Maintain Your Tone 2012-10-22

[sheik]

The trick is the cream cheese is $5 an ounce.

[sheik]

I think we'll be hearing a lot more about the solution to Monica's dilemma of "the girls" continuing to grow, especially now that she's confronted with the prospect of having to employ a wheelbarrow eventually.

[Fairportfan]

You're all missing the most important thing.

Due to Pablo's style of skipping over (in?)significant parts of their lives, We've Totally Missed seeing any scenes where Tina and Monica are in the gym exercising, and getting those "toned" bodies....

Sigh.

Not quite Totally Missed.

Geeze, Tina looks EEVULL in that panel...

[Fairportfan]

[Jennifer Fallon addressed it with one character in her "Tide Lords" series. She also mentioned another unfortunate character--the eternal virgin. . . .

In MaryJanice Davidson's "Betsy, Queen of Vampires" series, vampire feeding is pretty well intertwined with sex, as is often the case.

There's one vampire who was made when she was twelve or so (or thereabouts), and so, despite being like a hndred years old, she is still physically twelve.

Some of the connotations are sort of creepy.

[lake_wrangler]

Can't nest more than 3 quotes... grumble, grumble...

3) Yet some beneficial physical changes, acquired mussel tone in this case, are retained.

Wow! I did not see that coming... Monica is a mollusk?

A mollusk in a band!

Her friend is Shelly, remember?

Yeah... so Monica has mussel tone, whereas Shelly is a ton of muscle...

And now that she's immortal, the world is her oyster!

Somebody oyster slap you for that one...

Look at the bigger picture and suck it up

I think she is looking at the bigger picture (in the mirror), and is finding that sucking up ain't enough...


*Drops a thesaurus in the alarmingly large gaping mouth of the pun jar.*

[Mark N]

[Jennifer Fallon addressed it with one character in her "Tide Lords" series. She also mentioned another unfortunate character--the eternal virgin. . . .

In MaryJanice Davidson's "Betsy, Queen of Vampires" series, vampire feeding is pretty well intertwined with sex, as is often the case.

There's one vampire who was made when she was twelve or so (or thereabouts), and so, despite being like a hndred years old, she is still physically twelve.

Some of the connotations are sort of creepy.

True. That would be a case of "When is a pedophile not a pedophile?" The very thought creeps me out (yes I have some serious problems with that kind of person.)

[chibichibi01]

Over in Gunnerkrigg Court there's currently a vivid - and distressing - look at what immortality would be like. ... Today we're back to the 14th (approximately) century, she's been accused by villagers of being a devil and taken a spear to the gut from a knight, she broke the spear with her hands and walked off, her clothing torn but unhurt to start a new life somewhere else where she's not known.

People who use this plot device almost never deal with the issue of decapitation. What would have happened if the Knight then took out his sword and took her head off? If she started coming for it, hacked her up further and/or smashed the head beyond any hope of reuse? That's what I want to know about. At least Paul seems to have covered this issue with the soul leaving the body during regeneration, That allows for head and brain regeneration as well, with all memories up to date and the "self" returning to the body so it's not just a copy of the person in the end.

Jennifer Fallon addressed it with one character in her "Tide Lords" series. She also mentioned another unfortunate character--the eternal virgin. . . .

Good lord! I feel like I need to read those now.

[Fairportfan]

[Jennifer Fallon addressed it with one character in her "Tide Lords" series. She also mentioned another unfortunate character--the eternal virgin. . . .

In MaryJanice Davidson's "Betsy, Queen of Vampires" series, vampire feeding is pretty well intertwined with sex, as is often the case.

There's one vampire who was made when she was twelve or so (or thereabouts), and so, despite being like a hndred years old, she is still physically twelve.

Some of the connotations are sort of creepy.

True. That would be a case of "When is a pedophile not a pedophile?" The very thought creeps me out (yes I have some serious problems with that kind of person.)

What makes it especially weird is that the Betsy series is pretty much comedy...

[stjen]

You're all missing the most important thing.

Due to Pablo's style of skipping over (in?)significant parts of their lives, We've Totally Missed seeing any scenes where Tina and Monica are in the gym exercising, and getting those "toned" bodies....

Sigh.

well, what would you prefer? NO dialog, just M & Tina walking to the gym on the Monday strip, doing warm up on the Tues strip, bicycle on the Weds strip, upper body on the Thurs strip, legwork on the Fri strip... and then next Mon - Fri doing bicycle, rowing, biceps, abdominal, and maybe hit the showers in the last frame...

or would you rather have two weeks of actual story????

Dave: that was a wonderful sequence, BUT not *that* much tennis was actually done.. but who cares??? us guys just luv watching....

