Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s Man’s World

By Kieron Gillen on October 29th, 2009 at 4:08 pm.

But it ain’t nothing without a postcard. This is quite the thing. It seems some people sent off the Spy vs Sniper coupon from a while back. They received Saxton Hale postcards in the mail. There appear to be five in existence, at least so far. A couple are in this thread. Three more are on this chap’s Flickr account. Also, for your convienience, here’s three smaller-resolution versions of the latter three below…



Also – that looks like Mike Oeming artwork to me. Since he mentions it on his own forum, you suspect so. Hurrah for Mike Oeming. As well as the splendid Powers, I especially liked his Ares mini series for Marvel. In fact, for those who are interested in Ares, there’s another mini-series out this week which (Snip! – Ed).

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63 Comments »

  1. Chek says:

    So this could be teasing the TF2 comic they hinted at a while back?

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  2. Tinker says:

    Hurray I’m famous!

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  3. h4plo says:

    AN APE WILL DIE ON EVERY PAGE.

    Also, kind of a .. strange choice to place Saxton as the lead of a girl’s action comic, even if it’s only a joke. Hm.

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  4. A-Scale says:

    But I mailed in the coupon and got nothing! Wah!

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  5. Tinker says:

    When did you mail it? I sent it all the way back in June, so who knows.

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  6. diebroken says:

    Sharks have feelings too!

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  7. Sly Boots says:

    Those are absolutely brilliant, especially the second one. “An ape will die on every page” runs a close second…

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  8. Tinker says:

    Also man RPS, you’re fast. I only posted them online (well, at least publicly) a few hours ago. Props to you for internet detective work.

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  9. Amqz says:

    I’m so confused… what coupon are you talking about?

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  10. Pace says:

    Just exactly how much time and effort goes in to coming up with these pun titles? I mean they’re genius, and I love ‘em, not complaining. Wouldn’t be RPS without them. Are they agonized over for hours? Maybe you guys come up with the titles first, and then go looking for some topic to fit? Has there been news that wasn’t reported on because nobody could come up with a good title?

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    • mujadaddy says:

      You’re obviously not the fella who runs the “Abysmal RPS Story Title Efforts” site.

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    • Pags says:

      I always wondered if reviews for PCGUK were written in the same sort of way: come up with the ‘Big Word’ first and write the review to fit that.

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    • Pace: Desperate improvisation with usually scant seconds thought. Normally more time is spent working out how to fit a version onto a line – especially now after there’s less room in the new design – than the gag. A decade of games journalism has just honed that sort of random association word-nonsense.

      KG

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    • Pace says:

      It’s a talent man, a true talent.

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  11. This has “awesomeness” written all over it.

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  12. Jad says:

    I clicked the link to the TF2 thread and didn’t see any images there. (Which may be a result of not being a member of the TF2 forum, which I don’t really want to be) And I can’t go to flickr while at work, so I can only see the three images posted here on RPS. Anyone have links to the two others?

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  13. Theory says:

    I feel manlier already.

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  14. Hermit says:

    The fabled tenth TF2 class will be Saxton Hale.

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  15. Railick says:

    This is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time, the "an ape will die on every page" thing had me in tears :P

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  16. Railick says:

    Thanks Tinker I couldn't see the pictures any where else but here. I like the letter ( I love their form letters with the check boxes) Personally I wouldn't mind if Saxton Hale smoked my money away to try and impress a woman :)

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    • Tinker says:

      The cool part is that it’s not something automated. They actually filled in the boxes with pen and stamped the stamp, something which you might not see from the scans. Someone at Valve’s been busy :)

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  17. Railick says:

    I wonder if maybe each person has a personal letter at that with diffrent boxes checked in to give a slightly diffrent answer?

    I really liked the one that had for the person who did the Attack Dog class a few weeks back that rejected his request for invention or what have you.

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    • Tinker says:

      Actually, I saw some pictures earlier of a German guy who got the same package on the same day (except with the Shark and Barber comic fronts, not the three I had), and he had the same letter.

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  18. reginald says:

    saxton hale is easily one of the best things that Valve has ever done. I assume a lot of it is Chet and Eric’s writing.

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  19. Stense says:

    Oh Mr Hale! Such a man. *Swoon*

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  20. Thranx says:

    I Love these guys! Valve is just quality… QUALITY.

    Grade A content.

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  21. Railick says:

    I just relaized I can't see the other 2 (just the Apes, the Girl Scouts, and the Turtle one" I will have to wait till I get home to see the other two.

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  22. Clummer says:

    Saxton Hale is an anagram for ‘hot anal sex’.
    Go ahead, figure it out for yourself.

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  23. Tei says:

    * SPOILER *
    note: If you can read this you’re way too close to your monitor

    I am going to steal this pictures, and timetravel to the year Team Fortress was invented (1997?).. Imagine the face of the naive people of that era seeing this images. HAHA.

    * FAKE SPOILER END*

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  24. Railick says:

    And RPS Is one step closer to being banned at my work location ;) thanks mate (J/K don't worry about it)

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  25. That is hilarious, my friend. Loving the covers.

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  26. delfino furioso says:

    girls, action, flames, fire tips, burned bears…

    I see what you did there, valve…

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    • Wulf says:

      I was wondering if I was the only one who caught that, heh.

      Our good Mr. Hale needs to come out of the closet… guns blazing!

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  27. Is the flickr account link supposed to send me to image shack?

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  28. SmallIvoryKnight says:

    Awww. Theory beat me to it.

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  29. Downloads says:

    Not sure if anyone’s picked up on this yet, but TF2 currently is only $2.49/£2.49, if for some unholy reason someone out there doesn’t have it yet.

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/440/

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  30. kevyt-maito says:

    Also notice that the game is now on sale @ steam for just 2,5 € /$. God bless valve

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  31. Anthony says:

    “64 pages of Gorilla stabbing”

    I lost it right about here.

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  32. Funky Badger says:

    Modest Suspense for the Faint of Heart.

    Awesome, like Devlin Waugh’s machoer macho uncle.

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  33. Angel Dust says:

    I’ve said this before but I’m gonna say it again: Valve need to make a Saxton Hale game, in the style of a 90′s ego-shooter but even sillier!

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  34. Agro says:

    Now this is why I’ll always have a warm, sweaty, soft place in my heart for Valve. It’s like they want to please their fans or something……..
    …… nar, that’ll never catch on.

    Btw, this is definately going to get a mention in Episode 38 of our international TF2 Podast. (hope the Halloween fun doesn’t steal all your thunder).

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  35. This is really lovely. The Mildly Thrilling Tales are my favourite.

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  36. Atalanta says:

    These are amazing.

    Incidentally, I don’t think I ever realised that Saxton Hale’s chest hair is shaped like Australia.

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  37. Railick says:

    Thanks for pointing that out I never noticed that :)

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  38. Paul B says:

    Am I the only one who’d like to read the whole comic (if it were real)?

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  39. Urthman says:

    Why why why why couldn’t Gabe and Tycho have given the Lookouts fill-in job to this guy?

    “What’s the matter, girls? You wanna live FOREVER?”

    “MAY WE DIE IN THE FOREST!”

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  40. Sonic Goo says:

    Saxton Hale’s Mildly Thrilling Tales are just perfect for a man of my age and proclivity. Thank you Saxton Hale!

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  41. Ferrous Buller says:

    Grizzly bears burn!

    An ape will die on every page!

    So, probably not a PETA or WWF tie-in, is it?

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  42. The comic is real says:

    hey guys they are actually doing tf2 comics and mike oeming acted as a consultant in making them

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  43. radomaj says:

    I also never noticed that before. Thank you!

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