A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
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!
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
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.
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
I do think we need more payoff, more often. These comics are starting to get a little too similar to Lost in the way they time themselves. I’d rather have a story in which I see that meaningful things are happening than a story in which I see that the authors have intentionally given me almost-but-not enough information to parse the basics of what’s going on.
Hooray! All the characters aren’t real! Their heroics, deeds, and deaths are all utterly meaningless! We might as well have been reading WereGeek or DM of the Rings!
I already told you, meta-fictional characters are still fictional… only powered up… like super saiyan style.
On a serious note. Perception is reality. Ask a schizophrenic. If the world has depth and meaning to the characters then who are we to say its not real (or as the popular opinion goes “lose all vested interest because its all a sham”?
I’ll keep my sense of humor about it, but dude: no, and outright wrong, and if you actually ask some currently lucid schizophrenics, we’ll confirm that the problem is that perception isn’t reality. It’s not even close. Sheesh. Reality is reality, perception is perception, and there’s a truckload of difference. I promise I’m less offended by the faulty diagnostic there, and more by the fact that I hate masturbatory philosophy. ;)
HOLY MOLEY. Wait, someone made a Bruce Almighty reference on the last page, and that gives me an idea: this guy is one of a pantheon of gods who rule Arkerra. The computers are just how they interact with the world.
Ah, the suggestion My GM made earlier :) – the sky elves had some pretty hot technology, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was some kind of advanced scrying machine.
I just assumed it was a tabletop game this whole time with how all the characters seemed to have different views on the world, mostly Frigg. Whether or not it is doesn’t matter to me, I enjoy the characters, plot, and everything else about this comic. I’m glad to see not everyone’s jumping ship like the first few comments seemed to indicate people would. I’m aboard for the whole ride, no matter where it takes us.
People sure are eager to jump the gun in here.
We’re kind of only at the title page, here, with only the introduction preceding.
I think the old phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes into play here.
I’m not sure if it counts as hubris to say that, as readers, we can safely make assumptions about where a storyline will go from its first three pages, so much so that writing it off or walking away from it completely would be justified. ESPECIALLY since these writers have chops proving that they’re not the trite, boring-ass writers that readers -can- make predictions from, three pages in.
I mean, its a sign that people really love this comic – but, honestly.
Are these photographical elements in backgrounds going to continue to be a common occurrence? I really had no qualm with the new artist until the last few pages when they appeared; it just looks kinda lazy.
the images on 4 and 5 look flat because they are the images on ‘computer’ screen as the camera pans back to see we are viewing this from some ones office.
I’m fairly certain the floor in all of the tavern shots has been 3d rendered or is a photograph, and the first page of chapter 9, the middle 3 backgrounds are all photographs with filters applied.
WHAT THE F—– (Censored for reading audience). While I’m kinda annoyed at the sudden loss of character depth (atleast in my opinion), it definately provides something different.
I’m sure T. and Phil will eventually make this as great as they make everything else, but right now this is… disappointing. That’s all, just disappointing.
I agree. I support the two and will continue to follow the series, but as optimistic as I’m trying to be, unless my guess is dead on, I’m afraid whatever plot twist will be coming might be too much for me. I mean, if they ARE going with the “it’s all a MMO” idea, which is my personal worst case scenario, it will strike me like the “And it was all a dream” twist that Dallas tried to pull off, which was pretty darn cheap.
Aw, who am I kidding, though. They could put my mother in there as a street hooker, mock my entire life, and then put me into the comic for the sole reason of giving me a long, protracted, humiliating death, and I’d STILL read this. They got the plot hooks into me, man, I couldn’t quit if I was PAID to.
i agree as well. I am currently cringing over this change in the heirarchy of reality, but i trust that it’s just a tiny hiccup and the awsomeness will continue.
Ohhhhh…. come on!!! I liked this story but now… will start this crap “that was all fiction inside the fiction”? CLICHE! BULLSHIT!!! And if you think this is very smart, grow up!
Wow, you know, Brugo, you’re going to be so PISSED when your life hits chapter fourteen. That chapter’s going to totally break the fourth wall, allowing me to reveal myself as the author of your life. Stuff’s gonna get off the WALL, yo!
