On this Thirteenth of February back in 1961 near Olancha California, the Coso Artifact was discovered. It was a 500,000 year old spark plug encased inside of a geode. Which is claimed to be an example of an "out-of-place artifact" that is possibly from an ancient civilization.

With help from the members of the Spark Plug Collectors of America, they concluded it was a Champion spark plug from the 1920s that had iron oxide concretions forming around it as is rusted in the ground. Also, at the time of discovery, there was no know method to date something like that, nor could the discoverers say who this geologist was that told them that date.

At this time, no one knows the whereabouts of the artifact.

Lastly, if you read this far, there will be a comic tomorrow as well.

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Welp, there goes any lingering possibility of them reestablishing control over Oasis.

Not that I think it would have worked at this point anyway.

Pete, you are one cold bastard. I haven't been hit this hard by a Sluggy death in a long time. Maybe ever. Weird to get so choked up over Roberts of all people but damn. That's all I have to say. Damn.

my only response to this strip.....

what

Sure, TECHNICALLY not dead yet.

But yeah. That sure was convenient.

Wonder if he’ll splat on Oasis’ windshield.

Pete, I didn't understand this one at all. Frog is apparently talking to Kusari --presumably one of the remaining Kusaris who is on the satellite --but it's only Roberts shown in the airlock. Is Kusari on the outside of the airlock trying to get in? Then why does Roberts say "Yay, Frog, you're my hero"? You might want to edit a little to make it more clear what's happening.

Well if they act fast enough, he could still be saved... Yeeeaahhh, I don't see that happening.

Yes. Schlock asked Kusari to retrieve Roberts in a previous strip, and she's the one (offscreen) asking Frog to open the door in the first panel.

And so, with the passing of this man and his antenna hat, we mark the end of an era. A man who has been with us from the start. Which is to say, he sat at the table with the bad guys even though he wasn't invited, because nobody really had the heart to kick him out. Also because Daedalus didn't allow guns in the meeting room. And he stayed there, at that table, as faces changed, people died, plans were hatched, more people died, and so on. Again, mainly because people just didn't notice he was still there, or they assumed he came with the decor. We thought he would last forever, but lo, all good things must come to an end. Indeed, all utterly mediocre things as well.

Roberts, nobody will miss you. I don't think anyone even liked you. But we WILL miss what you represented: unchecked corporate spending, insular client-hostile thinking, total aversion to transparency, runaway over-classification of what should be public information, and most of all: egregious, decadent levels of flagrant nepotism so extreme it required a specialized form of cloning to execute.

Godspeed, frozen corpse of Roberts. May your travels in orbit around the Earth be safe, and free of satellite trajectories that would cause me inconvenience while watching TV.

Hmm...too early to call "dead" on this one yet. Wasn't he seen in silhouette in 4U City?

I still want to know what's up with the head gear.

Ouch.



This is the best eulogy of a sluggy character I've ever seen.

P.S. Noting that I also didn't catch what exactly was going on until I saw the ref on "retrieve Roberts".

I guess they could retrieve his body and force air through him to mimic his speech patt--eew no, nevermind.

Wow! That was unexpected!

See... I have a problem with this one, Pete. It seems just out of character for Frog and way too convenient to the plot.

Also, the airlock would have had to be vented before the outer door opened. If it wasn't all the air would have escaped through the smallest crack. Roberts would still be dying, but he wouldn't have been ejected from the airlock like that. [/nitpick]

With one button press, Frog just destroyed the Schlock Triangle.