I think he’s a lot smarter than everyone actually considers him to be, but he’s so consumed by grief and religion that he just doesn’t use those smarts.
I’ve known some actual geniuses who could be outsmarted by the Forrest Gumps of the world, simply because the latter do what they know needs to be done with the very limited resources they have, while the genius sits back and tries to work out the perfect way of doing things endlessly, without actually *doing* any of it.
I’m not positive, but panel 3 makes me think that Ross pulled in front of him and he hit the car instead of the car hitting him. Those scooters aren’t super fast, so it might not be too bad.
Still clearly sent him flying though. Wear a helmet, kiddos!
Emily
Also don’t provoke murderous assholes in the hopes that a vigilante superhero will show up, kiddos!
But if we’re talking 20 feet per minute (14mph), unexpected, and no gear, there’s a lot of damage you can incur before you even hit the ground. Head- and teeth-first, even.
Agemegos
On the other hand, two weeks ago my brother fell off a bicycle at low speed and suffered and intertrochanteric fracture of his right hip. Sometimes you don’t need to be going fast, you just need to fall badly. (And on the gripping hand: do this when you are nineteen, not when you are 67.)
Old Fart
Motie reference, Agemegos? Wow, i forgot about those books, can’t even remember the author’s name. I do remember reading one on my first smartphone, with a 3.5 inch screen. That was painful.
Clif
Niven and Pournelle
Byron Orpheus
At Tanagra?
Dr. T
You can see the motion lines to suggest that Toedad pulled in front of Mike. Funny thing is, in order to do that he had to drive on footpaths to get there. I am a little confused, though, as while one of the pathways in Dunn Woods does empty out in front of Kirkwood Hall, Mike got hit on the back side of the building.
Still, between Mike yelling all over and Toedad driving on the walkways, I cannot imagine how Blaine and Toedad expect to assault Mike and NOT get caught by the cops before they can get away. They are on campus now, after all.
Bunny
I think Mike had a goal of getting Blaine and Ross to follow him onto Campus. I don’t know if it would be a bigger violation of the restraining order, and so he hoped for the intervention of the Campus authorities. Come to think of it,Toedad is probably supposed to stay away from Becky as well.
It’s hard to document or prove these shmoes were lurking around an odd campus apartment. It’s hearsay. But if they’re caught performing an act of violence on Campus, that’s documented.
segnosaur
Actually Mike’s testimony would be considered eyewitness testimony, and he observed them near the apartment. So, more than ‘hearsay’. (However, I should point out that in many cases hearsay actually is allowed as evidence in criminal cases.)
Plus, with an eyewitness, the cops would probably investigate further (there would be records from the hotel they were staying at, probably various video footage from security cameras, etc.) Blane/toedad would have to either provide an alibi, or explain why they were both located in a city that they did not live in, that contained ‘victims’.
Needfuldoer
If Blaine gets caught violating IU’s restraining order against him, he’ll get arrested.
If Ross is caught on campus, or gets arrested while out on bail, he’ll be taken back into custody and his bail money will be forfeit.
It’s too early in the arc for either of those things to happen yet, but I sure hope they do.
thejeff
Do we actually know of a restraining order? Or that Ross’s bail terms include staying off campus?
BBCC
Pretty sure Ruth said he wasn’t allowed on campus anymore but I don’t recall directly where.
Dr T
Neither Blaine nor especially Toedad are allowed on campus, so at the very least they are trespassing at this moment, though since both have a history of kidnapping people and are chasing another that isn’t a good look.
Marsh Maryrose
I am alive today because when a car and my bicycle crossed paths at a 90 degree angle, the car hit my front tire instead of hitting me. A fraction of a second more and my body would have dented his car instead of my front fork denting his car.
And yes, I was wearing my helmet, and I’d probably be dead without it. Wear your fucking helmet, folks.
CrazyJ
I’ve been hit by a speeding taxi when I was younger head on, and the only injuries I sustained was a badly bruised leg and a little bit of blood in my urine. Getting hit by a vehicle could kill someone or leave them relatively unscathed, it really depends on how they get hit and how they land and how the forces get distributed between those two impacts.
Old Fart
I have a badly dented helmet as a reminder. Thank you, EPS, for sacrificing youself for me.
Johnnyo
To me the angle looks like the car clipped the back of the scooter.
Sometimes you can get hit by a car and be fine. Maybe Mike’s just a little scrapped up from hitting the ground. (Okay, you probably SHOULD go the the hospital following being hit by a car, but it’s never turned out to be necessary for me.)
