Oh hey cool
You guys can be fucked-up-face buddies
So nice you two finally have something in common
Go out back and build a tree fort or something, I’ll call you in for lunch
Oh hey cool
You guys can be fucked-up-face buddies
So nice you two finally have something in common
Go out back and build a tree fort or something, I’ll call you in for lunch
Yep. Knew it was comin’.
Odds of Ben ending up with a shaved head and carryin’ a knife are looking pretty good right about now.
Marcus: “Hark! A kindred spirit!”
Hahaha—SNORT! XD
Surely this will wendell
Damn, he’s really getting it up in there! Doctor Bash is going to come up and say, “Dude, if you’d only gone to the base of the nail-bed, there’d be something to save. Knuckle deep? It just looks kinda vindictive.”
-G.
He’d better get the other eye too. EJ knows where he lives.
I don’t think that’s going to matter as the Jakes are probably going to go investigate the source of shrieking in any moment.
Yay! I love a party….
Then Dr. Bash will want to cast the injury in wax for his ‘museum.’
You messed with the wrong 5 ft guy, Elliot.
But at least you’ll be able to sell yourself as pirate sex for hire.
I just KNOW this page’ll give me nightmares. ;}
He can help the Doves retake the Oarlock that gave him the boot!
EJ now stands for Eye Jab
This…yes. Perfect.
Marry me.
+1!
OK, we can all go home now. The perfect comment has arrived. :3
JESUS CHRIST
Wasn’t EJ the one who messed up Marcus’ face? Marcus might be glad for the payback.
I was just thinking the same thing! I feel oodles of Jake justice just around the corner. Oh yes. And he is the one who beat Marcus, cause that gun was his cocked-up idea. /snorts
Not saying he don’t deserve a black eye, but at least he still has his eye…
Wait, I thought it was Gene who bashed up Marcus, after Marcus broke the Unagi.
The Jakes were following the Elliots and EJ had a close encounter with Marcus where he beat him up and took his gun.
“We gather today to commemorate Elliot James Adair…” is all I can say; seriously Spike, I wouldn’t hold it against you if you killed a character.
You’re right about that, but Marcus had already gotten his face scrambled after he fell of the dock while hunting the Elliots.
Marcus definitely looks like he’s heard that voice before. EJs a deadman.
If someone doesn’t get Ben off Ej real quick, Marcus won’t get there in time to kill Ej. If this stay a purely Ben Ej affair, Ej has five minutes tops.
I can’t stop looking at it.
“Do you hear that, Feather? That is the sound of ultimate suffering. I made that sound when E.J. beat my face in. E.J. makes it now.”
Oh god, I just splorted coffee all over my desk.
You, sir, are responsible for explaining to my boss the caffeinated beverage now seeping out of my keyboard. I hope you are aware of this.
(Reads comic)
(gets drink)
(reads comic again)
(takes drink, thinking it’s safe)
(reads comic again)
(SPIT-TAKE)
Oh man, no internet since two strips back, and I come back to this.
So I guess I was right about Ben’s crazy eyes… Now I wonder if he’ll snap out of it?
Dem eyes… DEM EYES!!!!!!!!
Ben turned into a Martian
Woah oh oh….
What’s worse than being doubled over with pain with your eye gouged out? Being doubled over with pain with your eye gouged out AND surrounded by scary cultists who want you dead.
I suspect things are about to hit the fan. (some more)
Doc Bash is going to have to surgically remove Ben’s thumb from EJ’s face.
Ben out for blood!
Where did you learn this move Ben?
Yakima can be a pretty rough town. Nothin’ nastier than a drunk, out of work lumberjack.
Self-defense course for little people who want not to get messed up by big people, is my guess.
You know Reagan called it. Remember when she found out about the break-in Ben had?
Reagan: “I RESPECT that shit.”
Now, EJ will, too. For the rest of his life.
All 45 seconds of it.
They’re about to get Medevil on little EJ. You guys are gonna start feeling sorry for him within’ four panels or so.