Also, not all of us like how this twist is looking to turn out, but, hey, we have faith in Phil and Mr. Campbell to make it turn out well. I mean, you’re right, the “Story-within-a-story” twist has been used quite a bit within a few works lately, but I’ve seen it pulled off very well. For example, read Inkheart. That was a good series.
I have a bit of faith in Phil AND T AND John to pull this off, but T’s Fans lost me when he went on a metaphysic rampage brain-fart. Really, really hope this isn’t the case here.
Whereas no one has ever written a straight-up story about a group of fantasy characters on a quest, right, Brugobar?
(Sorry, but calling it “cliche” is pretty much a failure to acknowledge the ultimate truth of fiction: “Whatever you do, it’s been done. Your only hope is to do it better than most.”)
I wonder. This reminds me in some way of Brian Aldiss’s “Helliconia” trilogy. His world has a rather low technological level, but it’s watched from orbit by human explorers from Earth aboard a giant space station who witness pretty much all that is going on, but rarely interfere… (and when they do, things get messy rather quickly)
So out of nowhere I decide to check out a new webcomic, search a bit for good suggestions, find The Guilded Age, click directly to #1 and start reading forward. It took me about six hours total (two “sittings” in two days) to enjoy every drop of that interesting adventuring party’s individual character development.
I also enjoyed the alt text, and a lot of cool and funny comments.
This is the exact comic where I totally lose interest in the whole thing and click to “Latest” to see where the story ends up at the current date, instead of reading them carefully one at a time. It took me about ten minutes to click backwards to this specific page, trying to find something that interested me, but honestly, I’m no longer engaged. I stopped looking at the alt text.
I am reminded of the new Star Wars movies, and Payet Best is playing the part of Jar Jar Binks.
(spoilers)For me, Soliloquy’s comment on this page was the last one worth reading.
Were politics involved somehow? Does this new direction have anything to do with Erica’s sudden exit?
See, for me, I came to this a couple weeks ago, and read the cast page ahead of time so I already knew about the Earth dude and his secretary and his plans to connect the worlds or whatever (haven’t read the cast page since, honestly). So this is different from before, yes! But I was forewarned. Maybe I would have found it as jarring if it was a total surprise? Who knows.
But I love all the characters I’ve met so far (yes, even Best and Harki and Pornstache) and I can’t wait to meet the rest–I’m especially looking forward to meeting the nun, she was in the banner ad I clicked. :D
Have a little faith! People will surprise you, and these writers have already proven themselves to be awesome.
It is odd to read comments like this, then look over and see that the writer’s avatar is a not only still a character from the strip, but a character that hasn’t even shown up yet.
Archive diving can be weird sometimes.
I can definitely sympathize with the feeling you express (with the worst in 1997, it has happened to me too often) but I am glad you stuck with the strip :)
*Deep breath* can someone please tell me what the hell is going on? ‘Cause i think my brain just broke down and the repairman tells me it will take a day or two before it can get fixed…
This is why i like Best, though he´s a huge douchebag and he´s doing this all for selfish reasons, he still wants to do good and save the world, damned the consequences. :)
Consequences which could end in a continental war though despite his saving the world. XD
This is another of those times when I realise that normal, regular people choose the strangest things to complain about. They’ll spend their time gushing and screeching orgasmic joy over the most unoriginal and erroneous crap imaginable (Disclaimer: Not this. This story is quite good, on average.) in wave after wave of repetitive sycophantic dross…
… BUT tell them that the fictional story they’ve opted to invest themselves in has another layer of fictionality inbetween, and suddenly half of them will start screaming and whining about how awful it is and how everything is ruined forever because it isn’t real.
Idiots.
That is all that can be said about it.
Idiots.
Idiots choosing the most ridiculous thing to complain about.
It doesn’t matter if it is a fantasy world in a game in a book in a picture in a dream in a drug-fuelled hallucination… None of that makes a monkey’s bit of difference to anything that has happened and the relative validity of any of it.
Idiots.
Oh, that’s kind of disappointing actually. Sometimes I seek out similar premises but I usually desire them to be set up the other way around…
Eh, I can probably get back into it shortly. Who knows maybe it will have at least one character who does this the way I like it if I hang in there long enough.
