#475 – Scout And About
So at the beginning of this story, I mentioned that it was a long time in the making. This script is the first one to have originated from the first draft. In about 2004. Yes, you are right to gasp, sir.
Hey kids! If this punchline was written before you were born, get in touch and make everyone feel really old! And then stop reading our monstrous comic, you’re a child.
It’s going to be pretty East- and Virus-centric. Partly that’s because the first snippets of dialogue that turned into Tangled Web were written before Rogue and Lothar joined the cast. I was bouncing dialogue around between the two Inquisitors in order to get a feel for their relationship.
Much has changed, many revisions have happened, but it feels good to be putting this out, at last. It will benefit from the improvements in art and layout. Like George Lucas and the prequels, I guess the technology simply didn’t exist to bring the story to life ten years ago. Wait, that’s a terrible endorsement, forget that.
“Simmons, are you positivly SURE that Jonson’s team is unavailable?”
“Yessir, they said he was busy with something about ‘Twins Tuesday’…”
For all that they don’t follow orders they DO get the job done unless they have to bring it in alive…
At this point, all evidence points that way. Schaefer just doesn’t like them.
And Simmons can live with this set-up, because he knows that, no matter how this ends up, their near-bottomless supply of luck will get their arses into and out of this.
Which is kind of a win-win situation…
Sounds like the place is already doomed as chaos will flood through… Just send them. at least their better than team wildfire. Their collateral damage isn’t nearly as bad and they do manage to get through it so go ahead and start placing bets like you did with the space station. (40$ on alive and intact for me)
Maverick MoPete: It’s not the matter of them surviving anymore, it’s the bill pileup and the number of casualties and buildings taken with them once the job is over and done with.
Team East is who you call when it absolutely, positively, must be destroyed at all costs.
Also, Hex is looking…spikier today. Not bad.
what about the C-team? and also, he looks like he just got out of bed
Hm….I’m not sure if I really approve of this new look. I mean, not that you lot need my permission, but Lothar looked badass before. Now, he kind of looks sickly and a little unhealthy.
Yep, say hi to Lothar’s new design. I should really update my avatar.
It’s not only Lothar, from what I can see: Eastwood’s three strands of bangs (pardon me if that’s not the correct definition) seem to have been dropped in favor of a shaggier sort of look.
I was actually going to comment on the fact Virus seems to be experimenting with a new design overall on the last comic, and this only confirms it.
Please say the new design thing was a joke. Please say the new design thing was a joooke. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?
He-looks-horrible. the old design is waay better.
It suits the character better I think. It looks spiky and scruffy, Lothar has a spiky, cold and sarcastic personality (Spiky design with cold robot parts), and one of the more common jokes is his lack of personal hygiene (Scruffy, dark colour doesn’t show food stains), my only problem is his new muzzel colour, it’s too dark when compared to nearly every other muzzel colour on the other characters, so it feels out of place and even if you don’t notice it you notice it.
I do like the new design, but unless all the cast recieve one I don’t forsee it having either a point or a purpose, comedically, plot-wise, or character-wise, unless we get a cloning plot at somepoint in the near future.
Well, I like it.
old Lothar looks badass.This lothar just looks like a Hobo
And having him looking the way he did for so long and then just change…it seems wrong.
Its not like there were a massive amount of complaints on how he looked so far (at least i don’t remember that) so i don’t see why to change him at all..and for the worse.
Wow, I forsee some irritated people after reading these comments, namely the peeps being dissed on their work. Ya know, it’s not for us to judge how the CREATORS of a work SHOULD do things. It is for them to make whatever changes they bloody well feel like making whether we like them or not. Hearing complaints like these are what a lot of creators like to call unnecessary OPINIONS and nothing more. Yes, you are entitled to your opinion. Your also entitled to keep it to yourself. They wanna change the designs, they obviously have a very god reason for doing it.
that’s a very good point, and while it’s not deep, or thoughtful, or particularly well-said, it’s acurate and very true.
PS: I find it hilarious that you got the usage of the first “you are” correct and the second one, which was supposed to be the same thing, wrong (you used Your, instead of You’re or You are)
Not irritated at all. People on the internet upset by a change? Shocker. There’s been a couple people say they like it, couple said they don’t. So that’s fine.
I will say, I don’t like how that panel 3 drawing came out at all. I do need to get used to the new look, refine it a bit. And the colour might still tweak, we’ll see. There was a lot of back and forth on that.
Hello, Lothar’s new design. Nice to meet you.
