do above all else is a major reason why I've either dodged or haven't put any much effort at all at getting into a relationship. Heck, I'm kind of frustrated still over not having gotten nearly as much updated on all of my comics as I'd liked to for the past five years.

But the reasons for that is that I didn't start out with a clear enough vision - its become clearer over time which I am ecstatic about - and I kept getting sidetracked by new story ideas that either led nowhere or got absorbed into the scriptmaking of the comics - though I feel I'm starting to settle more and more - and failing to find a update routine that works.

I hope to improve on all this til' next year.

Andreas_Helixfinger wrote:
That sounds great, Inky! I hope you two have a good time and become happily married when the time finally comes👍 I myself never go to cinema alone, I find a hard time to find any cinema film worth watching, so I usely leave it mostly up to what a friend or relative wants to see that I might find worth a shot. Last film was Horizon, saw it with my little brother last summer, it was his birthday gift to me actually.

And, yeah, fearing that I won't have the time to do the things I wanna do above all else is a major reason why I've either dodged or haven't put any much effort at all at getting into a relationship. Heck, I'm kind of frustrated still over not having gotten nearly as much updated on all of my comics as I'd liked to for the past five years.

But the reasons for that is that I didn't start out with a clear enough vision - its become clearer over time which I am ecstatic about - and I kept getting sidetracked by new story ideas that either led nowhere or got absorbed into the scriptmaking of the comics - though I feel I'm starting to settle more and more - and failing to find a update routine that works.

I hope to improve on all this til' next year.

Wish you all the best with it. I'm actually putting my newest comic project on hold ‘til sometime next year. If I’d spend the rest of the year making pages for that I'd expect at least a few likes and comments and since I can not realistically expect anything like that from anyone I just spare myself the stress of it all. One day I'll do smut and I'll laugh my ass off on it and won't care if anyone else likes it, but that day is not today.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
… One day I'll do smut and I'll laugh my ass off on it and won't care if anyone else likes it, …

YUP

DD's Twitter is now officially nuked! Emptied out of all tweets and all art/media posted over the ages. Only a tweet with a forwarding address to BlueSky is left.

No AI scraping on our watch! Also BlueSky is seriously a MUCH better environment for artists and webcomics in particular, it's insane!

Again, if you are on there, find @theduckwebcomics.bsky.social and DM me or reply to ANY of the posts made by the account asking me to add you to the starter pack- it's a surefire way to be connected and also for other artists not of DD to find you.

Andreas_Helixfinger wrote:
I myself never go to cinema alone

Last time I went alone to the cinema was to see Batman Forever.
I really enjoyed that ^_^

With the way my brain works, that was still like a few weeks ago to me, but that was about 30 years ago O_O
Jebus… I wish I was actually as immortal as my brain would like to think I am.

Old habits die hard I suppose.

J_Scarbrough wrote:

Old habits die hard I suppose.

Like a rush of blood to the head.


Anyone else getting nervous about the current news cycle with escalations heating up pretty quickly?

I am imagining a movie scene where UAPs show up as the “good guys” and intervene in human caused conflicts, saving the entire Earth in the process. It would be like War of the Worlds, Independence Day, or The Day the Earth Stood Still where the UAPs are the celebrated heroes on the planet.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
Anyone else getting nervous about the current news cycle with escalations heating up pretty quickly?

The missile stuff between Ukraine and Russia? -_-
This is why I don't do news anymore these days if I can help it.
Yup, the potential for nuclear weapons is getting closer and closer…

I'm just happy drawing comics.

Nah, Trump is going to magically end the war on his first day in office. He's already made a brilliant plan with Putin. Brilliant, one of the best war ending plans ever.

The plan to end war in Ukraine is simple:

stop giving weapons to Ukrainians > they're forced to surrender > war ends

This is only a problem if you think Putin rolling over Ukraine (or parts of it) is a problem, that probably Trump doesn't care much about.

There is the question of what will various european countries do if big bro USA pulls out.

I'm worried it's gonna be more like The Day After….





