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
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80 page GIANT
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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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That is fairly creepy. I totally wouldn’t wanna stalk my kids in the shower D=
Why isn’t he checking out ladies in the shower?
Ghost Lisa is boooooored apparently.
she and ghost dad should hook up.
With Yoda, or should they exclude him?
I never watched the show.
Did he FINALLY put the spandex on yet?!
The last like…2 minutes of the last show, yeah. And we never saw him in the suit clearly. Always blurry or from a distance or from the shoulders/neck up.
Then why bother?
Was this one of those insane internal rights battles where-in a company arbitrarily refuses to let itself use its own property rights? Were they actually not allowed to use the Superman suit so as to not “interfere” with its use in an upcoming movie?
*shrug* I just felt like being a dick about it. :/
Nah, it was because of the Superman curse, they didn’t want to take any risks. I’m not angry because of that, they did the most logical thing.
Bowing to superstition is never the logical thing.
Yeah, I agree with Kerin: shooting the suit from odd angles in order to avoid the Superman curse is about as reasonable as hanging garlic from your office door to keep vampires from sucking your blood while you write a report.
That sounds like standard office procedure to me. Miserable Blood Sucking Leeches…
PROTIP: It needs to be fresh garlic! It’s the ghosts of the slain garlic bulbs that keep them away!
…what?
Smallville was never about Superman, it was about Clark Kent. The show’s producers had vowed “No tights, no flights” from the beginning and were trying to stick with that as best as possible, even to the very end, by keeping “Superman” hazy and Clark Kent in much sharper focus.
Is this one of those riddles? Superman IS Clark Kent, so saying it’s not about Superman is a bizarre thing to do. This isn’t like Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane where it genuinely isn’t about Spider-Man (it’s about MJ). You’re saying “It’s not about Superman, it’s just about the guy who is Superman, has all of his powers, and saves the day on a week-to-week basis using said powers. However, he never wears that costume.” What an incredibly stupid distinction, that led to an incredibly stupid show…
Superman is what he is. Clark Kent is who he is.
Superman is who he is. Clark Kent is who he pretends to be.
That was only the case in the original Golden Age of Superman comics. That interpretation has not properly applied to Clark since then. As it’s presented now, both identities are the real one.
Clark is the one who has a family, a wife, a job, and spends most of his life being. Sure, he’ll act nerdier than when he’s dressed up as Superman, but Clark IS naturally nerdy. Its something Lois often points out when they’re alone in comics and TV. He exaggerates those traits though in public to separate himself from his Superman role.
But Superman meanwhile is his natural desire to help people personified. However, he exaggerates that desire by wearing the costume and stuff.
Basically, neither identity is any less true than the other. He is BOTH Clark Kent AND Superman equally. Its something that he states firmly in Action Comics 900.
#$#”!”!!! Close the blockquote tag erroneously, and can’t edit my post.
Nope. At least not in the comic (and animation) during the previous 30 years.
Batman is the one whose secret identity is a disguise. He IS Batman, while Bruce Wayne Millionaire Playboy is a disguise.
Superman OTOH is Clark Kent. He may have all the kryptonian powers and stuff, but he’s actually just a farm boy who has powers and only uses them in public while wearing a disguise. Superman is what he is, but Clark is who he is is totally accurate. At least post-crisis.
-airfox
Somebody never saw Kill Bill. With batman or spiderman, the costume is the disguise. With superman, the regular clothes and the Clark Kent persona are the disguise.
That’s the thing though. Clark Kent wasn’t always just a persona he used to hide himself from the public. There was a time before superman, when Clark really was every bit the awkward fumbling nerdy and dull man that he would appear to be. This is the story of that man, before he became Superman.
