Grey Areas

The Grey Areas. A neutral zone that is supposedly neutral, but in reality is not a neutral zone. God, however, has imposed terms and conditions that are black and white, meaning he wants us to stay out of the grey areas.

In light of third-party archivists getting deplatformed for violating copyright regulations that are getting stricter, this comic about the grey areas could become more relevant in the future. If you want to truly live, stay out of the grey areas.

Swimming Pool Matriarch Visual Gag Variations 10

Hey, folks. It's been a while since the previous Matriarch of the Swimming Pool visual gag variations comic. Hopefully this one will be my last Matriarch of the Swimming Pool visual gag variations comic due to creative burnout, family issues, and a world whose turmoil continues to grow.

In December 2025, the Yona of the Dawn manga finally reached its conclusion. The final chapter ended with Yona becoming Queen of Kouka. How's that for a happy ending?

Judging by her medical expertise, resourcefulness, analytical mindset and calm under pressure, Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries would fit well in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit from the TV series M*A*S*H.

I'm very sure the Super Horn from Mario Kart 8 was the product of Professor Elvin Gadd and Dr Crygor being obsessed with ending the infamous Spiny Shell's reign of terror.

Despite their leftist leanings, Mastodon and Bluesky are blocked in Mainland China. Looks like the Communist regime in China is terrified of progressivism...

If there was one major commercial failure that was made by Samsung that surpassed the Nuon, it has to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Before the Samsung Galaxy Note 7's infamous exploding batteries, the biggest failure made by Samsung was the Nuon, a DVD/game console platform that tried too hard to be both a DVD Player and a gaming console just like Sony's PlayStation 2, but ended up a commercial failure. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7, however, took commercial failure to a fiery new level. There were injuries and property damage due to the battery fires. Thankfully, no one died from this fiasco. There was, however, a huge recall due to the fires. As a result, battery safety was drastically improved.

China's aircraft carriers are struggling with combat readiness issues. Some analysts say that Mainland China will have no more aircraft carriers by the time they conquer Taiwan. This is not a good sign for the administration in Beijing because their ambitions for world domination will be shaken to its very foundations if they learn the truth about their aircraft carriers' lack of combat readiness...

Four Fan Arts Entry

Characters in this #FourFanArts Challenge Entry: AOL Instant Messenger Running Man, The Peanut Butter Jelly Time Dancing Banana, Jennifer (Hebereke), Star Pixie (MapleStory).

You have heard about the #SixFanArts Challenge. But what about the lite variants such as the #ThreeFanArts Challenge and the #FourFanArts Challenge? Well, this comic is taking on the #FourFanArts Challenge.

Do you remember the time when AOL Instant Messenger once ruled the messaging scene? Its mascot, a yellow Running Man, became an iconic figure because he was everywhere—on the login screen, in the ads and even on AOL CDs that flooded mailboxes in the late 1990s.

The Dancing Banana needs no introduction whatsoever. Created by Trym Stene in 1999, the Dancing Banana GIF only soared in popularity when it got combined with the song "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" by DJ Chip-Man and The Buckwheat Boyz in the early 2000s. And yes, there is a lot of fan art of this Dancing Banana on the Internet.

You may have heard about Hebereke, but what about the titular character's other friends? Jennifer the green anglerfish deserves some love too since he's the 4th member of the main cast and is able to walk underwater.

While MapleStory fans often like to talk about the Orange Mushrooms, the Slimes, and several major bosses such as Pink Bean and Zakum, the Star Pixie, however, gets very little attention from Nexon and MapleStory fans. It may have been featured in a few official MapleStory wallpapers, but it rarely got the spotlight from Nexon. So much for being overshadowed by multiple different characters.

Overdue Cessation of Operations

Remember that comic about Cohost closing down? Well, this already happened to Japanese web portal Goo, and now this is happening to the Lycos-owned website hosting services Tripod and Angelfire, both of which have been around since the mid-1990s. However, some netizens say that this closure was long overdue, while others will lament over this closure, calling it the end of an era, which is actually true.

As depressing as this sounds, maybe we need to heed the words of Isaiah 43:18-19, which has been discouraging us from dwelling on the past, whether it's good or bad. Eventually, we will have to embrace the post-Apocalyptic future, where traces of this present cruel Age no longer have any meaning other than to serve as a reminder of a bygone Era.

Piracy Tax

Emergency Alert! Italian netizens' freedoms are under threat from a piracy tax that demands all who use cloud storage to pay a tax even if they did not violate any anti-piracy laws whatsoever! Benito Mussolini's ideology has risen from its grave, and this is a bad omen for Italy and the whole world!