My current record in death matches against motor vehicles is 2-0-1. I walked away from the first two that got totaled out by hitting me, but wasn’t as lucky the third time I got hit. I had to be removed from the scene by ambulance, the truck managed to drive away from the scene because it was going fast enough to keep on driving for a little while after it was used to hit me. I have had numerous other encounters that did not end with the weapon vehicle getting declared a total wreck. In none of my wrecks was the presence or lack of a foam hat a factor in my survival, but it did result in fewer abrasions in the last wreck. My face looked horrible, but without the helmet holding the side of my head away from the pavement I would have needed much more plastic surgery.
Yeah. The vital import of DamnYouWillis’ statement is that you comic is not going to spend six months or so dealing with the main cast’s anger and grief over the death of somebody close. People in universe who the main cast don’t know or care all that much about are dying off-camera all the time, and it’s possible that someone member of the actual cast might get so alienated or estranged from the main cast that they could die without de-railing the comic.
I don’t think Mike is at that point, though. Blaine or Clint might be. Even Asher.
Not lies, but changes his mind based on story needs, yes. Case in point: He originally said on tumblr that Faz was 17, but later in the comic he was confirmed to be 15.
King Daniel
Also Faz-related, he also originally had a statement out there that Amber was Blaine’s only biological offspring (unlike in the Walkyverse), but around the time that Amber brought up the possibility in-comic that Faz may actually be her half-brother, Willis said that he’d forgotten that he’d made the prior declaration and that it no longer necessarily applied.
BBCC
Yep. Stuff happens, Willis changes his mind. He is a fickle, wrathful god.
Needfuldoer
Yup, one of the scrapped rough-draft comics in the back of Book 8 heavily suggests that Blaine is Faz’s biological father.
I’m feeling disconcerted by the current buffer date, which is March 15. It’s just a coincidence, and he’s not going to backstab us on the “no major character deaths” rule, is he?
I have to be reading too much into the Ides of March thing, right?
Yeah there’s one day where you go “ooooooh I’m BREAKING THE LAW” and then you’re just waiting for the next update.
Especially on a 7 day a week comic like DoA. Questionable Content’s schedule feels really weird as a Patreon subscriber, since Jeph updates in the evening most of the time, so for what is nominally a M-F comic, you’re really looking at Sa-W.
Especially when you could do the reverse- fall one or more updates behind when there’s nothing particularly exciting happening storywise, then consume that self-imposed buffer later as a free read-ahead.
Not saying you shouldn’t financially support your artists, of course. But if “reading ahead” is what you care about there are other ways of tricking yourself into having that option.
Thejeff’s idea is deviously good, though.
TemperaryObsessor
Well then you would miss out on the comic section, but yea. To be fair by the same logic you should only buy books used.
I’m so used to Ultra-Car being the most commonly seen vehicle in Willis’s comics that Toedad’s car is reminding me of the other non-sentient robots in Short Circuit. It looks like UC but it’s soulless.
149 thoughts on “Battery”
Ana Chronistic
I feel like Mike’s endgame is indulging this weird masochistic fetish he has
ian livs
Quite possible
Miri
I suspect that would push Toedad well into gay panic headspace and hasten his death…
I really hope he did dent his car etc. Traceable evidence…
Ana Chronistic
They’re both dense
fire_daws
I hope Mike’s Endgame is better than Tony Stark’s.
Doctor_Who
“And I…fucked your mom.”
Felix
“For a nickel!”
DarkoNeko
Mike is self destructive, especially when depressed
Some Ed
Isn’t he always depressed?
merbrat
“That’s the secret, Cap. I’m always depressed”
Yumi
Wouldn’t it be weird if actual toes turned out to have brains?
Doctor_Who
Ross believes firmly in Intoelligent Design.
JepMZ
I only know what that means because of that one episode of Touched by an Angel with the mom who had cancer
Lanie
I’m picturing feet with Eistein hair here, and I’m not sure this is where you were going with this.
Yumi
No, that’s pretty much where I was going.
Foxhack
I think he’s a lot smarter than everyone actually considers him to be, but he’s so consumed by grief and religion that he just doesn’t use those smarts.
Charles Phipps
Ross is a man of below average intelligence. Blaine is an average intelligence man who thinks he’s a genius.
I would argue that the latter is the stupider one.
Some Ed
As is usually the case.
I’ve known some actual geniuses who could be outsmarted by the Forrest Gumps of the world, simply because the latter do what they know needs to be done with the very limited resources they have, while the genius sits back and tries to work out the perfect way of doing things endlessly, without actually *doing* any of it.
Lawzlo
They’re Toe-Dad and the Blaine!
Yes, Toe-Dad and the Blaine!
One is an idiot…
The other’s insane.