Of course, I only watched the first three seasons. It sounds like they might have lost sight of that a little. Didn’t get the impression the plan originally involved Clark learning to fly, chilling in his fortress of solitude and battling most of Superman’s formidable rogues gallery in Metropolis. I get the impression that the line was being blurred towards the end of the series, which could make sense as a coming of age story about Clark discovering himself as Superman and becoming the man he was meant to be, the distinction between him and superman becomes harder to spot as he takes up the mantle piece by piece, or it could just be a symptom of shoddy writing and deteriorating plot. I wouldn’t know. Didn’t stick around that long.
Of course, premise for the show aside, there’s an entire debate behind your line of thought there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Kent#Debate_over_true_identity
The problem is Smallville pretty quickly stopped being the story of how a kid grew into his powers and started being a hero and started being the story of a whining brat who refused to follow the heroic examples of all the superheroes he met. So instead of inspiring the whole world with his heroism, this is a Clark Kent who is outdone by Supergirl and Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter and so on and so forth. A Clark Kent who has to be persuaded to stop being a lump by his girlfriend rather than a guy who attracts said girlfriend with his heroism. A Clark Kent who takes marching orders from the computer program of his dead dad rather than learning from his human parents. The whole show is just a tremendous misstep in so many ways.
Well doesn’t that just suck. Sounds like coming to terms with his power and noble heritage, learning to reconcile and temper it with his upbringing, and then finally developing the confidence and will to face his destiny and accomplish greatness would have been much more desirable.
What you describe doesn’t really sound like Clark Kent or Superman to me. It kind of just sounds like a bastardization of both
And now I’m glad I never saw a single episode of this show.
That and all the whining about LANA killed the show for me.
Ugh, hated that part of Kill Bill. It’s just so massively inaccurate. Clark Kent hasn’t been fumbling for a good long while, outside of the Silver Age and stuff inspired by the Silver Age. Superman is an extension of Clark. Clark has deep emotional ties to people he has no association with as Superman (his parents, friends from home, people at the Daily Planet) and a whole life that has nothing to do with being Superman. As we during the One Year Later thing, he has no problem living a life where he isn’t Superman.
Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, is definitely more of a mask for Batman. The only people he cares about are the ones he knows under the cowl and on several occasions he’s considered dumping Bruce Wayne entirely, something we never see Superman do. (Outside of Elseworlds.)
I’ve heard it said that Bruce’s truest self is when he’s down in the cave with the cowl off, interacting with his family and peers (Alfred, Dick, Tim, Clark, et al) – neither putting on the foppish playboy nor the Scary Goddamn Bat-God.
You are the reason I make it a point to never watch movies with comic book fans.
Yeah, but many people who actually read the comics know that the Kill Bill Speech is utter crap. It only applies to the Golden Aged version of the character, who’s back story and history was inconsequential as opposed to the super-hero. By modern standards, the Clark Kent and Superman identity are both the “real” identities, because both are traits the the core person has. Clark was born and raised as Clark Kent with a family that taught him the best of humanity. He demonstrates both traits as both Clark and Superman. He just exaggerates certain aspects of his core personality when in public as one or the other.
And by “born” I mean that’s that earliest memories he has of his life, as he can’t remember Krypton or anything like that.
Bill is a professional killer and a sociopath. Just like readers sometimes forget that characters can lie, Bill’s interpretation isn’t necessarily correct, it’s just how HE sees Superman.
That monologue isn’t in isolation- he’s using Supes’ example to convince Kiddo that she’s a morally superior being who shouldn’t have to play by the rules of “normal” people. If that’s the interpretation he takes from Superman, he’s doing it wrong.
Then again, given how old he is, who’s to say his last exposure to Superman wasn’t when he was a dick?
that was not clark kent. that was bigfoot.
“tight”?
…ew?
Well, the last comic’s title was, coincidentally, “Flight,” so….
How come HE’s haunting Clark and not Jor-El? I know I haven’t seen any episodes of Smallville but…
Lisa. OH MY EFFING GOD LISA
*dies*
“Yeah you kiss her good son”
“You kiss her reeeaal good.”
