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
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Hijinks Ensue
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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
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©2005-2013 David Willis | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑
Why do fans of things always hate the things they love?
Is it maybe like enjoying heckling at bad movies?
Pavlovian reaction. They can’t help it anymore.
Optimus makes Ethan drool?
What can I say, people love to criticize things to make them feel like they are important. I like My Little Pony, people criticize by saying we are no different than furries. I like Dubstep, people are too attached to pop and country to understand it so sour grapes. If I come to not like something like FPS shooters, haters are gonna hate and ragers are gonna rage.
Yeah but this isn’t what you’re describing. This is Transformers fans hating Transformers. Star Wars fans also hate Star Wars more than anyone else possibly could.
And people who live in New Jersey hate New Jersey. Yet New Jersey has the lowest percentage of people who move out of state.
That would be because you have to pay to leave the state, Twelfth. If a New Jersey property owner wishes to sell their house, a portion of the funds are withheld by the state unless the seller maintains residence in the state for a full year. They are literally coming as close as they can to making it outright illegal to move out of the state. I speak from personal experience.
Holy hells! That’s crazy!
So you have a state that is now filled with residents who hate their state, but are too stubborn to move out of principle/money.
I don’t know whether to thank or curse you. My mental image of New Jersey has switched from Jersey Shores to a bitter old couple.
So if you want to move out of the state, you have to live in the state.
BIZARRO
Gotham City is in New Jersey.
That and apparently you have to pay a toll to get OUT of the state if you’re going to, say, Pennsylvania, but you DON’T have to pay a toll to get IN to New Jersey.
Between the “pay to leave” and the fact you can’t pump your own gas (I get it, I know why they do it, but I’m so used to doing it for myself I can’t fathom someone else doing it), I never want to live in New Jersey, ever.
I could have sworn I just read that it had the HIGHEST number of people leave this year, at least percentage wise.
See, I love New Jersey! I mean, that law that Archone talks about really sucks and that’s incredibly lamesauce, but I’ve never had to deal with that…so currently I’m happy!
The closest some people ever come to being happy is when they’re positively miserable and proclaiming their misery to anyone and everyone who will listen.
That sounds like the M.O of an emo.
Because being a fan of something doesn’t necessarily mean you like it. It means you’re obsessed with it (at least to some extent). It’s an important distinction.
Or it means you like the universe/idea but are displeased with the execution and directiona series is taking.
After all, ‘fan’ was initially shortened from ‘fanatic’.
If they didn’t hate it but follow it religiously ANYWAY, they wouldn’t be FANS.
Because the word “fan” is an abbreviation of “fanatic”.
And “fanatic” means crazy person.
To parallel Ethan to Ras Al Ghul again; he looks and sounds like he just got out of the Lazarus Pits…
Yup. He’s snapped.
Next week, fans of G.I. Joe and fans of World Peacekeepers (a.k.a. “Red Division of Justice”) go to war with one another.
Rivals the famous Mike!Smile for it’s nightmare inducing potential.
I heartily approve. I think every character should have at least one “Ohmygodtoohappytobesane” strip.
Galasso’s would be awesome. Faz…would probably have the same smirk as always, because how can you get creepier than Faz?
Open his eyes.
But Faz has no eyes since eyes are the windows of the soul. All he has are two, darker than pitch, oily bottomless pits that only lead you into madness as you stare into their greasy soul sucking depths.
I love Ethan’s pose in panel 4. Looks super animated.
I serioulsy listened to all the arguments that said that Ethan paid his bills, and worked every day, and should be allowed to do as he liked with his money and his time. I agree.
But, I think, based on todays comic….that boy ain’t right.
Hey, Jacob’s looking pretty good again.
The sad thing is, the cycle that Ethan’s describing happens over and over again in all sorts of fandoms.
Being a Sonic fan I see it quite a bit.
You’d think he’d be used to it by now seeing as how those geek-a-nerds are Shortpacked’s steadiest customers.
