Oh god.
I don’t remember if this happened already, but has Mike pointed at Amber’s stomach and said “I fucked your mom”? Because if not, it needs to happen.
Entirely different horror today. The half brother and half sister from that other store Mike decided not to tell were related were in the background. I knew a guy in the military who told a similar story.
that guy single handedly destroyed a person and dropped off before she could learn to stand up again. Truly a new level of douche. My only consolation is that because of him, Amber grew back stronger and more vibrant than she had orgionally. Like a forest grown over ashes.
Something about the expression on the corpse’s face makes me feel bad for him somehow, anyway… like there’s something we’re not seeing.
I’m probably just reading too much into it, though. He just looks… sad, almost remorseful. Maybe that’s just something they do to the body for viewings? I don’t remember the last open casket I saw, so…
I’m sure that’s just Rigor-mortis…or whutves. Or it could be a thematic example of his secret regret for his actions and his hope that Amber would one day stand up to him and kick his ass for being a dick, cuz he couldn’t live with being such a horrible human being without some sort of negative implications. But maybe I’m thinking into it too deeply
Hmmm …. conspiracy theory systems engaged ….. Do you suppose, in response to being in really deep stuff with all the *Mafias he has been dealing with, that he found a way out? Paid off a doctor and the morticians so that he could lay there under the influence of curare or its equivalent, and fake his own death but still be there for the funeral?
Willis would not do that to us would he? Then again he did do the Faz thing, so his creativity on messing with us, the readers, knows no bounds.
We can only wait and see and hopefully un-see some recent revelations >_<
I think Nancy Harper of S*P said it best in reference to her friend Davan. “You’re an asshole and that bothers me sometimes, but at least you’re an asshole to the right people.” This is one of those times when Mike’s assholery is apropos to the situation.
I guess it makes sense that Zaph is there since Rose is there and she’s a doppleganger of Amber so they all must have the same father. I just wonder if it will be awkward at McAwesomes since they know Mike when he’s nice and drunk and now they’re seeing him for who he really is. Or do they already know?
It’s kind of fitting how learning of Amber’s abusive childhood wrecked my enjiyment of her character and now the death of her abusive father and her dealing with it is making me start to genuinely like her again.
Because Shortpacked was supposed to be funny and her abuse storyline tainted that.
This isn’t real life, it’s a comic strip, abuse is only there because the writer decided it was there. Granted, he set it up from the begining, which I noticed during a reread a while ago which actually helped me accept it. Basically, I didn’t want abuse in my humor comic and I couldn’t laugh at anything Amber did because so much of her baviour seemed rooted to the abuse. And then when she started sticking up for herself she did so in ways that I found unlikable. But now she seems to have recovered and isn’t doing much I find horrible these days so Im liking her again.
I totally agree, how dare the writer give his character depth!
It comes out of no where either – he has never done any serious stories before Amber’s abuse! [yes this has been a day in the life of sarcasm]
Seriously though – wow; why don’t you just say ‘how dare Amber not remain a timid wallflower permanently scared by abuse?’
Would you have preferred that the abuse be depicted as comedic?
Preferred that it not be brought up at all?
Was the abuse handled poorly? Because seriously issues like that are really a problem when they are handled poorly…
Also – this isn’t real life, it’s a comic strip? All forms of media are supposed to reflect life. You should be able to learn something from them.
I love this story; I relate to it.
I find one of the best parts of Shortpacked is that the characters have depth, but apparently that makes me wrong; apparently characters in comedies are suppose to be flat and only there to set up jokes.
You are entitled to your opinion of course – it’s just a stupid one…
(seriously? Amber’s abuse makes her less likable – classy)
Did I complain about depth? No. Did I say Amber wasn’t allowed to grow or overcome her horrible past? No. In fact her doing so made me like her again.
I would have preffered the abuse not be there at all. Yes there were other seriously done stories but none of them were like establishing a character as a traumatised abuse victim. I couldn’t find her amusing anymore, and as I read Shortpacked to laugh at the time that was a major problem. I can’t recall cursing Willis for writting the story or making that Amber’s backstory, I just did’t enjoy it at all. The abuse doesn’t make her less likable, it made her unfunny which is what I was here for at the time. Her later behaviour made her unlikable to me. But as she’s dealt with her problems and stopped doing the things that bothered me I am liking her again.
It was basically a mood shift to the comic for me. It started off as funny with some serious chartacter parts. These days it’s more serious character parts with humor tossed in and I’ve adjusted to that and now actually prefer the character drama.
Honestly, though, your post seems to have either misunderstood what I was saying or you chose to interpret it as more offensive to you than was intended.
