I wound up rewriting this one quite a bit, as I found myself going back and forth on what I wanted Jay's conclusion to be (and maybe something else that might come up later).

Speaking of, that conclusion might be based on no more than a hunch, but she's probably right.

EDITING!

There's a lot wrong in the last panel in terms of video editing, or so I assume. I have serious doubts that it's standard practice to exclusively edit via keyboard (and especially not one resulting in such posture).

My assumption would simply be mouse and keyboard, but I've seen accessories intended for video editing that resemble numeric keypads from outer space? Maybe those get used a lot? There are people who want them to get used a lot, at least.

Point is, I think Imagined Editor Susan is actually writing an absurdly long response to a rude comment.

Susan and Elliot's review show was inspired by a whole bunch of review shows of the time, and those shows had things like made up personas and names for the reviewers and scripted skits.

And sometimes epic world-threatening narratives for some reason?

Anyway, Elliot and Susan are just themselves in their show, but I figured, hey, let's circle back to those scripted skits, shall we?

Which was what I didn't want to spoil in the previous commentary. We're not just seeing Susan and Elliot in "on camera" mode while reviewing. We're seeing this nonsense.

I enjoy Jay being unreasonably hostile towards Elliot, but only in a limited context. Part of that context at the moment is he's entirely unaware of it.

I wrote more to this commentary, but I realized it was a spoiler! So what I wrote is migrating to the NEXT commentary, and everyone's just going to be stuck spending their weekend trying to figure out why Elliot got hit with a cardboard tube.

Unless you're from the future, in which case you'll know in a matter of seconds.

She hasn't even gotten to learning his first name yet. She's still recovering from the first second she's left on pause.

The day I made this comic, I had to finalize a very important decision: Who would be cosplaying as who?

Ultimately, the answer that disappointed Jay won because that gave me the most to work with. Sorry, Jay!

Also, I cannot overemphasize how much I like Luke's outfit in the first Star Wars and how much that's what I picture when I picture Luke. I know he's worn other things so much more throughout media and that was just his "I'm a dude on a farm" outfit, but it's my favorite.

FORK!

She's talking about a fork.

I decided to go with one of the most well known and watched movies that exists primarily for convenience and the specific movie they're reviewing not really being the point.

Plus it being something "nerdy" helps panel two, so win-win.

Texting

Both Susan and Jay text in ways I would text in this comic.

Susan is texting how I normally text.

Jay is roughly texting how I would text if tired, hungry, and/or in a hurry (which is basically just some skipped over words).

Which I didn't really think about before writing this commentary, but yeah, that's consistent, and a useful rule of thumb for me going forward.

- On-Camera Susan, aka Jester Susan (which was JUST referenced in the previous commentary, but it would feel WEIRD not to make it conveniently available here).

Just wait until she learns about Susan's fairies.

Meanwhile, Susan is rewatching her entire catalog of reviews in order to figure out which one to send Jay instead of studying.

Which is probably just me making a funny joke, ha ha ha, but let's wait and see what's in the next comic before we're too sure about that.

- On-Camera Susan, aka Jester Susan

I prefer writing to drawing, but there are some nice things you get specifically from drawing, and panel two is one of them.

The perspective and placement of things is completely nonsensical in panel one, but I chose showing what I wanted over realism, darn it.

Texts

I might have grudges with some people who have sent me texts.

Also, for the record, Jacqueline is NOT one of Jay's many names. I've had many (surely trustworthy) people text me who evidently know the first initial of my first name, but not what it actually is. The legend of people mistakenly calling me David lives on with them.

Also Dennis.

As per usual, Susan being not at all personally relatable to me. Yep.

- Jay learning about the review show (though not much about it)

We've seen some of the most recent episode. This was back during Hope, and she talked about dealing with change. Waaay later in the arc, she was told by one of the players in the card tournament that he appreciated that.

Anyway, Jay's going to finally see Susan's review show!

Which, I reiterate for no reason whatsoever, she knows hardly anything about.

"Seriously, my GPA is NOT a result of actually knowing the material. Go on, ask me historical dates. I'll definitely get them wrong."

I ran into an issue while planning this storyline. My way to keep Susan and Jay apart for a few days was "they're busy prepping for finals." This was perfectly fine for keeping Susan preoccupied, but Jay also being preoccupied with finals prep was a problem. I didn't want "shouldn't Jay be studying" looming over everything, not even as something just occasionally referenced or excused.

