Shortpacked! by David Willis
Toys are serious business.
Convention appearances:
Calgary Expo Calgary, AB: April 26-28
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Phoenix Comicon Phoenix, AZ: May 23-26, 2013
BotCon San Diego, CA: June 28-30
San Diego Comic-Con San Diego, CA: July 18-21
SPX Bethesda, MD: September 14-15
Multiplex
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
Sorcery 101
Templar, AZ
The Transformers Wiki
Hail to the Slash
80 page GIANT
Axe Cop
The Book of Biff
Butt-Taco
Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
Diesel Sweeties
Dinosaur Comics
Dr. McNinja
Dresden Codak
Fans!
Fleen
Gastrophobia
Girl Genius
Girls with Slingshots
Goats
Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
Intrepid Girlbot
Legend of Bill
Medium Large
Not Invented Here
Octopus Pie
Overcompensating
Penny Arcade
PhDcomics
Power Nap
Questionable Content
Real Life
Rob and Elliot
Bad Machinery
Schlock Mercenary
Sheldon
So Far Apart
Something Positive
Two Lumps
Wapsi Square
Wonderella
Wondermark
Frumph.NET
Tags
amber
animated
batman
botcon
conquest
conventions
dark of the moon
david willis
dinobot
drew
duncan
ethan
faz
galasso
generations
gijoe
guest strip
hamsters
homosexuality
jacob
jesus
joe
justice league
ken
leslie
malaya
megatron
merch
mike
ninja rick
nipple
optimus prime
politics
religion
robin desanto
ronald reagan
roz
sdcc
sg ravage
shattered glass
star wars
tni strips
transformers
transformers prime
ultra car
©2005-2013 David Willis | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑
This….cannot end well… Maybe Drew’s an understanding guy? Maybe he can look past Ethan’s toy obsession? M-maybe?….Please…? Things were going so well….
Well, judging by this strip, it seems he IS understanding. This is just sensory/data overload.
Well, he hasn’t said no yet. Or yes, really. Maybe he just needs a few minutes to adjust and then they’ll get to banging.
Judging from their expressions, the mood is sort of killed now.
Oh, poor Ethan.
Maybe you should go to Drew’s house for the happy sexy fun times.
I DISAGREE AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA SUFFERRRR
That works well with the Roadblock pic.
Damn you Willis! don’t ruin this for us all >< its really nice to see Ethan happy!
Remember the Willis rule:
Q: Is someone happy?
R1: Yes
R2: No
A1: You’re failing. Turn that shit around real quick and have someone die.
A2: Good! Now, can you make that no turn into an 80′s melodramatic “NOOOO!!” and have the audience chime in?
I love the “rack of DVDs and a Muppet poster” line. I’ve been in Ethan’s place–being a 10 on the geek scale and dating a 2–many a time.
Oh yay! First to comment (unless someone finishes typing something before me <<;;)
and wow…well there are different standards of the 'geek' status…. poor Ethan,
I still hope somehow things work out for him and Drew….Though from the looks of it…it may seem difficult D:
Just leave the lights off, dude.
That a good advice? This can be salvage. I hope it does. POR FAVOR MI DIOS!!!
Many toys light up or glow in the dark!
That would be even worse than them watching in normal light. Can you imagine a glow-in-the-dark Roadblock staring down at you while you try to get some loving?
I’m assuming he left the Roadblock poster in the old apartment. Then again, I’d be afraid of what it’d do if I left it behind =/
Yeah, it’s not as if he’s expecting you to wear an Optimus Prime facemask. Unless he is…
SUDDEN VISUAL IMAGE!
That’s hot.
Or that opposite thing. What’s it called…not?
Whoa, I could make a KILLING in the Transformer fetish markets! Thanks for the idea! I’ll be sure to credit you for the idea!
Dammit Drew… I had such high hopes for you. He better get over this before I start screaming “DAMN YOU WILLIS!”
And I don’t mean online. I mean outside your bedroom window at night.
