Special task

Ada is so hyper here~ If you are curious and need a final push to start supporting Replay on Patreon – two next pages are available for Private pledge backers. And I gotta tell you, the page I’ve just uploaded features the cutest Lauras I’ve even drawn (‘∀’●)♡ And I’ve posted some sketches from the incoming pages too.

Life’s been slower lately. We were supposed to climb Fuji this weekend, backpacks packed and everything, but the storm warnings made us change our plans. So no Fuji for us this year (most likely). But we went to a big firework festival on Saturday – 1.5h of fireworks while sitting on blankets by the river. Alongside million other people. It was pretty cool, I love the atmosphere on those summer fireworks show: everyone drinking, eating yakisoba, enjoying the explosions, then returning home in merry moods. No drunk-fights, no littering, no shouting. In Poland this just wouldn’t work lol

I’ve been only sketching next pages for the past days, trying to build a big buffer of those before September. But I plan to update the shop this week and probably get rid of some very old items in the next week. I’ll post a notice here when I’m done adding new stuff. If there’s anything you’d like added just let me know in a comment. And if you are a patron and want a bigger resolution of something just send me a message there.

And thanks for the votes! TwoKinds and Grrl Power crushed us but you guys are awesome anyway!
Stay strong (づ￣ ³￣)づ

UPDATE: Shop has been updated! I’ve thrown a bunch of things there, feel free to take a look! I’ll most likely remove the old mugs (since the logo has been changed and everything) so it’s your last chance to get those lol Also use HOMERUN20 for 20% discount.

 

85 comments on “Special task”

  1. bitflipper Camp dweller Reply

    If only Two Kinds and Grrrl Power are beating you out of the top slot, that’s pretty freaking awesome! Tom Fischback and Dave Barrack both have large, long-established fanbases (I think Tom’s been drawing Two Kinds for something like fourteen or fifteen years, now). Getting beaten by those guys is kind of like noticing that Foglio Studios’ booth at Comicon is larger than the table you’re sharing with two other artists. ;-p

    You’re doing great, NI; never doubt it! You have incredible talent, and you are telling an amazing and gripping story. For someone at your level of experience, you are shining like a genius among giants.

    • bitflipper Camp dweller Reply

      p.s.– Speaking of the Foglios, you’re beating Girl Genius by a full order of magnitude! Keep producing Replay at this level of quality, and you’ll be up for an Ursa Major, next year, I bet!

    • Boom Reply

      Yeah if this is your first time then hats off to you, bravo. Keep up the good work.

      • Boom Reply

        I’m going to try to vote for you when ever possible to try and get this comic to first place and keep it there.

      • NotImportant Reply

        Yeah, that’s my first comic, glad you enjoy it so much 😀
        And thanks for the votes! They do help a lot!

    • JW Reply

      Grrrl Power doesn’t seem to have a very big lead, I think we could probably catch up.

      ‘Course there’s a lot of sleeping giants that, if they ever woke up and tried, would crush everyone above them. I mean there’s websites in the top100 that don’t have any link on their website to topwebcomics (let alone vote incentives), and still people vote for them by the hundreds.

      • NotImportant Reply

        True! Replay was lucky that TwoKinds didn’t update their vote incentives for some months haha xD

      • Refugnic Reply

        I second that.
        GrrlPower is just about 500 votes ahead.
        That’s something, but nothing that can’t be caught up to.
        Okay, TwoKinds will be tricky with their 10k votes ahead, but as has been said before: You are doing this for 3 years now and are third place.
        Tom’s been doing this for more than 15 years and TK has been one of ‘the’ webcomics for quite a while now.

        I don’t think there’s all that many people who read webcomics who have never heard of TwoKinds, that’s how large it’s range is.
        So yeah, there’s no shame to lose to a giant like that…no, that’s wrong, you’re not losing.
        You’re just coming in a little later, but still in the top ten…and have been for the past few months if not even years, if memory serves.
        Often even in first place, if I am not mistaken.

        So be proud of yourself, you’re doing awesome! 😀

      • NotImportant Reply

        Oh I’m super proud! Both for myself and Replay and for you guys, for managing to squeeze out so many votes haha~!

        I wonder if Replay will be so popular in those 10 years. I read TwoKinds too so I imagine people who enjoy it could probably enjoy Replay too. But maybe Replay’s too bloody or something haha. We’ll see in those couple of years, it’ll be fun to observe for sure.

      • Ben Reply

        The sleeping giants thing is definitely true.

