Back of the Envelope

Sluggy Freelance — So Zoe decides that she'd rather live with the cloners than go homeless. It's awfully nice of them to let her stay, isn't it? The only problem is that they're a little bit evil, but Zoe's pretty used to evil housemates by now. Meanwhile Riff, Gwynn, Torg, and Kiki are staying with Zoe's little sister, Min. I hope the chaos that tends to follow them around doesn't get Min in too much trouble.

Day by Day — A mugger tries to rob Sam and Zed with a switchblade on their date. Unfortunately for the mugger, they're both packing. Then Bush and the Republicans are in for some criticism for being wobbly.

Scary Go Round — The Evil Party puts a hit out on Hugo. Fortunately for Hugo, it's a McDonald's Hot Apple Pie filling hit, causing severe burns and causing him to drop out of the race, but he'll live. Now it's Mayor Mayor vs. Bentley Quorn.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — As I predicted last week, Dave turns Margaret down. She seems strangely happy about it. Maybe his rejection convinced her that she's not at fault for Satan going after her friends. I'm not really sure. And then we finally get an explanation from Roger about what he did to Margaret. Apparently his coyote-self licked her wounds, but the human mind thought he'd hurt her when he came back. I guess that might explain his suicide attempt. And with that conclusion to the In Absentia storyline, Maritza takes the rest of the week off.

General Protection Fault — The superpowered team makes their peace with the Speck, and is now fighting Warmonger, who's armed with the Mobius Stone, making him even more superpowered. As the Mobius Stone makes him nigh invincible, it looks like they're going to have to figure out a way to destroy it. Fortunately, they have the Speck's help, and his constantly morphing superpowers make him a helpful guy to have around.

Schlock Mercenary — So it occurs to Kevyn and Edward that maybe they could just hire Pranger's Bangers before they kill Captain Tagon. With a little knowledge from the future, Thurl quickly raises the necessary cash, and Kevyn begins the negotiations.

Sluggy Freelance — Yes, we're back with the regular Sluggy crew! Riff's plan to reclaim the house doesn't work out, and they're out on the streets, although with a brand new Playstation Puny. Gwynn, Riff, and Torg get into a fight over it, and Riff loses... mostly. He exchanges the PSP for the house, which might mean something if they had a house. Meanwhile, Zoe's visiting her sister, who apparently moved to New Jersey while Torg was in the Dimension of Lame, and she's quite upset with Riff and Torg and Leo.

Day by Day — Most of this week is spent dealing with Sam's and Zed's date, and Damon's attempts to spy on them. I know it's mostly a political strip, but sometimes I really enjoy the personal interactions between the characters more.

Scary Go Round — Tim decides he can't be mayor of the common man, since the common man doesn't care about science. So instead he convinces Hugo to run. Hugo's a fun guy, but half the time I have no idea what he's saying.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Well, Diana, who, as I previously predicted, had stowed away, prevents Dave from killing Roger. Good thing, too, as Margaret was still alive. I am a bit disappointed that it really was a bait-and-switch. I expected something bigger here. Before long they're at the hospital, and we get a very sweet scene between Margaret and Dave before she kind of comes close to admitting that she really loves Dave. It's great for the D&Mer in me, although I remain convinced that it won't happen soon and Dave will basically tell her that it's too late (although I think someday they'll get another chance). What I want to know is what happened to Roger? He was basically trying to commit suicide by Dave--I have a hard time that he just changed his mind and decided to come back.

General Protection Fault — So, the Speck and Nick get into a fight, but that's just the standard superhero-crossover battle before the real bad guy shows up. That's not good for Nick's superhero friends, considering that they don't really know how to use their superpowers yet. Hopefully, the Speck will help before the Gamester bans him from this universe.

Schlock Mercenary — Well, future-Kevyn's off to save the galaxy, leaving it to past-Kevyn to save Tagon. Unfortunately, all the heavy firepower--namely Petey and Ennesby, with their armada and ship, respectively--have joined in on the galaxy saving, so past-Kevyn has just the mercenaries to work with. I hope he comes up with something.

Once again, I'm running late, which isn't very excusable considering it's the only post I get done on Saturdays. Ah well, better late than never, and I'll put it in the right spot in the archives anyway.

Sluggy Freelance — Uh-oh. Calix's plan to free his people didn't work out so well, and their ship was destroyed by John Jacobs's fleet and the survivors imprisoned. Meanwhile, Bun-bun's captured Calix and is about to execute him, but Kada negotiates for his survival. Which is all well and good, except they both end up hanging over the side with ropes tied around their ankles, at least until Calix challenges Bun-bun to a duel. Which may make things better or worse.

Day by Day — Lots of teasing of Zed for being so behind the times, and he and Sam have a date. (Sam is short for Samantha, by the way.) Most of the humor centers around the character interactions, but a few jokes are saved for bashing the old media.

Scary Go Round — And the political campaign kicks off. Shelley supports Mayor Mayor by proposing lots and lots of lying. Tim Jones, though, is proposing to make things right by science. Because, you know, you can fix all woes by science, or something like that. Meanwhile, there's another player, Mr. Quorn, who represents the Corrupt Party or something like that. Tim isn't doing so well, but a televised brawl between the campaign advisers of the other two candidates may lift his fortunes.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Back to the woods with Roger and Margaret, where it looks like neither of them is willing to return to the civilized world. Margaret's attempts to convince Roger to do so brings out the beast. And Mike and Dave finally arrive to bring them home, only to discover Roger with a seriously hurt and unconscious Margaret in his arms, apologizing for losing his temper and basically asking to be lasered. A lot of people think this is simple bait-and-switch, apparently on the theory that Roger would never hurt Margaret just for killing his mother, but I'm expecting something bigger to happen.

