I’ll be home late Monday night. I’m writing this last Tuesday, so I’m gonna assume I’ve had an okay time.
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
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So Far Apart
Something Positive
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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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$80 steaks had better come with blow jobs.
Tube steak?
That’s the way Joe has his steaks. Probably goes there everyday…for the excelent service
Actually been there before. It’s in Dallas, and it’s like 50$ just to ride the fricken elevator. The entire thing does spin, and to me it’s really just an eyesore. Just a reminder of how rich people spend all the money they save from not paying taxes.
Aaactually, rich folks pay more taxes.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/story/2011-09-20/buffett-tax-millionaires/50480226/1
The tax breaks are on top of a tax rate already several times higher than most people, and they still end up paying more of their income.
O ye of little comprehension.
I vaguely recall a stat that goes something like this:
The top 10% pay 50% of the taxes and they have 90% of the wealth.
The wealthy may have to offically pay more but they are also very savvy when it comes to tax laws and deductions, so they end up less than they would otherwise.
They pay more taxes on the money the government is able to establish that they have. I’m not saying every rich person cheats on their taxes, but I think you’d have to be pretty naive to imagine that it’s an uncommon occurrence.
There’s little need for them to cheat. They simply “invest” in congressional races, and get all their loopholes nice and legal.
AW, how cute, they’re bonding.
Ethan is just softening him up so he can steal Guile’s Longarm.
He can just steal it as he sneaks out while Ken is sleeping off their night of hot transformer loving gay sex.
Ken’s gay? What am I saying? This is a Willis comic, of cause he’s gay.
Nah, but Ethan is just that determined to get that toy. He shall seduce the only straight man in Shortpacked!
last time I checked there were 3-6 straight guys
That’s what they want you to think.
Galasso- doesn’t seem to understand genders let alone sex. Doesn’t count.
Mike- has stated himself to be whatever you don’t want him to be.
Ninja Rick- sex with Faz
Faz-Sex with Ninja Rick
Jacob = straight
Jesus = straight
Ken = straight
3 peoples
Jesus seems like a bit of a wildcard. I don’t think we have any record of him expressing sexual interest in women so we can’t really count him as a confirmed heterosexual.
According to the Gospel of Thomas, he used to kiss Mary Magdalene often on the mouth, so there’s that.
*very* different context, though, Garth. Same physical action, completely different implications.
Its two.
Ronnie left. I have my doubts he didn’t bang Rock Hudson.
Mike bangs whoever the hell Mike wants to bang.
Faz was willing to have sex with men if it meant he’d profit in some way from it.
Ninja Rick had sex with Faz. He’d probably have sex with any Asian guy that looks like an Asian girl.
Galasso still doesn’t seem to know what sex is…
So then we have Ken and Jacob. The 100% straight guys who wouldn’t do a guy for any reason. Or so it seems at the moment.
Also given Jacob’s obsession with sex I wouldn’t be surprised if he had sex with a dude or two at one point.
Oh right Jesus. Forgot him.
And someone beat me too it because I got distracted…
Joe is in this comic too, remember. Which makes three.
It’s a reverse Malaya! Ken thinks he’s straight and then he kisses Ethan and realizes the error of his ways. Then this shipper will be happy.
Its nice to see that other Ken-Ethan shippers exist.
I just want Ethan to be happy…
Ken is nice, he likes Transformers, he’s not a crazy stupid fan, he’s cute, he’s Asian, and he doesn’t seem like he’d mind a bit of clutter since he lives with like 5 people and collects Transformers to some degree.
I know that if he was real I’d most certainly be dating him… If I didn’t already have a boyfriend that is… Who I love very much… And hope isn’t reading this… And if he was gay. That’s an after thought though.
Also he seems very attentive when Ethan is going on a rant about transformers or any other subject.
Well I was looking at the comic and much like Robin reading that Batman/Superman comic I was yelling at them to just kiss already.
Does that count me as a Ethan/Ken shipper?
Reversed Malaya? Why not a “Robin?”
Because Robin didn’t get with Ethan. And because Robin wanted to be with Ethan and then kissed Leslie and formed an ‘exception’ and– whoa I see where you are going with this and I like it.
It’d be very ironic if Ken figured out he was gay if & when Malaya agrees to actually date Ken.
