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!
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
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.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
MASKLESS
kickingshoes
In a world where people can wield the magic of elemental Masks, all Ashe wants to do is help. Maskless and useless, with dreams of fire and smoke on the back of his tongue, he finds himself on a strange, dangerous path to uncovering the secrets of these incredible objects, and the source of the monsters plaguing his home.
KISMET
Jaki King
As interplanetary war threatens the Perseid system, a scientist ventures to the far reaches of space in her search for the truth: is humanity the master of its own fate, or is destiny truly inescapable?
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Countdown to Countdown
Velinxi
Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Solstoria
Angelica Maria
After her brother goes missing, Samantha vows to become a Knight and help those around her in the Kingdom of St. Helena.
Drugs & Wires
Mary Safro, Io Black
Dan used to be a VR operator until his brain got fried by malware. Now he's stuck delivering packages in a post-Soviet hellhole all while trying to adjust to his new life and find some answers.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Folklore
Adam Ma, Colin Tan Wei
A superhuman horror story focused on a small band of survivors trying to navigate a war-torn world in the aftermath of the Federation’s collapse.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Heart of Gold
Eliot Baum, Viv Tanner
A pianist with failing eyesight seeks out a priest with a miraculous healing touch, drawing him deeper into a world of miracles and curses.
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Patrik the Vampire
Bree Paulsen
Patrik loves to knit, bake, and help his friends while dealing with his own demons... like his thirst for blood because, oh yeah--he's a vampire.
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
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!
Far to the North
Allison Shaw
Kelu turns to the monsters of her remote mountain home when her family is held hostage by outsiders.
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Fairmeadow
Kendra P. / KP
A wayward soldier finds herself in a pacifist commune deep in the wilderness of a war-weary land. Living in isolation brings her closer to those she was sworn to kill than she could ever imagine - but also threatens to tear the place apart.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
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.
Anacrine Complex
Sae Cotton
A superhuman heist involving probably too many pigeons than entirely necessary.
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Tiger, Tiger
Petra Nordlund
A young noble lady steals her brother's identity and his ship to find love and adventure, and to write a book about the fascinating life cycle of sea sponges!
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
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.
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Sunshine Boy
Moosopp
New-kid Kelly is sweet but naive. Luckily, he's got his outgoing neighbor Grey in his corner.
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
Obelisk
Ashley McCammon
In 1908 New York, a young woman struggles to put her life back together in the wake of her father's death - until she discovers a vampire in the shambles of her inheritance.
Goblins
Ellipsis
A fantasy RPG as told through the eyes of the low-level monsters.
Clockwork
Chikuto
Cog Kleinschmidt is a diligent, quiet worker at the Mercia Fortress, the world power's leading stronghold. His orderly life is thrown into chaos when an enemy kingdom sends a diplomat for peace talks. This diplomat needs something from Cog - whether he agrees to their terms or not!
Lunar Blight
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Lunar Blight is a gothic horror story about an elite knight serving a moon cult who must choose between upholding his honoured duty or condemning everything he’s grown to know.
Demon Studies
Miyuli
Four students summon and study potentially dangerous demons within the walls of the mysterious Summerland University.
Come Hell or High Water
Jenny/Star, Mori
Prince Gladimir was never meant to fall for a pirate. Swearing off love for duty, the threat of war propels him back into the Captain’s world of high seas and high stakes. Their relationship could be the thing to save the kingdom of Yvoire - or destroy it.
Killjoys
Flatw00ds
When two disgraced ex-feds fall backwards into trouble with the clown mafia, getting out in one piece is gonna be no joke!
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.
Not sure why Byron had to lecture her on assassins. Given that she’s both a princess and a combat medic, you’d think she knows how to handle herself both in a fight and with things like this.
She’s likely never been the target of an assassin, before. Open combat, and even an ambush, is a very different beast, and up until now she’s been largely irrelevant when it came to world affairs.