I never thought Amber was a bad character, I never thought abuse doesn’t deserve to be portrayed, especially since it was established subtley from the begining. I never complained once about those things being here. Hell, I even like abused characters from other webcomics Charlotte from Penny and Aggie ended up being one of my favorites, it was just a dissonence between what was being shown and what I’d come to expect. The problem was my perceptions and expectations of the characters and how that clashed with the directions the stories have taken.
What your saying is that you didn’t like the abuse, but the issue is more with you and what you thought would be vs what did happen. Not that you think the story is somehow awful or makes Amber bad; just you didn’t like how the story went.
Basically you just don’t like it…
Okay then; that’s you not quite as stupid as originally thought, but still seems odd to me opinion…
Okay then; sorry bout that then. You’re most certainly free to feel that way…
We all have things we didn’t like and It would be hypocritical to say that you not liking this one made you stupid or something…
I can understand this point of view now that it’s explained. It like a lesser version of a lot of reactions from when Ctrl-Alt-Del had the miscarriage storyline.
People were all “Oh haha look how absurd and stupid and funny ethan and his antics are *jarring sudden mood change*” And suddenly it was hard to laugh at anything.
I was one hundred percent done with CAD at that point. It wasn’t even the miscarriage that got me; it was the implication that, despite everything that was happening, the characters wouldn’t be aloud to grow up.
Maybe this is more like how a lot of people got upset about DC’s Identity Crisis or other comics that used rape as a plot point. A lot of people see comics as escapism and fun, and don’t want to have to think about how Superman deals with stuff like rape. Part of the reasoning would be that those superhero type characters just weren’t designed with that kind of content in mind, but also that comics writers might not be the best at discussing something serious and sensitive like that subject.
I’ve generally disagreed with people who don’t like Amber’s portrayal, but I get what Timemonkey is saying, and it’s a valid opinion.
She wasn’t completely denied. She still got to say what mattered to her most. What we say at funerals is always for us: the dead, if they’re watching, have a perspective far beyond what we say at their casket.
Say what you will about Faz… like “Oh, my God, how creepy,” “Oh my GOD! How CREEPY!” or “AAAA! AAAA! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”… but honesty compels me to admit that he forgave Amber after being genuinely angry with her, and he did so when he wanted nothing from her, or at least nothing more than a sister. That’s legitimately nice, and not his usual Nice Guy(TM) schtick. So maybe he and Wen deserve their shot at happiness. FAR AWAY FROM ME. FAR, FAR AWAY. Yes, I know they’re already fictional and on the opposite coast of the United States. FARTHER.
Finally, Mike is seriously wearing down my resistance to the idea of him as a husband and father. He’s growing more consistent with the concept, and the many ways he supported Amber through this ordeal are indeed endearing. I had some reservations about how we got here, but the status quo is growing on me.
I know! Even I thought that Mike would be a terrible husband and father he’s shown that despite being a jerkass he’s still capable of being supportive and helpful to the people that he loves. (and no need for being drunk in these cases)
And well Faz is still a sleaze he seems more human than he was before after this. I’m sure there will be plenty more perverted Faz moments to come, but we’ll always know that Faz has a good side – deep deep inside…
Inside Faz I mean – not Wen or anyone else…
Then again I guess inside Wen too… [shiver] Why did I think that?
*slow applause* This entire storyline has been… I will -not- say Full Of Win.
It has been delicious to read. Savory. Invigorating. My sense of Fuck Yeah over Amber and her evolution is only slightly tempered by the fact she’s fictional. Which feels like a terrible shame at this point.
You also just know those were the words Mike wanted to speak to Amber’s dad when they met. His awesome factor has also skyrocketed during this.
” LiC
April 13, 2012 at 2:28 am | # | Reply
You just know that a part of Mike is disappointed that he couldn’t have said that to Amber’s father a few seconds before he died.”
Are you kidding? Mike probably used zombie powder on him to simulate a heart attack death and bribed the embalmer so he’d be buried alive and hear everything everyone was saying before it happened. I’m talking some Serpent and the Rainbow #@#$ here.
Yeah. They needed someone to replace the cool lincoln. not the “four score and twenty years ago” lincoln, but the sword wielding lincoln with a jetpack.
Aww, this kind of disappoints me. The idea that Amber would cry over the body of someone who has only ever hurt her – while being conscious of that fact – felt very real and human to me, somehow.
Even though she says she understands why she was crying, that doesn’t mean she does entirely, even now. She still doesn’t have much distance from it yet,
To put it another way, she was mad at herself and him for crying over him, because he’d hurt her so badly, and the fact that she was crying over this jerk upset her.
So she’s reframed the reason in her mind. Is it true? Probably, to some degree. But it makes her feel better, so it’s a good thing.
How are you the only person to have noticed this so far?!? I just Ctrl+F’d for Ruth, and NO ONE is talking about this. Head Alien is making plot happen in the background and we’re all missing it!
That last panel with Mike is just so awesome it had to be made into an avatar. I was not going to wait for the pixel sprites to get around to it and made my own mediocre version for the interim.
