Nothing Doing

p1: Autumn is sitting on a stool, addressing the audience. Autumn: Until today, the topic of AI in the workplace has gone undiscussed in this here comic strip. Given its nature, it feels like a substantial omission. Frankly, the degree to which we think it’s suck-ass makes it difficult to voice a more meaningful critique beyond “doesn’t this suck ass?” Still, we must satisfy the pedantic dweeb in our hearts. To that end, the cast of Nothing Doing now presents to you “Basically Every Comic We Would Make About AI” p2: Harvey is reading papers at a table. Harvey: Ok, next item on the agenda. In the interest of providing the most cutting-edge service for our customers, we have secured each of you a license to use the suicide engine. p3: Across from Harvey, the King of Sales sits tiredly while Autumn concernedly raises a hand. H: On each of your desks is a hammer, and- what’s up, Autumn? A: I don’t want to use the suicide engine p4: Harvey rolls his eyes at an unconvinced Autumn. H: Autumn, it’s impossible for a company to stay competitive and relevant in today’s market without embracing suicide. If you don’t start killing yourselves now, we’re going to get left behind

Nothing Doing no. 62

p1: Autumn is sitting on a stool, addressing the audience. Autumn: Until today, the topic of AI in the workplace has gone undiscussed in this here comic strip. Given its nature, it feels like a substantial omission. Frankly, the degree to which we think it’s suck-ass makes it difficult to voice a more meaningful critique beyond “doesn’t this suck ass?” Still, we must satisfy the pedantic dweeb in our hearts. To that end, the cast of Nothing Doing now presents to you “Basically Every Comic We Would Make About AI” p2: Harvey is reading papers at a table. Harvey: Ok, next item on the agenda. In the interest of providing the most cutting-edge service for our customers, we have secured each of you a license to use the suicide engine. p3: Across from Harvey, the King of Sales sits tiredly while Autumn concernedly raises a hand. H: On each of your desks is a hammer, and- what’s up, Autumn? A: I don’t want to use the suicide engine p4: Harvey rolls his eyes at an unconvinced Autumn. H: Autumn, it’s impossible for a company to stay competitive and relevant in today’s market without embracing suicide. If you don’t start killing yourselves now, we’re going to get left behind

Nothing Doing no. 62

Autumn, Summer, And Jeanie from the webcomic, "Nothing Doing by @horseonvhs.com

🎨 Nothing Doing 📝@horseonvhs.com @nothingdoingcomic.bsky.social

We’re still some time out from the return of regular strips but I’ve had this one drawn for a bit and it felt like a good time to share. Not sure if this new page format + full b/w will stick around but it’s good to experiment with this sort of thing. Happiest of years to you and yours

p1: Autumn is walking away from their apartment complex. p2: They are walking on the sidewalk towards a wooded area, where a sign reads “Creek Trail” with an arrow pointing to the woods. p3: They walk happily along a path through the trees. p4: Reaching the edge of a creek, they smile and inhale, leaning back. p5: They lean down and scream at their reflection in the creek. Autumn: Get a grip!!!

Nothing Doing no. 61

A two panel comic with Autumn and Summer from Nothing Doing. Autumn is wearing skull facepaint and a shirt with a rib cage and spine on it; Summer is dressed normally. Both are holding solo cups, and there are pumpkin decorations on the wall. p1 - Autumn: Oh, uh, skeleman. Scary skeleman. …no i’m pretty sure I said it right. Summer: I’m a sexy cartoon character. p2 - A: You aren’t wearing a costume. S: And baby don’t I know it~

happy hallows

#nothingdoing

Jeanie from Nothing Doing prancing along in front of a wobbly blue grid background, wearing a long gray coat with white collar, a blue turtleneck, blue mittens, black leggings and a gray beanie as well as some wintery-looking boots

A panel of Autumn from Nothing Doing looking very muppety saying "So there's this whole other world called Lyoko" overlaid on top of another panel of Vee from Nothing Doing looking strained as they consciously suppress their remembrance of the Code Lyoko theme tune (Code Lyoko, we'll be standing tall / Code Lyoko, stronger after all) and say "That's great man"

autumn is showing something on their laptop to an unimpressed summer. autumn: and if you look closely you can tell they reused footage from an earlier scene. see, the background changes for a sec. summer: please stop showing me hentai videos unprompted.

drawings for @horseonvhs.com of @nothingdoingcomic.bsky.social

happy birthday @horseonvhs.com

a scanned marker drawing by @batshaped.bsky.social of Autumn from Nothing Doing reading Joseph Heller's Catch 22, looking troubled by the plight of Captain Yossarian and company.

