Back of the Envelope

Sluggy Freelance — Alt-Zoe's dead, and we all expected Torg to get medieval on Horribus. Instead he acted with maturity and in favor of the big picture, having learned that "That which redeems, consumes." This has become a hotly debated topic on the Sluggy forums. I think it's remarkably, if unintentionally, compatible with Christian theology. I believe that redemption is a good thing, but it must be accepted, not earned, and the attempt to earn redemption will just lead to frustration, even consumption.

Scary Go Round — Just when it looks like she's in for it, Sherry's rescued by Tim in his submarine-blimp thing. Nobody believes her that the Men-o'-War intend to destroy humanity, but fortunately for mankind, Men-o'-War aren't exactly the most competent sea creatures.\

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Maritza's back! And Dave runs into Mrs. Green. Dave is always in trouble, but after he and Blue spent some quality naked time together, something had to happen lest his angst drop to dangerously low levels. At least she didn't find him during that quality naked time. Let's hope she doesn't know too much.

General Protection Fault — Sydney is Dwayne's three (or is it four) year old daughter, and she's precociously tech-savvy. She'll fit right in, assuming she doesn't give her father a heart attack first. Kids these days grow up way too fast.

Schlock Mercenary — So Kevyn's taken over, and he has no idea how much Petey has manipulated things so that would happen. Now it's up to the Reverend to give the memorial, but first he gets promoted so he can notify the next of kin.

Sluggy Freelance — Up until this week, I considered it possible, but not likely, that Torg would escape the DoP without doing any permanent harm and everything would return to normal. That's out. First, Horribus killed Mosp. Now, it looks like he's killed alt-Zoe. (No one really expected alt-Zoe to survive this storyline, but we've become attached to her by now. I especially liked her playfulness with Torg.) Horribus's odds of surviving this storyline have become infinitesimal. Now that Torg has the blood he needs to power his sword, it's time for Horribus to die. Whatever happens, the DoP is going to be changed forever.

Scary Go Round — Shelley goes shopping for a superhero car. Of course, being Shelley, she can't exactly afford the Batmobile. She'll have to settle for a submarine scooter.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — CRFH!!! has been on hiatus this week as Maritza has computer/power company/air conditioner problems. Yikes, that was trouble, but the comic should be back next week.

General Protection Fault — Cat fight! Sharon's and Ki's fight gets physical, only to have Dwayne announce that the project they're fighting over has been cancelled. Fortunately, the two make up quickly.

Schlock Mercenary — Kevyn drops the bomb and lets the troops know that Tagon is dead. He then claims command and is railroaded to the rank of captain. Kevyn has no plans to seek revenge on Tagon's death, but the same can't be said for the mercenary company whose leader Schlock killed.

I'm not adding this one to the sidebar right away, as I haven't finished reading the archives yet, but I spotted a new webcomic the other day (thanks to the Keenspot advertising on CRFH!!!). The comic is Count Your Sheep, which begins here. It doesn't contain the sort of epic storylines I usually look for, but it is funny and, well, cute. Maybe too cute. I'm having fun reading it so far, but it seems like it could get old quick. I'm going to have to read further in the archives before I reach a decision.

I was never a great believer in the concept that now that David Willis has departed from the role of evil webcartoonist to make light-hearted Roomies strips, other webcartoonists would rush in to fill in the void with their own evil. But in the weeks since It's Walky! came to a close with a reasonably happy ending, the other Webcartoonists I read have been killing important characters left and right. Howard Tayler killed off Captain Tagon, one of the main characters in his strip, and Maritza Campos has killed a minor but significant character, Mrs. Pepitone, the mother of a main character. She was evil, which is why Maritza was able to ratchet up the angst by having another main character do the killing. But now even Pete Abrams is killing off characters. Mosp, aka Amospia, has just been incinerated by Horribus. Like Mrs. Pepitone, Mosp was technically a minor character, but she was significant, especially to this storyline, and while she was not really a good guy, she died seeking redemption. I hope she found it. Rest in peace, Mosp.

Sluggy Freelance — Wow. Just... wow. This week we discover how Amospia and the Asps were merged into Mospinispinosp. It is a tragic tale of love, betrayal, and gross stupidity. I worry that there might be a parallel with Torg. Amospia sought to sacrifice her world for the sake of her lover. Torg might do the same. He doesn't particularly care about the Dimension of Lame or the Dimension of Pain, and if it came down to the choice of saving one or both of them or saving Alt-Zoe, he'd save Alt-Zoe without a doubt, repeating Mosp's mistake.

Scary Go Round — While Amy is left to mope, Fallon and Shelley go out. It looks like it will be up to Shelley to stop the evil aquatic man-o'-war from wreaking havoc on the land-dwelling citizens.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Okay, Blue and Dave are locked in a room, running low on oxygen, in mortal fear that the Dragon will find them. Of course, Blue is willing to sacrifice their relationship for Dave's welfare, and Dave is unwilling to let her push him away the same way Margaret has. Yep, looks like a perfect make-out opportunity. Meanwhile, Margaret is with Roger, who's gone were and doesn't seem interested in changing back. And we all want to know where Margaret's clothes have gone. My guess? Well, Margaret was just bitten by a werecoyote. Maybe Roger isn't the only were around anymore.

