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JakeRichmond — Modest Medusa 548
#detention #medusa #monstergirl #webcomic #modestmedusa
Published: 2015-07-15 17:30:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 1521; Favourites: 43; Downloads: 2
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Description
There’s been a lot of comments here and on my site the last few weeks about Ms. Booth, and a lot of complaints in the last 48 hours. Despite what some people might think, I do read and seriously consider every comment (and I don’t moderate at all by the way) so I’m aware that many of you don’t like her. This has all been pretty frustrating to me, so I decided to stay up for 35 hours straight and write and draw the next 3 weeks of Modest Medusa comics so I could post them all here today in one go and get them out of the way. Whether you love or hate Ms. Booth, this arc is now over and we’ll be moving on to something else.
I’m going home now to sleep. Thanks for reading.
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Comments: 41
THREE CHEERS FOR THE CREATOR!!!
HIP HIP! HURRAY!
I'm going to up my Patreon pledge!
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Ok. Well, that makes things a lot better. Especially since she apologized to Modest. I thought that you were just going for the "she deserved it" arc.
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I dunno..... I LIKE Ms. Booth. And I still smell an ex-relationship vibe here. But I'm okay with how it played out.
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Ooh, character development. Me likey.
On other note, now I really feel sorry for complaining about her. Not because of her, it was a part of an arc after all. But because of you! Sorry, I and other readers made you all the trouble. You're obviouly a good guy. Thank you very much for the extracomic but don't let any criticism prevent you from getting a healthy nap again, please.
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Thanks. It wasn't so much the complaints (because people are entitled to complaints) but knowing that they were likely going to get worse, or at least more frequent, as teh story went on. And I didn't think I could handle weeks of that without getting angry at my readers for no good reason. Which I din't want to do. So this seemed like teh best path.
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Oooooh... okay now I understand her better. I knew she was trying her best and I know there was some miscommunication somewhere but it really makes sense...
And yeah I can understand the vice principal not being fond of the girl with snake hair playing with the other kids... and they don't even know the snakes' bite can petrify!
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Whoa man, that must have been quite the ordeal. Rest up, man, you deserve it.
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OH MY GOD! There was a SECOND SANDWICH the whole time while Modest wasn't eating?!
Also, what is even stranger than Modest that has been seen by Ms. Booth? You have to explain before my curiosity kills me and my cat!
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It's a secret. It will never be mentioned again.
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NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!! Why Jake? Why drop such a scrumptious bread crumb but deny us a trail to follow? You are a cruel writer 
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I appreciate you going to the extra effort to lay everything out on the table. Frankly, I still wouldn't cry if Ms. Booth got hit by a bus, but I do understand her position a little better now. ;D
It sucks when you put a story out there and the audience takes it completely differently than you'd intended. It's hard to know in advance what might rub people the wrong way. I do think that any time you have a scenario where an adult is (seemingly) picking on a little kid, that's gonna get a strong reaction. We're naturally protective of kids, and a lot of people probably have traumatic memories of dealing with mean teachers or other bullies in school (boy, don't get me started).
I hope you'll continue to experiment with different scenarios and relationships for Modest, because that's what keeps the strip interesting and fun. I definitely want to see more of her interacting with her classmates.
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Thanks. I dealt with my share of shitty teachers as a kid and as an adult in several different capacities, so I assumed that having a mean teacher who kind of didn't like you and teased you more than she should would be something that almost everyone could identify with. I just didn't expect he extreme negative reaction at all, and in some ways I'm still confounded by it. I've decided to accept that a lot of other people have strong feelings about this that are just outside of my experience.
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Actually, you cover a lot of loose ends in this big expository lump! One of the ones I've been most curious about is how the public reacts to Modest ... some take her in stride, apparently, and the others do the equivalant of cross themselves and never talk about it again. And the dark hints about what might happen if Modes were to attract the wrong attention answer that question, too. Also obvious, Ms. Booth has a history. Will she turn out to be the Beer Fairy, or a lost Piece Master from Lego Land?
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My focus for this season was to use school as a platform for introducing Modest into the outside world, and part of that would be the sad reality that not everyone is going to like her or get along with her, even possibly despite their best intentions. Ms. Booth is the first example of this. Maybe by the end of the season it will all come together better?
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And the plot thickens! XD
This is getting good Jake!
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Thanks for the backstory.
I was going to call bullshit on the preemptive detention thing, but decided to let it go. Hope I didn't say anything in previous comments to upset you.
This is one of my favorite comics and I look forward to every strip.
Sleep well
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No, you didn't. the whole thing was upsetting to me, but not because of anything anyone said. Having readers respond VERY differently from what you expect is always surprising, and realizing that your readers are forming opinions about characters and stories before you get a chance to show them what you're trying to do is very frustrating. No one is at fault and no one should feel bad, but the whole thing ended up making me second guess what I was doing and giving me a lot of anxiety.
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I missed any drama about this story arc... I just thought it was going to flesh out Modest's life a little more, yep I like chainsaw unicorn but I also like seeing Modest finding things in Jake's world as bizarre as Jake did in hers.