I really don’t have any plans for Saturday night yet.
I lost my job last month, I can stand out there for days.. DAYS!
Well see who’s claustrophobic now, EH?!
You know he does this specifically to get stalkers like this, don’t you?!?!
It’s how I got my wife.
Awwwwwwww. It’s sweet because it’s true.
Mutual stalking? Colour me unsurprised
Guys, are you REALLY surprised at this? It’s the Relationshipocalypse, after all D=
I am left in awe of the sheer power of this Relationshipocalypse- I thought Ethan and Drew, having been together for hardly any time at all would be spared its wrath.
Clearly, I was wrong.
My boyfriend just spent 90 dollars on Heroclix. Ethan would *SO* crush on him.
Only $90?
Amateur!
The most he has spent was 100 on a Galatcus.
(ahem) If he is an amateur in comparison to you, then I think I understand how Drew feels right now. Haha!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m still holding out hope.
Okay Drew, hand over your geek card. A rack of DVDs, a Muppet Movie poster, and board games? What the hell kind of weak-ass geek is he claiming to be. That’s not geeky. That’s not even quasi-geeky. And hand over your gay card too for not jumping Ethan’s bones, right then and there, despite the toys. Its not like you’ll be looking at the four-hundred Batman’s glaring at you… (although that is a creepy thought…)
While I don’t want Ethan to change who he is, I do kinda hope maybe this might make him realize that all those toys set up in EVERY ROOM might be a bit… well much…?
I mean, I have toys in my apartment too, but not every-single one I ever bought. Buy a storage space (if he has money to buy all those toys, he has money to rent a storage place), box up the ones that he’s not actively obsessing over, and clear up some room and not scare your boyfriend with the dead eyes of a twenty different Roadblocks. (“Ethan you geek, your boyfriend can’t speak! Put the toys away, so then you can play!”)
I figure that’s pretty unfair to Drew, as being a geek is about more than the material goods you own. Think of all the geeks who have more important thinks to do with their cash, like pay for rent, insurance, groceries, an offsite storage facility for their 10,000+ comic books, 4 MMOs, 2 video game systems, multiple video games per month, – uhh…, I’m sorta defeating my point here, huh. Gosh, being a geek’s pretty money draining :-].
Yeah, there are different types of geeks. Sounds like he’s like my girlfriend, a gaming and movie geek. Someone with multiple expansions from Settlers of Catan is still geeky, even if he doesn’t have any interest in collecting toys.
(looks furtively around) I only collected MLPs and they were the first things to go when we went bankrupt OMG I’m sorry don’t kick me out of here!
Don’t be hating on us board game geeks, you don’t know competition until you see gamers fighting over out of print expansions.
Gaming Geek test: hold up one standard die, ask what it is.
Answers:
A Dice-not at all a geek
A Die-at least know proper name
A six sider- kinda geeky
A d-6 – Geeky
Ask to examine before determining- Run Away, We’ve got a War Gamer Here!!!
No one be hating on yous dawg. But I’m betting that Drew doesn’t have expansions or stuff like or even multiple versions of the same game. He’s probably got like three games that he plays on special occassions, when he has a large group of people over, or when his family visits and they don’t know what to do. A true board game geek doesn’t keep their games locked away in their closet. They play them whenever they can, because they love to play them.
Naw… See, Drew is clearly what one might call a casual fan of geekdom.
He seems to be ‘aware’ of geeky things, but he doesn’t allow himself to proper ‘geek-out’. He has only one-rack of DVDs for goodness sake (every film geek I know has more than that) and is able to fit all his board games (note he a stack of board games which is probably three games, like scrabble and checkers and one Simpsons Monopoly) in one closet.
More to the point, he keeps them in the closet, instead of having at least one or two out, either on display, or close at hand to play (or set up, either ready to play, or with a game in progress but suspended).
exactly!
A rack of DVDs and a Muppet poster? Isn’t that the norm for a college room?