Obvious solution that was somehow NOT obvious to me for quite a while: Jay already feels ready for finals, and it's okay if she's preoccupied with something else.

A consequence being that Jay canonically has really good grades now, and she specifically attributes it to doing well on multiple choice tests that jog her memory mid-test.

Look, I know I spoiled that part being a dream, but let's pretend I didn't, alright? Anyone asks, this was the twist of the century.

Which is more of a bold statement in 2026 than it was in the 1990's, now that I think of it. At least then you could credibly say the century was almost over, and there'd be very few chances left to top whatever you were boasting about.

Still.

Twist of the century.

This MIGHT be a dream.

I know that no one was thinking that, and I just unleashed a huge spoiler on everyone, but I'm just saying, this might be a dream.

That, or a bunch of people learned how to turn into smoke, Jay had a jester mask made, and Susan got some sort of water hair spell.

- Jay first showing up in the Hope Arc

- Jester mask from Hope (what lead to it coming up starts here)

And so begins a storyline that follows Jay after we last saw her near the end of the Hope arc.

The jester mask is... SLIGHTLY horrifying when actually worn, and maybe I'd have designed it slightly differently had I known I'd have reason to show it again, but, um...

It's already off for a reason to be revealed next time and we're moving on! Huzzah!

And yes, this is canon. I feel the canon cannon is a bit redundant these days, as it tends to be contextually clear when something is canon (Paranormal Helpline was canon, though it perhaps can be taken as given that Serena was a bit more thorough with her questions off-panel).

I don't know where Serena is getting these statistics. Possibly nowhere. She's undoubtable encountered instances of all four, however (all of whom might have been Elliot).

And so concludes Paranormal Helpline with eleven comics! An odd number (literally), but I felt a quick affirmation of Serena being where she ought to be was the best way to end it.

Also, it would have been ten if I hadn't thought of the previous comic.

As for the next storyline...

I'm not sure when it will begin because I want a rough draft of the lot of it written before I begin, and I'm only ninety percent certain what it'll be. I'll find out Friday if Plan A has wheels (I plot to do a lot of writing Friday).

If I do go with Plan A, it will undoubtedly be longer than Paranormal Helpline, but nowhere near as long as the 171 comic Cinderella. I point this out mostly to make clear that writing out a rough draft in advance shouldn't take ten thousand years.

"She does a very good job, too. It's just we have a whole vibe we're going for here, you know?"

There's one more comic to go in Paranormal Helpline! That comic could have been today, but then I thought of this, so it'll be Thursday instead.

After that, there'll be a break for an amount of time (I don't know how long I'll need yet).

As for THIS character... Her hair kind of escaped from me. It's similar to what I originally had in mind in some ways, but I wound up with something pretty wild. I guess people who answer paranormal helplines aren't allowed to have easy-to-draw hair.

I'm not sure what her real name is. For simplicity's sake, it almost certainly beings with a "B." I'll sort that out if and when it becomes necessary.

That was probably hyperbole, but still.

Let Serena do what she does best.

Anyway, this is why this storyline won't be 700 comics long.

At first, I was concerned about not showing Serena's face in this comic.

Then I remembered it was probably the same face three times and stopped worrying about it.

There is a line cut from this that I decided not to include due to potential lore ramifications. It would have been said under Arthur's breath after "several monsters":

"Good lord, a manticore?"

Now, I liked that line. It's why I wrote it. This storyline fits well enough into canon, however, that I would effectively be establishing actual manticores as "a thing."

Lions with human faces and scorpion tails aren't so relatively out there that they couldn't exist, but I still don't want to confirm they exist, that one was running around Moperville, AND that Serena took one out.

Which is a shame, because as I said, I liked the line.

What, you thought she wouldn't file a report? Who do you think Serena is?!

Because Arthur's asking, and he'd really like to know.

The most horrifying thing about this is the ketchup stains she's going to get on that chair. Maybe they have magic for that? They probably do. Heck, Susan probably has a spell for that, or will have one eventually.

Anyway, I feel this is the natural follow up to the previous comic, and one that was potentially seen coming.

Nonetheless, I like it.