Agent Orange

by Mandy Seley
Mandy\'s avatar

 When I showed him the sketch for this strip, Fox said something like “it’s too bad you don’t have an airbrush for that poof.”

To which I replied “actually, yes I do…”

I’m not really the most skilled with an airbrush – but in this case, I wanted to draw a giant mess, so it worked out pretty great. 😀

Fox\'s avatar

While I’ve theories, I’ve yet to research the physics behind why opening the unpressurized can resulted in a mass evacuation of its contents.

64 comments on “Agent Orange”

    1. If you find out, let me know because I want to figure it out too. XD

  2. Those clumps were holding water and oxygen. Shaking them loose increased the air pressure because they weren’t condensed with the clumps. ….it’s the only theory I can think of. >_> (Kitsune Science!)

  3. I look at panels 3 & 4 and I cannot help but think of “shake your booty”
    Also, I love the half orange effect on Seley in the 6th panel.

  4. I can also see as a last panel of mandy infront of a wall, its covered her and wall, then she walks away leaving an outline. 😛

  5. Change of pressure within container of an aerolised substance, causing the POOF!! In this case, the powder, while having the same mass as the solid, is much more diffused and lighter than the solid so when opened the lighter material is sucked out as the POOF!! … Ignore me, I’m tired…

  6. Science! OK, guesswork in this case: Those cans usually have a lip around the inside, and some of the powder might have been caught between the lip and the snap-on plastic lid, so pulling the lid off flipped the powder out into the air. Static electricity might have been involved …or space aliens, can’t trust those guys.

      2. I’m like that too, I told my boyfriend he has to do a day in the life vid of me for our future joint youtube channel. Cause I’m such a klutz and I can be insanely entertaining when bored or sick.

      3. Do you get the benefit of carrying around a laugh track to play out loud?

  9. What makes this comic is your character just looking resigned as if this stuff happens all the time or that it was an expected outcome. That speaks volumes about their relationship. The POOF worked out just fine, fine mess work!

  10. The Yay! powder might take up more room than the chunks, but that would just be from air getting mixed in; the total solid volume wouldn’t change. Maybe the stuff was packaged at a cooler temperature, or some extra air was trapped in the process of recapping the container. Maybe that wouldn’t increase the air pressure much, but once the stuff was aerosolized, maybe it wouldn’t take much to poof it out maybe.
    I hope someone who knows what he’s talking about will check in with the answer.

    1. I don’t know the cause either, but to combat settling, I always invert my big tub o’ Tang before making any, and it tries to POOF this same way. I think the cause is that any orange powder, especially if it is a drink mix, is inherently EVIL, and seeks to suffocate us at every turn.

  11. Nice airbrush work, Mandy! Love the whole series of expression in this one too. 🙂

    I hate when powdered drinks solidify. I have cans of Gatorade, lemonade, and tea like this in my cabinet now.

      1. Hi Vulpy!
        Yeah; I just keep the powdered stuff around for stand-by. Then I forget it’s in the cabinet for a few months aaannnndddd…. 🙂

      2. I use powdered drink mix in more water than the instructions call for, to stay hydrated in the sumer. It would cost too much to buy real juice when I’m guzzling it by the quart. In a pinch, the “lemonade” powder isn’t bad in tea, too.

        1. Me too! One of the sports-medical staff at NC State once told me that Gatorade should be cut by -at least- 50% anyway. There’s so much “good stuff” in it that it interferes with the body absorbing the water. Probably the same for other powders.

          Yeah; I’ve used the lemonade powder in tea, and in cranberry juice too! 🙂

  12. Shaking adds internal energy to the dust. It is bouncing around in there. Also the air inside will be hotter because your shaking has heated it up. Long story short, it becomes slightly higher pressure than the outside air. Just a guess.

    Also, why not just use a fork or something to crush/mash the chunks? That’s what I would do.

  13. Maybe it works the same way soda does: if you lift the lid very gently after shaking, nothing bad should happen. I’ve shaken soda bottles many a time and rarely would they make a mess if I unscrewed the cap carefully enough.

  16. Maybe in large chunks it occupied more space and when became powder didn’t creating a vacuum effect? just a guess dont really think about that sort of thing much.

    1. Maybe occupied more space as a powder either way he look adorable and i just want to hug him, and im not much of a hugging kind of person

  19. “Store in a cool, dry place. Shake vigorously before opening…from a distance.”

    You did a good job with the airbrush, Mandy!

