Marooned Classics: #24

After the Weeble incident, the guys return back to the dome and John does some serious thinking, and he apparently comes to the realization that he is actually a failure. He begins to rethink some of the facts that led up to his leading this mission that don’t add up in his mind.

And that’s where Asimov comes in and spreads a little salt into the wound.

As far as gags go, this one always makes me chuckle, and I’m always happy with a strip that makes *me* laugh, because that’s honestly one of the main reasons I do this.

The drawing here isn’t too good, but I don’t mind it so much since I like how it all comes together. You have Asimov trolling in on panel 2, and making his statement at just the right moment in panel 3, then trolling out in panel 4 as John reacts. I love John’s pose and facial reaction in panel 4, and the blank stares in panel 3 as the realization hits John and Ugo.

Again I recolored and added light and shadow. I also tweaked some text, mainly changing “Mars lander” to “Destiny II” which is the name of John’s ship. (I believe this has been mentioned somewhere else in the strip, but I’m not 100% sure.)

I also added the sound effect (whump) to emphasize his banging the table.

The good thing about this strip is that it points out John’s sometimes hapless predicament. Asimov gleefully keeps important information from John, only to deliver it at the most inopportune time. John doesn’t seem to able to break Asimov of this habit. Maybe at some point it will no longer matter, but until then John will have to deal with it.

Lastly, this is the first strong indicator we get in the strip that John and Asimov are in fact stuck on Mars for real.

View the original strip