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
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dark of the moon
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faz
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So… shell-shocked.
And I guess Mike’s only doing this to be a douche to Amber?
i think its part that, and partly b/c of the fact that ruining her relationship with leslie probably made him as hard as a rock
http://www.shortpacked.com/2005/comic/book-2-pulls-the-drama-tag/01-addicted/iloveyoumaggie/
*Gasp* Will he push things further by banging Robin? Or possibly a threesome?
Ah, Mike. Glad to see Utopia hasn’t ruined him. No one else can make being nice such an act of hostility.
I’m amazed he let the hamsters live, although traumatizing them with his sex life is probably just as fun. Imagine all the mothers they’ve seen him have for a nickel.
I’m guessing where they’ve been…
=|
That’s not cool.
Mike is all talk, he don’t act half as much as he says he do. And yet, half is enought to traumatize the hamsters.
Mike doesn’t live up to his insults? Pffft…that’s what YOU think. Go ahead and go onto Jerry Springer and get a DNA test with your parents…
GUESS WHAT??? Your dad…is NOT the father. It’s Mike.
He fucked your mom.
We are all Mike’s children; because he fucks everything to be an asshole…how I look up to him <3
That WAS disturbing.
This is ten times more disturbing than any other aspect of this “Utopia”. The hamsters alone will give me nightmares.
I imagine Mike has some sort of diabolical plan to “fix” everything. His reaction seems forced. Or maybe he just wants to annoy Amber
LOL @Robin’s expressions in panels one and four. XD
I got the impression that Mike is trying to get into the spirit of things by being nice but just can’t do it in a way that’s not nasty, and hence had been overfeeding the hamsters. I think it’s because of the size of the whitish one’s stomach.
And then I reread it and found I had grossly misinterpreted it. But the idea of Mike feeding the hams to death is amusing for some bizarre reason…
AMBER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO DARTH VADER AND OBI WAN!?
(black one is Vader, white one is Obi Wan)
Actually, the black one IS based on our Ani (Anakin). The white one is Snkrs. That’s right. I named it with no vowels. Deal with it.
So Amber and Mke are you and David? o_O
How is it actually pronounced?
Sneakers?
Snickers?
Snarkies?
Snackies?
Marmaduke?
What is Mike’s angle. I’m not going to think on it, I’ll just watch this play out.
Mike’s hospitality pisses off Amber and freaks out Robin. Seems win-win to me.
Not to mention, I suspect Amber has been far too ‘affectionate’ recently.
This is what I’d gathered. After all, everyone should not be so quick to forget that Mike and Amber’s whole relationship is built on blackmail.
It may have been built on blackmail at first, but it probably isn’t anymore. Me, I think Mike just wants to add fuel to the nightly hatefucks.
Not lately, it’s not. Amber released him from the blackmail after Mike declared that he genuinely loved her. But he’s kept the reasons for that love to himself, too.
Yeah, that’s what I’d gotten, too. There’s a chance he’s trying to irritate Leslie, too, but mostly just annoy Amber.
World peace means no more psychopathic assholes. They’re enforcing it. Patrolling for it. THEY’RE LISTENING! Who is they? Well, “them” they– as in the ones who are eavesdropping on Mike. So he has to speak REALLY LOUD so they can HEAR him being NICE!
Next strip, he passes Robyn a note. “we being listened to. PS: Fuck you”
As much as this theory appeals to my love of future dystopian societies, this is probably not true. But I wish it could be, just for the idea of Mike making business cards that read ‘Fuck you.’ or ‘I fucked your mom. For a nickel.’
Those—those are disturbed looking hamsters.
(…I would love to have models of them on my desk to terrify students…)
I love how all the hatesex has turned Amber’s hamsters into apathetic wrecks.
As for Mike’s angle, I think he’s doing this to freak out Robin and annoy her and Amber at the same time – either Robin goes crazy, or Amber goes psycho and does things to Robin. Mike wins either way.
Aoathetic wrecks? I just interpreted it as them never getting any sleep from all the noise.
The way they seem to be yelling this, particularly Amber’s cupped hand in the next-to-last panel, gives me the impression that they’re trying to get someone to overhear. Jacob? A spying Faz?
“what.”
Those are some rather deranged looking Hamsters. Looks like they haven’t been able to sleep and unsee what they have seen.
And I lose again. I would’ve bet on Robin not returning until Monday at least, and her arc remaining separate from the others for a week after that.
Mike’s motives are, as ever, his own to disclose as he chooses. He could be just trying to be a dick to Amber, or he could be playing a deeper game. (You ever notice that Mike has never even attempted to do anything nasty to Leslie? I doubt that’s his goal here, though. There would be no challenge in it.)
There seems to be a lot of mis-reading of the conception of utopia we’ve got going here. This isn’t like “The Dimension of Nice” from Sluggy Freelance, where human nature itself seemed to be fundamentally changed, muting the most aggressive tendencies and making fighting not only infeasible but unimaginable. Rather, the DeSanto/Manley Act seems to have solved a lot of macroeconomic and geopolitical problems, but individual personalities aren’t changed at all. People can still fight, still hate each other. They just no longer have incentive to do so on a scale that most would call “war.”
As I recall, the only significant thing involving Mike and Leslie is when he didn’t bring a cat home because Leslie is allergic to cats.
Which is notably considerate.
Fictional utopias work as long as they remain relatively unexamined. I suppose those of us who may be trying to analyze this particular one in light of the “real world” may be dampening the fun to no good end.
So I’m gonna stop being critical and suspend my disbelief again. After all, this world has frickin’ Martians in it.
Good interpretation of utopia, the kind with no truly distopic elements that aren’t part of normal human behavior (ex. some kind of secret police, limited freedom, and strictly enforced rules on behavior)
Ogodthosepoorhams.
