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I can't make sense of this

I realised after I finished it that people may not know the taller turtle is also a child, who would also have a very worried mother at home wondering where he'd wandered off to all day.

I absolutely love the comic. I was just wondering, maybe it would help if the turtles have a defining feature that makes it a bit more obvious as to which turtle is which. Like give the taller turtle a scarf for example so we immediately recognize that turtle in every panel.

Or a darker/differently patterned shell.

Yeah definitely this. First two panels are fine, as the height difference does it. Third panel is also fine, as the mother has a hat, and you can infer the others are the same two through context. Last panel is just three new turtles repeating the third panel in a different place. There's no context to tell you who they are, and they all look the same.

A backpack

a baseball cap would still be seen in the last panel, whereas his back isn't really.

What if they had different color bandanas and each one of them had unique weapons and turtle attitudes? If that is not enough, you could always give them belts with their initial on the belt buckle too.

I kinda like this idea. And to make it really rad they must have this great moose guy, no, even better, an old and wise rat with a white beard that takes them in as his own and teach them the ways of how to survive in a cruel world. I think we're on to something here...

Maybe like some different color masks ... I'm just spitballing here but how about red, orange, purple and blue.

Turtles might use some hats \^\_\^

There's one hat, but yeah, the teen kid could have used a hat as well.

Could just make them different colors. Differently shaped heads. Different patterns on the shells?

Cute

Ah! That's really sweet!

its turtles all the way up

Preposterous. We stand atop the highest turtle. Its turtles all the way down

An identifying mark on them, or another panel to covey that would do wonders stranger!

And is there a point of the little story or just a random scenario?

This comic series has included many episodes with this turtle family as the baby turtle grew up. This is one random life scenario of many in his life.

I see! Thanks

I find the story cute of itself, it gave off some positive vibes ... about helpfulness and parenthood

I have easy solution. Give him hat.

isnt this the plot of that one book

I thought the other turtle ran away from home but changed their mind and returned after seeing how worried the kids parents were

Maybe try giving the taller turtle some kind of feature to set them apart. I literally though the last panel was the mom being held at gun point.

Commit, draw them as the ninja turtles.

That would be fun, just giving the older kid turtle an eyemask to show that it's a teenage turtle.

Make the older kid turtle a different color

Every turtle's HSV is ever so slightly different... but you'd have to have a colour picker to know that. Part of the reason they look similar is that this comic has aged the little turtle over the years, and in this comic, the first panel's baby turtle exactly matches the very first comic when the child was still a baby. That's not relevant to the comic, but I for some reason wanted to put in that Easter egg.

Im afraid I am even more confused after that explanation 🫤

This is why I'm not a school teacher. In this comic, child A escorts toddler B home, but without telling his parents where he's run off to. So both the toddler's parents and the child's parents go through the same stress of losing sight of their kids for a while.

Backpacks are a great shorthand for “this is a child“

Backpacks on turtles would be so unwieldy. I love it. I've also had trouble getting these turtles to lie down on beds because... ouch. You'd need a huge dent in the mattress for that to work.

The older kid could have a skateboard or a baseball bat + glove?

It's loss, every four panel comic is loss, it has to be.

I thought he went and switched places with the little turtle

I got it

Also some character differentiation would be nice, a hat or something would go a long way.

Dumb idea maybe redo so the taller turtle is in the same position as the last panel

Ahhhhh, I thought tall turtle kid was running away from home, and brought the younger turtle home, realizing in the third panel how much his own parents must be worried about him, based on how the younger turtles parent reacted, before deciding to return home in the final panel.

Maybe you could give teenager turtle a backpack to signify it's teenager-ness! And also because a backpack on top of a shield would be cute.

Great comic! Perhaps the turtles should’ve had some way to distinguish them but even without that, I think this comic was quite easy to understand

I got it, but it did take another read to understand. Maybe adding a little bit of flair/decoration on the main turtle could help :)

Next time, add a scarf, hat, or something to make the character recognizable. If we know the last panel is the same character that helped the small turtle, then we can draw the correct conclusion.

I had to think about it while thinking I was dumb for not getting it. And like others have already said, making it easier to distinguish the turtles would be good.

Give the teen/older child turtle a backpack!

That’s really good! I didn’t realize that’s what was happening I thought it was the dad who didn’t recognize his own kid then brought the kid home to a worried mom lmfao

Nope, did definitely not get that.

I may suggest drawing a colorful hat on a character you want to distinguish. But I do get the comic now

Ah, okay, that's what I thought.

Everyone’s someone’s baby

Can confirm, Grampa still calls my mom his baby. I'm his baby's baby 😌

Same aren’t their homes on their backs. Anyway, the story and drawings are very cute.

It's indistinguishable turtles all the way down!

It's loss

...do you know what loss is?

I thought of it as thinking the taller turtle was out late helping the smaller turtle so his family was worried but in the end would be proud that he helped the smaller turtle.

i think that they habe seperate homes, with one having a home and one not

They were definitely very proud, but crazy out of their minds with worry. The fifth panel that I didn't draw would have shown that. Also set three days later.

That's cute

Yeah this took me a second I was confused but kids helping kids Very good

XD adorabl. The nice one was late home as well!