As a princess, protection against assassins would have been the job of the royal guard, not something she would have been expected to fend off herself.
Especially living in wood elf central where they can hear your breathing and the trees are your CCTV system.
When have guards ever stopped an assassin or prevented a betrayal in a work of fiction?
That’s the problem with tube interface systems, they really limits your metagaming.
It’s Byron’s character though. He’s very much the tactics guy in habits and demeanor. I’m not surprised he used her as a sounding board for that internal monologue of his. Even if Syrn’j did experience such things, he’s the type to ruminate over what you would learn from said experiences.
Test: Sense Danger -> Partial Success
Test: Reflexes -> Failed
Test: Composure -> Success
Test: Reflexes -> Success
Test: Hypodermics -> Success
Someone played Long Live the Queen! recently ;)
I figured she was thanking Byron for giving her a reason to be in the habit of having a heavy-duty tranquilizer on hand at all times.
That is my interpretation too.
concur. She was a field medic at the beginning of all this, probably not really the target of many assassination attempts. and I didn’t really see much political intrigue in the wood elf realms.
I don’t get the feeling that elf politics is particularly murder-y, though.
Y’all got it all wrong. This was byron’s idea of dirty talk.
Of course she knows about these kinds of things, and it was Byron who taught her!
You can’t just figure out the proper response to every kind of battle situation all alone, however skillful you are.
“They’ve spring”?
I do hope that’s the only assassin around, though. Can’t get complacent after you take out the first one.
Should refer to the trap they’ve SPRUNG, not spring, in the first text box of the second panel.
Or, if we want to keep the word spring (hey, seasonal pun!) they could use they instead of they’ve.
I’m sure winter-bulent commenters want to give edits summer you would prefer we went for the pun rather than fall for the obvious solution.
Who says Byron had to be grammatically correct 100% of the time? I have plenty of characters (and myself, admittedly) that use strange tenses and whatnot because of their “accent,” for want of a better word.
people don’t always talk good grammar
“Spring” is definitely the wrong season here; it’s definitely Autumn, what with all of the brown leaves falling from Syr’s dress. And one huge fallen leaf named Kur’ik.
You’re imagining typos >_>
Now I am left wondering whether Yakumo indeed imagined a typo, or whether you decided to troll him and silently replaced the comic page.
Woah, man.
What if *that’s* the trap that they sprung.
Woah.
I’d rather fall for the jedi mind trick than the seasonal pun. :/
Finally on current… Damn. What am I to binge read now?
Darken.
Completed back when it was still updating
Slightly Damned. Flipside. No Need for Bushido. White Noise. Onepunch Man.
The Twilight Saga.
If I had the choice to make Rachel read Twilight or kill her, I’d shove her into the digi-beast.
I agree with nathanyel
http://archives.erfworld.com/
This is the correct answer (assuming you aren’t already current on it).
Reading the fics on the site as we speak
When you run out, I’ve a list of completed webcomics and a bunch in progress that I could refer you to. Binge read material for a long time. Some are even good!
The more te merrier
This is a list I found a few years ago, that gets updated, that is wonderfully put together, with link and description. The same site also links to a bunch of in progress things, if you want to look around.
This was quickly thrown together out of my “completed” webcomics folder, although there will be some overlap. Some of it might not be entirely safe for work, I’m not even sure I remember all of it.
If those somehow aren’t enough, or you want something that’s currently updating, you can always check out The Hiveworks, of which this site is an affiliate, or Spiderforest which does similar, but with different comics.
Harry Potter and the Method Of Rationality -> hpmor.org
Byron’s idea of ‘pillow talk’ was the art of war.
And she was totally in to it
So much This.
I have a feeling that she was even the one who prompted it. ^_^
Not just a high-level badass, she’s a high-level boss.
Hope that assassin saved his game first.
A pity this doesn’t have an upvote button…
Now he’s really desynching.
