Nightmare? Probably his friends, his now presumably ex girlfriend. and people laughing that he is really bisexual/male pref.

Most likely and since his girlfriend is the heavy social type it would have the reaction

I think so, but I do not think she is the type to spill what her boyfriend did without knowing some facts. She seems like good mind set girl. A great personality Jackaloo put into.

Aye, she is angry, with reason of course, but once she cools down, I do feel she will try to speak things first.

Sure, some in the party would be like 'what is wrong?' seeing her crying, but probably she was like 'nothing', rather than scream it to all.

he didn't had a girlfriend... he was distant to her now she's upset because she fell in love with him and can't accept the sexuality of him! you would know if you read the whole comic... or maybe i misunderstood the comic xD

You understood right. Cooper all through the past with Andy was attracted to him and kept finding ways to push him away so he wouldn't get too close to him. There are many things at play in his life telling him to do this, mostly his fathers views on sexuality and his derived shame from it. At the same time Coop was jealous of Andy's affair with the older dog and possibly past lovers as well. He was up until recently, in a sort of limbo. He couldn't figure out what he was to do with Andy now that he was no longer seeing anyone, hence the being distant part with his prop girlfriend. He was reeling things over in his head and unable to come to a proper conclusion in his mind other than "approach him". It is clear he had not thought anything further than that as he paused soon after, lost on how to proceed. See derived shame and fathers views forced on him. He is still figuring out what he "Cooper" should do instead.

Sorry, I am a virtuoso and highly observant person. I am also a writer, gods help me. :)

no, that is totally fine ^^

i know my family deals with people who like the same gender, but still don't accept them and respect them like i do. I spent years chatting with all sorts of people to try to understand and accept people of all types, but my family can't know that or they might freak at me. Why i don't date. If i ended up with a girl it would be "we don't like this, she does that" or something i feel like they think but would never say "That's not the kind of girl we expect you to be happy with". Then its far worse if i got with a guy. Even little brother has said "if either of my brothers ever got with a guy they wouldn't be my brother anymore". So i have just gotten use to the idea of being single my whole life. So i don't have to deal with my family and i don't have to put anyone through being related to them. Even through a relationship or mariage.

Oh no.... No Cooper, don't fuck it up again!

i think he just needs a breath and some time to think what to do next x3

dear artist, please make cooper be brave

dont run your best friend love yaaaa dont pleaseee dont

How bout you let the artist tell the story

why do you have to say that? xD

Sorry bud, the rest of us are patient.

Especially considering we already knew he was releasing pages more quickly on Patreon, and that you just confirmed there's essentially no excuse for him not having posted the next page here since it's been two weeks since this page was posted.

without people pledging to his patreon this comic would exist. they deserve to get some early access

This comment is great incentive for supporting the Patreon.

Nothing spells bad time like a panic attack. :\

Cooper having a panic attack? That's NEEEEEEVER happened bef-yeah, it's not that surprising, considering past incidents.

Its called flashback Terror aka Nightmare. Tho, if an outcome where to ladder his conscious mind, then its would be a lot worse than suffering A post-concussive syndrome.

Oh man you captured anxiety perfectly...

I'll have to second this comment. The voices that won't let you be, the agonizing feeling in your chest. Anxiety's a bitch.

And she just wont stop having puppies… (¬_¬);

this comment took me longer than it should have to understand. At first I thought you were talking about the ex-girlfriend in the story. And I was like "Whut? She hasn't had any children." And then I reread it in the context of "Anxiety's a bitch". And I felt utterly stupid.

The question though is who's the father?

No worries, It happens to everyone now and then.

As for who the father is… Hard to tell really. Anxiety is also a bit of a "slut" in that reguard. It depends on each individual she likes to screw with…(Um… no pun intended).

In context for Cooper specifically: Preasure for good grades, finding his father dead, the absence of his mother, the general fear of being gay, the paranoia that comes with being in the "In Crowd", uncertainty, general depression…

The list could go on, but the main two seem to be "Life" and "Karma".

The absence of Cooper's mother. I thought Coops was calling out to her when his father died and I'm guessing she would have came running, but the scene ended without showing that bit.?