BBCC
Well fuck. So, uh, no matter whether AG shows up or not, he’s gonna need a hospital.
ValdVin
It’s hard to think of Mike as lucky in the last panel, but he’s lucky he didn’t already maim himself in the collision.
Doctor_Who
I’m not positive, but panel 3 makes me think that Ross pulled in front of him and he hit the car instead of the car hitting him. Those scooters aren’t super fast, so it might not be too bad.
Still clearly sent him flying though. Wear a helmet, kiddos!
Emily
Also don’t provoke murderous assholes in the hopes that a vigilante superhero will show up, kiddos!
ValdVin
I also think that’s what happened.
But if we’re talking 20 feet per minute (14mph), unexpected, and no gear, there’s a lot of damage you can incur before you even hit the ground. Head- and teeth-first, even.
Agemegos
On the other hand, two weeks ago my brother fell off a bicycle at low speed and suffered and intertrochanteric fracture of his right hip. Sometimes you don’t need to be going fast, you just need to fall badly. (And on the gripping hand: do this when you are nineteen, not when you are 67.)
Old Fart
Motie reference, Agemegos? Wow, i forgot about those books, can’t even remember the author’s name. I do remember reading one on my first smartphone, with a 3.5 inch screen. That was painful.
Clif
Niven and Pournelle
Byron Orpheus
At Tanagra?
Dr. T
You can see the motion lines to suggest that Toedad pulled in front of Mike. Funny thing is, in order to do that he had to drive on footpaths to get there. I am a little confused, though, as while one of the pathways in Dunn Woods does empty out in front of Kirkwood Hall, Mike got hit on the back side of the building.
Still, between Mike yelling all over and Toedad driving on the walkways, I cannot imagine how Blaine and Toedad expect to assault Mike and NOT get caught by the cops before they can get away. They are on campus now, after all.
Bunny
I think Mike had a goal of getting Blaine and Ross to follow him onto Campus. I don’t know if it would be a bigger violation of the restraining order, and so he hoped for the intervention of the Campus authorities. Come to think of it,Toedad is probably supposed to stay away from Becky as well.
It’s hard to document or prove these shmoes were lurking around an odd campus apartment. It’s hearsay. But if they’re caught performing an act of violence on Campus, that’s documented.
segnosaur
Actually Mike’s testimony would be considered eyewitness testimony, and he observed them near the apartment. So, more than ‘hearsay’. (However, I should point out that in many cases hearsay actually is allowed as evidence in criminal cases.)
Plus, with an eyewitness, the cops would probably investigate further (there would be records from the hotel they were staying at, probably various video footage from security cameras, etc.) Blane/toedad would have to either provide an alibi, or explain why they were both located in a city that they did not live in, that contained ‘victims’.
Needfuldoer
If Blaine gets caught violating IU’s restraining order against him, he’ll get arrested.
If Ross is caught on campus, or gets arrested while out on bail, he’ll be taken back into custody and his bail money will be forfeit.
It’s too early in the arc for either of those things to happen yet, but I sure hope they do.
thejeff
Do we actually know of a restraining order? Or that Ross’s bail terms include staying off campus?
BBCC
Pretty sure Ruth said he wasn’t allowed on campus anymore but I don’t recall directly where.
Dr T
Neither Blaine nor especially Toedad are allowed on campus, so at the very least they are trespassing at this moment, though since both have a history of kidnapping people and are chasing another that isn’t a good look.
Marsh Maryrose
I am alive today because when a car and my bicycle crossed paths at a 90 degree angle, the car hit my front tire instead of hitting me. A fraction of a second more and my body would have dented his car instead of my front fork denting his car.
And yes, I was wearing my helmet, and I’d probably be dead without it. Wear your fucking helmet, folks.
CrazyJ
I’ve been hit by a speeding taxi when I was younger head on, and the only injuries I sustained was a badly bruised leg and a little bit of blood in my urine. Getting hit by a vehicle could kill someone or leave them relatively unscathed, it really depends on how they get hit and how they land and how the forces get distributed between those two impacts.
Old Fart
I have a badly dented helmet as a reminder. Thank you, EPS, for sacrificing youself for me.
Johnnyo
To me the angle looks like the car clipped the back of the scooter.
Yumi
Sometimes you can get hit by a car and be fine. Maybe Mike’s just a little scrapped up from hitting the ground. (Okay, you probably SHOULD go the the hospital following being hit by a car, but it’s never turned out to be necessary for me.)
BBCC
The problem is if you don’t go, you don’t know if internal stuff is okay until it’s too late.
Bicycle Bill
Mike did sustain a little bit of road rash in the collision. Look closer at his left elbow and right wrist in panel five.