Hello, Lothar. Please stop pointing that gun at me like I’m a crazy person. (I kid! I kid!)
Out of curiosity, what are the team’s favorite flavors of ice cream anyway?
Rocky Road sounds appropriate.
I see what you did there, Midwestmutt. XD
Nah, now see that’s sounds more like what they GET, but not necessarily what they LIKE.
So the murder scene at the monastery wasn’t just a one-off joke. That’s pretty cool. Can’t wait for the next page.
Commenting from Taika!…well, Japan, actually.
I started reading this webcomic a couple of days ago, and I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. I just wish all of my friends could read English.
Thanks to the authors for this great work. I don’t think I will post in discussions often, but I will be looking forward to every update!
Oh, cool. Welcome! Thanks for reading.
Indeed, welcome aboard.
always nice to meet a fresh face, especially one from the coolest country ever
Ooooo! Konichiwa, Nodoka-san! I wish I could say more of this wonderful language in sentence form, but my knowledge is currently limited. I am in the process of learning. Anyway, welcome aboard! Which character is your favorite so far?
Ice cream bird is looking impressively pissed off.
It wasn’t Lothar, obviously. All different color and different shape and different HAT – nope, not buying it.
Eastwood tapping his foot is a good touch.
Rouge is looking a bit annoyed at the kid as well.
Rogue. I’d intended him to be disapproving of Harry.
My bad.
Then again, I get the feeling that Loth would call Rogue ‘Rouge’ if it Rogue found it annoying.
Check out the cast link. Perhaps Rouge could partner with someone named Brain.
Ehhhh…
I have to say I don’t care much for Lothar’s redesign… The extra spikiness i can deal with, and he’s been shown to have several hats, but the grey just sort of makes him… blend with the background a little too much I think.
I remember back in the day when Lothar swapped out the Knuckles-Gloves for his current ones and that white ring for his dogtags, and that was alright. It was making him more of his own character. He’s always been blue though, and characters like these rely a lot on their colour for identification. It’s actually evoking the uncanny valley a little. Just a ‘that’s not quite right’ sort of feel.
Mind if I ask why the change? At least in regards to his colour?
Lothar’s always meant to be black, not blue. The colour used originally always caused him to look more blue than black. We also noticed that Virus tends to use slightly more “realistic” or rather more muted colours for most character designs now. He could always be tweaked again, but we’re going to see how this goes for now.
Also hat is the same.
I noticed Lothar’s design got shaken up a bit. Slight aesthetic alteration? or franchise-killing dark and gritty reboot? That remains to be seen.
Come to think of it, Virus and Eastwood seem a wee bit different too, though that may just be me.
Have to say I’m not digging the new color for Lothar. The rest of the design tweaks I’d have to see more of to pass judgement, but the color should stay I think, its one of his defining features.Don’t mind me though, just a reader since comic #10
Its like Archer. You have this big organization, but so few agents that the main characters get sent out a lot.
I think there are only 3 other know straight up Inquisitors that are not on a team. One of them being Cyborg Eye Lion guy and the other is The Elusive Camel.
Or X-Com, where you may have enough troops to deploy to several missions at once, but you have 1/2 crisis teams made of your elites who you send on the toughest of mission because somehow (oh god, somehow), they’ve managed to survive the alien invasion so far and they didn’t drop their fudge at first sight of a Crysallid.
Anyone who doesn’t drop their fudge at first sight of a Sectopod, gets an immediate promotion to Sergeant, and then assigned to Assualt class on teaching people how to properly perform suicide charges, because if you don’t drop your fudge at the sight of a Sectopod, who have obviously given up on life and just want to die in the most badass way possible.
Perhaps if the words used were “survey the landscape” instead of obscure jargon used among the higher echelon and poets with masters degrees the miscommunication could have been avoided. I’ve heard of recognizance only because I watch espionage and heist films and TV shows in that vain seem to like french terminology. I can only imagine what they think reconnoitre means. Recon seems fairly obvious but Connoitre could sounds like “can it.”
That has more to do with you than with the language being “obscure”. Anyone with a military/LE/security background will know the language for sure, anyone into wargames or history will recognize words such as reconnoisance etc. Survey the landscape, otoh, has nothing to do with locating hostiles etc even in the military. It’s strictly used for mapping etc(such as gradients, river depth, sediment etc, to see where vehicles can cross, or where a bridge can be constructed with the least difficulty)
Reconnaissance and reconnoitre really aren’t that obscure. Anyone in a military organisation is definitely going to know it.