Nice. But now it looks like you are flipping off your own posts. Have you considered rotating it about 45 degrees clockwise? Then you are gesturing to those who reply to you.
I am no artist so all I could do was just copy and crop.
As for where he is looking … I’m pixel bash and try and make it more obvious, as Bekah pointed out, that he is breaking the fourth wall … sort of a variation on Willis’s icon. YMMV
Now back to poking fun at Starscream and pointing out who the real bad guys [tm] are.
Uh, did I miss something? Amber is assistant to the manager at a toy store. How exactly is that something to be proud of? I’m not sure I could ever look at my dad in the eye and say, “I made it,” with that career.
She’s got a life she’s happy with and she’s surviving after years of being told by that man that she could never make it on her own without him and years of believing it. She probably never saw herself as someone who could be taken seriously in any kind of position of authority but she’s proven that she can. It may be just a toy store but it was a huge milestone for her and it showed how much she’s grown from what her father turned her into. Ethan even pointed that out. She has friends and a boyfriend who love her. She’s going to have a child and she’s in a relationship that not everyone may approve of but she’s happy in. I may not approve of all of Amber’s choices (though I am coming around on the Mike thing because like it’s been said earlier he has been proving himself to be a supportive partner and future father) but she’s made her own choices and she’s owning them and I can respect that. So she’s not some big shot? Does she even want to be? She’s living her life on her own terms which is something she never thought she’d be able to do. She’s proven herself to herself and if anything fits into the definition of “making it” I would say that does.
I know you’re not trying to be, but that’s a pretty jerky thing to say. Believe it or not, a lot of people, probably even some readers, are assistant managers to toy stores or other places that might not strike you as exciting or some kind of giant amazing career, but they pay their bills and live their lives.
Granted, maybe I’m reacting strongly to this because, after more than a year of being unemployed, I finally got a job at a coffee shop, to find my parents were less than enthusiastic about it.
But I still think you’re being a little judgmental. Amber’s dad got to where he was by being corrupt, working with the mafia, and breaking whatever rules, legal or moral, he could. Amber got to where she was as legitimately as possible, considering Galasso. That is something to be proud of.
She’s trusted with authority, trusted by Gallaso no less, and gets to work with a group of her friends that adore her, her half-brother and her boyfriend and is expecting her first child whom she will be a much better parent to than he ever was. To me, that’s something to be proud of.
I said this before, but I’d read the hell out of a spinoff strip featuring the children of J&W, M&A, and whoever else has kids, with their parents still having their own middle-aged hijinks.
That last panel was just perfect, you couldn’t have done it any better. I actually laughed at this one, and I don’t do that very often (I read these at work, on my lunch break, but still).
new spinoff – Amber, Mike and the baby go searching the world for all of Amber’s half-sibling’s. Secretly Mike plans to use them to fuck everyone else’s Moms.
at least amber should be happy she might have been denied finaly telling her father she proved him wrong but she got it off her chest any way and can live her life as the woman she is better then him and love mike saying what amber proably wanted to say to the corpse.
Nicely said Tifanimi.
And Mike loves Amber, and the last panel is the icing on the cake of his recent growth as a supportive partner. Love ya Mike. And Good for you Amber-you’re gonna do just fine with that attitude. Great job Willis.
If I were Amber I probably would have said something like, “Thanks for the DNA and life stuff, Dad. But otherwise, if I had a choice, i would have liked to have been raised with by someone with a better personality. Or a better existence. You get the idea.” “Oh, one more thing. Since apparently God hates sinners, you are probably burning in hell, thereby rendering any of my Honoring my Mother and Father utterly pointless. Toodles.”
Finally I have completely caught up! Read through roomies, it’s walky and joyce and walky and now I have caught up to shortpacked and Dumbing of Age. FINALLY!
If it helps any, Amber, you probably wouldn’t have ever gotten to see that look anyway. Because just because you ARE everything without him doesn’t mean that he would ever, ever have admitted it.
Why don’t you make your Tumblr anonymous, Willis? Some of us don’t have an account
Anyway, recently you specified all the fandoms of the major characters of Shortpacked!
You imply that Ninja Rick is into ALL the ninja stuff, but from the comic he seems to get all his ninja knowledge from popular mangas (mostly Naruto).
Since I’m a Ninja Rick fan I want to know more
So has the guy ever researched about ninjas beyond manga and anime? Has he watched Japanese movies about ninjas? Western movies about ninjas?
Has he even read the Wikipedia article on ninjas? Many times it seems that he has not LOL
My love of Mike grew with this one, I’ve always been an Amber fan and was actually one of the one rooting for their relationship but this is just kicks it up a notch.
Okay, Mike’s line there? That is why I still read this comic. He is fuckin rad. He may act like a jerk, but he deep down he is still an awesome dude. Basically he is the Strong Bad of of the Walkyverse.
