Monica (angry, teary-eyed): Shelly — Shelly is Dead! And all over THIS! (waves artifact) What is going on???
Phix (stirring some tea, looking at the cup): You dealt with the Calendar machine. (looks at Monica over her glasses) Now you must deal with the consequences.
And now, on Friday, it’s time for a tall frosty glass of WTF?
So she mentions the Calendar. It is my hope this is a different time loop. This would be one of the many Shelly’s that has past and that we get the present one intact. Her other loop Shelly would have died yet again to get some undelcared goal accomplished. From the look at the body count she is getting really good at dying.
So many of us care for Shelly and this is the power of Paul’s writing. It’s “just a character on paper.” but her existence and the sudden lack of it has made us all pause and grieve. You can’t get this sort of reaction from me on most TV shows since their characters are all so artificial. Here, Shelly is more real to me than many of those people. It is in her passing that you realize the value of her not just as a character, but in how it affects ourselves as well.
It is in this, that we’re all diminished a little more today.
The calendar machine is destroyed, so no hope of resurrecting Shelly with a reset.
So what the f**k is this power source good for if Shelly could not return with it? Is the Sphinx supposed to do something? or is it supposed to auto-detonate in a massive explosion that (as I said yesterday) will shift time for Jin somehow?
Hmph. I’ll be off in my room crying ’til Monday, y’all…
Heh, read the other comments. Most of us suppose that this is not the end of Shelly the character. Though as Paul said, this is the end of THIS Shelly.
The only thing that will make me happy is if on Monday, we see Shelly return to the group of disappointed girls (who didn’t get to go to the beach), carrying the now-powered-up artifact which would then be the next step in the adventure. If it is possible that she accessed a version of herself from a previous cycle and had to sacrifice that version to do this, then I’ll be OK. And that would actually make sense given the way creepy girl psyched Shelly up to go on the journey to begin with. Maybe this death we are witnessing today is how creepy girl came to be?
*Poit*
“May! May! Shelly’s dead you’ve got to make Shelly inito a golem!”
“I’d love to dear, but I’m afraid I no longer have access to vials of what you now call plutonium. One is essential.”
“Shoot! Did anyone bring the artifact?”
Haven’t read through all 200+ comments, but if we get past the fact that there is “plutonium” in the vial, the sphinx stated that SHELLEY PUT IT IN THE TREE! How can she do this? A future version of her? Hard to do if she is dead.
Aslo, in the last two panels of the 05-03-2011 page, the sphinx states that she will show Shelley her trial, that the rest is up to her and she “…just clean(s) up the ones who mess it up.” How does the sphinx clean it up? Maybe a “reset”?
Paul, if you posit the fact of shelly’s death due to radiation poisoning, then why is the tree still alive? That amount of radiation blasting out of that bugger should have fried that tree into firewood within a month or two (at best…) Or am I just whinging on?
the tree and the forest she is in isn’t organic. it’s made of time… hard to explain but my theory is that they are currently standing in the 4th or 5th dimension. Every dimension can see a “corner” of the dimension above it. we’re in the 3rd dimension, the fourth dimension is time. we can only experience a moment of time as it is happening. However, if they are standing in the 4th dimension, then each tree could be representative of the same universe happening at the same time. if they’re in the 5th dimension, then each tree could be a different “time line” in which all universes occur.
on a side note: if my above theory is correct, and they are in the 5th dimension, then to find the tree where they solve the time loop, they would just have to watch for the one that doesn’t grow into its self. however, since they’re trees, there is hardly any way to tell how far along they are in their time lines.
If Paul really killed off the current Shelly, he’s probably actually killed off two characters: Shelly and the Creepy Little Girl, who said that she would cease to exist when Shelly died. I think I would miss her more…
Which I think is actually kind of proof that she’s not really gone. Creepy little girl is still fairly new and needs more time to have her background explained. Shelly’s been around long enough to possibly be knocked off, but not CLG.
I think ShadOBabe went outside the story and meant that Paul might be willing to kill off Shelly because he might have done all that he wanted to do with her, but he would not kill off CLG, because he’s not done developing CLG as a character. Since they are both together, if Paul wouldn’t kill off CLG, then Shelly must not be really dead, either.
Okay. I had to run some errands for a couple hours, and i got to thinking.
What if the calendar machine was not responsible for the time loop?
What if the time loop existed for some other reason, and the Calendar reset because time looped, rather than time looping because the Calendar reset?
What if the loop was created as some consequence, say, of the chimera running wild and flash-frying most of the world? (If i have my chronology straight.)
What if, in fact, the real purpose of making the Machine was to control whatever created the loops, but it didn’t work right … and the Calendar turned out to be a Skynet-type thingie?
Only May would know anything about that – and she’s been pretty well absent since the Machine’s creation.
Jin remembers all the previous loops … but Jin is basically Missing In Action, even though she’s physically present.
So destroying the Calendar was a first step – but they still have to fix whatever the underlying problem is, before the end of 2012; and this is another step…
I got to thinking about it when i composed my last comment above (7 or 8 threads), which might behoove a review of the comics starting here. I just did that, and although it is not obvious, the fact that creepy girl reminds Shelly that she did not know she was dead when creepy girl came to be tells me that the death we are witnessing today might be the origin of creepy girl, not what happened on her vision quest.
And since creepy girl was talking about an event in the past, then this cannot be the end of “current” Shelly.
I figure Paul has something in mind for a story arc as we approach Dec, 2012. I don’t know if this current arc will be stretched out that far, but something is probably going to happen. It may not be anything to do with time loops still going on, but that seems as a good possibility as any. Whatever it is, I’ll bet it will be amazing. Probably nothing any of us has considered. I mean who thought Shelly would run into another sphinx or would die even? Not to mention throwing plutonium into the mix.
yes time loops where one can set up for future loops like acquire nuke fuel but less than needed put it where the loop don’t happen then bring the same bit again till you have enough with the deposited amounts non fatal then when the solution is ready pull it all at once and put it in a container that will make it provide power forever by one that is sacrificed to be retrieved after the solution is successfully applied.
No. no, no.Don’t do that! C’m’ere, *pats on chair* have a french press with lemon zhest, or whatever You want and join us in the confusion corner. Tina? Got any of those florentine bisquits left ,or brownies ?(chocolate is good when in mourning..) 😀
Seconded ^^ I’ll even up You to a Scoff,Scoff,Scoff.. My goodness…
You’re free to read any of the thousands of other On-Line comics that all those creative minds give away FOR FREE!
There’s no law You’ll have to read anything Wapsi beyond 2003. >:
I highly doubt it’ll be “hey guys, what’s up?”
Remember this is something she’s experiencing from touching the relic. And “hey guys, what’s up?” is hardly the reacting I’d give if I just watched my own bloody death.
