ah richard looks so cute... somehow when i look at that pic all i can think of is this
http://www.blizzard.com/wow/screenshot.asp...=165&Set=64

The backpack thing reminds me of the chase scene in Alien Resurrection, with the paraplegic riding on the one guy's back...

Now there has to be a scene with Richard shooting off fireballs to protect Cale and himself...from like murlocs or something.

/thought the baby carrier was a nice touch

i like richard's little baby toys, of corse they kind of ruin his whole evil aura

awwwww... yeah that cute... the litte Gnome Warrior is drooling lol

interseting that that warcrft comic came out just 3 day before this one

Awww He almost looks like he's having a good dream. But where in the Hell did they get the baby carrier? Actually, I guess a better question would be: why do they have a baby carrier in the first place?

Richard's starting to worry me though. He's been asleep for what, days now?

Prop space of course!

Wonder what happens to Cale when Rich wakes up.

Not all the Tims in the world could save the chicken then...

Maybe I'm just extremely tired but I didn't quite understand the whole "cloth map" joke. I know the Captain was just being a smart-ass but why was Benny asking Cale if he was interested?

Meh. I'll probably have figured it out for myself by morning.

Well, they'd get a cloth map so they wouldn't need blood for the swords...now that I've typed it, I think it may be referencing the bucket of blood Richard had been filling up.

((Heh, I like how both threads made for today's comic have inaccurate dates...so very amusing.))

The skull on the carrier works, though...

And the cloth map: EQ reference? Boy has one from one of the EQ x-pacs that he is quite proud of.

Diaper?

Wrong and wrong.

$60 + $15 monthly?

Think about it... the cloth map represents the worthless little toss-ins that they use to tempt you to pay...

My idea makes more sense to me. I can't see how yours explains why Krunch and Benny suddenly changed their minds, and why Cale would be uneasy about it...and quite possibly looking at Richard (who's arms appear to be loose, so I doubt he feels safe in that position, one way or another).

I figured the "free cloth map" joke was a rip on the free crap that transportation services often give their customers. "Oh yeah, we just charged you $500 bucks to fly with us, but how 'bout some free peanuts?" I just wondered why Benny was asking for input from Cale.

Meh, today's comic was hit-and-miss for me. I can't help feeling it lacked... something. It moved the plot forward, mostly.
Cloth map? I don't get it.

edited to add: It's not the "cloth" part I don't understand... paper wasn't cheap, paper from wood pulp might dissolve in the wet salty sea air, and besides in days of old paper was usually made of cloth fibers (hemp, linen) anyway. There's still old paper mills in France that make traditional paper that way, for tourists, with tiny flowers and stuff added into the pulp.



Good idea, but wouldn't they need to summon up the hologram-map at least once more to actually draw a map? Actually I've wondered before why Krunch hasn't simply copied the holo-map into his diary. We saw he had paper and ink with him in the castle, where ever he keeps them (does everyone have prop space?).


More random thoughts:
Hm, another Vulii elf in the crow's nest? But without earrings, he wears the same pearls in his ears like the Captain and her first mate. Hm. He still has all his fingers, though.

I had expected... something more dramatic before they reached land. So, does this mean there was another time jump ahead a few days? Or did they reach that sandbank the next day after the naval battle? And where's the prisoner now? Dead and thrown overboard in the night to feed the fishes? Or did they have stew the next day?

Where does Krunch keep all that money? I guess paying the Captain will happen offscreen and the next we'll see of our heroes on Monday will be them disembarking from the boat onto the island. Hm.

Maybe they should have kept some blood and checked the map again BEFORE they leave the ship. Something smells fishy (pardon the pun). I predict that they'll soon find out that the sandbank/island is not Kethenecia but just some godforsaken island, Pirates-of-Caribbean-style, where they Captain dropped them off; and the next thing the four will see is a Legion ship on the horizon, because the Captain heard there's a bounty on their heads and intends to collect, so she ratted them out to the Legion. As for the destroyed Legion ship Vraay will simply tell the Legionaries that our four protagonists wrecked it.

That leaves the question: How do they escape the island? Will there be turtle jokes?