Such a class act that Mike.
He doesn’t just stop at moms
So you think he will branch out into Aunts next?
He will if Faz reproduces!
No! Nononono!
Take that thought out of my mind NOW!
he’s done daughters and best friends/exes before. So logically his conquest will go to aunts, cousins, uncles, husbands, wives etc.
*Every female* is someone’s daughter.
He’s creating moms now. By fucking them.
Thereby fucking causality as well
Oh god.
I don’t remember if this happened already, but has Mike pointed at Amber’s stomach and said “I fucked your mom”? Because if not, it needs to happen.
Actually, I think he has, shortly after learning she was pregnant. I may be wrong, but I’m fairly sure that it did happen. With those exact words.
Here it is. Even with the title ‘These Words’.
http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/04-remedial-adulthood/thesewords/
As usual, Mike gets the last, and best, word.
PS Thanks for not having more Faz and Wen horror today.
Entirely different horror today. The half brother and half sister from that other store Mike decided not to tell were related were in the background. I knew a guy in the military who told a similar story.
Sweet lord, right you are. That’s one unhappy Zaph and one shocked Rose.
I hate to admit it, but i actually want MORE faz and wen
Fuck. Yeah.
Stay classy, Mike.
Humanity will be better when we’re all that classy.
‘The corpse then arose and spluttered indignantly for several seconds, due to Mike’s epic burn.’
I was hoping to see Zaph and Rose’s horrific realisation but this is a great cap to the arc.
I’d be happy if Rose and Zaph got to be more than just BGC again.
Well you can kind of see it in the background there. Zaph walks past her super pissed off. Rose had an awkward look on her face.
I love little background stuff like that Willis. Good job.
Super pissed off? He looks… slightly perplexed, if anything.
It’s only Thursday! No, wait. It’s Friday.
They figured it out a while ago, mirroring events in Shortpacked!.
Was it because Amber tell them? Or Mike? Or do they still not know they are related to Amber?
ZAPH UH OH
Have to say – for all the people who are likely whining about the lack of toy humor, I’ve really enjoyed this storyarc.
Mind, I’m also a big fan of character-oriented storytelling, too.
I haven’t seen anybody whining about lack of humor!
*whine* These comments aren’t as funny as they used to be…!
(Happy to oblige.)
Wah wah, more Transformers jokes!
(I’m kidding, I have never even seen Transformers, and this story arc was very good)
Stay classy, Mike.
Double deuce FTW.
Homestar Runner/Strong Bad reference FTW.
Reminding me that that’s a H*S/SB reference FTW.
Considering the origin of that particular gesture, Mike’s dialogue is quite appropriate.
Mike, you win the internet for the day. And possibly the rest of the week (^_^)
No, Mike IS the internet
Seems to me/You just turn your pretty head and Walk Away–The James Gang
that guy single handedly destroyed a person and dropped off before she could learn to stand up again. Truly a new level of douche. My only consolation is that because of him, Amber grew back stronger and more vibrant than she had orgionally. Like a forest grown over ashes.
Mike your a gentleman and scholar.
Yeah…
I understand Amber.
I get what you’re feeling…
Fuck off Blaine!
Also – Mike is epic awesomeness!
Man, I really love Mike recently. I mean, I always loved Mike. He’s Mike. But, like, even more.
I like that Zaph and Rose have cameo’d during the funeral. For numerous reasons.
Something about the expression on the corpse’s face makes me feel bad for him somehow, anyway… like there’s something we’re not seeing.
I’m probably just reading too much into it, though. He just looks… sad, almost remorseful. Maybe that’s just something they do to the body for viewings? I don’t remember the last open casket I saw, so…
I’m sure that’s just Rigor-mortis…or whutves. Or it could be a thematic example of his secret regret for his actions and his hope that Amber would one day stand up to him and kick his ass for being a dick, cuz he couldn’t live with being such a horrible human being without some sort of negative implications. But maybe I’m thinking into it too deeply
Aw, they look so sweet and innocent when they’re dead
You realize morticians’ jobs are to make people look “their best” for open caskets, right? :/
Indeed. But what does it say about someone when “their best” looks sad, then?
Hmmm …. conspiracy theory systems engaged ….. Do you suppose, in response to being in really deep stuff with all the *Mafias he has been dealing with, that he found a way out? Paid off a doctor and the morticians so that he could lay there under the influence of curare or its equivalent, and fake his own death but still be there for the funeral?
Willis would not do that to us would he? Then again he did do the Faz thing, so his creativity on messing with us, the readers, knows no bounds.
We can only wait and see and hopefully un-see some recent revelations >_<
‘Later?’ Implying they will meet again at a later time?
Mayhap Mike is planning some grave defilement?
