Annotations Every Day - Written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn - Illustrated by John & Jason Waltrip
Guilded Age
The Saga of the Working Class Adventurer – New comics every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
Headless Bliss
Clover
A story about story-telling, and other metaphysical themes such as Nightmares! (Failed) Teamwork! Comedy! And more!
Missing Monday
Elle Skinner
Two girls fall in love through a magic door connecting their worlds. When Monday suddenly goes missing, it's up to Foyle to find her. How she's going to navigate an entirely unfamiliar world is another matter.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Gzhel Guardian
Atla Hrafney, nushanchel
The Railway World is a complex, mysterious network of trains, towns and mechanical monsters. Leo is a Guardian of one of these towns, and although their burn-out and depression has taken hold of them, they have one last job to finish.
Aquapunk
Lo
In an underwater world of unknown coordinates, inhabited by aliens, ghosts, and robots, a young member of a warrior underclass is framed for a crime and goes on the run. Little does he know he is part of a grand design that only gods and ancestors could choreograph.
Trying Human
IntroducingEmy
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Star Impact
Jack McGee
A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
Reimena Yee
The 21st century retelling of the life and legends of Alexander the Great.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Scape
Lauren
Sula has always preferred to forge her own path, but before she knows it, she is pulled into the middle of a civil war between man and monster!
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
The Forgotten Order
Christy
A young witch for whom every spell is a misfire finds solace and friendship in her new companion - a cursed doll.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Ride or Die
Mars Heyward
Ride or Die is an LGBTQ webcomic about two street racers who team up with a demon-possessed muscle car in the search for a missing woman, while being hunted by a deadly religious cult.
The Substitutes
Myisha Haynes
What happens when three roommates accidentally acquire otherworldly and powerful magic weapons destined for someone else?
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Within
Verena Loisel
A young hitman meanders between a reality that seems to happen without him, and his dreams where he is lost in an endless house. When he makes an accidental friend, his world is shaken up and he realizes there are things he can't remember about himself.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
The Last Diplomat
Cat Farris
Samma and Tark didn't ask to be stuck together, but now they're partners on the adventure of a lifetime.
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Quick$ilver
Crypto
The flirtatious, directionless, and ever disastrous Luci searches for excitement in a life of crime, and finds himself caught in a web of messy romance and bad blood.
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
This is Not Fiction
Nicole Mannino
What do you do when the person you're in-love with is an anonymous romance novelist? Get your best friend to hire your worst enemy for help!
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Guilded Age is co-written by T Campbell & Flo Kahn, and illustrated by John Waltrip. Site design by Samantha Kyle. Fonts by Blambot.com.
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Privacy Policy
Guilded Age does not claim ownership of any of the corporate branding that appears in this comic, nor does it claim any affiliation, partnership, or endorsement of any kind.
They are used strictly as an artistic choice for the set dressing of the comic.
They are used strictly as an artistic choice for the set dressing of the comic.
Such cheerful sarcasm. I like this gnome.
i hear no sarcasm from the gnome.
It’s the best sarcasm: Undistinguishable from honest boot licking
Look at the alt text. Gnome is being honest. And stupid. Elf is realizing how thick the gnome is.
The gnome’s not stupid, just a typical socially awkward scientist/inventor. He seems quite sweet actually. On top of that he’s most likely worried about the impending bullshit Gastonians are about to lay down at this meeting. Despite their differences him and the archmage are in the same boat but reacting to it differently.
OK. I admit I was wrong. The gnome is *socially* stupid.
So who else feels bad for this Caneghem guy already?
I feel bad for the gnome actually
I have a sneaking suspicion he’ll say/do something soon that will take those feelings away.
I feel bad for the Shit Elf that will have to sit by the two of them.
Dean Fargoth Reynolds… from Seyda Neen.
If this is an MMO, then who are these people?
AI? Players staying in character? Very good AI, in fact more alive than not, because the magic of the…book-thing…made this world, in fact, something of a real world?
Hrrrrm. My money’s on #3. I doubt people would play an MMO in order to roleplay /a political meeting/. …Well, unless they’re part of a very organized guild. Or a meeting of Admins*. But I doubt that’s the case here.
*: I googled ‘mmo lexicon’, to look for the best word to use here (Sysop? Moderator?). I came across something called “The daedalus project / the psychology of mmorpgs”. Is this where Guilded Age character Daedalus got their name? I think** so.
**: Looked up Daedalus on google; mythologically speaking, wikipedia says they’re the one who made Icarus’ wings. Eh…it’s possible that our Daedalus is named after greek-mythology Icarus, but I think it’s much more likely the project is named after mythological Daedalus, and guilded-age Daedalus is named after the project. Wikipedia disambiguation didn’t have any more-promising leads for Daedalus.