Benny's nose looks rather big in the second-to-last panel, and the frontal view of Krunch in the last panel looks... odd. I dunno why exactly. Head smaller than expected? Still an improvement on the Krunch in the banner, though.

Cale's facial expression in the last panel makes my day, though... hilarious!



What bothers me more is, with Richard being at least as tall as Cale, where did they leave Richard's legs? Dangling? Cut them off? That would be amusing. Downsizing the warlock.

Richard: Where are my legs? I distinctly remember having had legs down there.
Cale: Um, we, well, we thought... *desperate* A shark ate them!
Benny: Actually we cut them off, stop whining, it's not as if I can't regrow them for you later.



Ah, he's just pretending to be asleep to get a free ride.

I think her "Cale?" referred to the sleeping Warlock in the baby carrier, not the map.

*snerk* Cale looks so funny with Richard on his back XD

The joke was a reference to EQ 2.

The box costs 60 dollars, plus a subscription fee of 15 a month, hence Benny's rant at Captain Vraay. Verant thought including a free cloth map of Norrath in the box would convince us we were getting a sweeter deal on what turned out to be more of the same, hence Vraay's joke about a free map.

The last panel seems to just be Benny ribbing Cale about his playing taxi to a comatose Richard.

On a sadder note, I assume this means that we won't be seeing Captain Vraay for a while until her plot thread is picked up again. Guess I'll have ot get my sexy dark elf cleavage fix elsewhere.

This made the joke(s) much more understandable, thank you for posting. :-)

Oh. Well, ok then, a fourth-wall-breaker. I just wish there had been a footnote or something for us peasants who don't play MMOs. While a joke that needs to be explained is awkward, a joke that's incomprehensible is worse.


As for Cale, if the group runs into an ambush by enemy archers, at least Richard doubles as a shield on Cale's back. (Unless of course it's a ballista bolt that goes all the way through and nails them together. That would be worse. Still ,as long as Benny is alive she can bring them back apparently without much hassle even if they're nothing but ashes... wow and people complain that resurrection is too easy in D&D! The old rule of TPKs: As long as the cleric hasn't snuffed it, we're still alive.

It's actually teh case for most games

Ultima Online did teh same thing X amount for box + X for month and "Hey look you get a spiffy cloth map if you get the collectors edition"

EQ also did it....so did other games....and we all fall for it

I thought the comic was great... $60 plus $15/month?!? Brilliant... although now I can see why how it would be easy for some people to miss.

Not just MMO's, but tons of games (mostly RPG's) have come with cloth maps as an "added bonus" in the box. PvP did a comic about it not too long ago: Here (For those of you who don't get *that* joke, Robotron is an early 80's arcade/Atari game... the whole game "world" was one rectangular box that fit completely on the screen.)

The Burning Crusade special edition box was pretty good for the price. Art book, pack of WoW trading cards, mouse pad, CD, DVD, and in-game pet (Netherwhelp)...plus the game. All for just $70.

/I swear I dont work for Blizzard, just thought it was a good deal

Thanks a bunch for clearing that up. I figured it was a reference to something.

I just wonder how long they're going to play on the fact that Richard's asleep. They can obviously get a lot of humor out of it, but I'm kinda hoping Richard wakes up in the next one and finds himself attached to Cale. The look on his face when he finds himself riding in a baby carrier will be priceless.

Like I said, not all the Tims in the world could save the chicken then.

*pouts* we didn't have the collectors edition released over here. we poor english always miss out on the good stuff! we even got WoW ages after you guys. not fair

if Vraay is going to attack them she should do it soon. with Richard out they're not at their strongest and if Krunch is on land he'll not be easy to stop. though with him untied with nothing holding him down... he might also be at his weakest. so i think if she is going to do something bad it should be in the next page. cause then she'd of got paid and she could claim on that bounty.

I think it's safe to assume that if vraay is going to attack the party she'll make them get a sense of comfort first like waiting till thier in the smaller craft heading towards the land...

and as for Richard... I wonder what he's dreaming about. killing something no doubt but I want DETAILS!

EDIT: oh ya if you wanna shell out an extra 20USD for some lame gimmicks I'll be sure to get one for ya and send it your way for only 60$ and 15$ a month till Warhammer comes out lol.

