Shortpacked! by David Willis

Discussion (29) ¬

1. 
   Wackd

   September 15, 2010 at 6:42 am | # | Reply

   Thad underestimates the power of fanaticism. And ignorance. But mostly fanaticism.
2. 
   No0ne

   October 2, 2010 at 1:35 pm | # | Reply

   I always thought it was odd that the cast of Shortpacked didn’t realize they worked with TWO war heroes. One of whom died so they could get off not knowing about him. (Mike) Since I’m sure that the resurrection techs was classified but seriously how are they that blind? Then I realize the reaction to Regan’s resurrection and realize they are in fact for the most part that dumb…

   • 
     Skald

     November 4, 2010 at 4:17 pm | # | Reply

     Okay, so in which continuity is Robin a War hero? I’ve read dumbing of age and short packed to this point… What else is there?

     • 
       David Willis

       November 4, 2010 at 5:21 pm | # | Reply

       Seven years of comics you’re missing: http://www.itswalky.com/d/19970908.html

       Though Robin doesn’t show up until the sixth year: http://www.itswalky.com/d/20030826.html

       • 
         Skald

         November 6, 2010 at 5:37 pm | # | Reply

         Woah! So are Roomies, Its Walky and Joyce and Walky each 7 years old?!

         • 
           wnderjif

           November 10, 2010 at 4:17 am | # | Reply

           not quite skald. one kinda starts when one ends. like dumbing of age coming right at the end of joyce and walky.

           my rule with webcomics is easy to follow.
           like it enough to bookmark it and check back 3 times weekly for updates. go through the archives.

           i got stuck here by a weird crossover from a result of a crossover about cats. singularikitty is awesome.

           • 
             Digidestined of Trust (Tim)

             January 24, 2013 at 11:54 am | # | Reply

             I got stuck here when they revealed Bulk to be coming back to Power Rangers and there was a guest strip for that week when Willis had his hand cut up pretty badly even though it had healed nice enough by then. Had Willis decided not to go with that strip and keep going with his original Shortpacked idea, I’d of never found this place.
         • 
           Starscreamer

           November 12, 2010 at 11:24 am | # | Reply

           Dumbing of Age is an alternate reality. Joyce and Walky has not ended yet, it’s on hiatus.
       • 
         Palmetto

         July 1, 2011 at 10:11 am | # | Reply

         David, I’m like Skald: I started with ‘Dumbing’. My lack of backstory to that strip isn’t keeping me from enjoying it, and ‘Shortpacked’ just happens to be the first link from ‘DoA’ that I clicked on. Now Starscreamer says ‘DoA’ is an alternate reality. Is there a timeline / flowchart / Cliff’s Notes / Frommer’s Travel Guide?

         • 
           Rycr

           April 29, 2012 at 2:05 am | # | Reply

           Roomies -> It’s Walky -> Joyce and Walky -> Shortpacked

           Roomies, It’s Walky, and Joyce and Walky all kinda blend together. One picks up right where the previous one leaves off, so they’re all posted at itswalky.com. Shortpacked takes place some time after It’s Walky.

           Dumbing of Age is its own continuity, so you don’t need to read any other comics before reading that, although if you do, you’ll spot all sorts of little inside jokes and nods to previous comics.

           To be honest, I started with DoA too, although I eventually went back and started at the beginning of Roomies and read all the way through to the last strip of Joyce and Walky before I read Shortpacked.
   • 
     Stikibunn

     November 10, 2010 at 9:34 am | # | Reply

     You forget there was 1000 or so Semme abductees. Not all of them would be household names. the government doesn’t even know Reagan and Mike are still alive. Robin is the only one on anyone’s radar because she kinda sort accidently became a congresswoman.

     Basically they never knew because they never thought to ask and Robin doesn’t tell because she doesn’t want to cause drama

     • 
       Jetstream

       December 12, 2011 at 6:42 pm | # | Reply

       Honestly I’d say anyone from Walky’s squad should probably be fairly well known. They got the most press.
3. 
   Rigugonkai

   October 7, 2010 at 8:59 pm | # | Reply

   i didint realize robin was soo good at acting brainless just so the others didint get suspicous of her.

   • 
     Random Webcomics Junkie

     November 20, 2010 at 5:04 pm | # | Reply

     Your comments make my brain hurt.

     And you can take that however you like.
4. 
   Moridin

   January 7, 2011 at 3:30 pm | # | Reply

   So Robin was elected not only due to the sombrero, but also because she was a war hero (like McCain). This universe makes more sense now. Still, people ask Robin for the sombrero when she’s out in the street (last strip), so their priorities may indeed be different.
5. 
   Maycroft

   May 15, 2011 at 1:17 pm | # | Reply

   I knew Robin had a second life! man, I was feeling cool like “I’m about halfway through Short packed” and then I find about these other continuities.

   So young,

   so naive,

   so very wrong

   • 
     Boringamus

     June 12, 2011 at 1:18 pm | # | Reply

     No offense, but reading yours and a couple other people’s comments, am I the only one who properly looked into this stuff before I even began reading shortpacked?

     • 
       Palmetto

       July 5, 2011 at 3:25 pm | # | Reply

       Define ‘properly looked into’, please. I saw an ad linking to Dumbing’ from some other strip, liked what little art there was in the ad, and took a look at it. Since the archive showed ‘DoA’ is fairly new, I started it from scratch. Once I got caught up there, I took a look here, since Shortpacked! had the most prominent link on the ‘DoA’ page. I didn’t realize research was required when starting an archive binge.
     • 
       Niaoh

       July 27, 2011 at 10:55 pm | # | Reply

       I was reading Girls With Slingshots and saw an add for DoA.. then I looked up David himself on Wikipedia… and found out about all the others, so I started with Roomies! a few weeks ago. It is pretty easy to catch up and David has an amazing creative mind. I hope things continue for years to come.