        I’m fairly sure xkcd is on the list somewhere. If they ever put a link on their site, they could crush us, considering how popular it is

        • antrik Reply

          Yeah, xkcd has been in the 30s or 40s, in spite of not having a vote button, ever since I started looking at TWC.

          (Though personally I think the author has ran out of really good ideas years ago, and it’s been running mostly on reputation/habit ever since…)

          There are also a few other classics that often make the top100 without vote buttons. Judging by their Patreon success, they could probably take the top spots on TWC if they wanted.

          These are all one-off comic strips though as far as I’m aware, which is really an entirely different category than the graphic novels that dominate most of TWC…

    • SotiCoto Reply

      Ugh… all this hyper-competitive vote-whoring nonsense is ridiculous. Webcomics aren’t about being number 1 on some list…

      I was gonna say at least this comic has enough pages in the archive to at least warrant being on the front page, but it has been clinging near the top of the list for ages now and I’m inclined to believe that drawing so much attention to comics with less than a thousand page archive is just a waste.

      Plus the only worthwhile character so far is currently dead, so I’m really starting to question what the point is now…

      • NotImportant Reply

        It’s not really a competition. And I’m too old to care about rankings, but it’s a good free marketing so I ask nicely and the kindhearted people here vote for Replay so that it stays on the top. It really does bring new readers (even though some of them have weird fetishes, for example with GLASSES).

        I still hope you’ll come back and keep reading, I enjoyed your comments haha. Thanks for giving Replay a chance!

      • antrik Reply

        The top rankings are made by people who regularly follow a comic, not by those who just binge-read through archives — so the number of pages in the archive is really pretty irrelevant.

        I somewhat agree that this *can* be disappointing at times, since high rankings are occasionally occupied by fairly new comics that disappear or fade into relative obscurity not long after… It’s a minority, though.

        I wish there was a separate top list for *completed* comics: for archive binging, these are by far the preferable choice — but way harder to find, as it stands…

      • SotiCoto Reply

        Daily readers… yare yare.

        Would you watch a film at the rate of one frame per day?
        It is baffling enough that people do this at all, let alone that they’d be the majority… Oh the insanity of humanity.

        But I guess it is a standard they’ve inherited from paper comics and most likely television too. More things that supply plot at exactly the rate it is created, despite the medium itself being effectively timeless. Books at least get it closer to right, though this is more true of stand-alone works rather than long series. I know I didn’t touch the Wheel of Time series until it had been completed. Would wait the same for ASoIaF but it is taking forever.

        Rant aside though, you’re right… They’re the ones who control this sort of thing. Their madness is ubiquitous. But it is easy to forget the extended consequences of their unintuitive way of life. Popularity is independent of volume of content but dependent largely on continued regular activity, what with their viewing this as a thing happening rather than my focus on what has been done.

        Alas, it isn’t easy being an Archive Crawler. Kinda like it isn’t easy spreading the gospel of glasses…

        … So… this was where I left off last time, as memory serves.

        • antrik Reply

          I never claimed daily readers are the majority: only that it’s where the vast majority of votes comes from — for obvious reasons…

          I’m actually mostly on the same page with this: I find it very hard to follow stories update by update myself — only rarely have I managed to keep it up over an extended period of time on any comic…

          For one, it tends to be kinda unsatisfying to check out a new update only to find that the story hasn’t really advanced much… And it’s generally harder to remain engaged in a story when only reading a small fragment at a time.

          Even when I do follow regularly for a while — whether it’s update-by-update, or once every couple of updates — I tend to “drop out” when there is any sort of disruption: such a hiatus; some distraction on my end; or even just a slow segment in the story… And then I usually only find the motivation to return again after a long time, if ever.

          On the other hand, checking back only occasionally is also tricky: the more time has passed, the more re-reading is required to get back into the story — which tends to get old sooner or later even for the best of stories 🙁

          With all that said, it’s undeniable that web comics depend on regular readers. It’s in the nature of the medium: it just takes a huge amount of time to draw a comic — and few people can stay motivated when they spend months drawing a bunch of updates only to see readers visit once…

          The other aspect is of course that many authors depend on some income from the work — whether it’s to stay motivated, or to be able to dedicate so much time to it in the first place… And meaningful income can only come from regular contributors, which are typically found only among the most regular of readers.

  2. NiWo21k Reply

    Ah dont sweat it that your on third position at the moment – you are so often up front and still miles away from other big hitters so you are doing good 😉
    And like always: Dont overwork yourself – you are already bringing out so much stuff, better go a little bit more slow 😉

    And to the page:
    I just love how Laura looks here (and on the next pages).