I didn't recognize it at first, but I finally realized that Benny's question to Cale was about the Richard on his back, not the map or the price. I was wondering at first if Benny was suggesting that Cale performed a service that would lead her to throw in the map (and I don't usually jump to that conclusion. It just took a bit to see the switch over. Maybe if the botom panel had been split *shrug* Or maybe if I paid more attention *shrug*).

I didn't get the EQ reference til it was brought up, but the joke didn't suffer without that knowledge, I just didn't know it was there.

*sigh* No sooba saving the day on the ship. Ah well. My vote is for Vraay tipping off the next Legion ship. Likeyly reward, no risk. Plenty of trouble for our friends.

*mumbles about Dr. Rene Belloq coming in at the end just after they get the sword*

But if Benny was asking Cale about Richard, what exactly was the question? I thought she was just asking if he was interested in a cloth map.

Well, if it makes up for anything...you guys dont have Bush running your country.

/ http://backwardsbush.com/
//Waiting...

Like I said, I thought she was still referring to the conversation. But keep in mind. Cale was with them and without Richard earlier. He dissappears and then is seen at the end with Richard, so it makes sense that's the first Benny's seem him like that.

As for what exactly her question is, I don't think anything specific needs to be articulated, but if you need, something along the lines of?

Are you really going to be doing that?
How did you come up that?
WTF?
Or bwuahaa? (quite artful to make that in the form of a question, but doable).



I recall a headline from the UK along the lines of "How can [number] people be so wrong?"

True that.

Gotcha. Man I feel stupid. ><

This is a fair example of why I like the older design for Benny better. She was so much more expressive, it was so much easier to tell exactly what her feelings were--now she's static, and we can only gather a general 'positive mood, negative mood' from her.

I have to agree... although I think an excellent job has been done with the new Benny, I preferred the old one... she was different and interesting, the new one is almost too human. Plus, I miss the prominent fang... I thought it was cute.

that little "baby" carrier with a cute little skull on it is sooooo cute!!! lol it suits Richard PERFECTLY!! man, he must be pretty tired to have to be carried on Cale's back like that... lol

well think about it when richard wakes up its a high change hes gana incierate Cale

ya i'd laugh if that happened... Benny would have to rez Cale once again

Just my opinion... but i think collecters addition box sets are a great deal.. cuase a month after they go off sale they double in price on ebay ^^ that's right vraay might be evil but I'm the guy who sold the mast for 100gold MWAHAHAHAHA. er $100.. well you know!

Hmmm. Now that you mention it, I'd say since a little after p. 44, your mostly right. I do think that her expression when she scolded Richard over Cale's Diskishness (the state of ripping on the name Richard) was perfect for the annoyance/scolding, but otherwise the expressions haven't been so on.

Maybe more of a sneer. Though the expression may that much different from the early issue when Richard made the crack about Cale so pathetic, it'd almost make him want to help- she was just covering her mouth then. Also keep in mind, she was further back, so hard to make too distinct on expression.


And to all the people thinking it's a shoe in that Richard will blast Cale for the carrier, I'm expecting more around the lines of a few cracks and trying to juice more work out of Cale for the purpose of Richard's luxury.

I'm kind of wondering why this particular battle took so much out of Richard. He fought just as long if not longer against the trolls (even getting hurt in the process) and didn't seem the least bit tired afterwards. Why is he so out of it now?

He used all of his energy in one fell swoop, rather than in little sips. Little sips can be made up with light rest (and maybe a baby for a snack). But the whole well emptying in one gynormous bucket? Takes a little time to refill that kind of emptiness.

It's mostly because Benny's eye rings aren't so dark anymore, it fades better with her skin and makes her face more bright but on the same time it also makes her thin eye brows much harder to see because previously the darker eye rings worked like a shadow beneath them where now they're more eye candy than a help to the expression.

It's still possible to catch Benny's expressions, they're just not as clear as the others and her face are more generic now. You could say it's gotten a certain degree of realism for beauty where the rest of the characters retained their more comic-like faces.

I think if Lar brighted up Benny's hair so it weren't so hard just above the eye brows, it wouldn't swallow up most of her expressions. (That's not saying Benny should have a hair color change, just the directly black shadow could be softened up.)

i think sleeping richard makes a great avatar

i agree.