All gone! Getting these books on their way to Europe!
Only seven spots left for our “move the last of the books to Europe” pre-order. $120 each, includes the 3-volume box set, as well as shipping (moving the books from Australia to Germany as a group, and then sending them individually to your door from there). Use the button below to snag one, because after this, I have no more of these sets to sell, ever. This set is too massive to ever reprint.
Is there truly a winner?
Oh boy I feel like Ethan just unintentionally set Elijah on the shooter. This isn’t going to end well.
That’s assuming the shooter is still alive. Certainly possible but usually these shooters end up dead one way or another.
They usually commit suicide or suicide-by-cop because mass shooters are cowards, but more importantly, because it is the one sure way to escape any kind of punishment for their acts. After all, you can’t punish the dead, and I know of nobody and nothing capable of reaching a soul in its personal “afterlife”…
Well damn. This ethan *is* more sensible, and I actually like him.
What nex,t, ted as a giant mecha-penguin?
…don’t answer that.
Oh, please, yes. I think you just filled my Christmas wish list.
please o please o please…
Yeah, nobody wins when family members die.
nobody ever thinks of the funeral homes
This is the moment that someone is going to die.
I just hope it’s not Elijah
Yup
War doesn’t who’s right, only who’s left
Yeah I think the Allies were in the right during both World Wars.
Pretty sure the Axis thought the same about their side. And if they had won, who knows then you and I might have been taught and learned to agree with that as well.
I am sorry, but this is just plain wrong. Of Course everybody thinks his or her opinion is the right one. Nothing bad about that. BUT saying, that the axis were as right as the allies is wrong. Sure they thought it, but that doesn`t mean it is correct! As a german I can say with 100% certainty, that the Axis were wrong, plain and simple. Otherwise the world would be a terrible place. MUCH, MUCH worse than it is now! As a guideline everyone should always leave the possibility in his or her mind open, that his or her… Read more »
So you are saying that people should always leave their mind open to the possibility that they might be wrong but you yourself are 100% sure in your assessement. There might be a slight contradiction here?
He isn’t disagreeing with that point, he is saying that history is written by the victors, if they had one most people would believe the Axis was “right” and fighting a just war and that Jewish camps were no different than the Japanese camps we put people in in the US. That doesn’t make it the truth, only what would likely be the case if they had won.
Also the general analogy that everyone thinks they are the hero in the story.
To enforce the point: as part of the allies, USSR certainly thought they were in the right.. right up until they’re suddenly in the wrong (during the Cold War).
So… yeah.
History isn’t always written by the victors. Look at the Civil War.
Things were significantly muddier (trench warfare anybody? Eh? I should stop? Okay) in WWI. IN WWII though… well, the side trying to exterminate undesirables is pretty firmly considered to be the bad guys in that scenario, including by the nations that used to be *on* that side.
True, but the individual who pushed for that process only rose to power because the victorious countries from WWI decided to be petty and dick over Germany in the decades that followed.
It’s not being “petty” or “a dick” to try to weaken a country military but also economically so that one generation later it doesn’t attack you “again” (though for WWI, there really is no clear attacker, as a chain of alliances provoked it). The UK did it time and again during history, with some success, to achieve a balance of power in continental Europe (and a lot of failure in the XXth century of course). The real problem of the winners of WWI were that they were divided as soon as the war ended. France wanted a tough deal, so… Read more »
As Mick points out, things were a lot murkier in World War I. Austria-Hungary had a casus belli, as thin as it may have been, against Serbia, and the network of alliances is what brought all the other powers into play, not an unjustified conquest. The Central Powers definitely became “bad guys” more because of propaganda during and after the war. World War II was less ambiguous. This isn’t to say the Allies were shiny and clean and that everything they did was good and just, but both Japan and Germany were waging blatant wars of aggression and committing atrocities… Read more »
“Well, when i was 4, my dad bought a trusty XBox. you know, the first, ruggedy, blocky one from 2001. we had tons and tons and tons of fun playing all kinds of games together – until he died, when i was just 6. i couldnt touch that console for 10 years. but once i did, i noticed something. we used to play a racing game, Rally Sports Challenge. actually pretty awesome for the time it came. and once i started meddling around… i found a GHOST. literaly. you know, when a time race happens, that the fastest lap so… Read more »
Actually I hadn’t heard that one. Some years back (probably a while, as I don’t fully recall the details), I read a story about a mother and a son, and I think the game was Animal Crossing. I don’t remember if it was the mother or the son who died, but the other one picked up the game later and there were traces of their relative in the game (I’ve never played Animal Crossing so I don’t fully grasp the mechanics; a ghost or just a character they made or something), and it was sort of a similar connection. That… Read more »
This is the one for anyone interested. http://i.imgur.com/1PA8D.jpg
Yep! That’s the one!
