God, I hope everyone loves continuity geekery.
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
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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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Well, that was an unexpected reaction…? =’
it was the same reaction i had. even in love, it is hard to believe he feels sorry for her
no way, he’s not looking at her.
Oh my God! Is he actually going to be pseudo-nice?
Oh god, best reaction ever!
Yeah, that was my reaction too. Whether intentionally or not, Mike has helped Amber get through this with humor.
I love how she even facepalmed with the Snkrs-bag hand.
*splat*
No, not splat. Snkrs was in the freezer, and it takes some time for things to thaw out.
I laughed my butt off when I read this though XD
crunch?
*clink*
well not the WORST reaction…
He tried at least, now he never needs to do it again.
I love the “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” look he has.
I thought it looked more like the “Why did I even bother” look. ;P
It’s like Harrison Ford saying “May the Force be with you”.
Another thing he could have said was “Not to mention the fact that you’d get to watch him die all over again a couple minutes after he came back to life”
Oh wait, you were serious. Let me laugh even harder.
HAHAHAHAHA dammit that made me laugh more than the comic
I LOVE continuity geekery, but wasn’t Mike coming back via resurrection chamber ruled out? (For one thing, November 2004 to February 2005 is five months too short for the chamber to work, and for another Mike was eaten whole and alive, making finding his DNA kind of implausible.)
Of course, the obvious answer here is that Mike doesn’t know how he came back, doesn’t know how the resurrection chamber works, and doesn’t care that he doesn’t know these things. Therefore, he’s fine with assuming he came back via resurrection chamber.
In no way does Mike say that he came back via resurrection chamber technology.
This begs the question of how he came back. I presume he came back in the same way Galasso brought Reagan back.
INQUIRING MINDS!
I see nothing resembling circular reasoning here.
Thank you.
Well, he says he only knows ONE way to bring dead things back. Which means either 1. it was the resurrection chamber or 2. he has no friggin clue how he came back (and probably doesn’t care).
Or I guess, 3. he somehow never really died in the first place.
There’s actually a four: He knows how he came back and he (by some miracle) never knew about the resurrection chamber.
Of course, it’s quite possible that he knew about it in It’s Walky and I just don’t remember. I’ll have to go back and check.
You missed:
5) The way he was brought back is no longer possible, as such he’s excluding it as an option.
6) The way he was brought back isn’t super top secret (technically this gels with what he said).
7) He’s lying. Hey, it’s Mike after all.
10) The Devil kicked him out of Hell and into a new body because he was afraid Mike would take over.
Erk, miscounted, that should be 8)
Also, c’mon Mike, what reaction were you honestly expecting?
It should be sunglasses smiley?
8 ) He’s actually Mike’s evil twin, with the same powers as the real Mike, who’s been impersonating his late brother all these years. It’s just that Mike was such an @$$hole that nobody ever noticed a difference.
9) There’s actually another resurrection chamber that a Martian deep cover agent has.
And Galasso’s a Martian plant who got his wires crossed.
I’d say being the Mike of Earth-3 is most likely. We already know that a multiverse is canon.
Galasso almost seems like he’s been mind-wiped and not completely re-educated.
How many times do I have to keep bringing this up, that even the good Mr. Willis accepted my interpretation: Mike is a force of nature.
Mike came back via a continuity plothole, one of the most powerful forces in the fictional universe.
Linkara hath spoken. All bow before his awesome and terrible gun.
Now, now… let’s not forget the awesome hat and all the other really cool toys
No, he does not. But he does say–unless there’s some other pricey, age-retaining resurrection device that’s previously gone unmentioned–is that the resurrection chamber is the only thing he’s aware of that can bring back a dead thing. And given that, due to his involvement with SEMME, he most likely knows about the resurrection chamber, the most logical conclusion I can come to is that he thinks that’s what brought him back, because otherwise he would know two ways of bringing back a dead thing.
No, he knows one and one has been used on him. And as Mike, we can safely assume that he doesn’t care in any way about how he was brought back to life.
