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| Strip 1 | overhead view of buildings, a city. Strong shadows, red and orange sunlight. / The setting or rising sun on a horizon of mountains. It is bright red. / Overhead view of a desolate highway, strewn with weeds and sand. A strong shadow cast by a standing sign. The silhouette of an object on the highway. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=001 |
| Strip 2 | A strange man with patches of red, blue, and grey walks. He carries a pole with a bag or satchel tied on the end. The bag is white with red polka dots. / Mile markers on the highway mark the numbers 81, 79, 65, and others down to zero. / A mechanical foot stepping on cracked pavement with weak shoots of grass. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=002 |
| Strip 3 | "Well..." From a distance, a toll booth on the road as the highway enters a city. Red sunlight strikes the front of the buildings. / A guard rail on a toll booth blocks passage, striped white and yellow. / The sun on the horizon. The robot lifts the guard rail and walks past. / The robot walks down a long, empty street, lined by lit street lamps. "Here I am." http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=003 |
| Strip 4 | The robot walking. He stops to think. "Would anyone hear?" / The robot closes his eyes and touches a finger to his head. The underside of his head reveals cabling, screws, a speaker. / Waves radiate out from the robot's head carrying a signal: "Is anybody out there?" / The signal is cast out, leaving the alley and toward the horizon studded with buildings. / The robot puts a hand to his ear and waits. "..." / "Damn." / "!" / A dessicated dead body crawling with flies and covered in green lichen is on the ground. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=004 |
| Strip 5 | The robot takes the dead man's wallet. He unfolds it. There is a swarm of flies. / The robot raises his brows. The wallet opens to reveal a long chain of small squares -- family photographs. / The robot examines one picture. It appears to be a birthday party with a cake for a little child. / "So many lives..." / Silhouette of the robot beside the body. / The robot closes the wallet and puts it back in the dead man's pocket. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=005 |
| Strip 6 | A signal reaches the robot's ear -- a torrent of scrambled information. / "Huh. Someone's having an encrypted conversation." / The robot kneels to the ground and opens his sack. He appears to be missing his left leg below the knee -- in its stead there is a stick of metal. / The robot withdraws a monkey wrench. His form is silhouetted by the powerful evening sunlight. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=006 |
| Strip 7 | The robot holds his wrench high as he walks down the street. He is walled in by buildings as he walks. He looks from side to side. "Hello? ..." / He lowers the wrench and continues to walk, bag in hand. / From an alley, an animal with green eyes watches. / The robot turns around to look. / The alley is empty. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=007 |
| Strip 8 | The robot comes to a street tunnel. A highway overpass has collapsed. Broken concrete and rubble are on the ground. A guard rail from above has been twisted out of shape. A street lamp is bent from a collision. An overturned car is on the ground, the bumper destroyed and the windshield blased out. Shattered glass covers the ground. Resting against a pile of debris is a decapitated robot body. / The robot approaches the body hesitantly. "Hey... Hey!" / "You poor goner." / The robot reaches out to touch the body. The body has a large wound on its chest. / The body's right hand springs to life and tightly grabs the robot's hand! http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=008 |
| Strip 9 | "HALT!" / Percy's body stands up. It is impressively tall. "What's your business here?" / Ben, his hand held by Percy, looks around. Outside the tunnel is a long, empty road and an overturned car. "Business...? I don't see business anywhere. Are you even guarding anything?" / "A city. There aren't many of us left -- but it's worth protecting."
/ "I didn't know anyone was left."
/ "I can bring you in, if you want. I don't think you'd get too far on your own on a wrenching spree. You don't seem the type. Plus, there's a cunningly concealed attack cat lurking around somewhere." http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=009 |
| Strip 10 | The cat, Kim, enters the tunnel. "I haven't had anything worth sneaking up on in years. Did you have to tell him?" / "If he does try something, he'll have to deal with two of us, not just one." Percy lets go of Ben's hand. / "Wonderful. Does he have a name?"
/ "Benjamin."
/ "I am Perceval, and this is Kimburu. Welcome to our city, such as it is."
/ Percy gestures to a hole in the tunnel that reveals the buildings of the city outside. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=010 |
| Strip 11 | Percy gestures to the buildings outside. Ben stares at him.
/ Percy drops his arm to his side and turns to Ben. Ben stares at him. / Close view of Percy's shoulders and where his head should be. / Ben looks shy. "So, um... What happened to your--" / "BATS! Filthy claws, gleaming eyes, they came by the THOUSANDS!"
/ Percy strikes a dramatic pose. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=011 |
| Strip 12 | "Filthy claws, gleaming eyes, they came by the thousands."
/ A cloud of bats carries a cage containing a black head-like silhouette. Percy flails at the cloud of bats before him. / "Intent on their prize, they snatched my head away to the stony peaks of their mountain palace."
/ A grinning moon watches the cloud of bats fly over mountains toward a crenellated castle that squats on the peak of a mountain. / "Over time it gained their trust, and now rules them from a throne of purest carnelian."