Damn, was hoping she’d die again
There’s a surprisingly small amount of blood, considering the blade attached to his wrist, worn over his pale garments, was lodged pretty deep inside of a living being 2 seconds ago.
It’s probably sap. You ever stab some maple syrup? it doesn’t act like blood, unless its gross syrup.
Oh, so you’re telling me that the thing I’ve been putting on my pancakes all my life is NOT maple syrup?
Wood elf blood, probably flows like sap.
I get the feeling that this assassination attempt is just another step in an elaborate ruse.
Well, yeah, if one thing is clear by now, it’s that His Grace Irritatey has an extremely convoluted plan.
I was thinking somewhere on these lines last comic.
“Now, why would his Grace send the whole guild of adventurers on a wild hunt? He has to have some reason for it”
*Watch the assassination attempt in the deserted guild hall*
“Oh!”
Although, the question now, was this assassination planned by one member of the council, acting alone, or is it a concerted action? Syr’Nj chances of survival are quite lower in the later case.
Of course, the assassination attempt may have nothing to do with the council. Wouldn’t bet on it, though.
It would be an interesting ploy on Iwatani’s part. Syrn’j is already aiming at the “conspiracy”, the most obvious solution would be to blame this assasination on them, and Iwatani’s actual goals seem to be unrelated to their doings. To his eyes, getting Syrn’j and the council to off each other may be killing two birds with one stone.
I see you like intrigue… so I put wheels inside your wheels, so you can wheel while you’re wheeling…
“‘Ere, there’s a dead assassin on the landing.”
“Must be one o’ Syr’Nj’s hits.”
“‘Ow d’ye know?”
“Tattooed on the back o’ the neck.”
This assassin clearly never playd Assassin’s creed.
Depends.
When I’m the one playing it, it’s about how the assassinations are playing out for me :-(
Quick, mr. assassin!
Escape! Sit on a bench! Jump into a pile of hay! Or pray with a trio of monks!
That or stand on top of a ladder and clobber them when they climb up at you one by one.
+10
This page feels like an episode of Burn Notice.
Well, he *is* the Michael Weston of Arkerra. (http://guildedage.net/comic/chapter-6-page-12/ – I was thinking the same thing earlier, reminded me of this)
You know adventurers…bunch of bitchy little girls.
“Family too…if you’re desperate.”
;)
Love that show!
Byron’s beyond- the-grave-Burn-Notice-advice aside, I don’t really buy this. If you’re a high level assassin (and we can only imagine that Iwatani or the other heads of house would pay up the big bucks for someone decent), you don’t buckle and fight like a 2nd grader against a target that has little heavy-duty combat experience, is unarmed, and has no close by bodyguards or armor. I’m not saying that Syr’Nj would be a pushover, but I don’t think a hardened career killer would get ‘desperate’ just because the first plan didn’t go off perfectly. Plan A: kill target without a fight. Plan B: Kill target with a fight, because I’m not a rookie or afraid of violence. Just sayin’
You really think some random mook we’ve never met before is going to be “high level”? Besides, in Arkerra, most “decent” assassins would instead probably opt to have a reasonably-lucrative career as capital-“A”-Adventurers, and don’t need to resort to assassination like this to pay their bills.
I think a high-level assassin would have more tricks up his sleeve than “knife gauntlet” (seriously, the knife even looks like it has a normal hilt, he’s just strapped it to his wrist so he can look like Altair). And given that the green hands suggest a wood elf, I think this guy falls somewhere on the spectrum between “crazed lone gunman” and “patsy.”
What green hands? You can compare them directly to Syr’nj’s across the entire comic. I could go with “olive” but they’re definitely a human-compatible color.
Assassins do not get as much combat experience as normal warriors.
Additionally, you do not actually have to be able to fight well to pull off a succesful assassination attempt. Surprise and a sharp blade is often enough.