I get the feeling that the story of how Mike came back, if it ever is actually revealed, is going to be like the situation with Scrubs and the Janitor’s name: once you know it, the series is over. (And even then, he might be lying!
)
Walkey came back from a condomfull of jizz and I’m fairly sure there was a good deal of gore splattered around from Mike getting crunched. The more material, the quicker the rez right?
Pretty sure it takes 9 months regardless of genetic material, although given that the bulk of the process seems to be regrowing the body your theory would make some sort of sense (as more matter=less to rebuild.)
Joe made a pretty good point of saying that they hadn’t found any parts of Mike on the battlefield, and that the aliens were very good at disposing of the bodies of the dead. That would seem to rule out any chance of resurrecting Mike, so it must be something we haven’t seen yet.
it was specifically said in itswalky that they couldn’t find any scrap of DNA of mike’s to be able to bring him back.
No toothbrush, comb, or other personal items? What happened to his stuff after he died?
It spontaneously combusted. All of it.
He has once very obliquely implied that he was brought back by whatever method Galasso used to bring back Ronald Reagan.
Which begs the question: how did Galasso bring Ronnie back? This too has yet to be explained.
Well you see, the hopes and dreams of millions of true Americans coalesced into a single mournful thought when they heard of the death of their hero and inspiration, and that thought was lifted skyward by the pure force of the American dream, and the heavens themselves received it and shed a single tear, which fell upon the grave of this savior and brought unto him new life that he may rise up and begin his holy work anew.
That’s how Mike came back. Reagan was found working the late shift at a Waffle House in Cleveland.
I love you. Just a little.
What do you mean it’s implausible that they could get a hold of Mike’s DNA? All they’d have to do is ask your mom.
lol.
just… lol.
Oh god… I second this as the official explanation of his resurrection
Isn’t it at least slightly plausible that an organisation such as SEMME might have a genetic sample on file of all their agents, even if only because it would allow them to identify their bodies (or check for impostors…) ? Or in case they ever got hold of some kind of advanced cloning technology that would allow them to make up spare body parts for transplant… or entire bodies to transplant a brain into?
Dig it out from the files (or remains of files; I can’t any more remember if their HQ got all blowed up), dump it in the resurrection tank, voomp, his soul returns to it and stops jerking up the afterlife.
Also, I have a feeling that, jerk with a heart of jerk he may be, there’s some tiny shred of humanity down inside him (which is why he hasn’t just murdered every single person who pisses him off) that gets released when he drinks. He’s just highly embarrassed by it and maybe sees expressing it as a sign of weakness. Revealing that he actually feels a tiny bit sorry, a tiny bit sad for Amber at the moment is possibly the hardest and most emotionally challenging thing he’s ever done. I wouldn’t be surprised by a rather rage-filled knee jerk reaction to this…
Um, as in knee-jerk. A jerking motion of the knee.
Not that he’s going to be a jerk and knee her in the stomach. No. Not at all.
Aw man…
It’s not really “continuity” geekery if the continuity is unexplained, is it? It’s more like continuity mockery.
I was going to number this 11, but it’s more like 1a. So:
1a. The resurrection chamber took the full period, finishing in July ’05. Webcomic time is wibbly-wobbly.
1b. The chamber took less time than usual.
He knew about Tony being resurrected, didn’t he?
That’s in response to people wondering if he knew about the resurrection chamber.
Yes, Sir Willis; we LOVE continuity geekery.
—
It seems Mike also understands Amber rather well. She may need emotional support, but knows Mike isn’t the place to get it when it involves being weepy.
/\ Seconded.
MORE CONTINUITY GEEKINESS!!!
They really are perfect for each other aren’t they?
I can just imagine the tone of voice Mike was using too. That just made it even funnier.
And because I read the whole Walkyverse in the span of… oh God I don’t even know, less than a week? I can follow the continuity! WOO!!!
“I’m… sorry for your loss.”
Yeah, Robin doesn’t get their relationship at ALL.
