Frostdawn says:

WHAT.

Marbles can't die! Don't do this to us! :c

Ethan says:

This is my favorite JAB ever. Great Job guys.

Grim says:

Can't help but get a Watchman vibe from this...
... You can't kill Marbles! Wait! Deus ex machina, why do they call you Deus ex machina!?!?

Rico says:

I am not pissed, but I can make others pissed even more: I never liked that Marbles guy anyways

T.Chicken says:

I think Art forgot about the part "Streets are gutters and the gutters are filled with blood">
P.S- My prophethic eye says that marbles will blow up next week! (like Dr. Manhattan blew up Rorsarch)!

LockeZ says:

NOOOOOOOOO

I was secretly hoping that every character EXCEPT Marbles would get written out!

Joedang says:

So epic...

Felixader says:

@Joedang

My Feelings exactly.

shaggy says:

I disapprove of the impending lack of magic in JAB.

Ohtar says:

No more Marbles? Good riddance.

cwDeici says:

Trees cross the line in this comic to look more like a second layer of land. Otherwise the last two comics have been grand (especially the owl bit. Tsai is quite audacious as a spy).

And yes. RAGE! I realize maybe Marbles doesn't want to live very much any longer, but first you take Pyron from us and now promise Marbles. This is worse than losing Chelsie the Cow! (KoDT reference)

cwDeici says:

Ohtar must burn..

cwDeici says:

Love the river btw ^^

IronSoldier820 says:

What? No you can't kill Marbles. I haven't gotten enough of Marbles. I need more Marbles, not less of Marbles. Please don't kill Marbles. O_O

And if you kill him, promise to bring him back. Marbles can't die forever, he's too awesome. ;_;

Aethrys says:

"No reader left unpissed".

I'd have thought that'd be true, but reading the comments above it seems that... some... people? No, not people, some... THINGS... don't like marbles. So if you really want to piss absolutely everyone, you just need to have Jack die, perhaps by sacrificing himself to save Jacqi from Grosvenor. Or in some other fashion.

OH MY GOD YOU'RE TOTALLY GOING TO DO THAT, YOU'RE GOING TO KILL JACK YOU BASTARD!

Spikeball says:

Marbles has appeared to have switched from haveing things come out of his mouth to haveing said things come out of his sleaves.

Joe says:

@spikeball
He's made things come out of his sleeves before: Like in comic 53 of JAB, but he does use his mouth when people ask his name.

Mojaru says:

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Not Marbles, I want me mage!

someone says:

Alt text is totally true.

bad easy says:

@cwDeici: eh, Tsai just used her "last disguise" button to show up as an owl again. (TF2 joke disclaimer) me, I woulda switched things up and gone as a squirrel.

guys...do you know how long a "week" is in JAB? neither do I, so Marbles could still be around for months and months and months. and you *know* he's gonna tear stuff up before he kicks the bucket!

btw, if Marbles has to die, thanks for warning us first. I still can't think of Wash without feeling sad.

Pizzasgood says:

Well that's depressing. Maybe when Jacqie becomes Empress of the World, she'll get Jill to bring him back as a ghola.

<3 Rebecca says:

pissed.

sniffles, why do they call you sniffles?

Aust says:

Marbles!!! Noooooo!

T-T

I agree. Someone needs to ask him why his name is deus ex machina.

taltamir says:

no! not marbles! he can't die! T.T

Also, Jacq is so cute :P

Dualsaber says:

I dunno, guys. I think we're gonna feel like idiots in a couple months when Marbles pulls some totally epic cosmic loophole and returns from the dead.

Jarekk says:

You... but, no. No! Marbles... :(

MrGBH says:

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Not my Marbles! I can't lose my Marbles! I need my Marbles!

Taran Alvein says:

Oh no, Marbles is finally running out of magic, isn't he?

Actually, if here were a being of magic a la FF6's espers, that would certainly explain why he's able to regularly use such powerful magic, how he can do magic at will even though the world's magic is now gone, and why he would possibly die in a week. Perhaps he realizes that at the rate he's going, he'll be out of magic and unable to continue to support his function in this magic-less world soon.

Rico says:

> some... THINGS... don't like marbles

Woohoooo, I made someone pissed even more, just as planned!
You can kill Jack too, its ok.
BUT DONT TOUCH TSAI!!!

Enzeru Kagai says:

*Metal Gear Solid style* Marbles what's going on? Marbles? MARBLES?!?!?!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! D:

Fodali says:

Don't kill/fuck up the coolest character in the story! What happened to Locke on LOST didn't teach us anything???

Art says:

We didn't make lost. Although we did parody American Beauty and the coolest character in that died and that movie was great.

johnc11 says:

i sat here pondering the significance of Marbles being the character question for this post for fifteen minutes before typing a word...a single tear has finally begun to trace its way down my greif-stricken face as i conclude my reflection and prepare to go sulk for a while...please let there be a loophole of epic proportions to obliterate my greif and fill the void in my heart that will be Marbles

LockeZ says:

So, wait. I just had an excellent idea.

What if the entirely of this comic's storyline, which will presumably take years to tell, takes place over the course of less than a week?

Marbles could last another 600 pages! Years of Marbles potentially remaining!

Take heart, gentlemen, for we have not lost our marbles yet.

Joe says:

@lockez

A week for the characters is demonstrably not a week for us.

Pizzasgood says:

Or it could go in the opposite direction, and on Thursday it will have already been three weeks and we only get to find out how he died in a small flashback or offhand comment made by a character.

One thing to remember is that the overall story is pretty large, spanning multiple comics. So even if they kill him off now, there's still the possibility of him appearing (even starring) in one of the other comics that takes place during a different time period. We still don't know how he was captured by the orcs before he was freed in the original JaB strips, for example. And how old is he really? He doesn't seem to have aged like the rest of the characters, so for all we know he could be older than Pyron.

Besides, being killed off never stopped Duncan Idaho from showing up again (and again and again...), and Marbles is at least as awesome as he was.

MrGBH says:

I have a pet plothole you could use to bring Marbles back. Okay, he's not my pet personally, but I'd be happy to kidnap him for you.

Paul says:

Dune references duly noted

J1MB3AN97 says:

Ya know, this is a moment where you just HOPE that the Penguin God does his thing...

J1MB3AN97 says:

Ya know, this is a moment where you just HOPE that the Penguin God does his thing...

cwDeici says:

Lol, good ref!

I was mostly admiring her usage of the stethoscope in plain sight, but you're right... I only partically noticed she was using that disguise (though not previous, but from years ago) so didn't think it too bad (not remembering her disguise at the outback farms of Rebeccaland I assumed she'd been a different kind of bird).