July 23rd, 2021
July 23rd, 2021
23 Jul 2021 · page 1071 of 1306

Yes it was a lot of work actually, but for him it was mostly moving around numbers in a bank account.

Cast: Lei Feng, Pemberton Pryce, Thea Pryce, Tim Chiang

Comments (64)

  • Sturzkampf 5 years ago archived

    This Evil Plan is so completely bonkers on so many levels it is a thing of true beauty. I approve.

    • BCB 5 years ago archived

      I mean, it is taking less time to pull off than Lux's plan.

  • Nah 5 years ago archived

    His people invent mass teleportation and his goal is a hole under the ocean? Who gave this man a business license? One of these is a lot more lucrative than the other.

    • Trevor Gale 5 years ago archived

      We'll see who's laughing when he returns to America with a thirteen-inch fish claiming he's found the witch of the fourth anchor.

      • BrokenEye 5 years ago archived

        Shame he'd have to wait a decade for Barnum's American Museum to buy it.

    • Sturzkampf 5 years ago archived

      It's not about the money. It's to show them! SHOW THEM ALL!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

      • ajaxgb 5 years ago archived

        If Pryce had enough passion to fuel a proper maniacal laugh, I'd respect him a lot more than I do.

        • Taylor Schmidt 5 years ago archived

          That is a marvelous statement that I'd like to use as a chapter quote in a book sometime

      • JuaSaysHi 5 years ago archived
    • DataProwler Netizen 5 years ago archived

      I dunno. While the first is enough to make his name go in history books for the next millennia, the prospect of making magical hotspots wherever he wants is world-changing. He could buy countries, plural.

  • Darkoneko Hellsing 5 years ago archived

    "all we had to do" is set up some 6000 (8000 ?) km worth of pylons, he says :D

    • Southest American 5 years ago archived

      Cheap price for teleportation, unreliable as it might seem.

      • Pat 5 years ago archived

        But they were already there. What's he need his plan for?

    • Phil 5 years ago archived

      Surely people on the West coast will be asking what these pylons are for when the new experimental boat is supposed to be on the east coast?

  • cuspiscentium 5 years ago archived

    We have entered the point where stating or even considering the odds lowers the odds, for this situation I prescribe hard liquor and a convincing smile.

    • Percabeth_trash 5 years ago archived

      “Scientists have calculated that the chances of something so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.”

      - The Late, Great Sir Terry Pratchett

    • Composer 99 5 years ago archived
  • Emily 5 years ago archived

    Good thing Lei has Tim here to keep her from blurting out something she shouldn't.


    Incidentally, I think this is the first time we've seen Thea standing up...

    • Sturzkampf 5 years ago archived

      In line with the rules of a Science Romance Thriller, on the next page she will turn round to reveal she has transformed into a monster and / or will begin laughing manically and reveal to the world her Evil Plan.

  • fyrehair 5 years ago archived

    "With their Certainty, we'll be done and back on the cruise route..."


    I am detecting a flaw in this Evil Plan.

    • MukdipTheMudkip 5 years ago archived

      The instant the passengers figured out they were in the Pacific instead of the Atlantic, they'd be instantly stranded there. I guess traveling during the night may have been part of Pryce's plan, so that they wouldn't notice the time of day suddenly shift, but I hope nobody is trained in astronomy.

  • Ronald Lindsay 5 years ago archived

    Galapagoes or Easter Island

    • Tikatu 5 years ago archived

      Looks like the Galapagos is in the area. It depends on how far out the line goes.

  • Tikatu 5 years ago archived

    Does he think Thea is/will be the Witch of the Fourth Anchor? If so, what makes him think that?

    • M. Peach 5 years ago archived

      If he does he will be disappointed that the position is already occupied. He probably won't like the jungle either.

      • Finalidiot 5 years ago archived

        There is no fourth witch, there are only city, mountain and jungle witch.

        • Jay 5 years ago archived

          Tell that to whoever delivered the music box.

          • Emily 5 years ago archived

            *no known fourth witch, at least.

            • JWLM 5 years ago archived

              Oh, for Heaven's sake. There is no fourth anchor and there is no fourth witch. You might as well believe in...I don't know...making a bomb from a rock! Can't be done!

          • Composer 99 5 years ago archived
        • M. Peach 5 years ago archived

          Is that the Galapagos Islands then? I guess Darwin won't make it there before the tourists. :P

  • Composer 99 5 years ago archived

    At least Tim can be consoled with the knowledge that even had Lei never showed up, he was still going to get roped into this.


    For what that's worth.

  • Curtis W Garrett 5 years ago archived

    It's Friday, not Tuesday! Does this mean a return to two a week?

    If so, thank you and happy your feeling up to it. If not, thank you for the extra comic this week.

    • Kate A 5 years ago archived

      every second week, yes! not quite full capacity but getting there :)

      • JuaSaysHi 5 years ago archived

        Yaaay! Go, Kate!

  • Hominid 5 years ago archived

    Lei if this guy’s confidence wavers for even half a second we’re all dead.