“Now sniff her hair.”
+12 Creepy
Though this is a remake of Ghost Dad I’d actually want to see.
Ghost Lisa in Panel 2 is just brilliance.
That guy doesn’t look anything like Bill Cosby.
OH god the reference hahahaha!
What’s Yoda doing there?! *lol*
Vader and Ben were out getting nachos.
Exactly what I was wondering, LOL
But where’s Hayden Christensen?
Lisa creeped him out too much, so he’s hanging with Jacob Marley.
See, I wouldn’t even have known who that girl in the second panel was, if not for that smirk.
Really? Your tagging this with “funky Cancercancer”? Shouldn’t that be reserved for strips calculated to annoy Tom Batiu?
I thought that was specifically why Ghost Lisa was thrown in.
Im glad he did. I’d never have remembered who the other ghost is, otherwise.
You mean strips with jokes and character development? I imagine most of the comics on this site qualify.
That is one glum-looking Yoda.
Yoda is officially one miserable muppet.
Hanging out with a dead person from the bleakest comic strip in the universe and Bo Duke, that doesn’t surprise me.
Actually, this could be considered an upgrade from having to spend eternity with Anakin and Obi-Wan.
Good point.
Your avatar makes that comment 10x better.
I always wondered about the “lives” of the force ghosts. Do Ben and Anakin get along, or were they just there to congratulate Luke, like bitter divorced parents putting on smiles so they can attend their kid’s graduation together?
They have a lot of issues to work out.
“You killed me!”
“You let me kill you!”
“Well, you overthrew the Republic!”
“You cut off my limbs and left me to die next to a magma pool!”
“Well, you were a whiny little emo bitch!”
“You just don’t understand me!”
*runs off to cry and write online poetry about Padme while listening to Linkin Park*
I love that there’s no assumption that he hooks up with padme again in the afterlife. She has moved on.
IIRC, according to the Expanded Universe, sooner or later they lose their coherence and just sort of drift apart back into the Force.
Kinda horrific, really.
Isn’t that what happens to dead people in that universe anyway, and normally without the time as a ghost? ((Not a big enough Star Wars fan to know their spiritual beliefs))
AS: Remember that time those (insert alien race) captured you? Ha ha, you cried like a little girl until I rescued you.
OWK: Oh, yeah? Well, remember that time you mortally wounded your wife and then I hacked off all your remaining limbs and left you for dead?
AS: ……….Remember the time I really *did* kill you?
Yoda: Fed up with you two, I am. Argue like a married couple, you do. Screw or screw not. Decide, you must. Until reached that decision is, find other ghosts to hang out with, I shall.
Smallville only just finished recently??? I thought the show died off years ago about the same time as geocities.
I think GeoCities lasted longer than you thought too.
True enough, I thought geoshities disappeared back in the early naughties.
No wonder superdickery apeared later…
AHA!! Now I get the birds! Very clever Mr. Willis. Very clever.
I wonder what Uncle Ben has to say about Jonathan stealing his gig.
Needs more birds.
Its a shame the last epp was like 50% clips from the past seasons, and the “end battle” (if you could call it that) was like 5 seconds. It was far too self-congradulating. And yes, the ghost dad just felt unnesscery – especialy as the actor already was back a few epps before.
Smallville could have ended on a high(er) note if they just had a no-nonsense fun episode like “Justice” was.
I vaguely suspect that this entire comic was just an excuse to draw panel 2.
I wouldn’t be surprised.
I’ve always preferred the origin comics where he’s decided to become a superhero and attempts to find acceptance in his own world without being alienated (being an alien, this is always difficult).
I just read Secret Origins and it had a spectacular interpretation of his struggle for acceptance. Saw another one where he’s just walking around trying to decide whether or not to where the tights when an alien suddenly attacks looking for him (didn’t like that one, too emo, too coincidental).