Perhaps, but this guys wasn’t after Byron, Frigg, or Scipio. He was trying to take out the MEDIC. You can tack on ‘combat’ to the front of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that medics are not supposed to be blade-to-blade with the enemy much. Yeah the support classes can always do some damage, but they are designed to get taken out quickly when singled out by damage-dealers. Listening to Byron talk shop doesn’t substitute for actual combat training.
As for the whole ‘only relies on surpirse to get the job done’ concept, well that’s just impractical. What if your target is surrounded by bodyguards, or is hard to take by surprise? (Case in point) Surprise is a powerful weapon in a assassin’s arsenal, but any craftsman who relies on only one tool will fail soon. Versatility is important. This is a high-level, high profile, high risk hit, it would take more than a one-trick-pony newb to get the job done. I mean come on, who tries to surprise a elf, that’s like their whole species bit, it would be like trying to drink a dwarf under a table to kill them in their sleep.
I’m not sure I understand the assassin scale of “high level” versus “low level”. if they are high level, that means they get the job done and probably cost a lot? No guarantee that they are any better at hand to hand combat then a “low level”. Iwatani probably qualifies as a “high level” since he killed someone without anyone even knowing the guy was murdered. poisoned soup is the ultimate knife in the back, so to speak.
Does a banker make a better adventurer than a adventurer because they can make more money? No, the ‘grade’ of a character in a fantasy world is the skill, experience, and elite equipment they have gained over a period of time surviving and making successful missions. Of course a elite veteran assassin is going to be superior fighting skills, because he has lived long enough to hone them, perhaps even paid for advanced training with his spoils. A ambush is good, but no one survives long in a business if they only know how to reply on one trick, because it is guaranteed to fail one day.
Now I’m not saying that the guy in question IS a high level professional, just that it makes the most sense for him to be, because if he has been hired by Iwatani or the council money would be no object, and you don’t want your attempted hit to screw up or be discovered, so it makes sense to put the money in to insure success.
Who’s got a big ‘ol butt?
Assassin’s got a big ‘ol butt!
i swear if EVEN HER DIES NOW…i think am done with this comic…
One or, if the chest wound in the last strip was fatal, two minor characters* have died. Byron has died and may be back (again). Even Best is actually back (in a vastly improved form). It’s a little premature to start predicting Syr’nj’s permanent death.
*Yes, Kaye was a minor character. Count the number of strips she’s been in–her, not Scipio, unless you have a lot more evidence that her death will actually impact Scipio than anyone who doesn’t work on the comic has.
Rachel died, and that cultist guy I liked
You mean the third cultist on the left? Or Dog Cultist number 7? Honestly alot of cultist have died.
Or do you mean the obvious? -looks up-
I guess you aren’t too much into the works of a certain G.R.R. Martin?
sometimes people die. and sometimes in a fictional world with an intricate plot centered around combat, characters die. that’s kind of what the story is about. And btw, Byron’s not dead (for long)
As a devoted TF2 Spy, I find Byron’s analysis oddly insulting.
He’s technically correct. You’re only as good as the trap you spring, but that’s sort of, like, you know, the point of assassination.
And escaping is right sensible when things don’t go your way. It’s easy to hide from somebody who doesn’t know you’re there. But it takes excellence to hide from somebody who does.
Of course, I wonder why the heck a guy who isn’t comfortable fighting in close quarters is attacking in close quarters to begin with.
Probably hoping the shock will throw her off her game. It’s a gambit, hoping that the target will not be able to keep their composure and rush them before they can collect themselves.
That said, a wrist blade has terrible reach and so really isn’t a good choice for this sort of thing.
Happen to watch MrPaladin videos? Learned a lot about Spy there…not that I play it, but it helped to learn their tricks so I eat less trick stabs.
It’s been some time since I’ve played TF2, but those are not really fundamental. They’re tricks.
In a nutshell, you hit targets which are distracted or soft. That comes down to a lot of timing and knowing where to be and being there ahead of time. A lot of bad spies conflate patience with inaction.