I was just wondering. Since you changed the look of the site, and added the message board, what happened to your figure reviews? I always enjoyed reading them and miss them now that I have not been able to find them lately.
I don’t have any figures to review. It’s been a dead month or so, for toys I care about.
Ethan really thinks that some DVD’s and board games plus a poster make him a geek??? What must my wife think of me?
Damn it, Willis! Ethan is happy and stuff!
I’ve consulted my professional gay geek (coincidentally named Drew) and he even says that they should stay together (and he doesn’t even know what the hell Shortpacked is, or why I called him at 11:20 pm on a weekday to ask him about a problem in a web comic he’s never heard of).
You just don’t know how funny your comment is to me XD
and here I thought this WAS the bedroom…
In retrospect, the lack of a bed is a dead giveaway…
Quick!!
Go do it in Amber’s room!!!
I find it hilarious that you have Roadblock as the avatar on your comment.
That was my thought exactly. Eye for an eye, Ethan!
My apartment has some Vista Cruiser stuff, but not overwhelming the place! When you walk in, the dining room/office has a ’69 owner’s manual and a set of emblems as well as a card with a picture of a ’64. In the living room, there’s an ad for the ’69 model, which is the year of the Vista that I have (the same year as Eric’s Vista on “That ’70s Show”). I also collect license plates, but there are only 3 out of the 600 in my collection on display. The rest (and my Vista Cruiser) are in my mom’s garage. I’ve already offered to “69 in my ’69″!
Just want to say what a fab job panel 3 does – it genuinely does feel a bit oppresive. Having all the toys lined up in the foreground like some little army poised for the attack – it’s like a scene from Small Soldiers.
As a gaming geek, I’m suddenly really glad that my obsession can be cleanly and orderly shelved in a fashion that people are all too accustomed to seeing, what with how integrated into their lives DVD shelves and home entertainment set-ups have become.
…the only real trouble comes from explaining the twelve consoles hooked up to a single television.
I hear that. Luckily my gaming geekness only extends to Street Fighter. Still, having a pair of 700 dollar custom joysticks crafted from exotic bubaniga and Honduran rosewood is similarly hard to explain.
Yea…this is why it’s probably best I don’t bring dates home.
ohhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiit
I just find the 3 green totes with a plant on it funny. It reminds me of my house. Totes full of crap (not literally, eww gross) all over the house and occasionally the tote becomes “furniture”
Especially since just a couple of strips ago, that was ONE tote with a plant on top. Apparently Ethan filled two more totes while preparing for his date.
They should do it on Amber and Mike’s bed.
YES
YOUR FANS DEMAND THIS, WILLIS
There are scales of geekitude.
SCALES.
Owning DVDs does NOT count.
Panel two could have read “I *am*, I can build a rudimentary 8-bit computer with my bare hands, then program it in any of twenty-seven different languages.”
However, I am jealous about the framed Muppet poster.
“Well, the laundry room might be available.”
*opens the laundry room door*
“Sorry Robin! Sorry Les!”
I don’t know what’s geekier… the strip and how true it rings for so many, the fact that you draw *actual* silhouettes of TF toys in the backgrounds, or the fact that i can actually name said silhouettes.
Guess it’s time to call Brick Wagner.
C’mon… please let Ethan win this time! It’s nice to see him happy.
Personally, I would think having all those toys is pretty nifty. But well, actually, ethan does have quite a few…
I have a “Man-Cave” basement now, but when my only storage was my apartment you’d be lucky if you could see the walls. With 15 bookcases inna 1 bedroom there was still room for some movie posters and carded toys hanging where you couldn’t block. Can you find the thermostat in this room ???
Never stopped me from gettin’ some though. C’mon Ethan you can do this !!!
15?
GOODLORD!
I am in awe, and bow to your geekery thats..jaw droppingly crazy awesome.
Man!!!!! This scene makes me want Ethan. I would kill for a guy as into Transformers as I am (just as long as we keep our collections separate, otherwise a breakup would be extremely devastating).
