Unexpected Proposal
Chapter: Season Eight
Sorry for the late in the day post but I traveled this weekend and I feel like I have been beaten with a bag of hammers.
Comments are closed.
/>
/>
Sorry for the late in the day post but I traveled this weekend and I feel like I have been beaten with a bag of hammers.
Comments are closed.
HOVER-TEXT: Yeah, I know I reused panels. Guys, I am really tired. I will redraw it soon.
What’s the big deal about reusing panels when it is convenient to do so? Who actually gets hot and bothered over a minor artistic shortcut in a scene where it doesn’t actually take away from anything?
What they said.
Ditto
Some artists do it a LOT as a lazy way to do minimal work, so doing it at all gets tarred by association. The odd panel here and there where it suits the scene is no big deal though.
Hear, hear. You’ve demonstrated time and again your commitment to your art. How many of your panels have blown us away, and been celebrated in the comments? (Hint: a lot) To the naysayers, I say “Nay, right back atcha’!”
Cut-Paste is a tool. Use it when it’s the right tool. I trust you to use all the tools at your disposal, when the time is right to do so.
I’m not sure who’s been giving you crap about art shortcuts. Rest assured no sensible person is bothered by it, or normally, even notices. We’re into the story.
In any case, if you actually were a lazy artist who relied on panel re-use, you wouldn’t be constantly changing character appearances!
Next person who gives you a hard time on this needs to go over a year or two of the great strip “Dinosaur Comics.”
Sleep, Brian! Comic can wait!
IT’S A TRAP!
Obviously it’s a trap: Dove is involved, and so is macho, conceited bullcrap.
I always think everything could be a trap. That’s why I’m still alive.
Join me, Sam and together we will rule the Table-Top Industry as brother and … brother …
And even now, Dove is still a tool: the difference is that he is a tool of the real antagonist.
Me, earlier today: “Obviously Lee has a grudge here, because if he really wanted to succeed in the gaming business he’d team up with Sam, since they each have what the other lacks.”
Well played.
but, like, why spring this now? Bring your bro in sooner, man.
OMG no re-used panels. Whatever will we do. This is easily worse than anything that has ever happened in the history of mankind, and possibly even womankind. I’ll have you know I’m writing my Congressman right now about this, and I expect I’ll also be suing since I clearly deserve better for the $0.00 I’m paying you with every comic I receive.
It’s okay though. Because you’re living that fabulous webcomic artist’s lifestyle, rollin’ in all that advertising and Patreon buckage. I heard you even ate recently. Hedonist.
Expect to hear from my attorneys, as well as the national media over your gross transgression. For SHAME.
Bad timing Lee. I actually think this would’ve been a successful offer offhand if he hadn’t included Dove. If -not- for Dove, this would’ve been an easy in, easy out, success. He might’ve even been able to recruit Dove afterward pointing out that he can use him for further recruitment. As is, a good and legitimate part of Sam’s response is going to be “Well, no. Loyalty to the Den and all that.”
That’s kind of the point. It’s an offer he can’t accept. But, having made the offer, he will consider himself in the right to crush his brother BECAUSE he rejected it.
House Harkonnen offered peace, knowing that the Atreides would reject it.
I <3 this comment simply for the Dune reference. But might be correct in that it's an attempt a thin moral "high ground" to let him say that he did offer and was rejected…Dove was seemingly recruited for this "because" of his attitude, so it casts this offer in a very "deal with the devil" sort of light.
Fuck. Yes. This.
Nasty douchebags always have an excuse. It is NEVER their fault. It’s YOUR fault for not accepting their version of reality! Why did you do that?! Now they have to punish you! See what you made them do? Next time you’ll be good, and listen to them!
And yes, that was going exactly where you think it was…
Also, I do not care what Brian has scripted for the next strip, Sam needs to mutter that Dune quote.
I don’t know, I’m kind of interested in a scenario where Sam and Dove have to work together in order to run the shop.
The comment I previously only thought instead of writing was to the effect that if Lee were serious about their town only being able to support one gaming store, he’d go into business with Sam and not as a competitor. Buuuuuuuut… it still doesn’t explain involving Dove, or Dove’s recruitment being about “revenge”. So, I am going to go with “it’s complicated” and that there are machinations to come. It’s also possible that Lee has no genuine hard feelings for his little bro and only resents their father and the Dragon’s Den by proxy.
If Lee’s a smart business man then it’s actually incredibly brilliant to have Dove be a part of all this. Think about it, Sam probably won’t want to get of his Dad’s business and Lee knows that, but instead of it being Lee that Sam will be fighting against it will be Dove, someone who Lee knows that Sam hates with a passion.
So Sam tries to keep the store open, but with all the things that Lee previously stated about same day shipping or cleaner facilities, people will head there instead. At the end of it all Sam has to close the Dragons Den down, and Lee is there to offer Sam the partnership again.
Which, by the way, probably means he’ll be above Dove. Cheeto Dust suit anyone?
That wouldn’t be better, that’d be an insult rubbing salt in the wound.
“Hey little brother so I purposefully showed that I can tank the store that’s been in our family at least a generation, but come to our super high tech new thing full of jerks and players you’d hate to associate with you can be my partner. That I basically forced into the position because of my business practices.”
Let’s be real, the same players that go to Dragons Den would hop over to Game Haus in a heartbeat if it meant bigger play areas and better service. Hell, only reason Dragons Den did so well for so long is because Sam’s dad got the best spot and none of the other stores could get a foothold.
