And that’s the last installment of the story proper. Next week, stand-alones return! (M-W-F, as always.)
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
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The Book of Biff
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Comics Curmudgeon
College Roomies from Hell!!!
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Hark, a vagrant
Hijinks Ensue
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Overcompensating
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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
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©2005-2013 David Willis | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑
Ken who? You mean Cammy?
Fei Long you gotta be smarter than that.
Is it just me or is Ninja Rick more creepy now than when he killed that clerk?
Wow, I can’t believe it’s almost been five years since Ninja Rick went a-stabbin’
woah woah woah WOAH. WHY are Ethan and Amber scheduling LESLIE away from Malaya? I mean… I guess maybe it’s to keep Robin happy, but Leslie really won’t be pleased if she finds out about that.
Ethan wasn’t saying “Leslie and Robin” as in “they both have to be scheduled away from Malaya”, it was as in “they have to be scheduled away from each other.”
Oh, ok. That makes more sense, then.
I think he meant scheduling Leslie and Robin away from each other.
Looks like you’ve been–
*dons sunglasses*
Ninja’d.
YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eh, Malaya and Glasso and Faz should have a shift to themselves.
Yes, I actually really want to see Galasso’s and Malaya’s reactions to one another.
Ninja Rick just became Pedo Rick?
Malaya is a minor? Why the big deal about age?
It’s not about Malaya; it’s about the anime girls.
The anime girls are drawings.
(Also, they might look 20. Or they are 20 but look 12 and that’s the age Rick is going by. Stylistic choices make Perverse Sexual Lust kind of complicated.)
Big anime girls you make the rockin’ world go round…
Probably not a minor, but she seems 18-20, and Rick is 30+. That’s creepy. Plus, they REALLY don’t need any more romances at that store.
In helium voice:
Creepy yesss, very creeeepy, heh eh heh
I think Ninja Rick is insane, and dangerous. That strikes me as a bit more significant than age difference. As does his shallow Asian = hot mentality.
But then again, to each their own prejudices.
The Drama Tag will prevail!! ROMANCES EVERYWHERE!!!
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAACK*cough*cough*…Okay, I’m good.
wait this means Robin has to redo her dodecahedron. that’s gonna suck.
Ninja Rick lives his life according to anime. He might actually assume he’s supposed to be all pedobear up in this.
And that any brother she has is his greatest rival.
or sister!
Somehow I have trouble seeing Malaya as a tsundere. She’s plenty tsuntsun, but I’ve yet to see any deredere, even with Leslie.
Well, I’m sure she’ll get along with Mi-well, no.
But there’s always Fa-um…
Ronnie hasn’t shown any interest in returning, has he?
Then again, she hates most of the world and so does Mike. They might just destroy it together, who knows.
Yes, except Mike hates the world because he’s seen it’s full of shit, lies, and two-faced people. Malaya apparently hates it because she’s not given just what she wants on a silver platter. Mike would easily crush her, and he wouldn’t even need his super-strength to do it. There can be only one!
I think Mike actually likes the world, considering he died defending it. Though I think he likes it for how amusing it is to mock and torture.
Kinda like some love/hate thing.
<3
D:
The irony is that she was hired to RESOLVE scheduling issues
And she’s only here to piss Robin off.
I thought she was hired to meet the Asian quota…
A little from column A….
Does Ninja Rick’s beard really radiate out from his mouth that way? Because between that and the darker coloration, my mind keeps interpreting it as a completely different orifice.
…damn you. Dx Cannot unsee.
Yeah, it always did. Except today, his beard looks a little rounder than usual (previous drawings give him a more angled cut), so that and the different coloring threw me off, too. Here he seems like he’s midway between clean-shaven and beardy because of that.
Come on guys! Vega is a nice dude, just give him more time with her!
@Cheesy:
Leslie x Robin
Ninja Rick x Malaya, Ken
XD Ninja Rick and Malaya and Twelve?
My brain just broke from even attempting to process that thought.
Faz: Rick! The Faz thought you had something special for The Faz!