oh wow that hit me in the feels real hard
Yeah, that hit me hard too. My parents got me into gaming, but I got them into EverQuest. I remember logging in after my mom died (both are gone now) and having stuff in the Guild Bank my mom found that I mentioned I wanted for my alts but never got around to farming. Just odds and ends like lowbie gear or spells that you could only get from drops. Or logging in after Dad passed from a heartattack two years ago and seeing a crap ton of plat in my bank from him. I log in from time to… Read more »
That’s the history I’ve talking about. There’s a YouTube video about this boy. https://youtu.be/gCtSgb-b7zg
Beautifully done in my opinion.
That one definitely hit the feels for me. My daughter passed away from Leukemia almost a year ago and her favorite game ever was Rayman Legends.I still play it once in a while whenever I miss her too much ;(
She had great taste, Rayman Legends is a fantastic game.
Well shit, I just stopped up short and nearly started crying reading that. I miss my dad. May 16, 1993, 3:05 AM-worst day of my life.
This thing about his sister ghost record. It’s based in a history about a kid who fired his Xbox and payed a race game he used to play with his dad, I saw the vide and cried a diluvium, first of all I was a fresh father and recently had lost my own dad.
Great omage man! Nicely done.
Holy crap….
Tim, I’m….beyond words. That was amazingly well written. Can I send Ethan a hug please?
I agree your comics have been one of my favorite for who knows how many years but these last few strips have brought me to tears they are so touching,. Thanks for the feels 🙂
Outstanding comic…seriously, very well written. Looking forward to seeing the outcome of it!
I actually teared up a bit at this. It was short, but powerful, bravo
I would say, yeah, you won. Reminds me of that 9gag story where somebody said that years after his father’s death he was playing an old racing game where his father’s ghost was still in. So he raced it, over and over again, and the one time he was about to win, he stopped before the finish line and let his father’s record go past him, else it would have been deleted and replaced by his car.
So did that tagging Elijah was doing beside him just up and disappear all of a sudden?
Eh. Minor continuity error. I wouldn’t worry over too much, myself.
He’s fast enough – he may have scrubbed the wall before he left.
Honestly I thought I’d placed it farther over from the corner and it wouldnt be visible in this shot.
Well, that ended quick. Eh? Eh??
…Fine.
Seriously, though, Tim, the writing on this strip — nay, this whole issue — is some of the best I’ve seen you out, and I’ve been reading you for over ten years. Some real thought-provoking and emotional stuff. Well done, sir.
*PUT out…..sorry, missed a word there
…I didn’t think I was going to get kicked in the heart strings today…wow…
I don’t know who needs a hug more. Ethan or Elijah. . .
Think how many hugs Elijah could give though! He could be a world class speed hugger.
Damn. I did not expect that many feels coming from Ethan. Well done, Tim
I guess it’s time to kill the man who invented Fortnite.
Was this a discussion on video games or the gun control movement? It seems to cover both.
Honestly it could be anything. Video games, guns, recreational drugs (to a point), kitchen knives, cars, etc.
Looking back, it’s pretty amazing that the SNES Mario Kart could save time trial ghost positional data when only a few megabytes contained the entire game.
…Anyone else still weirded out by Ethan being so deep? Like…I know he would have his moments of clarity, but this is….this is deep, man.
This is like reverse Star Lord. “Did we just win?”
“Because games matter” — Extra Credits
This comic is Proof that you truly care about the story and history your creating when you create your comic. Far too many would have made the tragic backstory reference you did with Ethan’s dead sister, and then never commented on it again, but you put actual emotion into your people, as thay are far more real then the term Character now.
Nice story. Well written.
But FYI there is no “next” button to page 17.
I hope Elijah makes a return. He’s such a cool character, and he’d make a powerful ally.