Uhhhhhhhhhhh…….no.
Yeah, i’m sorry for him too, but he asked for it. I think regular people can’t use violence all day, everyday, without paying the consequences.
Ethics. EJ is learning it the hard way.
Somehow, I don’t think E.J. is actually going to wind up learning anything at all from this, except maybe to become even more hateful and more violent. He just doesn’t seem like the become-wiser-from-the-consequences-of-my-actions type, to put it mildly.
(That’s assuming he actually manages to survive the next ten minutes, of course.)
I keep hoping that someday, EJ will change for the better. But that is totally out of character for him.
You are absolutely right.
Oh, he’ll learn something. He’ll learn how not to breathe. And he’s going to learn that so well, he’s not going to do anything else.
Not sorry for him one bit. He started this and would have had no regrets if he’d killed Ben. I hope Ben goes for the other eye next.
I doubt I’ll feel sorry for EJ. He’s like a rabid dog that needs to be put down. Not his fault he got bitten by another rabid dog, but he shouldn’t be left to wander the streets.
No I won’t.
Unless those panels are an insanely detailed flashback to EJ’s troubled childhood and his constant struggle to control his violent tendencies, I can’t imagine much that would stir pity or sorrow for EJ in as short a space as four panels. That would be a turnaround so extreme as to provoke whiplash.
Good for Ben… that’s one of the first things they teach you in self-defense. Go for the eyes. He’s in a state of complete fight or flight and the latter isn’t an option at this point, so go nuts, boy!
Shi– Looks like not only is EJ losing an eye, but possibly an ear on the other side. Intense crazy stuff! Shit’s getting real really fast, and there’s a million and one different ways it can go now too (with the exception of EJ getting away unmutilated).
I said it would all end with whistles and knives but I didn’t think Ben had that kinda violence in him. I’m impressed. Fight for your life little buddy!!! Help is on it’s way!!
An’ that’s second man. Wisdom man. Flip the fuck out and dig his thumb into your eye socket man.
I see you.
Thank you, Joelle. Of the many coffee splurting comments in this comment line, yours was the best.
Thanks! :D I wonder if the Jakes will make some adjustments to their race theory in the aftermath of this event.
Not to deny that the rest of us probably share the same assumptions, just maybe less overtly, and that’s probably part of why this twist is so shocking. Hmmm…
LOL here. Woke up my girlfriend, dammit. :D
“And him, the one being attacked? Is that third man? Fourth man? Fifth man?”
“No, little one. That one is Dead Man. He’s about to be seriously fucked up.”
Hahaha, I can just imagine Feather being all calm about this, and using it as a teachable moment with one of the little Jakeskids. Such a good cult leader matriarch.
Actually, speaking of not being one of the numbers, I’m really curious about the term UNNUMBERED.
http://templaraz.com/2008/05/09/030×070/
The Jakes keep on using this term in Chapter 3 when Gene does his trance thing, and it seems to refer to their enemies. Non-Jakes? City folk? Brown people? Drug addicts? Dead people? I think it’s probably something sinister that make the Jakes even less sympathetic.
Or maybe it’s not that significant.
From what I can tell, to the Jakes, the “Numbered” is like “being one of the Chosen”. So if you’re Unnumbered, you’re not Jake, and therefore, you’re a target for “catalyzation”.
That makes sense, and is the most likely explanation… But somehow I got the idea at some point that it’s more sinister than that. That even though it seems like the Jakes stereotype but see value in all “races”, there is actually a group of people that they don’t include. As in, “You’re first man, you’re fourth man… but you? You’re nothing. You have no number, so you don’t count as human. Go die in a fire.”
However, I don’t think there’s any evidence for this theory, other than that I think it would make a good twist.
They do seem in favor of racial mixing, though – e.g. Jackie trying to put the moves on Scip to get her a half-First-Man baby.