Knowing the way Shelly deals with her fears, I’d choose to be out of range of V8’s, Drive-Axles, and other heavy hardware if she snaps-out of the vision.
That’s what I figure too. Shelly has said she was there to help but she has never once mentioned helping Jin. So helping could mean getting something to fix the CM or who knows what. Possibly something not even mentioned in the story line thus far. Anything could have been going on in the other loops.
Regardless, I think she did this in a previous loop (or whatever) to get the plutonium into the relic so it would be ready now to be fetched by her current self. Obviously she didn’t know she was sacrificing herself to do it (but she probably did when she set it up). Curent Shelly may still have to go to Ireland to actually take physical possession of the charged up relic.
No wait, she already had the empty relic in her hand during this vision or whatever, so it couldn’t also be still in the gravesite in Ireland. Unless there is more than one or the relic has disappeared from her hand.
Question is: was the relic empty when Bud found it ,or was the plutonium/berillium plot-device already safely stored inside, and is the vision no more than an explanation for current Shelly, from a former Shelly?
Well, at least we can be moderately certain that it didn’t go down with the sub, or the boom would have wiped more off the map than just M’s private beach.
Sheely’s “arrival” in so much as she appeared in the forest, not only wearing the same clothes, but also finishing the same sentence would be against that hypothesis.
She may have been just going into the vision as she was finishing the sentence and not completely in at that moment. The clothes could be coincidence. After all she did the same thing in previous cycles. They could be repeating right down to the clothes. If not it may be she is adding her own personal touch to the vision by wearing the same clothes as she was at Monica’s house simply because that’s how she last visualized herself.
Personally, I think it would be great if she is dead for real. It would make the series much more interesting to know anyone could die at any time. None of this “she won’t die because she’s a main character.” That’s just too predictible. I don’t like book series built around a single character who keeps coming back in book after book. Sometimes it works out for a while, but it all, eventually, gets too cutsey and contrived keeping the hero (or any character) alive through all those near misses or great battles.
Don’t get me wrong, I have as much invested in emotionally Shelly as a main character as other readers (though much less that some, I’m sure) and I would prefer she stay around from that standpoint. Nonetheless, I would give Paul cudos for being gutsy enough to kill her off like this and give us all quite a shock. Still, in this case, I seriously doubt current Shelly is dead. I have been wrong before, however. OK, I’m usually wrong. Happy?
Yes, but if Shelly is truly dead, then riddle me this…what is to become of the relic? The Sphinx has to remain to guard the forest of sacred trees…somebody has to poit to this location (is this the graveyard in Ireland? Hard to imagine a forest of sacred trees escaping notice on Google Earth), and find Shelly’s shriveled remains in order to recover it…would that seem a likely arc?
That’s the paradox. On the one hand the relic is in Shelly’s hand as she stands in Monica’s kitchen having this vision, so it can’t be in the graveyard too. On the other hand, if Shelly actually teleported to the sacred forest, then Shelly’s body and the relic are now in the graveyard and need to be retrieved.
I think the Sacred Forest is not on any map as it exists in another world separated from our reality. Either that or in some vast underground place with it’s own light of some sort. Perhaps entered via the grave site in question?
This is either author research failure, or a dream sequence or something similar. Radiation poisoning doesn’t work like that. Death from a lethal dose of radiation comes days or weeks after the exposure, as the DNA in your cells falls apart and your body is unable to make new blood and skin cells. It takes a far, far higher dose to kill you in a few minutes or seconds as happened here, and in that case death comes with massive convulsions as all of your nerve cells start firing randomly. Furthermore, had the plutonium been (somehow) giving off that level of radiation, it would have been hot enough to have long since melted through the container, and making the air around it glow blue through Cherenkov radiation.
Is it too much to hope that this is just another time-loop like so many others have suggested?? Or a vision of a past cycle experience, as was M’s banshee, if that WAS a banshee.
Statement is illogical. Belay panic. Shelly didn’t intend to come to wherever when she grabbed the sword handle. Ergo, the above rapid demise and its prequels are missing some bits, and not-going-to-the-beach-Shelly is just fine, although likely to have hysterics when she comes out of it.
If shelly is really dead, so is the strip to me… but I don’t believe he would kill off a Main character, without doing his homework… ie Plutonium does not give out Gamma Rays, it gives out alpha particles. therefore plutonium is not detected by a normal Geiger counter.
Like the japan disaster news…
First, the plutonium. Plutonium has been found on five different locations on site. If you remember an earlier video I put together, plutonium is a difficult isotope to detect because it doesn’t give off a gamma ray, it gives off an alpha particle, and that’s not picked up by the traditional Geiger counters.
…a gamma ray … [wshich is] … not picked up by the traditional Geiger counters.
Want to reconsider that statement?
A Geiger counter, also called a Geiger-Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. They detect the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays. A Geiger counter detects radiation by ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a Geiger-Müller tube. Each particle detected produces a pulse of current, but the Geiger counter cannot distinguish the energy of the source particles. Geiger counters are popular instruments used for measurements in health physics, industry, geology and other fields, because they can be made with simple electronic circuits.
or, indeed, this one
Plutonium does not give out Gamma Rays
in light of this
During the decay of plutonium, three types of radiation are released—alpha, beta, and gamma. Alpha radiation can travel only a short distance and cannot travel through the outer, dead layer of human skin. Beta radiation can penetrate human skin, but cannot go all the way through the body. Gamma radiation can go all the way through the body.[89] Alpha, beta, and gamma radiation are all forms of ionizing radiation. Either acute or longer-term exposure carries a danger of unfavorable health outcomes including radiation sickness, cancer, and death. The danger increases with the amount of exposure.
That’s approximately correct. Alpha particles can’t travel far through air, so unless you get your detector right up close to the source little or no radiation will be detected. A Geiger counter will indeed pick up alpha particles if the sensor can get close enough.
…or perhaps you might want to reconsider this one:
… n alpha particle, and that’s not picked up by the traditional Geiger counters.
in light of this:
A Geiger counter, also called a Geiger-Müller counter, is a type of particle detector that measures ionizing radiation. They detect the emission of nuclear radiation: alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays. A Geiger counter detects radiation by ionization produced in a low-pressure gas in a Geiger-Müller tube. Each particle detected produces a pulse of current, but the Geiger counter cannot distinguish the energy of the source particles. Geiger counters are popular instruments used for measurements in health physics, industry, geology and other fields, because they can be made with simple electronic circuits.
Just a point of clarification; in order to pick up Alpha particles, the counter must have an extremely thin window in the wall of the tube (see the above mention that alpha particles do not travel well in air). The beta particles penetrate a thin beryllium or quartz window, and the gammas pretty much go through most anything thin. Hence, it is true a three setting counter is rare. They can be found, however.