commissioned this ridiculously good autumn from @batshaped.bsky.social at everfree northwest this weekend, have been holding it very close to my face and going "wow" at the colors ever since

It's never been a better time to jump into nothing doing, or do a reread from the start. It's got alt text on the website! horseonvhs.com/nothingdoing

And that’s it for this little arc! Now that it’s wrapped up, the comic’s going to go on a break for a while. I’ve taken a few big breaks since starting, but this one will be a bit longer than usual - aiming vaguely to return some time next spring [continued]

If you read primarily on socials, I’d recommend subscribing to either the RSS feed (linked at the bottom of the website) or to my newsletter at buttondown.com/horseonvhs so you can see new updates as soon as they’re available. See you in 2026, and as always, thanks for reading!

p1: Autumn and Summer are walking away from Jeanie’s desk, smiling and exchanging goodbyes. Autumn: …Cool, so we’ll be at your place around noon and we can head to the theater from there. See you tomorrow! Jeanie: Yeah, sounds great! Have a good night! p2: Jeanie beams quietly at her desk. From off-panel, someone starts screaming. p3: Jeanie looks to her side, where the screaming skull floats in its tube, screaming. p4: Jeanie rolls her chair over to the screaming skull, hugging the tube tightly with a gentle smile. J: Don’t worry… you’re still my favorite

Nothing Doing no. 60

p1: Jeanie, Autumn and Summer are now outside, the former two sitting on the sidewalk while Summer stands and looks off into the distance. Jeanie: Sorry I made such a mess of things… I was just so worried you might think I wasn’t worth hanging out with. It’s been a while since I’ve spent much time with other people… p2: Jeanie begins to spiral, looking panicked and pushing her ears against her head.J: It’s just, tough, when you have so many responsibilities, and you work separately from everyone else, and you sit next to a psychic skull that’s always screaming and you don’t know if it’s alive or dead but you do know that you share a bond nobody could ever understand, p3: Autumn, smiling, places a sympathetic hand on teary-eyed Jeanie’s back. Autumn:Gosh, Jeanie, I had no idea you felt that way… to tell you the truth, I was just as worried that’s what you’d think about me! J: Snff… R-Really? p4: Autumn begins rattling off the moral of the day as Summer, suddenly panicked, interrupts them and starts lifting them up from the ground. A: Y’know, it’s funny… we were each so wrapped up in… that we never…. Both be nervous… selves our…. goes to show…. feelings… Summer: Ok yep we’ve all learned a lesson about making asses of you and me or whatever now how about we discuss it further away from those cops that just pulled up

Nothing Doing no. 59

p1: A person in a domino costume is holding a beer and talking to somebody off-panel. Jeanie is walking up behind them, distracted by the ridiculous assortment of drinks she is carrying. Domino Alpha: …and then he’s all, you really sleep in that, and I’m like excuse me for taking my work seriously p2: Jeanie bumps into the domino person. As Jeanie drops her drinks and steps back, the first domino begins to topple towards their similarly-dressed companion. DA: And so-- whoa! Jeanie: Gah! p3: The dominos fall backwards, knocking down the rest of the crowd that was standing in front of the band. Jeanie falls back as well, having dropped her drinks all over the floor. As the band steps back, the guy closest to the stage looses hold of his beer which flies towards the leftmost amp. p4: The beer splashes on the amp, which begins sparking. p5: Smoke begins pouring out of the amp as it starts to sizzle.

p6: As the smoke alarm goes off, Jeanie lays on the ground with the rest of the shocked crowd. The snake from the band sprays the amp with a fire extinguisher while the rest of the band looks on. Other onlookers, including Summer and Autumn, stare at the mess. p7: Summer and Autumn, stunned, look at the fallen crowd. Autumn: Maybe we should go. Summer: Good idea

Nothing Doing no. 58

much appreciated and glad to hear it!

p1: Summer watches as Jeanie, looking startled but purposeful, marches away from their booth. Autumn, barely visible from behind the booth, bemoans the scenario. Autumn: Well, there goes Jeanie. I’m asked to talk about myself for two seconds and I can’t help but scare her off. p2: Autumn, head in their hands, leans down towards the table as Summer pats their back. Summer: Come on, it wasn’t that bad. At least you were smiling! Or, well, you were for sure showing your teeth. A: Ugh I knew I couldn’t do this… she must think I’m such a freak p3: Jeanie walks towards the bar, rubbing her hands together nervously. Jeanie, thinking: I can’t believe it… zines! Only the most interesting and sexually dynamic people make those! And they know themself so well -- I feel like I don’t know anything! They both must think I’m so boring… I gotta show them I’m cool… exciting! p4: Jeanie, looking scared, slams her hands down on the bar, startling the raccoon bartender who is popping the bottlecap off a beer. J: GIVE ME AS MANY DRINKS AS IT TAKES TO MAKE ME EXCITING, please

