Sluggy Freelance/Headscratchers

Torg and Riff must be looking at forty by now.

We've seen that the characters age in real time with Zoé, Min, and Meander. In 1997, Torg and Riff were both at least college graduates, and especially in Riff's case, probably held further degrees, putting them in their early-mid twenties. The youngest they could be, assuming they started college at the usual age, is their mid-thirties. Aren't they a little old to be...you know...them?

I assume it has something to do with all their time travel. No doubt Pete's going to introduce something which explains why Zoe, Torg, Riff, and Gwynn don't seem to age much. Either that, or they were in their very early twenties (21 to 22) when the comic started and are just now hitting mid-thirties.
- Well, considering Zoe graduated college during the earlier years of the strip (which is something usually done in the early 20s), that sounds about right. Also, Comic Book Time.
  - That's the problem: there is no Comic Book Time. Real years are given and don't seem to change (Torg met Oasis in 1999, Torg and Riff were kids in The Eighties, Min always seems to have been born 1983-4), and significant lengths of time (months, years) are always given in real time. Even a Webcomic Time joke is followed by a series of Time Skips to get back to speed. There's really no way around the fact that it's been twelve years for the characters.
  - Actually, I don't think it's a problem at all. If the youngest they could be is in their early-to-mid 30s, sure they can be them. There are older people who're less mature than either Torg or Riff, and Zoe explicitly graduated college earlier in the comic's run.
  - I think there is Comic Book Time, selectively applied according to Rule of Cool and Rule of Funny.
Are we sure they graduated college? Frankly they both seem like the type to skip it entirely.
- Zoë once asked what they did after they graduated, I think.
Pete has commented on this: "In Sluggy Freelance we often signify the passing holidays, so actual years go by, but are the characters of the strip really a decade older? I have to admit the gang is getting older but maybe not THAT much older."

Why didn't the Dud-munchers Eats-Clothes-Moth eat Torg's emergency pants?

I get from the phrasing of Gwynn's summoning invocation that other cloth materials, like the pillow, weren't eaten, but emergency pants are still clothes/duds.

They did, eventually.
- When Torg was wearing them, yes. Do they not count as clothes/duds when not being worn!? ...And did I just answer my own question with that Pothole?

Why doesn't anybody at Hereti-Corp take the Hereti-Corp logo off the uniforms of their agents?

You know, so that Oasis doesn't just kill them on sight. Hell, you'd think they'd do this even if there was no Override B-1, since news reports about your men blowing up a restaurant might be bad for business.

Having Oasis kill their agents was the main point of opening up the chain of House of Cheese pizza restaurants. Well, that and make money, but mostly to form a sort of nationwide trip-wire system to search for Oasis. Eventually, Oasis would see the Hereti-Corp logo on the restaurants or its employees, freak out over Override B-1, and start killing, and then they'd have a rough idea of what area to start looking for Oasis in. And by that I mean, "flood the area with more expendable guys in Hereti-Corp uniforms until you can narrow down Oasis' location because that's where she's killing people." Hereti-Corp are evil, remember?
- And Hereti-Corp agents are now going undercover as "Innocent Plumbing," so they do seem to be catching on.

Can someone explain to me the whole "Have Oasis kill Riff in front of Torg thing?

As I understand it, Schlock's logic goes something like this: Despite Oasis' Stalker with a Crush tendencies, Torg still pities her and wants to keep her safe and sane. If Torg caught wind that Schlock and Hereti-Corp had Oasis in their clutches and were manipulating/torturing/experimenting on her, he'd feel obligated to try and save her. However, if Schlock got Oasis to kill Riff, he'd be killing two birds with one stone-(1) With Riff out of the picture, Torg loses his main source of intellegence and firepower (not to mention Riff is a risk on his own, with his distrust and dislike of Schlock and Hereti-Corp) and (2) If Torg witnesses the murder, he may decide Oasis is a Complete Monster and want nothing more to do with her, leaving Schlock free to do what he wants.
As the arc is still progressing, there is an Unspoken Plan Guarantee in place - we probably won't figure out Schlock's plan until its wheels are about to fall off.
- It's pretty simple. If Oasis killed Riff in front of Torg, Schlock would be free of the threat of Riff. Also, Torg would be compelled to stop Oasis, and because he knows she is pretty much immortal, his only resort would be to find Dr. Steve's lab and try to snap her out of the mind control. Schlock would then be able to steal the mind control technology after Torg led him to the lab and be in complete control of an immortal killing machine.
  - ...Besides the one he already has, Kusari. It's still a mystery why Oasis is so special as to warrant all that attention.
  - Because she's a better killer. Remember that Oasis accidentally pinned Kusari to the wall.

Aylee should be WELL out of her "naive" phase.

Consider -- she's been with the cast since the late 90s, when they did the Star Trek/Aliens parody. That leaves plenty of time for her to learn about human behavior. Okay, granted, she doesn't exactly have the best role models, but some of the stuff she's showing no comprehension of is really stuff she should know about. For example, not knowing about birthday cakes?!

She's an alien. Who says she accumulates information the same way humans do?
She's never had to actually do many human-like behaviours before now. Sure, she's observed them, but that doesn't mean she really understood human social interactions enough to fully integrate herself into society. Considering that her main role model used to be Torg her understanding of "normality" is justifiably limited.

Frog

Okay, I'm willing to accept Frog as long-lived, he has access to super-nanobots after all. But how the smeg did an amphibian grow that beard.

Nanobots. Hair is hardly a complicated structure.

How the heck is Schlock Rammer's father

His future self maybe, but his past self doesn't seem anywhere near old enough to have had a child that long ago.

It's noted that neither Schlock nor Rammer knew about the relationship. It could easily be from whenever Schlock lost his virginity, say he's...sixteen. He never sees the woman again, and she doesn't bother seeking him out. Simple as that.
I believe the word from Pete is that Schlock was actually a young man when he went back in time, and that he arrived several decades before the strip began, which is when he did the Rammer begetting. The epic, improbable tale of how Schlock talked a woman into sleeping with him has yet to be told, however.

Rammer's time limit

Rammer is worried that he'll be "reset" and forget everything before he gets his revenge. Except he says this not ten seconds after he notes that Izzy has been keeping herself updated with a log. He's higher ranking than her, he should be able to pull off the same trick much easier. Am I missing something?

In 4U City, "higher ranking" probably also means "more closely watched."