Honey Vs Turpentine On Other People On Skates, Some More

I’ve decided, retroactively, that whatshername with the star-print dress and the glasses who’s been in the audience for the last few pages is actually Zero’s sister. Her name is Janet. It’s kind of nice that she came out to see the band on the right night to see this crazy thing happen.

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I don’t know what I like the most: The printed pattern on Zero’s pants, the fact that he is such a nice guy he won’t look at Honey’s undies, Arsenic’s hickies or Turps playing a pink guitar with buttlerfly stickers. This page is just awesome!

Thanks!
I can’t even *imagine* a more platonic, Wouldn’t Even Occur To Them To Look At Each Other’s Underpants friendship than Honey and Zero.
I also think of them as pretty good pals, probably, even though we never see him talk. Maybe they’re not ultra-close, but I think they have fun hanging out.

Yeah! It’s great to see more of Zero, he’s been such an enigma. Besides one written line in the magazine article, he’s never had a line of dialogue. Wouldn’t it be funny if Janet was the constantly chatty type?

“Morning, uh, I’m going to bed…” sounds like my life, but without the exciting evening out first.

In honor of this one page where he does something, here are, I think, all the canonical facts we know about Zero:
1) He plays the drums, at which he was described as “adequate”.
2) His real name is Roy.
3) He celebrates Hanukkah, but has no problem also participating in Christmas activities.
4) He has a distinctive wardrobe full of 1960s-70s style clothes that would probably be best described as “mod”. It’s unclear whether his glasses are necessary for vision, or if he just likes them.
5) He seems pretty easygoing, and content to not be in the spotlight 99.9% of the time.

Yaaay! Alternate universe Zero is now officially part of the BvB family! Hooray for alternate universe Zero!

i was THINKING she looked an awful lot like Nada!!!

I drew this on my lunch break today:

Janet DOES seem pretty fun!

I swear Turps is wearing my shorts in the second panel. Also: Yay for band family members!

Re: band family members: I’ve thought this through in detail, and even drawn little family trees about what siblings each character has. 90% of these people are probably never going to show up or even be mentioned, but I like thinking about whether each character is an oldest/middle/baby/only child or whatever, and what kind of family it was, and whether that influenced their personalities.

Oh good, I like Janet, she’s ‘Traditionally shaped’

So what’s the name of Nada’s brother in the alternate universe?

Hmm! He’d have a regular non-stage name, so…let’s call him Brad.

also: re: Arsenic in this one: the whole time I was working on it, I kept going back to that panel and making him look like more and more and more of a mess.

Gee uncle Turpentine, did you die?

I KNEW THIS WOULD MAKE YOU THINK THAT PHRASE. I was thinking it when I drew this.

Context: I’ve got a longstanding running joke about asking “did you die?” in response to friends telling anecdotes about their own minor adventures, and the original source is a 1930s cartoon that contains the line “Gee, Uncle Popeye, did you die?”.

The panel where Arsenic falls asleep on Turpentine’s lap while she’s eating HORRIBLE SEEMING CEREAL is like one of the best panels yet somehow!

Thaaaaanks!
Arsenic is one of the few people in the world who she wouldn’t immediately and unceremoniously shove to the ground if they tried to lie down on her lap.

This comment isn’t really about this particular one, just about the whole bvb… ouevre? I’ve been reading for ages but never commented, I’m oddly nervous about it. ANYWAY here is my comment:

This is my favorite webcomic, I get so excited when there’s a new page and it never fails to be a candy-flavored breath of sunshine on my day. You rock, keep drawing it, make a book so I can buy it!

Thank you! This made me super happy. And I’d love to do a book, even just to have it as a tangible object that exists. I’m not sure how feasible it is, but I have been giving it some thought lately.

PS: Oh wow, I checked out your art and comics and got totally absorbed. I love them. Do you mind if I add you to my shamefully-inconsistently-updated reading list of links?

Oh yes, of course, thank you! I mean yes I don’t mind, I would be honored. I swear I didn’t comment just to plug my comic, but I’m so glad you like it! 🙂