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!
Jailbird
Charlie Davis
An all-ages comic about a recently escaped prisoner's struggle to understand the outside world, and vice-versa. Also, a magic cape!
Parisa
Ellen K
Two friends, Nolan and Gwen, take it upon themselves to escort the amnesiac spirit Lelief across the world of Parisa.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
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!
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Ghost Junk Sickness
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Two hunters try to survive and end up being pushed to pursue a deadly bounty dubbed "The Ghost".
Demon Street
Aliza Layne
Two kids explore a world full of monsters and magic trying to find their way home again. But when home has been stolen from you, where do you go to get it back?
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
Anarchy Dreamers
Emily Ree
Sparkly undead kids fight society's worst Nightmares in this pastel-punk urban fantasy coming-of-age!
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!
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Kelly Turnbull
A weekly comic celebrating the finer things in life. Like manly men, lumberjacks, and time traveling special ops agents.
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.
Helvetica
J.N. Wiedle
This story follows Helvetica's quest to uncover who he was in life, his existential crises, and his struggle to to make death worth living.
Laws and Sausages
Zach Weinersmith
Your cartoon guide to the American governement!
No Need for Bushido
Suburban Samurai, J W Kovell
The flash of a blade, the clash of steel! A runaway princess and her samurai companion navigate a fractured country on the brink of war.
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
Awkward Zombie
Katie Tiedrich
Gags and goofs about videogames and the things that happen in them.
The Glass Scientists
Sage (S.H.) Cotugno
A gaslamp fantasy comic about the life and times of a ragtag group of mad scientists and their enigmatic leader, Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Elephant Town
Danielle Corsetto
The long, slow tale of Kris, Paul, Berto and Mirando, four people who live in the same creaky old house, but don't know each other. New chapter updates every 2 months.
Sufficiently Remarkable
Maki Naro
Two young women living in Brooklyn discover that you're always coming of age.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
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.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
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!
The Sanity Circus
Windy
Magic, monsters and mysteries await in the odd city of Sanity. It's up to Attley and a colorful group of characters to find out just what is going on.
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.
The Din
Karin (Karrey)
The Din changed the world, mankind & its technology. Gregg Emilio dreams of flying in a sky that hasn't carried airplanes in a century.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
The Hunter of Insania
Aoi Maneki
Wiol Alkko sells fake magical objects to those desperate for cures. When he tries to scam a real witch, she curses him: within a year, Wiol must learn and respect magic, or succumb to corruption of body and mind.
Starhammer
J.N. Monk, Harry Bogosian
A teen girl inherits a powerful alien artifact and proceeds to make a series of increasingly poor decisions
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
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?
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Never Satisfied
Taylor Robin
Lucy Marlowe, a magician's apprentice, competes against other apprentices for an important, magical, Goverment Job.
Witchy
Ariel Slamet Ries
In the witch kingdom Hyalin, the strength of your magic is determined by the length of your hair.
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
The Mash
L.F. Garcia, Danigami
In a world shrouded in mystery and threatened by great evil,a young mummy prince will use his new life to unite with other monster children to save it.
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.
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.)
Little Red & Wolf
Aoi Maneki
Delve into the daily lives of two famous fairytale characters, and their adventures in this big weird world we all live in.
Devil's Candy
Rem, Bikkuri
A lush fantasy about boy genius Kazu Decker, the girl he constructed for his 9th grade science project, and the world of devils and monsters they live in.
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Raruurien
Ann Maulina
To maintain a peaceful life without her husband, a witch has to assimilate with the villagers, become a role model for her sons and also keep a low profile by confining her powerful magyx in public.
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.
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!
Phantomarine
Claire K. Niebergall
A ghostly princess must sail across a haunted sea to save her soul from a devious, shapeshifting death god known as the Red Tide King.
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.
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.
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
Speak of the Devil
Moz (M) Lee Lunsford
The rich and powerful of the city are quickly learning... mess with those who have nothing, and Sunday Blackburn shall appear.
Nix of Nothing
Moz (M) Lee Lunsford
The machinations of higher gods have stepped in and ruined Nix's, Demigod of Nothing, plans for an easygoing life. Now they must journey far and wide, meeting friend and foe, trying to get this divine target off their back!
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.
Can’t help but feel like your freelance hitman is a few blunders away from becoming a liability?
Should’ve gone union.
“You have failed me for the last time, Berten.” (Stretches out hand in throttling gesture) “…Oh yeah. I’m not actually able to do that.”
The godhood offer’s sounding a little less crazy and a little more attractive every day.
She considers it, and then she walks into that room and sees HR floating naked in that tank, and she comes to her senses.
He really needs to just shave his head. His hair’s thinning out embarrassingly fast for him to be clinging to a ponytail.
rather then a comb-over he is going to go for a comb-up. He has more then enough moustache to spare.
He’s using several devices while driving! His chances of getting into an accident are SUPER HIGH!
