One of Eighteen 2013-03-26

[zachariah]

For those who are complaining that this level of shock seems to be new. It isn't. This happened back before the calendar.

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/your-own-misgivi/

Paul has always used it to high light import plot points where it fits. I have yet to see it used just for the heck, or shock, of it.

[kingklash]

Now comes the people on the Facebook feed below the comic bitching that Kath has big boobs, saying that she was "normal" before and that now that she's a "star" in the comic, that her boobs got bigger. =/ Have a look back here when we first met Kath, she was wearing baggy clothes: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09192003/ and here http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09262003/ She's always had big boobs. Also, the flashback sequence happening now is taking place back when she was in college, 20 years ago. Kath is in her 40s.

heh-heh, "Boobs."

Seriously, though, that's why I didn't sign up for the comments on the GoComics site where I read the newspaper strips. The unabashed, unrepentant, sheer bone-headery that abounds from readers of basically a free product must spawn some fairly gnarly gastric episodes for some cartoonists.

[Mark N]

Also, the flashback sequence happening now is taking place back when she was in college, 20 years ago. Kath is in her 40s.

Thank you for that info. Now we can make a more informed assessment of the events. Also SCREW THE FACEBOOK TROLLS.

[Sideromelane]

I keep wondering if this is actual gunfire, or maybe some form of divine retribution.

I know, I know, no swarms of locusts or rains of frogs, but it could be a shower of meteorites wiping out the whatevers, and Kath survived because of some protection intrinsic to her?

Iunno, it just doesn't look like gunfire to me.

[RunningBull]

SCREW THE FACEBOOK TROLLS.

Everyone is entitled to expres- ...ah nevermind,
SCREW THE FACEBOOK TROLLS!

[Yamara]

Now comes the people on the Facebook feed below the comic bitching that Kath has big boobs, saying that she was "normal" before and that now that she's a "star" in the comic, that her boobs got bigger. =/

Well, obviously the Dyneema and Twaron fetishists are going to be drawn to the subject matter, so you have to expect... um, this kind of... of . . .

seriously, what the hell, humanity?

[Fairportfan]

That wasn't being tougher and faster. That is panic, justified panic. She just got lucky and ran the right way to avoid the field of fire. In that situation you don't think you just run. If she was thinking she would have dived into the hole they were working on to take cover.

Not deep enough - especially i'd be willing to bet this is fire from a chopper.

A helicopter, not a Thompson, that is.

When the bullets fly any hole in a bullet storm is my motto. The hole ain't much but it's better than nothing. Standing, or running, is like wearing a big target saying SHOOT ME NOW!

Where it is coming from is not that important. The fact that it is coming is what matters.

If the fire is effectively straight down, then that hole os not only wearing a "SHOOT ME NOW" sign ... it also increases your cross-section and makes you a bigger target.

Moving fast and zig-zagging is the best of a number of possible bad choices.

[DilyV]

Pun jar. Do it NOW.

*drops a set of body armor ceramic plates into the pun jar*

Make that Strike Plates... I'm not sure they use ceramic anymore... haven't since Vietnam... with Police vests they use steel inserts in a kevlar vest. With the military its mostly been Kevlar, woven into flexible vests and hardened into strike plates that slip into the vests to up the protection of the basic vest. The five or six pound Interceptor vest without strike plates jumped to sixteen to eighteen pounds with the plates inserted.

[Julie]

Remember waaay back when Katherine broke her ceiling light fixture in her office at the museum, supposedly because she didn't want to call maintenance because everyone was freaked by her? . . . Monica may have indeed saved her life by befriending her.

And still this experience of Kath's was too traumatic to share with Monica when the subject came up before:

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/fishsauce/

But perhaps that was best, since Kath accepted the wonder of M's survival, instead of resenting it.

Leading to keeping M from learning too much of the Jaguar too soon for her own good:

http://wapsisquare.com/comic/myonlyenemy/


So we arguably have seventeen sacrifices to Tezcatlipoca in Israel happening here. And they say appeasement never works.

Holy poopsticks! I'd totally forgotten about Kat's reaction to M dodging bullets! That shines a new light on her character from way back. Thanks Yamara!!

Also, the flashback sequence happening now is taking place back when she was in college, 20 years ago. Kath is in her 40s.

Thank you for that info. Now we can make a more informed assessment of the events.

Truth! I didn't realize Kat was in her 40s. Perhaps her age shouldn't be that big of a factor in my opinion of her, but she just got ridiculously more interesting to me.