    • NotImportant Reply

      Nah, I’m very happy with the 3rd place too, being beaten by the giants is only fair hahaha xD
      You are always so caring. It’s okay, I take breaks when my body tells me to, so no worries!

      • NiWo21k Reply

        Warning! Cliche Incoming! :
        I just dont want to see that one of my favorite artist looses the fun of one of the things she loves doing 😉

        Joke aside – i believe you, its just something that comes automaticly up because i have seen so many people just stop doing something they love just because they pushed themself to much – and i know it first hand from myself :-/

        • NotImportant Reply

          It might happen, true. I can only say that for now I have a lot of motivation for drawing this story, I like how it’s turning out and I enjoy seeing you guys comment and get excited as well ^^ I’d feel pretty lost without it, as it fills most of my free time haha!

      • NiWo21k Reply

        As long as you have fun nothing will happen – but if you ever have the feeling that it looks like work, then just take a small break – for you and your fans who would totally understand this 😉

        It would be sad if no one would ever see what you have cooked up for our band of survivors 🙂

  3. Sabreur Reply

    Her enthusiasm is kind of infectious! I wonder what the “key” is to who can and can’t use magic?

      • NiWo21k Reply

        I hope not – not that he tries to reason with the deamons just to find out that secret, i dont think Ada could handle that….

        • JW Reply

          On the other hand, trying to reason with your enemy is the magical-girl way. And beating them up until they agree to become your friend.

      • NiWo21k Reply

        No i dont want to see how Robert sees the world 😛
        Maybe everything full of rainbows and his weapons are large sticks with flowers…..

        Ah i forgot NI hasnt showed us how he will look – there was a reason why he is last to get this treatment 😀

      • Refugnic Reply

        The only reasoning any sane person should do with Demons involves pointy and sharp objects.

        Oh and fire. Lots of fire.

  7. Refugnic Reply

    Hmm…I’m certainly terrible at reading emotions.

    Let’s see…nervous, cause Ada is pretty much the hero of the camp (and apparently Laura didn’t think that Ada even knew she existed)
    Surprise, because of Ada’s chipper and rather forceful request…
    And finally…what?
    Awe? I can’t put my finger on Laura’s final emotion…

    • JW Reply

      Well, I’d say there’s a bit of awe, but in a “wow, for me?” kind of way. Like being presented with a life-size statue of yourself made of chocolate (assuming you like chocolate very, very much). Something like that, I think.

    • NotImportant Reply

      Yep! All of them are on the spot! And the last one is something like “ooh I’ve heard about this, I’ll get to try as well? WOW” – so pretty much what you guys said.

      Glad the emotions read well. Next two pages are even cuter hohoho~

  8. Dragon Master Reply

    BTW where and when did Ada get her new outfit? IIRC she was still wearing the camo fatigues and shirt before the vision, but afterwards she had on this cool black outfit.

    • NotImportant Reply

      Haha she had that outfit since the beginning on this chapter (this is the same day after all) and she had a fancy outfit in the vision but she doesn’t change for those as they play out inside her mind lol

      And she lost gloves for two pages. I need to fix those, damn it….

    • Refugnic Reply

      That’s very likely.
      After all, the vision told her that Laura was also a mage.

      And it was also one of those visions who told her, that the magic could work in the first place.

  10. Rateus Reply

    I know soba is a type of noodles, what is yaki? I’d guess either chicken or a dark sticky sweet sauce since I had Yakitori on Sunday which was skewered grilled chicken in a delicious sauce. I also had chicken katsu curry which was tremendous.

    A special task from Ada delivered like this would give you such self confidence! Although also trepidation because you’d hate to let her down. Go Laura!

    • NotImportant Reply

      Yaki = fried, so yakisoba is just fried soba with various vegetables and that sauce you mentioned! Yakitori is a fried bird. And I love curry too~ (‘∀’●)♡

        • NotImportant Reply

          No, my boyfriend hates ketchup, that’s the official reason, but to be honest rice wrapped in egg just doesn’t seem appetizing for me. And I get very, very upset if I order something bad for dinner (food and sleep are two main sources of my happiness!).

  12. Klorix Camp dweller Reply

    I’m a little jealous of you getting to watch those awesome fireworks. I watched one on YouTube once, but that’s just not the same.

    Also about being crushed by Grrl Power, that has changed, and Twokinds has slowd down, too. Still cannot grasp what happened there…

    • NotImportant Reply

      TwoKinds has this super power that lets it get 10000 votes every time Tom update’s the vote incentive haha~ And yeah, we’re #2 now!