Yumi
Yeah, I saw that. I just meant, maybe that’s the extent of his injuries.
Hugo Bedward
He doesn’t look too bloody for being hit by a car.
Needfuldoer
I think Ross cut him off and Mike hit the side while he was distracted.
Opus the Poet
My current record in death matches against motor vehicles is 2-0-1. I walked away from the first two that got totaled out by hitting me, but wasn’t as lucky the third time I got hit. I had to be removed from the scene by ambulance, the truck managed to drive away from the scene because it was going fast enough to keep on driving for a little while after it was used to hit me. I have had numerous other encounters that did not end with the weapon vehicle getting declared a total wreck. In none of my wrecks was the presence or lack of a foam hat a factor in my survival, but it did result in fewer abrasions in the last wreck. My face looked horrible, but without the helmet holding the side of my head away from the pavement I would have needed much more plastic surgery.
Cheshrin
*clings to Willis’s “no major character deaths” rule like a light in this cold, cold darkness*
BBCC
Just bear in mind that word of god in this comic is not necessarily immutable or unchanging.
Agemegos
Yeah. The vital import of DamnYouWillis’ statement is that you comic is not going to spend six months or so dealing with the main cast’s anger and grief over the death of somebody close. People in universe who the main cast don’t know or care all that much about are dying off-camera all the time, and it’s possible that someone member of the actual cast might get so alienated or estranged from the main cast that they could die without de-railing the comic.
I don’t think Mike is at that point, though. Blaine or Clint might be. Even Asher.
Madock345
Willis LIES
Deadjolras
WILLIES
BBCC
Not lies, but changes his mind based on story needs, yes. Case in point: He originally said on tumblr that Faz was 17, but later in the comic he was confirmed to be 15.
King Daniel
Also Faz-related, he also originally had a statement out there that Amber was Blaine’s only biological offspring (unlike in the Walkyverse), but around the time that Amber brought up the possibility in-comic that Faz may actually be her half-brother, Willis said that he’d forgotten that he’d made the prior declaration and that it no longer necessarily applied.
BBCC
Yep. Stuff happens, Willis changes his mind. He is a fickle, wrathful god.
Needfuldoer
Yup, one of the scrapped rough-draft comics in the back of Book 8 heavily suggests that Blaine is Faz’s biological father.
Tawdry Quirks
I’m feeling disconcerted by the current buffer date, which is March 15. It’s just a coincidence, and he’s not going to backstab us on the “no major character deaths” rule, is he?
I have to be reading too much into the Ides of March thing, right?
Agemegos
Well spotted!
Yumi
*looks at Willis’ twitter*
Welp.
Stephen Bierce
Lose Sight, Lose The Fight. (I think I said it about Ross earlier when Dina blindsided him. So unfortunately Ross DOES have the capacity to learn.)
SuperZero
Prattle, prattle, lose the battle.
Nono
Always look both ways before crossing the streets, kids!
Lanie
Darn it, Toedad, how did I have any hope for your conduct improving???
Sirksome
Just when you thought they were too incompetent to murder a guy one of them fails upwards!
Savail
One part of me wishes I could afford a Patreon.
The smarter part of me is reminding me that there will probably be a jump to other characters tomorrow or something.
TemperaryObsessor
Honestly Patreon sounds like fun but being one update ahead really only changes when you feel the suspence.
sdrainbow
Yeah there’s one day where you go “ooooooh I’m BREAKING THE LAW” and then you’re just waiting for the next update.
Especially on a 7 day a week comic like DoA. Questionable Content’s schedule feels really weird as a Patreon subscriber, since Jeph updates in the evening most of the time, so for what is nominally a M-F comic, you’re really looking at Sa-W.
thejeff
Which is why I think he ought to have more Patreon tiers, each twice the cost of the previous tier and another day ahead.
Tobias
Especially when you could do the reverse- fall one or more updates behind when there’s nothing particularly exciting happening storywise, then consume that self-imposed buffer later as a free read-ahead.
Not saying you shouldn’t financially support your artists, of course. But if “reading ahead” is what you care about there are other ways of tricking yourself into having that option.
Thejeff’s idea is deviously good, though.
TemperaryObsessor
Well then you would miss out on the comic section, but yea. To be fair by the same logic you should only buy books used.
Cattleprod
I’m so used to Ultra-Car being the most commonly seen vehicle in Willis’s comics that Toedad’s car is reminding me of the other non-sentient robots in Short Circuit. It looks like UC but it’s soulless.
Charles Phipps
I firmly believe Carla will have her brain transferred into a car to save her life.
Shane Wegner