Also, scenes like those in today's page (and yesterday's) are why I never took the opportunity to visit Isreal or go on digs there when I was younger (and taking classes in school that had little value given the direction I was going with my education). Not that I could have afforded those trips without help from my parents...and not that they'd have let me go to Israel with the political climate being perpetually "unstable"...

Poor Kat...

[DilyV]

Now comes the people on the Facebook feed below the comic bitching that Kath has big boobs, saying that she was "normal" before and that now that she's a "star" in the comic, that her boobs got bigger. =/ Have a look back here when we first met Kath, she was wearing baggy clothes: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09192003/ and here http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09262003/ She's always had big boobs. Also, the flashback sequence happening now is taking place back when she was in college, 20 years ago. Kath is in her 40s.

I guess people just have to make a big deal out of it... I have to agree with Wayne on the facebook side though... we were both in Iraq at the same time though with different units and it was unbearable hot to the point at the end of the day, you could stand your uniform up in the corner from the dried salt. Drinking over a gallon of water a day (when you could get it) and still dehydrating. I'd be more worried about whether or not they were using a good enough sun screen on their exposed skin. Umm... blood doesn't count as sun screen.

*hates the middle east for the very reasons of the past few days*

[zachariah]

\

Moving fast and zig-zagging is the best of a number of possible bad choices.

I've been there. The best response is to shoot back. LOL.

Beyond that hit the dirt and find cover. If that don't work then run zig-zag to get to cover. Just remember NOBODY CAN OUTRUN A BULLET! Her response is actually about right for a college student who something like thing explodes in their face. Just run. Some freeze in place, some scream and huddle down, some actually try and attack the shooter. There is no way to know what a person will do until they end up in that situation. She does get points for not freezing and running plus picking a direction away from the others. I have no doubt that later she will blame herself from abandoning them and running away. I left them to die thinking along with the guilt. There are good odds that afterwards she did make a decision that she would never do that again! That is why she is not leaving Sali behind. She's not about to loose someone else if she can help it. So far all he commands and actions are to protect Sali before worrying about her own safety.

[Fairportfan]

RE going over the line: You are familiar with the story of how the Chimera was made, I hope. Saw the consequences of Jin's failed rescue attempt. Watched as Phix tore Medea apart and ate her, then later accidentally ripped off Monica's face. Bad things happen in Wapsi Square. Sometimes graphically. People who don't understand that perhaps shouldn't be reading it to begin with.

Saw Mayahuel julienne the face of a guard who had the misfortune to be the nearest mook when she needed to demonstrate what a badass she was.

[Boxilar]

Holy crap.

Considering the gut shots, if this is a pun, the pun jar rejects your offering. However, the good-taste jar would like to talk to you.

That was in no way intended as a pun. It was, however, the strongest polite thing I could come up with on short notice.

This is 20 years ago which puts it not long after Desert Storm and all the regional instability of the post Soviet era. If it's a helo attacking, it could be a Mi24 Hind. I has a chin mounted 12.7 mm multibarreled gun and gan mount heavier ordinance on the wing pylons. AH1 Cobras use a three barreled 20mm vulcan cannon and commonly mounted 7.62mm miniguns on the stub pylons during Vietnam. The Cobra and Hind were both common in the era, to say nothing of standard transport helicopters retrofitted with gun mounts.

seawolfs01.jpg (40.12 KiB) Viewed 9496 times

Pic is UH1 transport mounting four M60 7.62mm machine guns and two seven tube 70mm rocket pods.

[bmonk]

Holy crap. Definately heavy machine gun fire. And it may not be luck. Katherine is different enough that when the chips are down, she may be just enough faster and tougher than tha avereage "normal" human. I honestly don't see how she could have survived her adventure with Atsali otherwise.

And it looks like we're in for a rough week. On a Phix scale of gruesome, I'd say we're at "defacing Monica" and climbing.

And these are not immortals, or people with regeneration. Just ordinary humans, with very breakable bodies.

[Fairportfan]

lso, the flashback sequence happening now is taking place back when she was in college, 20 years ago. Kath is in her 40s.

Long time to be living withe PTSD. (Speaking as a non-combat View Nam veteran who's seen too many of my fellow vets go completely to pieces...)