I think we are closer to nuclear war than ever.

marcorossi wrote:
The plan to end war in Ukraine is simple:

stop giving weapons to Ukrainians > they're forced to surrender > war ends

This is only a problem if you think Putin rolling over Ukraine (or parts of it) is a problem, that probably Trump doesn't care much about.

There is the question of what will various european countries do if big bro USA pulls out.

Thing is it has become a proxy war with countries also supplying Russia. China, North Korea and Iran are all supplying Russia. So it works both ways.

North Korea has even sent troops.

This is documented with drones featuring Iranian and North Korea markings having been shot down in Ukraine. Russia can barely provide itself with munitions. They have not been able to replace combat losses of men and material and have been digging out and refurbishing sixty year old equipment. Some trainees have been photographed with WW2 era weapons. It's understandable with Ukraine which actually refurbished war monuments for action, but Russia? And they still haven't fielded their latest generation of tanks raising questions of what is going on with design and production.

But I really don't know and just read stuff to keep with tank markings if I ever want to do a model of something from this conflict. I probably won't as I hate the politics.

The war is only going to “end” in the sense that Trump has practically promised Russia that he will hand Ukraine over to them on a silver platter, and then let Russia do whatever the hell they want with other countries they decide they need to conquer.

I would love it if Putin attacked any NATO member and the treaty obligations be invoked.
Russia launched an ICBM with a conventional warhead at Ukraine, thing is it's easier for the anti missile system to target and hit because it's that much bigger than a shorter ranged missile.

What happens if Russia launched a nuclear missile only for it to be intercepted and not hit the target and do no damage except to their reputation?

And the Polish army drives on Moscow like they did a century ago in the Russo-Polish War.

Russia knows they would be utterly defeated if NATO entered the war and will do everything to avoid that. And with Trump in Putin's pocket forget Ukraine. Time for Imperial Russia just like the Theocracy of the United States.

I'm not sure about anything really. It sounds like Trump just like the pm here idolizes Putin for being able to stay in power and they delude themselves into thinking he would respect strength in resolve. This “special military operation” went on for a 1000 days for now because Zelenskyy refused to surrender and let Ukrain's territories go to the invaders. He demonstrated strength, although whether that's a good or a bad thing is debatable. Putin has zero respect for him.

I don't know what consequences it has if a member of Nato refuses to lend a hand in conflict to the others, but it appears to me that this is more of a symbolic thing from the US and Trump has no intentions of keeping up illusions that they give a shit about what happens to Europe in case Putin would manage to win and go further. It all comes down to what they have to gain and I'm not sure what they have to gain from this continent by risking to get further involved in a potentially nuclear war. It'd be different if Putin would want to take Mexico or Canada, but that's not the case and most people who voted for Trump probably think that America is great enough not to need Europe's help anyway.

I think pretty much every country here will invest a lot more in military and try to demonstrate unity (with the exception of us, because our government wants access to funds on our own fucking terms, so they'll just keep blocking any votes that would help Ukraine, and sometimes Turkey will keep doing the same for whatever reason they have). All I can see is that Putin is not going to do anything that might make him look weak. And if anything else would make him look weak, he'll most likely start a nuclear war just because that's how insane people can get if they stay for 8+ years in charge of a country.

This is article 5 of the Nato treaty:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security."

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Treaty

During the Cold War this was interpreted that the USA would have threated an attack to a Nato nation as an attack to itself, so e.g. it would have used nukes to retaliate to an attack on Germany.

But now the cold war uas ended, and there is the question why should the USA do this since it is evident that other Nato countries only have a fraction of the USA army. Trump and many american conservatives in particular think that other nato countries are just mooching from the USA.

OTOH the USA has a lot of bases in Germany and to a lesser degree Italy, so why are we keeping those bases if they are not defending us?

My perception as an italian is that all italian governments, regardless of their side, always assumed that Italy, by virtue of being defeated of WW2, basically accepted to be the poodle of the USA, but in exchange got protection.

Trump is putting this in doubt, so various european governments are IMHO panicking as they realize they have to really build up an army.

