mental illinois

cool cartoonist and neurotic little freak. adult man. pfp by winona guro. commissions: open until 7/25/26. 18+

[maximumgraves]

doodle request #3

"Can I have a doodle of green from the hit new among us show"

[maximumgraves]

doodle commission #2

"may I have a doodle of Lobotomina from blake jennings livestreams of Tomodachi life?"

[maximumgraves]

doodle commission #1

"Could you draw Lola from the comic Drop-Out smoking a cig?"

[maximumgraves]

i have a bunch of medical appointments coming up and need money for transit/co-pay, so i'm doing doodle commissions again until july 25th. ko-fi.com/maximumgraves

examples of previous doodle commissions:

[maximumgraves]

what happens next

happy birthday 309

10 new panels of what happens next. as always, you can read next week's update a week early if you subscribe to my patreon.

[maximumgraves]

what happens next

happy birthday 303

6 new panels of what happens next. as always, you can read next week's update early on patreon for as low as $3 a month.

[maximumgraves]

the biggest plot hole in whn (to the degree that i won't even bother attempting to fill it) is that milo's parents (or the police) could just track his phone, laptop, or bank transactions and find out where he is pretty much immediately.

if i were starting the comic now, i would have milo just ditch his laptop and phone. he doesn't do much with his personal devices that he couldn't do by borrowing gage's. contacting vikki is the only thing that would pose an issue, but i can think of a couple of ways to make that work.

for expediency's sake, i'd kind of have to ignore the existence of discord's 2fa, but i consider that an acceptable break from reality. milo could've also made a pit stop on the way to gage's to withdraw cash from his bank account, obviating the immediate need for him to use a debit card.

none of that would necessarily protect milo from being discovered in real life, but i think it'd make the story sufficiently plausible. maybe one day i'll put in the legwork to retcon that stuff in, at least for the comicfury version of the comic/potentially for print. but that's what it'd take.

i was 20 going on 21 when i started writing "no matter what". at that point, nmw was the longest and most ambitious thing i'd ever written. i wrote the broad strokes of the whn outline around the same time. i did the best i could with the knowledge and skills i had, and i fucked up a little bit.

so if anyone was wondering, my current explanation is "milo's parents/the cops didn't do that because if they did, the story wouldn't happen". plotting/logistics is the part of writing i struggle the most with. i'm more of a vibes/characters guy. i think i've gotten better at it but it's still a weak point for me.

[maximumgraves]

having thought about this more, i think that the plot hole created by milo not dumping his laptop/phone/etc is something i just have to live with, because i believe the character of milo as i have written him is simply not someone who would think to do that stuff, and the integrity of his character probably matters more to the overall effect of the story than the logistics of how, specifically, milo is able to remain in hiding

[the-uncanny-dag]

Their dinnar 💪💯❗️💥

[is-your-fav-a-vriska]

Vikki Escamilla from the webcomic What Happens Next?

Is VIKKI ESCAMILLA from What Happens Next a Vriska?

Vriska

Mostly Vriska

Equally Vriska and Not

Mostly Not

Not Vriska

Voting ended onJul 7

[maximumgraves]

for the record i think that if anyone in whn is a vriska it's gage

[maximumgraves]

have you heard of the lgbt gameshow interior motives, and would you ever go on it? your way of capturing various identities in whn, particularly regionally, seems like it would make you a good player.

i had never heard of it before this ask but it's a cute premise. if i were famous enough to be invited on this game show i would do it, but unfortunately for me i am not

[maximumgraves]

4 10

"a foreign language film"

incendies (2010) is both a film about how the violence of war affects people across generations and a gripping thriller. maybe a movie that is somewhat in poor taste but (bangs gavel) i'll allow it because i think it's really good. probably denis villenueve's best movie, probably the best one he'll ever make.

"a film where the vibes are immaculate"

the grand budapest hotel (2014). a beautiful movie about how making art doesn't matter but it's worth doing anyway. the crowning achievement of wes anderson's "every movie is a perfectly composed diorama" era.

sidebar: it's perfectly fine not to like wes anderson's movies, but at this point complaining that he "makes the same movie over and over again" is about as original and as accurate an observation as "die hard is a christmas movie".

[maximumgraves]

6 & 17?

"an animated film"

memories (1995) is a great anthology film made up of 3 shorts- one tragic, one tragicomic, one quietly unsettling. some really interesting and beautiful animation on display.

"a film whose main genre is romance/musical"

when harry met sally... (1989) is a classic for a reason. on its face the premise is a little dated, but in the end i don't think the movie is very interested in "whether men and women can be friends"- what it's really trying to point out is that you can't really be in love with someone who isn't also a true friend.

[maximumgraves]

6, 10, 20?

"an animated film"

millennium actress (2001) is maybe my favorite satoshi kon film, the way it portrays memory and fiction melding into each other is such a great use of the unique properties of animation.

"a film where the vibes are immaculate"

room temperature (2025) is a movie i saw a couple of months ago and immediately fell in love with, i love the creepy/funny/sad deadpan quality it has and the execution/presentation of the homemade haunted house at the center of the film.

"a film to feel bad/depressed"

vulcanizadora (2024). dostoyevsky by way of beavis and butthead. really adept in how it progresses from comedic to harrowing.

[maximumgraves]

some readers may have already noticed, but for anyone who hasn't, i did a big overhaul of the what happens next cast page so that it now includes all of the notable characters in the comic. https://whathappensnext.webcomic.ws/cast/

[is-your-fav-a-vriska]

Vikki Escamilla from the webcomic What Happens Next?

Is VIKKI ESCAMILLA from What Happens Next a Vriska?

Vriska

Mostly Vriska

Equally Vriska and Not

Mostly Not

Not Vriska

Voting ended onJul 7

[maximumgraves]

what happens next

happy birthday 297

6 new panels of what happens next. as always, to see next week's update early, you can subscribe to my patreon for $3 or more at patreon.com/maximumgraves

[maximumgraves]

6 and 20 for the movie asks!

"an animated film"

the last unicorn (1982). really beautiful and transcendent. the animation is sometimes a little wonky/cheap-looking and there are some odd vocal performances, but the style and content are so strong that any such issues really just feel like charming quirks.

"a film to feel bad/depressed"

the sacrifice (1986). i am a big fan of many films with unpleasant subject matter, but for some reason this tarkovsky film that is pretty much just people yelling at each other in a house was more nerve-jangling than any of them. the performances were so convincing to me that i had to remind myself i was watching actors in a movie.