General Protection Fault — Now this is fun. The GPF crew has entered an alternate universe where they're superheroes. There's just the tiny problem that Nick's transuniverse adventures tend to draw the ire of the Gamester and Mischief because they risk the very survival of those universes. And one of the Gamester's opponents has slipped into this universe, which is never good. Anyway, everyone has fun discovering their superhero identities--well, except for Sharon and Dexter. They have... issues.

Schlock Mercenary — It worked, Kevyn has gone back in time to just before Tagon died. Unfortunately, Schlock stowed away, and the extra weight threw off the time travelling, and it is just before Tagon died, meaning it may be too late to save him. First, though, Kevyn needs to make contact with his past self. Then we'll see who lives and who dies.

Sluggy Freelance — Bun-bun narrowly escapes to his other ship as Calix's villagers take over his flagship. Then, despite a few delaying fillers, Bun-bun goes and lowers da boom on Calix for betraying him. It looks like Bun-bun will get the map after all. I hope he doesn't kill Calix--I like him.

Day by Day — Some fun interactions this week, even when they're commenting on Senator Cornyn, the FEC, the UN, Canada, and a whole lot of journalists.

Scary Go Round — Shelley and Amy dress as nuns to escape the vampires. I'm not sure how well their reasoning--nuns are poisonous to vampires--works, but they make it, with a little help from some vampire slayers. After that, it's a rather pleasant vacation and the return trip to Tackleford, where it looks like Tim is running for Mayor against Shelley's boss.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — It doesn't look like Mike will be making any attempt to renew his friendship with April anytime soon. Well, I sort of expected that. And then Dave tries to explain to Mike what happened with him, Satan, and God. Mike believes him, which is good, and manages to convince Dave to come along in the search for Roger. Unfortunately, Diana overhears part of their conversation, the part about Roger going crazy and killing a bunch of people, or maybe it was killing a bunch of people and going crazy. I'm surprised she doesn't confront Mike and Dave about it, and I wouldn't be surprised if she has stowed away in the car as they head out for the woods. The best idea that anyone has shown this week is when Mike suggests pooling their information about Satan. It's about time they tried working together on this thing. No one but Dave is doing very well on their own, and Dave had some divine help.

General Protection Fault — Nick's firing up the Mutex again. At first I thought there'd be a Sluggy crossover, as Nick had planned a trip to the universe of purple-haired Portugese speakers, but it looks like he's changed his mind since Ki was willing to dress the part. Now he plans to head for a pocket Universe, and the Gamester is worried because the Universe isn't so much a pocket. When that happens, it means there's the potential for some galaxy-destroying trouble.

Schlock Mercenary — Speaking of galaxy-destroying, Kevyn's ready to travel back in time and save the galaxy, and Captain Tagon while he's at it. First he has to explain what he's doing to his mercenary company, though. Meanwhile, he also explains a little bit of how this time-travelling will work to the rest of us.

Sluggy Freelance — So, the pirates are going to have to take Kada if they want the map? Donaly decides to hold her hostage, making for a good old-fashioned Mexican stand-off with Calix, the Gray team, Kada, and Donaly, plus the Caribs, who are taking part just for the fun of it. Fortunately, Donaly panics when he finds out about the bomb in his hat, so he's down. Unfortunately, John Jacobs' fleet is bearing down on Bun-bun. And finally, Calix has betrayed Bun-bun, and used the bomb that was supposed to be in Donaly's hat to free his village. Go Calix! He's cool, and he'll be even cooler if Bun-bun doesn't kill him.

Day by Day — Socialized medicine, Martha Stewart, Chris Muir himself, the UN, the FEC, and Sandy Berger are all duly mocked this week.

Scary Go Round — So the curse is fulfilled by tiny vampires, and one really, really big one. This'll be interesting. It's good to see that Amy is as self-centered as ever.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Weekend comics are cool! So the divine smiting left Joe blind and Satan-free, but Dave isn't sticking around to make sure. A word of thanks is definitely appropriate, and Dave's still smoking and shell-shocked when he runs into Mike. It seems like it's been a really short time, maybe only 15 or 30 minutes, since Dave was first zapped, but he still needs some time to recuperate. Instead, we follow Mike as he runs into Diana, who wants to know where Roger is, and April, who just won't leave Mike alone. Giving her a blank check seems like a really bad idea, but I'm hoping that April, now that she's over her revenge kick, won't abuse it. It's probably a forlorn hope considering that grin on her face. And then, for April's Fools Day we go to a parallel universe where everyone is the opposite gender and meet Michelle, Rose, and Dahlia. These characters are not new, by the way, as Maritza originally did the concept art about seven months ago in this thread. Even at that time, I had to admit that Dahlia is awfully cute. For a comic strip character.

General Protection Fault — Fred puts his newfound ability to devious use, and gets Trent in trouble at work and then arrested. I can't say that I approve of taking over people and getting them in trouble, even if it is Trent.

Schlock Mercenary — Petey to the rescue! Unfortunately, Petey has already determined that Kevyn's plan to save the galaxy just won't work. So it's up to Kevyn to come up with a new plan in the time he has left. If only we had a time traveling plot device... Oh look, there's one! I vote we use it to get Tagon and Breya back. Then we can save the galaxy.