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I can totally see Gray Mann going through a Walter White type character development path through his life. First starting as a self-conscious, underappreciated castaway devoted to some relatively simple but noble goal, but then through the course of his adventures completely transforming from his mild and weak past self into somebody ruthless and overwhelmingly powerful.

Like he would begin wanting to genuinely help improve the world around him, but his main issue would be that his intelligence and experiences prevent him from properly understanding what people need and that they may not actually want his help, even if he means well. As a result of this he would also secretly become bitter and envious towards other succesful, popular people believing that they dont deserve the spotlight. He also would become radically authoritarian and technocratic in his views, getting so distanced from humanity as to believing that they need to be guided even if they dont want it. A form of messiah complex

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wonderful!!!!

Hey, do any of you people remember that one tf2 comic where soldier is talking to a bunch of wooden cutouts thinking they’re real people? You know how it was supposed to be a joke about how insane Soldier is, unable to differentiate the inanimate from the alive? Am I the only one who lost my mind about the implications of that or am I going just as insane as him.

You can see how lazy I got near the end but I couldn’t be bothered to work on this anymore

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I love that the 4 people Gray Mann fanclub seems to somewhat agree that, as a result of trauma, Gray hides a deeply animalistic, almost primal side

The way I see it he kindof views himself as an animal, as part of a personal life philosophy shaped by his general life experiences, especially the eagles episode. After that happened he probably experienced a brief period of having to integrate back into society which never fully concluded, and somewhere at the core he remained in the wilderness; no matter how far he's got. Its probably what makes him so dangerous and distanced to others - he has the intelligence and outward appearance of a peak upper-class human, but underneath this he also remains a wild animal, ruthless and ready to do anything to survive.

I also think that having a daughter really reactivated that side in him; as it obviously would have simmered down with age. He probably feels strong parental instincts towards Olivia, wanting to protect her and see her grow up to a perfect world that he's building. A world where they are apex predators...

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Goes UNFATHOMABLY hard

But daddy is not like that at all!

Bonus:

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Cool!

Do Not Stand At My Grave - Start?

"We don't even know where he is."

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Welp, I guess I'm doing this(?) I'm bringing my nightmare to life. I hope you guys enjoy...wherever the hell I take this thing.

Page 1. of Do Not Stand At My Grave.

🌟|My DA|My AO3|🌟

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there's a crunchier version on the site but it's been too long since I actually draw 'em....

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Waow....

Two page comic I made for @doctorassistedzine

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A dreadful night

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I wish Gray was sorta like an antihero type character instead of a forced villain who just exists to kick the story forwards. Theres literally so much to him, from design to character

Like hes not 100% morally pure, but you definetely cant say that he was evil. He just had his own agenda and pursued what he believed was good, and from what it seems with minimal collateral damage as well

"Oh but he took over mannco!!!" Yeah and? Why should we be upset about that, just because Saxton is a >cool< machist buff dude while Gray is frail, old and bitter? He had an acceptable moral casus belli on Saxton, Mann Co. was his birthright + he was vastly more responsible and competent than Hale, whom, by the way, Gray DID NOT kill when he had the chance. He just let him go, despite that they were mortal enemies.

Also, from what it seems he had a very positive relationship with his daughter, keeping her involved and taking her everywhere with him, which is a massive positive quality

Now that i think about it thr authors liteally had to make Pauling list the things he did to make sure nobody feels too bad about him dying, just before achieving his goals. Still, i doesnt hold up to me. Taking over a company and having his mercenaries kill other mercenaries absolutely do not make him a villain. The latter especially, since thats what seasoned mercenaries like sniper and Pauling are and must be prepared for.

The only like really morally dubious thing were those leech robots, but tbh they dont seem all that dangerous. Like the mercs were able to survive them easily, so maybe it wasnt plot armor because the robots werent actually designed to kill anybody, just filter out australium from blood? Itd make sense, considering that even when youre a super powerful person like Gray genociding all of australia probably wouldnt slide. It'd probably be counterproductive

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The 7th comic being out is giving me all kinds of feelings. While TB as a character has existed since long before Gray Mann, to say he wasn't a large influence on TB's character and themes and even physical design would be an obvious lie. As such, I thought it'd be fun to put both next to each other. Was expecting the similarities but was genuinely surprised at the number of differences!

