Honestly, that’s a very mature way to deal with that. If I knew the girl I was dating had a secret like that, I’d also let her decide when to say it. I mean what, I’m supposed to confront her after the first date?
Not just that but he liked Lucas and wanted to see where things went, if he so quickly brought up knowing he’s a super then that would instantly wreck any chance at a relationship.
Jaw and hair aren’t really a dead giveaway if the face is still mostly obscured. Especially since the majority of people aren’t going to be close enough to see minute details.
Chances are that only people who would be able to get a prolonged look (meaning journalists/photographers with good cameras and anyone with access to their photos) would twig it.
Context also has a big impact. If you normally only see someone at their job, but you see them out of uniform and grocery shopping, it can be hard to place a familiar face. I’ve had it happen as both spotted and spotter.
You’d be suprised, some studies suggest by covering half your face reduces recognicibiliaty noticeably, I don’t remember was it top or lover half that had larger margin. But I have come to company halloween events in full face covering reaper outfit, a in the hood fully covered my face, nothing to recognice me, yet because I am tall fair ammount of people recogniced me before I even spoke.
TL;DR some people are observant enough to spot you no matter how well disquised and others are fooled by eye glasses and slight slump of shoulders.
I feel like your company party is “cheating” a bit though. Your coworkers see you every day, subconsciously learn your walking gait, etc. Some tall dude comes to the party, it’s not gonna be a stranger, so they only have a few people to consider.
And it was *the company party* which assumes a) person is either someone from the office or b) the person is attached to an office mate. Either of those are strong clues to who you are. This is very different than just showing up in costume in a room full of unknowns.
Re: which part of the face to cover — top. Face recognition basically works with a T shape made by the eyes and the area around it and the nose. The mouth is less important and very flexible anyway. The overall shape of the face, the jawline matters, but it can change with time (i.e. getting fatter/slimmer).
And yet, I have heard from people involved, that they want your face to be neutral or slightly downcast rather than smiling for passports. Why? Apparently smiling does have some impact to how well automated facial req works (at least it was like this some years ago when I heard this bit of sillyness).
Had a friend who, for the better part of a semester, thought that we have two almost identical friends, Thomas and Thomas (with and without glasses).
It didn’t help that Thomas did mention it a few times that he has a twin brother.
I have a friend. We happened to work at the same company twice (two different companies) in our career after college. At both companies, he got called me, and I got called him. We did have similar glasses and builds, but you’d think people you saw at the worst weekly and they’d still get it wrong.
For a long time, we couldn’t figure out who was being insulted. I think we settled on both of us!
Why? A cop is not a detective. He could just as likely not be on any case related. The only event he could know is when Lucas saved the kid. As any testimony research can tell you, they are incredibly unreliable for *anyone*. The event was short and a lot happened. Even with cleaning up after Demolition Duke he can’t be certain that Lucas just looks like that arrow guy
As Ben says, “I couldn’t shake this feeling”. There is uncertainty there.
He may not be a detective, but as a police officer in a city of folks w/ super powers, you would expect him to memorize some names and faces. You’d probably want to know who the vigilantes are that are technically breaking the law but get a pass, versus the super villains that are potentially “shoot on sight”.
Maybe he would. Then again, recognising someone with a mask on is not easy. Ben might see D-pad several times a day. The name is quite irrelevant. Besides, in a huge city it is unlikely that Lucas is a person of interest worth memorising. At best he’s wanted for a statement on the first Troll encounter.how many actual murderers are out there that are more interesting? Even so Ben might be a different type of cop. It is not like all cops are sent out on the street to look for a person of interest. Their goals are very different,… Read more »
The problem lives within the nature of memory. We sort of assume ‘The wild Christmas Party of 2011’ is stored in your brain in one zip file and you just have to think about that event and it all comes to hand and sequenced accurately. NOT SO! Your brain separates bits of data all over (sort of like a pack rat). When you go to revisit the memory, it is more like a full vault scan for ‘Christmas Party’ and some bits of the memory that is true is not picked up and perhaps some other things from other Parties… Read more »
GlitcherGirl
1 month ago
Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid this would end badly.
Next comic: Ben at the station:
“You get it?”