I'm still very confused on the whole subject of Coop's mother. We've never seen or heard from her. And being friends with Andy's mom, I'm guessing she would maybe be a little more open to homosexuality than Coop's father was so I would think she would make good support for her son and what he's going through. Maybe, it's what Jackaloo has in mind????

Hello anxiety.

Noooooooo... plz ... :/

Poor pupper, he needs a hug

I have the impression that Cooper saw a memory from years earlier in the form of a nightmare.

wow this page was really well done!!

Thank you so much for this comic, I enjoy every page. The characters are nicely drawn, I love their personalities and most importantly the story is amusing, keep it up!

Nice visual representation of anxiety there

Wow this story is deep. I feel you should have a dedicated helpline for those affected :O

Good ol Anxiety... at least with his he can move. When they are so bad all you can do is curl up an want to scream...
Nice representation, no shock he is having one considering the amalgamation of messed of shit he has done.

no shock he is having one considering the amalgamation of messed up shit he has been through.

FTFY

He's done bad things, but some (if not most) of the blame lies in his upbringing. He's still young—people don't recover from these things quickly, something I recently learned, the hard way.

Some people get over their upbringing in a matter of a few years. Some never do. Hard to reprogram an indoctrinated mind.

Yep

I want to know that "Ba-Thump?! Ba-Thump!", where is that sound

That is the sound of the heartbeat.

Lub dub. Lub dub.

I think Cooper had a nightmare about both his homophobic father haunting him and his ex girlfriend telling everyone what he did.

The suspense is real.

Anxiety attack oh now!

D: Panic attack time?

I can’t get over how well drawn coops legs are in the last panel.

Yes, such a sexy slide off the bed in those hot red pants! I Coop.

Realistic depiction of an anxiety attack

The facial expressions are spot on!

I really love the comic. It inspired me to write my own story.

Aww. :(

Poor Cooper. Don’t be scared. Embrace your love.

Oh look, anxiety rearing its ugly head.

Too relatable. Is this accurate through personal experience or did you ask someone to make sure you'd get it right?

I've been through bouts of anxiety at some points in my life where it was so bad that I wasn't able to sleep in my own bed so I slept in my car outside my home. My friends have been through some stuff too, so I wanted to include little themes of combating anxiety throughout the comic :o

And such an epic reaction to the panic attack that only someone as adorable as Cooper (and definitely Gary as well ) can display with excellence!

Wonderfully drawn, Jackaloo!

That's terrible, and a worthy goal. Thank you for that.

Used to have panic attacks in high school all the time. I learned breathing techniques and that helped out a lot. After a bit of therapy they pretty much stopped altogether

It's hard for me to think someone like Cooper would even have them. But looking at all the things he holds back it would make sense. Hopefully he can get past it all and be himself. It's a rather liberating feeling not worrying what others think.

Panic attacks are terrible!

Literally me.

Whoa! This page is as exceptionally well done as this song and video: https://youtu.be/4zR0pxWsdOw .....except now Cooper will have to do everything....backwards!

Hit home pretty hard, anxiety sucks donkey balls.

Fantasticly done, highlighting the effect that is,

I love the fact that you overlaid some panels from page 7 on panels 4, 5, and 6! That gives us a faint idea of what he's dreaming about! I have never seen this done before! It's soooooo cool!^^

You're pathetic Cooper, very pathetic.

Deep down you can't accept what you are without still hating yourself, acting as if you have to "choose a side" when in reality you need to choose to be happy, WITHOUT hurting anyone in the process!

It's much more complicated than that. It's not about wether or not he's happy here.

That's how anxiety works. It's not something you can control. Everyone keeps acting as if "happily ever after" is a thing, but it's not. There's always something coming, something bothering you (wether you want it too or not) that fear, self-loathing and doubt builds up inside of you, festering and feeding itself until you either explode, break down, passout (from being unable to physically breath properly) or worse. It's a legitimate mental problem that frankly calling Cooper "pathetic" doesn't help.

You're right, he has to work for it and do what he can to not hurt others in the process of helping himself, but it's certainly not as simple (let alone easy) as "choosing to be happy". Saying something like that is like seeing someone with a broken leg and telling them to just walk it off. But calling them "pathetic" is like kicking them in the broken leg before telling them to walk it off.