Smallville seemed too much like the latter. I wanna go back to the former. The theme of being a foreigner.
Hey, funny thing. I also read those comics one after another, and I share your opinion. Secret Origins is fantastic, while the other one (Superman: Earth One) is quite terrible. Leaving aside the emo and coincidental stuff, I really, really hate the villain.
Dave, this is a really weird strip. Funny, but so weird. Lisa Moore?
I only watched 5 episodes the entire time the show was on. I don’t understand how it lasted 10 years. The cartoons that were on in about the same time frame were better written and acted (that is voice acted.)
“I only watched 5 episodes the entire time the show was on. I don’t understand how it lasted 10 years. ”
Fangirls.
>old guy behind superman
>in the shower
>superman is naked
>Comic is called “Tight”
I enjoy Smallville largely for the fact that it’s not a “Lois and Clark” style reboot. It’s more of a reinterpretation of existing heroes trying (but somewhat failing) not to step on the toes of what came before. Some of my favorite episodes of the animated Batman/Superman cartoon are the flashback episodes when Clark is younger and in Smallville.
Smallville strikes me as being closer to Tron, The Green Hornet, and lately, Thor. None of those were great movies, adequate maybe, but they could’ve been so much better. (As an aside, GD you Marvel for dropping the ball on Thor). However, if you’re a fan of the character/series, you’re going to go see them.
… This might have been funnier if I didn’t give up on Smallville around the same time Jensen Ackles did. What? Five years ago…
Well, there’s always Netflix.
So… can’t draw the “S” shield, eh Willis?
I believe it’s a reference to the fact that the shield is never fully shown in the finale.
Er… the final shot of the episode is him tearing open his shirt on the Planet’s roof to reveal the logo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeemT-qNrss
gwalla has the right idea, but it’s poorly worded. It’s a reference to the suit never shown in its entirety.
Hey, I did a “Smallville” finale parody page in my comic too!
I technically consider myself a “Fan” of Smallville. I MUST have been for watching it so regularly, right? But man, that was such a disappointing finale. I always knew the final shot of Welling “in-costume” wasn’t going to worth the 10 years of nonsense, but I still expected better than THAT.
My father died the same night Jonathan did on the tv show. Watching Smallville together was our favorite thing to do. So when he pops up as “Ghost dad” it hits me especially hard. My family is a superman family. We always watched Lois and Clark and when the 50′s show started up on Nick@Nite my bed time was extended so we could watch it together. I have a love/hate relationship with smallville. it’s filled with a lot of crap. Mostly due to bad writing and directing. They make up for that with good actors. Sure they screw up 3 out of 5 times, but when they get things “right”, well it’s the best thing ever! I knew not to get over excited about Darkseid, knowing that it would just be Bizarro and a Doomsday all over again. We never get “epic” fights. Never ever. so why start now? Considering the “no tights no flights” rule I wasn’t surprised by the end. In fact I always thought we where just going to get “rips open shirt as he runs towards camera” and that would have been enough for me.
Lisa! Go haunt your husband! He’s with another woman!
So what, don’t you remember how the wedding vows say ‘Not Until Death Do You Part’
I thought that was Stan Bush at first. Then I realized it was papa Kent after he looked all blue in panel 2.
I’m honestly surprised you didn’t have the birds cover up the entire superman costume except for Clark’s head. After all, the show never let us see the costume properly either.
And yeah… having my dead father follow me around… creepy…
Who is the girl? I see Bo Duke and Yoda.
I wondered that too. Fortunately the comic tags were there to guide me.
After an entire decade’s worth of episodes, my favorite TV show Smallville has officially come to an end. For half my life, 10 out of the 21 years of my existence, I’ve stood by this show. It started when I was a child, I grew up with it as a teenager, and it has ended now that I am an adult. So you can imagine how much it means to me; it’s far more than just a television show about my favorite superhero. It’s been very near and dear to my heart, and it’s taught me so many lessons about the kind of life I want to live and the kind of person I want to be. A person like Clark Kent.