So why use it when talking to our her-, our br-, our protagonists?
Hex makes a good point are there only like…4 teams? I only remember 3 so I’m saying 4 for good measure
so theyre all gonna ignore the fact a ship from a secret organisation is parked right next to a icecream truck?
also im with virus getting icecream is a very important task.
Of course it is! The Ice Cream Trucks have the best novelty ice creams treats!
They even have the ones you usually can’t find in the stores, and are desperate to get for ALL of winter.
That kid also needs to choose carefully, he probably only has enough money for one treat, so he has to choose the best he can get.
The Inquisition may be secretive, but they aren’t a secret. Big difference.
well with agents like our main cast i can imagine it being very hard to even keep it a secret.
But all the more necessary to try.
Am I the only person who reads Schaeffer’s words with the voice actor for Gantu from Lilo and Stitch reading in my mind?
I read him in a slightly deeper version of Jeremy Clarkson’s. On that note, I read Simmons in Chris Barrie’s voice.
Things are gonna get hilarious if Wildfire’s new team shows up as their “Backup”.
OH, that’s interesting! I can sense some nice plot to come.. My bet is that it shall finally show more than one Team working together.
Anyway.. 2004? Damn, that’s a long time indeed.. it’s from back when I started drawing at all.. And also close to when I first discovered this comic (not an active guy, am I ?)
Will be waiting for that!
I wonder if Lothar’s new design will be a temporary thing like Knuckles’ new design in the Sonic Boom game coming for the Wii U this fall (did I seriously just advertise that?)
Nope, not going back to old design.
ah, I see *sighs* gonna take some getting used to
IMHO, one of factors of Lothar’s redesign is that he really looked like Knuckles. That’s sad, but what can we do? Um, East is next in line? Because he is not look like recoloured Tails at all. (If so, I’ll miss his bangs)
I’m well aware of that, still, I’m used to the old design
Hey man, take some comfort. At least they didn’t jack Lothar up like SEGA did Knuckles. Not saying that Knuckles’ new design is bad, but it really wouldn’t have fit Lothar.
actually SEGA stated that knuckles is only going to look like that for that game only
I can just tell this is going to end well….
you mean the mission, or east getting icecream?
or for our entertainment both?
Consider who’s involved here.
You honestly think it’d end in anything BUT fire, explosions, and hilarity?
you my friend have just named my top3 things that i like about this comic.
About that kid who’s first in line. Is he a Kangaroo? Huge feet, large ears, long, thick tail, overalls slightly reminiscent of pouch.
Not trying to offend, I just think that there’s a bit more fun to be had in this comic (besides the obvious) by guessing species of minor characters when it’s not exactly obvious. Like Korvos being a porcupine, or Inquisitor Deket being a mountain lion.
Haha, know what’s funny? I shit you not, my image search was for wallaby. Not that I would have drawn kangaroo much different, but heh, you picked the wrong kid to single out as obvious!
Wallabies and Kangaroos are closely related, so it’s not surprising. I didn’t say he was obvious, I said I enjoyed guessing when it WASN’T obvious. XD
What’s your take on the ice cream vendor, then?
I’m surprised they haven’t got a note to the effect that asking this team for recon will result in them returning and saying, “It was this group of cultists. We know because they told us after we were taken hostage but before we broke free and burned the temple down.”
Of course, the C-team would replace the second sentence with, “We know because we found what was left of their IDs in their wallets after we blew the temple up.” So as far as we know, Schaeffer only has one team capable of taking their targets alive, but only females and only for six to eight hours after which they need to be captured again.
I wonder if the Taxi service the B-team uses drops all their passengers off at an Inquisition prison. It would probably save them some trouble if they got that set up.
Virus’s pupils seem to be missing in panel 3, and Schaefer’s also seem to be in panel 4. Is that an art mistake or just a product of seeing someone’s eyes through a hologram? I thought we’d seen eyes before…
Virus’ pupilsI think are hidden by the hologram and Schaefer has NEVER had pupils. That’s one of the main parts of his design. I believe you mean Simmons, who wears glasses and is obstructed by the hologram.
speaking of schaefers design is there a reason in panel 8 he has a ring on his hand while in panel 6 theres no ring on the same hand?
also im with shiva, cant seem to find virus his pupils in panel 3 no matter how hard i look. kinda reminds me of those morph girls normal form from the begginnings of the comic.
Eh, don’t overthink it. Virus wasn’t the focus of the panel, so removing face detail stops him from staring creepily through Schaefer’s head. Simmons is more of a shiny glasses, Gendo Ikari effect.