How reckless. He should be ashamed of himself. Next time, park before you call the person that wants you to murder someone, mister!
That’s funny, I was just thinking that he was really responsible to be using all those hands-free accessories.
hands free satnav, hands free phoneset – both hands never leave the wheel, and we even see him start the conversation when there’s no-one near him either ahead or behind :)
he’s a very responsbilbe hitman, you see – besides the littering of corpses, but really, no-ones perfect
“Now, Carol. This is a much tougher job than you made this out to be. That Cochran, she – yes, I know I’m 150 pounds heavier and 4 inches taller than her – but she shot me! In the leg! With a .22! I mean, it smarted so much I said ‘ouch’! Then her gamer buddy hit me in the leg, with this power strip – a 5-plug one! That REALLY smarted! And though I could still walk, they stole my car … and now are joined by two short out-of-shape gamer types, so … so … uh …
“Y’know, never mind. I’ll stick to the original agreement. Sorry to have bothered you.”
Physical build doesn’t matter in a country where firearms are easily available- will and savvy do. How’s that old saying go? “God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal”? In any case, our group of intrepid gamers should be getting tooled up right about now if they have any sense at all; and they’ve been given plenty of incentive to be willing to kill in self defense or even revenge, so the risk associated with dealing with them has increased exponentially.
Been saying the whole time, .357 is a powerful demotivational tool, even for a professional.
That’s another issue: Yes, .357 Mag is perhaps the most effective handgun round in terms of capability to incapacitate another human being, but it’s loud, kicks like a mule, and very unpleasant and difficult to fire, much less shoot effectively. The recoil can actually send the gun up to headbutt its user, particularly those unprepared or unused to shooting.
So, not only is caliber selection (and firearm selection) vital, a bigger point is: it’s possible for our sepia-colored protagonists to pick the wrong caliber/firearm for their defensive purposes, putting themselves more at risk.
Just gotta point out:
It’s very easy to say, “Get a gun,” or the like. It’s totally different for you to bring it out and shoot someone with it EVEN if said someone is about to kill you. Even considering them all as a group brought together by conspiracy and death, they may not have the mindset or will to choose to kill Berten when it comes down to it. Even cops and soldiers have this unconscious desire to avoid harming another human being and part of their training involves discipline to overcome that inclination.
That’s the psychological part. For practical purposes, what about the skills and training and necessary to wield those guns effectively? Shooting accurately and effectively even at close range is not easy even under non-stressful conditions. I’m not kidding. And under real danger and duress, a lot of the fine motor skills and ability to make complex decisions just goes out the window.
So, yes, get the guns and arms, but it’s still not going to be worth much against a professional if they don’t make plans and practice their use.
Oh wait…they *did* steal his car, didn’t they?
Shoulda spent the extra few dollars on lo-jack.
Except that could potentially be used to trace him to the scene of whatever crime… remember, he’s off the grid as much as possible.
Which makes him vulnerable in a few ways, apparently
yeah he is driving a Nissan now. Camaro gone.
ahh, but see now the job has become much more involved. it’s not just painting the walls, it’s sanding, laying down protective mats, buying brushes and paint. cleaning up the old drips from the last painter and then priming, sanding, first coat, sanding, and the top coat.
i’d charge extra too;)
strangely appropriate avatar too
I can’t help but imagine JJ as a contractor explaining why Carol’s bathroom renovation has gone over budget.
If this wasn’t about a basically irreplaceable hit-job, I’d tell Carol to just cut him off. He didn’t follow through on services promised, and managed to make the situation worse instead. That it was at “personal cost” really doesn’t fly when he was given professional freedom in how he handled the situation.
Of course, since the situation is a mess now, even hiring a different professional would probably be just as expensive and almost certainly slower. So Carol’s stuck with him, because there’s no way she will just walk away from this.
He did do everything perfectly, given his knowledge base and goal. I don’t think he could have acted in any other way for the most optimal outcome. He couldn’t have accounted for cochran going, well, nuts (imsosorry) and actually resisting unlike all the other folks he’s had to strongarm before.
His mistake was killing her. If he had taken her hostage instead they would have folded in a heartbeat.
+1 to this. it’s amazing how extreme situations wash away doubt. but have 5 people in a room see someone fall over, and they will all look at each other for hours trying to figure out who is responsible for picking them up again.
I honestly thought he WOULD kidnap her if he did anything to her at all. It seemed needlessly sloppy and violent to resort to a murder that quickly, especially considering the victim wasn’t even tied directly to Cochran who is the whole reason for his efforts in the first place.
Instead he provided serious motivation for STRANGERS to join her cause.
That episode perplexed me. It looked to me like he’d bungled. Up to that point, I’d gotten the impression that we were supposed to read his confidence as an indication of real competence. So I wasn’t sure if at this point we were supposed to see his confidence as braggadocio that collapsed as soon as he faced a challenge, or if we were supposed to still see him as very competent, and all this was a lesson in how quickly plans can fall to chaos when violence is involved.