But since I can’t have him, please let Ethan’s relationship survive. He deserves it. Come on Willis, throw Ethan a bone (pun definitely intended).
I think it comes down to the whole FIAWOL/FIJAGDH thing. As noted, degrees of geek. Ethan is obsessive and driven, Drew is probably.. not so much. I’m stuck on the Drew side of the equation and yes, when I go to fellow fan’s houses and see bookcases full of fanzines and comics and tubs with more fanzines and comics and art on the walls and neat stacks of art in piles of dozens in boxes or even just leaning against the wall, I go bleen. And Ethan isn’t even in his 40′s and 50′s yet. GOD knows where he’s going to live after he passes 35.
I’m still friends with these people, obviously, but for example I have a couple pieces of art, maybe a dozen comics and the issues of a zine I was published in. When I collected MLP I topped out at probably 35? and then they were sold except for a few special ones when I went bankrupt. And then there were the collecter friends who had ROOMS dedicated to them. They didn’t really get me, I don’t really get them.
But I’m not trying to date them and I have no idea how I would handle it if I was.
Optimus is a cock-block.
Never had the problem on dates neither with the music instruments/amplifyers/analogic gears occupying the walls, neither with the disks occupying the shelves nor with the books occupying the floor… can’t understand why…
Ditto. If anything, people are genuinely impressed with my wall of CDs and vintage keytars.
What scares them off is the three hour discussion about the origins and influences (both “on” and “of”) cartoon music of the 1930s-50s. Looney Tunes is serious business.
sounds insteresting… is there a book to introduce the subject?
A wall of vintage keytars… Wow.
ahahaha he went with Ace for the TV! Yessss
I’m really enjoying just how skillfull you have become DW, from the days of yore when everything was black and white and evryone had big hair, to now when the art is even better than ever and there are so many hilarious little details worked into the backgrounds. And its in colour! Your work is truly, truly enjoyable on so many levels. You rock!
Also sorry Ethan, but you had it coming. This is just one of those life lessons all Geeks gotta learn at some point. It’s possible to reign in someone less geeky than yourself and get them used to your obbsessions, but you’ve gotta break them in gradually or they’ll panic! And never, never assume that someone is as geeky as you. Not when you’ve got totes full of toys holding shut the closet overflowing with toys, and Ace the Bathound is watching you trying to get lucky on the couch.
Screw that!!!
I was once advised by someone about taking all my things down when I was going to have someone over, but then another friend pointed out “If they can’t deal with who you are, you don’t need them.”
No one should have to change themself for anybody.
The funny thing is that he did have this thought back when he thought he was dating Amber- he successfully turned her into a MLP toy geek to avoid her getting annoyed with his toy-geekery. But it probably wouldn’t have worked with Drew anyway, his personality’s a lot more in place already than when he and Amber met.
god damn geek chic hipsters
And in front of the closet, ‘neath the plant in the way
The totes, why, they grew two more sizes that day!
Finding out your gay lover collects little plastic toys isn’t as a big deal as when you find out he’s had sex with two other girls. One of whom you boinked so you could move up the latter at the toy store.
“One of whom you boinked so you could move up the latter” actually still sorta makes sense, despite the misspelling. Bravo.
*Facepalm*
So, he’s not really a ‘geek’ at all, then.
no he is, just a casual geek
The scary thing is that his room reminds me of my ex’s room/house. So I know how he feels, I didn’t mind the toys, I have a scary amount myself. (Mine are mostly dragons. Yes, I’m geeky enough to have Cryotech, he’s soo pretty!) But as a person who has done unspeakable things on Pokeman bedsheets, I kinda know where Drew is coming from. I know Ace, I play WoW, I saw a shirt that had 2 D20′s on it that said, “yes, they are natural” and NEED it! Everyone is their own kind of geek, hopefully this works out for them. It should, ’cause Geeks are Hot!
PUBLIC STORAGE!!!! God that’s scary. So many years of toy collecting and living off government money I guess.