Hourly Comics Day 2020

"Hourly Comics Day 2020" is a series of comics that were all posted on February 1st, 2020. Starting with 11am, a new comic was drawn every hour, leading to a total of thirteen comics. Due to a new comic being posted every hour, they were drawn with much less detail than usual, using minimal background elements, and characters being drawn much more simplistically with a single colored outline.

Despite their simplicity, the hourly comics led to the debut of various characters in the series, widely expanding the cast from what had appeared in comics prior.

Description
Ikkan, confused and maybe slightly panicked, asks what Warabi is doing. Warabi, who is hitting a rock tied to a rope with a baseball bat, asks if Ikkan is asking a rhetorical question.

Characters

 * Ikkan (debut)
 * Warabi (debut)

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of Ikkan and Warabi.
 * What Warabi was going to hit with a baseball bat was not decided by the comic artist, but rather asked in a discord server. She chose the rock dangling from a rope because she thought it was the most baffling, therefore most perfect choice.

Description
Ikkan, extremely panicked, asks once again what Warabi is doing. Warabi, who is freeing DJ Octavio from his snowglobe with a baseball bat, asks once again if that was a rhetorical question.

Characters

 * Ikkan
 * Warabi
 * DJ Octavio (debut)

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of DJ Octavio.
 * The punchline of this comic was another suggestion from the Discord server. It was decided to be the second part of a series for a sense of escalation.

Description
Ikkan, tired of Warabi's antics, asks once again what they are doing. Warabi remarks that they are simply playing baseball, and that they wish Ikkan trusted them more.

Characters

 * Ikkan
 * Warabi

Trivia

 * This punchline was considered for the first Warabat comic, but the comic artist ultimately decided it would be funnier following the first two.

Description
A reporter is asking Karen what inspired her to start Ink Theory. She reminisces, remembering when she was first preparing to listen to Hightide Era, clueless what she was getting herself into.

Characters

 * Karen
 * Reporter (heard offscreen)

Trivia

 * This comic is a reference to the "Hmmm... Today I will listen to X" meme. The comic artist tried her hardest to replicate the expressions from that meme, but it's extremely difficult since Karen is a nautilus whose face doesn't resemble anything remotely human.
 * The sundress Karen wears in this comic is a reference to her "casual outfit" seen in earlier comics.

Description
Karla and a jellyfish attempt to engage in meaningful conversation, but neither of them particularly feel like talking. That, or one of them is actually incapable of talking.

Characters

 * Karla (debut)
 * A jellyfish

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of Karla in a comic.

Description
Noizy asks Paruko if she has any games on her phone. Paruko, confused, remarks that she's playing on a Game Boy Color.

Characters

 * Paruko
 * Noizy

Trivia

 * The punchline of this comic is a direct callback to "Gaymer Girl," where Paruko realizes she's trying to text someone on a Game Boy Color.

Description
Mizole, trying to be funny, asks Kagi why he's feeling so blue. Cut to Mizole consoling Kagi, promising to do what he can to cheer him up.

Characters

 * Mizole
 * Kagi (debut)

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of Kagi.
 * Originally, the punchline of this comic was going to be entirely different, with Kagi, slightly offended by Mizole's remark, questions why he ever let him in the band. Realizing that Mizole was being written as way too unlikable a character, the punchline of this comic was changed to show that Mizole isn't entirely an awful person.

Description
Kitamura and Murasaki are talking to each other, remarking how many similarities they have, both being urchin drummers who are trans and gay. However, both of them add at the end that they are gay for a different gender.

Characters

 * Kitamura
 * Murasaki (debut)

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of Murasaki.

Description
Kuze is sitting inside a restaurant, preparing to eat a plate of mozuku seaweed. Tangle, outside, is shocked, believing it to be his father.

Characters

 * Kuze (debut)
 * Tangle (debut)

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of Kuze and Tangle.
 * At a single panel, this is the shortest of all the comics in the series.

Description
Yoko is preparing to take her estrogen medications, remarking that while it's nice to be on HRT, she wishes it worked faster. She realizes she can easily speed up the process, just by modifying her player settings.

Characters

 * Yoko

Trivia

 * This is the first comic that explicitly breaks the fourth wall. How canon it is, I'll let you decide.
 * While Hourly Comics Day is typically autobiographical, the comic artist forgoed that, preferring to draw more Splatoon comics instead. However, she did time this one specifically to correspond with the time she takes her own estrogen medications.

Description
Mizole, trying to get a soda for Kagi, asks if Kazami is willing to help him out. Kazami agrees, only to throw him a Fizzy Bomb instead, which explodes in his face. Kazami is amused. Mizole isn't.

Characters

 * Mizole
 * Kazami

Trivia

 * This is a direct follow-up to the 5pm comic, "Why So Blue?".

Description
Nishida and Taichi meet up, and Nishida asks Taichi if he can show him any of his hot licks. Taichi agrees, showing off his hot licks by literally licking the guitar.

Characters

 * Nishida (debut)
 * Taichi (debut)

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of both Nishida and Taichi.

Description
The first panel shows a close-up of someone reading the Imagine Inkopolis magazine, which is then revealed to be Dedf1sh, alone in the Deepsea Metro. The train drifts through space, with no one else around for miles.

Characters

 * Dedf1sh

Trivia

 * This marks the first appearance of Dedf1sh.
 * This oddly depressing end note was decided on since the comic artist simply believed it wouldn't be fitting to end the day on some random joke comic.