Saint James Infirmary #1000

[Daphne]

Everyone at MCC and the SJI creative team would like to thank our loyal readership… 10 years of SJI!

We're going to be taking a short vacation, but there will be something special to fill the time…



Script: Daphne • Inks: Plutonian Knight • Colors and Lettering: Octavia Moon

[Haight]

It has been that long, huh? Crazy.

[Haight]

These outfits and designs make me want to see what PK and OM would do with a fantasy comic.

[marquismark]

Wow, I'm amazed how #1000 lined up with the 10th anniversary so nicely. Can't see when #1 was released, but #5 was 2010/10/29, so it works out.

Congratulations on reaching this awesome milestone. I've been a fan for years. I jumped in maybe 2 years into its run, and I'll admit I was initially put off by the art. But after a dozen or so pages, the story really caught me. The art and the writing just got better and better over time too. Still look forward to every release, even in the quiet parts between "events".

Here's to another 10 years of debauchery and intrigue!

(Man, I can't believe I've read this 1 page at a time for like 700-800 pages. Can you imagine reading a comic arc like Flashpoint, or a novel like The Stand one page at a time?)

[Nysalor]

10 years of SJI!

Wow! Help me out here... how much time has passed in-universe since Adrian showed up at the Infirmary?

[mns_95125]

It's a bit ambiguous, perhaps even internally inconsistent.  (I've got a pretty good argument that at least one week seems to have eight days in it.)  Also there are a few points, particularly earlier in the comic, where it isn't really clear how much time has passed.  For example, we don't know how soon before Christmas Adrian moved in, but he gave Danielle the gift certificate for stress relief at the student health clinic as a Christmas gift.  The Night of the Watch must be after that, but we don't know exactly how long after.

Zenon was clearly working on the Day of the Watch, because he's the one who hypnotized Danielle, but when they try to get hold of him that night he's apparently taking a week's vacation.  But he's back as of #97, implying that that may be a week later.  After that things settle down to a clearer day-to-day transition, of which there are at least 10.

My best guess is that the current events in the comic are taking place in late January.

[jmundt29]

Haight (and anyone else who might be interested)--Octavia and Adam are doing a comic with some fantasy in it.  It's a mix but they've been working on it for a few years now.  The title is Granted.  Blank Box Comics is their site and Octavia funds through Patreon.  Her Patreon page is helpfully labelled Octavia Moon.  It's pretty great.  It's up to volume 9 and still going strong.

So, is this splash page our new cover, or are we waiting until the actual performance (which seems to be approaching) to switch covers?

[GodWilling]

...The Night of the Watch must be after that, but we don't know exactly how long after...

Yes, we don't know exactly when Adrian arrives. Page 6 seems to be only a day or two after his arrival though, and that day must be fairly close to Christmas because Laura is about to start a "relationship" with Derek that she later describes to Vic as a holiday fling. And she's seeing Zenon because of her concerns about "the new term". Also, judging by Caitlyn's breast size, she has already been on the Mantis squad for a while. So I'm inclined to think Adrian's arrival is not too long before Christmas. Things are easier to pin down once the story does get to Christmas.

A "Quine Organization" calendar is shown in 79 that happens to tally with the days in January 2012. (That page was published in 2012.)

The calendar places the Night of the Watch on Monday 2 January ("Le clinique. Merci, Adrian!")

It also places "Laura, dinner" on Thursday 12 January. Funnily enough, we're looking at the calendar while Laura is starting to invite Raven to the SJI for that dinner, although of course in the end Laura doesn't attend and Raven is left having to make do with Erin.

Page 137 occurs while Erin and Raven are at it, and Daphne said in the forum thread for g7:

"Although this isn't something I want to burn into stone quite yet, episode 137 can be assumed to take place on January 12, 2012."

The narrative has given us a clear and unbroken succession of days since then, such that we should now be at the beginning of Sunday 22 January 2012. But that would place 754 on Saturday morning, and in that page Hitomi asks Amaltheia if she's doing anything on Saturday.

