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Finished at last! Thanks for being patient with me during the holiday week everyone. 

More than ever with this page it's clear to me that if I'm going to do a comic about a bunch of barely legal teens I'm eventually going to have to learn at least a little about the details of modern high school life, which can be a tricky thing to research. For example in this scene I imagined the students just hanging out in a kind of unsupervised study hall, but I'm frankly not sure if that's even a thing anymore. 

I still feel like my best option is just to find a TV show that revolves around a high school and take notes, but I've yet to find or even hear of one I think I could stand to sit through. In desperation I could always descend into the murky depths of whatever the live-action crap airs on the Disney Channel these days, but no one wants that. Or maybe I could just focus more on what these girls are up to after class lets out. The last show I really watched that starred a teenage cast was That 70's Show, which got away with rarely ever showing the kids actually at school. If I did that I'd probably focus more on giving them part-time jobs like Abbey at the fast food joint. As always I'd love to hear what you guys think. 

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Comments

Kyman201

Well, this is interesting... Wonder what she'd gonna say. :p

Ry

Real talk? Thats So Raven. Great show. Back when Disney wasnt a disastrophy with its live action characters. Has some really good high school moments.

Reinbach

Can't say I was expecting readers to be surprised, Switch herself called it in the comic quite a ways back. ;D

Reinbach

Thanks for the heads up, but there's a problem with Raven that's shared among apparently all high school shows that are watchable: they aren't exactly current. Either they aired years ago or are period pieces that take place years ago. I could easily pass an afternoon watching Saved by the Bell, Mario Lopez's hair alone is hours of entertainment, but the 90's era setting won't help my research purposes.

ScuzzBucket

Wow- those twins look better than ever- they look like they've been working out some more. I love MuscleGirls- they've now moved up the "Switchverse Hotness Rankings"! Abbey's interesting, because she's like Warren & Jonah- characters who are quite important to the narrative, but are mostly described "in absentia"- we rarely see them, but so much happens AROUND them (Abbey caused "Back To Quiet"!). Casey's nervous expression is adorable. I like how well-rounded her character has become. Bria holding hands in solidarity is cute as balls.

ScuzzBucket

Regarding "Teen Stuff" (I'm pretty sure I'm a little older than you, so I'm WAY outside of High School), I've heard the comic strip "Zits" is still a very accurate depiction of teen behavior & habits. Probably much quicker than watching Disney TV shows. People will look at you weird if you're watching Teen Comedy "because I'm doing research for porn", too :).

Reinbach

Well most of the info I'm after isn't the type of thing that gets focused on in entertainment, that makes things harder too. Things like "do they even take notes on paper anymore?" That kind of thing.

Reinbach

That's a big part of why I'm looking forward to the next comic so much, it will be fun highlighting the side characters more once the main narrative no longer revolves around Casey.

ScuzzBucket

As far as I know, yes- easier than booting up battery-powered things all day.

Angelo

Have you settled on a title for the next comic yet?

Kyman201

May have been far enough back that I've forgotten, like a putz. I MUST CLEARLY REREAD

Reinbach

Kicking around a couple. It's really hard to find a title that sounds nice that isn't already title of an old book or an obscure song or something. But I'll run my final ideas by you guys here pretty soon.

Reinbach

You're not a putz lol, it's pretty subtle but it's alluded to in Abbey's first appearance.

Ry

Nyeh, true. A lot of decent high school shows are quite a few years back. But I personally don't think high schools go through major changes. The only thing that really changes is their interests and the subject matters they get taught. The formula is still very much the same. Bullying, partying, under age drinking, popular kids, losers, outcasts, fights. Things like that are within every generation. So all you really have to do in my opinion is think about things in modern times and put a reference or two in the high school setting. Some kids are jocks, some are nerds, some are popular others aren't etc. You still get good and bad kids that either take interest in what they are learning, or don't. Or some that have a middle ground and like some subjects and keep their heads down and don't get into much trouble. We still have bands or artists that high schoolers listen to that either makes them "weirdos" or "normal". For example I could picture the twins in this scene being metal heads. Just think about your own high school experiences and mix in modern stuff, kids still smoke behind the boiler room, they still get into trouble, they still have relationships and social norms. You got this :)

Bob Fink

Nice lead in to what I'm assuming is going to be Casey's version of an apology ;-)

buzdlove

If you could make your stories happen entirely on an iPhone or Android or someone's laptop, you would probably capture much of the milieu that kids are in today. Teenagers today are spending much of their time on their phones, or Facetime or Snapchat on the phone/computer. They virtually "study together", they hang out together on Facetime. They do "Streaks" on Snapchat, which means that they send each other a "Snapchat" message of some kind every day for months at a time. [Not "streaking" like our older generation might remember it. That

buzdlove

Unfortunately the comic would be much less interesting if it consisted of the characters on their smartphones all day long. Although the use of iPhones by teenagers and young adults could add some interesting plot twists. As you are probably aware, much of the time they spend on their smartphones is texting "conversations" while they are in the presence of their parents or an older person, discussing things that they could not discuss out loud. This is probably much more than you or any Switch reader care to know. But like your other patrons, I have found Switch to be a great comic and look forward to the next one!

buzdlove

As an example, maybe we could have seen Casey and Bria texting each other on their phones, talking about Royce, or discussing someone's sexual prowess, even while in that person's presence. Scandalous and hot!

Reinbach

Great to hear it man! As for the phone use I do plan on incorporating that, though mostly in that everyone will be inclined to whip them out and start recording whenever they see someone having sex. :)

MysteryStreet

What the... what happened to the porn?

Lord Washington

One thing I think is worth knowing about high school today: the swearing. Holy shit, the swearing.

Reinbach

I've decided to turn Switch into a family-friendly SFW comic for the rest of its run. I'm sure my readers will-Hey! Where's everybody going?

Reinbach

Well Casey already swears like a sailor so I've got her off to a good start then. :)

ScuzzBucket

I recall that being a pretty big thing when I was in High School, so that hasn't changed :)

Squid Hills

Aw yeah, the twins are back! Been waiting to see them again. :)