I loved the series finale. Was it perfect? Not by any means. Could some of it have been executed better? Definitely. In fact, that’s how I feel about the entire show. It can be compared to how San Francisco Giants fans feel about their favorite baseball team… “torturous.” Yes, Smallville has frustrated and tortured me many times over the years. I’ve been disappointed with the writers on several occasions concerning boring or convoluted story lines, character inconsistency, plot holes, and you name the problem, it was probably there. And as if that wasn’t enough, I also had to constantly hear it from television nazis and Smallville haters surrounding me on every side. I admit that Smallville had its flaws. It probably had more ups and downs than a person with bipolar disorder.
But when it was up, it soared. Up, up, and away. It may not have been as consistently good as other TV shows, like say Dexter, but while those other shows have been good, Smallville has been both good and bad… but it has also been great. Call it cheesy, but it made me feel things that no other television show was capable of making me feel. It took me to new heights and inspired me in countless different ways. What other show can entertain you without relying on constant sex, violence, and drama? What other show reminds you that darkness may be in everyone, “but even in the darkest soul, there is hope”? What other show reminds you that not only is embracing your future necessary to move forward, but that cherishing your past and everyone you care about is just as important? What other show makes you believe that a man (or woman) can fly?
For this reason, and for countless others, I love Smallville. The good outweighed- no, triumphed over- the bad, just like Clark’s light triumphed over the darkness. Individual moments throughout the show is what made it amazing. And that moment in the fortress, when Clark solidifies his destiny and we take a journey with him through the past 10 years, and he finally FLIES and becomes the hero he’s supposed to be… that amazing moment only tops the list of a very long list of memorable moments this show has given us. THIS is why I stayed with it and believed in it for 10 years, through the good, the bad, and the great. And like Clark said to Lois, “when you believe in someone, it’s not for a minute, or just for now. It’s forever.” I know there are millions of Smallville fans out there who feel exactly the same way. How else could this show have lasted for 10 years without loyal fans to support it? Smallville will sorely be missed, but it will forever live on in our hearts as we move forward to embrace our own destinies, as Clark Kent did his.
So in the end, what do I have to say about Smallville? What will I remember about it? It won’t be the silly little plot holes, the convoluted storylines (Lana and Isabel Theroux, I’m looking at you), or the bad writing decisions. It won’t just be the cool fighting moments or the Superman references which made me squeal with delight. I’ll remember those great moments. I’ll remember the lessons it taught me about love, hope, courage, growth, selflessness, and the good in this world. I’ll remember the way it inspired me and encouraged me. When Brainiac told Clark, “a hero is made in the moment, not from questioning the past or fearing what’s to come.” When a fan thanked the blur for helping him believe that “heroes can and do exist.” When Clark faced the darkness and said, “it may be easier to hate, but it’s stronger to love.” I’ll remember so many other things that I can’t even put into words or write about because it would take pages upon pages. So I’ll keep it short and simple: I’ll remember when Jonathan Kent gave his son the suit and said, “Always hold on to Smallville.” And hold on to Smallville, I will.
Jesus Christ, dude. I think you win the award for longest comment post thing ever.
Nah.
But seriously, why are you watching if there isn’t constant drama? If it’s just the boring every day events in the lives of teenagers, no one would watch. It’s the drama that makes fiction appealing.
Constant drama is an essential portion of the life of a teenager. The proportion of external to self-inflected drama just trends higher in fiction.
tl;dr
You should have drawn Ghost Michael Landon running away from Ghost Randy Savage in the background.
Nah, then I lose the “Return of the Jedi” feel with the existing three guys there.
I have to post this here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/537261515/least-i-could-do-the-pilot . If you know what LICD is, you then know why this must happen.
I haven’t seen the finale yet, but until I read the comments I was wondering what the hell the specter of MacGyver was doing following Superman.