Can’t say I have seen an actual MMO who actually supports or encourages playing/roleplaying a political meeting, as you put it. That said, to this day there is a bunch of MUDs where that kind of thing is an important part of the gaming experience and the player base supports it faithfully. Achaea and the other games from that company are the first that come to my mind. (You dont know what a MUD is? Wondering what wet dirt has to do with games? Damn kids, get off my lawn and go google it!)
+1 million hugs for you :D
Oh my god, not only is Achaea mentioned but HAWK comments? ‘lo! <3
Dear god, I LOVED political meetings on the Mu* I used to play. My character would place bets on who would say the most ridiculous thing, who would blow up, and what herpderp their Tea Party equivalent would come up with.
Funny, Achaea was also the first thing I thought of when ‘role-playing political meetings’ was mentioned. Man it has been a while.
Deus Ex players might see some other potential reasons for the name “Daedalus” popping up where computers are involved.
Daedalus (from GK myth) invented a myriad of intricate designs, everything from labyrinths to wax wings that allowed a person to fly. In modern terms we would call him an artificer, inventor, or some kind of wizard.
Without nitpicking terminology further, Guilded Age’s Daedalus (sp?) invented an entire mythical universe (or at the very least, created the artifact that it is via some means indistinguishable from magic) in which all of those things have potential to exist. Much as any decent MMO creator has done, he has “invented” the “game”. The name is entirely appropriate, even if only as a name that represents a stereotype. Plus, he’s some kind of wizard.
As for the characters in today’s strip, I would argue that there are no true NPCs in this “game” – an immersive universe, which is after all what the Arkerra experiment is designed and implied to be, would contain a sizable enough amount of content (and present it to its players in such a way as) to give even the least roleplaying-savvy participants enough brain fuel that it would be difficult for them to break immersion over constant political feuds, magics/sciences, ancient artifacts, etc. simply due to the fact that it makes them solidly a part of it. Any important-looking characters we see can probably be assumed to either be GM-run, regular players, or community organizers who are given access by the GMs. NPCs go from being plot-integral to minor, automated security systems in dungeons, and all things similar in nature to that.
Not to mention all that MUD discussion above, there’s plenty of evidence for player- or operator-run characters. And given that only one man so far seems to have Administrator privileges outside of the game, the meaning of the term “GM” as it applies to Arkerra would seem to be different from what it means in most MMOs these days.
Er… I trailed off in that last paragraph, but the “evidence” is evidence that the people in today’s strip are not NPCs.
You may be correct that those are player-characters. I’m not sure, however. Have we ever before seen any part of Arkerra without one of the five present? The only previous time I can recall taking a break from their perspective was Chapter 9, with Daedalus and Carol in Sepia World.
Lately, I’d been assuming that to the five, everything looks like a self-consistent reality, whereas to any others, it’s obviously a game and a simulation. This page is the first real indication to me that this isn’t the case. I think it suggests that the “NPCs” are conscious beings.
On the one hand, we know the five are in VR tanks, in a game. On the other hand, we know that Daedalus doesn’t understand what’s going on, despite great efforts to find out. There’s something going on that we don’t understand yet.
We have seen a few scenes without any of “the five” before. We have the actual prophecy guy after Best leaves town, way back when. We have the meeting of the political leaders around the pirate fiasco. Those two stick out to me, and both have their people treat the world as persistent.
I don’t think their world is an MMO, more like a fantasy game like Baulders gate or Champions of Norath. The characters are too immersed, having complicated back-story made for them when they enter. Too many people in this world entering and leaving would break that. And even if it is going to be an MMO the server isn’t open so the average character you meet is going to be an NPC.
Baldur’s Gate. Not Baulders. BALDUR’S.
I swear, people do that just to torment me, because there’s no other logical reason why so many people get that wrong.
Also, I’m thinking their world might be an actual thing, and all the technosorcery does is somehow create player avatars in that world. It all seems a bit too detailled and intricate to be just a game, even if the other characters were somehow fellow players.
And besides, if there were players, you’d expect more people to talk like Frygg. Or worse. So yeah, too consistently in-character to be players, too complex to be NPCs. Either the game is crazy good (which is possible because of magic I guess) or Arkerra exists independently of the game.
Balder the Fair’s gait.
Is the Archmage a Sky elf?
Well, as an ARCHmage he certainly qualifies as a “Master of The Arcane”, and his ears don’t match the image of Winter Elves as shown in the elf-type rundown found in-
http://guildedage.net/webcomic/chapter-1/chapter-1-page-13/
-so yes, I believe we can go ahead and assume he’s a Sky Elf.
Or possibly an up-jumped Shit Elf that’s mastered a cantrip or three …
I just noticed that the example for Shit Elves is Payet. I guess he is the best example…
You think he’s honestly happy to be segregated?
Tokenization always makes me feel cheerful.
Tolkienization on the other hand….
“… at least I’m not sitting next to a human.”
Nothing says “disdain for your mundane way of life” quite like spending the juice to conjure your own quill and ink rather than use the quill and ink provided.
Well-noticed.
That is a properly elfy elf. You’d never find him making demeaning comments about his own species for the entertainment of humans.
