This is nice.
This is also important :)

Not just story and character-wise.

*whistles* "This one hits hard. And truer words...hard to believe a man of science would even openly admit he misses love and affection"

There comes a point where the emotional famine becomes too painful to deny.

And yet, it seems the common stereo type. "I am above emotional needs, I need only logic" only for him to admit "I miss affection"
He matured incredibly and even understands the trauma he's caused. That's a rather empathic thing!

In my meager defense, I imagined you were shooting for a 24 page chapter, and figured you had another six weeks of material lined up. Still, there's something to be said for not taking longer to tell a story than you have to.

Anyway! I feel this last story in particular really showcases the level of maturity your writing has taken on since starting UTC. The use of decompression to let your art do more of the talking. The Adult Fear perspective on a plot that many readers might otherwise have gotten used to. The deliberate decision not to jump on another opportunity for TF in a TF comic when doing so would detract from the value of your theme. Even getting in an opportunity to develop whom I've long felt was the weakest major character in the story with Morty, and doing it through interaction with a character that many other amateur comics might otherwise relegate to a background non-entity with Billie. You've come a long way from your first chapters back in 2007, and I hope you and your other friends recognize how praiseworthy that is.

I've no idea what the next chapter will bring, but I'm looking forward to you telling this story at an even higher level in the future. It's really coming into its own in all these little ways.

Thank you! I think the brevity of these stories helped keep the focus on the core elements, so there was nothing to distract from developing them as best as I could.

This chapter was actually supposed to be 24 pages, with 8 pages for each story. I cut 4 from Jen's story and 2 from Katsuko's. All of the Phase Three chapters were going to be 24 pages, but I "blew the budget" when Chapter 11 ended up 50% longer than it was supposed to be, so most of the other chapters are getting cut back to make up for it. (If I don't do that, then the printed book will get really expensive.)

I've been reading through the backlog of your comic and this is really well executed! Comics are such a tough artform but the storytelling here (especially w/ minimal dialogue as others have said) is great.

Thank you, Ang!

Very touching end to chapter 12. Even Morty has feelings and losing a parent can be devastating.

Thank you. Loss comes in many forms, and losing a parent's affection before they've even passed away is a lot to cope with.

Oh my gosh, you have me feeling sorry for Morty. Poor Morty. If anyone's story arc is truly transformative, it might just be his...