Anybody play Star Ocean 3? Clearly Gary Oldman here is in the Fourth Dimension.
lets hope he is nothing like luthor.
Well, this sucks. Someone played them all along… Hm… I think, I hear clicking and tacking from above my head… Wait!
Next comic: mysterious guy balances his checkbook … mysteriously.
I’m calling him “The Faceless Man” until further notice.
Other alt text favorites?
incredulous reader is incredulous.
GASP! the horror the horror not payet best the worlds largest douche >.<
This could work to our advantage, as now our hearoes can respawn. Or maybe mister User at leat kept some backups.
They say the user inputs games for pleasure.
No one knows for sure, but I intend to find out.
<3 Reboot reference
+1
Hey BW, your pentagram is incomplete. Just thought I’d let ya know.
How else is he gonna let the demons run rampant?
I do think we need more payoff, more often. These comics are starting to get a little too similar to Lost in the way they time themselves. I’d rather have a story in which I see that meaningful things are happening than a story in which I see that the authors have intentionally given me almost-but-not enough information to parse the basics of what’s going on.
Hooray! All the characters aren’t real! Their heroics, deeds, and deaths are all utterly meaningless! We might as well have been reading WereGeek or DM of the Rings!
I hate to be a spoilsport, but the characters weren’t real anyway :)
They were/are real in the context of the story.
I already told you, meta-fictional characters are still fictional… only powered up… like super saiyan style.
On a serious note. Perception is reality. Ask a schizophrenic. If the world has depth and meaning to the characters then who are we to say its not real (or as the popular opinion goes “lose all vested interest because its all a sham”?
I’ll keep my sense of humor about it, but dude: no, and outright wrong, and if you actually ask some currently lucid schizophrenics, we’ll confirm that the problem is that perception isn’t reality. It’s not even close. Sheesh. Reality is reality, perception is perception, and there’s a truckload of difference. I promise I’m less offended by the faulty diagnostic there, and more by the fact that I hate masturbatory philosophy. ;)
Can you define reality without being recursive?
(Hint : The Dictionaries can’t.)
They were real to me. Doesn’t that count for something? ;^;
I’m not sure, to me, you’re just a commentator on the internet, so I don’t know if you count as real.
There are only 200 real people in anyone’s life (this number varies depending on the research group that comes up with it.)
I dont let a lot of people into my monkeysphere
D8 Give me an existential crisis, whydoncha ;^;
I’ve watched enough Reboot and Tron to say that just living inside some guy’s computer doesn’t mean people aren’t real.
HOLY MOLEY. Wait, someone made a Bruce Almighty reference on the last page, and that gives me an idea: this guy is one of a pantheon of gods who rule Arkerra. The computers are just how they interact with the world.
I like this idea.
That could work I suppose.
Ah, the suggestion My GM made earlier :) – the sky elves had some pretty hot technology, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was some kind of advanced scrying machine.
I like the idea, but I don’t think sky elves have a company named LG.
…unless it’s short for Lux Grandiose…
Libra Grimoire?
(I know, it’s lame.)
Nope, no pointy ears. I’m hoping the logo will be a clever shout-out.
Or maybe the creator is screwing with us, showing us his meta-avatar to lighten the mood…
This vividly reminds me of the matrix-theory
You seem to have Lost me a couple of pages back.
:/
I just assumed it was a tabletop game this whole time with how all the characters seemed to have different views on the world, mostly Frigg. Whether or not it is doesn’t matter to me, I enjoy the characters, plot, and everything else about this comic. I’m glad to see not everyone’s jumping ship like the first few comments seemed to indicate people would. I’m aboard for the whole ride, no matter where it takes us.
Hitler seems very confused about where his mouse went.
His name isn’t Payed Best, it’s Douchebag McDouche.
People sure are eager to jump the gun in here.
We’re kind of only at the title page, here, with only the introduction preceding.
I think the old phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes into play here.
I’m not sure if it counts as hubris to say that, as readers, we can safely make assumptions about where a storyline will go from its first three pages, so much so that writing it off or walking away from it completely would be justified. ESPECIALLY since these writers have chops proving that they’re not the trite, boring-ass writers that readers -can- make predictions from, three pages in.