  • B.D 5 years ago archived

    And for once, I feel like I understand Lei.

  • Emily 5 years ago archived

    I want to hear Lei and Vee ranting to (or, more likely, over the top of) each other about this insane scheme when they meet up again to share the information they've gathered.

  • Ronald Lindsay 5 years ago archived

    Kate: Nice accurate map of North America prior to the Texas war of Independence. Right up there with the correct number of stars on the US flag earlier. Don't get exhausted by too much accuracy...The commentators know you're the best.

    • D. Schwartz 5 years ago archived

      But not great for Central and South America.

      • Ronald Lindsay 5 years ago archived

        Lot of political upheaval with those regions at the time and up until the 20th Century (Panamanian independence with a little [LOT] of help from Theodore Roosevelt)


        Gran Columbia broke up in 1831 into the Republic of New Granada, Ecuador, Venezuela, British Guiana. VERY fluid borders for the next decade.


        I don't think Kate wanted to delve into that quagmire 😙😇

        • Kate A 5 years ago archived

          hah yes quite, i was doing some reading and looking at maps and came to the conclusion that i'm simply not even gonna label the countries even in north america. not too important right now in this silly teleporting boat story

  • D. Schwartz 5 years ago archived

    Wait. This guy has built pylons in the deep ocean? And across one subduction zone and one divergent fault?


    What madness is this!?

    • Overkillengine 5 years ago archived

      NOT! SPARTA!


      That's back over on the other side of the world, naturally.

    • Velgar 5 years ago archived

      And without anyone apparently being much wiser and without anyone finding anything despite those structures going to the bottom, where people have needed to go as well to anchor them... But found nothing.


      Though surely it is still there!

  • Loeden 5 years ago archived

    I have never before seen an expression that EXACTLY conveys 'smile and nod to the crazy man' until now.

  • Carmeops Renard 5 years ago archived

    so, using certainty to lie to people about the destination?

    • BrokenEye 5 years ago archived

      So a pretty standard sight-seeing trip, then?

      • JuaSaysHi 5 years ago archived

        A three hour tour?

  • Mel Orr 5 years ago archived

    Nothing could possibly go wrong with that scheme...not at all...!

  • Dud 5 years ago archived

    Pryce doesn't need the anchor; he has world beating technology already. The pylons off New York were impressive but this route suggests he can install thousands of 3 mile tall structures in deep water.

    The teleport is over 30 degrees west and a fair distance south, we can more or less ignore the southward part but that westward leap somehow absorbed the angular momentum due to the earth's spin, The ship has undergone a 500mph acceleration in a moment, 130mph of which is the vertical component...

    ...and nobody was smashed to a pulp against a bulkhead.


    Cheerio,

    • minion@otakumail.com 5 years ago archived

      Magic, methinks.

  • JWLM 5 years ago archived

    I mean, it is a real modern marvel.


    It's also bat guano crazy, but it's still a real modern marvel.

  • Sanjay Merchant 5 years ago archived

    So, you just used their Certainty that they're in the Atlantic to make them not in the Atlantic.


    Yup, this plan has no vulnerabilities whatsoever!

  • bwooom 5 years ago archived

    im so glad everyone in this comic only ever has good ideas

  • Fairportfan 5 years ago archived

    Okay - there are lines of pylons across the Atlantic and Pacific?


    How?

    • Kate A 5 years ago archived

      not the whole way across. and the answer is "money"

      • Fairportfan 5 years ago archived

        I remember when Ford was going all out to win Le Mans; someone said you didn't need horsepower or cubic inches - uou needed cubic money.

      • Fairportfan 5 years ago archived

        "A Trans Atlantic Tunnel Hurrah!"

  • Anonymous 5 years ago archived

    ... wouldn't it be easier to just... leave from there in the first place?

  • Desu 5 years ago archived

    Pemberton: Thousands of dollars, months of labor, and hours of massive magical calculations to work out teleportation to fourth Anchor


    Eliza: A globe & a gun

  • James E Kirbish 5 years ago archived

    Is... no one going to point out the logistical insanity of this entire operation?


    This guy built, literally, 100 foot tall pylons, in the middle of the Goddamned Ocean.


    Let me put this in perspective, folks. Even if I give Uncle Pennybags here the absolute best possible faith and assume he's following the shallowest parts of the North Atlantic, using magic to cheat and somehow enhance the endurance of 19th century concrete and build the structures themselves, he is still building something like 30-40 some odd structures that go down *17 THOUSAND Feet Deep under the ocean, are somehow strong enough to hold up steel radio towers, and can probably resist Iceberg impact. The average cost of a single tower staggers the imagination just from raw materiels alone, nevermind what it took to build them!


    What in the Wide World of Sports could this entire operation possibly profit him as such that it dwarfs his investment?!

    • Tikatu 5 years ago archived

      The space between. A cheap, failproof way of moving goods between continents. Unless the witches have something to say about it...

  • A C 5 years ago archived

    I suspect Easter Island confirmed.

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