  21. considering most of those drink mixes are just colored sugar you dump into water and that exploded directly into his face. i would wager he just basically snorted like 3 days worth of sugar. and then he became a manly hummingbird

    2. Unfortunately, the orange powdered drink mix I’ve had in recent years, did away with sugar and replaced with artificial sweetener. That’s when I stopped purchasing said drink mix. :/

  22. I fan just like, “screw it” and don’t even mash the chunks. I just stick em in with the drink and stir. It takes a bit longer though due to the significant drop in surface area to volume ratio, but it all works out fine in the end

  23. My guess is that, since the powder is so light, the air pressure change caused by removing the lid draws the powder into the air. Of course the pictures Seeley is providing suggest a much more explosive reaction that that option would cause, so I could be wrong.

    1. So far I’m going with AlyxVixen’s explanation, or something close to it.

  25. My comment on this comic was a joke.
    Keep in mind–it’s a comic. The last two panels are exaggerated.
    When I opened the lid, the finer particles jumped out like angry bees.
    But they only flew into the air and hung there for a bit before settling over the counter. There was still plenty of powder in the can.

    I make quick movements, so when the lid came off I suspect I did it with some speed…much the same way I shook the can. I also suspect that, had I opened the can slowly, I’d have seen a swirling, orange dust storm neatly contained within…rather than being attacked by it.

    1. In case it wasn’t clear from my description above, I also understand why this happens, and don’t need it explained.

  26. Great masking job, Mandy! I do a lot of airbrushing on my model airplanes or armor — mostly freehand for camouflage schemes, but I sometimes have to mask certain areas for a sharper edge and it can be a pain to get the straight line that I need.

  27. Just imagine what it was like for the poor astronauts who had to use this stuff in zero-g…

  28. Haaaa brilliant! I love the way Seley is coloured as being on the edge of the epicentre of the fallout. Reminds me of a friend of mine who also works in my long suffering profession as a bicycle mechanic. He’d just filled a tyre with ‘slime’ (a predator green coloured tyre sealant) and inflated the tyre to the recommended pressure when he noticed that the bead of the tyre was creeping off the rim. He duly proceeded to duck and cover until it went bang, which resulted in a fantastic silouhette of him crouched in front of the back wall of the workshop. On a side note, do you think you guys will ever make it to Scotland for a holiday? I’m sure i could arrange free board. I’d like to see if i could out drink fox. I think i’d win…

    1. These days I’ve just been starving myself in an attempt to get alcohol to have an effect again.

  29. Good thing there wasn’t a match lit when that cloud went up. Dust fires are nasty.

    Also, you guys are into SAR and whatnot, so do you know a good place to buy a Haligan bar?

    1. Ebay. 🙂

      Everywhere I looked they’re expensive as hell for the good ones, but they were all about the same price.

      1. Great…

        Myself and E-bay are like researchers and anti-viral drugs. You think it’s nailed down, and then you discover the side effects. Looks like I get to practice my metal casting some for this project.

  31. I can’t let you do this to me Fox
    Edit: I didn’t take the hints, behaved like a child and got banned. This post was left here to make an example of me.

    3. Curtailed Public Service Announcement:

      If you notice your comments / threads disappearing, that’s because it’s a discussion I didn’t want on my comic page, for one reason or another.

      Normally, my deleting a comment isn’t actually a sign that you’re about to be banned, so don’t worry about it too much. Probably just means it was off-topic, or I didn’t think the thread was going in a constructive direction (arguing, name calling, etc — there are other places online for that kind of thing, please take it there).

      Please don’t repeatedly comment trying to revive the deleted thread or be snarky about the deletion itself. THAT will end up with a ban. Please take the hint that we’re not interested in continuing/”listening to” that topic in our space, and move on.

      Thanks for your understanding.

      1. Don’t listen to her about that last part. Be immature and stupid. I don’t get to use this thing very often. 😀

        1. Art question now. How on earth did you get the crisp line on Seley on the last panel with the airbrush? Mine are always a little fuzzy.

          3. If I’m following what you’re asking correctly, I believe the answer is ‘frisket’, but I’ve only a limited understanding of the masking technique.

            Painters tape for artists 🙂

          4. Frisket film!

            It’s low-adhesive plastic film you stick on, then trace around with an x-acto knife (and a light touch) to cut out the pieces you want to stay on your drawing. Remove the excess, airbrush, then remove the rest of the pieces. You should be able to google some tutorials for using it — there’s also liquid frisket / masking fluid you can paint on and let dry, then rub off (it ends up with a rubbery consistency and peels off). I don’t have a ton of experience with either, but they’re really helpful to get clean lines!

  32. I feel your pain, I used to drink powder juice mix often and it tends to get quite humid at our home in the summer so that was one of the reasons I hated drinking it. That and cavities

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