Why is Ken holding a PKE meter?
I think it’s a price scanner/labeler thing that Johnny Cage has there. I used to use one when I worked at Wal-Mart.
Wrong franchise, chief.
Okay, okay, Morrigan then, if you insist on being picky.
‘cos he ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
Oh no.
Oh no.
Oh yes.
I hope this means there will be more Ninja Rick now
Though you could make the argument that Ninja Rick is in every panel of every comic, you just can’t see past his advanced stealth techniques.
Does this mean that soon we will be seeing Rick dressed up as a bear while stalking the lolis?
i’m not at all surprised Ninja Rick would say that
Hey, Rick is bisexual. Much like many real life samurai…eerr, Ninja.
WHELP, time for Ninja Rick to die terribly
I dunno about 10, but I can tell you that 8 is nothing.
At least, when you’re 30+. (And she’s the older one.)
20′s only nothing if you’re an old millionaire and she’s a Playmate. Preach on, Brother Hefner!
Wait, how old IS Rick? I assumed he was around the same age as Ethan and Amber, but is he older? Now I’m thinking he must be around 40+
We learned in “Flashbacked!” that Ninja Rick was already working at the store when Ethan and Amber arrived. He’s been there a while.
Perhaps a set of bios for all the characters. In criminal description format.
Peter Bartho Smith
AKA: Ninja Rick, Doug the Dancing Chipmunk, Pete Smith, Bartho the Ninja…. etc.
DOB: 27 MAR 1979
POB: Crump, MI
Distinctive Marks: blah blah….
Snugums Khomiak
AKA: Hamster # 3, Blaster Hamster ™ # 3, Snugo, Snuglo, “The Numster”
blah blah…
Weapon of choice: Blaster (Type 47) taped to back
Known Associates: “Pigeon” Norbrofsky, “Knuckles” the Bunny
Last seen: 2009…
So f you told us outright it would ruin half the fun
but has he always liked Ninja’s so much?
The Japanese anime characters Rick watches are generally going to be high school teenagers, so let’s say a mean age of 15. That would put Ken and Malay in their mid-twenties, and Ninja Rick himself at 35+.
I suppose we get that Rick is older, but without knowing their actual ages, it makes the joke kind of fall flat I think.
My anal retentiveness needs to point out Ninja Rick’s horrid use of suffixes here. -chan is generally used only for women; when added to a male’s name, it’s either a boy (very deminuative) or a girl to her boyfriend (not entirely certain the details of that, though). A better choice would’ve been -kun, or even just plain -san.
Yes, I realize that Rick is only a passing anime fan and the choice of suffixes was probably intentional from a literary standpoint, but this is a public service announcement, incase the catgirls suddenly want to -chan it up.
In Japan, calling a man by name with a chan would most likely be a put down when it is said by another man.
Have you perhaps read the Epic Saga known as “Ninja Rick: The Moaning Sword”? (from 2006) Starts here:
http://www.shortpacked.com/2006/comic/book-3-is-totally-gay/08-ninja-rick-the-moaning-sword/decompressed/
After (re) reading that story arc, I have decided to go back to the beginning of the strip.
Back to when weird things happened.
Back to the time before everybody’s not having sex was a major focus.
Back to when things blew up, people were locked in cages, and Blaster Hamsters ™ roamed the land.
When a man (one assumes) could kill someone in a food court and it was all ok.
When toys from my childhood were used as props by ineffective super heroes.
…the good time….
The cage thing happened after people started complaining about not getting sex.
Your Avatar + “Anal Retentiveness” = I Can’t stop Laughing.
Does the advertisement for Shortpacked in the other comics depress anyone else now?
What with Robin and Leslie looking all happy together on it.
So, this is the end of the story, eh? Drat, I was looking forward to seeing Faz’s reaction to Amber’s new job.
If she can hire people, she can probably fire them as well. She probably won’t, since she took pity on Faz over the whole Father Issue, but it would be fun to see how far she needs to be pushed to reconsider that decision.
