How Supervillains Are Born
that first panel took longer than it normally takes me to draw an entire comic
Comments (110)
Unlimited POW-ER!
Swimming upstream in a constant current of AI nonsense sounds like a good seed for many comics to come! And feels a little like the direction we've been going. I'm here for it!
Her villain moniker will be Ever-Claire. [Everclear the drink is the reference for the joke]
Watching Jeph draw that panel 1 would be a cool time lapse to watch btw.
Im excited to see the Dome now.
I think that's McNabb's Island in the background
Do expect a Bob & Dot Easter Egg.
Station's assessment exactly matches the vibe I was getting from Moray.
It may be strange, but I want to have a glimpse into a parallel universe with Evil Hanners, Evil Claire, Evil Clinton, Evil Sam, Evil Lemon, Pintsize...
Corpse Witch is the protagonist in that universe.
One of my mottos for new jobs is: I seek order, but thrive in chaos. Most of my jobs are very technical jobs in companies that don't have a lot of technical talent (and none in management) and don't want to pay what a certified professional costs. (Some of this reminds me of my own jobs...)
Hey, this is kind of how we broke the Nazi's code during WW2.
Cubetown makes me think of Reboot! and the Game Cubes dropping in.
That's a fantastic metaphor for "blue sky research".
I want to move to Cubetown
But is there a coffeeshop in Cubetown? PRIORITIES, PEOPLE!
Move the whole cast, coffee shop, bakery, robot repair, streamers, Cubetown needs them all!
Marten gets to spend time with Evil Claire, sometimes, when he asks VERY nicely ;)
Time to *impose* order and structure!
The first panel is very nice. Looks like it belongs in a simulation game.
I'm really glad Claire is being sensible about this. 😊 My previous worries have been assuaged. 🙂
Station greatly prefers this type of human interaction to the Alexa/Siri-type ones that take up 97% of his time. “Hey Station: run program ‘Mood-lighting’ and play Nickelback.” “I’m sorry, Dave; I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
“Station, one more jumbo margarita, extra salt.” “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave. You have had three already and you are becoming more than a bit punchy. Making tea, Earl Grey, hot.”
If Evil Claire is as hot as Evil Willow or Vampire Willow, then we're good...
Warning: Incoming Game.
Thank you for the hyper detailed first panel! This tangent is awesomeness! 🤘😀🤘
Lets no beat around the bush here: Evil Claire would be HOT
Great, now both Claire AND Hanners will have goatees
Evil Claire wears Cat Eye glasses and has a stare that will make unruly patrons quietly put their books back before loudly whimpering outside the library.
Perhaps Station has recalibrated his default size to better match Tilly.
Actually, I think it’s just the limitations of visiting the ground, and having to project out of Hannelore’s slab device. (Likely a phone, but obviously so much more)
In the strip's title, is Jeph hinting that Yay might have connections to Cubetown?
No, it's just how Evil Claire would be born
Someone could ask Station about Yay, but I guess that would spoil her mystique, besides requiring Jeph to come up with a story that he wouldn't want to retcon later.
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3418 "I was unaware of any AI more powerful than me or my contemporaries."
I wonder if Station remembered his pants this time.
Wasn't that Spaceship who forgot his pants?
"Unlimited librarian power" Mrs Cranley gone mad with power!
Unlimited librarian power - very quirky living space! ;)
Looks like we'll be inducting Claire into the Siblinghood of Evil Librarians ahead of schedule! We have cookies and first dibs on weird westerns.
Is that fucking Station? Haven't seen him in ages, since the Bubbles memory saga, right?
"Well-meaning ineptitude when it comes to day-to-day operation"? Cubetown seems to need both Claire and Tilly. But then who wants to split up Station and Tilly?
there are certainly other Tillies in the world maybe not THAT Tilly (perhaps there IS a Tilly doppleganger named Taffy?)
Huh, does Station have a new avatar?
This one is definitely better than the last airbender he tried.
This is like the dot-com boom in the late 90s, everyone was swimming in investment capital, and the geniuses were all like "do whatever".
and every third company was trying to develop an olfactory peripheral for your PC that would let you smell your videogames. Thank Ghod none of them made it to market.
That whole first panel is giving me serious Alice Grove vibes. Which makes me wonder if this is the prelude to Alice Grove....😶
Jeph has stated the QC and Alice Grove do not take place in the same universe. However, he has not stated that QC and Iain M. Banks's Culture novels do not take place in the same universe.