Big thanks for wrapping it all up... and 35 HOURS! Get some sleep man.
Edit: Up to speed now... I just always thought she was not 'meant' to be instantly likeable a flawed person but not inherently nasty or evil.
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*reads comic* Yeah, awesome! This was a great read! It also explains a lot.
*reads description* Oh. Uh... Oops. *cough* I don't remember if I contributed to that, but at least it's done with, right?
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It's over now. No one should feel bad about it. No one was rude or anything. It was just frustrating for me.
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I like seeing these really long strips even though they take a long time to make
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I'm fond of them to. Sometimes i wish I just posted one long strip every month. In some ways it's an easier format for story telling. This sequence was pretty much exactly what I had planned, except originally there would have been a gag every 4 strips. Which would have been a little forced probably.
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It definitely gives you more story than the shorter strips which is pretty cool
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This was absolutely great. Lots of story and character, with the right amount of humour, fantastic work <3
I'll admit, I still need to get properly up to date with the Mm comics, but from the recent ones I've seen, I haven't really seen any problems with Ms. Booth, I'd be giving Modest detention for the stuff she pulls, too xD
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Wow, Jake. I see all of the comments about Ms. Booth on your website. Pretty crazy stuff.
I don't know if I should be happy that people are so involved with what's happening in the comic or if many of them are just a touch too sensitive about something (or someone in this case) they know very little about. Most people will react based on what they know about something *at the time*, and as I think many people should see now, why Modest seems to get punished so often goes a lot deeper than people realize.
I don't really understand how most of them couldn't have seen it coming sooner or later, based on the fact that Marah dying wasn't a joke, how the Chainsaw Unicorn became the Chainsaw Unicorn, etc...
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I don't want to blame anyone for their interpretations or reactions, but the whole thing was a surprise to me. Especially given my "side job" (which I never talk about so you're probably one of the few people who reads the comic who knows that).
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Did you get the extra sandwich we sent you? sorry for not 'liking' Ms. Booth. 
Last panel, I like how Modest's hair is eating her lunch. hehe. or looks like it.
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Honestly, i wasn't really expecting anyone to like Ms. Booth. I just didn't expect the hate. But I can't blame people for how the react.
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I became protective of Modest because I had 'fallen in love' with the character. 
Thank you for the time and tear and sweat you have put into all your comics. (don't forget the blanket for Modest as she sleeps on the couch)
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Well, well, well...
Some things are resolved and then again, some new questions have been raised.
I like it. ^^
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I.. didn't hate the teacher. I just figured there were reasons for her behavior.
Go get some rest! You really deserve it, after putting all that work into that one huge strip like that.
I hope you also have proper formatted single page versions for your eventual book plans, right?
PS: People will hate characters at any given time. Just take your time telling the story from now on. It's *YOUR STORY* so tell it how -you- want.
Haters will hate. I see a lot of it on a LOT of comics I read. However, I think you're the only one who put in so much effort to do a mega post, just to get it over and done with cause.. readers were expressing their distaste?
I'm sorry you felt like you had to do that. That method is bound to burn you out and make you hate your own story.
*sends good thoughts.*
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Webcomics can be a frustrating format when your trying to make something that should be read over a few minutes but your readers are absorbing it over a few months. before I could show M. Booth's good side (or fair said, or whatever) a lot of my readers had already made up their minds about her in the long gaps between strips. And I should have anticipated that. But it's frustrating.
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I get where you are coming from honestly. I've written characters in stories that people hate without knowing any of the back story. That is to say, a long time ago before having had my now 12 year old I'd write stories by a chapter a week format, and the hate mail.. Oh lord. It's frustrating. This however taught me, that people have their own dynamics, who will project their own issues on characters they may relate to, or other characters who remind them of things.
Maybe making one huge post was the best, and maybe it wasn't. I'm just concerned about a fellow creative person loosing sleep over it, and having anxiety problems over it. Which is why when I read other comics or stories by other people, I wait till the whole story is told before I make any type of decisions on if the characters should be hated or not.
That being said, there's always a reason behind every action a character does in every story or comic. I wish readers would realize that, and also realize that while debate and speculation is alright, outright hating a character because of actions in one chapter or strip at *that time* is kind of silly. Even more so, if they don't know a -single thing- about the characters to begin with. It's even more strange when the character is completely new.
Fandoms are kinda crazy like that.
On the other hand I also acknowledge that sometimes, people will just dislike other people or characters for no reason at all, and will be simply honest about not knowing why, and that they just do not like x person or character. It's a very fine line, to be honest.
Anyway, I think you handled it well enough, I'm going to keep reading.
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I've overworked myself before and learned my lesson. This time I was careful. I wouldn't have done it if I thought it was going to end badly,a nd I would have stopped if I reached the point where I was feeling sick. I did take a few naps. But I appreciate the concern!
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Woah! That's dedication. 35 hours just to clear things up about a single character. I applaud you, Jake.
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I actually was thinking there was something like this to it, so I had no problems with the character.
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