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The space storyline and this chapter come to their juvenile end! I think this story held up all right, relatively speaking. We can all look at the archive now and know for sure that is definitely true.

Tad Overdue was supposed to be a pervy news anchor that Harvest emulated and eventually supplanted at the local TV station but I don’t think we ever did that story. In fact there are not that many more stories coming. There’s less than 100 comics in Chapter 5 before the strip goes up in flames (literally.)

I won’t be taking a full week break between chapters this time for two reasons- they are pointless because I write multiple posts per day and will have become a full time reader long before these strips post, and also Monday is my birthday so it gets to be Flatliner’s birthday, too. Send cake and presents. See ya Monday!

If there was going to be an “in space” story there were going to be space pirates, god dammit. It does bring Pumpkinseed back into the fold, but this whole arc it would seem is about cleaning house, anyway.

I had forgotten that it was Mitch and Ryan who provided us with a literal loophole to reset the story. It even calls back to the “accurate depiction of lasers” that Ryan gave us earlier. So, one big bow tie to wrap all of Flatliner up.

But wait, there’s more! It’s a whole other chapter! And also another installment of this giving us all the aforementioned Evangelion mess ending before this chapter is brought to its screeching halt.

The punchline for the sleeping bag bit was too precise to pass up. Just one last brutal insult. The bubble pipe coming out of the space helmet was also a nice touch. That and openly addressing how I was too lazy to edit blood off Zelda’s helmet. Worth it for a turn of events for the fictional versions of ourselves that skews slightly awkward when looking back. In reality, Z and I are like found siblings. But in the end, a person’s Flatliner counterpart is no more “actually” them than their TTRPG character would be them.

Things are tracking to work JUST AS I PREDICTED for the timing of when these strips will be complete, which is in the grand scheme of Flatliner about as useful as Flatliner is in the grand scheme of the universe. That is to say, extremely important.

Space wraps up next week, and then we’re on to the home stretch. Soon I’ll have to start coming up with new content for this site. Something a little heftier than an Animal Crossing Parody Instagram account, anyway.

The fact that after all these years, and my arbitrary decision to do three strips per post, combined with my skipping of an offensive strip and here and there eventually put these three on the same page is serendipitous.

This is a masterpiece in MS Paint violence. A despite a few spasmic rattlings, a sendoff for Becky. Real Becky, if you’re out there drop us a line. And maybe don’t scroll down. Or read tomorrow’s post. You’re dead in the strip but there’s just a grotesque display of disrespect that will follow.

I’m retconning one thing here, but no edit is required- That 7-Up can is the one saying “What did you say?” in the second panel of the second strip. It’s a full fledged character with a full personality, the talking can. It actually is better developed than a lot of the real-people-characters who were depicted over the years.

It was only a short time ago that I got to be there when it was broken to Zelda that the Burger King Kids’ Club did not solve mysteries, but in fact just stood around talking about how much they love Burger King. It was a great joy to be there for that.

I don’t know why my Flatliner guy is pissed about getting the crippled kid as his patron saint of the patty. That kid got a mean nickname from the marketing department at BK, but relatively speaking he got off pretty light.

Is the BKKC a terrorist organization? The answer by all accounts must be yes. They are a splinter cell of the Planeteers, which was a radical organization committed to killing people who litter.

This begins Becky’s exit. Her death is needlessly violent and gets dragged across the galaxy and is one of very few deaths that stays permanent (though she does get Ghost Busted later).

The space setting is living up to how I remember it- TOP QUALITY references to children and nerd pop culture coming at you at a breakneck pace. We’ve got TNG, Space Cases, and in case you missed it G.N.A. the Android is absolutely a reference to the odd sci-fi scene from that one episode of Salute Your Shorts.

The Rick-as-Erin thing gets an awesome expression out of Dana. These faces are at their best when the character is completely disgusted or outraged.

I want to state that I’m pleased that I’ve only had to edit one bubble so far and haven’t skipped a beat since this arc started. Was I growing as a person and a storyteller? Maybe just barely and definitely not.

Flatliner could have stayed in space and other than probably killing off characters via airlock it wouldn’t have changed it all. As it stands, this story ends like the last two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion except you lose fewer brain cells and it won’t gobble up an hour of your time.