The one I brought back from Chernobyl only does Beta and Gamma, for the above reasons. The “Gamma Scout” model does all three.
With regard to what plutonium gives out, it depends on the isotope. The “majority” isotopes give off Alpha and Beta, but there are 20 isotopes of plutonium:
“…The primary decay modes before the most stable isotope, Pu-244, are spontaneous fission and alpha emission; the primary mode after is beta emission…”
Further on the Geiger counter issue – a Geiger counter is basically an automated cloud chamber, and cloud chambers apparently detect only particles – which means alpha and beta but not gamma…
Moderately unrelated on the issue of Geiger counters: I once read a book where a brilliant scientist had, over the course of a very long life, invented Geiger counters and disguised them as Fabregé eggs, which then play different songs depending on the level of radiation present. That same book had the wonderful line, “…then it’s Sargeant Pepper time…” where Sargeant Pepper referred to the cue to basically end the world. 😀 (Flying Dutch by Tom Holt; credit where it’s due, eh?)
You would give up the strip because of the death of one character when there is such a rich cast still left? Tina, Phix, Nudge, Monica, the GGGs + Maya, Tepoz, Katherine. Not to mention Dietzel. Each is an potential strip in themself.
Maybe it’s been mentioned, but another way the radiation could kill her is that the sphinx said the casing amplifies and recycles the radiation. So magical item that makes it much more dangerous then it normally would be.
Also, isn’t this all kind of in her head? Or her mind is in another place than her body? Either way she’s dead, but I’m wondering what the reaction on her body will be.
If one dies in a vision, does one then die at that same moment in the space where one’s body is? Or in a dream – if you die in a dream, do you (as the dreamer) die as well? In “The Matrix,” if you die while in the Matrix, you die in the Real World as well (unless, of course, you’re Neo…). In “The Fountain,” it’s said that death is the road to awe. In so much of this web comic, and in mythology, and religions major and minor, death is anything but permanent.
We may have seen Shelly’s death. This is not the end…
hmm
peeps say if you die in a dream you do die irl
but i have to ask
how the heck would anyone know?
if your dreaming you wouldnt be awake and lucid to tell someone you are plumetting to your death in a dream.
(and as someone who came close to actually having a plummeting death dream – its odd! you wake up and feel like you’re still falling! maybe thats where it all sprang from?)
Think its just long ago old-wives-tales which is now told by everyone.
In my worst nightmare I was eaten by a T-Rex, Jurrasic Park style…and then it repeated six more times. Hurt like hell, too. I woke up after 7 and before 8, and as of a minute ago I still have a pulse. I vote, dream death does not equal real death. Apologies to Robert Jordan.
OK, so this strip is the current champion at 318, and no bloody wonder.
I still don’t know where or when this death took place. For all I know, Shelley’s still standing among the bikini babes, having a vision. It makes no sense at this point, and I hate the weekends without my Wapsi phix.
I think that’s precisely what we are seeing. Shelly triggered the artifact, and out POV transitioned immediately into this sequence, just as it transitioned without break or explanation into Monica’s vision of the banshee.
I think these events actually happened, in a previous cycle; that our Shelly here-and-now is seeing it, and when the vision is played out, she will become aware of her surroundings and friends once again.
I suspect that the artifact that she is holding, here-and-now, has the power core in place.
And I am left to wonder, a little sadly, if we are not seeing the cumulative effort of many lives to build a tool to destroy the calendar machine — which has already been destroyed by a different method. Many great efforts require multiple attempts, some simultaneous, to pull off; one or more may be successful, and the others, forgotten, fade from memory, despite the effort that went into them.
Your last paragraph is an interesting premise. Noble self sacrifices for nothing. It all falls into the category of “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Asimov, in one of the last Foundation novels, gives the advice that, when faced with something that must be done, it is better to find (at least) two ways to do it, and set up to do both–it increases the chance that it will happen. Can’t remember who said it or to whom or where, but I think it was R. Daneel Olivaw was involved.
Unfortunately it also increases chances of a major screwup. All too likely ending up with the multiple plans working at cross purposes even if to achieve the same goal.
That’s because they talked about EVERYTHING. Recipies, goings on with themselves and sciences and arts in general, current events, other comics. Only a small percentage was actually about Pibgorn. At least we stick to the comic here, even if peripherally in some cases.
That’s rather impressive. Although I would be wholly satisfied with less if all those “I know more of physics 101 that Paul”-chest-thumping comments were gone. They are grating, and I applaud Paul for keeping silent and just let all that passive aggressiveness go.
Oh, and I know Paul can put a lid on it pretty well himself, but all the noise, and scoffing about his research is hindering my enjoyment of other commenter’s intersting views.
It’s all about magic and mythology. If You want super realism ,go read :”Niels Bohr Collected Works’ , Heisenbergs publications and some Einstein for fun…..
On this one, I agree. It all comes down to the fact it killed Shelly in a short period of time after being extracted. Thus, it needs to be examined from that standpoint, as opposed to, what would be typical for plutonium in a beryllium container. It would appear, given the evidence of Shelly’s rapid demise, there is more to whatever is in the container (and the container itself) than simply the sum of it’s parts. We don’t know what it is from the sphinx’s brief description but, given the observations, it must be very lethal (to humans).
but there’s a difference… it’s NOT IN the beryllium container until AFTER she installs it into the relic, and the Sphinx outright says in panel one, that the CORE AMPLIFIES the gamma radiation, and the RELIC is lined with the beryllium. Therefore any gamma rads it would have given off (from the last CM cycle to now) has now been multiplied and is now lethal to an unprotected human… that is, until it is put into the relic where it then powers it up to do whatever the relic is supposed to do with it…
Yes, you’re right. When I said “container” I was thinking about the container the plutonium was in (referred to as “the tube”) as being beryllium. We don’t really know from what the tube is made. Magic clay maybe? That seems to be a popular ingredient.
Also, that’s a good point about the amplification and multiplication of the gamma rays over all those years making it super potent. This would indicate that aging is an important step in the process. The longer it sits unused, the more powerful it gets.
One other thing. If it gets stronger as it ages, that could mean when Shelly put it in the tree to setup this whole thing, it might not have been lethal, being freshly made and just regular old plutonium which people have indicated is not that lethal (gamma ray wise) by itself. So she may not have died at that time. This would allow her to come back a second time (somehow) to finish the job after the wine had aged properly. Despite the fact she forgot about putting it there.
clinging to reality cuz in reality that wouldn’t happen so Shelly cannot possibly have died
clinging also to fantasy – must be a rerun, cannot have died, does not compute.
i’m personally going to stick with the ‘she is dead’ theory because if i believe she might be alive..it will be worse for me on monday.
that way if it IS a rerun – i can celebrate all the more 😀
Yeah, a little to much “Sheldon” going on. I doubt those nerds going on about plutonium and gamma rays worry about research methodologies when Doctor Who is on.
