Tribute (comic story)

Tribute

Technical Specs

Length

25 pages

Format

Black & White

Crew

Writer(s)

Steven Wintle

Artist(s)

Steven Wintle

Background

Dates

May 25th, 2005 (creation)

August 13th, 2011 (release)

Original link

[1]

Jenny Everywhere Day stories
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Jenny Everywhere by Craig Oxbrow	Past Prologue by Nicholas Ahlhelm

Tribute, also known as Jenny is Ten, was a 24-hour comic created by Steven Wintle and released on Jenny Everywhere Day 2011 for Jenny Everywhere's tenth anniversary. It was notable as the second-ever Jenny story by her main “creator”, Wintle, and the only one he ever completed.

At the beginning of the story they are celebrating the friend's coming of age; when they look back on the fake ID card Jenny had gifted them earlier, and which they now no longer need, Jenny admits to having ‘borrowed’ it from their older counterpart in a parallel world. At the end Jenny departs, taking a beer with her.

An unknown time later, Jenny arrives to find her friend sitting on the sidewalk outside the bar. They are implied not to have seen each other in a while; Jenny says, "I think I owe you a beer...", and the friend, in the face of Jenny's oblivious cheerfulness, refuses to speak about the problems they've been having in their own life. Just when they seem to have found the courage to open up, they find that Jenny's disappeaed again.

When they meet up again her friend is wearing a bandana, with no hair visible. They both announce they have something to say, but when Jenny speaks up first to tell her friend about how they are the only constant in her life and she doesn't know what she would do without them, the friend ends up not saying what was on their mind.

Some time later Jenny comes to the Bar again but waits in vain. Realising what has happened, she runs out of the bar in tears.

Worldbuilding

Jenny

Jenny Everywhere appears in the same incarnation previously seen in Cars. She is characterised as cheerful and open, with a somewhat poor grasp of the travails of an ordinary human life when set against her own whimsical adventures. Despite the story depicting four scenes years apart, Jenny interestingly never appears any older.

Universes

This story takes place in one, mundane universe, though with references and flashbacks to others, including one where “David Cassidy became President of the United States”.

Other

Jenny Everywhere's friend quips that they're “like Commissioner Gordon” after Jenny disappears on them for the second time without saying goodbye.

Continuity

Jenny and her friend were previously seen in Steven Wintle's earlier, unfinished comic story COMIC: Cars, already enjoying themselves at a bar (which can be assumed to already be the Flat Earth, although it is not seen from the outside).

Behind the scenes

Background

Single panel posted in 2005

Steven Wintle created the story as part of a twenty-four hour comic challenge in 2005, posting a single panel from it on the Barbelith forum on May 25th.^[1] The file name of the image, 'tribute4gi.jpg', indicates that the story's title was already set at this point, although it was not referred to as such by Wintle at the time.

Upon releasing the story for Jenny's tenth anniversary, Steven Wintle appended a short commentary, in which he states that he created the story “a few years” earlier than 2011, though it is not clear if he had ever made it public in the intervening years.

It’s been ten years since Jenny Everywhere was first made public. I check up on her every couple of months, and I’m always shocked and pleased to see new people discovering her and creating new worlds for her. Thanks to everyone who took a chance on her. The toast is on me.

In celebration of her tenth birthday, I present the only Jenny Everywhere story I’ve ever completed, a 24-hour comic from a few years back. Check out the hot mess after the jump.

—Steven Wintle

Although it is never explicitly stated in the story, the implication is that Jenny Everywhere's friend died of cancer. The symbol on the cover of the story alludes to this.

Read online

Although the original site on which Tribute was uploaded by Wintle in 2011 is now offline, it was saved on the Internet Archive, allowing us to present it here.