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Murder, Explained Tuesday, April 8, 2003 • read strip Viewing 73 comments:

GOD I love Cropes.

Pete reminds me of my uncle. the only real difference is that Pete is safely tucked in the internet and my uncle is in the next room.

that kind of made me shudder

Indeed. I felt an instant shudder.

it should be a button, like a chubby or a lame. 'a shudder for you, good friend'

it's funny because Beef is quivering in your avatar.

nervous laughter here

Not saying Onstadt dropped the ball, but rather than the ego assertion of "you want someone to die", Pete would seem like a fatalist- "someone is marked to die. Or destined." something like that.
But, what do I know?

Yes, but then it loses the whole 'It's really all up to Nice Pete in the end, but it's also not, because it's just something that happens when he wants something to die'. He is the direct cause of death, but he takes it not to be directly his actions, just a natural order of things.

Talking about being marked or destined for death is abit more cliche than that, y'know?

Nice Pete is like Santa Claus, with one difference: He stop at nothing to kill you.

So exactly like Santa Claus, then?

Yes. Exactly like Santa Claus.

Nice Pete's mouth is like a golden hole for the creepiest shit you ever heard.

I was tempted for a moment to paste your comment into google and see what it turned up. But then I wasn't anymore.

The words "golden" and "hole" should never be uttered together in the same sentance. Ever.
Chubby for the creep factor.

Ray used it to describe Cornelius in one of the blogs about naming the pub, I believe.

I think Nice Pete is a lot like what a Roast Beef could turn out to be, under different 'circumstances'.

Pete could never be fired in any crucible save the hills of West Virginia. It is a unique ferment, unimaginable to outsiders.

As a West Virginia native, I resemble your comment.

Whereabouts are you from? I was born in Charleston, but I've lived in Parkersburg and Morgantown too.

Nice! I was born in Parkersburg, actually. But I moved to Massachusetts when I was five, so I don't think I got the full WVA experience.

I know a girl or two from Morgantown.


I spent quite a while trying to get the text from this one to fit legibly on an MSN avatar. It's one of my most-used.

this says to me that nice pete is crazy as hell, but completely reasonable

I like to think that Pete is confessing to having worked at IBM in that first panel. Based on his personality this would answer soooo many technical questions I have about computers.

IBM-Deutchland, circa 1941.

classic nice pete.

Theres something really creepy about that last panel. Not only what he says but also the way his eyes seem bigger.

This strip was partially responsible for a metal song I wrote one time. My band never played it live, but it was fun.

Stop being a tease, record it and upload it. :)

I just don't feel like it's the right thing to do. It was a pretty bad song.

It's your call man, but art is art, there isn't really bad stuff or good stuff.

actually, there is such thing as really bad art.

People only really realize this after they've used the internet.

A comment left by heccibiggs was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by salvagebar, 762, Crater12, colorlessness)

From out of nowhere, a huge slam on metal music

:(

The obvious conclusion is, make it good. Then record it and post it here. Just make sure it doesn't sound like the Cure.

Nice Pete has inspired me in metal writing too! I am inserting the declaration "I am the death sound" into a song I'm currently working on recording. It's gonna be rad.

the eyes! THE EYES!

hmm, im from a place called oak park, and they have a hill...

If you've lasted that long with Nice Pete, you know he's saving you for something 'special'. He's got a bag of quicklime with yo' name it!

The fact that Pat deserves this magnitude of scare makes it even better.

Given Nice Pete's views on killin', it's surprising Pat has been able to live with him this long. Pat seems like the kind of person everyone wants to kill after he's said about three sentences.

it seems plausible that, deep down, pat is just as un-hinged as pete. or that they are both extremely-hinged, but in the same un-hinged way.

I get the impression that, faced with a psychotic murderer, Pat restrains himself a bit.

AAAHHH YOU HAVE VIEWED 1337 STRIPS.

Lame me as you will, I'm not going to lie about how genuinely excited this makes me.

It's gets better after 30,000 more.

And now: Him - 1668, You - 1667.

I will never, ever in my life get tired of the Nice Pete story arc.
Also, Pat's face in the second to last panel is worth taking a second or third look at.

At least he sees it as special. Too many don't. Pete does not approve of random killing.

This arc is f-f-fukkin great!

It's a special thing you do

Last Panel close-up makes this strip-5!

Murder has never been explained with such grace

don't move pat.
he can't see you if you don't move!

I imagine Pete slowly kneeling over to Pat and saying his last line fairly quietly while a really good minimalist movie score plays.

i meant to hit 'reply', not 'chubby' so you have that for you.

i think of it as a two-note pickup into a small acoustic piece. a montage of dissolving clips with the two working in the jailyard, eating in the mess hall and sitting on their beds, mouths always moving, talking, getting to know each other, piece ending with a fade into the next strip.

So, a fairly standard transition of time deal.

Rarely do you see Nice Pete's facial expression change. I picture him with a constantly blank look on his face, speaking in a pause-less monotone.

Pat's lower lip in panel 8

Onstad has hit a rich, rich vein.

Pat's mouth reactions are awesome here.

Killing should not be casual. It should be *SPECIAL*, and if that someone you want to kill is not really a special person to you, then you should wait and kill someone else later.

Possibly my all time favourite

i can't stop myself from 5ing all of the strips where nice pete makes an appearance. wtf is wrong w/ me?

cropesaphilia

The three panels of Pat doing nothing but reacting are genius.

test

He's such a nice...Pete.

Murder, Explained - starring Angela Lansbury

I love this arc. It is pure gold.gold...gold

I think the reason he doesn't kill pat is because pat is enough of an asshole to be a real person, not a floating ball of light with hair, a sack of bugs in a costume, or a forgotten sin waiting for you to show a moment of weakness. But he is not enough of an asshole to warrant killing him despite his being a person.