Yes Claire! Join the dark side of the Dewey Decimal System!
I know enough about catalog structure that there’s no such thing as the dark side of the Dewey Decimal system. There is a dark side to the Library of Congress system because it involves government libraries.
I just realized something. Where's the dome supposed to be? Like that would suggest it's more round around the edges.
Maybe it's less a dome and more a pyramid
It's not nearly as isolated as I was expecting.
There appears to be both a boat dock and a helipad, which I guess answers an earlier patron question
I am interested to see where this goes, it could go many places
Ok, now I want some Evil Claire action.
This is how pan-dimensional archives get created and I'm all for it.
I think Evil Claire would be the same as regular Claire, except she’d get in the habit of not asking before improving something, in the name of efficiency.
This does sound like how Lord Vetinari runs Ankh-Morpork, except he's found the balance...
I need to read those books.
That panel looks great! It reminds me of the arts library at the University of Waterloo.
Do they still call it the Sugar Cube?
Evil Claire! Evil Claire! Evil Claire! Evil Claire! Yaaaaaaaay (no, not them).
I want Evil Claire to emerge.
The first panel looks very nice, seems worth the extra time.
I, for one, would welcome our Evil Claire Overlord.
"I'd have all sorts of unreasonable power, but I'm FAR TOO BUSY TO USE IT!"
I, for one, welcome our new Evil Claire overlord!
Just give me the power, I’ll work out the structure later. Much better than the usual, which is no power and no structure.
Or indeed structure and no power, which is possibly even worse
Panel one: "fit in a more" should I assume be "fit in at more" :)
That, or institutions could be singular
So it salmon-ic place to work.
This is how she becomes Claire of the Clare, Battle Mage and Feral Time-Travelling Librarian. Do it. It is your Destiny.
Ook!
On one hand, Cubetown needs a super librarian/bureaucrat to keep things in order. On the other hand, Claire is still inexperienced. And the wrong sort of order might destroy the concept of cubetown. On the other other hand, unlimited librarian power.
Trying to figure out what does “unlimited librarian power” means.
To paraphrase: I would use this position from a desire to do good, but through me... it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine!
Galadriel had the job, but the power was too much for her.
I recall station being taller...
I mean, he's a hologram. He can take whatever size he wants.
Evil Claire WOULD be really cool, potentially rivaling Giant Days' Dark Daisy, and I definitely want to see her now.
She can create Order and bend AIs to her Will. Lawful Evil Claire is Best Claire!!!
I hope she asks for all of the money
I have been reading Distress by Greg Egan and maybe it's just a recency bias but this sure seems a lot like the island of Stateless.
I wanna see Evil Claire I bet she's super hot 🥺
Years and years ago there was a panel envisioning Claire as a "Decker Librarian" that might fit that description!
Cuuuuuuube
Forget pondering orbs. We ponder cubes now.
Hannelore seems taller.
She's with q bunch of shorter people. She's usually around people who match her height more.
No, Claire might transmorgify into Uber-Claire. Queen of information sciences. The holder of the helm, guiding Cubetown into a glorious future. Or she might break and wind up running a library at a Grammer school.
Dark Claire is just Claire going through a goth phase. Wearing black all the time. Mastering that "Shush!" that even silences Moray.
Claire-Dora fusion.
Why, evil Claire won't even dye her hair.
Claire would be okay. So long as she does not make the mistake of volunteering to lead extra projects. It would be best to hide in an office and alphabetize research documents.
EVIL CLAIRE: This isn't revenge, it's PUN-ishment.
Sean, no.
She may need to go 4th dimensional on the Dewey decimal system.
She'll start the Augustus Hexadecimal System.
The extra time was worth it, the first panel looks excellent
I imagine evil Claire sort of like current Claire crossed with Oleana from Pokemon Sword/Shield
And evil Hanners would be Hannerlore crossed with Lusamine from Pokémon Sun & Moon.
Talking to station was a great idea Claire!!
Yes, always check the references of a potential employer. Especially if they combine "too good to be true" with "comes across like a hot mess during the interview".
Not gonna lie, somehow I did *not* expect Cubetown having any cubes.
I expected more than one massive cube. More of an massive *array* of cubes, floating, and connected by ropes, walkways, chutes, and what have you.
ALL HAIL EVIL CLAIRE!!!
I for one welcome our evil librarian overlord!