egscomics

Parable - 115 - HD

When sneaking, remember to hold a torch.

Commentary

Something I find rather strange about Fable 2 is that this is basically something you have to do.

Your identity as a "Hero" (some sort of empowered person of destiny) is very important, and a threat to the main villain. In that game, there's basically you, the jack of all trades hero, and three other, more specialized heroes. There's basically two people anywhere in the kingdom who should be capabl...

Parable - 114 - HD

 The 90's sitcom audience continues to woo

Commentary

FIRST! A reminder that there WAS a Friday--I mean, THURSDAY EGSNP, so if you're confused, you probably missed that.

Now, on to the actual commentary.

I felt the only way for this bit of a twist to work with Susan was for her reaction to be mild exasperation, effectively followed by "neat".

Were Susan actually uncomfortable with the situation, everything would have to come to a halt, I would owe her appr...

Parable - 113 - HD

(90's sitcom woo)

Commentary 

Is it a spoiler to say this is touching on video game logic?

It is?

Well, the heck with it, I want to say this is touching on video game logic.

What else am I going to put down here, that I spent way too much time figuring out Rhoda's pose in panel one because I wanted it to be visually interesting and appealing? No! That's rubbish! You've seen the panel! You all know that! All I'm left with is video game logic,...

Parable - 112 - HD

"She has eaten all of our fish."

Commentary

How to draw Susan with short hair:

Start drawing her hair as you always would, but once you get around the ears, make it short.

I know that sounds like a joke, but that's basically my whole approach.

May End Of Month Poll #2

Small Femme-Tedd in oversized clothing! But what’s the implied reason?

Can vote for more than one.

May End Of Month Poll #1

Femme-Justin!

Can vote for more than one

Parable - 111 - HD

I used the standard set by Rhoda as the melee hero (buff, but not as buff as she could be) when settling on this character's figure.

Commentary

See? This is what happens when you get on the plot train, SUSAN.

I didn't know I was going to do the "losing the anti-spoiler veil" until I got to the actual drawing point of this comic, but thank goodness it's there so stuff later will be about 10,000% less confusing.

Parable - 110 - HD

CHOO CHOOOOOOOOO~!

Commentary

"I've seen Wall-E, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Also, I thought I told you to wear proper clothes, young lady."

Like many things, this reminds me of Fallout 4 (for all its flaws, it's very absorbing. At least if you like settlement and robot building). In that game, you can take command of settlements, build them up, arm them, and effectively create patrolling guardians for most of the map.

Not only do I consider it a non...

Parable - 109 - HD

Yet another instance of me wondering "is that too far" before remembering that ship had already sailed.

Commentary

I accidentally forgot Justin's bowtie a couple strips back, then reduced the number as buttoned buttons on purpose to make it look like I was totally doing a thing on purpose. The nonsense in this comic is mostly because I wanted to restore the outfit, and celebrate it with sparkly star effects.

Also, I wanted to draw it, but do I really need to...

Parable - 108 - HD

What? No, I'm not covering for the fact that I forgot the bowtie in the previous strip by making Justin's outfit gradually more revealing. Perish the thought!

Edit - Reworded first panel a bit.

Commentary

Fair warning, I do like this result. And I'd BETTER, because Susan's long hair is the biggest cheat for whenever I don't want to draw Susan's back.

Thing is, recently, there have been times in this storyline when I've wanted to show Susan's back, and ...

Parable - 107 - HD

A fairly late idea I had, in that I only had it a little while after the previous strip was done.

While I've always been aware that hair shapes were the easiest way to tell my characters apart, it didn't quite hit me HOW important prior to the previous strip. Like, yeah, Susan has a different jawline and nose to Ellen, but in the previous strip's first panel, I basically see black haired Ellen.

So yeah, Justin's looking at me, too, in this.

I know of ways I could modify my s...

Parable - 106 - HD

Hair? Hair. Hair hair.

Hair.

Commentary

Indulgence intensifies.

Parable - 105 - HD

"WHOOPS, my scissors slipped. Now you have UNFLATTERING BANGS!"

Commentary

Look, we're having a sequence with Justin as a magic barber.

There is going to be indulgence and nonsense.

Parable - 104 - HD

The hottest Susan has ever been.

Commentary

SSSHHH!

