73 thoughts on “Chapter 5: Lit, page 124.”

    1. Bet this makes for an excellent copy book though.

      I wonder if we will ever get to read Ben’s copybooks. HINT HINT SPIKE.

        1. I’m pretty certain that EJ that this is all part of the plan “get” Dr. Bash and make off with his “nice stuff.” I expect to see Biggs come through that door behind EJ any second now and make for the basement.

          1. But EJ doesn’t need to brain Ben for any of that. It’s an utterly unnecessary assault.

    1. Yeah, usually he calls them a bitch and makes himself a man wanted by a cult in the process.

      Though at this point who’s to say he won’t find himself running from Jakeskin in a moment?

    2. EJ’s moods are baffling. When he’s pistol-whipping someone or getting yelled at – times when most people would have a lot of adrenaline – he’s cool as a cucumber. But try to talk to him calmly in a normal tone of voice and he goes apeshit.

      1. Perhaps that comes from a life of not knowing more than violence. People tend to react aggressively to things they’re uncomfortable with or afraid of (but not so much they wouldn’t go near it). If you’ve grown up with shouting and violence as norm, then you’d likely be at peace when that’s happening.

    3. I tend to think of EJ as a vicious dog. When he’s being kept on a short leash, he’ll bark and snarl and growl as a threat display, but when his master lets him off the leash and tells him “sic ’em”, there isn’t any need for that; he just swiftly and silently goes for the throat.

        1. Isn’t Biggs still tweaking out in a port-o-potty somewhere? EJ having gone off to procure money for more drugs, and having decided he’d rather rob the rich jacket owner than sell himself to get this money. Unless I’m forgetting some intervening development in the saga of the Elliotts.

          1. I thought they were to meet at a Sincerist cafe or something, they’d run out of coins to feed to the auto-shower-toilet.

  1. Jesus fuck, EJ. That is NOT how we make friends. I mean GOD DAMN. Y’can’t just go ’round clocking people with death-guns.

    1. Personally I prefer getting clocked with life-guns. They’ll put a tune in your head that’s sure to remind you of an ambulance siren!

  2. Oh, wonderful. So now not only are the Jakes after your blood, but now you are going to have a rabid fangirl with connections to the Cooks who is going to be looking for some payback for denting her obsession target.
    EJ, someone needs to talk to you about life choices.

      1. Not to mention the way Reagan will react when that maternal instinct she gets kicks in.

        She vowed to gut a girl for messing with Scip, I don’t even know what she’ll do to someone who physically hurts Ben.

  3. …And EJ was kicked out by Reclamation, who the Cooks don’t like, and Tuesday is being recruited by the Doves who /also/ hate Rec, and…

    Oh god. I see where this is going. Five or six chapters down the line, Ben’s going to be the epicenter and accidental initiator of a city-wide mega-showdown, isn’t he. And then he’s going to write a book about it, make a shitload of money, run away with Freckles, roll credits.

    I love this comic.

    1. …or when he realizes he’s in the epicenter and runs out of his medication, he becomes a sadistic puppetmaster and makes the city erupt in a sociological civil war.

      He will then stand on the rubble and ashes of the city, gloating his victory over modern civilization. Then, move back to Seattle.

  4. Oh hey, my favorite character! Oh EJ, you creeper. :}

    … No, seriously, that was completely unnecessary violence.

  5. It’s at times like this I’m glad I haven’t gotten *too* vicariously involved (i.e., I’m glad I’m not really Ben, after all). Hoo boy, talk about a good story.

  6. All I keep thinking is, look at the angle of that hand in the bottom panel. That looks just SO painful… I’m shuddering just thinking about it.

    1. Never mind falling on your wrist, I’m more concerned about the apparent blood spatter. That’s more than a couple of droplets there.

  7. Ouch. Worst case scenario Ben now has a broken radius and ulna from the way he fell on his arm, an open head wound which will bleed like hell because scalp wounds always do, and a compound depressed skull fracture which kills him in the next few minutes.

    Best case scenario is a sprained wrist, a lot of blood and Ben talking gibberish and throwing up when he regains consciousness.

    Spike, that’s harsh. Although I’m pretty sure that EJ is gonna bump into Zora in the stairwell, freak out, do something stupid, and call the mother of all Jakeskin ass kicking’s down upon himself.

  8. When I saw this page i said “¡F%$/!” out loud. And it was the 4 a.m where i live…

    Oh my. Every time we think we know what’s gonna happen in templar, Spike proves us wrong. I love this comic. I love it so much…

  9. YESSS. God, that top panel is beautiful. Amazing angle. They’re practically the same height, aren’t they?

  10. I absolutely love this page. I keep coming back to it. Just, gosh, the lines, the layout, everything!

    Also, is it just me, or does Ben with his head gash look like those graffiti silhouettes we’ve seen before?

  11. UPSTAIRS, EJ! Go upstairs, to the empty apartment where all that loud music is just meant to scare people away from the room stacked FULL OF MONEY!

    I guess the nature of Ben’s character makes this sort of thing inevitable for him? It would take a ridiculous (but hardly impossible in this comic) amount of narrative orchestration to arrange, but I can’t keep myself from wishing that *Gene* would be the first to get his hands on EJ, KNOWING somehow that he just cold-cocked Ben out of bringing a replacement game controller. Yes. I want to see broken-game-rage twisted/amplified/disinhibited by Jakeskin ritual drugs before some more pragmatic characters provide a permanent cure for EJ’s issues. If it’s still necessary…

  12. Hm. I can’t decide if I think this is good or not, on one side this teen just got assulted and knocked out cold. On the other he might start a snow ball effect with his injury that causes this city to change. I think that someone will find this either funny or appauling but either way I think the main character is about to see how far his socal net has been cast. Too bad most of those people don’t like each other…

  13. I guess the nature of Ben’s character makes this sort of thing inevitable for him? It would take a ridiculous (but hardly impossible in this comic) amount of narrative orchestration to arrange, but I can’t keep myself from wishing that *Gene* would be the first to get his hands on EJ, KNOWING somehow that he just cold-cocked Ben out of bringing a replacement game controller. Yes. I want to see broken-game-rage twisted/amplified/disinhibited by Jakeskin ritual drugs before some more pragmatic characters provide a permanent cure for EJ’s issues. If it’s still necessary…
    +1

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