They’ll meet again in Hell. Satan will leave him to Mike.
Mike has been dead. He must already have a place for his stuff in hell.
Hope he remembers his locker combination.
Maybe if Gallaso gets wind of Amber’s regret concerning not getting to stand up to her Dad one last time, he’ll make arrangements so that she can.
Mike’s Hell is being stuck on the road where there’s never a promised Arby’s at the next exit so I don’ t think they’ll meet again.
Malaya could take middle finger lessons from Mike
Perhaps he;ll finger her later so she cans ee how it’s done?
I dunno, it would’ve been pretty great if Mike’d rubbed his ass on the corpse.
Remember, that came after the double fingering. For all we know once everyone looks away Mike and Amber will give him a butt polishing
The first irl butt-taco?
I don’t know what that is but I like the sound of it.
Its a butt with beef and cheese in the middle
And moments like these are what make Mike likeable in the face of what he does.
I think Nancy Harper of S*P said it best in reference to her friend Davan. “You’re an asshole and that bothers me sometimes, but at least you’re an asshole to the right people.” This is one of those times when Mike’s assholery is apropos to the situation.
I just need to say this:
Great comic. And Mike, I hope that you live forever.
Alright, that sums-up my thoughts on this one.
I guess it makes sense that Zaph is there since Rose is there and she’s a doppleganger of Amber so they all must have the same father. I just wonder if it will be awkward at McAwesomes since they know Mike when he’s nice and drunk and now they’re seeing him for who he really is. Or do they already know?
They know. It’d be hard to hide, since Agatha works there and she was on a squad with Mike for a while when they were in SEMME.
Okay so it’s only a secret he preferred to keep from his Shortpacked coworkers.
I enjoy that Mike’s use of the word ‘Later’ ties in with him knowing that he’s going to hell and going to see Blaine again at some point.
He’s *been* to hell. I think they kicked him out.
Well, he fucked Satan’s mom.
Wouldn’t that be Wally?
This was a fantastic strip. Everything about it.
It’s kind of fitting how learning of Amber’s abusive childhood wrecked my enjiyment of her character and now the death of her abusive father and her dealing with it is making me start to genuinely like her again.
full circle!
Wait, why would someone getting abused wreck your appreciation for them?
Because some people are just awful and timemonkey may be one of them, that’s why.
Aw, it’s been so long since I’ve been labeled an awful person for no real reason! (:
Because Shortpacked was supposed to be funny and her abuse storyline tainted that.
This isn’t real life, it’s a comic strip, abuse is only there because the writer decided it was there. Granted, he set it up from the begining, which I noticed during a reread a while ago which actually helped me accept it. Basically, I didn’t want abuse in my humor comic and I couldn’t laugh at anything Amber did because so much of her baviour seemed rooted to the abuse. And then when she started sticking up for herself she did so in ways that I found unlikable. But now she seems to have recovered and isn’t doing much I find horrible these days so Im liking her again.
I totally agree, how dare the writer give his character depth!
It comes out of no where either – he has never done any serious stories before Amber’s abuse! [yes this has been a day in the life of sarcasm]
Seriously though – wow; why don’t you just say ‘how dare Amber not remain a timid wallflower permanently scared by abuse?’
Would you have preferred that the abuse be depicted as comedic?
Preferred that it not be brought up at all?
Was the abuse handled poorly? Because seriously issues like that are really a problem when they are handled poorly…
Also – this isn’t real life, it’s a comic strip? All forms of media are supposed to reflect life. You should be able to learn something from them.
I love this story; I relate to it.
I find one of the best parts of Shortpacked is that the characters have depth, but apparently that makes me wrong; apparently characters in comedies are suppose to be flat and only there to set up jokes.
You are entitled to your opinion of course – it’s just a stupid one…
(seriously? Amber’s abuse makes her less likable – classy)
Did I complain about depth? No. Did I say Amber wasn’t allowed to grow or overcome her horrible past? No. In fact her doing so made me like her again.
I would have preffered the abuse not be there at all. Yes there were other seriously done stories but none of them were like establishing a character as a traumatised abuse victim. I couldn’t find her amusing anymore, and as I read Shortpacked to laugh at the time that was a major problem. I can’t recall cursing Willis for writting the story or making that Amber’s backstory, I just did’t enjoy it at all. The abuse doesn’t make her less likable, it made her unfunny which is what I was here for at the time. Her later behaviour made her unlikable to me. But as she’s dealt with her problems and stopped doing the things that bothered me I am liking her again.
It was basically a mood shift to the comic for me. It started off as funny with some serious chartacter parts. These days it’s more serious character parts with humor tossed in and I’ve adjusted to that and now actually prefer the character drama.
Honestly, though, your post seems to have either misunderstood what I was saying or you chose to interpret it as more offensive to you than was intended.
