Vintage Gear!

[DocsMachine]

Well, it's vintage, all right, but... probably not what you were expecting.

For those of you that don't regularly read The Whiteboard, this week marks the twentieth freakin' anniversary of the comic! For this week, I've been taking a select few of my favorites from that first month or so, and cleaning up the art a bit, to be more like the modern style.

Today's- that is, Thursday, the23rd- is one even some of you regular readers might not have seen. It was one of several drawn specifically for the very first TWB book, and I'm pretty sure I never used in the regular online updates. So unless you have a copy of TWB: Digitally Remastered, you may not have seen it.



This one I figured some of you MCB'ers would get a kick out of, so I did it up in full color for ya! Enjoy!

Doc.

[Painthappy]

Ha! Yes, very much so. Thank you for posting

[Siress]

Heh. I remember this one. I bought the book as a gift for my regular field owner. You've come a long way from the actual whiteboard sketches!

[Meleager7]

is that a dye boomstick on that cocker?

[OpusX]

Congrats on 20 years with the comic! Hard to believe it has been that long.

[Brokeass_baller]

Dang. I remember discovering these when I was still in high school. Never really thought about how long it's been.

[MrBarraclough]

Wow, 20 years of webcomics. That comes to what, about 18 months of in-universe time? 😆

And if you ever feel underappreciated by your audience, go check out the subreddit for Questionable Content. I will never understand why that comic has such a dedicated following amongst people who apparently hate it, given how incessantly they bitch about it.

[DocsMachine]

Wow, 20 years of webcomics. That comes to what, about 18 months of in-universe time? 😆

-Actually, I've said several times, on the various forums, that barring anomolies like multiple Christmases and Halloweens and such, TWB is, in fact, written as if it's all taken place over the course of only about a year or so.

Kind of the same reason Bart Simpson has been ten years old since 1989, and is still in the 4th grade despite 'graduating' multiple times.

I mean, otherwise Jinx would be in his thirties, and Pirta would be in her forties, probably with six kids and a figure that looks best in a mumuu.

Doc.

[Brokeass_baller]

I have a question. Are the other characters purely fictional? Or are they based (at least somewhat) on people you know or used to know?

[Siress]

I have a question. Are the other characters purely fictional? Or are they based (at least somewhat) on people you know or used to know?

ooo...ooo....I know this one.

Some are based on real people. Some are purely fictional. For instance, Roger is based on Curt - the guy best known around here for bringing break beam eyes and the Morlock boards to paintball.

[DocsMachine]

The only one based (very vaguely) on an actual person is Roger, who is based on Curt, of Morlock fame. He's the one that wrote me a "scheduler" to automatically update the comic waaaay back in the day, plus I'd been working with him at the time with the Gabriel and Predator board installs.

[Edit: Sniped by Siress ]

It's worth noting that Roger is based on a few stories I heard from Curt over the years (and who has suggested several jokes) but is more like 95% my interpretation of those stories.

Everyone else, as with most writers, is essentially an amalgam to one degree or another. Traits of this or that real-world or movie/literary character, all mixed together.

Bruno, for example, has vague hints of a large, bearded, friendly sort from some of the first paintball games I ever played- and used a KP rifle much like today's old-timer, that I eventually ended up with many years ago. (And was eventually forced to sell.)

Sandy is basically the secretary most small shops wish they had, Jinx has a lot of Calvin in him, but without the destructive side, Swampy has a lot of a good many slacker types I've known over the years, Gino was based on nobody at all- I just liked the idea of a gruff and grumpy panda, rather than the usual 'soft and cuddly' panda character- and Bandit is a collection of traits of a good many sneaky players I've run into- and typically been shot by - over the years.

Radar got her name from the M*A*S*H character, and for the same reason (O'Reilly generally had really good ears, and could hear the choppers before most others could) Bandit and Tawny were given their names my Guild readers (and Tawny's full name came from Sigourney Weaver's character's character name from Galaxy Quest ) Miki's full name is "small dog" in... I believe it was Inuit (Native Alaskan) "Kasi" is "fast" or "speed" in Swahili (an African language, where of course Cheetahs are from) and somebody suggested 'Cassiopeia' for her mother, which naturally shortens to "Cassie", which basically sounds the same. "Pirta" is 'snowpack' or 'packed snow' in some Native Alaskan languages, and I think I was told, also on... Norwegian?

And the rarely-seen Mr. Quisenberry was named after a banker character from a book from the 50s titled Alas, Babylon, which dealt with a world nuclear war, and one group in Florida who survived, and then had to survive the aftermath. (IE, the loss of society, of easy access to food and transportation, etc.)

Doc.

[kevin qmto]

is that a dye boomstick on that cocker?

No, its the much cooler JT 2 piece stainless steel barrel. you can tell because the back doesn't extend past the pneumatics.