First comic: #832, 2019-04-12
Last comic: #837, 2019-05-27
Author: Sloblues
Samantha finds out that her favorite brand of spring water is actually tap water, sourced from a rusty faucet, and she still has half a pallet of it remaining. She decides to engage in her own deceptive advertising, and puts up an ad for it in the newspaper, where she describes it as "Limited Edition, Artisanally Advertised in Small Batches".
She successfully sells her $5 bottled water for $500, then uses the money to taste-test numerous brands of bottled water, and write an award-winning review of one on her blog. Walter Winchell even wants to interview her on national radio! (But she's then informed that Walter Winchell died in 1972, and realizes it was a prank call.)
Oliver, Secretary General of the United Nations, is impressed by Samantha's ingenuity, and asks for her help in stopping the nations of Biskittia and Gravee from going to war over whether sporks should be taxed as spoons or forks. He wants her to mediate their dispute, and offers his daughter's tennis trophy and a bag of chocolate coins in return. Samantha accepts.
Samantha meets with the ambassadors for Biskittia and Gravee. She hears out both of their grievances with the other country, and decides it's mostly rubbish and boils down to the two countries not liking each other, but she ends up siding with Biskittia on the spork issue. The ambassador for Gravee challenges her to a duel, which Samantha decides will be fought in "the ancient Japanese tradition" - a haiku battle, complete with a commentator and a referee. The score is tied going into overtime, and Samantha wins by the skin of her teeth.
With the conflict brought to a close, Oliver rewards Samantha his daughter's tennis trophy as promised, but finds that her chocolate coin reward was left on the refreshment table and eaten, and promises to allocate replacement funding for it.
Lastly, we flash back to 1955, and see that Walter Winchell really did call Samantha, using a cross-temporal telephone he's invented. Unfortunately, it seems he's had similar luck with most other callers as he did with Samantha.
Strips:
- Samantha is betrayed
- Samantha is famous
- Samantha is recruited
- Samantha is challenged
- Samantha is judged
- Samantha is rewarded
This arc contains examples of:
- Ambidextrous Sprite: When the ambassador for Biskittia turns around, the "Biskittia" text upon his hat is flipped horizontally.
- Battle Rapping: The ambassador for Gravee challenges Samantha's decision by haiku duel.
- Brick Joke: Walter Winchell requesting an interview with Samantha turns out to be the real deal at the very end of the arc.
- Comically Small Bribe: Oliver promises Samantha some chocolate coins and his daughter's high school tennis trophy in exchange for mediating the dispute between Biskittia and Gravee. It works!
- My God, What Have I Done?: The ambassador for Biskittia's reaction upon realizing Samantha and the ambassador for Gravee are having a haiku duel.
- Open Secret: The state of conflict between Biskittia and Gravee, and how them going to war could tank the economy of Europe. As Samantha says, it's all on the Top Secret News Channel.
- Silly Reason for War: Biskittia and Gravee go to war because Gravee wants to treat sporks as forks for the purpose of tariffs, but Biskittia's main export is sporks, and wants Gravee to treat them as spoons.
- Tiebreaker Round: Samantha and the ambassador for Gravee go into a tiebreaker in their haiku duel, where the first person to score a point over the other wins the entire duel.
