08/18/2013
For the unacquainted: Burning Man is an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert, NV. I could write more about it, but I would rather just send interested parties over to the Wikipedia page for further details.
For the record, no, I have never been there. Burning Man, to me, is a lot like the San Diego Comic Con: huge, crowded, hot, smelly, noisy, filled with strange people in bizarre fashions (the ones who feel like wearing clothes, that is…), nowhere to potty, loaded with psychos and dweebs, and yet still something that should probably be seen at least once in a person’s lifetime.
I’m with you on that one Aidan … Burning man is not something I would put on my “lifestyle list” … but it is definitely on the bucket list. I would like to say I had seen it once, even if just briefly.
I just returned from a trip to the Nevada desert (Las Vegas, not Black Rock) and I’ll say this: if you go out there, make sure you can survive the damned heat! You don’t want your trip to Burning Man to be the last item on your kick-the-bucket list, if you get my drift.
My money’s on Burning Man. No way are these guys ready for it.
That’s for sure: they’re all still wearing clothes! Thank God.
I think I’ve figured out Scap’s basic problem: He’s lazy. He wants the respect, the money, etc., but he’s just unwilling to do the often-tedious legwork involved with the run-up to a big heist. So instead he goes for the big, flashy statements like the concert attack, or this, where he’s winging it and lying through his teeth about the payoff.
And of course, people catch on, like the team is bound to do, and Scap ends up with little beyond a kicking and more reason to mope.
I’d agree with that. Some people with a fierce determination can accomplish a helluva lot on their own; Scap may be determined, but he’s also held back by his own huge set of personal problems. But I can see how he’d be looking for the easiest answer to getting what he wants. To him, anything is better than NOT getting what he wants (which is most of the time).
Looked up the term “speedball”. Learned a new drug name.
Either that, or this is a Collosus and Wolverine reference.
…..
Or we are about to see a baseball match from the doom legion.
Hypnausea would probably enjoy a scenario where a super-buff metallic man grabs a short macho dude by the butt and throws him around.
X-Men…sheesh! What pervs.
Hell, fot Hypnausea, the “metallic” part would probably be just confusing, in that scenario, unless he figures you’re talking about some really exotic piercings.
Very true! Unless if he thinks it’s the “metal” crowd (some of them swing both ways, despite the overly-macho image).
John Belushi’s final chemical cocktail.
Also, sadly, this guy.
Alas poor Ditko…he meant so well with Speedball. If only he knew that comic readers of the 90’s wanted only the most violent testosterone-fueled, shallow ‘gritty’ characters imaginable?
But hey, I’m sure Mr. A could have taken those guys on (or at least lectured them to death)!
That said, I have a hard time picturing a viable market for a villain like “The Two-Legged Rat.”
Yes, I bought Speedball’s first run, because Ditko.
Hey, I liked Speedball. What other hero got to fight a villain that fired exploding rubber bands and tried to strangle someone with a cats’ cradle setup just to get back at teachers who had pushed him to excel? (That would be Class Clown, btw).
I still give credit for most bizarre superhero experiences to She-Hulk. Seriously, go back and read John Byrne’s old run: wacky villains, surreal situations, and numerous excuses to tear her clothes off!
San Diego comic con is higher on my list than Burning man only cuz I might get a hotel room.
You would have to book that hotel room several years in advance (yup…years!), but you have the same odds of getting a room there as waiting for hotels to start popping up around Burning Man. It could happen!
“No where to potty”
I like how elegantly put that is, ha ha.
Sometimes I like to mix it up too, one day at a local mall I had to go really bad so I walked up to a lady working one of those stupid mini shops in the walk way and told her that I needed to “tinkle” and asked her where the nearest potty was.
She couldn’t stop laughing.
“Excuse me, madame. Do you know the location of the nearest restroom? It seems that I need to wee-wee.”
By all means, mix it up. Drain the lizard, water the flowers, piddle, peepee, whizz, and tinky-winky to your heart’s content!
How old is Hypnausea, out of curiosity?
And Burning Man sounds like a very unpleasant time to me. I can’t stand crowds and as much as I ADORE deserts, I do not do well in the heat.