Exactly what cobalt said. Chronic Anxiety is not something that is easy to fix. Having had several friends who have this issue I can totally understand what Cooper is going through. Coop’s not exactly been in a situation where being gay is accepted. His father was a bigoted drunk who—while not shown in the comic—was obviously abusive toward his son. At least mentally if not physically. His high school ‘friends’ were a toxic group who obviously were homophobic themselves. All Cooper has known his entire life is Homophobia and abuse. Do you really think someone in this situation, especially one who values others’ opinions of him over his own as Coop obviously does would be able to deal with his homo/bisexuality in a constructive matter? No. They wouldn’t. Calling him pathetic and telling him that he can “choose to be happy” is about as toxic as telling someone who is suicidal to go off themselves. So please, check your assumptions at the door. Think before your fingers disgrace your keyboard with poison.

I agree with you both. I live with homophobic relatives who say homosexuality is what's wrong with the world today and they say God hates them and won't ever accept them. And I have to hear all this Religious nonsense when I myself am not Gay but am an Ally to LGBTs. It's just as painful and toxic when people who have gay friends are forced to hear hatred and bigotry words towards their friends and say "They are disgusting, disobedient people who spit in God's face with same sex marriage." It gives me anxiety to hear that my best friends can't get married because it "upsets God marriage plan" when in reality, I know God does allow Same sex marriage and Loves his Gay children. The only sin I see, is Homophobia! And this fear has to go away forever!

Had these experiences before, you honestly feel depressed like your life is over

Anxiety attack (nod nods) Poor Cooper, I knew there might be repercussions mentally at least.

He's gunna fuck this up. Bet.

I dunno what Cooper expects to do, if he tries to deny it Chelsea will just tell everyone he kissed Andy and it'll get out anyway. And if he tries to make it up to Chelsea he's gonna break Andys heart and fuck things up anymore.

If he was any kind of a man he'd face it and embrace it, just accept his feeling instead of giving into the fear of how people will think of him if they find out his gay (and yeah I'm saying gay, because he couldn't get it up for Chelsea, and only tried to act straight because his awful upbringing made it so he felt he had to)

Never had anything like this happen, thank fully I have no social life, never dated, got absolutely no game whatsoever and when I realised I was bisexual the only ones I had to come out to was my brother, my mother and my father and I've not see much of my father ever since.

I know exactly that loud sound you get in your sleep/mind before waking up suddenly.

Poor Cooper. Now I really feel bad for him.

Oh god cooper :/

This page is so personal to me. I....I just don't even know what to say, but thank you Jack. Thank you for understanding, and thank you for putting this into your art cuz this is real life. Coming to terms with your bisexuality is really scary and confusing. The anxiety is like an avalanche. Artists like you are the reason I'm a part of this community.

Now imagine the anxiety of being male and not being able to even feign interest in females—while being raised by bible-thumpers!

(No disrespect intended, just adding to the "Anxiety's a Bitch" landscape we're painting here!)

No yeah absolutely! At least I could be happy with a woman, but gay people can never be truly happy if they are dating the other sex cuz they're masking their true feelings. I totally understand my dude. Realizing you're bi though is just a weird experience, because you like women but are still drawn to men, and as a young guy in high school in the Bible belt (just like you) back in the day it was just a confusing storm of emotions.
Cooper still likes women, but he loves Andy. He has this innate sense that being gay is wrong and that's not who he is and that's why he's scared of these feelings. Coming to terms with your bisexuality at it's finest.
I'm glad we can talk about these kind of things freely around the art and stories that we love

That's how I grew up.

Who is coopers ex girlfriend?, is it chelsea?

Your story is so interesting that not even jack off , I only wanna REEEEEEEEAAAAAAAD!!!!

helo darkness my old friend

Feel so bad for Cooper: Looks like hs panic attacks haven't ended.

I started screaming “BA-THUMP” so loud I nearly woke up my parents lol

Kinda reading through the older stuff while I wait for the quarterly new pages, and I realized something while reading this page of the comic...

Just reading it almost gave me an anxiety attack.

You nailed it, far too accurately. Kinda like Savings Private Ryan did and sent vets back into therapy. >_<

I was just about to say the same thing when I saw your comment. This page makes my heart race. Well done, Jackaloo!

Anxiety attack. Happy I don't get them.

Anxiety, aka the worst shit ever.

Oh man, I’ve had dreams like that.

Bi panic. XD