Paranatural: Seven pages in one update

>I burned through all the alt text for fuel to do this long update

I guess all grown ups are gay now?

I honestly got played like a fiddle. I was certain Hijack was the principal.
Spender and Garcia being a thing doesn't surprise me at all though.

>SEVEN PAGES. I DON'T KNOW HOW I DID THIS. I need to rest my parts, catch up on some freelance, and unpack some boxes, so there won't be an update this Friday! I'll be back on Tuesday the 14th. In the meantime, now's a great time to reread chapter 5 thus far!

Eh, Starchman seems straight as an arrow.

How so?

I think it was the innate rule Zack had implied where spectrals couldn't be possessed, just because they were already possessed from the start. I mean, if Lucifer realized he was being controlled, why is he doing something only now.

>inb4 someone looks through the entire comic to see how much it was actually foreshadowed

Not too shabby Zack.

How can someone foreshadow things so smoothly? It's like I was fucking blind to these little goddamn details.

Hi Zack, how's your wrist?

Goddamn it

I'm doing that now, there's a bit.
Spender being awkward when Isabel says she's going to beat the shit out of Hijack.
How emotional and apologetic Spender was to Max.
Zareis spirit straight up said she was spying on him.

Oh shit, an actual twist.

Shame the comic is still garbage.

I'm actually impressed Zach. But why did Isaac look pissed and decide to have a throwdown with Isabel and Ed. Was that just teenage hormones. Did the talk with Garcia make him confront feelings buried deep within?

Another one, Spender knew about Isabels shoulder.

Anime angst.

This whole moment in page 215 makes even more sense now that we know it's Hijack referring to Spender.

Also, in page 101, it's probably not Spender in pain, but Hijack. I guess he wasn't expecting Spender having a burnt footprint on his chest.

And a minor thing with the goddamn wii sports in page 105.

I can't believe I let people convince me that it was the principal and not Spender. All the details that it was Spender were there. The obvious page was that random sweating and then right after when he saw Isabel's name on his phone and answered it questioningly.

I'm not really bothered by the Spender and Garcia thing, since it was already kind of expected.

Oh.

So this is why Zarei was sperging out about that fly during the date, she thought it might have been Hijack.

...

Guys, we literally all said it was Spender after that weird pause.It's only been a few pages since some were talking about the Principal.
Stop acting like you are sos urprised holy shit.

>implying the star shaman isn't universesexual

I just reread, he fingered Isabel specifically, Isabel was with Spender the whole time. Isabel could have been Hijack

Also, I imagine he's been feeling extra emotional because he just found out the Spender being nice to hiom and giving him compliments was Hijack all along.

>everyone is gay
Fucking lol Zack, no wonder your wrist is so sore, with all this self-flagellating

>It's like I was fucking blind to these little goddamn details.
You weren't blind, you just forgot because this arc has been going on for years.

>people thought it was the principal
dumb fucks it was clear that he was setting up the kids to do something embarassing

also gg gay Spencer

Garcia telling a child in his mercy he's gay dating another teacher strikes me as wildly inappropriate

I haven't read this comic since the first 20 pages or so I think years ago, what are the ghost Krangs planning to do?

8 confirmed gay characters

Zero confirmed straight characters.

But who is counting, anyway?

Zack is shit at doing diversity. There was the 'control your gayness' comment with Zarei. With the helicopter kid he basically considered people change their sexual orientation based on being impressed by music. The two background girls were literally just There for the sake of diversity. And now we have this completely out of nowhere comentary of private life.

It's pretty weird to write your fetish into a children's book. Like if it was written for 12+ maybe but for PG you shouldn't have anyone making out or alluding to being in a relationship.

My question is does tumblr even care about Paranatural? I mean, does he actually have a significantly sized audience who gives a fuck?

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

i like this meme

It has no relevance to the topic at hand. It's just like that "I'm trans, Barbara" moment from Gail Simone's Batgirl. Out of nowhere for no narrative purpose, just to get brownie points for the author.

He gets paid well by his followers, if that's what you mean.. but i believe it's popularity has been decreasing.

I don't blame him for trying to please the tumblr audience; smart move.. but the way he is making LGBT characters is.. wrong, and i have no idea why no one pointed that out to him yet. He is making it about quantity instead of quality.

everyone stop arguing about dumb shit, here's a better and superior topic to debate on: does spender keep a jar in his fridge that he screams bad words into

Okay, this was a pretty nice page(s). I hope he splits them next week.
Spender and Garcia being together isn't surprising in the slightest. Zarei being behind everything is a cool twist albeit a little disappointing. I'm glad the fly thing got finally addressed.
I kinda want to reread chapter 5 to see how it all flows together, but I don't think this twist justifies AT ALL how huge and plagued with filler is this chapter. I don't want to sit through hitball.