Did we just time travel backwards here? First they are elaving the store, then Amber, Mike and Ethan are having drinks, then Mike and Amber are arriving home and now they are back in the store?
Or it is the next day. Although the confusion is understandable, all the days run together when you work retail…
Or Amber scheduled the best lunch break for herself, Mike, and Ethan…
Oh how do the days in retail run together. If I were Amber, I would schedule all my lunch breaks like that. Hell, in my retail job, we don’t get a lunch break, so I wanna work for a toy store!
I suppose it could be the next day, I just thought it hard to believe that a whole day would pass and nothing noteable had happened until closing
It isn’t necessarily closing…they could be opening for the day, with Ken and Malaya just getting in.
You… don’t get a lunch break? Is that even legal? Unless you work under six hours, then I guess I could understand only a fifteen minute break (provided you work minimum of four).
Malaya’s got a shirt now instead of the vest, so its the next day
Ha, ha, the joys of being in charge.
And now we understand why Ninja Rick works at a toy store.
There are other reasons to work at a toy store?
..Rick’s an inner-lolicon? (o_o)
Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon
‘Cause the cartoon has got the boom anime babes
That make me think the wrong thing
I don’t know if it’s been discussed before…
…but I noticed on the Cast page, that Ken was hired to get more Asians in the store. I’m wondering what’s his heritage is. From appearance he appears mixed Chinese.
He’s Japanese.
Thanks for clearing that up, Mr. Willis
Ken is a fine Japanese name. Hell, every kid in every Gamera movie was named Kenny.
Gamera is really neat! Gamera is filled with meat! We’ll be eating GAMERAAA!
So he speaks normal, midwestern english when nobody’s looking?
I wonder if Ninja Rick realises Malaya is not Japanese, or if Asians in general have fused together in one glorious race to him.
Amir and Marigold, from… that webcomic drawn by Willis’ archnemesis, they are also more than 10 years apart.
Damn, Sheng Long is an idiot.
Thanks for all the grotesque prejudice guys!
Agism is the last prejudice that we can truly indulge because few people recognise it for what it is. Replace Ethan’s admonition about their age difference with point out their difference in race. Now how comfortable do you feel in your easy judgement. Next replace it with pointing out a difference in their religion. Still funny?
It’s fun to fully indulge your prejudice when it’s socially acceptable isn’t it? Just like it used to be okay to take shots at gay people and black people and jewish people. I guess I just expected better of this fan-base…
I really don’t think “age of consent” issues are “ageism.” There’s a legal culpability involved, and it’s not about how one person is too old, but how the other person is too young. It’s not the same as racial or religious or sexual orientation issues at all.
(Later I am going to wish I had just deleted that stupid, inflammatory post, aren’t I?)
14 year old girl dating a 60 year old guy.
Mexican girl dating a Caucasian guy.
Catholic girl dating a Buddhist guy.
Yes, I feel totally comfortable with the last 2 sentences, not so much the first one. Actually, a 14 year old Catholic Mexican girl dating a 60 year old Caucasian Buddhist guy is not too appealing either.
Or if you go to Thailand and you see how the 60 year old guys dating the 14 year old Thai girls (which seems to happen a lot), that’s not too appealing either.
How about, 35 year old man dating 22 year old girl? That doesn’t sound creepy to me.
Age difference shouldn’t be a problem. Legal age of consent should.
-airfox
I agree with this generally – long as everyone’s an adult, is all good.
In THIS particular case, though, Rick is being really, really creepy about the whole thing.
Are you sure it’s dating and not an arranged marriage?
You know, speaking as someone whose SO is seven years his junior, I gotta say that you’re taking this way too seriously. Age differences aren’t that big of an issue, true. At the same time, Ninja Rick (who I’ve always taken as being mid-30s to early-40s) having amorous designs on Malaya (who looks 16-18, regardless of her actual age) is a wide enough gap that, combined with Rick’s personality, makes it creepy. You seem to be making it an age issue, when it’s an age AND Ninja-Rick-is-a-kinda-creepy-animu-fanboy issue.