WIN. :D
Thus we establish, to a Jakeworthy standard, that EJ’s messy demise *is* the wisest solution to his own existence. Methinks Mama Jake will be much less suspicious of Ben after this, unless she’s violently allergic to loose ends in general and witnesses in particular… Still, I hope enemies-of-enemies become friends.
This is utterly frightening. The fallout is going to be horrible.
And now Sunny’s remark back at the diesel game, something like “I’m on to you, ya fucker” is now backed up. Cripes.
Actually Sunny’s identification of Ben as a Hidden Badass and fellow headcase was based on a misapprehension surrounding the dose of riot paint he accidentally picked up off of his first encounter with that guy from The Family rather than some innate crazy-sense. Still, funny how things have worked.
Notice that we haven’t seen Ben’s eyes since he started fighting back. I’m both eager and terrified to see them. I’m wondering if we’ll see Gene-like blankness or rage that would make Sunny shit his pants.
I had the inkling Ben would be the one to save himself in this situation but holy shit, this is beyond what I expected. Bravo, Spike.
He went all Gene-Eyes back on the Nov. 14 strip, last panel. Saw those eyes and thought, “This is the point where Ben goes berserk.”
Actually was startled when the page loaded. As if I had actually walked in on this happening in real life. JESUS.
Boyfights VII, part 2 – A new challenger is approaching!
How many parties are ultimately going to have stake in this fight? This is an explosive venue full of explosive personalities…
Yay! Parties! — no, wait…the parties of the third and fourth parts…along with various and sundry others…I love it when a plan comes together.
I kinda like the new storyline: Random Arizona Death Match.
Today’s Ben vs EJ.
Next Chapter Mesmer vs Nicky Collision. Or Gordon vs Lloyd. Yes?
Reagan vs. Pippi
Pippi Longstocking? What Pippi? Did I miss a Pippi?
Oh, -that- Pippi. That wouldn’t be random at all, Ray obviously wants to kick that ass pretty good.
Barnie John vs. Pippi, now that would be Random.
If you can believe the original story, Pippi Longstocking would overpower Reagan without trying much. Our Pippi…our dear, sweet Pippi…uh, no.
> I kinda like the new storyline: Random Arizona Death Match.
Misread that as “Death March” *imagines Ben finishing with EJ, taking a deep breath, and then proceeding to just up and slaughter the rest of the town*
Final scene, Ben on phone to shrink, “I think I should come home now”
“And that’s why you don’t pit EJ and Ben against each other.”
Holy crap, it went completely over my head that this is Ben fighting back. In the previous strip, it looked like he was falling back and someone was grabbing EJ from behind. I didn’t realize he was tripping him and now pulling a Roy Batty.
KARMIC RETRIBUTION ATTACK GO!
Reagun is gonna seriously need to adjust her opinion of the people who live around her. Those “hooch-chugging shiv-swinging hillbillies” and her “lil asian” are about to WRECK this guy so bad not even Bash can fix him.
What makes you think that’d change her opinion
Has there been a requirement for being her idol yet that wasn’t “is crazy and violent”
It might revise her opinion of them upwards.
Hm, true. But Scip’s gonna be seven kinds of horrified at Ben.
Er, possibly. Maybe I’m not good at predicting people’s reactions.
Wouldn’t be surprised. Scipio has definite signs of being Stupi Good sometimes.
Scipio is still sympathetic to his friends, and rational enough to recognize that without say, *his* ~250 lbs of lean body mass and extensive training, Ben must resort to dirty, desperate tactics to defend himself.
I’ll also reiterate the possibility that Scipio’s own enlightened posture may be a well-cultivated rage management technique pursuant to his own recovery from a bone-snapping beserker incident in his own distant past.
And Reagan won’t have to adjust her opinion of the Jakes much: “hooch-chugging shiv-swinging hillbillies” isn’t a particularly disapproving description, coming from her. It’s Scip who thought they were menacing and dangerous; Reagan just thinks they’re hilarious.
I am Best Pleased by this development. I was waiting for the pills to take a sideline to his… Problems. Wooo!
heheh Reagan was right, those little guys got somethin ta prove.