       • 
         SonicBlueRanger

         August 10, 2011 at 11:25 am | # | Reply

         Dude wierd I just started reading all this stuff around late June but mostly from seeing Linkara talk with and about Dave Willis alot I had heard of and read a few random Shortpacked! strips but never fully so I started from the beginning and here I am.
     • 
       JW

       August 26, 2012 at 5:38 pm | # | Reply

       I got linked to one of the non-story Shortpacked! strips and ended up binging.

       I haven’t read ANY of his other comics, though since I gathered that this is a sequel to It’s Walky! (and since Willis has mentioned Robin appears there first) I had been planning on doing that archive binge next.

       That’s the thing with advertising your work; it gets new fans in
     • 
       C

       December 9, 2012 at 5:52 pm | # | Reply

       Someone made a comment about Frank Miller and references a Shortpacked! comic for emphasis. I thought that single comic was hilarious, so i read the rest of shortpacked. Then I got to this comic, and was informed that there were 7 years I’d been missing. So I got up-to-date on shortpacked and started from Roomies…

       I think that was about 4 months ago. (I don’t have a lot of spare time.) I’ve finally archive-binged myself back. Now I’m going to get up to current on this one again and start on Dumbing of Ages. I figure that by the end of that, it will have been 6 to 7 months since the original David Willis reference, and I’ll be able to go back to reading the blog that I’d been diverted from.
     • 
       dcmeserve

       March 1, 2013 at 11:22 pm | # | Reply

       Mike was the key for me I read DoA first; didn’t see any problem except that Mike’s behavior didn’t seem explained/explored as much as I’d like. Then I started on Shortpacked!, and early on Mike showed up, and other characters knew him already! So clearly I was missing something, and so I looked around more. From there I found Roomies, etc.

       You have to follow that whole dang thing in order (and have a good memory to boot) to finally make sense of everything. Actually some of the Ruth/Billie stuff there still doesn’t quite make sense to me. I haven’t even finished it yet; I’m following it in tandem with Shortpacked to try to replicate the original flow.
6. 
   Aquariuschicken

   August 18, 2011 at 12:25 am | # | Reply

   Lol, since we’re all sharing stories here, I found a link to DoA from Questionable Content at the beginning of August and read through the entire archive. Then, I clicked on Roomies, Shortpacket, It’s Walky, and Joyce and Walky, figured out which order they came in with the dates, and just finished all the Walkyverse archives a few days ago. Now, I’m going through Shortpacked!
7. 
   Jan arrah

   September 15, 2011 at 4:29 pm | # | Reply

   Well I realized that there is backstory to various characters which I blame on reading AFTER I get through Shortpacked. I am enjoying this throughly and only came abroad because that evil Gail Simone who is plotting ways to make my wallet lighter for centuries to come linked to Shortpacked after Ethan admitted his love for Catman aka Thomas Reese Blake, whom I also love and adore.. So here I is.
8. 
   Magnus369

   September 24, 2011 at 3:42 am | # | Reply

   Ugh you brats make me ancient. Sadly, I used to have to wait for roomies! to update. As well as avalon (that bastard) so started reading a bunch of others, and not just keenspot/keenspace stuff either.

   Of course, in those days I worked at an isp, so I didn’t have to pay for internet… nor did I have to deal with dial-up… muhahahahahhahahaha.

   I USED TO BROWSE THE NET WITH A T1 WHEN IT MEANT SOMETHIN BABY! AAAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

   and now sadly, I have a 20mbps link from my house for $40 a month, where as my boss used to pay over 800 for the t1 line, (1.544mbps), and almost $3k for the bandwidth.

   now shut up, get me my damn cane, my Geritol and get the hell off my lawn.

   • 
     Mo

     April 29, 2013 at 11:37 am | # | Reply

     OH GOD AVALON. Though I didn’t pick up webcomics until 2000. I swear, I’m not sure why I didn’t read IW! back then, because I sure as shit read everything else. (Maybe I didn’t have room in my brain for another sci-fi epic, what with the twistiness of Sluggy Freelance, the funky horror of CRFH!!! and the fantasy mess that Life at Bayside devolved into.)

     I started with Shortpacked!, might have even been pre-drama tag, I don’t remember, because another artist (with whom I was trying to semi-reboot Bad Boys of Computer Science) kept sending me links and eventually got me hooked. Much later (I think when DoA started) I realized that binging the Walky history might be useful to get more of these characters.
9. 
   Kasamari

   October 2, 2011 at 7:41 pm | # | Reply

   I actually saw DoA first and learned about the rest via comments myself. I read through the series from it’s beginnings back when DoA was still only about a month old. I think I found Mr. Willis accidentally through Girls With Slingshots which I only found through Blind Ferret Entertainment when they added Ms. Corsetto to their list of people. Blind Ferret is known for Least I Could Do and Looking for Group by Mr. Sohmer an Mr. deSouze
10. 
    dragoonchris

    February 27, 2012 at 3:35 pm | # | Reply

    It’s weird that everyone in shortpacked doesn’t mention about the alien invasions that happen a few years ago.

    I remember some people talk about this webcomic with funny Transformers jokes. About 2 years later I read Roomies/IW/J&W. A year later, DOA came to existence.