Hey, my favorite character was Tepoztecal, and he didn’t even get a decent wrap up! He just sort of got written out of the plot all together. And I’ve asked! “even begging for at least a wallpaper fell on deaf ears”
So those of you who are going to quit the comic over this, just put on your big girl panties and get over yourselves. We don’t all get our way, we get the artists way. That’s just how it works. And no, if you want the good guys to always win, may I suggest fanfic?
And you will at least get an explanation as to what happened, which is more than I ever got!
Once when describing Wapsi Square to a friend via e-mail, I apparently got a little over-enthusiastic with the Azrec spelling and out came ‘Tepotztecatl’ (pronounced, yes, Teapots Teakettle). Please don’t tell him, it was an accident after all, and I like the little blue guy.
definatly in the top 5.
not sure it would be my number one tho.
1: Jin lying with wrists slit
2: Shelly dead
3: little girl blowing apart as skelenton
4: monica with knife stuck in head (shelly vision)
5: phix showing her anger at tina (joint 5th) monica without the demons insider her (horrendously creepy)
(i would put links to that lot but not sure how to)
I did something special that you can’t see so the code wouldn’t work in the previous message. I copied and pasted the contents below. It should work this time:
Those websites usually work because a javascript program substitute each character that you typed with ones that happen to look as if the character was turned upside down (e.g., replace d with p) or backwards (e.g., replace d with b). Because so many Unicode characters are available, they usually can do a pretty good job.
@Danzier: I finally spotted your comment about young Kim saying “HUMAN!” in Dresden Codak. The next panel, “I am Zimbar Zimbar from the planet Moob. I come in peas” cracks me up every time I read it. 😆
The death of a character, like Tasha, like Dax, like Data, like Superman, like Hercule, like Sherlock, like Manfridi and Johnson, …
brings grief no matter what. We see them come to life, and we see them end. Like our cats and dogs and pets. Each touches our heart… and we no longer get to share the good things of life with them, …
when they end.
Experiencing the grief of the loss of characters, helps us to not ignore our own grief in our own life. Storytellers help us with this – getting in touch with our sorrow and grief, to not hide from it. Movies, Comics, stories help us to deal with our real lives, help us to cry sometimes – in small portions, so that we can learn how to deal with our own lives and not get overwhelmed – all without ever realizing this is happening. Blessed are the storytellers, for they help us, not hinder us, in dealing with life that is the story of our self.
…Shelly… (T^T)
Scene: Phix’s Library
Poit!
Monica: Phix? PHIX!!!
Phix (looking downwards, somber): Hello dear.
Monica (angry, teary-eyed): Shelly — Shelly is Dead! And all over THIS! (waves artifact) What is going on???
Phix (stirring some tea, looking at the cup): You dealt with the Calendar machine. (looks at Monica over her glasses) Now you must deal with the consequences.
I’ve been kinda wondering that myself. By fixing the calendar machine early, did they throw some other sequence out of whack?
how can they untake it back??
could maya rebuild one?
is that what they need to do? remake it and make it right?
How do you unpunch a face?
(But it looks as if they’re trying…)
I like that scene.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
And now, on Friday, it’s time for a tall frosty glass of WTF?
So she mentions the Calendar. It is my hope this is a different time loop. This would be one of the many Shelly’s that has past and that we get the present one intact. Her other loop Shelly would have died yet again to get some undelcared goal accomplished. From the look at the body count she is getting really good at dying.
So many of us care for Shelly and this is the power of Paul’s writing. It’s “just a character on paper.” but her existence and the sudden lack of it has made us all pause and grieve. You can’t get this sort of reaction from me on most TV shows since their characters are all so artificial. Here, Shelly is more real to me than many of those people. It is in her passing that you realize the value of her not just as a character, but in how it affects ourselves as well.
It is in this, that we’re all diminished a little more today.
different time loop? yes
calendar? no
Now wait to discover who this sphinx is.
-?-
Kind of put off at the moment.
Oh.
My.
And.
On.
Friday.
Too.
You.
Bastard….
Heh, it’s not like it’s that surprising.
He does that just about every week.
WTF – Wapsi…This’s …Friday.
Well, shit.
The calendar machine is destroyed, so no hope of resurrecting Shelly with a reset.
So what the f**k is this power source good for if Shelly could not return with it? Is the Sphinx supposed to do something? or is it supposed to auto-detonate in a massive explosion that (as I said yesterday) will shift time for Jin somehow?
Hmph. I’ll be off in my room crying ’til Monday, y’all…
Heh, read the other comments. Most of us suppose that this is not the end of Shelly the character. Though as Paul said, this is the end of THIS Shelly.
The only thing that will make me happy is if on Monday, we see Shelly return to the group of disappointed girls (who didn’t get to go to the beach), carrying the now-powered-up artifact which would then be the next step in the adventure. If it is possible that she accessed a version of herself from a previous cycle and had to sacrifice that version to do this, then I’ll be OK. And that would actually make sense given the way creepy girl psyched Shelly up to go on the journey to begin with. Maybe this death we are witnessing today is how creepy girl came to be?
Regardless, ’til then, I weep for Shelly.
But Paul didn’t use the word “this”.
*sighs*
GODDAMN YOU, PAUL TAYLOR!!!!
…and I mean that in the most loving way possible.
You and your amazing cliffhangers.
“This is madness!”
“Madness? THIS. IS. WAPSI!”
*kills Shelly*
hmm
a 300 parody i like 😀
gratz 😀
Oh my God! They killed Shelly! You b*st*rds!
I wonder if next the girls will go running to Maya with Shelly’s body demanding she make another golem ASAP?
*Poit*
“May! May! Shelly’s dead you’ve got to make Shelly inito a golem!”
“I’d love to dear, but I’m afraid I no longer have access to vials of what you now call plutonium. One is essential.”
“Shoot! Did anyone bring the artifact?”
not exactly…
oh, I am loving this.
I know Paul did when he first posted it.
I raise hand that it’s some kind of dream and or vision cause Shelly’s too awesome to kill.
depends on WHO kills here (who the sphinx actually is).
Haven’t read through all 200+ comments, but if we get past the fact that there is “plutonium” in the vial, the sphinx stated that SHELLEY PUT IT IN THE TREE! How can she do this? A future version of her? Hard to do if she is dead.
Aslo, in the last two panels of the 05-03-2011 page, the sphinx states that she will show Shelley her trial, that the rest is up to her and she “…just clean(s) up the ones who mess it up.” How does the sphinx clean it up? Maybe a “reset”?
