Turpentine Vs. The Shock Of Being Perceived Pretty Accurately

This has totally thrown her off balance. Does the apparent status quo of not being in the closet per se but also not really being open and not getting involved with anyone in all the time we’ve known her lie in ruin?

21 Comments

No brilliant insight, but I just love how in the first two panels, the white eyes, teeth and band-aids really hop out at you.

-G.

This limited-color-palette comic gets even more stylized in these almost-all-blue nighttime scenes.

I love how Turps plays it all cool and non-chalant until Ruth is gone then starts freaking out..

I assume it sucks when you come out and everyone’s like “That was a secret?”

I suppose that could either suck, or be kind of a relief!

Yes! Gayness confirmed! One down, one to go! *cackles*

OMG, I love it! I been through like almost this exact scene before, right down to grilling my best friend about “do I have a gay vibe? Really? Can *everybody* tell?” This is so awesome to see happen to Turps.

I think I was exactly the opposite of this! When I came out, I was kind of like “How come this seems to be a total surprise to everyone?” I mean, I had my bad years repressing and denying…but in retrospect, I think I radiated Significant Gay even as a kid who didn’t know it was an actual thing that people were.

ORCHID FLOWERS (SHE ACHES)! I’m SO CURIOUS about the lyrics to this, or if it’s just a steamy instrumental with like found audio of an exorcism mixed into it or something

Dude Ruth is super hot, Turpentine must really have some strong feelings for someone /be in shock or else how could she let that girl go?!?!

I think, even tho she’s not feelin’ it, there’s probably some amount of “oh man, am I CRAZY for turning her down?” here.

Ruth seems cool! I hope she returns sometime (preferably with her band?) Maybe she and Turpentine can be friends, at least?
Come to think of it, Turpentine is female, non-white, non-straight and has an alternative style. Wow, talk about being unprivileged. It’s always so nice to see characters who break the norm in many ways have actual, important parts in stories! (makes it easier for me to have something to identify with, too, since I also break 3 of those 4 norms.)

And on the coming-out topic, I have a friend who came out to his mum by bringing home his first boyfriend, and his mum said “Well I would’ve been very surprised if you’d brought home a girl!”

And I also really wanna hear the lyrics to Orchid Flowers (She Aches) :3

Re: characters and norms: Now that I think about it, y’know what I don’t think this comic has ever had? Any named character identified as a straight man. That’s ok by me — it’s not exactly like they’re hurting for lack of representation in general.

…I love nice coming out stories where it turns out someone’s family is cool. I wish I could somehow give that to everyone who didn’t get it, like with witch powers or something.

Pact: I’m gonna incorporate lyrics to Orchid Flowers (She Aches) into some future page — but it won’t be along with the title, so making the connection that that’s what it is will be a bonus for paying attention.

Wow you know what? There AREN’T any named straight men in this comic. Just another reason why I like it so much!!

Wait, does this mean the doofy interviewer not actually a straight man? This would be the second biggest shocking misrememberance about the comic I’ve had, after realizing the talk about Souixsie and the Banshees was just in the comments and not actually in the comic.

He was the closest it’s got, for sure. Definitely had a name, not definitely Confirmed Straight beyond the implication that he had some kind of fancrush on Turpentine.

Whaaaaaat I finally get through the entire comic and THIS is where you leave us? Dramatic cliffhanger noooo!

“NICK! SERIOUSLY, WHERE ARE YOU because I’ve been shoving people out of the way in this crowd for like two weeks now.”
Glad you read through it / new ones soon!

omg ruth/coco maybe?? idk if that where you are going but that is my current headcanon

Well, hey, they both seem to be easygoing types.

There’s a certain appeal to the “Ruth/Coco” spinoff show, but they’d never have the anxious molehill-magnifying energy that Honey and Turpentine both share. It would basically be…

PAGE ONE, PANEL ONE

COCO: Hey, let’s be happy forever.
RUTH: Yeah, okay.

…and that would be the end of it. Good way to live, TERRIBLE storytelling.

-G.