Amber’s reaction may be the most honest reaction to Mike’s attempted niceness…
Seriously Mike – work harder at this nice thing – not even your girlfriend-slash-future wife will fake buying it
I believe ‘fiancee’ is the term here, even if I’m too lazy to look up the right symbol for the last ‘e’.
é
There you go
You’re all missing the point: this is the first time she’s smiled since Snkrs died. Mike just successfully cheered her up!
Mike used “Obviously fake sympathy”!
It’s SUPER EFFECTIVE!!
I love you a little.
Well at least Mike successfully cheered her up. Even if it wasn’t the way intended.
I feel sympathy for Mike for the first time ever.
And he will never try to be nice again.
There’s something really adorable about Mike’s attempt at being comforting. Maybe it’s how he clearly has no idea how to do it.
If I remember correctly…and maybe I don’t…Mike was rez’d using traces of his sperm taken from his latest sexual partner just before he was splattered all over the landscape and or eaten?
Actually, that was Walky.
Not likely, because Mike’s latest sexual encounter WAS splattered all over the landscape. Well, laboratory.
Too soon!
Must… Resist… Mom… Joke…
So Ethen dosen’t count?
Maybe Mike’s got a little bit of a buzz going on? Just a little?
David, it’s probably one of your greatest pleasures to watch the fanbase squirm over the complete implausibility of Mike.
I mean, my guess is you never really intended at inception to have Shortpacked! and It’s Walky! be part of the same universe, but ‘Continuity Porn’ is just so irresistible. Then again, I could be wrong; perhaps you are actually an evil genius!
Whatever the answer ends up being, I’m sure it’s going to be incredible. I, for one, want a direct email notification the say ‘Word of God’ is published!
Shortpacked! was always conceived as a continuation of the Roomies!/It’s Walky! universe. Always.
But I didn’t want to make a big deal about it because I wanted Shortpacked! to stand on its own, rather than be bogged down in seven years of sci-fi.
Well, then I am even more intrigued as to what the ‘Word of God’ will turn out to be.
Some days, it feels good to be wrong.
The word of god on Mike’s aliveness is that I never plan to explain it. He just is.
Mike was always intended to return in Shortpacked!, but he wasn’t always intended to die in It’s Walky!. I came up with that as I was finishing things up, realizing I needed a more satisfying body count. So Mike got offed. And, still knowing Mike was coming back later, I sealed off all possibility of him being resurrected. For funsies.
I like to think Mike is such an asshole he’s even unwittingly an asshole to real-life people who want to know, canonically, how he’s not dead.
That is quite possibly the most diabolical thing I’ve ever heard. You truly are an evil genius. Especially the part about Mike breaking the fourth wall to be a dick to the rest of us.
I like to think he insulted the Martians to a point that he was able to straddle the event horizon of the dick-tinuum until such a time that Walky had passed through “purgatory” and he was able to return to, and take off with his body to wreak a whole new kind of havok on the inhabitants of a this (unwitting) lowly toy store, never to be found again. All the while he made sure Joyce thought he was extra dead so-as she would report the news as such to the rest; Joyce being the least likely to question Mike’s abilities to break the laws of space an time with sheer dick-itude. The results: epic four-fer, metaphorical crotch-kick.
Clearly I just made that up, but it sounds fun.
And now we Know!
(but seriously, thanks for Wording this God.)
It’s simple. Mike is “whatever you don’t want me to be.” You wanted him dead. He isn’t.
My friend and I just off-the-cuffed several possible ways Mike came back.
My personal favorite is that it’s his, heretofore basically undefined, major abductee power is enhanced regeneration explaining both his apparently higher than abductee normal durability and his return.
The close second is that they took a sample from the lab wanting to bring Dina back, and got Mike instead.
There are so many interesting possibilities that leaving it open is more interesting anyway. That said, part of the discussion my friend and I had about this is that barring some info about Ronnie we don’t know, the resurrection chamber isn’t viable in his case, since as best we can remember it requires one to have Martian DNA…Snkrs would also fall prey to that limitation, if it were available and viable anyway.
Can’t help but notice. No tags?
