• NickDA

    Nice!… this page at least would also serve as the “pick up here” kinda midpoint summary for newbies.

    • KBoysx1

      Nick, start planning more merch development! We want those deathbot plushies at the conventions! :)

  • T.R.

    I like the justification, but it seems a bit pat. Won’t the prosecution ask why he felt it necessary to head to Arkjut by going through the groups assembled for the negotiations arranged by Oculus? (literally *right through* them :) )

    Also, if Aegis felt he was “following orders” - why isn’t this either an internal court martial for his behavior or something being hashed out between the component groups of Minerva? This trial still doesn’t make legal sense for why he’s up on charges… I wonder if that’s something that’s relevant to the story, or if I’m just looking too hard for all the details to line up?

    And I don’t recall that big impact damage on the tower at Arkjut. Did that happen during Chapters 2/3? Or more recently?

    • I’m sure the prosecution will just smile and nod. Cross examining is for chumps! ;P

      Politics, man. That and I’m not a lawyer, probably ;)

    • The beginning of the end for the Keleres was the explosion at the door of the tower’s bunker.

      • KBoysx1

        Two of them are still fighting back, ever the resilient

      • T.R.

        Hi Seba,

        The damage shown in panel 4 looks more like something struck the tower high up - and that initial explosion you mention was from an explosive charge (charges?) triggered when Tenzin took Lily down from the wall. I don’t see how those initial explosions could have caused that kind of an impact. (unless the Conspiracy had a reason to plant a few charges that high up…)

        Not a huge deal - I don’t mean to nitpick things too much. But you and Dan hide lots of things that come up later, so I’m always on the lookout for them. Heck, you foreshadowed Tenzin’s limb loss on the first page of Chapter 0. (well played, BTW)

        • NickDA

          I’mma go with damage from the raiders being punks taking pot shots at it during the invasion of Minerva HQ.

          • T.R.

            Works for me!

  • Matt [in Middletown]

    Panel 2: “Gimme a few more quarts of bloogoo please.”

    • T.R.

      Hopefully his maintenance plan covers BlooGoo(TM) and doesn’t substitute the generic knock-off. :)

      • Matt [in Middletown]

        For use only with genuine Aegis® brand BlooGoo™ synthetic muscle nutrilube, accept no substitutes!

        • T.R.

          [Closeup shot of Aegis standard battle armor. Pan back, keep suit to left. Rick enters from right]
          Rick: “Hi, I’m Rick Wheeler, and I’m responsible for the armor used by Aegis soldiers. Much like the armor you see here.
          Rick: “When in combat, our troops rely on their armor suits to perform at peak efficiency.”
          [Gestures to the suit]
          Rick: “And that’s why here at Aegis Maintenance HQ, we only use BlooGoo Ultra Premium formula. Whether it’s Captain Dorge lifting a tank up over his head…”
          [Add insert image of Dorge ripping off tank turret]
          Rick: “…or Captain Rattray throwing boulders at raiders, our troops have learned to rely on the smooth performance that they get from using BlooGoo Ultra Premium. ”
          [From below frame of shot, Rick lifts up retail bottle and holds in view of camera, label front towards camera]
          Rick: “And now, you can too. BooGoo Ultra Premium is now commercially available to the general population. So
          be sure to ask for BlooGoo Ultra Premium. You won’t be disappointed.”
          [Rick puts on “big winning smile”. Image then cuts to a split screen. Left side is the retail bottle, right side is an image of Cpt Dorge in new armor holding tank turret over his head]
          Voiceover: “BlooGoo Ultra Premium, whatever you need done, it’ll help you get ‘er done!”

  • “I swear to tell the truth, the *coughmumble* truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”
    “What was that third part now?”
    “Yes.”

  • KBoysx1

    Ooh! Nice mix of color schemes from different chapters, love your work @SebasP

  • DeNitro

    Drama in Court,,,
    Could it be,, Tenzin’s statement of events is so simply lain out that to cast any doubt on it’s truth would cost more dangerous information to be revealed than the conspiracy is willing to risk.

    Can prosecution find a way to manipulate Tenzin into a filling in details and clouding that clear picture just painted of purpose and duty is the big question.

    We can’t wait to see!!!

  • Conventions would be cool, but also, I have no idea where to start XD

    We definitely need something physically printed to have on hand though XD

    • T.R.

      You could pick one in the Northeast (I think you live in this corner of the country) and get a table in the Artist’s Alley area. Maybe the nice members in the Spider Forest collective have experience with this? Now to start designing my Aegis uniform for cosplay… ;)

      I think a big cardboard cutout of Tenzin in armor (with the face cut out, so people could be in the picture) would be a hit.

      Of course, while this sounds cool, I do realize that you have a family, research, and a return to med school to worry about. So while I get all fanboy giddy over the idea, this effort would be a lot of work for you. So I recommend that you make Nick take care of all the arrangements and logistics. :P

      • KBoysx1

        Me and Matt will dress as pineapples! (Sopka)

        • Matt [in Middletown]

          SMILING robot pineapples

          • KBoysx1

            CREEPILY SMILING robot pineapples :)

          • T.R.

            As though the thought of you two dressed a robot pineapples isn’t creepy enough? *shudder* :)

          • KBoysx1

            Nope! Us as pineapples isn’t very creepy. Not at all ;)

      • NickDA

        Wait what? I have literally 2X the family Dan does, not adding in the exponential modifier which comes from having 16 and 21 year old step daughters, which would just be overkill really. That and the day job. Grumble grumble grumble… then again… I am totally planning a full on Tenzin cosplayer armor set…

        • T.R.

