Well at least it stimulates the economy. And somebody has to pay for Morland Minatures’ massive ad campaign, distribution system, display cases at Walmart, Bloomingdales and Nordstrom’s as well as their generous executive stock option program. Hey, planned obsolescence worked for GM. Sort of.
New Strip 951
I always thought Roy looked a bit Moorish.
<Makes note to dock Alessan 5 points>
Niiiice.
I love how it takes two crew—who probably have class levels—straining with all their might to hold on to the rope, while Roy just nonchalantly holds it with one hand. (How’s Roy anchoring himself though? If the pull were that ferocious, wouldn’t he be lifted into the air?)
Yet another example of how high-level characters are different than everybody else.
Did, “I’m going to dance on your grave, you know,” strike anyone else as really cold-blooded?
I don’t get the concern about the state of the hull. It’s not like those engines are what’s holding the whole thing up.
Yeah, it seems like losing the engines just means they’re going to drift around, not crash.
Remember, this is a magic airship. If that envelope were just full of hydrogen, it wouldn’t be enough to support that hull. The ship is mostly held aloft by magic of some form or another. And that magic may well be concentrated in the no-longer-functional engines.
Also, they’re in a storm. They need those engines to fight the winds, which otherwise might blow them out of the sky.
As long as we’re fanwanking, the engines could also produce a lifting gas as a byproduct of functioning that’s used to replenish the blimp. No engines, no more lifting gas. I imagine the blimp is not as airtight as anyone would like, so losing the new gas means the old gas is rapidly depleted.
I think it’s pretty obvious the ship runs on steam. They just need to put on their goggles and fix the phlogiston generator before the aether tank runs dry.
Definitely. But it was a great lead-in to Roys next line…
Aren’t they? The ship has both propellers pointed backwards and ones pointed upwards. You can see this clearly in strip 948, though it’s been shown elsewhere too. It may be that the lift bag only provides most of the lift, and without the engines the ship will slowly sink.
I hate to say it, but Roy’s hands just look really weird in this. I barely noticed the stick version of three fingers but now they’ve got 2 dimensions I just can’t believe Roy is actually gripping the rope. No doubt I’ll get used to it but for now it’s a bit jarring.
New one is up and I am TOTALLY FIRST this time!
…nice to see Roy getting the piss taken out of him a little bit.
Um, nope. See #162, above.
:mad:
Ha-ha!
Grr… made me look!
Is there any reason we don’t just make a new thread for every new comic? I could understand if it updated 3 or more times a week regularly, but lately it’s been roughly once a week. I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets excited when this thread is updated and then disappointed when it’s not for a new comic.
I prefer to have umpteen bizzillion comics all wrapped up in a single thread. I also enjoy the commentary here.
“I hate to say it, but Roy’s hands just look really weird in this.”
Yeah, Rich entered the uncanny valley with that one. Notice that the grips of Sally and her workmate were fairly credible though. Also note that the toothful facial grimace now has an arc on the bottom rather than a flat line. I sort of liked the old style but after over 900 strips I can see the point of moving on.
After the computer crash, Rich switched to .png. In this book he’s really taken advantage of the greater color depth (and “alpha transparency”): I think gifs (1987 tech) were limited to about 256 colors though there were ways to cheat. Rich’s rain effect is nice. Back when Rich started, not all browsers rendered .png images properly.
“The ship has both propellers pointed backwards and ones pointed upwards.”
Trivia from wikipedia: Modern blimps are launched somewhat heavier than air (overweight), in contrast to historic blimps. The missing lift is provided by lifting the nose and using engine power, or by angling the engine thrust. Some types also use steerable propellers or ducted fans. Operating in a state heavier than air avoids the need to dump ballast at lift-off and also avoids the need to lose costly lifting gas on landing.