Ethan just went from excited to insane in just 2 panels.
Really, that’s what makes Jacob’s punchline so wonderful.
Bravo, Willis, bravo; while I have not the funds for Botcon or its toys, I always enjoy the anarchy that reigns this time of year
Y’know, the shading on Ethan’s eyes in panel 3 is kinda creepy. It makes it look like he’s got a couple of big, grey eyelids drooping half-way over his oversized eyes. It only makes him look crazier.
From sarcastic happiness and glee to JOKER in no time flat.
Ethan’s face is genuinely scaring me, he’s finally snapped.
No, Jacob, they really don’t.
Somehow this strip is even more awesome knowing that it was written BEFORE MagmatronPrime’s meltdown in the Allspark’s Botcon thread
Gods, that was hilarious.
This “thinking” is not a phenomenon confined to fandoms; toy, Trek, or otherwise. It is, in fact, the lifeblood of the ENTIRE Internet. It infects EVERYTHING that gets in the tubes.
It explains everything from Ron Paul to OWS.
This strip is so insulting that I’m quitting Shortpacked! forever… :fakemad:
I have a feeling this is the exact thing that happens. >i<Just a feeling. /sarcasm
Those fans have demonstrated there’s no difference between them and everyone else! All it takes is one bad Botcon Set to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the world is from where they are. Just one bad Botcon Set.
Ethan you’ve lost me. You were saying something about the Botcon toyset and internet comments?
No, Jacob. There is nothing disingenuine about that smile. That is true madness. Back away carefully.
Ethan’s lost it.
Panel 3 reminds me of the scene in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, with poor Tim. Panel 4 is awesome sarcastic reaction on Ethan’s part and a great line choice for Jacob.
And it’s saying something that I still enjoyed this even though I only JUST learned about the hilariously bad marketing thing that happened near the end of December in gaming news.
I JUST rewatched that movie. You’re right, Ethan is totally Joker Jr there.
Tim, whyyyyyyy?That said, I can’t tell if Ethan’s actually cracking from the stupid, or cracking UP at all the incoming wank. Or both.
Seriously is it not nifty?
Why the strikethrough btw? It’s not exactly hiding it, if you think that’s spoiler protection.
Ethan’s got some crazy eyes in the third panel.
I think Ethen’s mind has finally snapped
Way to make fun of the fandom again, Willis. People like different things. It’s not like many people were hating the Stunticons last year, you know (save Motormaster’s poor mold choice). So, if people complain about Funpub, that’s a horrible thing, but if Walky complains against Hasbro, that’s totally normal?
Love this guy’s double standards.
/watches the point sail over your head
There was a point to this?
Nah, I mean… what’s so horrible about this? The fandom is composed of thousands of people with thousands of differing views. Lot of them post on the various TF forums. Obviously, at every Botcon reveal, people will not like or like sets for various reasons and argue about them at great length.
So, why is this so wrong?
There’s nothing wrong with it, just like there’s nothing wrong with pointing out (and jabbing at) the fact that it boils down this way literally every year, to the point where all you need to do is insert the individual figure names. It’s a photocopied pattern.
Yeah! Fight for your right to whine!
How weird, I was pretty sure this was the process for unveiling new Halo games. Except you change “sculpt details” to “new gameplay features/balance”. And Botcon to Bungie/343. Otherwise it’s completely accurate. ESPECIALLY that last panel.
Not just Halo. Pokemon and Legend of Zelda tend to get pretty hard with it too. You could probably just say video game franchises and be done with it.
To be fair, most Pokemon moaning is about monster design which is mostly understandable. Fans seem to by and large love the new match types, online upgrades, and back catalogue reshuffling the new games do. Zelda is… different seeing as how there’s no MP aspect. Nobody is worried that Skyward Sword is going to add stuff to make the game uncompetitive.
