TWCL

[swankivy]

In about six months, I'll have been doing a weekly webcomic for five years.

Over the years, my readers have developed pet theories about what's going to happen in the story, which they sometimes post to my comment threads on the comic or e-mail me privately.

Some of the theories are wildly off the mark (to the point where I am gobsmacked that someone came up with them) while others are understandable but wrong. What's especially amusing is when they think they see evidence supporting their theories and they post their "discoveries."

I imagine most story comic authors get this sort of feedback now and then, so I'd like to start this thread to share experiences. I realize most of you probably are NOT readers of my comic, but I'm going to list some of my favorite wild reader-suggested pet theories anyway, and you guys can feel free to do the same!

• One storyline contained a pregnant woman. The other storyline contained a character planning to travel through a water portal. Several readers suggested the traveling character was going to be born as the pregnant woman's baby. Not even close.
  
  
• One storyline contained a psychic character. Another storyline contained a missing child. Many readers suggested the prophet would help the parents find the baby. Nope.
  
  
• My pregnant character gave birth to a rather peculiar child. Half a dozen readers suggested the baby was a changeling. (I guess because I very briefly mentioned faeries existing in another storyline? But they haven't appeared yet, almost five years later. . . . )
  

Can't think of any more at the moment, but there's no need to make this a comprehensive list. Share some of your readers' off-base pet theories!
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[Zoe Robinson]

The moment you mentioned water-based teleportation, I have to admit I instantly thought "you're going to say this teleporter will be born as the woman's baby". Warped minds think alike, and all that.

I don't get a lot of comments posted on my site but I did have one guy suggest that characters forgetting to go back in time to plant the equipment they had needed to use to rescue themselves from the stone age would mean the comic would implode. Despite it being perfectly logical, that's as weird as my comments get.
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[Spencey]

In Dr Sheep and the Aardvark, the Aardvark falls out of the sky in the first strip. This led one reader to (incorrectly) insist that the Aardvark was an alien from another planet, even though the very title of the strip states that he is an Aardvark! Of course I didn't correct him, but let the storyline reveal that he was wrong in due course (about a year later).
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[joeychips]

Congratulations on hitting the upcoming 5 year milestone. As for theories, some have suggested that my upcoming sci-fi novel, which I have been pretty vague about, actually contains me as one of the main characters, but set in the future. This theory is not exactly correct, and that's all I can say at this time.
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Joe Chiappetta - Read Silly Daddy comics at http://sillydaddy.net

[gammyun]

My readers seem to be most fond of predicting when I'm going to leave them on a cliffhanger (a tactic I'm quite fond of), but they actually have a pretty good track record of on-the-mark guesses. A few wild ideas still surface though - a popular one is the theory that the main character is actually the daughter of one of the gods, and that said god is actually evil.
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[Novil]

I get lots of such guesses, but they are usually completely off. So far, one reader guessed correctly what will happen in the next strip. Once. But, of course, guessing it right is really not easy regarding comedy strips because it’s only funny if things are different from the usual routine.

I also have to say that I never felt that a reader had a better idea than myself what could/should happen next.
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