Avatar guessing: Greta Gravity?
what a progressive comic, with the asian complaining about the price of steaks rather than the jew. You never would have seen this in family guy
The Asian is the one upset because he knows the market value of beef and more importantly, the actual unit of beef-to-dollar ratio. Ken’s just unhappy because the math is waaaaaay off.
Complaining? Did I miss something, or is Ken not complaining at all? With Ethan’s comment, it sounds like he’s saying that he likes the place. And Ethan is saying that of course it’s good for the price you have to pay to get it.
I… detect very little complaint from Ken.
Why not $80 steaks?. They can go with the $64 dollar hot dog in NYC. Not sure of exact price-may have been $62 or $73, it was totally ridiculous. It is split open and stuffed with truffles and fancy cheese, and special mustard and etc and on and on. Like has been said ‘a sucker born every minute’.
That sounds *awful*.
I remember taking my ex-boyfriend out to dinner in NYC while we were in college. I had enough cash in my wallet, it was just a family restaurant. I looked down at the menu and realized that I did not, in fact, have enough cash in my wallet. I had my debit card, though, and probably enough money in my account… Should I actually tell him not to order too expensive?
He looked down at the menu, slammed it shut, and announced that we were leaving.
“Hey now, I said I’d take you out to dinner!” I said, “I can handle it.”
“You will.”
He grabbed my wrist and led me out the door to the McDonald’s down the street. We ordered sandwiches off the dollar menu, which was not called that at that particular McDonald’s. I spent less than I had expected to at the first restaurant… slightly.
Ah, New York City.
Do they even still have Ponderosas? I haven’t seen one in years.
I loved that place as a little kid. To a seven year old, that shit is posh.
I thought that was a car. Is it a restaurant?
It’s a Steakhouse. Googling reveals it still exists (and one in Columbus, which is how I assume Willis is familiar with it), but like I said I haven’t even seen one in years.
Their site reveals none in my area, either. Bummer, now I want a cheap steak.
There also used to be, to add to the confusion, Bonanza Steakhouse which was a family favorite when I was a kid in the Seventies and early Eighties. On my desk is a Bonanza coffee mug we got my father for eating there on Father’s Day. I don’t know if any of those are still around.
Sorry for the overuse of italics. I guess I forgot a slash somewhere.
Turns out Bonanza and Ponderosa are the same company, although they started as separate ones.
Man, now I wanna eat at Bonanza again
I’ve only ever seen Ponderosa in Ohio, myself, despite living in New Jersey.
There are still 2 in Erie, PA. Now In N Out Burger is nonexistent in my neck of the woods.
There’s still one in Southfield, MI, a few miles from where I work.
Personally, I probably would’ve used Sizzler here, since in real life, they’re in California (where Shortpacked!, the store, is located), while Ponderosa does not. Though, the strip isn’t real life, and it’s entirely possible that some entrepreneur in the Walkyverse has indeed brought the Ponderosa franchise to the West Coast. (Maybe it was Reagan?)
i think ken is asking ethan out. that is what i think.
He’s trying to take Ethan’s mind off the transformer that he doesn’t die from Ethan’s face punching.
I can’t stop thinking that they’re holding this conversation from atop the roof of a skyscraper.
No wait…not can’t…
I refuse to. That’s it.
“Hey Ken, let’s go to the top of that really tall building and chat. No reason, I just think the view is pretty. Hey, can I hold your Longarm for a sec? Cool, it’s really nice. Ooh, look how high we are. Tell you what, you stand right at the edge and I’ll take a picture. Don’t worry about Longarm, I’ll hang onto him so he doesn’t fall.”
In bizarre and totally unrelated news, a surplus shop at the flea market in Kodak has piles of Kung Zhu playsets and “tank vehicles”.
I can imagine Ethan getting a few playsets, a couple utility knives, some spray paint cans and a cold glue gun and assembling a massive display scene for his Transformers.
I call shenanigans! There are no Ponderosas anywhere NEAR San Francisco!
(Growing up in the Bay Area, I’d never heard of it until literally just now, and had to google it to figger out what it was. Now maybe if he’d said Black Angus…)
Yeah, that kinda threw me too. Even if Ethan isn’t originally from California (have we ever found out where he’s from?), he’s been there for years now, and probably wouldn’t expect Ken to be familiar with the chain.
to pay $80 for a stake, that must be one really good stake.
vampires tell me it’s to die for.