They are two characters who, for as civilized and clean and well-spoken as they look, were born scraping and clawing with blood in their teeth, hiding cornered animals who never quite fit in with either group they were trying to assimilate into: too animal for man, and too man for animal. Still, for all of the polish and shine, controlled by the desperate lonely animal that hungers. Angry at their lot in life and dragging themselves tooth and nail to something different.

And both themed after birds, now that I think about it.

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Wait couldnt the Administrator and Gray just hook themselves up to one of those older life extension machines Blutarch and Redmond were on, once they realised that australium is running up??

They both surely had this option, especially with Dell who had access to Radighans blueprints at hand, so i wonder why didnt they try. It surely would have been a better solution than scrambling for the last bits of australium on planet earth and risk dying.

I think the only constant that explains why they havent is the fact that once you get on australium you cant stop using it because otherwise you suffer withdrawal symptoms. Helen, Zepheniah and CHeavy all started to age rapidly immediately after its effects worn off, though with varying speed. Sidenote: I think the pace of this process is proportional to how much you used before, and how much "tolerance" have you developed.

CHeavy who never used before aged instantly just after Grays machine, which already had trace amounts of australium in it, was removed from him. Administrator who used all her life and in the moment of her death was on a massive dose managed to live for about an hour off it, but her withdrawal symptoms were so severe that she disintegrated to dust instantly once australium stopped working, same goes for Zepheniah. Gray didnt seem to suffer much withdrawal and also went on for quite some time before dying, so he must have been pretty conservative with his usage.

Also perhaps one solution to australium running up was literally dying and having someone bring you back some time later. We've seen the Administrator microdose death like this with Dells help, but i dont think thats a viable strategy for waiting the shortages out. I think the longer you've been dead the less of "you" there is to revive. Zepheniah looks barely conscious when we see him, so the Administrator and Gray probably didnt want to risk waking up paralyzed or with brain damage.

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Merry Smissmas (or more applicably Australian Christmas) the first chapter of This isn't Over Jack is officially up :D

->https://thisisntoverjack.neocities.org/chapter1

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Love thiiis!!!!

The Conagher family art was delightful! Any head cannons or other family moments for them that you can think of?

Yeah! :D

Radigan was present in Engie's childhood, a lot of people forget he had a small cache of Australium given by definitely not The Administrator Elizabeth, so I think he lived well past the expected age of the time and of a human by rationing it (after that bender when he first got it and stuff, as we see in the Engie update promo stuff), and while he did use his time to raise Dell and hone his innate genius he also used it for shennaniganery because Dell idolizes him.

I think Radigan's death was just him deciding aight, I'm done, time to go; that Conhager pride wearing out. Cause after a point his Australium reserves had to have run out, and acquiring more was nigh impossible due to the extremely tight supply and high demand. Plus, I imagine it sucks living in a world completely different from the one you know and all your friends being dead or hiding. I can see him hosting a 'going away' party and using the last bit of Australium to make himself young again, al la the Admin at the end of comic 6. Which also means Engie knew exactly how long Admin has left cause he's seen it.

Back to Radigan and Fred, I think Radigan married solely cause it was The Thing To Do in his time, and from his wife's perspective, marrying a guy who will be in his workshop 90% of the time and has infinite money and is a well mannered gentleman? Sure hell yeah. Hell it might've been an amicable agreement between Rad and his wife. I do think both of them didn't really give Fred much attention though, busy with their own lives.

Though when Dell was born, all focus went on him, cause Fred wanted to give him all his love and be the best dad ever and Radigan was retired by this point and if he's gonna die soon may as well mentor his grandson. And spoil him. Fred's kinda jealous. Plus I think Engie took to maths like a fish to water.

And of course, trains. They love em. Have over $10 mil in train stuff in the basement. When Engie was old enough they showed him the train models, so he could get inspired and build his own, big happy family :3

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Chat the last one....

The latest update was beyond flawless

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Aged like fine wine

Uuuuum.

Oops?

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I feel like the tf2 fandom is currently split between literally everybody else who enjoyed the comic and us 5 dipshits who are completely disillusioned with it

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my cool font 😈