I never thought Amber was a bad character, I never thought abuse doesn’t deserve to be portrayed, especially since it was established subtley from the begining. I never complained once about those things being here. Hell, I even like abused characters from other webcomics Charlotte from Penny and Aggie ended up being one of my favorites, it was just a dissonence between what was being shown and what I’d come to expect. The problem was my perceptions and expectations of the characters and how that clashed with the directions the stories have taken.
Okay I think I did misunderstand.
What your saying is that you didn’t like the abuse, but the issue is more with you and what you thought would be vs what did happen. Not that you think the story is somehow awful or makes Amber bad; just you didn’t like how the story went.
Basically you just don’t like it…
Okay then; that’s you not quite as stupid as originally thought, but still seems odd to me opinion…
Okay then; sorry bout that then. You’re most certainly free to feel that way…
We all have things we didn’t like and It would be hypocritical to say that you not liking this one made you stupid or something…
I can understand this point of view now that it’s explained. It like a lesser version of a lot of reactions from when Ctrl-Alt-Del had the miscarriage storyline.
People were all “Oh haha look how absurd and stupid and funny ethan and his antics are *jarring sudden mood change*” And suddenly it was hard to laugh at anything.
I was one hundred percent done with CAD at that point. It wasn’t even the miscarriage that got me; it was the implication that, despite everything that was happening, the characters wouldn’t be aloud to grow up.
Maybe this is more like how a lot of people got upset about DC’s Identity Crisis or other comics that used rape as a plot point. A lot of people see comics as escapism and fun, and don’t want to have to think about how Superman deals with stuff like rape. Part of the reasoning would be that those superhero type characters just weren’t designed with that kind of content in mind, but also that comics writers might not be the best at discussing something serious and sensitive like that subject.
I’ve generally disagreed with people who don’t like Amber’s portrayal, but I get what Timemonkey is saying, and it’s a valid opinion.
Panel one looks like an awesome spinoff where Mike and Amber solve mysteries.
“Hold on, Mike! I spot a clue!”
The Violent adventures of Mike and Amber
“Jinkies”
“I did your mom”
But instead of Scooby-Doo they have Jesus!
“Would you do it for a communion wafer?”
Wouldn’t that be auto-cannibalism?
Why do you think they were called “Scooby Snacks”? So you think the dog just happened to have his own personal brand of treats?
They were made out of 100% pure Scooby. And cannabis, which is why Shaggy liked them too.
What, like taking an engine from one car and putting it into another?
Mike puts the fun in funeral.
that last panel (words and all) would be a great pic for any person posting on here *crosses fingers that i get it*
I just noticed Mike wore a Hawaiian shirt to a funeral.
Haha, instant classic
Oh Mike. Never change.
She wasn’t completely denied. She still got to say what mattered to her most. What we say at funerals is always for us: the dead, if they’re watching, have a perspective far beyond what we say at their casket.
Say what you will about Faz… like “Oh, my God, how creepy,” “Oh my GOD! How CREEPY!” or “AAAA! AAAA! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”… but honesty compels me to admit that he forgave Amber after being genuinely angry with her, and he did so when he wanted nothing from her, or at least nothing more than a sister. That’s legitimately nice, and not his usual Nice Guy(TM) schtick. So maybe he and Wen deserve their shot at happiness. FAR AWAY FROM ME. FAR, FAR AWAY. Yes, I know they’re already fictional and on the opposite coast of the United States. FARTHER.
Finally, Mike is seriously wearing down my resistance to the idea of him as a husband and father. He’s growing more consistent with the concept, and the many ways he supported Amber through this ordeal are indeed endearing. I had some reservations about how we got here, but the status quo is growing on me.
I know! Even I thought that Mike would be a terrible husband and father he’s shown that despite being a jerkass he’s still capable of being supportive and helpful to the people that he loves. (and no need for being drunk in these cases)
And well Faz is still a sleaze he seems more human than he was before after this. I’m sure there will be plenty more perverted Faz moments to come, but we’ll always know that Faz has a good side – deep deep inside…
Inside Faz I mean – not Wen or anyone else…
Then again I guess inside Wen too… [shiver] Why did I think that?
Somewhere in the universe, there is a scoreboard.
It says, “Mike wins.”
That’s all it ever says. That’s all it ever needs to say.
Here, have an internet
This may be the single greatest strip in your entire career David. I love it.
Seconded.
I’d forgotten about Rose and Zaph…
So, so wrong.
Fuck yes. This was a great moment with Amber. Good show, Willis.
i fuckin love mike
in fact if there’s a non-reality based dude that i would go gay for, it’s officially mike
Yeahhhhhhh!!!
Poor Zaph and Rose
Yay for Mike. And super yay for Amber.
But why was Faz’s alternate / clone person thing at the funeral?
Because he, like Faz himself, is another of the Amber clan. There are probably more out there, too.