While the world was holding its breath during Operation Epic Fury, which saw the death of Ayatollah Khamenei, and the Iranian Navy suffering its Pearl Harbor moment, resulting in Iran suffering a far worse humiliation that surpassed Operation Midnight Hammer, Italy's copyright regulatory board was imposing a piracy tax on Italian netizens, regardless of whether they violated any anti-piracy laws or not. This is tyranny that would make the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) look like a weak attempt to overtake the European Union's copyright regulations, which it is...

Before the ratification of the so-called Sonny Bono Act that gave rise to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the European Union has always wanted to impose a global copyright regulatory system that many countries tried so hard to comply, but just could not meet its required standards. These copyright standards can be traced back to a 1939 copyright bill that was proposed by the Nazi regime in Germany, but was only ratified in 1965 by the Federal Republic. What the world does not realize is that de-Nazification turned out to be a farce, meaning the Federal Republic of Germany had essentially ratified a copyright regulation that was proposed by the Nazis. This in turn, led to European Union member states such as France and Italy adopting Germany's copyright laws. Even worse still, Germany's copyright offices were run by former Nazis, and it was Germany's copyright offices that came up with the copyright regulations that copyright trolls falsely accuse netizens of violating.

We think the so-called Sonny Bono Act that led to the ratification of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was a nefarious plot by Hollywood and Disney to expand their property rights. Contrary to popular belief, the DMCA was in reality, a pathetic attempt by the Bill Clinton administration to align America's copyright regulations with the European Union's standards. Those standards, however, had their origins in a 1939 copyright bill that the Nazis proposed, but did not get ratified due to World War 2, and was only passed in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1965.

For those who think Nazism and Fascism died along with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, they are dead wrong. Revelation 17:8 speaks about a beast that "was, and is not, and yet is". This final resurrection of the Roman Empire is taking over copyright law, and it will have the whole world under its iron grip once more. However, it will meet its doom. First, it will be crippled by a coalition of Communist rogue states, then it will get finished off by the return of Jesus Christ. The Roman Beast that keeps coming back will finally be cast down into the Lake of Fire, and it will die in Hellfire.

Memories of a Bygone Era

Images in this comic that will potentially invoke nostalgia for a bygone era, from left to right: Cayna and Silviana having baked potatoes with cheese and mashed potato toppings, Ramaya taking her skirt off at the beach, Tyris Flare and Ramaya doing the Epic Handshake, The Peanut Butter Jelly Time Dancing Banana saying his catchphrase.

Now that Ramaya from Arabian Fight and the Peanut Butter Jelly Time Dancing Banana have made their appearances in Neo Retro Union's comics, the big question is, who will be next?

Amid all the turmoil going on right now, be it the sour rivalry between the leftists and the rightists, the big revolt in Iran, China still being obsessed with ending the Century of Humiliation by force amid a severe downturn, and the Internet becoming more broken due to its ongoing balkanization at the hands of a European Beast whose rise continues unhindered despite the threats of rogue tyrants and terrorists, many netizens would love to remember a time when freedom of creativity wasn't threatened by dark forces that seek to weaponize regulations for imperialistic purposes, and I am one of those netizens...

Remember those times when we ate baked potatoes at restaurants? Those baked potatoes came with various toppings such as the baked potato toppings found in RuneScape (Cheese, Egg and Tomato, Tuna and Sweetcorn, etc.), meats, vegetables, mushrooms, and even mashed potatoes. In this comic, Cayna is having a baked potato with cheese, while Silviana is having a baked potato that has mashed potato topping. How I miss those good times...

Anyone who visits the beach, especially female characters, would like to get ready to hit the beach, and undressing at the beach is all too common. In this case, Ramaya from the obscure Sega arcade game Arabian Fight is taking her skirt off. Her crop top looks like a bra with short sleeves meaning all she needs to do is take her skirt off and she's ready to get wet in her crop top and panties.

Remember the Epic Handshakes comic that I made back in 2024? Well, the third panel in this comic is a continuation of that Epic Handshakes comic. This panel features Tyris Flare from Golden Axe and Ramaya from Arabian Fight doing the Epic Handshake because they're both heroines from arcade beat 'em ups that are made by Sega. It's highly likely they are both excited about finding a lake they can go swimming in.

The Dancing Banana needs no introduction whatsoever. Created by Trym Stene in 1999, the Dancing Banana GIF only soared in popularity when it got combined with the song "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" by DJ Chip-Man and The Buckwheat Boyz in the early 2000s. Since then, the Peanut Butter Jelly Time Dancing Banana has always been the one person who keeps coming back when the Internet needs him most.

With all that said, we can all agree that we all miss the good times that are long gone. However, we must remember that there is a far brighter future that holds more happiness than the nostalgia of a bygone era.