I honestly have to wonder if Spender was originally meant to be gay. Or hoody kid NB. How much of all this diversity shit was decided later for points?

Not really. He's making more money than he was 6 months ago but fairly recently there's been a bit of a dip. It likely doesn't mean much in the long term, though.

There's also this.

...

He's writing Spender well enough, it feels natural. I can't say the same about Zarei and Day though.

How old is Garcia anyway? He seems older than Spender. Is he his daddy?

Well, good on Zack finally getting that cyborg wrist.
SHORT-CIRCUIT ARRRGGGHHHHH

>Hijack is a literal brain
>Too stupid to just stay in the inconspicuous fly while on a spying mission
Is there a reason he went through the whole song and dance of possessing Jeff and playing hitball and all that shit? Because if there was I don't remember it.

What's with webcomics inserting in some random woman Muslim character. Strange that it's never a male Muslim character.

Am I the only one who DOESN'T think Spender and Garcia are together?

It seems really weird to not show Garcia literally saying it, only Issac's comic reaction. It feels like we are expected to think this only for a bait and switch.

It seems kind of weird for Zach to use gays as a joke, but even weirder for him to not halt the plot in place for the chance to show what a great ally he is

As far as we know, there is literally no reason for him to have jumped from the fly to the dog and then to Jeff.
Perhaps the fly was about to die

Here they come, the "if they're not fucking on-screen they're not gay" squad.

What else could it be? Casual brothers? Dancing partners?

honestly me desu

I'm sure they could make some dumb arbitrary ruling like "can only stay in animals/people without a lot of intelligence/spectral power/plot relevance for so long"

I'm just saying this feels way too much like a set up to a joke. It's not like the gay kid who didn't use the G word but was obviously in love with the other guy.

Plus, it's Issac reacting in an exagerated matter to something, it almost begs it being either him misunderstanding or the reveal being something taboo for spectrals, with Max making le finny sarcastic zinger face when he hears about it.

So this is how denial sounds

I guess I have the false hope of Zach making a non-slapstick joke for once

Wait, why didn't Issac tell the others that Garcia told him it's Spender

Why didn't Garcia do something if he noticed Spender is acting weird

Queer-baiting (pretending that a character is gay just to set up a joke) is the worst of sins for a SJW. He's just learned to be more subtle after Zarei's reveal.

But it's not subtle. It's so unsubtle that it seems like a trick.

Maybe Garcia didn't know there was a spirit possessing people. Maybe Isaac thought that Hijack jumped from Spender to Isabel when they were alone (they were alone together) and wanted confirmation before revealing it because he doesn't trust them, and got upset with her after the fight so he went alone.

>it feels natural
It feels.. stereotypical. He already acted very gay, to the point validating it feels wrong. I don't take issue with that, but the fact that Zarei was supposed to be the 'gay friend' means a serious lack of planning.

WHY DIDN'T HE SPLIT THIS UP INTO LIKE THREE UPDATES? A FUCKING BUFFER WOULD ALLEVIATE WRIST ISSUES!

Are we forgetting that Zarei is supposed to be a gay muslim?

Because now he gets to take Friday off to rest his wrist.

So? They exist
Also head scarves aren't exclusive to muslims, and I don't remember there being any confirmation in the comic that she was muslim

desu using gays in comedy is a pretty good tactic for better rights inclusion and all that shit
spain allowed gay marriage quite early, in a time where pretty much every tv comedy had a funny gay character that the audience ended up loving

To be fair we don't know if she is actually religious, or just wears the cover because she lives with her religious folk

What if Garcia is part of that monster hunting Cousinhood and he is Spender’s Organizational Counterpart?

Remember the three-actions-at-once scene, chasing starchman and all that?
Maybe zack wanted to avoid that

what did you think iran imports all those homosexual men that they turn into women

What an absolute cluster fuck
Also more faggotry

If anything it makes Garcia look like a pedophile. Though I wouldn't be surprised if Isaac became gay too after all that.

BRAVO Zach

Except he can hang as a spirit too so it's not typical posession. There's no reason not to go from fly to fly to fly or even just hang out as a brain until required. Who would pick him out amongst all the other spirits

That would easily be done by semi-competent writing.

