Saturday March 1, 2008
Book 10: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse — Prologue: Drydock
Note: The devout Schlock Mercenary reader certainly remembers the last time Io was pictured in the strip, and may be wondering why what then appeared as a lopsided orange dot appears grey when seen close-up. Well... in the earlier picture Io was being seen in reflected Jovelight rather than sunlight, giving its fairly high-albedo grey surface a distinctly orange cast. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Transcript

Kevyn: Okay, the view is pretty impressive.
Captain Tagon: It's meant to be. Commodore Bhotsu used it to remind me that the U.N.S. can destroy planets.
Kevyn: Did you remind him that it took the U.N.S. fifty-two years,and over twenty thousand resonance generators to do the job? and that even then it was an accident?
Kevyn: Io popped like a grape one day, right out of the blue, and her nickel-iron core shot straight into Jupiter.
Captain Tagon: Ummm. . . No. I didn't know that.
Kevyn: Next time you hear somebody say "I wouldn't do that for all the nickels in Jupiter," you'll know they probably can't be bought.