Horsepossoms?
…because that’s what I read.
Those poor, poor, creatures. Somebody better call PETA.
… I wanna see that last panel captioned lolcats-style with either, “What has been seen cannot be unseen,” or “The horror… the horror…”
The goggles! They do nothing!
Damn, you beat me to it.
Mike just looks tired to me, maybe Amber’s got him way to worn out to even be a dick right now, and i mean that in every possible way
It’s a sign of how well-written Mike’s assholishness is, that it worries me when he is being nice while sober.
Be afraid Robin. Be very afraid.
Wow. This doesn’t strike me as Mike’s usual attempts to be an asshole at all. I think he’s actually genuinely irritated. Maybe things are on the rocks with Amber? Utopia hasn’t been so good for the two of them? Either that or something of actual importance is up that only Mike’s clued in on. Something important as in Martian or Cheese important.
It could be that he’s sick of constant sex with Amber. I know this is perhaps a hard concept to grasp, but it IS possible to have too much sex.
Couldn’t Mike just be drunk?
No, he couldn’t be – look at the eyebrows! You can tell when he’s sober or drunk by his angry eyebrows.
He is very much sober and doing this intentionally here.
Could be the alcohol’s wearing off…
It took me a second read-through to understand what was happening there…
Damn you Willis!!!
So… Amber’s an asshole… Mike’s a totally great friend who’s disappointed in Amber for being a douchehat (look at his face, he’s NOT pleased at her ranting), and the hamsters are not only cared for… they are papmered and fat.
Utopia is NOT what everyone thought they would actually want in life…
Robin? TO THE CADBURY FACTORY!!!
This is how i interpreted it as well. Still those hamsters give me the screaming heebie jeebies.
I know it doesn’t fit with the tendancy of Mike to always have some sort of scheme going on (or at least the general assumption that Mike always has some sort of scheme going on), but it looks to me like he’s trying to give himself, and the hams, a break…. From the affection. …Nah, I’m probably crazy.
I’m throwing in with the “they’re following a script because someone is listening” theory, mainly because Amber says they are naked and neither of them even look hastily dressed.
I don’t think that’s the case, but it kinda makes sense.
We’ll see how it plays out.
The hamsters look sleep deprived to me. Amber’s probably been affectionate with Mike all day every day so Anakin and Snkrs can’t get their snooze time.
Mike Translation: Dear God help me. She never stops. I need an excuse to rest.
Amber is releasing years of pent up sexual energy due to an online only relationship, on Mike’s penis.
Those poor hamsters.
…Does Utopia have brain bleach? More importantly, does it come in small enough doses for rodents?
What those ham-hams have seen can never be unseen.
Oh please. I doubt they do anything more exotic than reverse cowgirl.
Well Amber does have a thing for Donatello and, if memory serves, Kiss Players Megatron. She’s also cosplayed as a ninja turtle. At the very least there’s the potential for some unusual roleplay, perhaps with turtle- robot-appropriate “accessories.”
The brain bleach dispenser is down the hall and to your left.
And Donatello was a cyborg in the Image comics….
Wait, what?
A cyborg?
That sounds like such a bad idea.
Have you forgotten Amber’s description of their sex as “hatefucks”? I imagine the names they call each other are enough to disturb the poor little hams.
In being kind to Robin, Mike is being mean to Amber. Nice, good job Mike.
Great last panel!
Cheese, I just noticed the new banner. Have Galasso and Faz been swept away in the New Utopia? (Ultra Car is also gone, but we’ve seen him in this arc).
I just noticed that too!
Maybe they’re not as important characters anymore.
Eh, the less Ultracar the better IMO
those poor hams
Actually, my first thought was that the hamsters were getting mini-chocolate donuts as food ’cause that’s how they roll in Utopia.
He knows Robin has a crush on Amber. It makes things awkward for everyone.
Those hamsters have seen things that would drive C’thulu insane. Mike has become destroyer of minds.
I can’t wait to see what Mike’s angle is on this. Maybe it’s just respect for someone who managed to junk-punch every relationship they had at once, but I really, really doubt it.
Mike being courteous with the glaring eyes is very very disturbing.
Maybe Mike’s just realized there’s no point in being an asshole, everyone screws themselves over worse than he ever could.
If you think about it, him not being a dick to Leslie makes sense, she’ the only one who was never really deserving of it.
Damn that’s funny! One of the best strips I’ve seen.
On a COMPLETELY comic-unrelated topic, is Leslie’s cast page going to be updated soon?
Because I really, really hope not.
I think Amber is using the hamsters as the object of her affection. Mike Is not allowed to kill them so he invited Robin to stay to stop her.
You need to approach the people at telltale games. maybe they can turn shortpacked into an episodic game.
I don’t usually comment much, but all the comments posting theories about Mike’s motivation have me itching to share my own.
I think Mike is being sincere, akin to professional courtesy. Mike is such an asshole, he’s a force of nature about it. Robin’s behavior could be described as asshole-ish. In fact, her asshole behavior was so epic, it changed the world.
I think Mike is tipping his hat, acknowledging her craftsmanship in asshole-y.
The gerbils are scarred for life.
….I think that Robin is FAR more disturbed than Amber here. I mean, she knows this guy from Semme! She KNOWS how much he hates her!
They have seen… …everything!
I think Mike is keeping the awkward in their social circle in a way that no one can complain about without looking like dicks – which Amber is trying to do, but he’s looking at her like “please, you can’t even destroy Faz”. Amber is probably emphasizing the affectionate part because she still thinks she got kicked out of the house for having sex in the laundry room.
Nobody else seems to be saying this, but my reading was that Amber was referring to being affectionate with the hams- cut to ham affection overload.