Elvie #116
Apr09
on April 9, 2026
at 3:29 pm
This strip first appeared in issue #276 of Linux Magazine. Although a little exaggerated,
this strip was borne of Mark’s real experience as a professional front-end web application developer.
Fork this comic (or just grab the source files) on GitHub
↓ Transcript
[Panel 1: James and Elvie are sitting on a sofa, chatting]
James: So what do you actually *do* as a front-end web developer?
Elvie: About 10% of my time is spent writing new front-end code, while another 20% is spent fixing the code I wrote previously.
[Panel 2]
James: And the other 70%?
Elvie: I spend that digging through unfamiliar corners of the codebase attempting to get to the bottom of an issue, only to discover it was a back-end problem all along.
James: So what do you actually *do* as a front-end web developer?
Elvie: About 10% of my time is spent writing new front-end code, while another 20% is spent fixing the code I wrote previously.
[Panel 2]
James: And the other 70%?
Elvie: I spend that digging through unfamiliar corners of the codebase attempting to get to the bottom of an issue, only to discover it was a back-end problem all along.
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