36: announcement! + the paradox of cool plants

hey lovely readers! as you know if you’ve been following these commentaries, I’ve been gradually transitioning my focus towards writing fiction comics again, and I think I might be coming up on a point where I’m ready to set The Adventures of Blobic down for a while, for a couple reasons.

the first is that I initially started this project as an easy and lighthearted way to keep drawing and posting Something comic-y while I figured out what to do for my next long-form fiction comic project, and now that next long-form fiction comic has been figured out and is actively in the works and I’m posting weekly updates about it on my (free) Patreon! yay!

the second is that over time, I’ve found the type of comic I want to create with TAoB has been shifting from “silly autobio-meets-fantasy one-page jokes” to “silly-but-kinda-deep autobio personal musings” to “deep-but-kinda-silly philosophical musings and political commentary.” which is really awesome, and I’ve really loved finding my more-serious voice over the course of this project! but it feels a lot more important to me to put actual time and energy and research into writing political commentary well than it does writing silly one-off jokes well, and given that I know I’m going to be incredibly busy with other life priorities the next few months and then am hoping to start posting and publicizing Grow With Me? not terribly long after that, I unfortunately don’t feel like I really have that kind of time and energy to spare at the moment. I was really scrambling to put this month’s page together even with a solid two weeks set aside to work on it, and that to me is a sign that I just have too many other things on my plate right now to give TAoB the attention it deserves.

I do love Blobic and Chris and their various friends as characters, and I’m interested in experimenting with what I’m still able to do with them right now, so I may be incorporating little Blobic doodles into my Patreon posts or writing the occasional Philosophical Musings™️ here under the TAoB title? I did make a Musings + Doodle for this month’s “page” that you can read below this announcement! but I think this will be the last of my regularly-scheduled The Adventures of Blobic pages for the foreseeable future. it’s possible (and perhaps even likely) I’ll come back to TAoB once I have more bandwidth available for Serious(ish) Nonfiction, and if I do, I’ll definitely announce it on my Patreon and the homepage of this website!

thank you all so so much for joining me on this adventure — it really has helped me find my creative footing again and has been a lot of fun to make, and while I’m definitely very very new to building an audience, I know there’s a handful of people reading this and I really really appreciate each of y’all. if you want to join the (free and weekly!) behind-the-scenes shenanigans over on Patreon as I work on my upcoming fiction comic, you’re super welcome, and if that’s not really your thing I wish you all the best in finding delightful comics elsewhere! Blobic out 🙂

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(content note: discussion of dictatorships / contemporary US politics)

Recently I’ve been learning about the “paradox of tolerance,” which, from what I understand, is the idea that for a society to remain free and tolerant of diverse perspectives, it might sometimes have to suppress speech and/or actions that are actively anti-freedom and anti-tolerance in order to protect and maintain freedom and tolerance as central societal values, but that suppressing perspectives generally isn’t considered a very free and tolerant thing to do either — so what is a free and tolerant way to defend freedom and tolerance? Should societies just give up on trying to be free and tolerant all together? Is it okay to make exceptions to freedom and tolerance in limited circumstances in the name of defending broader freedom and tolerance for all?

It reminds me of invasive* plant and animal management — invasive plants and animals as individuals are living beings like any other and I don’t like harming them, but if you let them grow unchecked in a healthy diverse ecosystem, pretty soon you won’t have a healthy diverse ecosystem anymore.

(*It’s a common misconception that “invasive species” equals “non-native species,” but many non-native species do not become invasive! Most experts use the term “invasive species” to specifically describe situations where a species has been suddenly introduced to a new ecosystem (rather than spreading there gradually from their original habitat) and is proliferating in ways that cause active and significant harm to said new ecosystem. Well-known invasive species in the United States include kudzu, Amur honeysuckle, Burmese pythons, European starlings, and domestic cats.)

I don’t have easy answers for the paradox, but since I want to keep enjoying — and in some cases experience for the first time — the wonders of healthy diverse ecological and societal ecosystems, I’m realizing it’s likely wise for me to do something, even if I won’t be punching any Nazis! There are so many different ways to help that’re accessible and kind, from planting wildflowers to shielding native trees to trap-neuter-releasing feral cats, protesting to donating money to talking with our neighbors to sharing accurate news to participating in mutual aid.

Doing Something takes more effort, especially when you’re initially getting into it, and I think that’s why it’s so tempting to just sit back and wait to take whatever turns out to be the winning side (if I’m still around to take it, which is potentially a big “if”). But in my experience, Doing Something also feels a whole heck of a lot better!

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june 2nd, 2025

image transcript:

[Chris is holding a pair of loppers and snipping away at a large patch of flowering bushes, while Blobic stands behind them and watches.]
Blobic: why’re you cutting down that plant? it’s just trying to grow!

[the scene zooms out to show a thriving ecosystem on one side of the panel, bustling with wildflowers and grasses and bushes and trees and birds and deer and squirrels and bees and dragonflies, while on the other side of the panel, nothing is growing other than the flowering bushes, which are casting a heavy shadow on the bare earth beneath them.]
Chris: yeah, but so are all the other plants it’s shading out
Blobic: …oh

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