It’s carved from the finest Black Forest oak, heat-treated for strength, and polished to a fine point.
Don’t forget that it is soaked in a proprietary blend of holy waters from several major religions, and treated with 11 herbs and spices, all of which are different breeds of garlic.
Also comes in a fine mahogany case shaped like a coffin. Kid tested, Slayer approved. When shopping for your next stake, come on down to Belmont’s. Free rosary with purchase.
The trees that provide the wood for our signature Nightstalker line are grown in a carefully controlled greenhouse environment and watered with only 100% pure holy water for a divine blessing that lasts.
Any trees exposed to normal water during the growing period are immediately burned to provide holy ash to fetilize the next generation of trees.
Ken is nice, cute, and shares a lot in common with Ethan.
i honestly hope they do get together, they are perfect for each other
It would be nice if Ken turned out to be gay, or at least bi, so that he and Ethan could get together. It would be good for Ethan to have a new relationship, and give Ken some much needed development. But I’m not holding my breath. Not only has Malaya hinted she might actually have some interest in Ken — if only he was a bit more assertive about his feelings — but Willis has been pretty clear on his desire to keep Ethan unattached, and thus miserable, for comedic purposes. It’s why he made him gay in the first place after all, to keep him from hooking up with Amber.
Plus making Ken gay would then make it that most guys in this comic are gay, or at least bi. That’s just not really good character development if it’s just a similar revelation to one or two that have already happened.
If he didn’t want Ethan and Amber to hook up he could just have Ethan and Amber not hook up.
I agree with what timemonkey said. Plus, there’s a point at which doing something for ‘comedic purposes’ stops being funny. Frankly I know I at least would get bored and rather fed up with Ethan either staying lonely or having a long string of failed relationships JUST for laughs. That’s insulting and if anything just makes me feel BAD for Ethan, not laugh at him.
Besides, I think Willis is good enough at coming up with humor that he doesn’t have to rely on keeping Ethan single/unhappy for jokes, you’re not giving the man enough credit. And if he comes to a point where that’s what he DOES need to rely on, I think Willis will have some serious problems on his hands. D:
I saw Reunion Tower and almost started crying, like, “OH GOD, I MISS MY HOOOOME.”
And then I remembered that I moved back to Dallas like *two months ago*.
So basically, I really need to go outside more, I guess.
Cool, I have the same background as Ti-man.
Let me guess, the $80 steak is a size of a dime in that restaurant.
No, they are like 16 ounces. This is a Texas restaurant.
80$ steaks huh. Well that’s what you get when you have a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in your town’s landmark
I hope you enjoyed Dallas, and maybe next time I can actually catch you at your table XD A lot of stuff to do at BotCon.
Hey that’s my skyline! Well, the skyline of my city. Well, not my city but the city I live in.
Anyway….
Yes, it’s quite expensive to eat in Reunion Tower, but it’s worth it for the experience. Although the restaurant is not always rotating, so you’d have to schedule it for a time when it is.
Ethan must have fond memories of Ponderosa from previous Botcons, because there’s none anywhere near California. (In fact if it weren’t for Shortpacked!, I’d never have heard of it)
There’s none near Dallas, either.
Though, since they’re headquartered in Indiana, and a few of the early ones were held in Fort Wayne…
I have to wonder how many BotCons Ethan has been able to attend. Was he able to hit the first few as a teenager? Did he endure the infamous BotCon ’96 in particular?
So are Ken and Ethan going to become actual friends now? Honestly, I think they could both use it. Ethan will have someone who will properly geek out of about Transformers with him, and Ken might stop being the guy who fads into the background.
… stop being the guy who … WHAT??? … into the background.
Oh … Phewww …. the word was Fads …. though how does one Fad yet be in the background, unless it is always a fad that is gone out of the limelight ….. As for the misread on my part …. I read it out loud and … and … ewwwwwww …… must scrub from mind … ewwwww … out curesed image .. out I say! X(
Pondawhat now?
So um, what sort of implication is referring to a Ponderosa Steakhouse supposed to make? That it’s good? Affordable? What? I just don’t get it…
PROTIP: Beast Wars won an emmy.