Follow the Reader

"Follow the Reader" is the forty-sixth comic issue, which was released 25 November, 2009 in the US.

The Story

 * This comic can be read in sequence or by selecting from the options provided and skipping to other pages. This article focuses on the sequential version.

Act I
Farnsworth holds up a red envelope announcing that his old friend Dr Möbius sent him a letter reminding him of a delivery that needs to be made. The crew are sent off with a device called the expositron that will explain what to do with the package. The device causes them to go in circles, so Leela tries rebooting it. Zapp Brannigan calls the Planet Express ship, he is about to send his men into battle and wants to leave them behind and go to a depravity spa with Leela. Before she can hang up, Kif asks them to give Amy a gift that he then teleports over, it's a ring made from a Smizmar Proplon, a gem Amphibiosans excrete once in a lifetime. When it arrives, Bender attempts to smash the ring but accidentally transports himself somewhere. Fry grabs the ring and tries to follow. Nibbler informs Leela about what has happened and that Fry is most likely in an alternate universe due to the Proplon. Bender finds himself on the set of All My Circuits then decides to take a nap, resulting in strange dreams. Fry ends up in front of The Beast With Two Bucks sex shoppe and is chased into a space time porta portal by people wanting the ring. Meanwhile, Leela has stopped to refuel and meets up with Alcazar who has set up cameras all over the universe, and several alternate universes to film people for his television network. They tune into Zoidberg's channel, it seems space bandits tied him to tracks and a space shuttle is about to hit him. Leela doesn't care, turning instead to the Nibbler channel. He is talking to the other Nibblonians, until he notices the camera. Suddenly everything goes black.

Act II
Bender crushes something underfoot and the crew find themselves back on the ship, but they're lost. They search for and find a GPS, which Bender then smashes. They find themselves pulled into a black hole with absolutely no escape. Cubert appears complaining about this issue's ending, such as that the main characters shouldn't die half way through. It seems he was on the news, and that Morbo disagrees. Nixon is watching from his office and approves of Morbo's opinion. However this was all a what-if scenerio Farnsworth and Bubblegum had been watching, "What if Nixon watched the TV news?" Farnsworth mentions God, and the Galactic Entity hears. He is soon visited by Yivo, who has an inferiority complex and wants to know how powerful the Entity is. He shows off to Yivo by pulling the Planet Express ship out of the black hole and flinging it at a planet. Zapp and Kif are near the crash site, having stayed in the battle. The enemy are the Spheroids evidently this is a job for the New Justice Team... but they don't actually do anything, Nibbler has somehow brought the Amazonians to help, giving Thog the Proplon. After the balls are defeated, the Amazonians are scared away by a fleet of Brainspawn. Once again they somehow find themselves back on the ship. Wernstrom attempts to explain the universe shifting properties of the Proplon, but Bender smashes the transmitter and finds himself in a dream wonderland, that reminds him about the package. they open the lid and see that it is actually from Dr Möbius to Farnsworth. Fry gives Amy the Proplon, which she puts into a large pile of other Proplons. Farnsworth opens the package, it seems Dr Möbius has sent him a letter in a red envelope, essentially setting the events of the comic in an endless cycle.

Trivia

 * There are an infinite number of different ways to read this issue.
 * This issue's name is one of the few that was revealed before its release.
 * This is the third comic to break the fourth wall, this also occurs in US#014, US#020 and the game.
 * This issue is structured so as it can be read as a choose your own adventure. Throughout the comic, the reader is given choices such as "So, if you want to know what happens next, read on, but if you'd rather follow Bender, go to page 9.".
 * However a few of the choices are unusual, such as choosing whether to switch to reading "Son of the Sun" or  or making the choice by assembling a 24-sided die from a frame of the comic.
 * Evidently, All My Circuits occasionally films near Omicron Persei.

Continuity

 * Fry mentions Cornwood and the Die of power, placing the comic after Bender's Game.
 * Bill Morrison suggests switching to issue #35 for more of the New Justice Team.
 * At the Galactic Bazaar, Fry rejects both a Scooty Puff Jr. ("The Why of Fry") and a taste of the current Trisolian emperor ("My Three Suns").

Goofs

 * The Brainspawn do not need or use space craft.
 * More importantly, they had been defeated long before Cornwood was created.
 * Characters appear off model fairly regularly.
 * The choices on page 8 indicate Zoidberg's story is on page 13, but it is on 12.
 * The director mentions Trek.
 * Zapp and Kif are seen wearing pants with their uniforms.
 * The Wii is seen but since it is set in 3010 shouldn't they be using a brand new console?
 * It could be that in the future the whatever generation console could be called a Wii.
 * Also it never really happened.
 * When Sal comes out of the Space Time Porta-Portal, he is wearing sleeves; but in the very next panel he is back to wearing his regular white vest (Roberto even calls him "T-shirt"...).

Characters

 * Alcazar
 * Amy
 * Bender / Superking
 * Bill Morrison
 * Calculon
 * Cubert Farnsworth
 * Ethan 'Bubblegum' Tate
 * Fry / Captain Yesterday
 * Galactic Entity
 * Hermes
 * Human Horn dealer
 * Kif
 * Kug
 * Leo and Inez Wong
 * Thog
 * Leela / Clobberella
 * Mad Hatterbot
 * Monique
 * Morbo
 * Nibbler
 * Nixon
 * Organ Dealer
 * Ornik
 * Dr. Perceptron
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Roberto
 * Robot 1-X
 * Sal
 * Scruffy
 * Wernstrom
 * Yivo
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Zoidberg

Comic Credits

 * Script
 * Patric M. Verrone
 * Pencils
 * Mike Kazaleh
 * Inks
 * Andrew Pepoy
 * Colors
 * Rick Reese
 * Letters
 * Karen Bates