So I think we have to assume that we're actually supposed to be a few days on from there - somewhere in the week leading up to Dani and Jacqui dancing at Sawyer's, which is marked on the calendar for Saturday 28 January.

(For what it's worth, it's just about feasible that Dani was Zenon's last patient before the start of his one-week vacation. I think the intention had been for Raven's invitation to be given straight after the Night of the Watch, placing her date with Erin a whole week earlier. But someone remembered Zenon's holiday and realised they needed to insert some time to allow for that. I suspect that's why we're shown the calendar in 79: it lets us know that we've missed approximately a week of the action.)

[mns_95125]

The narrative has given us a clear and unbroken succession of days since then, such that we should now be at the beginning of Sunday 22 January 2012. But that would place 754 on Saturday morning, and in that page Hitomi asks Amaltheia if she's doing anything on Saturday.

This pretty much matches up with my own analysis, and #754 is my basis for the 'eight day week' claim.  Although I would also point out that in #932 Caitlyn also seems to be asking Amalthea to the planned Saturday party, but she asks "busy tonight", so it's possible that the phrasing in #754 was simply a mistake.  Most of the solid, explicit evidence points to the day starting in #991 being Sunday, January 22nd, so that's what I'm going to go with until and unless we get solid evidence to the contrary.

[caseyx]

If it is the 22nd, then at the rate we're going it will be another five years to get to Sawyer's.  Sometimes time flies.  At other times...

[crazydorian]

If it is the 22nd, then at the rate we're going it will be another five years to get to Sawyer's.  Sometimes time flies.  At other times...

This does definitely seem to be a thing with ongoing comics that don't really do time jumps except to the next morning.

I follow a (mostly) non-adult webcomic called Dumbing of Age that also just celebrated their 10th anniversary.  It started with the beginning of college in September, and has covered 2 months of in-comic time over 10 years...with far more happening in those 8-weeks in comics than I've seen happen to just about anyone.  They celebrated the anniversary by skipping ahead to January.  I won't be surprised if everyone's character designs have changed, and the couples have all re-organized

So SJI definitely alone in the time dilation

[GodWilling]

Most of the solid, explicit evidence points to the day starting in #991 being Sunday, January 22nd

I suppose my doubt about that is down to the current cover, which by my reckoning has been in place for 33 months already now. It's accompanied by the text "The big day approaches..." It's hard to look at that cover and not think: Dani and Jacqui at Sawyer's. But if today is January 22, and that is going to be on January 28, even now we've got more or less seven days to get through, and even the shortest recent day (647 to 687) was around 40 pages. So as caseyx says, there's a long way to go with this comic yet, unless maybe we're going to get another look at that calendar soon.

I would also point out that in #932 Caitlyn also seems to be asking Amalthea to the planned Saturday party

Given that 932 is later in the same day as 754 and involves both Hitomi and Amaltheia again - the latter having already agreed to come to the party - I don't think it's a second invitation to that. I think they were just intending to take the opportunity to bring Amaltheia to Astrid. (I suppose for all we know Hitomi could just possibly have gone ahead and done that after Caitlyn left.)

Ultimately, if Astrid's party was last night, we've missed it and none of Adrian's harem - not even Caitlyn - went to it.

that's what I'm going to go with until and unless we get solid evidence to the contrary.

Agreed. I'm just inclined to think that we're going to find we've got to January 28 before we know it.

[Haight]

Haight (and anyone else who might be interested)--Octavia and Adam are doing a comic with some fantasy in it.  It's a mix but they've been working on it for a few years now.  The title is Granted.  Blank Box Comics is their site and Octavia funds through Patreon.  Her Patreon page is helpfully labelled Octavia Moon.  It's pretty great.  It's up to volume 9 and still going strong.

So, is this splash page our new cover, or are we waiting until the actual performance (which seems to be approaching) to switch covers?

I read it at one point, it wasn't really my thing. Maybe I was expecting more mc erotica lol.

[caseyx]

Agreed. I'm just inclined to think that we're going to find we've got to January 28 before we know it.

I think we'll get to January 28 as soon as Daphne decided that's where the story should be - calendar be damned!  Not that there's anything wrong with that.