      Fireworks are awesome and there are many shows during the summer. Well you might visit Japan and see t yourself one day! Who knows? I never thought I’d be living here haha~

      • Rateus Camp dweller Reply

        I’m a big fan of Twokinds, but I think it’s fair to say that this comic started from a much higher points in terms of artistic and dialogue quality. Tom has improved both massively over the years and built a big reader-base, and I’m sure you’ll do the same more quickly given your high quality start.

        • NotImportant Reply

          Ahh thank you! I can only hope so, but to be honest, I wouldn’t be terribly disappointed if Replay never became as popular. As long as there are people who enjoy reading this story I’ll continue drawing 🙂

      • Klorix Camp dweller Reply

        Visiting Japan (during fireworks season) at some point in my life definitely is one of my major … let’s call them “achievements”. 😉

  13. NJR Reply

    I love how that doorway is like a hobbit hole, and it’s right underneath the tents! It’s just slightly fairy-tale esque, but still subtle enough to be realistic… I love it!

  14. Klorix Camp dweller Reply

    Get well soon, NI!
    ACs just do that sometimes… I’m not a big fan of them, even though I appreciate them sometimes, too.

  15. perlatus Reply

    I’m imagining Laura chugging a can of beans while Ada’s trying to talk to her

  16. Doom Reply

    I think Laura might develop a crush on Ada, most likely of the platonic hero-worship variety. Ada is a strong and beautiful woman, protecting the camp, knows actual magic, and now specifically requested Laura give magic a try! I can easily see Laura wanting to be more like Ada. (I know I do!)

    • NiWo21k Reply

      Cats are very important (and that comes from a dog owner and lover) – they are some how the only animals that can calm down everyone and bring them together – mmmhh, to think of….does this mean we dont see cats in Replay because they are the secret to defeat the demons – conspiracy – ok i put my tinfoil hat back on…. XD

      • JW Reply

        OMG, you’re a corporal.

        With all the demons running around I’d rather be incorporeal, makes it harder to get eaten.

      • NiWo21k Reply

        @JW
        You know, i may look like a coward, i may act like a coward (sometimes), but damn these demons, they deserve to get beaten down even if it means i get eaten at the end (hopefully with an active grenade) but at least i was able to leave an impact XD

        @NI
        At least another interesteing idea – The Ghost watchers XD

  20. JW Reply

    Man, the names above comments look a lot better now that I’ve downloaded the “Caveat Brush” font. It looked like comic sans before (and slightly too large as well).

      • JW Reply

        I don’t think allowing scripts has anything to do with automagically downloading fonts that aren’t on my computer, does it?

        • NotImportant Reply

          It’s a font linked from google fonts. You shouldn’t need to have it on your computer.

          • JW

            Apparently noscript blocks embedded fonts from webpages because fonts get interpretted in a VM that, on some OSes runs in kernel mode, and there are several exploits that would allow a malicious font writer to take over your computer. (In the authors’ defense, it was never meant to be used with untrusted fonts, but eh, function creep. What can you do.)
            Win10 doesn’t run it in kernel mode anymore, but I’m not sure about 7 (which I have). I suppose it should be safe to trust google not to serve compromised fonts, but I don’t seem to have the option to.

            Honestly, though, I don’t feel I really miss much on the web having the safety knob turned up a notch. It’s not that I’m overly paranoid, it’s just that the cost is low for me.

  21. Vedrit Reply

    Wait…I’m caught up already? But it’s only been an hour, maybe two!
    I NEED MORE!

  22. bitflipper Camp dweller Reply

    We got rank? Cool!!

    I take it that’s from our Patreon subscription level?

    • NotImportant Reply

      Yep! I explained under the newest page, I just posted it 🙂 Please enjoy!

  23. Refugnic Reply

    A hearty yawn, Ada seems tired.
    You slept ’til noon! How are you wired?!
    Finally, he’s coming back!
    You’re so slow, I’m bored as heck!

    One lil’ sister, as requested,
    A special task! You will be tested!
    See this notebook? Draw this thing!
    Let’s see, if you can make it ring.

    A special task, for lil’ ol’ me?
    But I’m not special, couldn’t be.
    What is this task, what is this test?
    …and will I fail, like all the rest?

    Nonsense, Laura, do or die!
    With your help, we’ll all get by.
    I dreamed of you, you were a witch!
    Can I count on you, in a pitch?

    And now, a message from our sponsors. 😛

    Call three times 7, 1 to 4,
    and then, three times the two.
    Rental sisters, spells and more.
    I know you want one too!

    Two lousy cans, for one full hour.
    Pray tell, what does that mean?
    Give her a task, witness the power,
    she’s such a special bean!

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