Ring of Fired

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Ring of Fired
RingofFired01.png
Comic Strip Info
Released: August 27, 2013
Number of pages: 68
Artist: Heather "makani" Campbell
Writer: Erik Wolpaw
Colorist: Nick Filardi
Hh hh hh hh! Yesh, Saxshton. And when you can't, Mann Co. is mine.
Gray Mann

Ring of Fired (also known as Team Fortress Comics #1) is a comic released on August 27, 2013 Patch. It is the first part of a seven-part comic series. The series was originally announced as a bi-monthly publication, but after the releasing the second issue Unhappy Returns (also known as Team Fortress Comics #2), the series was published at ever increasing intervals, up to more than a year.

Synopsis

The comic opens with Saxton Hale jumping from a plane with the pilot, Jerry, and the stuffed and mounted yeti he fought and captured a year earlier on the eve of the Robot War and had recently killed with his bare hands at Yeti Park. After landing in Mann Co. Headquarters, he is confronted by Gray Mann who has come for the "Mann Co. Challenge"; if the CEO of another company defeats Hale in unarmed combat, they take over. Gray, however, reveals that his pre-teen daughter, Olivia, is the owner of Gray Gravel. Saxton refuses to fight her, and thus the company is transferred to Gray, who fires the mercenaries. Hale leaves the country, and Miss Pauling finds that the Administrator has also vanished, leaving the message "Miss Pauling... hide" on the computer screen.

Six months later, the Soldier is now leading a tour of celebrities' homes where he, and a group of elderly women, run to Tom Jones's home where Merasmus is living. The Soldier kills Tom, and Merasmus calls the police. Soon enough, Miss Pauling, dressed as a police officer, "arrests" Soldier and tells him that they need to find the rest of the team. They lure Pyro from his job as CEO of Frontier Engineering by setting fire to a nearby building, while Demoman readily joins them despite becoming overweight and even more of an alcoholic. Miss Pauling explains that the Administrator, whose current whereabouts are still unknown, gave the order to reassemble the mercenaries.

Meanwhile, Gray Mann finds that Mann. Co's entire supply of Australium has been taken, presumably by Her. It is revealed that Gray's life-extending machine is powered by Australium and that his own supply is starting to run low. An unseen figure explains that all the other Australium sites have been emptied as well.

The team, now consisting of the Soldier, Pyro, Demoman and Miss Pauling, make plans to fly to Siberia and Australia to pick up Heavy and Sniper, respectively. Demoman mentions that Medic now has "a fancy job", while Miss Pauling worries as the Engineer has become especially hard to find. While they deliberate as to where the remaining mercenaries are, they find a newspaper saying that the Scout and Spy have been arrested and will be hanged for large-scale acts of vandalism.

Pages

Notes

  • The colors of several characters' ties inexplicably change between panels - Gray Mann's tie changes from gray to blue after he burns his hands on page 15, and it is black on page 24. The same occurs with Mr. Bidwell and Mr. Reddy's ties, both changing from blue to black on page 23.
Cover
  • On the title page, the Hat-Wearing MAN magazine can be seen.
Page 10
  • Unlike most of the photos that show Saxton Hale fighting some animal, a photo is seen that shows Saxton in a celebrity handshake pose with a tie-wearing bear. A similar tie-wearing bear also appears in similar celebrity handshake photo in Tom Jones’ home on page 38.
Pages 38-39
  • Soldier is missing the vertical flap down the middle of his coat.
Page 45
  • It is revealed that fire itself causes Pyro's vision of the world. Without it, Pyro sees everything as dull and grey, but still cartoonish.
  • The back page of Pyro's newspaper is the second page of the advertisement for Lecture Valley.
Page 57
  • Demoman's Eyelander is shown to be fully sentient and capable of speech; it was previously shown to be simply haunted and only whisper "heads".
Page 59
  • Demoman is wearing a Badlands Brawlers T-shirt, the same team name that appeared in the WAR! Comic.
Page 61
  • The statue fountain in the Demoman's front yard is still spouting water from the neck from when he decapitated it with the Eyelander in the WAR! Comic.

Trivia

Cover
  • The title is a reference to the 1963 Johnny Cash song, Ring of Fire.
Page 8
  • " ... crying over some dead opera lovers." references the origin of Batman, where Batman's alias, Bruce Wayne, witnesses his parents' murder in a back alley after an opera.
Pages 30 to 39 Soldier's Homes of Celebrities Tour
  • 392 American soldiers died "defending Fort Stanwix from the British" in upper New York State. Stanwix is a common mispronounciation of the famous star's name Stanwyck, and vice versa.[1]
  • The Beatles "disappeared" in 1970, shortly before the timeframe of this Comic. See newspaper on page 45 ("Last seen near Pond").
Page 66
  • The puppy Pyro is holding is a Dalmatian, commonly known as a "firehouse dog" due to the breed historically being used for various purposes by firefighters.

See also

External links

References

  1. Jon Schmitz, Stanwix versus Stanwyck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, AUG 1, 2013.