Yeah…why didn’t she kaput when she put it there?
Wait, maybe she did…
Make some space in that corner there; Tina, I need a huge coffee…
Paul, if you posit the fact of shelly’s death due to radiation poisoning, then why is the tree still alive? That amount of radiation blasting out of that bugger should have fried that tree into firewood within a month or two (at best…) Or am I just whinging on?
the tree and the forest she is in isn’t organic. it’s made of time… hard to explain but my theory is that they are currently standing in the 4th or 5th dimension. Every dimension can see a “corner” of the dimension above it. we’re in the 3rd dimension, the fourth dimension is time. we can only experience a moment of time as it is happening. However, if they are standing in the 4th dimension, then each tree could be representative of the same universe happening at the same time. if they’re in the 5th dimension, then each tree could be a different “time line” in which all universes occur.
on a side note: if my above theory is correct, and they are in the 5th dimension, then to find the tree where they solve the time loop, they would just have to watch for the one that doesn’t grow into its self. however, since they’re trees, there is hardly any way to tell how far along they are in their time lines.
Be on the lookout for a beautiful, a beautiful balloon!
Kltpzyxm
If Paul really killed off the current Shelly, he’s probably actually killed off two characters: Shelly and the Creepy Little Girl, who said that she would cease to exist when Shelly died. I think I would miss her more…
Which I think is actually kind of proof that she’s not really gone. Creepy little girl is still fairly new and needs more time to have her background explained. Shelly’s been around long enough to possibly be knocked off, but not CLG.
clg just assumes she will be extinct.
i suspect she will be with shelly wherever shelly goes.
I think ShadOBabe went outside the story and meant that Paul might be willing to kill off Shelly because he might have done all that he wanted to do with her, but he would not kill off CLG, because he’s not done developing CLG as a character. Since they are both together, if Paul wouldn’t kill off CLG, then Shelly must not be really dead, either.
Wait a minute, gamma radiation? She isn’t supposed to die, she is supposed to turn into the She-Hulk.
Okay. I had to run some errands for a couple hours, and i got to thinking.
What if the calendar machine was not responsible for the time loop?
What if the time loop existed for some other reason, and the Calendar reset because time looped, rather than time looping because the Calendar reset?
What if the loop was created as some consequence, say, of the chimera running wild and flash-frying most of the world? (If i have my chronology straight.)
What if, in fact, the real purpose of making the Machine was to control whatever created the loops, but it didn’t work right … and the Calendar turned out to be a Skynet-type thingie?
Only May would know anything about that – and she’s been pretty well absent since the Machine’s creation.
Jin remembers all the previous loops … but Jin is basically Missing In Action, even though she’s physically present.
So destroying the Calendar was a first step – but they still have to fix whatever the underlying problem is, before the end of 2012; and this is another step…
I got to thinking about it when i composed my last comment above (7 or 8 threads), which might behoove a review of the comics starting here. I just did that, and although it is not obvious, the fact that creepy girl reminds Shelly that she did not know she was dead when creepy girl came to be tells me that the death we are witnessing today might be the origin of creepy girl, not what happened on her vision quest.
And since creepy girl was talking about an event in the past, then this cannot be the end of “current” Shelly.
At least, I hope not…
It also just hit me that we know Nudge was told to misdirect Shelly on her vision quest.
But we don’t know who told her.
OTOH, we know Shelly set this up in a previous loop. Maybe she’s bootstrapping her own story?
Don’t think so – i’m pretty sure CG looks as she does because that’s what Shelly looked like when she was created.
I figure Paul has something in mind for a story arc as we approach Dec, 2012. I don’t know if this current arc will be stretched out that far, but something is probably going to happen. It may not be anything to do with time loops still going on, but that seems as a good possibility as any. Whatever it is, I’ll bet it will be amazing. Probably nothing any of us has considered. I mean who thought Shelly would run into another sphinx or would die even? Not to mention throwing plutonium into the mix.
Well, if Dec. 2012 is anything like Dec. 2009, we’re in for quite a ride…
yes time loops where one can set up for future loops like acquire nuke fuel but less than needed put it where the loop don’t happen then bring the same bit again till you have enough with the deposited amounts non fatal then when the solution is ready pull it all at once and put it in a container that will make it provide power forever by one that is sacrificed to be retrieved after the solution is successfully applied.
Don’t mind me. After reading the first 230 comments, I’m over in the corner in a fetal position, gibbering to myself. And my demons are beside me.
Here, have some coffee. And a danish.
No. no, no.Don’t do that! C’m’ere, *pats on chair* have a french press with lemon zhest, or whatever You want and join us in the confusion corner. Tina? Got any of those florentine bisquits left ,or brownies ?(chocolate is good when in mourning..) 😀
Thanks, Jay-Em. This is why I don’t host. 😉
@bmonk: yeah, do what Jay said, there you go…
Nah.. You had the good first instinct. I only added the therapeutical workings of brownies in grief-coping 😆 😆
scoff scoff
Seconded ^^ I’ll even up You to a Scoff,Scoff,Scoff.. My goodness…
You’re free to read any of the thousands of other On-Line comics that all those creative minds give away FOR FREE!
There’s no law You’ll have to read anything Wapsi beyond 2003. >:
I’ll just add my customary grrrrrrrrrr…
Wait.
There’s a law we have to read Wapsi Square up to 2003, no matter whether we like it or not?
Wait.
There’s a law we have to read Wapsi Square up to 2003, no matter whether we like it or not?
I highly doubt it’ll be “hey guys, what’s up?”
Remember this is something she’s experiencing from touching the relic. And “hey guys, what’s up?” is hardly the reacting I’d give if I just watched my own bloody death.
Knowing the way Shelly deals with her fears, I’d choose to be out of range of V8’s, Drive-Axles, and other heavy hardware if she snaps-out of the vision.
I would get out of the country… i feel like she’s gonna be throwing houses and mountains after this…
Um, but she’s not holding any of those objects is she?
If this has been a vision from the last reset, she may be about to pitch a fully operational battle-artifact…
too many above comments to reply to about this so I’ll just poit it down here, Shelly mentions the calandar machine… this is probably an old loop.
That’s what I figure too. Shelly has said she was there to help but she has never once mentioned helping Jin. So helping could mean getting something to fix the CM or who knows what. Possibly something not even mentioned in the story line thus far. Anything could have been going on in the other loops.
Regardless, I think she did this in a previous loop (or whatever) to get the plutonium into the relic so it would be ready now to be fetched by her current self. Obviously she didn’t know she was sacrificing herself to do it (but she probably did when she set it up). Curent Shelly may still have to go to Ireland to actually take physical possession of the charged up relic.