If your clientele aren’t the fiercely loyal kind, there’s nothing you can do.
I mean I totally expect Dove to commit sexual harassment or get sued to high heaven because it’s fucking Dove, but still.
Don’t forget cheaper prices. If Lee is bankrolling the whole thing, he can undercut Sam to a ridonkulous degree. Forget ‘discounts’, forget ‘cheaper than retail’, he can offer product *below cost* in order to drive traffic to his store.
See also Walmart corporate strategy.
Oh Gods, this.. I used to work at a bookstore. (A chain that sold new book) People used to constantly ask why we couldn’t price match Walmart for book/CDs/DVDs.. I used to have to explain what a loss leader was and how, since that was ALL we sold, we needed to make a profit on it. That, plus people seem to think the majority of the markup is on the Bookstore end, and it’s not.. things may have changed, but back then, the best a store paid was 50% off the cover price, and in most cases it was about 30% off the cover price. (text books were usually about 5-10% off)
That’s what I’m thinking here. Sam is still his brother, and despite disagreements about gaming there didn’t seem to be any real hate between them, so I don’t think Lee wants to see him brought down the way Dove probably wants.
Though he most likely sees the Dragon’s Den, his father’s legacy as the symbol of his own failure (and to his mind “rejection” by his father), and aims to destroy that by helping Dove bring it down and at the same time show his father that he can run a better game store than the Dragon’s Den.
So he probably genuinely wants to throw Sam a lifeline here.
It’s already been established that he has little real knowledge of the gaming scene, so it’s possible he doesn’t actually know the kind of person Dove really is. It could be that he knows Dove wanted to bring down Dragon’s Den and recruited him to help in that (probably having heard about his army of sycopha… err, I mean “followers” and knowing he could pull in a huge amount of traffic to the store).
Though he might not have realised that Dove is the kind of person who’ll want Sam brought down and humiliated with the Dragon’s Den too.
Just my take so far. Maybe I’m wrong and he’s gone completely over to the Dark Side. (Heard they have cookies after all!)
(Guys I can’t tell that he’s reused panel art). Brian how could you reuse panel art?! It’s not as though you’re a busy professional with multiple things competing for your time and attention!
Mars is using peace as a distraction…
I got you on this one Brian: Bag of Hammers is my Synth-Punk Bruce Springsteen cover band.
Seriously, man, wouldn’t have even noticed the reused panels. Rest up and see you when you can get back in the saddle. Thanks for continuing to make this awesome comic. 🙂
I’ve seen this movie before. Sam is about to lose a hand and then fall down a large shaft.
hurhurhur
Stupid question time – Who is Lee again?
Sam’s older brother, seen in the first Brett x-mas arc. When Sam asked Pops for a job, Pops told him about the horrible job Lee did working there.
Thanks!
“Oh yeah, I totally want to partner with you. That’s why I spent all this time setting up this shop without your knowledge and didn’t say word one about any sort of cooperation before now. Screw any of the efficiencies of working together way earlier than this. Who wants to save money, time, and confusion by coordinating? Do you think I’m a businessman or something?
I know I totally defended Dove and threatened your employee, but how was I to know you had a beef with him? It’s not like we’re brothers or anything, and I should be expected to have any sort of knowledge of your life.
Because that’s totally why I want to partner with you. Because we’re brothers and I am totally a part of your life and altruistic and stuff. Nothing shady going on here.”
It seems like it boils down to:
“Dove’s a douche, Lee, and should be 86’d, not working here.”
“Untapped market, little bro. This is why I’m good at my job.”
“Profits over art?”
“Yup… good luck!”
“Fuck…”
Considering Lee’s type is the reason I left the pro-gaming scene years and years ago (tourny organizers going third party, and allowing things like trash-talking and generally unsportsmanlike behaviour in favor of “fueds” and more money/less oversight), this arc hits a personal nerve.
I’m really excited to see how it goes, either way.
What a first day at the shop, though….
There’s no way this is a genuine offer.
When you want to partner with someone to open and run a business, you contact them BEFORE opening said business.
no one gives Ryan North $#!^ for reusing panels in “Dinosaur Comics”, so I wouldn’t worry TOO much! LOL
Sorry to hear about the whole bag of hammers thing, but that’s probably better than a bag of rubber dicks. I don’t really know but at least with hammers you get some sympathy, rubber dicks just make people laugh.
pish posh reused pamels.reusad drawings.. if itsb good enough for disney,its good enough for you!
muahaha please tell me we get to see Dove s face when he hears of that…
What a twist. Very Darkside of the Force right there. I wonder why he didn’t pitch it to his dad though. It would make more sense there business wise unless his dad was against it or felt that he was retiring to soon for such a partnership.
why would he not accept this offer? He is being asked to partner with his brother not work with Dove. He gets to sell the other shop and bank that (forget legacy his old man couldn’t wait to get out). Actually running a game store is a pain in the ass that does not involve actually getting to play games. So if Dove is there to actually run the store either he does a great job and you make lots of money or he does a crap job and you get to fire him and take over.
This is kind of the I’m 19 and I’m going to fight you and win because I understand the true soul of gamers idea. When the truth is gamers will abandon you in a heartbeat for a better deal somewhere else. Sam probably learns a hard lesson at the end of this.