“Clear as day Ben, guy straight confessed to being an unregistered super. We’ll pick him up this morning…”
The difference here is that Ben is a cop, and, being a cop, you’re basically a superhero already. Heck, these kinds of situations happen with first responders all the time in real life. It’s not just a career; it’s a lifestyle, and partners of first responders need to be able to handle it or else the relationship is doomed.
That’s not the difference. I mean, yes, the police already do some amazing work, and some horrific things, and their great power / great responsibility is similar to that of a super hero / villain, but that’s irrelevant here.
It’s that Ethan had a relationship for much longer with Emily, and was actively deceiving her. The fact that Emily didn’t like superheroes and couldn’t relate, didn’t even have a chance to come up. When Ethan finally told Emily, he had lost so much trust that she didn’t believe him.
Trust isn’t just something that matters. It is *all* that matters; If you can’t be trusted, nothing else you say can be given any credence. Trust is the bedrock of all working relationships.
He was, he appears for like two frames next to a cop car right towards the end of the arc. Doesn’t look EXACTLY like Ben, but then again Tim’s art style has subtly changed since then too, and Ben was just a background character at that moment.
Not at all. Ben could be the Dependent Non-Player Character – frequently used to put the hero in a really hard situation because Ben is in trouble (being merely human). If I saw Tim going anywhere, it’d be that sort of a plan because he does not want to redo prior iterations because it could come out pretty weak.
But having an Aunt May, a minor, or a cop in a world of dangerous supers…. there’s lots of grist with it gutting Lucas while every day Ben could meet a super that could just splatter him all over the neighborhood.
Nono
1 month ago
Okay, but does that last panel sentiment apply to if he found out Lucas was a super*villain*?
Goddammit, now Ben’s going to die. I hate all of you.
DrewJH
1 month ago
Marry him marry him marry him!!
DaWombat
1 month ago
Oh thank god… Now I can ship and squee to my heart’s content
Joe
1 month ago
I’m sorry, but I’m calling BS here. No law enforcement type would risk his career with someone who is deemed as a criminal in the eyes of the law. Especially when there’s a lot more fish in the sea out there for him. Especially ones without extracurricular complications.
I thought one of the risks for Ethan and Lucas was that they were “unregistered” supers or something like that making them technically vigilantes. It very well could be that I misinterpreted something somewhere.
I assume that’s more about not having certain protections and allowances, rather than being actively wanted.
A government registered hero presumably gets benefits like insurance for collateral damage, maybe also some protection or secret identity scheme to help against villains targeting them. (Whereas an unregistered vigilante is going to be mostly on their own, or might get sued more easily if they do smash up a store to catch a shoplifter.)
We’ve seen Lucas and Ethan work with the police on multiple occasions. Being a vigilante doesn’t appear to be a crime in this universe.
They aren’t registered heroes, which presumably has some drawbacks, but also the benefit of not having everyone know who you are.
Kevin Greenbaum
1 month ago
Was definitely not expecting him to have known all that time, but if that doesn’t show trust nothing will. Don’t mess this one up Lucas.
william
1 month ago
this cop is really perfect boyfriend material for Lucas
Number51x
1 month ago
This one’s a keeper.
justathought
1 month ago
Yeah I’m still getting Cad 1.0 PTSD flashbacks … things are going too well lol
Timmeh
1 month ago
gosh darnit, I was so set on disliking ben but the smile, now this…
Pulse
1 month ago
so is it quadruple or more for the “is a keeper?”
7eggert
1 month ago
Sometimes there is a giraffe in the room.
Fun fact, when the German constitution was made, there was a literal giraffe in the room. It was a large room in a museum and it usually featured stuffed animals. The giraffe was too large to be moved to a different room so they hid it behind a curtain.
So… There was a stuffed giraffe, not a literal giraffe.
I assume you mean a taxidermy giraffe? That’s much different than stuffed.
Still not a literal giraffe, mind you, but much closer than a stuffed one.
Lord Foxxy Foxington
1 month ago
See, this is why I would wear a costume that completely covers my face and hair, maybe some kind of armour. Also a voice synthesizer to disguise my voice, give myself an entirely different accent. No one would ever guess my identity.
