I’ll be making a more proper blog post about this once I wake back up, but please direct your attention to This Kickstarter for some awesomeness! Suffice to say it’s the first time I’ll be paid directly for comic pages, and some great webcomic peops are participating!
WHOA.
I knew Ben was setting himself up to be ludicrously epic, but….WHOA.
I did NOT see that coming.
I don’t think they saw that one comin’!
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
GO BEN! Whoo! <33
WHOA.
<33333
FUUUUUUU–
If I didn’t see the last one coming, then I really didn’t see this one coming.
I see Ben’s grown up since his LoT days.
Ya know I probably don’t say it enough but I lav Ben, I really should draw some fanart of him sometime.
It would appear he’s at a moment of “Not in the mood.”
Damn, Ben!
Did I mention I think Ben is awesome? No? Well now you know.
OWNEEEEEED!
I think Ben is a pretty cool guy. Eh shoulder throws assassins and doesn’t afraid of anything.
I have to admit: I only HALF did not see this coming after the last comic. Remember that Ben was in the same martial arts class as Steffi {as seen in Track 04 flashbacks} so he has the same training that Steffi has (if not better).
Still, to be able to flip down someone who’s half a head taller than you and half-metal… Ben definitely earned some epicly-bada** points. And all while looking classy to boot.
OH SHIZ
My heart just exploded, this is epic.
I take it that that is a yes? Though maybe saying so first would have been better.
I predict Gear will not be happy when she gets up.
O:
…. O:
…. finebenyouarentatool >_<
It’s official. Ben’s a badass.
yep. Seeeerious.
Oh
God.
Oh _god_.
There is nothing about this page I dislike. Every panel is incredible.
BEN DON’T TAKE NO CRAZY LADY SHIT.
That. THAAAT.
…That right there is the exact face of “Underestimated Opponent”.
I was (and still am) at work when this page was posted, and I literally squealed when I saw the second panel.
I have now officially scared everyone around me.
Also, I’ve pledged towards that book. It’s seriously looking awesome, and I certainly hope there’s enough backing for it.
[After some TVTropes editing]
Benzene is indeed the Badass Normal. And now,I hope that they run. Very fast. Because when Gear gets up,she’ll be PISSED.
and now, they both jump on the bike a drive away really fast! seriously though, hes just the sidekick how?
i guess those karate classes paid off
BEN KNOWS HOW TO FIGHT
everything is gonna be alright
Go Ben! Plus the “splash” for the last panel is perfect.
I totally forgot that Ben taught Steffi how to fight.
I had to say the word ‘owned’ out loud when I read this page. I’m lucky no one else was in the room.
I really love that SPLASH effect.
AND BEN, EGAD, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANTED YOU TO DO AND I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW IT
But… there is no way he can lift her like that. I mean she has to be much heavier than him with the mechanical parts that she has, right?
Hmm…
@Tara A Scientist Did It. I dunno.
If it was only possible to throw people lighter than you, Judo would suuuuck.
yayy!!!!!! GO BEN GO !!!!!!!
lol thats Badass
Yeah Ben! Kick her ass!
I said “Woah.” out loud after seeing this.
I have saved ben’s awesomeness and am now making it my background
Too true about Judo; it’s all about leverage. I’m a big guy and i’ve been thrown by a little old lady trained in Aikido.
I should be doing homework, but this it too epic to pass up!
ah Judo, the first line of defense for the outclassed. Its only counter requires learning the art of unliftable limpness from housecats.
Wait, wouldn’t Gear weigh a ton due to all that metal? That mean’s Benzene’s the strongest character in this comic so far!
@sam are you sure that you want to admitt that on the internet?
also my take on the panels:
Gear: dafuq!
Ben: Bitch Please.
why is it that when I post from my computer I get the cute racoon face, but then when I post from my Iphone i get the cheif’s face? I used the same e-mail for both.
dumb as it is to comment three times in a row, I just noticed that in the last frame you can see steffi’s feet. I don’t remember her getting up in the last panel, did she magically stand up like she is involved in a video game glitch?
