Comic #929: Never Mined (Patreon)

The premise is pretty much identical to #652. Though this was originally unintended. It's funny because after I had written the idea, I had a slight nagging feeling that I had done something similar before. So I searched the term "mining" in my archive to see if I could find anything, and found nothing. It didn't occur to me that I had already done the concept with herbalism.

At this point, with nearly 1000 comics, it's bound to happen.

Though it also goes to show... This has been annoying for at least 6 years.

I liked the punchline to the original, especially with it being so recently following the burning of Darnassus, but I feel like that one's lost some of its punch. However, the similarities led me to changing the final panel somewhat last minute.

I was initially planning on having the last panel be Nyte clicking "Exit Game" on the game menu, but it didn't feel good enough, especially with the similarities to 652. Additionally, after I had drawn the 4th panel, and saw how the comic felt as a whole, it really felt flat. In panel 4, Nyte looks like she's about to blow, and then she just clicks "Exit Game"? It felt like a crappy payoff.

I thought initially about the idea of her scream being heard very far away, and then I thought about who would be hearing her, and eventually I ended up on the final product. I like that it also adds an extra dimension to the joke, that a regular player gathering can unwittingly leave a wake of rage in their path.