None of the characters in this strip have ever appeared before. If they may happen to vaguely resemble characters previously appearing in the strip, well, some authors have a hard time drawing characters that don’t resemble each other. It happens.
I…. have never read It’s Walky.
I only vaguely know it involves secret agencies and super-powered people. Can anyone explain to me what I need to know here?
Brush up. It’s only ~2400 pages of Roomies!/It’s Walky! pure awesomeness.
http://www.itswalky.com/d/19970908.html
There was a comic called Roomies, which was like Dumbing of Age if it was made by a guy who hadn’t figured out drawing yet
. It had a subplot about aliens, which became much more important toward the end.
It’s Walky! was a sequel comic, which starred several of the cast of Roomies (along with new characters), who had been abducted by aliens when younger and genetically augmented. Now they have superpowers and work for an agency called SEMME hunting those aliens.
Robin and Mike were both members of SEMME. In the big apocalyptic battle that ended the comic, Mike was killed. SEMME has access to martian technology that can resurrect the dead, but it requires recent DNA to work and Mike was offed in a manner that made retrieving said DNA impossible.
So Mike was to stay dead, Robin decided to quit and get a low-stress job in retail, and much to her own surprise she found Mike already working there. Then the author cackles as thunder rolls in the background, because he has successfully trolled the audience.
I think that covers the salient points. Anyone have anything else to add?
“Act with integrity; no regrets.”
Don’t you ever think of the Consequences?
What are consequences?
It took me many hours (but very few days) to read the Walky archive. I did so before reading Shortpacked. So much happened that I’m consistently amazed by your (Willis’) ability to remember it all, and work it into things. That said… I freaking love continuity jokes! Thank you! Never explain how Mike lives, simply allow him to always be!
When something is resurrected it comes back at the same age and condition when it died? Sound science to me…
After all, that was established in Futurama as well in Jurassic Bark. And as we all know, Futurama IS truth.
The only other way SNKRS can get a new lease on life is if he could give him some Singularkitty DNA.
Well, it seems to have made her feel better!
I was totally hoping for a Robin/Mike super-power streetfight.
Seems to me SEMME (or somebody) had the ability to make back-ups of its agents just like you make a restore CD for your computer. Hence the whole “same age as you were before” business. Now I know, you might get worried about the whole “soul transference” issue: making sure the (theoretical) soul makes its way back to the body. Well… this still might be an issue with the process, Mike’s rez didn’t provide an opportunity to test this function for obvious reasons.
well it was a nice try…
Wow. Mike gives an honest, straightforward answer to Amber’s question, and then does a token bit of traditional sympathy.And I suspect the second was a deliberate attempt to get her to laugh. I think that’s the least jerky I’ve ever seen sober Mike be, ever.
Well, he did succeed in cheering her up!
YES! YES! CONTINUITY ORGASM YES….. UGHNNNNNNNNNN
so…. goood…..
The look on his face in that last panel screams “I’m never gonna live that down”.
<3
Long form: I love this comic. I love continuity geekery. I love Amber bursting out laughing in Mike's face when he does what had formerly seemed completely impossible and sympathized with her.
(I really, really hope this does not backfire horribly because he seems serious about this and I hope she realizes that and things work out well for them. They've been through enough shit that this backfiring and damaging their relationship would be difficult to read, for me. This is a great opportunity for character growth and I love characters growing and evolving.)
I should say… formerly seemed completely impossible without the addition of alcohol, which I’m pretty sure is NOT in play here.
Yep. She’s perfect for him.
Good grief, what a broken pair of people. One of them can’t be nice without the other being an ******* somehow — or they somehow manage to do both at the same time.
Lazarus Pit.
I’m A.) a Huge continuity geek and B.) a Relatively new Walkyverse fan (A little over 4 months) so this Continuity Porn is awesome.
It sounds like, from Mike’s description that he indeed knows of the resurrection chamber, and assumes that’s how he was brought back.
Though if you want to go meta on it, the operative question is “do you remember dying” or “what is it like to die?”
Mike mike mike…You just cannot win…:-(
Oh god Mike, you are so adorable.