No wait, she already had the empty relic in her hand during this vision or whatever, so it couldn’t also be still in the gravesite in Ireland. Unless there is more than one or the relic has disappeared from her hand.
Question is: was the relic empty when Bud found it ,or was the plutonium/berillium plot-device already safely stored inside, and is the vision no more than an explanation for current Shelly, from a former Shelly?
That’s the nucleus of it.
This is the thing we will have to painfully wait all weekend to find out.
That’s a good point. We don’t really know if it was empty when Bud found it. Already having the plutonium in it would make a lot of sense.
Well, at least we can be moderately certain that it didn’t go down with the sub, or the boom would have wiped more off the map than just M’s private beach.
On that note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8-BI89mb9A
Sheely’s “arrival” in so much as she appeared in the forest, not only wearing the same clothes, but also finishing the same sentence would be against that hypothesis.
She may have been just going into the vision as she was finishing the sentence and not completely in at that moment. The clothes could be coincidence. After all she did the same thing in previous cycles. They could be repeating right down to the clothes. If not it may be she is adding her own personal touch to the vision by wearing the same clothes as she was at Monica’s house simply because that’s how she last visualized herself.
That^^ was my thought also.
My thought is that you are grasping at straws cause you don’t want Shelly to be dead-dead. That’s OK cause I don’t either… *sniff*
Personally, I think it would be great if she is dead for real. It would make the series much more interesting to know anyone could die at any time. None of this “she won’t die because she’s a main character.” That’s just too predictible. I don’t like book series built around a single character who keeps coming back in book after book. Sometimes it works out for a while, but it all, eventually, gets too cutsey and contrived keeping the hero (or any character) alive through all those near misses or great battles.
Don’t get me wrong, I have as much invested in emotionally Shelly as a main character as other readers (though much less that some, I’m sure) and I would prefer she stay around from that standpoint. Nonetheless, I would give Paul cudos for being gutsy enough to kill her off like this and give us all quite a shock. Still, in this case, I seriously doubt current Shelly is dead. I have been wrong before, however. OK, I’m usually wrong. Happy?
Yes, but if Shelly is truly dead, then riddle me this…what is to become of the relic? The Sphinx has to remain to guard the forest of sacred trees…somebody has to poit to this location (is this the graveyard in Ireland? Hard to imagine a forest of sacred trees escaping notice on Google Earth), and find Shelly’s shriveled remains in order to recover it…would that seem a likely arc?
That’s the paradox. On the one hand the relic is in Shelly’s hand as she stands in Monica’s kitchen having this vision, so it can’t be in the graveyard too. On the other hand, if Shelly actually teleported to the sacred forest, then Shelly’s body and the relic are now in the graveyard and need to be retrieved.
I think the Sacred Forest is not on any map as it exists in another world separated from our reality. Either that or in some vast underground place with it’s own light of some sort. Perhaps entered via the grave site in question?
This is either author research failure, or a dream sequence or something similar. Radiation poisoning doesn’t work like that. Death from a lethal dose of radiation comes days or weeks after the exposure, as the DNA in your cells falls apart and your body is unable to make new blood and skin cells. It takes a far, far higher dose to kill you in a few minutes or seconds as happened here, and in that case death comes with massive convulsions as all of your nerve cells start firing randomly. Furthermore, had the plutonium been (somehow) giving off that level of radiation, it would have been hot enough to have long since melted through the container, and making the air around it glow blue through Cherenkov radiation.
Uuummmmmm…wow……If “our” Shelly is gone…..?!?!…….Paul, see how much we all love your characters? It hurts.
Funny thing, tho’ – has anyone else noted that what Shelly is wearing in the beginning (bathing suit cover-up and bathing suit) http://wapsisquare.com/comic/easier-said/
looks like it got a bit longer in later spots ? http://wapsisquare.com/comic/outta-the-park/
almost like a tunic………
Is it too much to hope that this is just another time-loop like so many others have suggested?? Or a vision of a past cycle experience, as was M’s banshee, if that WAS a banshee.
Crap – I hate Mondays………………………………
It’s possible this was mentioned…but…
“I came here to help!”
Statement is illogical. Belay panic. Shelly didn’t intend to come to wherever when she grabbed the sword handle. Ergo, the above rapid demise and its prequels are missing some bits, and not-going-to-the-beach-Shelly is just fine, although likely to have hysterics when she comes out of it.
…Right?
If shelly is really dead, so is the strip to me… but I don’t believe he would kill off a Main character, without doing his homework… ie Plutonium does not give out Gamma Rays, it gives out alpha particles. therefore plutonium is not detected by a normal Geiger counter.
Like the japan disaster news…
First, the plutonium. Plutonium has been found on five different locations on site. If you remember an earlier video I put together, plutonium is a difficult isotope to detect because it doesn’t give off a gamma ray, it gives off an alpha particle, and that’s not picked up by the traditional Geiger counters.
Want to reconsider that statement?
or, indeed, this one
in light of this
That’s approximately correct. Alpha particles can’t travel far through air, so unless you get your detector right up close to the source little or no radiation will be detected. A Geiger counter will indeed pick up alpha particles if the sensor can get close enough.
Oh, dammit. I put two links in one comment.
I’m gonna redo it as two, so Paul can just delete the longer one with the two links.
Comment 1 folows:
Oh, yeah?
Comment 2:
…or perhaps you might want to reconsider this one:
in light of this:
Just a point of clarification; in order to pick up Alpha particles, the counter must have an extremely thin window in the wall of the tube (see the above mention that alpha particles do not travel well in air). The beta particles penetrate a thin beryllium or quartz window, and the gammas pretty much go through most anything thin. Hence, it is true a three setting counter is rare. They can be found, however.
The one I brought back from Chernobyl only does Beta and Gamma, for the above reasons. The “Gamma Scout” model does all three.
With regard to what plutonium gives out, it depends on the isotope. The “majority” isotopes give off Alpha and Beta, but there are 20 isotopes of plutonium:
“…The primary decay modes before the most stable isotope, Pu-244, are spontaneous fission and alpha emission; the primary mode after is beta emission…”
Further on the Geiger counter issue – a Geiger counter is basically an automated cloud chamber, and cloud chambers apparently detect only particles – which means alpha and beta but not gamma…
Moderately unrelated on the issue of Geiger counters: I once read a book where a brilliant scientist had, over the course of a very long life, invented Geiger counters and disguised them as Fabregé eggs, which then play different songs depending on the level of radiation present. That same book had the wonderful line, “…then it’s Sargeant Pepper time…” where Sargeant Pepper referred to the cue to basically end the world. 😀 (Flying Dutch by Tom Holt; credit where it’s due, eh?)
Tom Holt is fun.
I think Shelly’s death was all part of some sort of sinister plot by the Milk Board.