My apologies to David Willis if it sounded like my post was directed at him. It was directed at the responses of the fan-base. I admire Mr. Willis for taking the risk of leaving what may be controversial post on his feed.
Let me start by separating out the two issues at hand: age of consent and age disparity. There was no indication of Malaya being underage in the strip. If that is so, then why is it okay for her to get interest from Leslie and not from Rick? I come from Canada where the age of consent is parative from age 16 and full consent at age 18, so there may be cultural outlooks that I am unaware of. Either way, one should always respect and obey the laws of the land.
It may also clarify my outlook to reveal that I am 21 years older than my wife. We met when she was of legal age of consent in any country on Earth and it was love at first sight for both of us. We were married within six months and have been passionately in love ever since. That having been said, we have had to deal with small-minded prejudice on a fairly on-going basis. Forgive me is I am less than forgiving of people feeling entitled to judgement.
I’d like to point out the fact that Ninja Rick’s doe-eyed over anime girls who are usually made to intentionally look like they’re 13.
The thing with age gaps is it doesn’t matter as much the older people get. A ten year gap is abhorrent when one is 12 but when that same person reaches the age of 25, it really isn’t an issue at all. You pointed this out yourself.
Regarding today in specific, when a dangerously insane man proclaims his intentions to hunt a local child, that’s creepy. And yes, Ethan probably does view her as a child. She’s blatantly at a much earlier stage in life and development, and the protective instinct is in full force.
Regarding generalities and cultural views, the fact is that many people view the act of romantically pursuing someone old enough to be your parent or young enough to be your child as inherently wrong. The general consensus seems to be that taking from your sons dating pool is a skeevy move.
Whether you agree or not is one thing. I certainly don’t care overly much for such issues so long as we’re all consenting adults. However, this is hardly a prejudice on the level of race or your other examples. We’re talking about a culturally approved dating pool. No one’s being oppressed here. No one’s rights are being infringed upon. So long as one stays within legal boundaries all they can expect is judgement from their peers. Peers are judgemental. That’s gonna happen. If it wasn’t her age it would have been her weight or her personality. I swear to God I’ve seen a man get harassed for a year and a half because his girlfriends eyebrows were too bushy.
There’s no cause here. Just a whole lot of dicks, and they’re not going anywhere. Of course, this is just where I live. Who knows? Maybe there’s genuine oppression happening in your location. I would not seek to make light of that.
Regarding the comments section of this comic, as near as I can tell everything is meant in good humor. Whether you find the jokes to be in good taste or not is another matter, but when the punchline of the comic is “Hey, we better keep this creepy old man away from the vulnerable young female” you can expect a certain theme in the responses.
Also, he already has the anime thing going, which has a longstanding image surrounding the issue. That doesn’t help.
I would have figured that Ninja Rick preferred ninja-themed anime – aren’t most of the girls in those, like, in their twenties or older? I just don’t see him watching much Sailor Moon.
I think we’ve seen indication at some point that his “Ninjas” are from Naruto. Iirc Naruto start his journey at age twelve.
He’s also been shown to enjoy other animes like yugioh, and to have a fascination with and ignorance of anime culture. Once he attempted to catch an asian by placing pocky in a trap.
As a whole, his ninjas probably were that young, and his watching sailor moon actually seems pretty likely.
well, at leats we’re getting some minor plots mixed together.
Wait…is he saying Ken and Malaya should be scheduled differently, or Ken and RICK? ‘Cuz…’Rick is a predator with a particular yen for Asians’ and ‘Ken’s getting kind of creepy about Malaya’ are two different jokes…
I think Rick is plotting to kill Ken if he gets in the way of him and Malaya. Or at least the justice flowing through his blade is.
… OK, potentially three different jokes here. This is just making things more complicated!
No no, Ethan’s picked up on Ken’s interest in Malaya and Malaya’s distinct disinterest in him. So he’s saying Malaya and Rick need to be separated as well as Malaya and Ken.
I thought that the joke was that Ninja Rick should be scheduled away from either Malaya or Ken, because his Asian fetish might be so powerful that he’d harass/hit on/freak out/whatever any Asian, regardless of gender. After all, many Shortpackers seem to swing both ways.
