Strip 576 - Click strip above to goto the next strip.
First Seen: Fri 2013-04-12
Story & Art: Scott Bieser - Colors: Zeke Bieser
Sci-Fi Adventure Monday & Thursday.
Quantum Vibe
A thousand years in the future, humanity has colonized worlds in nearly 100 galaxies, thanks to Quantum Vibremonic technologies developed five centuries earlier. Other new technologies have created various off-shoots of humanity and extended life expectancies five-fold. The story begins with how a mad scientist and his plucky assistant, along with their robot friend, brought humanity to the stars, and continues with the adventures of some unique people in fantastic places.
What Comes Next [ Mar 18, 2024 ]
The war is over, but This Means War has a ways to go. Novo Paolo/Bubbleopolis is still in a nebula/stellar nursery, no one knows what happened to the planet Sharen (center of the Intergalactic Council), and the status of the now-surrendered Invaders is yet to be resolved. What will they do when they learn their homeworld is basically destroyed? Will Alyss and Li be re-united? How about Diana (the real one) and Otto?
These questions will be resolved in the next few weeks, before This Means War part 3 wraps in late May.
After that, I plan to go BACK in time about 400 years, to when Alyss and Li left their home in the Sol System to colonize a new world on the far side of the galaxy. As one might expect, hijinks ensue. New subtitle yet to be determined, start date sometime in around the start of July. Stay tuned!
Transcript For Strip 576
Panel 1Nicole, Seamus and Murphy enter the front section of Bernie's Blast'Em Shooting Range. Ernie, a jovial Beltape, greets them from behind the counter.
Bernie: Hi! You must be the Nicole Oresme who belongs to the Witness that just materialized in my fabber.
Nicole: Assuming I like this pistol, yes.
Panel 2
Ernie walks around the counter. He has a full-sized Glock in a holster on his hip. He's holding a box in one hand.
Bernie: Well, let's take this puppy in the back and get you two acquainted.
Bernie: You need protection?
Nicole: Um, yeah, that's why I'm buying a gun.
Panel 3
The back of Bernie's Blast'Em Shooting Range is set up in a fashion not unlike contemporary indoor gun ranges. There are five lanes here, with baffled shooting stands at one end, and a slug-absorbent material at the far end. Targets are carried on frames which run fore and aft on magnetic tracks. Here, Bernie helps Nicole get set up at a stand. They are wearing clear, protective visors.
Bernie: At the practice range you should always wear your visor, and your ear plugs, if you like your hearing.
Panel 4
Closer 2-shot of Nicole and Bernie. Nicole is contemplating her pair of ear-plugs, which are connected by a string.
Nicole: If I'm in a shoot-out will the bad guys stop and let me put my ear-plugs in before I blast them?
Bernie: No, but if you survive the shoot-out you can get your eardrums fixed later.
Panel 5
Properly outfitted, Bernie holds up the Witness and a loaded magazine.
Bernie: Okay, now put these together and rack the slide like I showed you, to load a cartridge in the chamber. Keep the gun pointed downrange at all times.
Panel 6
Nicole holds the Witness in a two-handed grip, pointed downrange, sighting toward the target (OP). Berrnie stands behind and to one side.
Bernie: Okay, line the sights up like I told you, take a deep breath, then a half-breath and hold it, while you slowly squeeze the trigger.
Panel 7
Nicole squeezes the trigger and the gun fires.
SFX: BLAMM!!!
Panel 8
Same shot, only Nicole is now on the ground just beyond Bernie, her feet sticking up in the air from the bottom of the panel.
Bernie: Er ... I guess I should have explained recoil a bit better.
Bernie: You need to brace yourself in the low gravity we have here.
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