Owwwww!! Eyeball!! >_<
<.< Do it again, bby. Mama likes it.
NICE
PAGE
SPIKE!
I’m really not getting any “upsetting” or “disturbing” from this. Actions have consequences, and violent actions have YOUR EYEBALLS PLURAL ARE NOW PAST TENSE consequences. Fucker clocks me from behind, he better be in a different ZIP code when I stand back up, because the ground rules for the conversation have now been firmly established and I have some strong opinions I’d like to share.
This is the playtime EJ wanted, this is the playtime EJ gets. I’m more worried about what Ben’s going to think of his sinister spelunking expedition when he gets unconcussed and has some medication in ‘im.
Namaste. Most wise, especially to consider how his conscience will argue with him if and when he recovers completely. I hope this doesn’t trip him up in his pursuit of serenity, the greater good, or anything else. Life can still afford significant inspiration.
EJ, for his part, seems doomed. If he could survive, it might be by only the slimmest of margins and by the most miraculous of circumstances. Even so, can he be trusted to change his ways?
ohhhhh jesus. well, of course we’ve known what Ben’s capable of since this page here http://templaraz.com/2006/03/05/010×039/ so it’s not like this was a Total surprise.
I always loved that quote, but read it as telling us more about Reagan than Ben. I’m happy to see her call it, however inadvertently..
OH MY GOD!
I should stop reading this at the library. I nearly shouted.
“And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee…”
Ben is just more proactive.
Shit got real.
I was thinking, I would probably react the same way, if that happened to me. As far as a guy can say what he would do with a head concussion.
But yeah, if I’m scared for my life and can’t run away, I’d aim for the soft parts, the ones that hurt.
Just wanted to let all the commentors to know that reading everyone’s comments is half the fun of this comic. Thank you for all the laughs, I really needed them today. :-D
(And EJ getting his while the Jakes perk up to something being going on is just golden.)
ay-yi eye!
oh god, THIS GUY. He’s probably the worst of the Jakes that could possibly hear what’s going on downstairs.
Hmmm looks like Ben opened a family sized can of WHOOP ASS!! Its always the lil quiet ones that you gotta watch for..this just proves it!
“A lot of holes in the desert, and a lot of problems are buried in those holes.”
For the record, I’m thankful for Spike and her alternate world. She’s created quite the interesting oasis, has she not?
I come here to top up my sanity. That’s why the long waits are painful. XD
I just love checking for updates and seeing EJ writhing with Ben’s thumb in his eye. Hey, I know most comments are basically a circle jerk about how much they are getting off on EJ getting thrashed by ninja-Ben, but c’mon, I hate seeing someone getting blinded as much as the next guy, so please at least show off a dilated anus or a large bald man shitting into a bowl (those might be the same thing). That, I can almost find appealing.
GO FOR THE EYES, BOO!
And then Ben was a hamster.
HO HO HO Meheheheherrrry Xmas, Jakes! Sorry I didn’t have time to wrap it, but Just LOOK what I found for ya’s!
“…what fun it is
to ride and sing
the slaying song tonight. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells…”
Oh god ewwww, my eyes started spontaneously watering reading this!
Which means it’s excellently done. Awesome job, Spike!
Well, at least we know this will confirm Sunny’s opinion of Ben.
I don’t know what this will do to Reagan. She will probably become Ben’s fangirl.
I predict that Scipio will be HORRIFIED.
At first I was confused as to how you could fit the pad of your thumb underneath an eyelid, now I’m just curious if EJ’s eyeball is going to pop like a zit.
Well eyes can be pretty sturdy. First thing I thought of was the story of a guy who got impaled through the eye socket with a pipe or something (not Phineas Gage but another guy) and when they took out the pipe it turned out his eye, which they assumed had been destroyed, bobbed back into the socket. It had been shoved into his head somewhere but it still worked fine.
Right now, all EJ can see is that the “I’M FUCKED” light on his personal dashboard is blinking.