          Hi Nick, Not sure how old your younger kids are. I have 4 under 10 and have plenty of family with nieces/nephews all at 13+. While I won’t say that older kids are easier, they definitely seem to take up less time. (grass is always greener?) So Dan with a baby and a toddler gets my sympathy for time pressures. (heck, your older step-daughter is an adult and can drive herself and her sister to events!)

          Shameless plug: If you’re a parent or deal with young children, you’ll probably enjoy the Fowl Language comic. Independently produced to boot. http://www.fowllanguagecomics.com/

          • NickDA

            Hehe… I have a 3, 6, 7 … then 16, 21… nightmares abound. While yes the time consumption correlates inversely with age… I’ve found that stress is linear if not exponential with age, and cost seems to be an odd quadratic, it goes down from like 6 - 12… then starts shooting right back up. I’m too damn young to be paying for community college tuition.

            But yeah, I need to get free time after this next work move (to Seattle from Portland) finish the site redesign which is going to hopefully have a bit of “oh you’re a supporter/comment-or? fine no ads if you don’t want em… otherwise here have some ads”… that’ll help mildly with funds.

            I’m already using my entire “Nick’s personal money here spouse have all the rest” for this comic… and we’re about at the limit beyond which my wife slaughters me. So getting extra involves either reaching ludicrous $ salary (work in progress) or getting some new $ flow inwards to offset the art.

          • KBoysx1

            Can’t imagine how much trouble that is

        • KBoysx1

          How much money for the armor? :)

      • NickDA

        Also I have a super ego trip about artist alley booths. Given that neither Dan nor I can actually draw, it both a) seems like the wrong place since so many people want to pay random ad hoc sketches etc, and b) having gone to a conn they are shitty and sad, horribly located and make babies sad….

        It’s like purposefully getting into the shitty slum area of the convention, the way the convention sets it up, and I can understand the conventions rational (they want you to shell out the $ for not shitty space) but its a wee bit overdone.

        So my ego trip demands we have a sexy booth in the real booth parts of booth town… but having a real booth requires enough merch to not look empty (see previous shitty sad) as well as more $ to the convention… So there’s a fairly intensive initial merch buy that we’d have to do. I think current plan is to see how a kickstarter print run goes, cuz then if it goes really well we get economies of scale and can actually have some printed copies left over for conventions etc.

        Super aside: Dan’s spouse has ludicrously awesome crouchet site: http://thecookiesnob.weebly.com/ … ya’ll should commission a Tenzin crochet plushy or a Deathbot plushy, or a Jane plushy… then once she’s got the pattern down maybe I can wrangle a bulk order :D

    • KBoysx1

      Ooh. Physical copies. Gimme the precious. *Strokes book* Yes precious. You are mine. No one shall have you. No hobbitses are taking you

    • KBoysx1

      Come to SCC! Then I could definitely make it

    • I gotta work on that

    • Matt [in Middletown]

      Minervan standard advanced tactical bricks for everyone!
      / kidding

  • KBoysx1

    First panel: deathbot looks like a deception about to transform into a jet right there. Also, what is an APER’s top speed?

    • Someone made that calculation based on the readings Tenzin got of the fast moving object in chapter 1 or 2

    • T.R.

      The 1.0 version? Or the 2.0 speedbot or the 2.0 hulkbot?

      • KBoysx1

        1.0 version

        • Well I don’t have a number or anything to give you, but fast enough that when Jane slowed down the video she thought it was a dude in a robe at first ;)

          • KBoysx1

            So like, at least 300 mph

  • Chris Kotthoff

    Notice Ten always sees himself in his armor

    • KBoysx1

      Why of course! In his dreams he even sees himself that way in his dreams. He is like a turtle; he needs a bullet proof blast resistant billion pound shell to protect himself

      • Chris Kotthoff

        Well, Ten was never the most well adjusted person (sleeps with a knife under his pillow for crying out loud) so it makes sense would identify with his armor, something that makes him a more effective fighter (not like he has many more hobbies)

  • Amberlight

    “Negotiation sight was in my way so I had to go right through it” - that’s gotta be one of the lamest excuses I ever heard:D

    • Hornet

      actually if Minerva was surround as Tenzin said then it’s not lame at all, he just had the bad luck of picking the one point in the ring where said negotiations were taking place.

      • T.R.

        Funny how that happened. :)
        Though you’d expect that there would have been standing orders about Aegis forces not engaging the invaders while the talks were ongoing. I wonder how those orders would reconcile - probably not in Tenzin’s favor…

        • Chris Kotthoff

          Keep in mind Ten didn’t fire first. He simply kept walking forward (knocking allot of people down along the way) until someone finally started shooting at him.

          • These technicalities are important XD

          • Hornet

            Self Defense IS a very powerful defense. Course that’s why there are usually some many restrictions placed on its use. “If you can run away, you have to” “Can only do as much damage as required to relieve the threat”, “Only being allowed to shoot the perpetrator once, so make it count” things like that.

          • Yeah, expect terms like “excessive force” coming from the prosecution ;)

    • Matt [in Middletown]

      It’s the invader’s fault that they set up in the middle of a Tenzin crossing.
      The signs were placed and everything!
      And as everyone knows, it is against the law to interfere with the annual Tenzin migration..

      • KBoysx1

        They do realize how endangered the wild Tenzin is, right? Only two known Tenzins exist, and one is in a cartoon. No respect for migrating Tenzins

      • T.R.

        The wild Tenzin is territorial, and will quickly attack anyone that it sees as challenging it by entering its territory Though to those who are part of the Tenzin’s pack, the Tenzin is fiercely loyal, and will protect those pack members from outside threats.
        While historically the Tenzin was the alpha predator of its ecosystem, recent developments have seen new creatures moving into the area and challenging the dominance of the Tenzin in its home range.
        Note: A group of Tenzins is called a Keleres.