[KnightDelight]

RE going over the line: You are familiar with the story of how the Chimera was made, I hope. Saw the consequences of Jin's failed rescue attempt. Watched as Phix tore Medea apart and ate her, then later accidentally ripped off Monica's face. Bad things happen in Wapsi Square. Sometimes graphically. People who don't understand that perhaps shouldn't be reading it to begin with.

The thing is, for a very long time (years in fact) the killings shown were very few and far between. Additionally, they were entirely B&W, reducing their gore effect. It's only in relatively recent times Paul has upped the ante by adding color and additional bits of body parts flying in all directions. Makes a big difference in impact. Even with the Apo head explosion, it was only in B&W. The addition of color indicates a deliberate desire to increase the gore level and impact of the drawings. Moreover, here we see it applied to several at once, a further escalation in this direction. I still see it all as a threshold having been crossed. And, by having crossed it, the promise for more of the same, and much worse (or better, depending on how much you love seeing gory scenes), throughout the rest of the series.

So, I don't agree with the "shouldn't be reading it to begin with" since it wasn't that bad for years. However, "should stop reading it" is more to the point. And I may. I haven't decided yet. I know of some who have dropped it already. Yes, I realize this is being shown to drive home the reasons why Kath is like she is, and I understand that, so I'm still giving it a go and reserving final judgement.

And, yeah, I know, "love it or leave it." Why is there never any place in between? That's typical for the more die-hard fans to say. The fans for who the artist can do no wrong ever, no matter what he draws. I've never been that sort.

[KnightDelight]

If you have MiB, could there not be group(s) opposing MiB? And I do think the 'golden calf' may be the factor which led to this attack. And if the bad guys look close enough to MiB Kath would have a hard time trusting any 'shadow' group, even years later.

A great plot twist at this point would be for the attacking "black helicopter" to land and for Brandi to step out. What a Friday CH that would be. Come to think of it, it wouldn't even have to land. She could just jump out. Sink into the sand some, but so what?

[jwhouk]

Now comes the people on the Facebook feed below the comic bitching that Kath has big boobs, saying that she was "normal" before and that now that she's a "star" in the comic, that her boobs got bigger. =/ Have a look back here when we first met Kath, she was wearing baggy clothes: http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09192003/ and here http://wapsisquare.com/comic/09262003/ She's always had big boobs. Also, the flashback sequence happening now is taking place back when she was in college, 20 years ago. Kath is in her 40s.

Figured that. Younger, warmer climate (we are all assuming Palestine, of course), wide-eyed and just-out-of-school.

And around '93 or so, that would be just after the First Gulf War. People were not very happy with Americans in the Middle East at that time.

Also: If we're getting this way now, where were y'all back in October of 2005? (Hint: QODY.)

[Typeminer]

And, yeah, I know, "love it or leave it." Why is there never any place in between? That's typical for the more die-hard fans to say. The fans for who the artist can do no wrong ever, no matter what he draws. I've never been that sort.

I wouldn't say the artist can do no wrong, but it's the artist's show. and the artist's prerogative. Pablo's producing a finely structured long-form epic that's a little hard to appreciate one frame per day, but we know that all the best work in this form has been done by artists who follow their own vision. The style evolves. The story evolves. The storyteller's skill grows. This is as it must be. And lucky we (especially we who couldn't draw a good poker hand, much less a cinematic depiction of a sniper attack), get to watch and reflect.

I think that if Milt Caniff were still alive, he'd buy Pablo a pitcher of beer.

[Thoughtweaver]

Pun jar. Do it NOW.

*drops a set of body armor ceramic plates into the pun jar*

Make that Strike Plates... I'm not sure they use ceramic anymore... haven't since Vietnam... with Police vests they use steel inserts in a kevlar vest. With the military its mostly been Kevlar, woven into flexible vests and hardened into strike plates that slip into the vests to up the protection of the basic vest. The five or six pound Interceptor vest without strike plates jumped to sixteen to eighteen pounds with the plates inserted.

*Slipping into the daylight of the boards and blinking a bit from the sudden exposure, as it were. *

Long-time lurker and a lover of both the comic and the community here on the boards.

Personally, I think this sudden shift to see Kath's past is a wonderfully done piece of storytelling, and I am quite enjoying the ride. I just thought I might finally contribute to the discussion rather than keeping my thoughts to myself. This reminded me of something I saw on the Discovery channel called Future Weapons, and specifically about body armour that was in developement at the time called Dragon Skin involving ceramic and titanium composite disks. It's very interesting to see the results of the host's tests.



I do hope you don't mind my two cents worth.