I'm having FUN.

And to share that fun...

1. Reference to Commander Riker growing a beard in season two of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Pretty much a mandatory beard to have with Susan.
   
2. Jamie Hyneman's walrus mustache from Mythbusters. And possibly also not on Mythbusters.
   
3. Saruman from The Lord Of The Rings. Sauron and Saruman ar...
   2020-05-14 03:03:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Parable - 103 - HD

 Well, of course.

Commentary

This is about hair, I like this fem-Justin design, I wanted light teasing, and this height difference is easier to work with, so yes. Yes to Justin the barber.

In the context Justin was teasing at, a "beard" would be a man pretending to be Susan's boyfriend to give the entirely false impression that Susan is heterosexual.

Which Justin jokes about here as a play on words and messing with Susan, but it does come from the...

Parable - 102 - HD

Yes, the vest had to come of! Because I forgot about it when I sketched her back, and I realized it would be in the way of seeing her back, which meant it had BETRAYED ME!

Commentary

Now, Susan, let's be fair, here.

You probably own several.

No game I've heard of that allows for hair changes mid-game makes you wait to grow your character's hair back, be it on top of their head, or on their face.

Granted, I'm not asking them to. It just gets a bit...

Parable - 101 - HD

I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE ON THAT ISLAND O_O

Commentary

This both is and isn't inspired by actual Fable 2 nonsense.

Cosmetic potions (height change, weight change, scar removal, etc.) being exclusively sold on an island that's part of paid DLC? Yes, 100%.

There being FREE DLC? As far as I can recall, no. There were pre-order bonuses if you wanted to dress up like Master Chief or play pub games, which sort of counts? In a way? Because it didn't co...

Parable - 100 - HD

This all stands up to logic and continues to not be pandering, thank you very much.

Commentary

I was originally going to have Susan drinking more potions in the comic itself, but then it occurred to me that the whole idea here is she's deciding how to distribute generic XP boosts, which would happen after potions were consumed, so... Yeah, that didn't work, exactly.

On the plus side, less drinking on-panel means more Susan faces being visible.

Parable - 99 - HD

No, I didn't go with this skill leveling up because I thought it would be a crowd pleaser.

Though, if I were pandering, it is what I'd go with, so fair accusation, hypothetical individual.

Commentary

It originally said "Level Up!" in the last panel, but then I heard "Power Up!" from the video game Altered Beast in my mind, and the rest was history.

I know it looks like she's just drinking from the same sippy cup potion over and ov...

April Poll #2

SQUIRREL GRAAAAAAAAAACE~!

(By which we mean "half-squirrel", aka her standard furry form.)

April Poll #1

LUKE?!

Yes, Luke.

Parable - 98 - HD

I'm not sure this actually needed a forth panel, but I'm not sure what I would have done with the extra panel width of only three panels, either. Ah, well, moving on!

 Commentary

That much gold every five minutes in Fable 2 actually would be absurd. That much in an hour of play, however, or all at once after having not played for a while? No problem.

I wasn't originally sure how I was going to explain away not being able to just physically give...

Parable - 97 - HD

Maybe Bunny Susan's affinity for Susan hasn't gone up much, but I bet her dancing made y'all swoon.

Commentary

Even though this is poking fun at the things you do to make NPCs like you in Fable 2, and how long it can sometimes take, that "10% goes up to 10.2%" bit reminds me more of Fallout 4.

In Fallout 4, you can have companions, and they like and dislike different things. Do enough things they like, and you'll progress through d...

Parable - 96

One should probably know what they're being given to drink even if they like a person, but this is still an improvement. Well, from that perspective, anyway.

Commentary

This was what I originally had planned for the previous comic before realizing I really needed to address "why not just buy more potions" question.

Susan is talking to someone who looks like a bunny girl version of herself to answer the question "are the potions previously used on NPCs still ...

Parable - 95 -HD

I hear they're made with berries, you know.

Commentary

I hadn't actually planned on addressing this, but after being asked "why doesn't Susan just buy a bunch of the less potent potions" by several people, it became apparent that people had clearly FORGOTTEN how shops in the games I'm parodying work, and how they'd restock only after waiting seven days in-game time, and sometimes you'd have to wait a bit longer than that, or travel elsewhere first, or do SOMETHING...