For the record, the ill-fated episode of heavy-duty alcohol consumption that follows is based on several real-life incidents that did not end very well at all for Emp’s counterparts.

Panel 2: If you might recall, a few pages earlier Ninjette declared, “You don’t want your imbibery to be a graceless, fratboyish rocket-sled ride into drunken oblivion.” Well, starting with this panel, we’re seeing a comically direct and on-the-nose metaphorical sequence depicting Emp’s ill-considered attempt to match the alcohol consumption of the much heavier Thugboy and much, ah, “drinkier” Ninjette. Yeahp, Emp is depicted as strapped into a rocket sled based on the one famously ridden at Edwards Air Force base in 1947-1954 by Colonel John Stapp and other test subjects. I’m reasonably sure, howeva, that Stapp never rode that rocket sled with a drink in his hand, as seen in panel 4. (I might be wrong, though.)

-Adam Warren