I agree, Byzantine. Bertren has turned this into a fight-or-die situation. A hostage situation makes the idea of just walking away safe and unharmed after surrendering plausible. But Shanna + Adventurer Team 2 + Penk (?) have no longer any reason to believe they’re safe after complying.
Its difficult to fault a professional hitman for thinking that a gaggle of decidedly soft gamer geeks would actually decide to take him on instead of just walking away from the stranger who’s suggesting that a game company kidnapped and somehow imprisoned some people they don’t actually know inside a videogame, quite possibly TRON style.
Aside from the remarkably high tolerance for risk to life and limb, he’s predicted their moves so far almost exactly.
It was definitely a surprise that they decided to fight back, but ultimately the only reason they were galvanized into action is because they got to hear their friend being murdered over Skype, by him. Which both confirmed Shanna’s story and established that the group as a whole would not be allowed to just stay quiet and play video games.
All in all, I just think a bit of subtlety and reconnaissance could have done his job for him, and instead it’s a full blown SNAFU.
I’m inclined to agree. As I’ve said before, Bergen talks a big game but I’m not entirely convinced he’s as good as he’s made himself out to be. And now it sounds like Carol may be sharing those doubts.
Of course, something people tend to forget is that those physically soft Gamer Geeks are often a lot more mentally and morally, uh, ‘hard’, than folks who’s pasttimes are primarily shopping, gossiping and watching organized sporting events. Though it seems like fun-times make-believe, RPGs are actually a powerful tool for training yourself in how to react calmly to extreme and extraordinary situations- they teach that violence is not just a ‘horrible tragedy’ but something that happens, and can solve and create myriad problems along with ‘talking things out’ and ‘money’. They’ve probably run ‘simulations’ of ‘hitman kills friend, threatens the rest of you if you don’t stay out of it’ before, in RPGs, so they’re not paralyzed with fear since this is a familiar situation for them to be thinking about- if more real than they ever expected.
Go look up how you can leverage playing RPGs as a benefit on resumes for more examples of this sort of stuff.
Also, if the world wasn’t as soft, a lot of the people who play fantasy games are the sorts who desire that kind of physical challenge- the fact that the world makes pretending easier and safer, and the real-thing illegal, is the big reason they don’t go around getting in swordfights with restaraunt waitstaff.
Heck, Fans! itself covers this idea pretty well.
I used to LARP alongside a professional paramedic. I’m not sure if he always kept a cool head in the game because of his job, he was always good at his job because of the LARPing, or both.
Said geeks showed a good amount of moral integrity and idealism prior to any of this. The murder of their friend made things clear that they could not just back away quietly lest a similar fate befall them thanks to Berten. It was a miscalculation on Berten’s part. See Byzantine’s comment above for what may have worked better.
Plus, price isn’t really an issue for her anyways. If everything goes to plan, she’ll be a goddess in another world. Money in this world will no longer have meaning.
Was Carol into the whole godhood thing? I thought she was just in love with && supporting HR Daedulus in his godhood quest.
And if she’s bothered to pay attention to what’s happening in the game, she might realize that instead of being a God, HR is just an over glorified magic user with still all too human limitations.
I doubt that’s the end-all of HR’s godhood thing, simply being another powerful NPC still susceptible to the rules of the game/that world. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had an actual apotheosis planned that truly made him a god there rather than what he currently is.
Or he’s literally just that nuts.
Originally, I always had JJ Berten soundin a little like Michael Clarke Duncan in my internal narrative thanks to his build and the way he carries himself… but after saying ‘Inn’ernet’ while sporting that ‘stach, he’s starting to sound a little more like Yosemite Sam
He’s basically Larry the Garrote Guy.
A little bit of stick, a little bit of garrote.
Could we maybe go with a different Sam?
In panel 3, I believe you meant the “strongest” warning. Either that, or I need someone to fill me in on what “stongest” means.
It’s the Strongbadian dialect. Fixed for English audiences.
Of course… it’s all so clear now. I finally know who Best/WAV really is.
if they become each others problem….GOOD
If the enemy of my enemy see me as their enemy… damnit!
You’ve got a lot of problems, don’t you Carol?
Ah well, as soon as Plato world of forms gets involved you know it’s gonna be Good.
Does he not watch any movies or TV? Hit men always get murdered themselves right after they demand more money for a contract they’ve already agreed to!
He sounds like he’s getting terribly close to being a loose thread that needs wrapped up.
Well, might be awkward, he kills one of them then just quits the job…
Perhaps she shouldn’t be quite so rude to her assassin.
I’m guessing JJ just bit off a bit more than he can chew. You do not try to extort more money out of someone who wants to become a god and is convinced they are on the verge of doing so.
It tends to end badly.