Australia at 125

Fun Fact: The tanks that are talking about how much they miss the Australia of 2001 in this comic are tanks that served in the Australian Army. The tank on the left is an M1 Abrams, and the tank on the right is a Leopard AS1. Both tanks have a fan-made roundel specially made for this comic featuring a seven-pointed star one can find on the Australian flag.

It's sad to think about it, but the Australia of today is a far cry from the Australia of 2001. Back in those days, Holden was still around and it was manufacturing great cars such as the Holden Commodore. The early days of 2001 were also a much simpler time for Australian netizens back when they only had GeoCities and AOL Instant Messenger, and draconian internet regulations were non-existent. Today, the demise of Holden in 2021 is starting to become a forgotten memory, especially when Australia is now struggling to rein in violent crimes, cyberbullying and cyberterrorism through enforcing draconian regulations that are ironically doing more harm than good. In other words, Australia has become a prison like it's 1788 all over again, and it's all because Australians under 16 are prohibited from using social media, and don't even get started on the Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre...

To my Australian fans, Happy Australia Day.

Positive Wishes for the Future

The AOL Instant Messenger Running Man finally makes his debut in Neo Retro Union along with the Lemming from Exient's version of Lemmings.

With 2025 drawing to a close, we all wish for 2026 to be an Annus Mirabilis. Unfortunately, this may not be possible. However, this cruel Age will finally end, and the wishes of the AOL Instant Messenger Running Man, the Lemming and Pac-Man will finally come true because there will be no such thing as a Splinternet (A Balkanized version of the World Wide Web), stupidity will no longer exist, which will make Dietrich Bonhoeffer happy since he claimed that stupidity is a far greater threat than malice, and the flavours of the fruits that we eat will be drastically improved as a result of agricultural authorities going back to Nature's Laws of soil enrichment. All of these positive wishes will finally come true when the Demon King is finally kicked off his throne forever and locked up in the Bottomless Pit for 1000 years.

In need of an Annus Mirabilis...

Our world is depressed. 2025 hasn't ended yet, and it's turning out to be yet another Annus Horribilis. From the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act forcing British netizens to comply with draconian regulations that infringe on netizens' privacy, to the deaths of celebrity icons such as Connie Francis, Hulk Hogan and Maru the Cat, the amount of depression Earth is going through in the lead-up to the Great Tribulation is far worse than you think, and this is not even factoring in the firestorm in California, the hurricanes and typhoons, the plane crashes, the Indo-Pakistani Border Conflict, and the Thailand-Cambodia Border Conflict.

If 2025 isn't a positive year, don't get your hopes high on 2026. You want a real Annus Mirabilis? The Second Coming of Jesus Christ is your best hope right now, for nothing else matters...

In Loving Memory of Maru the Cat

Sad news for all who love to watch cat videos on YouTube. Maru the Cat died on the 6th of September, 2025. With his death, a glorious era of cat videos rides into the sunset.

Since his birth in 2007, Maru the Cat has always been with us even in the darkest of times such as the 2011 East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami as well as the plague year that was 2020. Throughout his entire life, he proved that claustrophobia is not in his vocabulary by stuffing himself into tiny cardboard boxes. This made his cat videos so popular that he was listed on the Guinness World Records for being the most watched cat on YouTube in 2016.

Farewell, Maru. You were the very definition of the "If I fits, I sits" meme before it became mainstream.

Prohibited By Tribulation

How bad will the Great Tribulation be? Not only will the preaching of the true gospel be illegal in all parts of the Earth, VPNs and fair use of copyrighted content will also be forbidden as well. This in turn will lead to the true demise of Internet Archive, which had been targeted by lawsuits in recent years for violating copyright law. To make matters worse, the tyrannical regime of the Beast of Revelation 13 will forbid anyone who does not have his mark from engaging in business and commerce. In other words, free market commerce will cease to exist during the Great Tribulation. So much for all the attempts to resurrect the Roman Empire. Looks like the bad dream of Daniel 7 is actually real after all...

The Videos that made Internet History

Can you believe 20 years have passed since "Me at the zoo" and "My Snowboarding Skillz" made Internet History by being the first two videos to be uploaded on YouTube? Man, I really feel old...

IE SUCKS!

Unfortunately for Kirby, the pink amoeba found out the real reason why Internet users strongly dislike Internet Explorer.

Remember the infamous broken image icon? It has always been a huge nuisance to Internet users, regardless of its appearance.

Low Expectations For 2025

If the demise of Cohost and the Balkanization of the Internet is any indication, 2025 is not going to be an Annus Mirabilis whatsoever. To make matters worse, 2025 may be the year the tyrant who knows dark sentences rise, and his rise will be through flatteries. This tyrant will make war against many foes, including the King of the South, the Anglosphere, the Israeli Defence Forces, a conglomerate of rogue states, and the King of Kings himself.

