Chapter 5: Lit, page 15.

On this page: Important lessons are learned.

I was supposed to be at MoCCA in New York, today, but my books failed to be delivered on time, so there was no point in going. I’m pretty annoyed about it.

Some of my books are still there, though, since I mailed the ones I had ahead. Check table C7! Ryan and Dave ought to be selling them for a pretty good price.

And hello, new readers from SMBC and Something Positive! Hope you stick around.

48 thoughts on “Chapter 5: Lit, page 15.”

  1. Jackie’s expression is very appropriate for watching her elder brother choke another one of her brothers with such precision of training.

  2. When you are very young and find out your father is very, very good at killing someone, you will latch on to any possible solution to turn the boogeyman back into your father, even if it involves magical thinking.

    1. I think she’s referring to fixing the videogame. In her mind the whole problem at the moment is that he couldn’t finish the game. That’s probably the whole problem in Gene’s mind too.

      1. Mairpo, I think you’ve got it in a nutshell.

        But is this the first time Zora has seen Eugene violent? I wonder. Seems Feather has definitely seen this before. Before he’s only like this with his crazy kin around?

        Where is Zora’s deadbeat mom?!

        1. ugh, can’t spell

          *Perhaps* he’s only like this with his kin around, not *before*.

          And Mariposiosa, sorry, totally botched your name there.

        2. didn’t zora’s mom get married at like 14 and is currently trying to find a way of getting forever out of association with these people before coming back to get her?

          from what I remember of a pic spike drew anyway. http://twitpic.com/y4mfp

    1. Seven or something and AWESOME.
      I’d like to think she’s a future genius/current genius. Hell, if a child is “rambunctious” it usually means they’re just naturally inquisitive and developing in a healthy way. Or they have ADHD. Generally it’s the former, though.
      I just hope Zora gets through this…thing…okay and doesn’t turn out like Pippi. Please, Spike, please don’t let her turn into Pippi. Please. Or show a new, better side of Pippi so I don’t worry as much about Zora.

        1. Right.
          …Shit. Ok, so hopefully Zora will just work through this.
          Man, I do not usually care this much about fictional characters. Well, characters that aren’t dogs.

          1. Perhaps Zora knows where an extra controller is for the game? That would qualify as fixing the game.

    2. Pretty sure she’s five or six, since when she ran off from school in ch. 1 Reagan huffed about having to smack a kindergarten teacher :V

    1. If by “awesome” you mean “a reptilian sociopath”, you’re spot on, Old Chum.

      …Come to think of it, alligators are doting mothers right up until they decide one of the young’uns is no longer viable and eat it.

  3. Hmm, the gasping noises stopped. I wonder what systems Templar might have in place to take care of unwanted bodies.

    1. Feather asked if he was awake (like he was going to answer – LOL) and is telling him that he’s too stupid to breed, so she must think he’s still alive, I suppose. I hope Eugene lets go when he looses consciousness, if he hasn’t already. Maybe Zora will distract him.

      1. This is Feather we’re talking about. She could just be completely oblivious to the fact that he straight-up stopped breathing. If this is the case, I suspect her reaction will be utterly dismissive when she figures it out.

    1. AMEN!! there was nothing nastier, when I was a kid, then the smell of adult saliva after getting my cheek cleaned, even if I couldn’t ACTUALLY smell it, I believed I could, and that was bad enough.

      Excellent characterization touch, that. The counterpoint between Feather’s seeming nonchalance and such a motherly action is almost… creepy.

      1. I had an uncle that (in my childhood) would grab my face, jerk it roughly towards him, and then he would proceed to lick the side of my face from chin to forehead. Called them “moose kisses.” Since it was an unanswered question as to what nasties he was carrying in his bloodstream, etc, I always went running to wash it off ASAP.

        Trust me, the smell of adult saliva is not your imagination. It exists, and it can be NASTY. Little kid saliva (sometimes they lick things at the store; so you get home, pick up a yogurt container, use your teeth to rip off the top wrapper thing, and suddenly realize that someone tried to do that already…and they were partly chewing on something cherry-scented at the time) is also NASTY.

        On Topic, I would love to give Zora a hug. Poor little bugger.

        1. Youre uncle is very, very, VERY weird… TAZ weird. I hope he’s no longer in your life. *is more creeped out by the story of the licking uncle than the Jakes’ family violence*

  4. Dang! Sorry I missed you, Spike. I was all set to buy Volume IV but I always prefer to buy from you directly. Oh well, guess that means I get two volumes next year! :)

  5. Hey! New reader from SMBC here.
    I’ve scanned the archives in a couple of days; not a simple task, as English isn’t my language and your characters have a thing for contractions .-D
    Great art, compelling story, if sometimes confusing (I LIKE IT ^_^). I’m hooked.

  6. No matter how they cry and wail, refuse the obvious,or rail against their elders, all children have one lesson in life to learn. Your mother knows you better than you do.

    1. She’s a wonderful antagonist. Yes I wouldn’t want to know a person like this in real life, but at the same time, you have to respect the fact that she’s in control of a situation that escapes most people at her age.

  7. It’s funny that so many people have commented on the expressions of the other characters, but not Eugene’s, and that’s the one I find most interesting. He seems to have calmed down from the wild eyed man he was the page before and is now strangling Marcus with an expression of mild interest. At this point I feel like the only reason he continues is because Marcus is fighting back.

  8. Slidth, I don’t think Gene is calm right now. I’d call the expression “lack of reason and thought.” Gene won’t stop squeezing Marcus’ balls unless an external forces intervenes.

  9. Yo, Zach sent us SMBC followers over here, and gotta say. I’m happy he did. The artistic style is pretty darn good, and the story is zanny enough to be fun and entirely new. *heres to more Templar Comics!

  10. I just realized – Feather’s rosacea seems to have magically cleared up on this page ;) Just thought I’d let ya know.

    1. yeah I’m not sure it’s rosacea… I think it might be a birthmark since Gene has a similar mark on his nose as well. In any case, I didn’t even notice it was missing until you pointed it out.

      1. No, it’s Rosacea. Spike has called Gene’s mark that, so it’s most likely the same story with Feather.

  11. Man, this reminds me of a few family get togethers I went to as a kid where my father and youngest uncle would have it out—usually over something stupid like someone losing at Monopoly. They were Mormons (nice parallel to the Jakes since they are both obsessive about breeding). It’s kind of why I don’t get together with that side of the family anymore. Like Zora, I’d try to stop my father from killing my uncle too.

  12. You know, Marcus, those are some really shitty last words.

    First Rule of Newton’s Law: A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by another force. Somebody better do something quick, or Marcus is going to die of an acute case of inertia…

  13. yeeeaaah…. what more can I say? Other than the fact that I would love to read the next page alreadly. (lol)

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