Hell yeah! Quick! Punch her in the teeth while she’s still on the ground!
@Maelstorm There is no shame in admitting such a thing. Little old ladies with akido are scary. Also, Ben helped Steffi get up in the third to last panel of the last comic, remember?
What did I say?!
@Hfar Oh yeah… I feel stupid now.
Yup ben i has just earned a crowning moment of awesome good work you epic epic fellow
test
I had no real strong feelings about Ben one way or the other up to this point. But now…I’m Team Ben, all the way.
Well, alright then.
Awesome scene.
I literally shrieked.
Ohhh shit it’s /on./
I remembered that he was in Steffi’s class in those flashbacks, but there’s way less hesitation here than I thought there’d be!
BEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING
GEAR HAS A GIGANTIC KNIFE
but carry on, you’re doing well
Can anyone say “owned?”
welp.
*instantly becomes a ben fangirl*
Ben know how to throw down!!
*laughs at her terrible joke*
Ben, that was kickass! You rock so hard!
NOW GET ON YOUR BIKE AND GO GO GO!!
Oh yes, one more thing: I like how you had Ben mirror the sliding move that Gear used probably not 5 minutes prior {Track 09-11}. I know there’s a name for that technique (similar to the one you used in the flashbacks with the fight with Raccoon), but I just can’t think of it right now.
Okay, Ben’s definitely earned some points in my book. That was a surprisingly satisfying “splash”.
Okay. If that second panel isn’t Ben saying “B**ch, pleeeeze,” I don’t know what it is.
And Spl*gear goes here*ash! It’s gonna take more than that to keep her down, though.
Nobody touches Ben’s headphones. AND LIVES.
Also, did Ben just pull of the move that Steffi tried to pull off on Track 09-11 (as VirtualPlay1337 pointed out)
Amazing! Last page I was getting a Honey Badger vibe, now Ben just turned the Chuck Norris knob up to 12 (because the Chuck Norris knob goes past even 11)
Now all we need is a *ten seconds flat* joke to make this 20% cooler. XD
Or alternatively, the awesome face.
Screw it, Ben was sooo AWESOME!
/)^3^(\
Ben’s rock solid here, but we’ll see how far that can take him against psycho-girl.
For some reason this comic makes me want to read all of Benzene’s lines in Yuri Lowenthall’s voice.
I SAW THAT GODTIER STEFFI CUBE ON dA awesome >w<
not that the steffi was a cube or anything
I don’t wanna be anal or anything but the way he is positioned at the end of his throw is a bit off. Shouldn’t his right arm be forward instead of his left?
Whatevs, I like that Ben is badass now
Please make him more badass, so he can keep up with Steffi :3
I’ll admit I fucked up his posing anyways on that throw, but technically, according to the references I’ve found, the proper finishing pose for a throw like that is to stumble forward going “woop woop that person sure was heavy” http://judoinfo.com/images/animations/seoi2.gif
Definitely not the same move Steffi was trying in 09-11. There Steffi was charging at Gear, leading with the left shoulder and right knee, and Gear shuffled in close to body blow her before she could finish her wind-up.
Unless her intent was a feint to provoke gear into swinging high, that’s not how you’d set up a throw like this. That would also make such a throw at least one move removed from we actually see anyway, making such supposition completely unreliable. She could be trying to do any one of a hundred things, there’s just no way to tell from what we see before gear interrupts her.
If I really had to guess, I’d say she was maybe going to parry upward with the left forearm to sweep Gear’s hands out of the way and obscure her right hand coming in underneath for either a straight punch to the torso or an uppercut. But that’s based on my own training, and I’m not a Judo student, so she’s probably trying something else. Besides, she’s only one step away and leading with her right knee, so that wouldn’t be mechanically sound anyway.