SvarroVarro
1 month ago
❤️
Chris
1 month ago
Does anyone know if Tim uses a raster or a vector graphics program for CAD? I think I saw a video of him using a vector programm like Adobe Illustrator more than 10 years ago, but I wonder if it has changed since then or if I’m even remembering correctly.
MercuryGreen
1 month ago
“I figured when you felt comfortable enough, you’d come out of the phone booth…”
West
1 month ago
That is so sweet
Shona-SoF
1 month ago
Awesome. Ben seems cool here and he clearly wasn’t just springing some trap…… He’s gonna get killed, isn’t he?
24
Honestly, that’s a very mature way to deal with that. If I knew the girl I was dating had a secret like that, I’d also let her decide when to say it. I mean what, I’m supposed to confront her after the first date?
Not just that but he liked Lucas and wanted to see where things went, if he so quickly brought up knowing he’s a super then that would instantly wreck any chance at a relationship.
Yeah that’s like, a fourth or fifth date kinda deal.
“I know you’re Superman, Clark” is a “fourth or fifth date” thing XD
But he is a cop and as far as I understand things, what he is doing is illegal…
There are legal protections in universe for vigilantes. They get more protections if they’re registered with the city, though.
[Glances at the complete lack of padding on the costume. The fact that the jaw and hair are completely exposed]
Is there anybody who wouldn’t know?
Jaw and hair aren’t really a dead giveaway if the face is still mostly obscured. Especially since the majority of people aren’t going to be close enough to see minute details.
Chances are that only people who would be able to get a prolonged look (meaning journalists/photographers with good cameras and anyone with access to their photos) would twig it.
Context also has a big impact. If you normally only see someone at their job, but you see them out of uniform and grocery shopping, it can be hard to place a familiar face. I’ve had it happen as both spotted and spotter.
I mostly remember people by place and shirt.
This. Humans are weird in having a difference between having a conscious way of remembering people, and an unconscious way of recognizing people.
You’d be suprised, some studies suggest by covering half your face reduces recognicibiliaty noticeably, I don’t remember was it top or lover half that had larger margin. But I have come to company halloween events in full face covering reaper outfit, a in the hood fully covered my face, nothing to recognice me, yet because I am tall fair ammount of people recogniced me before I even spoke.
TL;DR some people are observant enough to spot you no matter how well disquised and others are fooled by eye glasses and slight slump of shoulders.
I feel like your company party is “cheating” a bit though. Your coworkers see you every day, subconsciously learn your walking gait, etc. Some tall dude comes to the party, it’s not gonna be a stranger, so they only have a few people to consider.
unless it really IS the grim reaper
Then you worry about the salmon mousse
And it was *the company party* which assumes a) person is either someone from the office or b) the person is attached to an office mate. Either of those are strong clues to who you are. This is very different than just showing up in costume in a room full of unknowns.
Re: which part of the face to cover — top. Face recognition basically works with a T shape made by the eyes and the area around it and the nose. The mouth is less important and very flexible anyway. The overall shape of the face, the jawline matters, but it can change with time (i.e. getting fatter/slimmer).
And yet, I have heard from people involved, that they want your face to be neutral or slightly downcast rather than smiling for passports. Why? Apparently smiling does have some impact to how well automated facial req works (at least it was like this some years ago when I heard this bit of sillyness).
Because people usually don’t photo-smile
I come as Spider-Man and everybody recognizes me.
I mean it’s worked for Superman on less.
And for my dad when he’s forgotten his glasses. He’s had 3 regular customers and two employees not recognize him without his glasses
Had a friend who, for the better part of a semester, thought that we have two almost identical friends, Thomas and Thomas (with and without glasses).
It didn’t help that Thomas did mention it a few times that he has a twin brother.
I have a friend. We happened to work at the same company twice (two different companies) in our career after college. At both companies, he got called me, and I got called him. We did have similar glasses and builds, but you’d think people you saw at the worst weekly and they’d still get it wrong.
For a long time, we couldn’t figure out who was being insulted. I think we settled on both of us!
Considering Dolly Parton lost a Dolly Parton look alike contest to a drag queen, it’s very possible.
This happened to Charlie Chaplin too, if I recall. And a few more besides that I can’t remember right now.
Charlie lost a Dolly Parton look alike contest? I did not see that coming. ;-P
Why was a drag queen in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest?
