Paranatural

Probably not. It looked like he might be, but then he clarified that he meant himself, max, and Johnny, as the strong kids.

...but then there's still the bit about "what's eating [him]", but he might mean, like, emotionally, not "a ghost eating his brain".

Can't rule out that he's a spectral and just pretending not to be, of course.

Considering how deep he is in now, can't see the benefit in that, really.

Where did you get the idea that Isabel's umbrella has a spirit in it? The entire point of the umbrella was to give her a new weapon so she didn't need to use tools anymore.

The mouseover text in the archives for the strip where Isabel gets the umbrella is "Isabel gets a new tool". What'd you think it was? An ordinary umbrella, like the alt text said? Because the alt text is not to be trusted. It claims that "if at first you don't succeed, YOINK WHOOPS SORRY DUDE" is a famous saying. Famous sayings are case insensitive. It is known.

edited 4th Jul '15 2:13:44 AM by rikalous

A regular umbrella is not a weapon in her cases.

Wait, there's mouseover text in the archives? I didn't know that. It doesn't make much sense for her grandpa to give her a new tool, though. He only gave her the first one to give her back her confidence.

Also, what's wrong with an umbrella?

edited 4th Jul '15 4:56:08 AM by Druplesnubb

Well, for starters it is useless against spirits unless it's possessed and therefore a tool.

And it was leaking red spectral energy when her grandfather handed it to her.

And he gave her the second one to replace the first one, indicating that it's going to serve the same purpose. Also, if it doesn't make sense for him to give her a new tool it doesn't make sense for him to let her keep the old one. If she's supposed to be confidenced back up to her normal self by now, why didn't he ever take the book back and tell her it was high time she fought like a real small, cheerful girl again?

Oh, and check out panels three and six, he's totally testing her to see if she's still a great big wuss who uses tools.\

edited 4th Jul '15 1:07:44 PM by rikalous

She doesn't need a weapon against spirits, she can already fight them off with spectral energy. Remember that the incident which led to her getting the book in the first place involved a physical dog that her spectral energy didn't work against.

But whatever, lets say you guys are right.

edited 4th Jul '15 1:18:04 PM by Druplesnubb

I need some people to bounce these question off, and I guess an active forum is a better place than the nonlinear,pun-chain ridden, messy comments section

BL has already shown to be capable of destroying spirits during spectral's dreams by entering their psyche room. Why wasn't Issac granted this and a different tool/spirit for possession? Max was.

I can't really think of reasons outside these three for now:

1. possession is more intimate than tool-wielding and destroying it will damage the host (like how tools have to be destroyed to free spirits)

2. Blowhard is strong enough to cause trouble even in true wisp form

3. Spender has engineered his report to BL about Issac such that she does not know about his spirit's identity (likely worse case scenario that will cause trouble down the road)

The other question is that so far we're shown passage through Doorman with relatively similar sized doors, with the sleeve opening as the locket diameter and activity room door with Doorman's body.

So what happens when the key to the small door outside the Mayview barrier is unlocked to Doorman's body? Will people walking through be warped and unwarped ala ghost train and return to their normal size, or will it be something like Problem Sleuth, where going through a different door repeatedly shrinks/warps you? Zack MUST have thought about this- there's no other reason he would have showed Doorman unlocking from the sleeve collar otherwise.

If its the first case, then the "liability" Grandpa says is still and has always been present- Things can still freely exit through Doorman- but they will be unable to return through that small door, unless they're just smuggling tools through doorman or something. This will definitely be revisited later.

For your second question, I dunno. For your first, I assume Montezeusma hasn't done anything that merits being exececuted for the Consortium's convenience, even if they don't want him getting much info on them. Boss Leader's offer to kill Scrapdragon came with a spiel about how Scrapdragon was animalistic and could endanger Max. Montezeusma's just shouty and full of himself.

edited 6th Jul '15 1:09:47 AM by rikalous

They kill spirits all the time, it's not at all a big deal for them. Ed was trying to catch and finish off the mirror-nommer before he took the plunge to toolism.

But they treasure the spectrals and want them in their organisation.

IF Montezeuma is the reason for Isaac's exclusion, leaving him alive instead of just giving Isaac a different tool and bringing him in normally must have some other reasons beyond "spirit didn't deserve it"

edited 6th Jul '15 1:44:35 AM by Adannor

I'm going with "killing spirits is harmful for the host", meself.

Isabel did say that they only exorcise hostile spirits, and the Frog-Whale was trying to kill Max by the time Ed got there.

Yeah, for all his jerkassery we haven't seen Mr.Swirlynipples actually try to harm anyone. When he returns to full power, on the other hand...

edited 6th Jul '15 9:59:01 AM by Druplesnubb

new page!

God, the anime is reaching critical levels.

It took me a second to realize what was wrong with this page—before it clicked that Max was doing the anime Captain Obvious Narrating the Present thing. So the joke is that all the thought bubbles could be removed with minimal change.

Poor Max. What sanity he has will vanish.

Bwahaha. Nice Tiger vs. Dragon joke, there.

New Page

If Max plays his cards right he could use this to work around Suzy's blackmail.

edited 10th Jul '15 5:57:42 AM by JotunofBoredom

"I. Need. Balls!"

Cody sidles up and slings an arm over his shoulders...