False Positive: A Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Webcomic Anthology
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Good News for People Who Like Bad News
01-18-24
Dear False Positive Readers,
This is Ashley Walton, Mikeās sister and editor of False Positive. I have really terrible, awful news and a tiny bit of good news.
You might have noticed itās been a couple years since weāve posted anything on this website. Well, brace yourself for the saddest update Iāll ever share.
Wayfarer! Yay!
So it’s the wayfarer? Brilliant way to tie up that poll without compromising the gimmick.
So… same color scheme = same story?
AAAAAHHHH
YEEEAAH! Our friendly coyote! ^_^
…Wooooah. Is that the same dog from Wayfarer? Certainly is using the same lines. My brain is hurting so much now. Well done.
Figured it was the Wayfarer from his lines on the last page. š
I certainly hope his story does not end here. Would love to learn more about him and his new accomplice.
Always this guy with his “great and terrible marvels”…haha I love it!
I sure hope she won’t be a partypooper too.
Aaaaah! Just read the whole series, hands down the worst page for me to catch up on. The wayfarer wasn’t my favorite story (close) but he was hands down my favorite character. Sir, you are an amazing author/artist, and I have no problem imagining a paper compendium of this series reaching mainstream popularity one day. Now draw me another!!!
Geez, people just don’t appreciate great and terrible marvels any more.
Too much television and video games.
Can I come with you to see great and terrible marvels, Coyote-Wayfarer-God? ^_^ Please?
Gunnerkrigg court has a few.
And I don’t know where people get the idea Coyote is a god. Though I suppose, if someone asks if you are a god, you say “yes.”
I have trouble believing the Wayfarer from the first comic is capable of saying the things that the Wayfarer in this comic says. The first comic gave the impression that the Wayfarer was at the very least a neutral deity with a benign, amused interest in humanity. The deity depicted in this second comic is much more sinister and (as the previous page showed) actively malevolent. As a sequel to “Wayfarer,” I don’t like it.
If this really is the same god as Wayfarer, (Coyote) Then you’d know it’s a trickster god. Trickster gods can be simultaneously mischievous and downright sinister. I feel like after being rejected from its fun, the god developed some odd grudge against humanity.
That’s the feeling I get, anyway.
Hooray for trickster gods, they keep this flaming circus interesting.
Also, he may be nice and all, but he *was* imprisoned against his will fro a while, so that’s gotta get a god a bit cross.
OR… it was all part of his plan to (finally) take a human to untold great and terrible marvels: looking helpless, and then looking awesome, like the first time. Maybe the others will even be alright.
I like how many elements are left to our own interpretations.
Vaylon thinks the coyote’s words seem out of character after the humans try to catch him/her. Maybe?
But, this story maybe comes before Wayfarer and maybe the coyote in wayfarer looks for another willing companion like Oprah, or maybe the coyote in Wayfarere is Orpah after her travels cosmic.
In the first story, the disguised Wayfarer was offered an unwarranted kindness and in exchange, he offered a benign test. The woman failed the test and the Wayfarer was disappointed. In this story, the disguised Wayfarer was given unwarranted hostility and in exchange, he offered a malignant test. This time, though, the person in question passed the test. So basically they are diametrically opposing stories.
It really doesn’t matter what type of god it is, unless it’s truly benevolent, its really gonna get pissed at being trapped in a cage by oblivious mortals and their crude ways of experimenting with things outside their knowledge or understanding.
Oh my GLOB!
i guessed the Wayfarer earlier but then I was pretty convinced it wasn’t.
Great story man!
I agree. Anyone’s going to be upset if they wake up in a cage.
And a trickster god would really even have an obligation to put on a “Tough God” act if there was any question of intention. Funny how often the point of the trickster routine is to get people to prevent someone from lying to themselves or others. :-/
But most importantly…
Yay, Wayfarer! š
I believe the statements like “The novelty of this farce wears thin.” and “No further deception. No tricks.” indicates that it was never really trapped, just playing along.
Big Mike, you deserve much accolade. Wonderful, creepy, disturbing work. I prefer stories that carry a sense of a larger world than one normally sees, even when, in those stories, that larger space makes room for more terrors as well as wonders.
Vaylon Kenadell…..I can see it being coyote, because the godlings always, always, always, extract their pound of flesh as they see fit, especially if humanity rises above the station they perceive us to “deserve” so to speak.
Oh, I want to see their great and terrible marvel-based adventures D: No seriously, I love this. It is, as always, cause for gush.
But I has a question (or two)! So, she, in taking up Coyote’s deal, sacrifices her own physical body -and- the lives of her own family/descendents, including her sick daughter, and the people at the institute-dealio and -their- families. Kind of a dick move. So, question time. Was the whole family thing just talk? You know, say some vaguely threatening things and see if she ran off or bargained or actually turned out to be interesting? Or was it a kind of ‘You wasted my time and energy, so I want something back’ situation? Was it ‘let’s see what -I- get out of this’, or was it Coyote being the “predictable trickster” archetype of mythology, being multi-facated and changeable? You know, even if it doesn’t fit the situation, I could see it being the former, a push-the-situation-and-see-if-anyone-or-anything-interesting-crops-up thing. It would fit both Coyote appearances and as a ‘god’ who -can- obliterate magical guards and stroll out it wouldn’t have anything to worry/get annoyed/get angry about. So yeah, playing?
Another question. In Wayfarer, if the woman hadn’t been like WTFSCARYJAZZDUDECANINE-GET-OUT-OF-MY-CAAAAAAARRRR! would she have had to fulfill such demands and/or be found a dried out husk in her car too? Or would it be a more light-hearted “Yay, I’m a canine Dr. Who, let’s have adventures!” situation?
Just speculating. Also, why do I not have any strange and untold mysterious adventures in my life? It’s not fair. I demand strange adventures!
I love how the glass shows us, that this whole conversation or happened in the fragmente of a moment, or that the godess stopped time.
Damn, I had already removed my thoguhts about this being Coyote when “she” got so downright evilish, and now it turns out it was another twist?
You my dear Mike are a genius!
I wonder hiowever, willw e actually get tos ee what happens? Or will the great and terrible marvels be all imaginary?
I just noticed that the Goddess body becomes wicked emaciated in a matter of moments. It’s really cool that you, Mike, are able to get these little details in that I don’t notice on the first read through. Makes it fun to go back and read again.
So… this could have very well simply been a bluff?
My mind, is blown. 8 months ago I would have jokingly said “I shall offer you my firstborn” to show how much I love your work, but since I’m expecting that very same in the next handful of days… I’m reconsidering the phrasing.
I don’t remember why I got pulled away from webcomics in general between the last page and this one, but I’m glad I finally got around to tracking you down again. Still love your artwork, and the way you can turn a plot. I look forward immensely to catching up. š