You just know that a part of Mike is disappointed that he couldn’t have said that to Amber’s father a few seconds before he died.
And caused his heart attack as a result.
Exactly.
we all aspire to Mike’s greatness.
*slow applause* This entire storyline has been… I will -not- say Full Of Win.
It has been delicious to read. Savory. Invigorating. My sense of Fuck Yeah over Amber and her evolution is only slightly tempered by the fact she’s fictional. Which feels like a terrible shame at this point.
You also just know those were the words Mike wanted to speak to Amber’s dad when they met. His awesome factor has also skyrocketed during this.
Full of Wen?
Here is an odd thought. Are we sure Mike didn’t cause the heart attack in the first place? It something he would do for Amber.
” LiC
April 13, 2012 at 2:28 am | # | Reply
You just know that a part of Mike is disappointed that he couldn’t have said that to Amber’s father a few seconds before he died.”
Are you kidding? Mike probably used zombie powder on him to simulate a heart attack death and bribed the embalmer so he’d be buried alive and hear everything everyone was saying before it happened. I’m talking some Serpent and the Rainbow #@#$ here.
So , does Charles Darwin work at McAwesomes?
Not the historical Charles Darwin but the cool ‘ steampunk adventurer ‘ Charles Darwin! With spring-loaded grappling hook and capture net!
Yeah. They needed someone to replace the cool lincoln. not the “four score and twenty years ago” lincoln, but the sword wielding lincoln with a jetpack.
Maybe they have Buddha. Or Thor!
I don’t think there was a Historical Thor…
He’s called Brian Blessed.
For some reason, I thought Mike would pee on the corpse.
BOTTOM THREE PANELS.
THE FAZ HAS EYES.
Thats not Faz silly, that’s his not creepy doppelganger from McAwsomes.
I would turn gay for mike.
Said it yesterday, will say it again. Mike = best boyfriend ever? Still with a question mark because yeah…wow. But that was sweet. For Mike.
Aww, this kind of disappoints me. The idea that Amber would cry over the body of someone who has only ever hurt her – while being conscious of that fact – felt very real and human to me, somehow.
Even though she says she understands why she was crying, that doesn’t mean she does entirely, even now. She still doesn’t have much distance from it yet,
To put it another way, she was mad at herself and him for crying over him, because he’d hurt her so badly, and the fact that she was crying over this jerk upset her.
So she’s reframed the reason in her mind. Is it true? Probably, to some degree. But it makes her feel better, so it’s a good thing.
WTF Ruth in the back? Or are those McAwesome’s employees?
How are you the only person to have noticed this so far?!? I just Ctrl+F’d for Ruth, and NO ONE is talking about this. Head Alien is making plot happen in the background and we’re all missing it!
In the tags below the strip, click “rose.”
That last panel with Mike is just so awesome it had to be made into an avatar. I was not going to wait for the pixel sprites to get around to it and made my own mediocre version for the interim.
Nice. But now it looks like you are flipping off your own posts. Have you considered rotating it about 45 degrees clockwise? Then you are gesturing to those who reply to you.
To me, it kinda looks more like he’s flipping *you* off.
He’s kinda looking down, sure, but also to the left. With the way our comments are arranged, that doesn’t really work.
I am no artist so all I could do was just copy and crop.
As for where he is looking … I’m pixel bash and try and make it more obvious, as Bekah pointed out, that he is breaking the fourth wall … sort of a variation on Willis’s icon. YMMV
Now back to poking fun at Starscream and pointing out who the real bad guys [tm] are.
That’s the most romantic thing Mike has ever done!
Sometimes you just have to love Mike.
The odd thing is, they really do seem to make a happy, stable couple.
HAS THE UNIVERSE GONE MAD?????
It was born mad.
Wow, Willis, Mike must be the most fun of all the characters to write for. haha!
We will reanimate him into the body of a Cybertronian.
Doucheatron.
Crowning.
Moment.
Of Awesome.
…oh fuck it — let’s just rename the Trope as “Mikesome”.
Mike wins. Douche-ality!
Uh, did I miss something? Amber is assistant to the manager at a toy store. How exactly is that something to be proud of? I’m not sure I could ever look at my dad in the eye and say, “I made it,” with that career.
She’s got a life she’s happy with and she’s surviving after years of being told by that man that she could never make it on her own without him and years of believing it. She probably never saw herself as someone who could be taken seriously in any kind of position of authority but she’s proven that she can. It may be just a toy store but it was a huge milestone for her and it showed how much she’s grown from what her father turned her into. Ethan even pointed that out. She has friends and a boyfriend who love her. She’s going to have a child and she’s in a relationship that not everyone may approve of but she’s happy in. I may not approve of all of Amber’s choices (though I am coming around on the Mike thing because like it’s been said earlier he has been proving himself to be a supportive partner and future father) but she’s made her own choices and she’s owning them and I can respect that. So she’s not some big shot? Does she even want to be? She’s living her life on her own terms which is something she never thought she’d be able to do. She’s proven herself to herself and if anything fits into the definition of “making it” I would say that does.