/ A shadowy image of Percy's head on a reddish throne. Outside the window countless bats flap against the glass. / Ben pauses to hear the story. / "That's absolutely ridiculous." / "Well, works better with the kids..." http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=012 |
| Strip 13 | "You have children here?" Ben puts the wrench away.
/ "I would nod."
/ "Real children, or robot-"
/ "Real, robot children. Want to hear the story of how we found them?"
/ "No." / Ben follows Percy out of the tunnel. Kim follows behind him.
/ "So are you going to let me in? You're obviously guarding this place, although I'm not sure from what." / "Not much, honestly. We just do it to feel useful. There's the occasional rabid bobcat that I'd rather not have in town, but that's about all."
/ "Grr. Argh. Drool." http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=013 |
| Strip 14? | [[Overlooking a city of sky-scrapers surrounded by blasted desert, a green garden containing a tall observatory just visible in one corner.]]
/ Benjamin: How many people in town?
/ Percival: A couple hundred. Not really enough to keep the place running, but we keep people busy and in good repair.
/ Benjamin: Just like you. / [[Benjamin is visible over Percival's missing head]]
/ Percival: If you are referring to my missing upper extremity, it was purely for show. The parts that matter are in top fighting condition.
/ Benjamin: Right, for all the bobcats. / [[Kimburu's dark-purple, green eye'd panther head speaks]]
/ Kimburu: You're not in such good repair yourself. You've been wandering for awhile, haven't you?
/ Benjamin: Perhaps. / [[Percival, Benjamin, and Kimburu enter through a white arch into a lush green garden, a fountain on the left, a two-story observatory on the right, a forest in the background. People wonder the garden, some running towards the newcomers]]
/ Kimburu: Mmm, the silent wanderer. The First will love that.
/ Benjamin: First?
/ Kimburu: Our oldest member. The first of us to be made.
/ Percival: He's not fond of secrecy We tend to be pretty open with information -- like where we come from, how we managed to survive out in the wastes for so long without falling apart...
/ Benjamin: I get it. / {{Thanks, transcriber!}} http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=014 |
| Arrival of the First | [[Percival and Benjamin enter the gates of the garden]] / [[Many other robots are visible along the sides of a dirt path that extends into the garden, branching into two just before it crests a hill. One small robot is chasing after a ball] / [[A grey-colored robot in a bowler approaches, appearing similar to a crash-test dummy with glasses and a large nose. It is flanked by two large blue-and-red robots. The other robots look to it as it approaches.]] / [[The grey robot speaks.]]
/ First: When I heard we had a visitor, I felt I should greet you personally. I am called the First, and I welcome you to this place. / [[Benjamin watches and listens.]] / [[The grey robot continues]]
/ First: As it is your first time here, feel free to look around. Should you decide to stay, you can clearly see that there is no shortage of space. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=015 |
| Candy for Killbot | Four iterations of Killbot, a zombie-like killing robot are seen. A center caption reads "Candy for Killbot" / Killbot in a cowboy costume / Killbot uncostumed / Killbot dressed as a pirate, with parrot on his arm / Killbot as a ghost with trick or treating bucket http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=021 |
| 031 | Sarah Lisa Mike Isaac / That was a good one! I think that's a new record for you!
/ Me next! / What are you guys doing? / Being superheroes!
/ We're learning how to fly!
/ Like a bird? / No, like a superhero! We don't have feathers.
/ And we don't have wings.
/ We'd be terrible birds. / But I can see in the dark!
/ And I can bend steel bars!
/ We're already superheroes, and superheroes can fly! / Uh, good luck then.
/ Thanks!
/ Guys, look! This'll beat the record! http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=0031 |
| Where Am I Now? | Interviewer: So building a robot is just making something that could contain a soul?
/ Reverend: Exactly. A divine soul is a precious thing. It needs something special to hold it, something as wondrous and complicated as a human body, or an intricate artificial mind. God's not going to send a soul to live in a coffee cup, but if a vessel made by man is built well enough, why shouldn't it have the opportunity to be alive? And if God has graced it with life, how can we not welcome it as a brother?
/ Interviewer: What about death? A robot could keep working for hundreds of years. / Reverend: It makes no difference. Everything dies at some time or another, and returns to the Lord. A few more years means nothing to the Almighty.
/ Interviewer: But killing a robot is a very different matter than a human. A man will die without his heart, but a robot's brain will be perfectly preserved, even if it's off for years. Is the robot's soul still intact when it's not running?
/ Reverend: You're still alive when you sleep, aren't you? Or even when you're knocked cold? A soul isn't affected by such things. / Reverend: I would only truly consider a robot to be dead when its head, its brain was destroyed. The housing for the soul would be lost, and it would have departed from this world. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=0033 |
| Strip 37 | Kim Percy / [[Percy emerges through a door marked SANI. The panther's shadow is visible on a tunnel wall.]] / [[The panther's head turns. A ginger kitten is riding on the panther's head.]] / panther: ... Percy?
/ Percy: !! What the -- ... oh. / panther: Nice... er... head.
/ Percy: Thanks. Nice... offspring. / [[Awkward silence.]] / Percy, panther (simultaneously): I just had to- -do something. http://whereaminow.org/strip.php?num=037 |
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