Panel 2: Yeahp, “No-Shock” and “Happyjuice” are references to medical compounds used by the powered suits in Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War to treat their injured occupants. Long-time readers de m’oeuvre* will recognize that I used the same reference way back in Dirty Pair: Fatal but Not Serious when Kei suffered a severe leg injury.

And yes, I’m still hoping to reprint all of my old DP material someday, but that decision is up to the Japanese license holders now. Believe me, if I had the clearance, I would’ve reprinted that stuff in a dozen different editions by now. Such are the long-term consequences of investing too much time in material that wasn't fully creator-owned, folks.

Panel 3: Yeahp, “Medrobotron 2084” is, of course, a reference to the classic videogame. Not only did I play Robotron: 2084 (unsuccessfully!) back in its 80s arcade heyday, but I later played emulations of the game on the ol’ Playstation, where it was once one of my favorite choices to “zone out to” late at night after work, while brainstorming stories over a few beers. 

Note that my continued playing of this very, very difficult game was made possible by a glitch of sorts with the Playstation controller: if you rock your thumb back and forth over the face buttons used to fire, the nameless superhuman protagonist can emit streams of fire in two directions at once—diagonally and in a cardinal N/S/E/W direction. This makes the game vastly easier than using the twin joysticks of the arcade version, explaining how the hell I could “zone out” to the frantic gameplay and see the “level 256 rollover” on multiple occasions. (This practice wasn’t too friendly to the ol’ drawing hand, howeva, which is why I later transitioned to the less punishing racing game Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition for my after-work sessions.)

-Adam Warren

*UPDATE: As has been pointed out in the comments, this should be "de mon oeuvre", as I mistakenly thought oeuvre was feminine. Oops!