Unused strip for July 30, 2025!

not LEADING with the unused strip at the top, because unlike most of these, this one wasn't an EARLY version, it came much much later

Anyway. So while writing all this material last fall, I would, as per, like, always, slip my material day-to-day as I finished it to my wife. She's got Cheating Trauma (and said i could say so here) and so I looked at her as my barometer on a lot of this stuff. Day to day, as the story progressed through the Listening to Paramore and the Laundry Part 2 and whatnot, she would alternate, day to day, between "ARE THEY GONNA CHEAT???? :(" and "GODDAMMIT WHY HAVEN'T THEY KISSED YET MAKE THEM KISS" which felt to me like I was riding the line well enough.

When we got to today's (tomorrow's on the regular site)'s strip (seen above), she thought it was extra more-wrong than usual, and it rubbed her a bit the wrong way, but it was funny, so. Like, Maggie's particular boundaries are: okay, so they kissed, and that's not great, but they're suddenly figuring out their sexualities and you get a bit of grace from that, but you've got, like, 24 hours to sort things out with who you've wronged. Her Cheating Trauma is lying-based. It's not the crime, it's the cover-up.

and unfortunately, joyce had gone to sort things out with joe, but actually not told him, and physically progressed the relationship, and then returned back to Dorothy

NOW she was leading him on! which is WORSE! BY A LOT!!!

And like I said: it chafed a little, and it made her think less of Joyce as a person, but, like, yeah. Character makes bad decision! She didn't think strongly enough about it at the time to raise an alarm.

But then as the strips began to publish, Maggie got more and more worried about reader reaction, and there was a crescendo of VERY UPSET PEOPLE. Including people whose opinions Maggie respects! She wanted other people she likes to also like these two doofuses. And sometime last week, Maggie felt I had to, like, patch this somehow. Come up with an alternate version, to avoid The Reader Backlash Of All Time.

and so, last week, i came up with this:

I replaced Joe with Danny. Joe isn't home. Joyce receives the blanket instead from Danny. Danny... does his best to provide all the same exposition (and completely-accidental on-the-nose shaming)

Much of the same outcome (Joyce returns without having broken up with Joe, has the Blanket Of Shameful Meaning) but without the Actual Bad Thing Accomplished.

And, of course, subsequent strips would've had to also have been massaged to have a non-ruffled-up Joyce and whatnot.

BUT IT IS A BAD STRIP. It's stretchy! Danny shouldn't know all this stuff. Joe's been removed from providing his own exposition, and himself from the story here at all, which felt... worse to Joe, even, somehow. It has all of the same parts, but it's missing the teeth. Sure, I'm having Joyce do one less terrible thing, but, like, while sacrificing the potency of the moment. So, like, at this point, I figure, whatever, personally, I think I'd rather have the better strip and suffer through the reader backlash.

anyway, a few days ago, maggie walks in, says (paraphrased) "okay, i came across comments saying that Joyce needs to remain PURE NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG PERFECT ANGEL object of personal (horny internet male) interest and is being ruined by the misogynist jerk writing her right now." And that she supports women's rights AND women's wrongs. "Pull the trigger!" she shouted (not paraphrased). She joined Spite Mountain, becoming fully a Sicko.

And so we ultimately kept the original version of the strip.

sidebar: while I was creating the Terrible Danny Version, I also created.... ULTIMATE GOBLIN JOYCE VERSION:

i showed this to maggie and she collapsed in inability-to-breathe-due-to-laughter

please enjoy

and here are your complimentary helmets for when this runs on the regular site tomorrow