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!
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.
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.
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Trying Human
IntroducingEmy
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 Forgotten Order
Christy
A young witch for whom every spell is a misfire finds solace and friendship in her new companion - a cursed doll.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
Reimena Yee
The 21st century retelling of the life and legends of Alexander the Great.
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?
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.
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.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Headless Bliss
Clover
A story about story-telling, and other metaphysical themes such as Nightmares! (Failed) Teamwork! Comedy! And more!
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.
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?
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
The Substitutes
Myisha Haynes
What happens when three roommates accidentally acquire otherworldly and powerful magic weapons destined for someone else?
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.
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!
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
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.
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.
Guessing that Bandit has a new boss…
Bandit’s been working with (not really for) Reynolds since chapter 42.
But how will she take the news that she is also working with and/or for Byron?
I’m not sure I’d really say she’s working “with” Byron.
Working in parallel, perhaps?
Yeah, she’s clearly still working with Reynolds, or else his reactions are inexplicable (and his presence in the conversation narratively pointless). Whether Reynolds and Byron are actually working together, or Reynolds is just taking advantage of the fact that Byron is willing to look the other way if unaligned adventurers do it, is less clear. (The latter would be smarter for them, as the fewer Heads who are actively involved the less havoc Gobligno can cause if he successfully investigates Bandit’s actions.)
That smugness is perfect. He went from being bumbling and naive to being underhanded.
Yeah, those expressions are priceless…
Que sera sera…
Guessing that Bandit isn’t as mad at Byron as we thought. Just a game to make it look like they aren’t working together.
While lies are the more available tool for manipulation, the truth is far more potent a weapon for those who are proficient in the use of it.
I think she’d be furious if she knew she was being played regardless of the cause. This might not be Byron’s doing, but simply looking the other way while Dean Reynolds assigns Bandit to these raids.
Welcome to politics! Where people in chairs take advantage of the actual doings of the people.
I mean we are all just people, after all, with causes. Thanks for working in my favor.
Aw man, look at those adorable troll builders, they’re all so cute!
The Don’s being short-sighted. A liberated slave can still be a source of cheap labor, and has the additional benefit of being a potential customer.
Additional benefits:
You do not have to feed them, host them or cure them.
You do not have to forcefully breed them, as they will thrive on their own.
You do not have to micromanage them, as they can be self sufficient.
They may even become more loyal then when they were enslaved.
This is exactly like my fish-tank.
I provide the tall long grass for the spawn, but nothing ever comes of it.
The cost of maintaining the population is pretty higher. It would be so much easier if they just reproduced like I want them too.
It goes deeper than that. A slave’s primary motivation is to work just hard enough to keep being fed and avoid being beaten. A free worker’s primary motivation is to earn the biggest profit per unit of work, which encourages them to innovate and to gravitate toward the areas of the economy where their skills are the most in demand.
If the goblins keep their slaves Don can ensure that he will remain the wealthiest person in the local economy. If he frees them he loses that guarantee, but the way unfettered economies tend to grow exponentially means that as long as he doesn’t completely mess up his personal business he’ll end up far wealthier as the employer of free orcs than he ever could have as a slaveowner.
So he needs to decide what’s really important to him: The social prestige of being the wealthiest goblin? Or actually having wealth beyond his ancestors’ wildest dreams?
A free worker’s primary motivation should be to gain SUFFICIENT resources for themselves and their own.
Resources are finite. Profit is finite. Greed in one begets suffering in others… and that suffering often begets retribution, all for diminishing returns. A million means less to one with a billion than to one who has nothing.
In short the only difference between the slavery and the “free workers” is that the ones with all the resources no longer feel obligated to let the latter keep their upkeep.
And thus began the age later known as the Jim Don era.
Ah yes… the capitalist approach. Pay them pittance (under threats of hiring someone else who works for less), then trick them into spending the pittance on distracting trinkets and baubles so you get the money back and they have nothing.
A smile comes easy
Each step and strike is their own
The fruits of freedom
what is this?
a haiku contest?
sign me in
what is this, right here?
Is it a haiku contest?
Okay, sign me up!
[It’s five – seven – five, not three – five – three.]
I recall learning
Haiku in primary school
I was transcended
3-5-3 is a legitimate alternate format.
Of course, it doesn’t really count unless the syllables are Japanese.
I admit I don’t understand how a single member of this council is holding up what the rest of the council seems to agree on, or at least a majority, but cool that they insist they let the slaves be slaves and only free a few at a time?
It could just be that they have a weak central government, where member races really have little power over the laws in the territories of the others. So slavery could be illegal in the former Gastonian capital but still be legal in Goblin cities. Sort of analogous to the situation where some States prior to the Civil War kept slaves and others didn’t.
Don mentions that Gobbos bought a bunch of slaves from the trolls, who likely sold them all off shortly before it became illegal to own them in Troll society.
Either that or this actually *isn’t* a central government yet. It’s just round-table negotiations and nobody has votes yet.
In which case, Don has a lot of say in these matters because he’s representative of the industrial and financial arm of the World’s Rebellion and technically the sovereign of the Goblins, who likely have their own undespoiled cities.
So you have a situation in which Don has too much invested here that he won’t walk away from the table, but won’t knuckle under to agreements or treaties which you have no power to enforce over him. He’s also owed a lot of money, so he’s got quite a bit of leverage here.
My understanding is that it’s mostly Goblins still keeping Orc slaves, so swaying the Don would be the way to convince the Goblins.
it’s not an easy task.
Troll might be convinced that doing the job by themself (not relying on the orc) is a sign of being powerful.
Goblin probably already have a mindset that “letting other do your jobs” is a sign of being wealthy
Please let Bandit and Byron have made up. It’s killing me to see old friends hating each other!
Just so I understand, the “working class adventurer” goes on a series of quests, gets hitched, finds out their entire world is a lie, takes down literal viruses to the game in which they live, stops a mad programmer, and becomes leader of their race? XD.
Well, more of a CEO than a programmer but he personally adds stuff to the game so it’s the same sentiment.
Whaddyaknow, the orcs can build their own villages and have rich social lives. Color me unsurprised. How many generations until they get a seat in the council?
Like three or four generations, but then said Orc council member will get accused of being born in Cyberia and a member of the Countless cult and their replacement will be another Goblin who definitely has Orctown’s best interests at heart.
I dunno, happy orc children begging for lettuces is … well … odd. Nice, but odd.
Begging? Looks more like they’re playing around, and/or welcoming back their dad.
I have never seen anyone as happy and excited to see a lettuce as that orc girl!
Also: such an adorable scene, in panel 1. =]
those troll smiles are so darn wholesome <3
So far we had greedy grinning, diabolic grinning, work-well-done-grinning, we-are-free-now-grinning, generic-happyness-grinning…gah…I’m not sure if I can take much more of it.
Meteorite strike, please.
NOW.
As a gnome, Reynolds has a genetic imperative to whistle nonchalantly whenever someone issues a denial.