Prediction: Ninja Rick’s Asian fetish will result in his sleeping with Faz (if he hasn’t already).
Whoops, Ninja Rick has totally been there and done that.
http://www.shortpacked.com/2005/comic/book-2-pulls-the-drama-tag/05-faztivus/blood/
My bad. New prediction: Ninja Rick will sleep with Ken. That hasn’t happened yet, has it?
But Ken and Malaya are room mates. There’s no point in separating them at work if they live together.
So Jack is not only a ninja, but also has pedophile tendencies. Oh boy… God help the pre-teen girls who go to WonderCon in SF, dressed up in Japaneses School girl outfits.
I’m honestly more creeped out at ninja Rick’s Asian fetish, though I shouldn’t be surprised. The age difference isn’t, and shouldn’t, be a big deal in my opinion! Not unless one of the parties involved was a minor or only recently was able to consent. (Then it becomes very skeevy.)
Huh, did not see asian. I think I like her even more now
I love how people nowadays have all forgotten that age differences sure as fuck didn’t matter to anyone in the recent past.. I mean christ.. was your dad a pedo if he dated your mom when he was 19 and she was 14, like -all of our parents did-?
But Asian = automatically better? Are you related to Ninja Rick? ಠ_ಠ
Lol. I don’t know how things work over where you live, but my parents started dating at 21 and nineteen. As did most other adult couples I’m acquainted with. A friends getting married on the weekend. They met eachother at twenty one and nineteen. They are getting married at twenty one and nineteen. Twenty one and eighteen earns you dirty looks. Nineteen and fourteen gets the cops called. This didn’t just become the case recently, and I find the notion that the age discrepancy would suddenly become significant from one generation to another bizarre and confusing.
Well they did grow up in California back when California was awesome. That must be it.
My parents were both 19 when they dropped out of bible college and conceived me out of wedlock.
I don’t know why, but that’s the most awesome thing I’ve read today.
I want to see Ninja Rick attack Ibuki and end up being forced to eat his own sword. Obviously Yun will turn out to be a world famous amateur boxer and triathlete who almost made the olympic team one year .
I do so appreciate her use of “colorful metaphors”
“Double dumbass on you” and soforth?
So I have to say that this is the first time I feel something resembling empathy and/or other positive emotions for Malaya thanks to that first panel.
Hmm, Ninja Rick probably watches Naruto, the kids in that are currently 14-15, which means malaya is 24-25 and Ninja Rick is 34-35. Although since it was just a rough estimation malaya may be 2-3 years less then stated so 21-23. Best guess for anyone interested I believe.
Wait… why isn’t the next button working? My god… I’ve read nearly 6 years of comics in 3 days!
I really need to find something else to do.
ok, unrelated question time. Can someone tell me either how to search for a strip by tag and or link me to the strip about the movie The Wizard. I was trying to explain it to my fiance earlier as we watched the aforementioned film and failing. And since I just reread the It’s Walky and Shortpacked archives last month, I really don’t want to drag myself through it again to find it.
no idea. it seems to be a lacking feature, why have the tags at all, if you can’t search for a specific tagged comic.
If you see a tag, you can click on it and search for other strips with that tag. I believe if you want to search for a different tag, you can just replace that tag with the one you want. ie. replace Ken with Faz to find Faz strips.
Well that was fun. A straight up blast through all of Superpacked! comics. Well……that was an effective waste of a week.
Now…for those other three comics David writes that are on the same site and begin in 1990-freakin 9!
1997!
Pedophile (meaning baby-love): An attraction to people below the biological age of sexual maturity.
Hebephile (meaning youth-love): An attraction to people in the beginning of their biological sexual maturity.
The term that you are all looking for is hebephile, not pedophile. A pedophile is someone who sexually responds to eight year olds, not teenagers.
Thank you. Because we all care about using the proper term for fetishes.
Why is Balrog so dense? I mean he was right there when Malaya and Robin were fighting over Leslie.