You would give up the strip because of the death of one character when there is such a rich cast still left? Tina, Phix, Nudge, Monica, the GGGs + Maya, Tepoz, Katherine. Not to mention Dietzel. Each is an potential strip in themself.
i want dietzel to get his own strip
or tina
those two would be awsome!
and hopefully funny. no macabre…
i get the feeling Paul is doing this this weekend
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2005-10-16
(last pannel)
that was sposed to be a standalone comment.
never mind.
I’d like to think so..
…or maybe that’s how/one way, the transition is made from that worldd to this one. And she wakes up back here among everyone.
Maybe it’s been mentioned, but another way the radiation could kill her is that the sphinx said the casing amplifies and recycles the radiation. So magical item that makes it much more dangerous then it normally would be.
Also, isn’t this all kind of in her head? Or her mind is in another place than her body? Either way she’s dead, but I’m wondering what the reaction on her body will be.
Just a brief comment on death…
If one dies in a vision, does one then die at that same moment in the space where one’s body is? Or in a dream – if you die in a dream, do you (as the dreamer) die as well? In “The Matrix,” if you die while in the Matrix, you die in the Real World as well (unless, of course, you’re Neo…). In “The Fountain,” it’s said that death is the road to awe. In so much of this web comic, and in mythology, and religions major and minor, death is anything but permanent.
We may have seen Shelly’s death. This is not the end…
hmm
peeps say if you die in a dream you do die irl
but i have to ask
how the heck would anyone know?
if your dreaming you wouldnt be awake and lucid to tell someone you are plumetting to your death in a dream.
(and as someone who came close to actually having a plummeting death dream – its odd! you wake up and feel like you’re still falling! maybe thats where it all sprang from?)
Think its just long ago old-wives-tales which is now told by everyone.
I’ve had more than one dream where I’ve died, but couldn’t wake up, so no you don’t die if you die in a dream.
In my worst nightmare I was eaten by a T-Rex, Jurrasic Park style…and then it repeated six more times. Hurt like hell, too. I woke up after 7 and before 8, and as of a minute ago I still have a pulse. I vote, dream death does not equal real death. Apologies to Robert Jordan.
you had a pulse a minute ago??
your writing this as a zombie?
🙂
Bleargh….
😀 No I just can’t type while taking my pulse.
On a slightly related topic, what’s the “high score” for comments? Cause I think this strip will set a new record.
I believe it was this one with 309 comments:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/three-idiots/
306
OK, so this strip is the current champion at 318, and no bloody wonder.
I still don’t know where or when this death took place. For all I know, Shelley’s still standing among the bikini babes, having a vision. It makes no sense at this point, and I hate the weekends without my Wapsi phix.
I think that’s precisely what we are seeing. Shelly triggered the artifact, and out POV transitioned immediately into this sequence, just as it transitioned without break or explanation into Monica’s vision of the banshee.
I think these events actually happened, in a previous cycle; that our Shelly here-and-now is seeing it, and when the vision is played out, she will become aware of her surroundings and friends once again.
I suspect that the artifact that she is holding, here-and-now, has the power core in place.
And I am left to wonder, a little sadly, if we are not seeing the cumulative effort of many lives to build a tool to destroy the calendar machine — which has already been destroyed by a different method. Many great efforts require multiple attempts, some simultaneous, to pull off; one or more may be successful, and the others, forgotten, fade from memory, despite the effort that went into them.
Your last paragraph is an interesting premise. Noble self sacrifices for nothing. It all falls into the category of “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
It happens in real life, sorry to say. If you do some fairly extensive research into the history of War II, you see that – plans backing up plans.
Asimov, in one of the last Foundation novels, gives the advice that, when faced with something that must be done, it is better to find (at least) two ways to do it, and set up to do both–it increases the chance that it will happen. Can’t remember who said it or to whom or where, but I think it was R. Daneel Olivaw was involved.
Unfortunately it also increases chances of a major screwup. All too likely ending up with the multiple plans working at cross purposes even if to achieve the same goal.
Pibgorn used to average 500+ on the weekends…
That’s because they talked about EVERYTHING. Recipies, goings on with themselves and sciences and arts in general, current events, other comics. Only a small percentage was actually about Pibgorn. At least we stick to the comic here, even if peripherally in some cases.
Have mine (when I pull up Wapsi, it’s set here; I have to hit the button for the newest strip). http://wapsisquare.com/comic/collect-your-coffee/
Shelly, nooooooooooooooo!
Well, this is surprisingly dark for a friday comic.
On the bright side maybe she will meet Paul Taylor in the afterlife.
And kick him; I always figure characters meeting their writers would start with a fight and not end until the author is forced to explain the ending.
318 on to 320…WOW!!!!
That’s rather impressive. Although I would be wholly satisfied with less if all those “I know more of physics 101 that Paul”-chest-thumping comments were gone. They are grating, and I applaud Paul for keeping silent and just let all that passive aggressiveness go.
Oh, and I know Paul can put a lid on it pretty well himself, but all the noise, and scoffing about his research is hindering my enjoyment of other commenter’s intersting views.
It’s all about magic and mythology. If You want super realism ,go read :”Niels Bohr Collected Works’ , Heisenbergs publications and some Einstein for fun…..
/irritated rant
Ugh! *put a lid on
itthat *On this one, I agree. It all comes down to the fact it killed Shelly in a short period of time after being extracted. Thus, it needs to be examined from that standpoint, as opposed to, what would be typical for plutonium in a beryllium container. It would appear, given the evidence of Shelly’s rapid demise, there is more to whatever is in the container (and the container itself) than simply the sum of it’s parts. We don’t know what it is from the sphinx’s brief description but, given the observations, it must be very lethal (to humans).
but there’s a difference… it’s NOT IN the beryllium container until AFTER she installs it into the relic, and the Sphinx outright says in panel one, that the CORE AMPLIFIES the gamma radiation, and the RELIC is lined with the beryllium. Therefore any gamma rads it would have given off (from the last CM cycle to now) has now been multiplied and is now lethal to an unprotected human… that is, until it is put into the relic where it then powers it up to do whatever the relic is supposed to do with it…
Yes, you’re right. When I said “container” I was thinking about the container the plutonium was in (referred to as “the tube”) as being beryllium. We don’t really know from what the tube is made. Magic clay maybe? That seems to be a popular ingredient.
Also, that’s a good point about the amplification and multiplication of the gamma rays over all those years making it super potent. This would indicate that aging is an important step in the process. The longer it sits unused, the more powerful it gets.