General Protection Fault — Enough wedding talk already! Okay, good. Now that Dwayne's assigned a new project and put Sharon in charge, we can watch as Sharon and Ki fight it out. Fun!

Schlock Mercenary — Kevyn still hasn't told the troops that Tagon is dead. He has just beaten them all at volleyball. I'm really curious about how he plans to break the news to them. At least the doctor knows now.

Pete dropped the bomb in Sluggy Freelance when he revealed that Mosp, the only demon from the Dimension of Pain who sides with Torg, was once a human called Amospia.

And green, so that in color she looks like this:

All images © Pete Abrams.

So, okay, maybe she wasn't quite human, but it still changes the whole dynamic. We know it's possible to change humans into DoP demons with the Demon Spear of Calmadar. Is that what changed her? Maybe, but I'm thinking it was more complex, as that does not explain Isp and Osp, the speaking snake braids who dominate her, and I'm thinking that's one of them in the last panel of today's comic. Not only is the font right, it sounds like something they would say.

So now that we know Mosp betrayed the Goddess of Good, is she under some curse? Is she seeking redemption? What effect, if any, did Torg's acknowledgment of her existence have? I can't wait to see what happens next.

Sluggy Freelance — Torg finds the Pile of Bones, and gets a little help from Alt-Gwynn. Unfortunately, Horribus shows up before Torg can reach the top. Fortunately, Mosp intervenes, and after a tense moment, she comes to Torg's aid and faces off against Horribus. Then it's flashback time, and we discover that Mosp was once a human named Amospia. Cool.

Scary Go Round — Welcome to the Scary Go Round! The big mystery this week is how does Tim get a woman like Riley? Also we see how Tim's time machine works, and he uses one of his spares to prevent the "borrowing" of his original by Amy and Shelley. Thus the events of the previous week have never happened, or have they? Messing with the timelines like that may cause problems with divergent realities.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Scene change before we can find out whether Roger kills Margaret. Blue and Dave are exploring the dungeons and we actually get to see the Maximum Fun Chamber. As might be expected, things go wrong, and the pair are now locked in the dungeon. Meanwhile, Mike arrives home without Roger and tries to convince Thad to help him help Dave.

General Protection Fault — Wedding planning for Ki and her mother this week, with plenty of sardonic comments from her father. Then Ki and Nick head home. Kind of boring, really.

Schlock Mercenary — Tagon's dead! How dare Howard Tayler kill off Tagon! I'll... I'll... well, I'll keep reading. Folks don't always stay dead in this comic, but sometimes they do. We'll see what happens. Meanwhile, we interrupt this death scene with an enlisted vs. officer volleyball game of the remainder of the mercenary company.

Scary Go Round will be joining the weekly webcomic update, replacing It's Walky!, which ended last week. Scary Go Round is a fun webcomic featuring sassy ladies, zombies, and sassy lady zombies. The most prominent of these ladies are Amy, who is (or was) an art student and has always been something of a lay-about, Shelley, who takes naive innocence to a whole new level, and Fallon Young, a genetically engineered but still not very competent secret agent. The comic also features an inventor, Tim, whose devices work on principles so iffy that they make Sluggy Freelance look like hard science fiction, including a time machine based on the principle that a watched pot never boils. There's also Ryan, who is not too bright, lazy, and often hungover. He's also irresistibly drawn to supernatural trouble. Tim tries to keep Ryan out of said trouble, with the help of their mutual friend Hugo, whose great wisdom is hidden by the fact that I never have the faintest idea what he is saying. In fact, language is one of those things that will first throw you about this comic. It's clever and fast, but very hard to follow, as real people don't talk like that, do they? Well, maybe they do in Britain, which is the home country of the cartoonist, John Allison. You'll get used to it, however. I'd recommend that you start at the beginning, except that it's not really the beginning, as Scary Go Round is the sequel to Bobbins, which starts here. Scary Go Round has now been added to the sidebar.

DYT is an abbreviation. When used in the It's Walky! forums, it would be written DYW! and mean "Damn You, Willis!" This is because David Willis, the cartoonist of It's Walky!, had a reputation for being evil, making his characters suffer and killing off favorites unexpectedly. Now that Willis is out of the dramatic webcomic business for the time being, with a relatively happy ending at that, many have speculated on a theory called the "conservation of webcomic cartoonist evil." That with Willis gone, other webcomic cartoonists will have to become more evil. There are some indications that this may be true. Last week, Maritza Campos killed Roger's mom in College Roomies from Hell!!!. Roger's mom was a minor character and a monstrous serial killer to boot, however, so while I feel bad for Roger, I don't think this proves the theory. However, yesterday, Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary killed off Tagon, one of the leads of his webcomic. It remains to be seen if he remains dead, which is why I didn't post anything yesterday, and it's still possible that he'll be brought back within the week, but... DYT! That's evil. (Maritza would have to kill off one of the roomies to be equivalently evil. Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance would have to kill off Riff, Gwynn, or Zoe.) This not only kills off a favorite of Schlock Mercenary, it changes the whole dynamic of the comic. I simply have no idea what will happen next.

Of course, if you want to know why I'm so upset, you need to read Schlock Mercenary from the beginning.