According to my character biography notes, Hypnausea is in his early thirties, making him the second youngest member of the group (Babirus is still in his mid-twenties, despite having the hairline and skin texture of an old man…a very gross old man).
Deserts are lovely to look at, but Lord almighty, I don’t like to be in them. I am not one to stand the heat, and I drink water constantly (well, when I’m not downing coffee or booze), so I doubt I’d be taking any more pleasure trips out to the heated sands anytime soon.
Scratch that, Hypnausea is the third youngest. Tigadactyl is in his twenties, too.
scap has no one ever told you that attempting to murder a ex and making it look like a accident is a bad thing to do?…no?…they never told me either but it’s good advice non the less
EGAD! Sounds like someone is taking advice from a bad source…probably this comic!
Ah Nevada……. one of the last frigging places on earth I ever want to be. Just barely beat out by the gobi and sahara deserts! I can hack humidity, but dry heat just kills me. Not saying Vietnam is pleasant in summer, but at least there’s shade.
So, our resident cannibal psycho is also a chopper pilot. I like that, and I especially like the shades! Scap sulking in panel 3 is comically cute to me. And of course, it’s nice to see the boys all suited up and ready for some chaos. I’d personally just torch the whole thing and call it a day….. you know how famous you’d be for wasting Burning Man?
Now remember, when in the desert, take shelter during the day, use a reflective surface to shine signals out from your position (they can be seen for miles), conserve water and energy, avoid anything salty or carbonated, and don’t be fooled by potential shelter, shade, or safety appearing in the distance. Things can be VERY far away when you see them and the sense of ‘I’m safe!’ can be fatal. Keep out of direct sun where possible, wear loose clothes to keep the sun off but let air circulate, and for the love of God don’t waste energy shouting at the buzzards. Also sargasso cacti are painful, and the water in them isn’t entirely healthy for human beings. In fact it should be a last resort.
I just spent two days in Nevada, and while it has a visually beautiful countryside (rocks….lots of neat rocks), the heat is a guarantee that I wont be back anytime soon. If you can live there, then you’re probably well prepared for the nuclear apocalypse depicted in so many bleak sci-fi tales.
It also sounds like someone has learned a lot about surviving combat in the desert, something we all might remember from a little cautionary tale called The Hills Have Eyes. Remember, when dealing with cannibal loonies out in the desert, use rattlesnakes as weapons, prop up your dead as decoys, and remember, the exploding RV trick isn’t flawless.
…oh, yes, and get a kick-ass German Shepard who can maul your enemies and tactfully push them off cliffs. Seriously, that dog rocked. My favorite character in the whole movie (sorry, Pluto)!
One of my subs was a mexican indian who had taught desert survival. She also told me a few fun tricks about certain breeds of snakes…… Like for example the infamous copperhead, which is the only snake that tends to go escape-attack instead of escape-warning display-attack. She also showed me how to make sandals out of old tires and that barefoot running is WAY easier on your body than running in shoes….. barefoot you tend to run on the balls of your feet which lessens impact shock as opposed to running by slamming your heel down. On hot sand it also reduces the amount of less toughened skin from your arch that comes into contact with searing hot surfaces!
In the desert, the enemy is usually the least fatal thing you encounter, it seems.
PS….. just noting I would probably be one of the last people killed in a Nevada+Babirus scenario. I’d likely still end up dead though. Horror movie rules about overprepared people never seem to change.
I’ll have to try that some day…when I’m out in the desert, which will hopefully not be for a while. Instead, I’ll just roast myself to death in ol’ smoggy Los Angeles!
Mankind has sure lost a lot of ingenuity in the spoiled technological age, huh? I wouldn’t know the first thing to do with a copperhead, or cottonmouth, or fer-de-lance…other than getting the hell away from them!
Actually you win a prize….. that’s EXACTLY what you do with a snake! Leave it alone. Don’t try to kill it or whatever, just go away and it will do so too 99% of the time.
Ugly in Scap, but beautiful in scope and color!
It will do in a Scap…uh, scrape. Wait, are we doing wordplay?
Nice job on the helicoptor, Aidan! Scapula had better be careful trying to pull one over on not just his ex, but on his gang too.