One other thing. If it gets stronger as it ages, that could mean when Shelly put it in the tree to setup this whole thing, it might not have been lethal, being freshly made and just regular old plutonium which people have indicated is not that lethal (gamma ray wise) by itself. So she may not have died at that time. This would allow her to come back a second time (somehow) to finish the job after the wine had aged properly. Despite the fact she forgot about putting it there.
that would be denial
clinging to reality cuz in reality that wouldn’t happen so Shelly cannot possibly have died
clinging also to fantasy – must be a rerun, cannot have died, does not compute.
i’m personally going to stick with the ‘she is dead’ theory because if i believe she might be alive..it will be worse for me on monday.
that way if it IS a rerun – i can celebrate all the more 😀
Yeah, a little to much “Sheldon” going on. I doubt those nerds going on about plutonium and gamma rays worry about research methodologies when Doctor Who is on.
Just let the story be exactly that. A story.
Well done. That’s all I can think to say after a powerful page like that.
Hey, my favorite character was Tepoztecal, and he didn’t even get a decent wrap up! He just sort of got written out of the plot all together. And I’ve asked! “even begging for at least a wallpaper fell on deaf ears”
So those of you who are going to quit the comic over this, just put on your big girl panties and get over yourselves. We don’t all get our way, we get the artists way. That’s just how it works. And no, if you want the good guys to always win, may I suggest fanfic?
And you will at least get an explanation as to what happened, which is more than I ever got!
Aw man! I’m sorry about that. 🙁 Tepoz isn’t gone and will be back. I’ll do what I can to get a Wallpaper made with him.
Coolness! 😀 I have to admit I started to miss the little guy and his little snippets of wisdom.
Well, that put a happy on this rather somber installment. On a side note, I love where you take us Paul (even if we might not want to go at first).
Really? Awesome!!
More Tepoz!! <3
I am also a Tepoz fan.
Once when describing Wapsi Square to a friend via e-mail, I apparently got a little over-enthusiastic with the Azrec spelling and out came ‘Tepotztecatl’ (pronounced, yes, Teapots Teakettle). Please don’t tell him, it was an accident after all, and I like the little blue guy.
Ugh, AZTEC.
Mispronunciations are common. Evidence: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/lizgreenfieldteztecal/
Hence, Tepoz.
Nice! Maybe my e-mail just slipped through the cracks. I appreciate that. I’ve really missed him in the comic!
please let him have the headdress cuz when he took it off? *shiver*
We like the little head thingy.
That image is absolutely going to haunt me.
definatly in the top 5.
not sure it would be my number one tho.
1: Jin lying with wrists slit
2: Shelly dead
3: little girl blowing apart as skelenton
4: monica with knife stuck in head (shelly vision)
5: phix showing her anger at tina (joint 5th) monica without the demons insider her (horrendously creepy)
(i would put links to that lot but not sure how to)
think thats my list so far…
5. (tie) Tina Shell:
http://wapsisquare.com/comic/at-the-end-of-th/5. Phix Vs. Tina: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/tag/
4. Monica’s impaled head: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/your-own-misgivi/
3. Little girl blowing apart: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dontwanttoremember/
2. Shelly Finitus: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/done-here/
1. Jin getting cut up by evil guys:http://wapsisquare.com/comic/made-me-watch/
Yeah I actually went through the archives to find those…I hope they’re the right ones.
5a:http://wapsisquare.com/comic/relish-your-ignorance/ last panel
5b:cannot find. its where monica tells doubt and the rest to go away and they do..leaving her a shell…
4: correct
3: correct
2: correct
1: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/shegaveupwedidnt/ 3rd panel.
Thanx for finding them 😀
And i meant url within words. eg “Tina Vs Phix” and when you click those words it takes you to the url 🙂
You would do it like this:
1. <a href="http://wapsisquare.com/comic/shegaveupwedidnt/">Jin with wrists slit</a>.
I did something special that you can’t see so the code wouldn’t work in the previous message. I copied and pasted the contents below. It should work this time:
You would do it like this:
1. Jin with wrists slit.
“5b:cannot find. its where monica tells doubt and the rest to go away and they do..leaving her a shell…”
That starts here: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/allgone/
@eschmenk
yup that be the one 🙂 thanks 😀
and yea…just noticed this ‘use html’ instructions at the bottom here.
seriously need a neon arrow pointing sometimes for me to notice stuff ^^
still not sure on how someone did the backwards writing in the archives however ^^
so want to play with that the next time doubt comes along 🙂
If you mean what I think you do, you need to go to a website that will do it for you. Here is one:
http://textmechanic.com/Reverse-Text-Generator.html
Those websites usually work because a javascript program substitute each character that you typed with ones that happen to look as if the character was turned upside down (e.g., replace d with p) or backwards (e.g., replace d with b). Because so many Unicode characters are available, they usually can do a pretty good job.
@Danzier: I finally spotted your comment about young Kim saying “HUMAN!” in Dresden Codak. The next panel, “I am Zimbar Zimbar from the planet Moob. I come in peas” cracks me up every time I read it. 😆
ereht ih
ah yes. i assumed someone had used html. *bookmarks for next encounter with doubt*
I linked them… It’s in moderation…
4. http://wapsisquare.com/comic/your-own-misgivi/
3. http://wapsisquare.com/comic/dontwanttoremember/
2. http://wapsisquare.com/comic/done-here/
1. http://wapsisquare.com/comic/made-me-watch/
So there they are… Paul, if the moderated one works, could you please delete the repeted ones? Thanks.
Great, Shelly is now dead, at least in the mental-dreamscape type of way.
I’ll accept that she is dead mentally, which makes me wonder what or who comes back to her body in the “Real World” of Waspi Square.
“Sherman, set the ‘Wayback Machine’ to tomorrow, so we can see how this fares out”
Yes sir, Mr Peabody!
OK 441 comments when I got here, and this makes 442. This has got to make some kind of record for the site.
I’m not surprised it’s developed so much interest, but I am surprised it took so long for everyone to hash out the radiation thing 🙂
Oh that Shelly; such a drama queen…
OH NO, THEY KILLED SHELLY! YOU BASTARDS *snicker* 😀
Natch, this is all in Shelly’s head.
The death of a character, like Tasha, like Dax, like Data, like Superman, like Hercule, like Sherlock, like Manfridi and Johnson, …
brings grief no matter what. We see them come to life, and we see them end. Like our cats and dogs and pets. Each touches our heart… and we no longer get to share the good things of life with them, …
when they end.
Experiencing the grief of the loss of characters, helps us to not ignore our own grief in our own life. Storytellers help us with this – getting in touch with our sorrow and grief, to not hide from it. Movies, Comics, stories help us to deal with our real lives, help us to cry sometimes – in small portions, so that we can learn how to deal with our own lives and not get overwhelmed – all without ever realizing this is happening. Blessed are the storytellers, for they help us, not hinder us, in dealing with life that is the story of our self.