Obligatory New Adventures Of Superman scene:
https://youtu.be/FPLOXhBuDIg?feature=shared&t=75
I mean… he’d be a really bad cop if he didn’t figure it out.
Still. I think he’s a keeper, Lucas.
Why? A cop is not a detective. He could just as likely not be on any case related. The only event he could know is when Lucas saved the kid. As any testimony research can tell you, they are incredibly unreliable for *anyone*. The event was short and a lot happened. Even with cleaning up after Demolition Duke he can’t be certain that Lucas just looks like that arrow guy
As Ben says, “I couldn’t shake this feeling”. There is uncertainty there.
He may not be a detective, but as a police officer in a city of folks w/ super powers, you would expect him to memorize some names and faces. You’d probably want to know who the vigilantes are that are technically breaking the law but get a pass, versus the super villains that are potentially “shoot on sight”.
Maybe he would. Then again, recognising someone with a mask on is not easy. Ben might see D-pad several times a day. The name is quite irrelevant. Besides, in a huge city it is unlikely that Lucas is a person of interest worth memorising. At best he’s wanted for a statement on the first Troll encounter.how many actual murderers are out there that are more interesting? Even so Ben might be a different type of cop. It is not like all cops are sent out on the street to look for a person of interest. Their goals are very different,… Read more »
The problem lives within the nature of memory. We sort of assume ‘The wild Christmas Party of 2011’ is stored in your brain in one zip file and you just have to think about that event and it all comes to hand and sequenced accurately. NOT SO! Your brain separates bits of data all over (sort of like a pack rat). When you go to revisit the memory, it is more like a full vault scan for ‘Christmas Party’ and some bits of the memory that is true is not picked up and perhaps some other things from other Parties… Read more »
Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid this would end badly.
Oh there’s still time for Tim to gut punch us 😂
Next comic: Ben at the station:
“You get it?”
“Clear as day Ben, guy straight confessed to being an unregistered super. We’ll pick him up this morning…”
Or worse, we see him typing on the Troll message board.
Four whole days, and two more strips in fact.
*Sigh*
Thanks Tim, I was holding my breath since friday waiting to know if it was a cliffhanger or not !
For those who want a re-read of the demolition issue, I did the gravedigging for you :
https://cad-comic.com/comic/demolition-p1/
Thank you! I was wondering about it.
The complete irony is, that story ends with Ethan and Emily doing essentially what Lucas and Ben are doing here.
Didn’t turn out so well.
The difference here is that Ben is a cop, and, being a cop, you’re basically a superhero already. Heck, these kinds of situations happen with first responders all the time in real life. It’s not just a career; it’s a lifestyle, and partners of first responders need to be able to handle it or else the relationship is doomed.
That’s not the difference. I mean, yes, the police already do some amazing work, and some horrific things, and their great power / great responsibility is similar to that of a super hero / villain, but that’s irrelevant here.
It’s that Ethan had a relationship for much longer with Emily, and was actively deceiving her. The fact that Emily didn’t like superheroes and couldn’t relate, didn’t even have a chance to come up. When Ethan finally told Emily, he had lost so much trust that she didn’t believe him.
Trust isn’t just something that matters. It is *all* that matters; If you can’t be trusted, nothing else you say can be given any credence. Trust is the bedrock of all working relationships.
I actually looked at all the cops this weekend and didn’t see Ben in any. Would’ve been a nice nugget if he had been in the background somewhere.
He was, he appears for like two frames next to a cop car right towards the end of the arc. Doesn’t look EXACTLY like Ben, but then again Tim’s art style has subtly changed since then too, and Ben was just a background character at that moment.
Curious if he grew the mustache after this:
https://cad-comic.com/comic/demolition-p5/
I don’t think that’s him, he said he was assigned cleanup while that was the first responding officers on the scene.
Lucas, he’s what you call “a keeper.” Don’t you dare mess this up!
He is like SO nice! I’m dreading the day Tim is gonna kill him off 🙁
Even broader smile than last Friday.
Aw man, so he is just a real decent dude, eh? No, nonono … something HAS to be wrong with that.
Not at all. Ben could be the Dependent Non-Player Character – frequently used to put the hero in a really hard situation because Ben is in trouble (being merely human). If I saw Tim going anywhere, it’d be that sort of a plan because he does not want to redo prior iterations because it could come out pretty weak.