Clip Art Nostalgia

Do you remember the times when we had to use clip art to create presentations for school or office projects? What about that time when we had to create flyers using Microsoft Office Publisher? If you can remember those times, then you have nostalgia for clip art.

The truth about clip art is that, contrary to its discontinuation by Microsoft Office in 2014, clip art never lost popularity because the stock image hosting websites did not kill clip art, but rather, they displaced Microsoft Office as the most popular source for clip art images. Not to mention that royalty-free stock images have far more appeal than the clip art images provided by Microsoft...

Memory Preservation

Remember GeoCities? That website was a place where you can create your own digital home in the days before Facebook, Twitter and even MySpace. While GeoCities no longer exist, a Tumblr account dedicated to the memory of GeoCities was established to ensure that even if GeoCities is gone, it will not be forgotten. You can even find Sailor Moon images and cat pictures that were uploaded to GeoCities on that Tumblr account. You just need to dig deep and search thoroughly.

All in all, I wish more effort was put into preserving the past. Therefore, archiving should not be outlawed for the sake of protecting intellectual properties or combating digital piracy.

A Note from a Time Traveler

Have you ever had a strange dream where you found one of those notes left behind by time travelers? This note is just one good example. In this case, the time traveler comes from the time after Christ's Second Coming. He had managed to create a time machine to deliver a note to someone from before the Great Tribulation. The note was sent back to the past to deliver a message of hope amid the coming doom and gloom, and it had this to say about a bright future:

1. People will stop arguing about who the true successor to the Roman Empire is because the Roman Empire no longer exists.

2. Tyrannical dictatorships will cease to exist.

3. There will be no more gridlocked democracies.

4. Humanity will observe the Anno Mundi Calendar.

5. There will be no more terrorist attacks against trains.

6. Weapons of war will be converted to farming equipment.

7. Harvests will be so bountiful that the combine harvesters can barely keep up with them.

8. Food quality and flavor will be drastically improved.

9. The very first YouTube video will finally get the grand remake it had been waiting for.

10. Cat videos still rule the Internet.

11. Tetris still remains very popular.

12. All of this and many other good things that are not on the list have been made possible because the Demon King who deceived Adam and Eve at the Garden of Eden had been thrown into the Bottomless Pit.

With all that said, a bright future awaits those who survived the Demon King's tyranny during the Great Tribulation, especially those who used to be the subjects of the dictators and tyrants who opposed Christ when he returned to Earth to prevent it from becoming tohu and bohu.

Lack of Respect for Fair Use

Credits to Sketchbook Silliness for providing the template for this comic.

German and Japanese netizens have already suffered enough misery. Unfortunately, the German and Japanese governments have been making their life more miserable for them by showing their disdain towards Fair Use. In fact, these two countries are imposing stricter copyright regulations that are believed to be responsible for all the copyright takedowns that have been happening over the last several years. Remember the infamous Article 13? According to German YouTube user APC227, the Article 13 copyright directive that wants copyright infringement gone from the Internet originated from Germany. But Germany isn't the only country that calls itself a democracy on paper that's censoring the Web on copyright grounds. Copyright infringement has been classified as a severe offence under Japan's anti-terrorism law. While there have been terrorist acts that were funded by copyright infringement, the act of copyright infringement is not serious enough an offence to be classified as a terrorist act. Looks like the losers of World War 2 want Fair Use gone from the World Wide Web, much to the chagrin of German and Japanese netizens...

TL;DR, Donald Trump's younger self from 1990 turned out to be right when he said that Germany and Japan were America's biggest enemies. So much for these two countries making billions at the expense of small businesses in America.

X will be back

Sad as it is, the leftists that are currently ruling Brazil have given the orders to block X in Brazil. However, rivals to Elon Musk's X have agreed to take in Brazilian netizens, and not to mention that VPN usage in Brazil will rise...

Then again, Elon Musk vowed to have the leftists who gave the orders to have X blocked in Brazil locked up in prison. Until then, X will have to say "adeus por enquanto" to Brazil.

For your knowledge, "adeus por enquanto" means "goodbye for now" in Portuguese.

Update 1: Bad News. The leftists that are ruling Brazil have threatened Brazilians with fines if they use VPNs. Looks like the Great Tribulation is coming faster than we expected...

Update 2: X is back in Brazil after the social media platform paid over $5 million in fines. As for how long its presence in Brazil will last, we do no know...

Disliked by the YouTubers

Sad news, folks. Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is dead. She will be dearly missed by countless YouTubers all over the world.

Just kidding. Susan Wojcicki was a terrible CEO who was disliked by countless YouTubers worldwide. She deserved to die from cancer for ruining the House that Jawed Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley built. Period.