The redesign was a little jarring, but honestly I approve. He looks less like a purple Knuckles now, more like an original character concept. I think this look suits him better (and as Lothar pointed out, he was always supposed to be black according to the character page). Yes, it will take some getting used to, but remember he originally had a Knuckles-style guardian collar stripe thing instead of dog-tags as well, and his mechanical limbs also got replaced earlier. I personally love seeing artists experiment with their style; the comic’s come a long way since the start. Keep up the good work Virus!
One of the main things is: Knuckles doesn’t actually resemble an echidna. Like, at all. And all my other character designs (most notably the hedgehog a few weeks ago) are at least supposed to look a bit like the animal. Now I’ve always drawn Knuckles’/Lothar’s quills as, y’know, quills, instead of soft, floppy ‘dreadlocks’. But we thought why not actually make him a bit spikier. Like an echidna.
Hahaha, love that. Totaly wish thse characters really did look more like their appropriate species really looks like myself. Wonder what lothar wold look like if he really was designed after a real echidna, like you did with the hedgehog. Slimmer muzzle, for one.
So Lothar how’re those new quill exstensions working put for you?
So. This is looking to be exciting. I have read through every single comment and not ONE person has mentioned this one tiny little detail. What. ~The heck~. Is ~Virus~. Doing in the PILOTS SEAT!?!?!? I am guessing Lothar is humoring his ‘friend’ while Harry is out of the vehicle. Cuz I am so sure that had Harry been there, Virus would NOT be sittign there.
Of course, this brings a call back to a much earlier comic where Lothar takes Virus with him to pick up his ship that he hadn’t used in awhile. They took Harrys to pick it up, I could have sworn Lothar took Virus with him so he could let Vi drive ust to see what the big deal was, but that never happened. The next panel had them in the garage with Lothar’s ship all cob webby.
Out of curiosity, which of the two inquisitors does Lothar ‘dislike the least’? We all know his relationship is the worst with Rogue, but who does he get along with the best? I dunno if it’s just me, but he seems to get along with Virus quite well.
Oh, yes. Forgot to comment on something else. The fact that this has, indeed, been TEN years in the making, I am so totally sure that this is gonna be the best arc so far! I am so totally stoked for it! I can’t wait to see what you do with this, so far it looks really good. I am pretty much guessing that, since there is no communication with the monestary, then those monks musta attacked everbody after gettign caught red handed. Bumer, there was a lot of peeps there.
Also, I have a question. How come Virus never gets to take Blasphemy on any missions? I could see him being somewhat of an asset, if he cooperates. Plus, I would get to see more of him. Together with Virus, they make up the number one spot in my fave chary list. If the reason is mostly because Harry won’t let him, well the argument could be made that, if he were to come, there is always they chance he wouldn’t survive the mission, therefore making Harry’s descision a little more pro tagalong. But meh, whatever. I think I might be rambling now, so I’ll shut up.
Pilot sits on the right hand side in the EN Universe. http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2003-10-13/comic/meet-the-crew/a-matter-of-trust/ BECAUSE THAT IS THE CORRECT SIDE TO SIT ON AMERICA! (Kidding).
I was looking back at some old comics to see where I’d put the pilot’s seat. Turns out I’ve not been very consistent, it flips back and forth. Virus is indeed in the driver’s seat right now. You can just barely see a bit of flight stick in panel 1.
CURSES! Foiled by your inconsistencies once again V.
Lol. I’ve noticed the inconsitency. The flight stick was why I asked. Funny how I didn’t get an answer to a single question though. well, C’Est la vie I suppose.
Oh yeah, questions.
Why pilot seat: to set up the gag in the following comic.
Which inquisitor: Tough to say. I feel like he banters with Eastwood more. And everyone tends to gang up to mock Virus. But his relationship with Rogue isn’t as hostile as on the surface. They bicker, but have more in common with each other than with East or Vi. They often bond over how crap at combat and athleticism the inquisitors are.
Blasphemy: No canon reason. His involvement would have to be a key plot point. And we never came up with an idea for that. We sort of run dry on ideas for Blasphemy in general.
I was going to comment about it being on the right, but then I looked back and saw the switches so I didn’t know what it was supposed to be. Maybe Virus keeps trying to sit in the pilot’s seat so they made it so whoever sits next to him can grab the controls and pull them away.
I laughed harder than what is normal seeing East screeching at a child to make his mind up at the ice cream van : D