The other half of spy is being very very good at being places where you do not belong. It doesn’t matter if the place is awash in fire constantly and heavily patrolled. You are standing in the middle of it all unharmed and unseen. Part of this is seeing the ebb and flow of a fight and slipping through the crack. The other part? Eh, trade secret. Earn it yourself.
More people should realize this when playing Assassin’s Creed. If you miss your mark, DON’T keep fighting!
Poor sod. Nobody told him this plant has thorns.
Ok now I am NOT nitpicking the plot, I think its fine for there to be a dumb assassin and it makes sense in this context.
I just want to explain HOW/WHY this guy is so so dumb since IIRC no one has made this exact point. This man has chosen to go INTO COMBAT with the altair friggin wrist knife (siiigh) – the stupidest weapon ever. A weapon with LESS reach than a simple dagger and ZERO wrist control over the blade so that all you can make are DUMB easy-to-avoid attacks basically. It’s ONLY conceivable advantage was already demonstrated: you can attack from a two-hand holding position without having to draw a blade. That’s it and it is NOT much for all that sacrifice, hence the weapon is at its worst laughably impractical and at its best useful for only one type of sneak attack and meant to be discarded/withdrawn immediately upon said attack failing.
This dumb sod begging for the ‘arkerra’s WORST assassin’ prize has NO other weapons. NONE. Zero. Not a simple one hand longsword (still small enough to be carried on missions), not a short sword, not even a dagger or a way to remove his friggin dumblade ™ and use it like a dagger.
If he could just do THAT, remove the blade and use it as a regular knife, his chances of being able to draw sap from Syrnj would’ve gone up exponentially. But he chose to just fly at her gung ho with a fixed blade; the only explanation is he is a very sad noob or not at all sober.
TL;DR Moral justifications aside: This guy is just plain STUPID enough to deserve whatever Syrnj has in store for him.
Also RIP Kurik
Could be wrong but I think the blades are also retractable which is nice for concealment.
Yeah the ones from the game are IIRC. Which actually raises a problem of MALFUNCTION too: what if the blade comes out accidentally slicing your wrist open?
We all know its classic style over substance: 99% of the time your are MUCH better off with a simple concealed knife/dagger than the DERPblade but the DERPblade looks cool cause its like…wrist wolverine or something -__-
Anyway it seems like this guy’s is really just a simple blade STRAPPED to his wrist which makes his choice to not immediately detach it and use it as a normal dagger all the more idiotic.
It cannot be overstated how much you need WRIST CONTROL to kill someone with a small blade. Only with complete surprise can this be ignored.
It might’ve been crucial to be able to deny the assassination plan if he would’ve been caught on the way to the hiding spot. A hand knife is easier to hide than a long shortsword. And besides, this page runs pretty quickly and drawing more weapons takes time. I agree it’s cocky, but I can imagine worst
In light of new info: the blade being poisoned and the poison being fairly rare. I can admit you have a point so I can kinda forgive his lack of other weapons, one blade is much easier to justify/explain than several after all….still I think a backup dagger would be worth its weight in gold during a hit like this but whatevs.
I maintain it was utterly moronic of this guy not to immediately REMOVE the strapped blade and use it as a dagger. Again I’m not attacking the plot since cocky/dumb assassins are in all sorts of fiction and I understand heat of the moment leading to bad tactics.
I just want to dispel any illusions readers might have (mostly from a certain videogame) and state that killing even an alerted POLITICIAN with a fixed wrist blade goes beyond ‘cocky’ and well into delusional.
It appears Byron has a new character… I wonder if it’s like his old one, in that it comes with a bunch of problems he didn’t realize when he made it…
I’m putting a prediction here because it’s been stuck in my head and I have nowhere better to put it:
Shanna will somehow end up in the last remaining tube, throwing a massive wrench in HR’s plans.