But having an Aunt May, a minor, or a cop in a world of dangerous supers…. there’s lots of grist with it gutting Lucas while every day Ben could meet a super that could just splatter him all over the neighborhood.
Okay, but does that last panel sentiment apply to if he found out Lucas was a super*villain*?
Probably not. I assume he’d have also taken action if D-Pad had gone on a crime spree instead of just being a small-time Hero.
But part of me is now hoping for a hilarious misunderstanding where Ben thinks Lucas is Demolition Duke.
Now that Lucas has found eternal happiness, to balance the books Ethan will probably get shot on page 24, bleeding out without respawning right away
Bleeding out on a Friday, no doubt, right before we have a nice run of Starcaster.
Then maybe a run of the console wars. It has been a while since we’ve seen the consoles afterall.
God damn it Ben, stop being so completely reasonable!
Keeper alarm is going off, blaring at full volume
Lucas, you marry Ben. You do anything else and I’m boycotting this free webcomic, you hear me?!?
YOU MARRY THAT TREASURE OF A MAN.
Okay. Ben is awesome.
Please don’t fridge the poor guy.
Well damn
Ben’s a keeper.
He’s a keeper for sure. Which means I now immediately fear for his safety. Who hurt me?
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAaaaaaaaahhhhhhh…
Well, that was cathartic.
I KNEW IT!
https://cad-comic.com/comic/secrets-p2/#comment-73026
I’d say he is a keeper.
Goddammit, now Ben’s going to die. I hate all of you.
Marry him marry him marry him!!
Oh thank god… Now I can ship and squee to my heart’s content
I’m sorry, but I’m calling BS here. No law enforcement type would risk his career with someone who is deemed as a criminal in the eyes of the law. Especially when there’s a lot more fish in the sea out there for him. Especially ones without extracurricular complications.
Who’s a criminal?
I thought one of the risks for Ethan and Lucas was that they were “unregistered” supers or something like that making them technically vigilantes. It very well could be that I misinterpreted something somewhere.
I assume that’s more about not having certain protections and allowances, rather than being actively wanted.
A government registered hero presumably gets benefits like insurance for collateral damage, maybe also some protection or secret identity scheme to help against villains targeting them. (Whereas an unregistered vigilante is going to be mostly on their own, or might get sued more easily if they do smash up a store to catch a shoplifter.)
points out cops dating bikies… sorry but reality doe snot agree with you.
We’ve seen Lucas and Ethan work with the police on multiple occasions. Being a vigilante doesn’t appear to be a crime in this universe.
They aren’t registered heroes, which presumably has some drawbacks, but also the benefit of not having everyone know who you are.
Was definitely not expecting him to have known all that time, but if that doesn’t show trust nothing will. Don’t mess this one up Lucas.
this cop is really perfect boyfriend material for Lucas
This one’s a keeper.
Yeah I’m still getting Cad 1.0 PTSD flashbacks … things are going too well lol
gosh darnit, I was so set on disliking ben but the smile, now this…
so is it quadruple or more for the “is a keeper?”
Sometimes there is a giraffe in the room.
Fun fact, when the German constitution was made, there was a literal giraffe in the room. It was a large room in a museum and it usually featured stuffed animals. The giraffe was too large to be moved to a different room so they hid it behind a curtain.
So… There was a stuffed giraffe, not a literal giraffe.
I assume you mean a taxidermy giraffe? That’s much different than stuffed.
Still not a literal giraffe, mind you, but much closer than a stuffed one.
See, this is why I would wear a costume that completely covers my face and hair, maybe some kind of armour. Also a voice synthesizer to disguise my voice, give myself an entirely different accent. No one would ever guess my identity.
❤️
Does anyone know if Tim uses a raster or a vector graphics program for CAD? I think I saw a video of him using a vector programm like Adobe Illustrator more than 10 years ago, but I wonder if it has changed since then or if I’m even remembering correctly.
“I figured when you felt comfortable enough, you’d come out of the phone booth…”
That is so sweet
Awesome. Ben seems cool here and he clearly wasn’t just springing some trap…… He’s gonna get killed, isn’t he?
ooooo goosebumps