Nothing Doing no. 57

i’ll take a look at it - it’s showing up normally on the reader i use to test it, but i’ve been told it’s completely broken on some others so i think it’ll need an overhaul soon anyways. thanks for the heads-up!

p1: Summer, Autumn and Jeanie are sitting in their booth, now with a glass of wine, a beer, and a seltzer respectively. Summer and Jeanie are smiling while Autumn blankly looks downward. Summer: …so they wrote the articles, I did the layout, and we’d tape ‘em up in the bathroom stalls every week. The perfect captive audience for a dorm newsletter. Jeanie: Haha, that’s so funny! Gosh, it must have been great to get to work on that together. p2: Summer and Jeanie look to Autumn, who surprisedly looks up. S: We’ve actually worked on a few projects together since then! For a while Autumn had me doing the covers for their zine. J: Oh whoa, you make zines? That’s so cool! Autumn: Oh! Uh, yeah, I mean, I did for a bit p3: Autumn, awkwardly smiling, peels the label off their beer. A: It wasn’t a huge thing really, just a little creative exercise… basically I was going out for breakfast at different diners and writing reviews and stuff. It was fun, but, y’know, one day it started feeling pointless… that’s, kind of a trend with me these days aheheh p4: Summer and Jeanie stare at Autumn as they start to blush. p5: Autumn cringes as Jeanie, looking uncomfortable, smiles and stands up. S: They also had riddles in the back J: HEY who wants another drink!

Nothing Doing no. 56

p1: Summer and Autumn are walking into a crowded bar, with a band setting up on stage consisting of five trumpet players with an amp on either side of the stage. A bunch of people are clustered into little groups throughout the room. Jeanie is waiting at a booth in the back and stands up as she sees the two of them. Summer: Jeanie, hey! Jeanie: Hi Summer, hi Autumn! I’ve been here a regular amount of time! p2: Autumn scoots into the booth as Summer continues talking to the now-seated Jeanie. S: Haha yeah, sorry we were a little late. Hope you weren’t too bored waiting. J: That’s ok! I’ve been having fun watching the band get set up. I didn’t know you two liked ska! p3: Autumn, now settled, looks a bit skeptical as Summer smiles and joins them in the booth. A: Honestly it… doesn’t do much for me. But I think if I listen to enough maybe I’ll get inoculated. S: I just close my eyes and think about skateboards

Nothing Doing no. 55

p1: Jeanie, reflected in her bathroom mirror, is giving herself a pep talk. Jeanie: Calm down… you got this! Summer and Autumn are nice! They’re gonna love you! p2: She begins brushing her poof of hair. J: You’ll have fun! You’ll bond! Maybe they’ll even give you a nickname! Like… “Jolly J” or “Jee Wiz” p3: Jeanie stops brushing and looks down hesitantly. J: …gosh those are terrible. Can you… can you say no to a nickname? Is that allowed? p4: She stands with her hands on her hips and a strained smile on her face. J: Well, guess I… just gotta get used to it. Hi, I’m Jolly J. Jolly J, that’s my name. All my friends call me Jolly J

Nothing Doing no. 54

a comic with a school-age Jeanie from Nothing Doing sitting alongside an unnamed fox girl. p1: The two are sitting at their desks, Jeanie putting away a book and fox girl talking to her. Fox Girl: hey Jeanie, did you know if your hand is bigger than your face it means you’re gay? p2: Jeanie raises her hand up to her face while the fox girl rears back to slap it. Jeanie: Wait, really? p3: Someone off-panel says something indistinct, which distracts the fox girl. Fox Girl: Oh yeah, be right there p4: Jeanie, now alone, continues staring at her hand, which while big is not as big as her face. p5: She keeps staring. p6: She blushes. Jeanie, thinking: I guess those dreams really don’t mean anything.

young Jeanie adventures

a sketchy digital painting of Autumn from Nothing Doing, younger, with a big sweater and a fully red mullet, leaning against a pole. The lighting is similar to game boy era pokemon artwork by Ken Sugimori, though i could have been braver with the big white areas.

the red one

I feel like once in a while she’d get all dolled up @horseonvhs.com

website connection issue should be resolved but since the problem only happened Sometimes it's hard to know for sure. if you try to visit the site and it fails to load, please let me know so i can hit it with a different hammer