Amelia hits the Emergency Open button on the tank control panel, opening the top of the tanks! But now she notices that Zik has gotten hurt! The Clonoid supersoldier is busy inspecting his badly singed hand as Zik falls back. Meanwhile, the Clonoid drone has picked up a blaster and zaps Trent right in the chest! A double whammy of deep trouble for our heroes!
Amelia hustles over to the power conduit and unplugs it from the main panel. Meanwhile, Trent is doing his best to help his fellow prisoners with the Clonoid soldiers. But he runs out of ammo, just as a Clonoid drone reaches for a dropped blaster! Zik attacks the Clonoid supersoldier with a fallen guard rail, but it’s ready for him- it grabs Zik and tries to decapitate him! Unbeknownst to the Clonoid, that isn’t a decorative shoulder pad. It’s an oxygen tank, and it explodes when the Clonoid crushes it! Is Zik OK?
Boom! The Clonoid Supersoldier comes crashing down on the catwalk, breaking off a support bracket in the process! The catwalk is now split in two along that seam! The falling bracket briefly distracts Trent, who goes right back to sniping Clonoid soldiers. Meantime, Amelia has gotten to the top of the ladder on her catwalk, and is close to the electrical panel. Zik kicks another support pole out from the side of the catwalk, destabilizing it further, while the Clonoid Supersoldier struggles to get up and the riot rages on below.
Welcome to the new Zik fans that have been reading through the archives! Feel free to join in the comments, don’t be shy!
Here are some more of my favorite comics, in case you’re looking for something cool to read until next Tuesday:
Trent decides that while he’s waiting at the power switch, he may as well knock off some Clonoids! Meanwhile, Amelia runs to a ladder and climbs up to the power conduits. Zik is up on the catwalk, and he catches another mighty punch, then ignites his E.V.R. rockets to deliver a huge blow to the torso! The Clonoid is flipped right up and over from the force of the impact!
Wow, lots happening on this page! I hope it makes sense! Zik is finally holding his own against this behemoth; let’s hope it lasts!
For everyone helping out with voting for Zik at topwebcomics.com: thank you! We’re hovering around the 200 rank, which is pretty good! Let’s see how high we can push it before the month ends! Vote once per day at this link!
Also, during the days when Zik isn’t updating, try these comics out:
I’ll link to more comics in the future, but for now, these will keep you really busy! All three are great long-form comics with riveting stories.
Amelia sets the factory system to flood the big tanks under the catwalk that Zik and the Clonoid are fighting on. Then she shuts down the main power to the machinery. Meanwhile, Zik and the Clonoid square off, ready to fight! Amelia runs off, leaving Trent to guard the control panel, and ready to spring the last phase of their trap. But first, she has to take care of some cables! What are they up to? Zik dodges a mighty punch as the giant Clonoid super-soldier charges him.
Wow, this was a tough page to draw! Zik site members can see my first pass of pencils in the Progress Blog, where I talk a bit about how I lay out the page. Be sure to check it out!
Also, thank you to those who are voting for Zik on topwebcomics.com! I appreciate all the support. If you haven’t yet, you can vote once per day at this link! You can also find a Vote button at the very bottom of the page. The more people who visit the site, the better the comic will get for all of us, because it will enable me to add more and more content!
The giant Clonoid soldier takes the bait! While the great mass of muscle leaps up to the catwalk, Zik launches his grappling hook into the ceiling and swings out behind him! He uses his momentum to land with all the force he can muster right onto the spine of the Clonoid! While the two combatants recover from the blow, Amelia and Trent spring into action! What are they up to?
In this still from the film Inception, notice how the actors are holding their pistols. This is good trigger discipline!
Important note for you kids out there! See how Trent is holding his guns? See how his index fingers are resting on the triggers? NEVER DO THAT! I drew it like that because Trent has never held guns before and doesn’t know about trigger discipline. Basically, in order to avoid accidentally pulling the trigger, you should never even put your finger in the trigger guard until you’re ready to shoot! It’s incredibly important to treat firearms with extreme caution.
If you’re interested in knowing more about using guns, please make sure you contact a qualified instructor and are well supervised before picking one up for the first time. And do a lot of reading and learning! I don’t want any of you guys getting hurt.
All that said, I love target shooting, and I used to do biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting). It’s a great sport, but again, you need proper training before even touching a firearm!
Also: You might notice a few new buttons on the page. I’ve connected Zik to topwebcomics.com, and if you’re so inclined, you can click the buttons and vote for Zik once per day per computer. I’d really appreciate your help whenever you have a moment! The more votes we get, the more people will see the comic, and the better this whole experience becomes for all of us! This is the link to use for voting. Thanks in advance!!
Meanwhile, back on the prison planet, the giant Clonoid soldier is still going on its rampage, unaware that Zik has recovered. Zik brings the beast up-to-date with a crate. Wham! Do I have your attention now? From up on the catwalk, Zik taunts his opponent, hoping to lure him into direct combat. Hopefully it’ll go a bit better this time!
Trent and Amelia catch up with Zik and help him out of the pile of boxes the giant Clonoid threw him into. So now what, guys? It’s time to come up with a plan! The good news is that Zoot has calculated a possible avenue to subdue the giant – electrical overload! Perhaps a massive shock will cut the giant Clonoid off from the central hub that all the Clonoids share information over, rendering it (hopefully) confused and unable to act independently. Zik has a way to make that happen!
Zik finds out he’s dreaming his encounter with Sensei Raven and Sensei Adam. Well, while he’s here, he’s going to pick their brains about how to defeat the giant Clonoid! His teachers tell him not to be intimidated by the sheer size and strength of the Clonoid. It has the same basic structure as any other human, and therefore the same basic weak points that can be exploited. And Raven reminds Zik of something that he can do that the Clonoid won’t: amp up his attacks with awesome move names! Zik leaves the Dojo, waking back up in reality to find Amelia and Trent racing towards him!
In case you didn’t see the blog on the previous page, Adam and Raven are real people that have helped me immensely in my journey to tell this story. Adam’s guidance with anatomy and Raven’s unwavering focus and audacity with his own comic have both been instructive to me as I take my artistic journey to become a better visual storyteller. Please take some time to check out their comics at Raven’s Dojo and Locus Comics! Both their creations are NSFW, but hey, we’re grown-ups. If you’re not a grown-up, maybe wait until you are before checking them out.
Trent finally catches up with Amelia, only to find her standing over the corpse of her erstwhile Clonoid jailer. They compare notes, and Amelia learns what all the commotion she’s been hearing is about. Shocked, she rushes off to help Zik and the others! The prisoner has become the rescuer!
