10/23/17 Final Move

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So, I didn’t want to leave a strip where people ACTUALLY thought Mauricio was dead. It just didn’t feel right to manipulate the story that way. So, I’m posting the last two strips of PART ONE as one strip (Wedneday’s will just be a doodle).

I hope you all find this end of part one as satisfying as I do.

34 Comments

  1. Herandar

    EXCELLENT!!!

    My only comment for the first half was: “Only Nogg would comment on the funky dance moves of an alien before it killed the children of his audience.”

    As for the double strip, I’m pretty sure most people have thought Mauricio was ACTUALLY dead since the start of the new strip. It’s the one thing Nogg is reliable at: failing.

    Love the end of Part One. Looking forward to Part Two. It just feels like The Canterbury Tales, or Dan Simmons’ Hyperion to have an entirely new storyteller with a completely different voice and worldview.

    And I suspect Jabby’s sense of justice has changed as much as his physical form. Old Jabby would’ve started firing no more than three words into Mauricio’s response.

  2. Herandar

    I need to go back and check, but I don’t think an argument can really be said for Mr. Zorilla abandoning Mauricio. He wasn’t aware that he existed, so how could he abandon him? And the mother was a one night stand, IIRC. That’s not abandoning her, either, as she never relied upon him.

        1. Gillsing

          “Not part of a person’s life” is not part of the general definition of “one-night stand”. As far as I know a one-night stand is “not the start of a relationship”. Or possibly “not intended as the start of a relationship”. Making up your own definition and then using it as evidence for how something doesn’t exist seems… wrong.

  3. Ah, that’s a great end to a great first part. I knew it! For the sake of the story and difference with the old spacetrawler, he had to be alive. But I wasn’t hundred percent sure, of course, so I’m really glad. I like Mauricio very much and i want to see him interact with the other characters much longer…

  4. andreas

    What even fewer people know is that the Kreebrick also survived… and quit universe-destroying in favor of running with a trans-galactic dance-troupe called the wiggle-room. What still fewer people know is that the Kreebrick is behind the oblique saying that dancing too closely with a mystic stranger will open up a universe – literally!

  5. Wow. I’m floored. You’re an incredible storyteller, Chris. Just incredible!

    I assumed from the start of the story that Mauricio was dead. But in the last strip, from the way Jabby spoke “Remember this the next time…” made me wonder if Mauricio and Jabby would survive. And survive they did!

    It was expected that Anesu and Devyat would feel devastated on Mauricio’s ‘death’ but Bikkie feeling similar shows how much deeper and more complex his character is from simply a raging murderous kangaroo. I really like hIm and how you’ve developed all the characters. And the Kreebrick’s sneaky eyes wondering if there’s a threat is so good.

    Thank you for not making us wait a few months before part 2. It would’ve been torture otherwise.

  6. Rikard

    Hello

    Right so about that closure and emotions and stuff and drama and arglebargle what is happening?

    I am flabbergasted, beyond words! This! This is how you use twists and turns and roundabouts in stories.

    Inspirational, is what this!

    Greetings from Sweden,
    Rikard, ex-teacher

  7. Night-Gaunt49

    Well Chris I have to add a higher setting for your work to be appraised. You just pulled the rug out and slapped me with it like a cold fish. Wholly mole!

    What a shock. So the weapon fully merged with him in the pico second remaining. I wonder if it absorbed the powers of the Kreebrick? Too bad he doesn’t understand his dad. Hopefully he can get through the pain his son has of abandonment.

    1. TB

      I interpreted it as the gun wrapping around him to make a shield. Although Jabby has now apparently figured out a way to make himself less obvious. This indicates a more intelligent strategic mind instead of the original “shoot ’em all” personality. Scary.

  8. Muzhik

    Satisfying end? Yeah, I guess so. About as satisfying as eating a whole one-pound bag of M&Ms by yourself. You’ve got the sugar rush, the chocolate limerence (or whatever that word is that describes the warm feeling chocolate gives you) and the combination of “I’m full!” and “Wait, is that all?”

    Well, at least if you make them peanut M&Ms you can look at all the protein you’ve consumed and tell yourself it’s really good for you. Despite how you feel.

      1. Muzhik

        (sigh) I suppose it IS a compliment. If you want to take it that way.

        I mean, not that I’M one to give compliments. Once you’ve given ONE compliment, then EVERYONE will expect one.

        Still, I suppose, yeah, that was a compliment. (stretches out arm, grabs your shoulder, and gives it a quick shake) So you get a warm Minnesota hug (even though I’m from Iowa) and something my high school coach once said (but only once):

        “Ya done real good, kid.”

        Now, go. Get back to work. Stop dawdling. I need to get back to saving for my next one-pound bag of M&Ms. When it comes to chocolate, Hwan and I are soul brothers.

  9. Peter Rogan

    Nice twist. We were anticipating clamoring for more, and what we have is the promise of more that doesn’t meet our preconceived notions, again, if we ever had any. Neat trick. Nothing spoils the dread of an ending more than falling through a trap door onto a moving conveyor belt, with the sound of munching down the way it is going. I grin.

    1. Muzhik

      @Minando, “new (killer)-heart (?) instead”? Is that something like the Grinch? You know, how in the end, his heart grew three sizes that day? Although in a Bizzaro-land kind of way.

  10. I often go back to reread the last few strips to keep your story line fresh in my mind and to see in retrospect how each leads to the next strip.

    So when I went back to read this again, it occurred to me that Jabby didn’t ask in any specific term if he could destroy, kill or end their life. Instead he asked if he could ‘dole out justice’. And you place quotation marks around Mauricio’s answer of imminent “justice”. All this leads me to think that this new combined (melded?) Mauricio-Jabby doesn’t think of justice as always killing. Perhaps the new Mauricio-Jabby personality has combined the best qualities of both the original characters.

    It will be very interesting to watch how he interacts with the other characters as the story develops. He very much reminds me of the person that Yuri became at the end of the first story and the beginning of this one.

    Again, I say “Bravo, Chris!!”

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