T w e n t y S i d e d
In which I make good on my promise that this time… SOMEONE WILL DIE!!!!
No retcons. No time travel. No plot reset. No finding out it was all a dream. I’m not one of those wuss writers that will kill and revive later after a fan outcry. In my story, death is permanent.
Slight spoiler below:
An alternate joke I was toying with was to have Metro die, and then another Metro immediately walk on screen to carry the previous one away, thus introducing the idea that (as in the game) there is always an infinite number of identical Metrocops standing just off-screen, waiting for their moment to walk in and die. But I was worried that would upset the power balance between Breen and Metro. It would lead to jokes where Breen just kills Metro at will, but that would make Metro a bit too much of a victim. It could be done, but it would be a lot harder than what I did here, which was a pretty standard fake-out threat like comics have been using for decades. This felt a little more “right”.
Grand Theft Auto Retrospective
This series began as a cheap little 2D overhead game and grew into the most profitable entertainment product ever made. I have a love / hate relationship with the series.
Black Desert Online
This Korean title would be the greatest MMO ever made if not for the horrendous monetization system. And the embarrassing translation. And the terrible progression. And the developer's general apathy towards its western audience.
The Witch Watch
My first REAL published book, about a guy who comes back from the dead due to a misunderstanding.
The Brilliance of Mass Effect
What is "Domino Worldbuilding" and how did it help to make Mass Effect one of the most interesting settings in modern RPGs?
Video Compression Gone Wrong
How does image compression work, and why does it create those ugly spots all over some videos and not others?
I must say, the After Curfew comics are my favorite recurring cast of characters. Keep up the good work.
“I'm not one of those wuss writers that will kill and revive later after a fan outcry”
To be fair, it’s hard to have a fan base over a side crew that has featured a total of one panel out of nearly 200 comics :D
What! I’m a total fan of Unit 4267-P and the after-curfew band! Why I even have Entertainment Sequence j57-2 as my ringtone.
Someone has dismissed something I like on the internet…it is time to unleash hell. Galad, in my next 4267-P fan fic you will be a stupid person who dies stupidly, while the band laughs at you for being stupid.
As an aside, the link goes to the comments page and not the comic.
*Gasp* Unit 4267-P fanfic! Must read! Do you think shamus will release the preperation footage for their upcoming tour as a post-mortem way to pay off debts like they did with MJ? I’d buy it. I’d buy the T-shirt too. As a collecters item it’s far more potent now that they’re dead.
(No offense to Michael Jackson was intended in the production of this post. This post contains only biological sentences and has been approved by the aapp)
Now is this an author insertion erotic fanfic where Unit 4267-P meets the crew of the Enterprise dressed up as furries or some higher form of fanfic? I need to know so that I can place you on the flow chart and determine if our respective branches of geekdom are now engaged in an internet flamewar.
Ironically, the second-best fanfic I’ve ever read was a self-insert fanfic written by my half brother.
I am curious what the best fanfic you have read was now.
Shamus wrote fanfic, you know…
Oh yeah! I need to put that one my Kindle and read it.
I had a pretty good sense that neither Metro nor Breen would die, but I was sort of expecting that the TF2 announcer lady might kick it. Nice left turn with exploding the band.
I don’t know – “OMG, they killed Kenny” is pretty funny, despite being done every episode. Metro dying regularly could have been pretty funny, too, if done right.
ESPECIALLY in light of the way video games have an infinite number of identical copies of disposable mooks.
But it probably would a bit more difficult to get right, and it would have been a bit of a change to your style.
Three objections to that:
1. South Park did it from episode one.
2. Even they got tired of it eventually.
3. They did it first.
With this in mind, it would be pretty tricky to pull off a similar gag in After Curfew.
It’s not a dead trope until “Simpsons Did It”.
huh, what’s the trope here?
The Simpsons Already Did It episode of South Park.
Devious and (to me) unexpected. Well played, Sir.
I’m not familiar with the game(s) this is based on, but I’m still loving the series! …and love the side comment about “…the 1 frame we shared together…”
P.S. Your link is wrong – taking you to the forum, not the strip itself. :-)
Well played, sir, well played. :)
I hadn’t remembered that there even was a band shown in a comic.
Shamus, you are truly a man of your word.
Honestly, I really expected it to be metro.
Isn’t the whole point in faceless goons that you can kill them off any time, because they’re replaceable?
So instead, you killed off a bunch of different faceless goons, so I guess you get double points for doing the joke I expected in a way I totally failed to see coming, and two others besides.
I actually figured it’d be the audience.
kinda expected the annoucer to die. I wan’t sure how but thats what i expected. Anyway since she’s in the control room make her the crazy director person that the late night shows always have. conan had the always way to big smile guy. jay had the… uhhhh… some…one… yeah go with that.
also suggestion no credit to me maybe you’ve already thought of it. new band = GlaDOS. we aleady know she’s a great singer.
I was expecting the strip to go to the penultimate panel with Breen and Metro having decided not to kill one another. Then, in the final panel, we’d cut away to the RED sniper killing the BLU medic, or something.
I love how killing the band is really only funny because you promised NEXT ISSUE SOMEONE DIES! Nice metajoke. (Although the bit about the gun being the bomb was also amusing. My favorite joke in the whole sequence is how the huge crate just had one little gun in it.)
Same. That was both hilarious and a great little dig at games (almost all of them, really).
Nice surprise twist, Shamus… my money was on a faceless camera man biting the dust, but the band? Now that’s edgy and unexpected!
Neil Gaiman did a pretty good “Keep killing someone” thing with Cain and Abel in Sandman.
Metro’s pretty smart. Sorta.
We should have a contest to name the new band. I suggest Duncan Idaho.
I agree. Or maybe Agatha from Fallout 3. Playing the last Stradivarius in existence. Until it gets destroyed in a freak accident…
I’m going to nominate Nathan Copeland from No More Heroes 2, or Dr. Peace from the first.
Or maybe we should get Lulzy to play a few songs…
The link to the comic is actually to the escapist forum thread on the comic by the way Shamus.