Let's see, how to put this: Yes. (I think it's called Fan Service.)
Actually, I think they'd be chit chatting with each other, egging each other on, which could be fun to watch.

[Forklifter]

Over in Gunnerkrigg Court there's currently a vivid - and distressing - look at what immortality would be like. Jones is a preternaturally calm and mysterious woman who's been a mentor and authority figure to the main character; now we're getting a series of flashbacks showing her past. Her LONG past. The changes. The people she's known and had relationships with who've grown old and died before her eyes. The constant risk of being find out. Today we're back to the 14th (approximately) century, she's been accused by villagers of being a devil and taken a spear to the gut from a knight, she broke the spear with her hands and walked off, her clothing torn but unhurt to start a new life somewhere else where she's not known.

If this were anybody but Jones, who's abnormally balanced and may not have emotions, you imagine she'd have become a basket case long before the present...

Ah, another Gunnerkrigg Court fan! I find that strip has much in common with Wapsi Square: the authors are both talented in puzzling the hell out of you about where the story is going, but keeping your interest in seeing how the story arrives at it's destination.

[Mark N]

Ah, another Gunnerkrigg Court fan! I find that strip has much in common with Wapsi Square: the authors are both talented in puzzling the hell out of you about where the story is going, but keeping your interest in seeing how the story arrives at it's destination.

You got it.

[Fairportfan]

Ah, another Gunnerkrigg Court fan! I find that strip has much in common with Wapsi Square: the authors are both talented in puzzling the hell out of you about where the story is going, but keeping your interest in seeing how the story arrives at it's destination.

You got it.

Plus Annie and Kat and Monica and Bud and Shelly are just so damned cute and lovable.

[NOTDilbert]

Uh, so, Monica is now Guynan? Maybe?

[lake_wrangler]

Yeah... so Monica has mussel tone, whereas Shelly is a ton of muscle...

Of course, that's only an approximation... to get an accurate reading, she'd probably have to use a cat scale...

Drops a model 18-wheeler in the pun jar.

[MerchManDan]

In all our talk about immortal beings, we left out Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged from, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." He has another perspective on immortality.

In contrast to most other immortals, Bowerick Wowbagger was not born one, but became immortal due to an accident with "an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands". Unlike other immortals whom he calls "a load of serene bastards", he doesn't cope very well with his infinite life. Eventually he comes up with a plan to keep himself busy: he will insult every living being in the universe - in alphabetical order.

Or worse, there was Agrajag, the...being that kept getting killed by Arthur Dent, reincarnated as something else, then killed by Arthur again, ad nauseum. Everything from a fly Arthur swatted, to the bowl of petunias that used to be a nuclear missile.
OK, not exactly "immortality," by the definition we're using in this discussion, but still an infinitely improbable chain of coincidences.

[lake_wrangler]

mussel tone, mollusk, etc.

I just hope Monica doesn't oyster-self up by her own petard...

On a (slightly) different note (or maybe not so different): given the next comic, I can't help but wonder why Tina chose now to clam up... It's not like her to just hide in her shell...


Drops a first edition vinyl record of Marcel Marceau's greatest hits into the pun jar.

[illiad]

well, what would you prefer? NO dialog, just M & Tina walking to the gym on the Monday strip, doing warm up on the Tues strip, bicycle on the Weds strip, upper body on the Thurs strip, legwork on the Fri strip... and then next Mon - Fri doing bicycle, rowing, biceps, abdominal, and maybe hit the showers in the last frame...

or would you rather have two weeks of actual story????

any answers for this then???

[bmonk]

Jennifer Fallon addressed it with one character in her "Tide Lords" series. She also mentioned another unfortunate character--the eternal virgin. . . .

Good lord! I feel like I need to read those now.

I really enjoyed them. Not sure the ending was quite as satisfactory and it could have been, though. But the journey there was well worth it, for me.

[Opus the Poet]

well, what would you prefer? NO dialog, just M & Tina walking to the gym on the Monday strip, doing warm up on the Tues strip, bicycle on the Weds strip, upper body on the Thurs strip, legwork on the Fri strip... and then next Mon - Fri doing bicycle, rowing, biceps, abdominal, and maybe hit the showers in the last frame...

or would you rather have two weeks of actual story????

any answers for this then???

Actually that would make a good mini-arc to stuff into the middle of a major arc that had gotten to "heavy".

[Fairportfan]

Drops a first edition vinyl record of Marcel Marceau's greatest hits into the pun jar.

Were you just joking, or have you seen the actual LP of "Marcel Marceau's Greatest Hits"?

(Yes, it actually exists/existed.)