Jackdaw & Peacock was a webcomic that I worked on for a while with my university colleague/budget analyst/art professor friend Terry Spehar-Fahey. The comic eventually got to be too much for us — the original script I’d written was waaaay too long and I never went back to shorten it — but I replicate what we DID do here for fun. I think we’re both interested in revisiting it, however. After I shorten the script.
“Chadeim” is pronounced “Ka-deem,” as in aKADEEMia. If you’re not in academia, you probably don’t know much about how accreditation — a series of onerous, time-consuming hoops of dubious practical value through which universities must jump to be acknowledged as Worthy Teaching Institutions — works. Suffice to say that nobody in their right mind wants to to serve on their university’s accreditation committee; it’s a mind-numbing, thankless job. This, of course, is the tale of a mighty adminostrostrat (Peacock) and a member of the lowly professoriate (Jackdaw) who get impressed into doing just that. Any resemblance between the characters and the comic’s actual writer and artist is … reasonably accurate.
Comic Transcript: About the Authors
Overview & Visual Setting
A five-panel monochrome ink-and-wash comic illustrating how real-world administrative stress and academic frustration inspired the authors to create their webcomic fantasy world, featuring the creators transforming into their fictional personas, Jackdaw and Peacock.
Panel 1
Visual Description: A modern real-life office setting. An administrator with glasses and short hair sits at a computer desk cluttered with paper stacks, gripping her head in frustration.
Administrator (Thought Bubble):
“Ten minutes until budget committee and I can’t make heads or tails of these requests! Why can’t anyone fill out these sheets? If I had my way…”
Panel 2
Visual Description: Fantasy fantasy-world reflection of Panel 1. The administrator transforms into Lady Penelope Peacock inside a grand, gothic office, sitting imperiously on a throne-like chair while a supplicant kneels subserviently on the floor in front of her.
Panel 3
Visual Description: A modern academic hallway. A professor in glasses sits on the floor of a cramped office reaching for papers scattered beneath a desk, while a line of students waits outside their office door near a sign reading ADVISING APPOINTMENTS.
Professor (Thought Bubble):
“How am I supposed to run a department like this? Too many forms and procedures!?&@! If I had my way…”
Panel 4
Visual Description: Fantasy fantasy-world reflection of Panel 3. The professor transforms into Professor Genevieve (Jackdaw), crouching dynamically in a doorway with stealth and agility while papers fly around an office behind them.
Title Text (Middle)
Jackdaw & Peacock
Panel 5 (Bottom Banner Panel)
Visual Description: A wide panoramic sketch of the fantasy city-state with airships, harbor ships, and gothic towers. Standing together in the foreground are the two stylized author avatars, dressed in Victorian-steampunk coats and feathered top hats, looking out proudly over their created world.
Caption Box (Bottom Right):
“… it started kinda like that.”