Halo has this absurd/amazing cycle where Halo 1 was immaculate when 2 came out (and 2 was unplayable nooby and terrible). But then 3 came out and WOW was 2 so good now. Why did they ruin everything? The weapons, the vehicles, the maps, it’s all so bad now. But wait. Reach actually shows us that 3 was THE BEST IN THE SERIES and why why why did they add these stupid armor things?? Nobody even wanted sprint (except the thousands of people who always wanted sprint) and jetpacks ruined everything (except how jetpacks are something that even Halo series haters begrudgingly admit are awesome) and what is with these terrible maps and Forge is a ripoff (because having unlimited map variants available in matchmaking from the Community is irrelevant if they use the color grey). CANNOT wait for Halo 4 to come out to see how good we all used to have it with the ahead of its time brilliant Bungie swansong that was Halo Reach.
And let us not forget that still chunking online franchise WoW.
Unfortunately Blizzard is hitting a wall that they should have seen coming soon after their first expansion. You can only generate numbers so big before your servers and the users computers just freeze from all the damage calculations.
I hope they use my suggestion , though I know a good percentage are going to rant and rave against it, all the while playing and enjoying [grudgingly] all the new content.
Dear lord! Ethan has gone mad and torn off his own arm!
(Which is to say, there appears to be a coloring error in the first panel.)
You know, you could collect postcards instead. Trust me, it’s a cheep and stress free hobby.
Thanks Willis. This is what I love about BotCon, most of the fandom gets on an interminably rant with each other about what they hate of this years set, with variations depending of the forum. Being the so.called Thundercracker fiasco (awesomely repeated in last year’s Botcon as a jab to all those haters), Wings of Honor being a failure of a theme and totally Playskool, G2 being ugly and stupid, the “controversy” sorrounding Drag Strip and Motormaster mold choice (heck, f-ing Seibertron got so all TRUKK NOT MUNKY that year that the bias was all over the place). And each year the set gets called the best one evar!1 once everyone returns home, with Animated being possibly the most outstanding example.
So I can’t wait to go to my first BotCon this year! Overlord and Road Rage got me sold on the idea and this guy Treadshot just sealed the deal.
Looking forward to seeing all hell breaking loose once they show up Ultra Magnus. BotCon, here I come!!
Dammit, now I have that song stuck in my head.
This is not a difficult phenomenon to understand. There are lots of people on the internet. Enough that there are people who will like any given thing, and people who will dislike that same thing. Enough that you will never remember who said what, just that ‘people on the internet’ said this or that. People also tend to be more vocal and specific about things they dislike.
So when Thing B comes along, all you remember is that ‘people on the internet didn’t like thing B’, and when Thing C comes along, all you remember is that ‘people on the internet didn’t like thing C, they thought thing B was better’ and so on.
That and one or two doofs who actually are like this, and a big dollop of confirmation bias on the part of the Ethans, and there you go.
The title of this page sounds like the last few minutes in bed with your girlfriend (or boyfriend).
And lo, David accurately illustrates why I stay far, far away from the Fandom Proper these days.
Same ‘ol same ‘ol. Every year there’s a new batch of fans for any particular toyline that has NO IDEA that this is a standard cycle, so that when folks like Ethan pull a rant like this, the new folks have to come in and tell him how irrational he’s being. Yes toy fans, you have a right to complain. No, I really shouldn’t have blown up. I’ve just seen this so many times that….right, right. You guys just fight amongst yourselves. I’ll avert my eyes while you act like each new set of toys (exclusives or not) never ever happend before.
Then again I guess that’s what the elderly feel sometimes when watching youngins makes the same mistakes they did without any power to stop them. Nobody’ll listen. “No, trust me – I’ve seen this argument before! It’s all a big circle and…oh okay get it out of your system.”
Sometimes the people watching, flame-wars, and blogging are more fun to watch than the actual tangible offerings. Sometimes the smallest physical details make just enough of a functional or aesthetic difference that someone, somewhere, finds it worthy of note, usually a negative note. I thank Dave Willis for celebrating that.