The little guy seems nervous.
Good eye, just noticed he was shaking in the first panel.
Hey, Jon van Caneghem reference. Not sure I can see someone that into Star Trek as a needlessly elfy elf, but hey.
Also, I love the eagle-arrows-and-thunderbolts motif. Everyone loves eagles, especially if they’re holding.
That’s what the US seal is missing, thunderbolts!
Wow, the axe head on that halberd is HUGE!
The better to THWACK! you with, my dear.
Also, that’s what she said.
I want to see a buddy-cop movie starring these two. Reynolds & Caneghem: Cops On The Edge. It would be HILARIOUS.
THEY FIGHT CRIME!
You forgot to preface that with:
“One’s a bumbling tinkerer and scientist. The other is a stuffy elven archmage. Together, THEY FIGHT CRIME”
To be scheduled in between “Grizzly Adam 12” and “The Harold and Maude Squad.”
And, on Saturday mornings, the kiddiwinks get to watch “Sindar the Science Guy”.
That stuffy, cold-fish thing is just an act. I can tell with one look that this Caneghem is a barely-controlled psychopath who wants to strangle everyone with his bare hands and eat their hearts to fuel forbidden, impolite magics.
he’s a big cuddly teddybear really.
Yeah, but you know how *that* always ends. Soon enough he’ll be saying “It was only a setback!” and after that, well, you can forget any retirement plans.
I think Joel and the ‘bots put it best:
“Well, he seemed like a nice guy..”
“…AT FIRST.”
Hey, who invited Christopher Lee to the meeting?
…I’m not sure if (assuming this is Gastonia) the Gastonians are assholes or not for giving the gnome dude a huge chair.
On one hand they’re not giving him a tiny chair which would be laughable compared to the other large chairs. On the other hand, it shows they don’t care enough for his comfort to get him a gnome sized chair.
I’m going with assholes though because GASTONIANS ARE XENOPHOBIC DICKS.
Dude, we could only afford to rent this room from the community center for an hour and requesting special chairs would have cost extra. We could have brought him his own special chair but he never checked ahead of time and by the time anyone thought of it Ardaic’s van was already full.
We all feel really bad about this, but the guy should have spoken up. There’s a lot that goes into organizing these little get-togethers and unless people are telling us what they need we’re not always gonna think of everything. We totally forgot about Caneghem’s duck allergy too.
There’s a request box for just that reason. I don’t know why people aren’t using it. We’re totally reasonable here, you just need to tell us what you need. I got a cell phone, it’s on all hours of the day. Tell Reynolds to give me a call and we’ll work something out for him next time.
Is that the requests box that feeds directly to the paper shredder?
Wait, do I smell… powdered mandrake?
Crap.
You all remember the discussion about herbal sensitivities, right? Did anyone think to mention this to the archmage?
Okay, someone needs to go get a fan. In the meantime, someone please ask the archmage — very politely — to sit near the window.
Gah. Now you’ve broken my brain trying to figure out whether it’s more racist to give him the same (almost mockingly huge) chair everyone else has or to bring him out a special chair that highlights how little he is compared to everyone else.
Give him a regular chair, but with a cushion on the seat, so he can see over his desk properly. Which he is doing, so maybe thae Gastonians have already done this.
How about a footstool?
Or just bring him a box…
At least they’re bonding over their mutual disdain for humans, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
I’d like to say that Reynolds has a small problem with his disdain detector, but then again, you can’t argue with elves.
Or perhaps he is secretly designing a donkey-powered Elf squishing machine.
Oh I really do hope so. T, Phil, John, please? Gnome-designed donkey-powered elf squishers? Pretty please?
Nah. Sheep powered ray gun.
This is very weird dialogue for characters that do not appear to be PCs in an MMO (they don’t appear to be adventurers or former adventurers). The fact they are even having this dialogue is unexpected. We very rarely get to see characters who are not the definitely PCs interacting, but apparently they do and with personality. This and the discussion among the heads of houses earlier lends credence to the idea that maybe there is more to Arkerra than some servers.
Well, we knew that there’s more to Arkerra.
What we still don’t know is whether it’s all created from the influence of the minds of the PCs trapped in the world or whether the world is independent.
Anyone else think League of Non-Aligned Worlds from B5 when seeing this?
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
Caneghem looks a little too much like Saruman (at least from the movies) for me to not think he’s up to something.
I mean, check that Goatee man. He’s def. evil.
Dudes, Reynolds is not that far away. There is no reason so cheapen out on drawing some eyes on him for panels three and four. If we can see the buttons of his boots we should be able to see his eyes.
Disregard eyes, acquire women. The gnome knows what he’s doing.
Cue “Why Can’t We be Friends?”
Since conjuration is basic teleportation Caneghem just swiped someone else’s ink & paper.
Maybe it’s his stuff from home?
So he is not just the archmage, he is a thief too. He stole my heart already… Refusing to even use the ink of Gastonia like that…