>All of Isaac's problems will be revealed to be because he is in denial of sexuality, and once he comes out in chapter 6 he will stop being a shitlord and never disagree with Isabel again
B R A V O

Isn't that where Chechnya gets all their gays to execute? They're shipped over from Russia aren't they?

THEY'RE PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE GHOSTS THAT ARE MAKING THE FRICKIN' KIDS GAY

like nigga i get it fags exist irl so yeah put them in comics idgaf, but when it seems like 50% of the population is a bunch of poofters it just makes it seem like Mayview is some kind of rather nice gay concentration camp.

Zach had Issac slated for shitdick the moment he got on the gayboi dakimura. He's the fag icon of this comic

>justice cloud is bad because he has traditional ethics and values which Issac attempts to adhere to
>this means no fag shit
>after he confronts, evicts his spirit he accepts his gayness and is happy
Classic Zach

>Who would pick him out amongst all the other spirits
Also a good point.
I guess Hijack is the spirit embodiment of "tfw too intelligent".

An actually interesting page where things happen? Feels like it's been years.

More like zach is the embodiment of
>tfw too intelligent to write good comics
We don't understand the master and his narrative vehicle through which we receive wacky faces. Ours is not to ask but to accept.

And then it's ruined by Zack's trademark awful structuring.

>chapter five started Dec. 30, 2014
2 3/4 years. And given the update schedule, this chapter will have run for three years.
3 years to cover a single day.

Zack, if you're reading this, I want you to know that I really want to like your comic, but you've become the very thing you set out to parody.

The day isn't even over yet. What if there's a great tale to be told about the afternoon? What if Zack needs a whole month of hiatus for christmas?

I think Garcia is a member of the cousinhood of Man (the icky organization who seem to be extremists when it comes to paranatural things) and he and Spencer are doing an on-the-DL partnering to take on whatever is going on in Mayview. Also they might be banging who knows?

Holy shit there was so much set up in the past few years but didn't come to fruition until now. The pacing has just been atrocious.

Is this comic SERIOUSLY expecting me to buy both Spender and Garcia being gay? The page gets points for a twist I didn't see coming if only because the pace is fucking glacial to the point where I've forgotten when this fucking chapter started but at this point hearing "btw they gay" is just adding another tank of fuel to throw on the fire spelling "Zack is a Hack".

We've known about it for literal years so I don't know why everyone's freaking out now.

Caaaautious optimism that comic might be getting better.

You know he's skipping the next update, right?

No we didn't

I'm really sick of all the fucking faggots. How does this world even survive if 90% of its inhabitants are gay?

How the hell are you suppose to make this to print from?

Rereading this chapter all the way after this 'revelation' doesn't distract from the fact that we still have a plot whose focus is all over the place, wince-inducing edgy melodrama (see: Isaac vs Everybody), subplots that keep adding up more without getting a break or resolve, twists that build up plot holes and figurative character death - and it's rubbing badly on the comic.

If I was trying to write a screenplay for PNAT, I'd be shredding this chapter and Ch4 to pieces now.

I wish we could get more depth to his troubles than just "HE A POSSESSED ANIMAY SEMPIE!!1!1"

>With the helicopter kid he basically considered people change their sexual orientation based on being impressed by music.
I thought it was great lampooning, but it got too overshadowed with the straying focus of the plot for people to care.

It's as open as Kevin Spacey's gayness.

Wearing a hijab does mean she is a muslim, even tough she wears it wrong and in inappropriate situations, and gay muslims should be killed according to their own religion and their community, so a gay muslim is a contradiction. She COULD be someone existing in contradiction, but considering how her family treats her.. that's unlikely.

It could be just a cultural thing, which could explain why her hair is showing.

Scheiß, I forgot words:
>twists that RETROACTIVELY build up plot holes

>I thought it was great lampooning, but it got too overshadowed with the straying focus of the plot for people to care
It could be labelled as offensive with the people that actually believe that bullshit, for someone to "decide" to change their sexuality on a whim.

Isn't anyone else getting just a the smallest amount tired of 90% of comic characters being gay?

I like how when anons talk about Zarei being a Muslim, it's about it being problematic to her sexuality and not the ethics and conflicts of her being a person who contacts spirits...like we had Sup Forumsnversations about this years ago.

oh, c'mon. It's just 8 characters. Revealed in the exact same arc. At completely inappropriate situations.

December 30, 2014

It's taken Zach almost three years to get to the fucking reveal for this chapter.

By comparison Zach did the other four chapters in three and a half.

wait 8 gay characters? it's been a while since i read older pages but, day, zarei, spender, garcia, cody and who else?