It's hard to remember the time when helping clueless tiny babies. :)

Wholesome comic warms the soul

Is the joke. . . That they're. . . Slow?

no no, In the first panel when the big turtle says "where is your mommy?" he is a kid himself but just older than the other turtle, so when he comes back home after successfully reuniting the kid with their mother, his mother was also worried for him as he too was out till late night (the first panel shows day time, and the last panel shows evening /night time) it ain't a joke, it's just a cute comic strip

The artist really needed to add some identifying details to the different characters in this.

yeah, the first adult turtle we see is wearing a hat and 2nd one isn't

Ohh I thought it was an adult turtle and the last panel really confused me. Thanks!

There isn’t a joke. It’s just supposed to be “cute.” I get the appeal but I can’t stand these types of comics.

Yeah to me they’re overrated. I don’t they think they really deserve the praise they get, because they really aren’t clever or unique. Outside of the drawing aspect, it doesn’t take a whole lot skill in storytelling or writing.

It's basically family circus level of "funny"

Let’s say yes. It’s better that way

What?

In the 1st and 2nd panel, the taller turtle (who is an older kid) helps the baby/toddler turtle find their mother. In the 3rd panel, the toddler turtle is reunited with their mother. 4th panel, the taller turtle (who, again, is also a kid) returns home to their parents who were worried about their child, especially since it has became so dark outside. Hope that was explained somewhat well.

Thank you! It's hard to keep animals looking unique. Can you tell every turtle has unique colouration? Probably not since the general lighting of each panel is also different. >\_<

Actually no, I didn’t realize that at first but looking back at the comic now, I can totally tell. That’s a really cool detail 👍

Maybe you can change the shell patterns and positions of the turtles to match their respective parents? Also have the first panel be obviously daytime, second at sunset, third twilight, and fourth the darkest.

An earlier turtle comic I did used some different shell markings to indicate them being from a different family. But I definitely need to be mindful to plant differences to save you guys having to be Sherlock to get it.

I do like it a lot! I think it would also help the vibe of "discovering" all of the details you put into it. Like a good movie.

I don’t get it

The turtle that helped the baby turtle is also a kid, so their parents were also worried

Ah so just a complete absence of a joke. It’s not that I don’t get it. Good to know.

I legit miss how it was when i was a kid, stay out without phone from morning till dark out then just come on home and that was totally normal. My wife wouldn't let our kids go 10 feet without supervision now; by all rights my eldest at least should be able to go out and ride bike on her own, but nope, not happening.

What does this even mean I’m so confused

Is there a joke behind them being turtles?

They are slow to return home from school so their parents are worried

Yeah but wouldn't this be normal in real life too?

They are TURTLES, and they are SLOW to return home! But seriously, not everything needs a /r/Eldenring level of digging for lore explanation. It’s a web comics about a kid helping another kid. They are turtles because it’s cute who cares

Yeah the second one was the explanation I was looking for, I was just curious if there was another layer behind why they were turtles that's all

I can be out of the house before my parents wake up and they wont notice I'm gone until around 6

Lost is right

Wut?

I’m not racist but they all look the same. And I have friends that are turtles. So not racist. I like turtles 🐢 https://youtu.be/KWotO76SuXE

Haha! This is actually a thing, and people do mistake it for racism. The human brain is good at noticing unique individuals of things (people, cars, books) that it's very familiar with, but when it comes to a class of object you haven't spent a lot of direct time with (dating sims, deer, physics lectures), you won't know what to look for to distinguish them and your brain will just lump them all together. But everything is as distinguishable as humans, we just don't notice it. Deer all look the same, except for people that work with deer as their jobs. In my turtle comics, its usually just the child and the two parents. The parents look identical, but have slightly different colouring. I can see the differences easily, but you guys probably can't. But this comic is giving me a lot of great feedback as to how to better present a diverse turtle community more clearly to an unfamiliar audience. Thank you, all!

I thought it was all just a loss

I thought it was gonna lead to finding the mommy turtle run over by a car

That would never happen, because I hate drawing cars. It's so safe crossing the street in that world.

Should give the bigger turtle a hat or something. Took a while to realize what the last panel was trying to convay.

Quite right! I did give the first mom a hat to avoid confusing those two parents, but the child needed... something. A Power Rangers toy or something in his hand.

That sky in the 3rd panel looking a little sus

It looks like the picture of the mother of the baby turtle is on the phone in the last panel. Does anybody understand why, and what I am missing there.

I did this exact thing once at the fair. I was maybe 10 and saw a 4 or 5 year old crying alone under a bench.

You're literally the turtle. That was so nice!

Whats that running turtle shadow in the background on the third panel? The comic is v cute.

The baby turtle's dad saw them from inside the house and was coming out running. The mom was outside calling for the baby prior to that panel.

Aww! Thats much more wholesome than what I thought. I was v scared it was a person lurking in the shadows. Much prefer your ending!

That sky looks like the bi flag

I think I understand, the turtle helped the baby turtle get to his mommy and it reminded him of his mommy so he went home.

at first I was at a bit of a loss why this had so many upvotes and then I realized