It’s actually a pretty standard, “leaning into a charge” comic book action pose (more like an American football quarterback trying to break through a defensive line than anything else, really), so I’ll bet there wasn’t really much more too it than that. What she was trying to do doesn’t really need to be specific since it’s scripted to be cut short early anyway.
Ben’s move here is actually scary stupid. That the hand Ben has access to is not the knife hand means if Gear were even just slightly less than completely startled, Ben would be a kidney kabab. All Gear’d have to do is lift her knife, and Ben rolling his back into her would do all the work. Not so much being badass as being very foolish and getting very lucky.
Mind you I’m not saying I hold that against either the character or the creator. It works well (or could work well) as character development: maybe a subtle way of showing he’s actually still very green, or maybe that his instructor and/or dojo is more geared towards sporting competitions than self defense.
Kinda says a bit about Gear’s experience/training too, that she wouldn’t stab reflexively, even (or especially) when startled.
Hey Gear, just a hunch, but, I think he might actually be serious.
Beeeeeeen
Kick her ass, Ben! *o*
I think people are misinterpreting or misreading what I said. I never said Ben mirrored Steffi’s move. I said Ben mirrored GEAR’S move. In 09-11, Gear slid around Steffi’s position to use her own attack, and here Ben slid around Gear to use his attack (specifically comparing panel 6 of 09-11 to panel 3 of 09-15 with the sliding feet).
Of course I think Ben’s move is cooler simply because he uses Gear’s arm to thrust himself around into position to throw her.
@CBob- Nah, look where his feet are in panel #3 and his torso in #4; he’s inside the knife arm. You pretty much need to have your back up against the opponent’s front to be able to get the leverage for that kind of standing throw, and the blade on that thing is too long for her to get a stab in that close.
She still might have grabbed inward at him and slashed him in the short ribs as she went over his shoulder, but that beautiful beautiful expression of shock says she was totally and completely offguarded.
DAAAAYUMMMM
@TexasNinjaBuzzard- I saw where his feet are, and where his back needs to be is mechanically obvious. If Gear’s left arm was extended, you’d be right, but it starts down by her side. All she’d have to do is snap it to a side fist punch start position, and Ben would be impaling himself between panels two and three, The twisting of her shoulders while Ben’s shifting ’round to that position would actually help her get more clearance, but she wouldn’t technically need it.
The throw as drawn is mechanically unsound anyway because he only has control over her right arm. She’d actually roll off his back sideways to his right and end up on her feet, instead of going straight over onto her back. She could also just pivot on her left foot, and his entire mechanical advantage would be lost, at which point he’d actually be in a totally vulnerable position. Both are likely to happen reflexively even without training and while surprised (I’ve seen it/done it myself). There’s other stuff he could do from that position and with only one arm grabable, but flipping her over himself in that way wouldn’t work. Cube admits he got some details wrong though, so assuming it’s what’s intended rather than what it looks like is an easy handwave. I suppose that follows for the kidney kabab as well, LOL.
It’s all about the details! Kinda like how I’m a girl, not a “he”.
…That was harsh and hilarious. ( >__<)—b
that right there is goodness….
PWNED! NOOB!
Y’know, for all the complaints going around I think the throw itself actually looks fine. She lifts off his back due to the speed of the throw, so she’d have to have crazy reflexes to bring her knife around in time.
The only issue I see is the feet in panel 3. To get a person off balance, thus being able to throw someone heavier than you, you’d either get your feet in a T-shape, with one just between the feet, or in front with your hip driving into the throwee to lift them off their heels and thus take away some balance.
But maybe Ben is doing a smaller throw, that doesn’t require pulling Gear across his back…
tl;dr The throw looks great, the feet position looks a little odd, but Ben is still a badass who could probably give the black belts in my Jujitsu class a run for their money.
I actually laughed when Ben just straight up judo flipped Gear
This is a perfect example on why Ben is my favorite character.