On the long term, I think that we will see an EU army and less subservience to the USA, but this will happen in many years.
So in the whole I think this is going to be a net negative for the USA, but this will happen too much in the future so Trump will not lose anything for it.

I also suspect USAns really believe that they ate the white knights so they can't think that an EU with a serious army would be a competitor the same way that India and China are, they just assume europeans would always be on their side IMHO, so they don't see the problem.

The US has closed some bases in Germany and moved the assets to Poland. Poland has lots of wide open land for training. There have been exercises to more fully integrate the newer members as well as rotations of US units through the training areas.

So depressing.
A constant in that part of the world is that your greatest enemy are the people you share a border, a culture, a language, a history and family with and the people the country over who are more different are you mates.
You'll happily genocide a people who are basically as close as your family, but those guys 200 KM away are your best buddies XD

I also love the “OUR LANGUAGES ARE TOTALLY DIFFERENT AND SHARE NO SIMILARITIES BECAUSE WE PRONOUNCE A COUPLE OF VOWELS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY AND WE USE A DIFFERENT WORD FOR TOMATO SAUCE!!!!!”

No… you have basically the same language and culture, grow the F**K up.
-This is NOT aimed at Ukraine and Russia but everyone in the world that falls into that.
-I had Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, North Macedonian (and more) friends all through high school and university and you really see that sort of thing, especially when you actually go there.

Even given all that I still find it hard to believe that most Russians would accept a nuclear attack anywhere in Ukraine


——
BTW, Australia, Canada, the USA, New Zealand, and South Africa are all TOTALLY different and don't share any language or culture at all! XP
/JK

Even given all that I still find it hard to believe that most Russians would accept a nuclear attack anywhere in Ukraine

Most Russians don't want to die in prison or labor camps for opening their mouths. I imagine they rarely ever leave Russia, if they do it's somewhere in Europe that used to be part of the Soviet Union and they not only don't speak a word in English or in the country's language, they're legit shocked and insulted that you don't speak Russian. I can only imagine how they're kept in the dark when they're home, having their own versions of the truth for every topic. No, I imagine most Russians don't want to go down in history as the ones who “let it happen” for any place to get nuked. And I guess most Russians think their husbands and sons and brothers and fathers are being taken away to die for nothing. Even if they hate Ukrainians and agree with Putin in most things. But people can accept a lot of things if the alternative has a devastating effect on them, while the potential difference it makes is highly questionable even on the grand scale of things.

marcorossi wrote:

various european governments are IMHO panicking as they realize they have to really build up an army.

The way you describe this scenario envisions a real world version of the board game Risk where each European country has one lonely plastic soldier piece placed on top of its territory, leaving it vulnerable to an invasion from a neighboring country with more than two plastic soldiers.

The different ethnic groups often know they're related the problems are how the related groups rank themselves.

And they never let you forget it. It's all about hierarchies and grudges.

True Russians(Muscovites), and every other type of Russians in descending order, Ukrainians, other Slavs and finally Poles.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:

The way you describe this scenario envisions a real world version of the board game Risk where each European country has one lonely plastic soldier piece placed on top of its territory, leaving it vulnerable to an invasion from a neighboring country with more than two plastic soldiers.

Well the UK and France have 2 plastic soldiers each, but that's it (relative to the geopolitical importance these european countries expect to have).
Putin basically proved that european “soft power” is quite useless if the other side has enough tanks.

EDIT: actually there are a lot of defences for many western european countries, but these largely are linked to Nato, and Nato naturally responds to the USA more than it responds to others, so there is a problem if/when the USA chooses to not cooperate.

To extend the analogy, the UK may have two soldiers but they have a six sided die and Putin's die only goes up to two or three.

As Voltaire said, victory goes not to the big battalions but to the best shots. The Russians are a spent empty force. Properly supplied the Ukraine could hold them forever. It's devolved into a seesaw. Neither has the resources to force a decision.

But then that's how a soldier thinks.

