Comments (12)

• Fairportfan 12 years ago archived

  Last panel reminds me of the verdict of the court martial on one of the enlisted men accused in the My Lai thing.

  
  

  Basically, it said

  
  

  There wasn't any massacre.

  
  

  Even if there was, he wasn't there.

  
  

  Even if he was there, he didn't do it

  • Darkoneko Hellsing 12 years ago archived

    "It wasn't me, I wasn't there, and no jury can prove anything"

• reynard61 12 years ago archived

  The sergeant's name wouldn't happen to be "[Neidermeyer](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheNeidermeyer "http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheNeidermeyer")", would it?

• Duke of URL 12 years ago archived

  Sadly, his style carried on into the late 20th century - I worked for several like him. One of them (a Chief when I was a Seaman) managed to get me electrocuted (Yes, I died, but I got better) and tried to blame me in the report.

  • Marvelous TK 12 years ago archived

    Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight.

    
    

    You're saying it's the -Navy- that has the zombie program? Huh. I was always betting it'd be the Air Force.

    • D. Schwartz 12 years ago archived

      As an air-deployable munition?

    • BrokenEye 12 years ago archived

      Electrocutions aren't fatal except at very high voltages. I've actually been accidentally electrocuted three times.

      
      

      ... in the same day

      
      

      ... in completely different parts of town

      • Marvelous TK 12 years ago archived

        And normally I wouldn't respond to electrocution with zombies, but mayhaps read his comment again, second set of parentheses, to see how I got to zombies?

        • BrokenEye 12 years ago archived

          Ah, I missed the "I died" part.

• David Argall 12 years ago archived

  The sarge is acting strangely. Maybe he just figures that a successful kill would be praised while a miss gets blame, but there is at least the chance his actions were "exceeding orders" from the start. In any case, it seems to be Voss holding the used weapon if someone investigates [not likely. Wolfe is up for desertion, and other charges, and proving he didn't shoot likely would only change what he gets hanged for. Now maybe the targets will be interested...]

  So they were close, real close....too close? We have to say now the shot was a very easy one, unless we say the distance is shortened for artistic purposes like getting both Wolfe & O'Malley in the same picture. While the previous pictures do make it clear they are close, they do argue for a little more distance. [And doing all that talking that close? It does seem that double the distance would be better.] Maybe O'Malley staggered a couple of steps toward the soldiers and then fell in their direction?

  
  

  My plot guess of a trial by the people is looking a bit thin, but it is still possible Wolfe will be tried by both sides.

  • billydaking 12 years ago archived

    Well, the sergeant's a bit of a hothead who doesn't think much of his "bastard" superior. So, big picture thinking really isn't much of his

    thing.

    
    

    Still, if he managed to kill the nationalist leader, he might have been viewed as taking initiative and advantage of an unforeseen opportunity by command higher up than his lieutenant. That's actually pretty normal in military history. Instead, because Wolfe managed to botch it, the nationalists now are alerted to the army's presence and intentions, and absolutely nobody is going to be happy about that. So, Wolfe gets to be the scapegoat (and no forensics for muskets, so Voss simply fired his weapon in the resultant melee with the nationalists. And missed, of course).

    
    

    If Wolfe stayed to be tried, his defense would be, essentially, "I prevented them from killing the nationalist leader". That probably would have dropped him in front of a firing squad.

    
    

    As far as how close they were...in a previous strip, the leader, O'Malley, and the crowd were seen standing next to the building on Wolfe's left (April 16), with Wolfe, Voss, and the sergeant hiding behind the broken wall. In the next strip, things look a little different in the last panel--the crowd and O'Malley are gone with just Wolfe aiming for the back of the leader, who now looks like to be right on the far corner of the building. Along with the crowd's sudden absence, the perspective is probably stretched a bit for artistic effect (elongating for Wolfe's state of mind). In this strip, O'Malley does stagger forward as everyone else scatters and runs around the corner of the building (see the shaky movement lines?). So he winds up closer to where Wolfe and Co. are than he was.

• Sturzkampf 12 years ago archived

  Meanwhile, Mr O'Malley is quietly bleeding to death. Let's hope Herr Wolfe makes his hraling roll.