#mutantred

[wi-fu]

small Karkat for mutantred, I hope you’re having a great birthday!

[odditycollector]

mutantred reblogged your photoset and added:

you mixed up the order of the panels but it still works somehow lmao

This note led me on an interesting journey so I'm going to talk about it, but I'm sticking on a disclaimer first in case it sounds otherwise: it's your comic, I completely and absolutely bow to your authority on its panel order.

so

my initial reaction to seeing that notification: "Whooops. How out of it *was* I last night?" and then I went back to the post to find out. But when I checked it still seemed to match my transcription?? ??? ?

my second reaction: tumblr is fucking up imagesets somehow. It found a NEW WAY.

But then! I noticed the specific way you'd uploaded the images in the comic, and now I think I understand what happened.

Here's a screenshot of the comic as seen on my dash, with *my* reading order.

Horizontal L to R, top to bottom. The above is the standard way a western reader will work through that layout in an english comic (unless there are obvious cues it's in manga format, which is still horizontal, but R to L).

however! You uploaded your comic as 2 vertical column image files, plus the last panel.

Judging from that, you had this reading order in mind:

Again, your comic, you are the reading order decider. But here's some editor type advice - the reading order above is REALLY hard to pull off naturally, even with STRONG gaze control tricks. You are hella fighting your readers' instincts.

Now, I could be totally full of shit and Top to Bottom is the new standard! But I doubt it. No one else corrected me. You might want to double check with people to see what % of them got it wrong the same way I did, so next time you make a comic you'll know if the audience is going to do what you expect with it.

But whatever, that's not the interesting part!

The interesting part is that, you're right, the comic DOES work in either order, and it does basically the same thing. BUT NOT QUITE. it's subtle, and that's why it's a neat example.

With your intended order, the scene goes:

A to C: Dave practises his lines, fairly straightforwardly. D: beat E: Dave panics and rambles anxiously. F: beat - Dave's anxiety is increasing continuously from the last panel, building to.... G: "I'm not ready for this"

Climax or Punchline? G. everything's building until the last panel (w/ a slight pause after C). Arc Summary? Dave wants to come out to his friends, but after trying out the idea, seems to feel so anxious and overwhelmed he gives up for the moment.

perfectly good angsty comic.

But what about the horizontal line-read order? Scene goes:

1: Dave makes an entrance. 2: beat. kind of a weird beat - Dave's entrance has become awkward. 3: Dave launches into his lines... 4: but veers off almost immediately into a nervous Dave mutter-ramble 5: catches himself and interrupts his own monologue with a silly euphemism for the thing he is trying to explain. 6: beat. Dave is anxious/horrified at how that went down (but it's not a continuous rise from the previous panel, so you don't get that same sense it's building to something). 7: "I'm not ready for this"

Climax or punchline? 5. (6 is a reaction beat, 7 is denouement) Arc Summary? Dave wants to come out to his friends, but even while just practising, he gets flustered and does so in a disjointed and baffling way.

this ordering results in a humour comic, if one on a serious theme.

(FWIW, I don't think I'd have written that after blurb for the comic-as-its-god-intended. Not out of propriety, but because the tone is very different and my lead in - toast! - would have been buried.)

anyway, there's no moral or whatever, but this was a cool object lesson for me about pacing and stuff so i'm glad we could have this massive miscommunication together

[uraniumumbra]

mutantred replied to your post: “tfw u have a canon url saved but you don’t wanna change yours to...”:

maintain your brand recognistion. you're your own canon url (thumb up emoji)

that;; actually makes a lot of sense damn

[farfanoogle-blog]

timeandmelody > farfanoogle

due to popular demand by mutantred and dersemoons i have now officially changed my url from timeandmelody to farfanoogle

[farfanoogle-blog]

today i met my favorite karkat cosplayer ever at a homestuck meetup she organized and beat her at bowling. i think i can die peacefully now i fulfilled my purpose

[nyctaginae]

we noemen ze ook frietjes in regio amsterdam tho dus geen zorgen, we klinken allemaal idioot

frietjes klinkt zo????????????? idioot ???? ja inderdaad?????

[nyctaginae]

tagged by mydriatick

What’s your name: an


Nicknames: an, silver, old sport 8′)

What is your favorite color: green, white and brown tbh

Write something in all caps: WHAT

Favorite artist/band: u hhhhh i guess some of my faves are the civil wars, mother mother, awolnation, the pierces and???????? a LOT more

Zodiac sign: sagittarius

Crushing on: u h


Reason to smile: music???????? noda?????


Favorite season: winter bc i prefer being cold over being hot

Number: (do you mean fave number?????) 7, 21, 27, 31, 99, 131, 179 and 333 are my faves for some weird unknown reason :U

Favorite drink: probably iced coffee, coffee, water and orange juice Tag ten people you want to get to know better: foureyedblackkitty, mutantred, mouiikai, chyakri, somaybeidontcare, homosexual-toaster, nerdforsale and alexandragonfly (i definitely didnt tag 10 people and i dont even know if the tagged ones did this already or nah, but if you want to do thisand u werent tagged??? u go for it (also u dont have to do this lmao 8′)))

[uraniumumbra]

mutantred replied to your post “mutantred replied to your post: “mutantred replied to your post: “i...”

man i kept going back to the boxing part where taylor fixes her boxing glove with her mouth i'm too far gone

ohhh my god that was so good honestly 

after i finished watching the video and rewatching it like three times i watched some of her older ones back when she was more country and like...shes come so far :”)