I mean, its a sign that people really love this comic – but, honestly.
Alternate response-
> Payet: Examine fourth wall.
Are these photographical elements in backgrounds going to continue to be a common occurrence? I really had no qualm with the new artist until the last few pages when they appeared; it just looks kinda lazy.
the images on 4 and 5 look flat because they are the images on ‘computer’ screen as the camera pans back to see we are viewing this from some ones office.
I’m fairly certain the floor in all of the tavern shots has been 3d rendered or is a photograph, and the first page of chapter 9, the middle 3 backgrounds are all photographs with filters applied.
Oh yeah, didn’t notice.
Something allot of artist do. If it was easy/lazy, I would do all the time ;)
JAW.
OPEN.
WIDE.
Note: there five caves in the cluster and there are… er, where five members in the party.
Nice catch there.
AMAZING. I am waiting eagerly for next update.
PS:Now, i demand that Best be given the rocket launchers.
WHAAAAAAAAT
WHAT THE F—– (Censored for reading audience). While I’m kinda annoyed at the sudden loss of character depth (atleast in my opinion), it definately provides something different.
My steampunk sense is tingling… “shuddering” would be more accurate :P
I like how just two comics ago, I remarked how the number of comments had dropped off, and now we’re already back up to 250+.
If nothing else, you guys (Phil and T) sure know how to get your fans riled up.
Now if only they’d open up the GA Forum in the Tea Room, so we could REALLY cut loose!
I’m sure T. and Phil will eventually make this as great as they make everything else, but right now this is… disappointing. That’s all, just disappointing.
I agree. I support the two and will continue to follow the series, but as optimistic as I’m trying to be, unless my guess is dead on, I’m afraid whatever plot twist will be coming might be too much for me. I mean, if they ARE going with the “it’s all a MMO” idea, which is my personal worst case scenario, it will strike me like the “And it was all a dream” twist that Dallas tried to pull off, which was pretty darn cheap.
Aw, who am I kidding, though. They could put my mother in there as a street hooker, mock my entire life, and then put me into the comic for the sole reason of giving me a long, protracted, humiliating death, and I’d STILL read this. They got the plot hooks into me, man, I couldn’t quit if I was PAID to.
psst! Phil!
This is where you say “All this, and more! Next time on Guilded Age!”
@2nd paragraph
Jeez Locke don’t give them any ideas, you know how Phil gets.
….someone make a fan-fic of this?
*evil grin*
Dammit. That’s right. Oh well, as long as I’m not killed by Bes- I NEED TO SHUT MY MOUTH.
Hmm, evidence that Locke can be taught – !
*hugs Locke*
i agree as well. I am currently cringing over this change in the heirarchy of reality, but i trust that it’s just a tiny hiccup and the awsomeness will continue.
Ohhhhh…. come on!!! I liked this story but now… will start this crap “that was all fiction inside the fiction”? CLICHE! BULLSHIT!!! And if you think this is very smart, grow up!
Never! I like sucking breasts too much.
Wow, you know, Brugo, you’re going to be so PISSED when your life hits chapter fourteen. That chapter’s going to totally break the fourth wall, allowing me to reveal myself as the author of your life. Stuff’s gonna get off the WALL, yo!
Also, not all of us like how this twist is looking to turn out, but, hey, we have faith in Phil and Mr. Campbell to make it turn out well. I mean, you’re right, the “Story-within-a-story” twist has been used quite a bit within a few works lately, but I’ve seen it pulled off very well. For example, read Inkheart. That was a good series.
I have a bit of faith in Phil AND T AND John to pull this off, but T’s Fans lost me when he went on a metaphysic rampage brain-fart. Really, really hope this isn’t the case here.
It certainly won’t. I’ve got T on a short leash.
I see you have this planned down to a T.
And, to be fair, Fans has calmed down again. T has great ideas, but I like it when he works with his characters more than anything else.
Whereas no one has ever written a straight-up story about a group of fantasy characters on a quest, right, Brugobar?
(Sorry, but calling it “cliche” is pretty much a failure to acknowledge the ultimate truth of fiction: “Whatever you do, it’s been done. Your only hope is to do it better than most.”)