For comparison purposes, I just read a bicycle review where the hard-riding, hard-writing reviewer felt obliged to comment on how the rigid, effective, modern double pivot sidepull brakes were a mismatch with the appearance of the rest of the bike. And, while we’re on bikes, lets not forget the moaning over the lack of highly polished components in favor of black painted parts that have been the chorus of many for years.
Robert “empathizes with the guy who races cyclocross on a ‘frankenbike’ where every single part is from a different brand” in San Diego
I blame Cthulu. Ethan looks like he has been touched by a noodly appendage or two.
Also, it’s not like Ethan has many options. What’s he going to do, switch to go bots? Rocklords?
Rocklords are part of the Transformers franchise. They apparently exist in every world of the TF Multiverse, not just the GoBots ones.
The planet Quartex is like the planet Earth… it exists in every Universe.
Second last panel gave me nightmares. Damn you Willis.
The best part about this is this can be applied to anything, not just toys.
I started laughing just at his look in panel one.
Okay, I just had a fun thought.
Know how when Amber gave her “most epic of hatefucks” line, it became a meme and people started putting it in other people’s speech bubbles?
Ethan’s bubble, panel 4. Just saying.
Some Zig, I Zag (on occasion).
http://images.yuku.com/image/gif/7733515141bba0df29c6d2a22b5df641c69975f.gif
It’s kinda hard to do these when you can’t “IMG SRC =” these things like you could in a forum.
Oddly enough, that kinda works too.
Um…didn’t Jacob bang Amber’s mom?
SO accurate! XD
Eh. The Botcon exclusives this year DO suck. But that’s a good thing for me, last year I loved them and the fact I couldn’t afford them actually hurt.
I will not lie, I’m Ethan.
Ethan’s face. Panel three. I lol’d.
Yep, here we go again. Ethan bitching endlessly about what a bunch of total strangers online think. Really dude, just close the browser and from now on, STOP READING the responses to the headlines on your favorite Transformers sites. It’s what I do to avoid such aggravation. But since we know he’ll never do that, might I suggest Ethan needs to start getting laid again so he’ll stop getting so worked up about crap like this.
I–
Wuh–
Buh–
Guh–
ETHAN, Y U SO CREEPY?!
oh lordy.
You know, I just read a blog post by someone who was pointing out an incredibly stupid thing Botcon did this year. You should check it out:
http://www.shortpacked.com/2012/blog/out-of-the-leftest-field/
All I’m saying is that sometimes the fans are right – and there is no excuse.
I just want to point out that MagmatronPrime is THIS hilarious dumbass (mentioned above) before ditching him forever. Because while he is a *hilarious* dumbass, he’s still an unwanted dumbass.
(Seriously, if you’ve got the time and the inclination, browse backwards through the pages and soak in his incredible work.)
Ok, apropos of nothing but Amber totally needs one of these knitted Ninja Turtle beanies (I may need one too).
Ok… so the link didn’t post:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/88644046/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-convertible
after reading the entire archive over the past several days, I’m finally caught up and this comic is one of my favorites. I only wish I’d gotten here sooner, now that the characters are all growing up so fast!
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Sometimes I worry that others won’t share my specific frustrations, but I guess I lucked out this time.
Panel 3 would make a good new random avatar for comments by people without gravitars!
I need to say that ‘the greying of Ethan’ is making me think of Colonel Bud Manstrong from the Venture Brothers upon seeing him in todays strip.
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bud_manstrong_6915.jpg
Not a bad thing, just a thing.
Just give me some post-episode 52 Transformers Animated and I’ll be satisfied. I want to see the Animated-verse Shattered Glass dimension.
People like what we like, we just hate other people who like what we like.
I kid, I kid. Mostly.
I see these frustrations constantly in my fandom, though in that case it’s ‘last years series was perfect, why isn’t this one’ although maybe more to do with films.