378 – Things Fall Apart

Discussion (31) ¬

  1. Tyler Heasley
    Tyler Heasley

    Wow, Marc. Wow.

    By the way, anyone read the book Things Fall Apart? Read it long ago and loved it.

    • Brock Heasley

      I’ve never read it, but I like the title.

  2. Infamous Nefarious
    Infamous Nefarious

    Better question: How are they gonna get back home now?

  3. mkinyon
    mkinyon

    I’ve never read Achebe’s book. But I have read Yeats:

    …Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.
    – The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats

    I think the last two lines of that stanza are particularly applicable here.

    • Jande

      Yes, that’s the one i remember, too. Apropos.

    • Brock Heasley

      Wow. I’ve heard the first couple of lines of that poem, but never the rest of it. The last lines are AMAZINGLY appropriate.Thanks for sharing that.

  4. Sam
    Sam

    So no one noticed that he put a glowing blue crystal in his jacket….and no one is asking where is Spy Gal?

  5. artisan54
    artisan54

    i think swifty is about to let everything out of the bag. hopefully they believe him. also i get a feeling dr. rocket may have a backup plan, just in case.

    • Brock Heasley

      Swifty would never let everything out of the bag. That could get really messy. And smelly. Oh… not that kind of bag?

    • CartoonistWill

      You’re thinking of time traveler Swifty. This Swifty knows jack squat, lol.

  6. Si Civa
    Si Civa

    So, I guess that most of the fogeys won’t still suspect that Jerry is anything but a goofy sidekick? That’s how I see Swifty’s question.

  7. gnrrrg
    gnrrrg

    I don’t think Swifty knows yet. I think this is just more of the ‘Jerry bad’ programming he gave himself as a baby and he’s just blaming Jerry for everything that’s going on in general.

    As for Captain Spectacular, the guy’s wearing pants for the first time in a long time so he’s a little off balance. Let’s not be too critical of him.

    • Brock Heasley

      And who knows… those pants might be really tight!

      • CartoonistWill

        Oh, gosh. I almost thought you were going to say, “And who knows… those pants might be coming off.” Nothing dirty intended, but you know what I mean. Cap and his distaste pants.

  8. Scott

    @Sam — which is more interesting: giant robot falling to pieces or a guy putting something in his pocket as he rides a collapsing robot to the ground?
    @gnrrg — You’re probably right about Swifty.

    The only observation I can add is — hey, Bingo Knight’s sword is just fine! That’s a quality sword!

    • gnrrrg
      gnrrrg

      Well, it is the division sword. It either breaks things up or gets broken up; now we know which.

      • Brock Heasley

        Who says I never solve mysteries!? (Actually, nobody. But still…)

  9. Javier
    Javier

    Hey, Brock, when the Superfogeys becomes a legacy comic, you should have Bingo Knight’s sword made and sold as a collector’s item. I know I’d buy it. Btw, awesome artwork. But what I don’t get is why Jerry is regular colors while everything else in the 2nd panel looks like it has a white wash. Is the robot glowing?

    • Brock Heasley

      Javier, that’s just an effect to suggest something being further in the background. It has the added benefit of popping Jerry out more. This is a 2D medium, so real-life effects like that are really crucial. Robot isn’t glowing, it’s just behind him.

  10. Greg Bulmash

    @Tyler: Read it like 20 years ago in college for a “World History” class.

    Must not have made much of an impression, because all I remember about it is the title and which class I read it for.

  11. Spike Matthews

    I wonder if Dr Rocket will speak up or go for the blackmail angle…
    Great art in this strip too – I love the way the robot breaks up in a semi-modular fashion; sort of like advanced Lego… lol

  12. Brock Heasley

    And if you can tell us the Alan Moore comic we ripped off for the way the robot breaks apart… you get a gold star. (Although, I must say, I think Marc did a better job rendering it than artist Chris Sprouse.)

  13. Jande

    So is Jerry now going to pretend to be the hero who stopped that mad machine? Hmmm…

    And gorgeous artwork indeed!

  14. CartoonistWill

    I think what’s probably on Jerry’s mind – besides “Hide the crystal! Oh crap oh crap oh crap!” is “Spy Gal!” Manipulative creepy stalker villain or not, I’m hoping to see him rush to find her next strip or two. Whenever Jerry gets his head on straight and can escape from the crowd to find her. As for Cap, I hope these events change him somehow instead of leave him unaffected.

  15. CartoonistWill

    Btw, the fact that the robot is crumbling to pieces (in this digital “deletion” kind of way) before it hits the ground, especially after just repairing itself, suggests to me that it is composed of nanites which are now “dying” and coming apart from one another now that the power source has been yanked, which also explains how the robot could repair itself like that. Am I right?

  16. tmcelmurry

    Attack Robot, part of the new Lego line. :)

    Great job on the visual part of this Marc. You got to love Swifty’s approach though. Nice slight of hand there Jerry, you pocketed that Crystal with such grace coming off the top of that robot like that. I can’t wait to see how this chapter is going to conclude. What’s so great is that Captains going to come out and there’ll be nothing there and he’ll probably have a “So What’s the big deal?” calm collected attitude about it. Well that is if he runs out of coins first, the cashiers stand did just explode near him after all. Who knows Captain may have Rusty’s luck from Lapoons Vegas Vacation “Put a quarter in, won a car…” and win everyone a ride home. :)

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