I wonder. This reminds me in some way of Brian Aldiss’s “Helliconia” trilogy. His world has a rather low technological level, but it’s watched from orbit by human explorers from Earth aboard a giant space station who witness pretty much all that is going on, but rarely interfere… (and when they do, things get messy rather quickly)
You mean the earth is just one giant supercomputer designed to calculate the answer to a single question?
The mice… can’t you hear them. They’re chanting 42… 42… 42…
I think you mean the question to a single answer. ;)
I think you mean the answer to the question regarding the answer.
Am I the only one that’s been predicting this ever since we first saw Best get the Achievement of “Become a huge douchebag”?
I refuse to believe anything other than this man being a god and that being a meta-joke. :P
MY face is a disappointed frown.
Well, it was a good run while it lasted. So long folks.
this is either a really unexpected twist, or you just decimated the seventh wall
So out of nowhere I decide to check out a new webcomic, search a bit for good suggestions, find The Guilded Age, click directly to #1 and start reading forward. It took me about six hours total (two “sittings” in two days) to enjoy every drop of that interesting adventuring party’s individual character development.
I also enjoyed the alt text, and a lot of cool and funny comments.
This is the exact comic where I totally lose interest in the whole thing and click to “Latest” to see where the story ends up at the current date, instead of reading them carefully one at a time. It took me about ten minutes to click backwards to this specific page, trying to find something that interested me, but honestly, I’m no longer engaged. I stopped looking at the alt text.
I am reminded of the new Star Wars movies, and Payet Best is playing the part of Jar Jar Binks.
(spoilers)For me, Soliloquy’s comment on this page was the last one worth reading.
Were politics involved somehow? Does this new direction have anything to do with Erica’s sudden exit?
It has everything to do with my sudden exit.
See, for me, I came to this a couple weeks ago, and read the cast page ahead of time so I already knew about the Earth dude and his secretary and his plans to connect the worlds or whatever (haven’t read the cast page since, honestly). So this is different from before, yes! But I was forewarned. Maybe I would have found it as jarring if it was a total surprise? Who knows.
But I love all the characters I’ve met so far (yes, even Best and Harki and Pornstache) and I can’t wait to meet the rest–I’m especially looking forward to meeting the nun, she was in the banner ad I clicked. :D
Have a little faith! People will surprise you, and these writers have already proven themselves to be awesome.
[/late to the party]
It is odd to read comments like this, then look over and see that the writer’s avatar is a not only still a character from the strip, but a character that hasn’t even shown up yet.
Archive diving can be weird sometimes.
I can definitely sympathize with the feeling you express (with the worst in 1997, it has happened to me too often) but I am glad you stuck with the strip :)
*Deep breath* can someone please tell me what the hell is going on? ‘Cause i think my brain just broke down and the repairman tells me it will take a day or two before it can get fixed…
This is why i like Best, though he´s a huge douchebag and he´s doing this all for selfish reasons, he still wants to do good and save the world, damned the consequences. :)
Consequences which could end in a continental war though despite his saving the world. XD
This is another of those times when I realise that normal, regular people choose the strangest things to complain about. They’ll spend their time gushing and screeching orgasmic joy over the most unoriginal and erroneous crap imaginable (Disclaimer: Not this. This story is quite good, on average.) in wave after wave of repetitive sycophantic dross…
… BUT tell them that the fictional story they’ve opted to invest themselves in has another layer of fictionality inbetween, and suddenly half of them will start screaming and whining about how awful it is and how everything is ruined forever because it isn’t real.
Idiots.
That is all that can be said about it.
Idiots.
Idiots choosing the most ridiculous thing to complain about.
It doesn’t matter if it is a fantasy world in a game in a book in a picture in a dream in a drug-fuelled hallucination… None of that makes a monkey’s bit of difference to anything that has happened and the relative validity of any of it.
Idiots.
Oh, that’s kind of disappointing actually. Sometimes I seek out similar premises but I usually desire them to be set up the other way around…
Eh, I can probably get back into it shortly. Who knows maybe it will have at least one character who does this the way I like it if I hang in there long enough.