I was working on the dragon mural at the front of my house that's made up on CDs and mirrors yesterday afternoon, when my tomcat Mouse came to hang around. Normally he's quite shy but because I was out there I think in his cat brain that means his gang now “owns” that space XD
It means he has the “big cat” (me) to back him up. He prowls around and poses when I'm out there. He did that for a while and then went away…

Anyway, a lady came along walking her dog (much bigger than Mouse). The dog was barking and growling and she was holding him back very apologetically. I told her it was probably because it smelled Mouse… As she was walking away with the dog Mouse charged out of nowhere and leapt at the dog!
He savagely attacked it from all angles, leaping around, slashing and kicking and biting. The dog was whimpering and crying and trying to get away and I was yelling at Mouse!
It was SOOOoo embarrassing!

I had to chase him down and bring him home and shut him inside. Naughty little monster! Normally he would never too that, but with me out there he thinks he can do anything…
Funny thing was that he LOOKED huge going after that dog. He's a big tomcat, very trim and muscular with short fur but he LOOKED twice his size then. This is why people always claim they see mysterious panthers and lions in shady streets at night but when it's investigated it's almost always just housecats.


———————–

In a weird Coda to this, I woke up to twilight at 5am this morning with eyes that would NOT focus. As I was staring toward the light gap between the dark curtains on my bedroom window, a strange shape seemed to come through that pale gap of light… My brain turned that unfocussed image into a gigantic finger parting the curtains and extending towards me.

My entire body was in fear of that image and my mind absolutely KNEW that's what it was, even though my concious brain and reason was saying “NO it's not you moron lizard-brain! That's just an unfocused image, there is NO finger there and that cannot exist”

-Despite that the rest of my mind and body was tensing and would not be convinced…
Till the shape “Mewed” hello then reached out and gently touched my hand with a paw. After that all the tensing went away and my mind agreed with itself that there was no giant finger there XD
Mouse on his early morning rounds.

Ozoneocean wrote:

tomcat Mouse

You now need to rewrite the lyrics to “The Farmer in the Dell” in which the Mouse takes the Dog.

Cats! Always good for a surprise. They all have a hidden tiger inside of them, which will come to the front if sufficiently peeved, and they do have a way of making themselves look big, haven't they? In any case they have their own little ways of putting everyone around them back into place if they feel it's needed.

My cat, Indy, who has long passed to the eternal mousing grounds, used to be able to make an incredibly deep, sonorous and loud growl when annoyed enough. Or did she enjoy scaring people? Anyway, you'd never guess a tiger-ish sound like this could come out of such a cute little kitty-cat - she was a relatively small European short silver-red-black tortoiseshell village mixture with a hint of Siam.
Dogs would approach her only once.

Indy is also responsible for a truly terrifying memory that stuck. I was lying in bed, on my stomach, and she decided to settle down on my back - nice enough so far. Eventually, she started to purr - breathing right into my neck. Falling asleep, the purr ceased, the breath stayed.
Doesn't sound terrifying?
Can't blame you. You'd have to experience it to know.
Suffice it to say, it is extremely effective at triggering your most ancient racial memories of when humans where but prey for sabre tigers and cave bears. If you ever wondered where so many stories about vampires and other bloodthirsty nighttime visitors come from, get yourself a cat that innocently breathes down your neck.

Thing is: I honestly believe Indy knew all this perfectly well and enjoyed every bit of it! I certainly wouldn't put it past her.

As I said: cats have a way to put everyone around them back into place.

Cats are beautiful treasures. When I see shadows or weird shapes in the corners of my eye or in twilight my brain always turns them into cats… Cats are the default image for me.


—————————-

Speaking of default images, what is it with these pseudo four wheel drives that EVERYONE seems to have an almost identical version off, INCLUDING Lamborghini now! And what kind of hilarious moron spends hundreds of thousands on a Porsche or Lamborghini when it's simply another version of the standard car you can get from anyone? XD
You ONLY buy those brands to stand out because of the body and shape, the actual brand name is only a small part of it, and yet these brainless idiots are buying them ONLY for the name.

Here are some pics I put together:

And the highest rated, with the best warranty and arguably the least ugly is among the most affordable. Hyundai.

The BMW classic grille is like the Dodge Ram pick-up grille they were putting on their crossovers a few years back. I would say they were “inspired” lol.