I know you’re not trying to be, but that’s a pretty jerky thing to say. Believe it or not, a lot of people, probably even some readers, are assistant managers to toy stores or other places that might not strike you as exciting or some kind of giant amazing career, but they pay their bills and live their lives.
Granted, maybe I’m reacting strongly to this because, after more than a year of being unemployed, I finally got a job at a coffee shop, to find my parents were less than enthusiastic about it.
But I still think you’re being a little judgmental. Amber’s dad got to where he was by being corrupt, working with the mafia, and breaking whatever rules, legal or moral, he could. Amber got to where she was as legitimately as possible, considering Galasso. That is something to be proud of.
She’s trusted with authority, trusted by Gallaso no less, and gets to work with a group of her friends that adore her, her half-brother and her boyfriend and is expecting her first child whom she will be a much better parent to than he ever was. To me, that’s something to be proud of.
I just realized… I really miss Joyce and Walky.
me too, please bring it back
Okay, but I’d have to cancel this comic to do it. Whoops, this was the last Shortpacked! strip.
Oh Willis. Do you have a greater joy than that of messing with your fans? XD
I think he was supposed to finish that strip anyways with a wedding between Joyce and Walky.
I still wanna see Joyce and Walky, possibly with kids, somewhere at Mike and Amber’s wedding… whenever that occurs.
Really, I’d just be happy if THEIR wedding got finished.
He did finish it. Those last few were subscription only.
Now see what you’ve done? And we were promised toy jokes on Monday!
I said this before, but I’d read the hell out of a spinoff strip featuring the children of J&W, M&A, and whoever else has kids, with their parents still having their own middle-aged hijinks.
That last panel was just perfect, you couldn’t have done it any better. I actually laughed at this one, and I don’t do that very often (I read these at work, on my lunch break, but still).
new spinoff – Amber, Mike and the baby go searching the world for all of Amber’s half-sibling’s. Secretly Mike plans to use them to fuck everyone else’s Moms.
Mike tells it like it is ^^
at least amber should be happy she might have been denied finaly telling her father she proved him wrong but she got it off her chest any way and can live her life as the woman she is better then him and love mike saying what amber proably wanted to say to the corpse.
I’ve never actually wanted to hug Mike before…
Nicely said Tifanimi.
And Mike loves Amber, and the last panel is the icing on the cake of his recent growth as a supportive partner. Love ya Mike. And Good for you Amber-you’re gonna do just fine with that attitude. Great job Willis.
In the Ass. I don’t even have to pay her a nickel.
If I were Amber I probably would have said something like, “Thanks for the DNA and life stuff, Dad. But otherwise, if I had a choice, i would have liked to have been raised with by someone with a better personality. Or a better existence. You get the idea.” “Oh, one more thing. Since apparently God hates sinners, you are probably burning in hell, thereby rendering any of my Honoring my Mother and Father utterly pointless. Toodles.”
You stay classy, Mike.
I mean that in the best possible way.
That last panel is now on my list of things I find incredible awesome to say at funerals.
Finally I have completely caught up! Read through roomies, it’s walky and joyce and walky and now I have caught up to shortpacked and Dumbing of Age. FINALLY!
“We can’t cremate this. It’s too badly burned already.”
If it helps any, Amber, you probably wouldn’t have ever gotten to see that look anyway. Because just because you ARE everything without him doesn’t mean that he would ever, ever have admitted it.
Why don’t you make your Tumblr anonymous, Willis? Some of us don’t have an account
Anyway, recently you specified all the fandoms of the major characters of Shortpacked!
You imply that Ninja Rick is into ALL the ninja stuff, but from the comic he seems to get all his ninja knowledge from popular mangas (mostly Naruto).
Since I’m a Ninja Rick fan I want to know more
So has the guy ever researched about ninjas beyond manga and anime? Has he watched Japanese movies about ninjas? Western movies about ninjas?
Has he even read the Wikipedia article on ninjas? Many times it seems that he has not LOL
*Your Tumblr ask box anonymous
‘Cuz folks are jerks in there if it’s anonymous, that’s why.
What does he mean, “later”? Is he planning on bringing Amber’s dad back to life or something?
My love of Mike grew with this one, I’ve always been an Amber fan and was actually one of the one rooting for their relationship but this is just kicks it up a notch.
You tell him Amber and Mike.
Okay, Mike’s line there? That is why I still read this comic. He is fuckin rad. He may act like a jerk, but he deep down he is still an awesome dude. Basically he is the Strong Bad of of the Walkyverse.
I totally love Mike. He’s like my god or something <3 xD