This week's panel, a repeat of the now-classic suggestion by Jon Delorey, was brought to you by:
frank episale
R David Francis
Josiah Rowe
David Goldfarb
Jeff Clear
TimmyC
James Riley and
Douglass Barre (age 28)
Special Note: Regular Carl readers will notice an expanded suggestions form on the main page. I hope this won't inconvenience anyone (in fact, I hope it's more convenient) but as the volume of suggestions has increased each week I've been spending more and more time composing this page by hand (sometimes as much as three hours) instead of drawing more comics! The new form will allow me to automate the boring stuff (cut-paste-cut-paste-cut-paste) while still giving the more important things (responses, special formatting, links, etc...) the care and attention they deserve.
Important: Please don't let this constrain you in any way from making the same kind of wild, verbose, out-of-control suggestions as always. You can still write or paste just about anything into those boxes (including intermediate comments on individual suggestions) and I'll happily welcome as many comments both before and after the suggestions as you'd care to make. The evolution of this page has been the most delightful surprise of my whole web experience so far. My sincerest thanks to everyone who has taken the time to participate.
--Scott
IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!
THE GREAT CARL TWO-WEEK CHALLENGE RETURNS!
I'll be at A.P.E. in San Jose the weekend of February 27 and 28, so I'll miss Carl. That means you can now make a suggestion for TWO Carl Panels, A & B. Whoever wins that contest will receive an original ball-point pen drawing of Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of The United States of America on a regulation-sized U.S. postcard. I hereby pledge that this drawing will take me at least ten minutes to complete! Don't miss this opportunity to win a Piece of History!
As always, suggestions are listed in the order they were received. Thanks for playing and please join us again on MARCH 7th!
--Scott
Sunday 02/21/1999
frank episale
- repeat of "promise you won't drink and drive, carl "panel
- repeat previous panel ("what is this, groundhog day?")
- zoom out to cross-hairs of a rifle-scope, centered on the car.
Jesse Rimler
I won! I won! Thank you sweet ever-loving merciful god in heaven! Ah, for the first time in my life, I'm a winner... ...oh right, my suggestion!
- Carl in car: "Hey, that reminds me! I need to go to the video store!"
Even though my site is linked on your site already (check "Welcome":awards:Jay Ward Award), I think I'll plug it again seeing as people don't seem to be coming. http://members.tripod.com/~fishnet123//front.htm On my site you will find a collection of labored over animated GIF cartoons, mostly humorous but there is an ongoing sci-fi adventure series to watch as well. One cartoon is dedicated to Scott Mccloud himself! It updates every Sunday. I put a lot of work into it, please give it a look! It's a guarenteed crowd-pleaser!
If you plug it, they will come...
[Thank you for writing, Jesse. And a note to newcomers; the offer of a free plug applies to winners only (we had several winners last week) 'cause we all know what would happen otherwise! --Scott]
Morgan Doninger
Again I failed to participate last week, but my heart beats like the ones around Daisy to see my elephant foot panel mentioned. Sniff. Anywho, I say let's go goofy in this panel.
- Ye olde Carl in the car shot, but a penguin pops up from the back seat with a party hat on, and a glass of bubbly in his hand, err wing,and says: " No actually, it's Penguin Day!". Carl is suitably baffled and distracted.
Dark Artist
- Carl is looking up from the driver's seat of the car into the sky, shielding his eyes with his arm. A bright light or some sort of object could be overhead. "Oh no! It's happening again!" he cries. This is in keeping with the reference to the movie Groundhog Day, as he is about to die all over again just like he has time and time again. Oh, and look for my suggestion for the next panel after this one next week! I've already got a followup in mind!
Nathan Kuruna
Suggestions:
- An axe-weilding, hockey mask wearing, psychopath leaps out in front of the car and screams "No, it's Halloween!"
or "No, it's DOOMSDAY!"
- A giant, very mean and viscous looking rabbit leaps in front of the car and screeches "No, it's Easter!"
- In the sky, a mean looking cupid is seen aiming a real arrow down at the car saying "No, it's Valentine's Day..."
- The evil Abe Lincon, as seen in The New Adventures of Abe Lincon, leaps out in front of the car saying "No, it's President's Day"
- A large tree falls, narrowly missing carl's car as he swerves. Carl: "No, wait. It'a Arbor day!"
- A giant flying saucer is seen hovering above Carl's proportionately tiny car. A voice from the ship or perhaps a caption says "No, it's Independance Day!"
R David Francis
How's about:
- a picture of the car; the sound effect of brakes, something furry right behind the car (just ran it over), and a word balloon: "Oops"
- a repeat of the panel directly above it (a la the referenced movie).
- A word balloon coming out of the car: "Hey, good idea! I'll go rent a movie!"
James Moar
- Carl sees a huge Groundhog Day Parade, blocking the road.
Josiah Rowe
Another one in the "everybody's going to suggest this" file, but...
- Identical to last panel. Car in motion; word balloon from car, reading "What is this? Groundhog Day?"
- Or a slightly longer repeat: the "Promise me..." panel.
- Carl looks at his watch (close-up of watch); balloon reads "Oh no! I think time is going backwards!"
- And now for something completely different: A Carl with three buttocks.
- Interior of car. Carl is driving and holding a video case, which he has just found on the seat. Carl says, "This is six days overdue!" If size permits, the case can read "Groundhog Day" or "Bill Murray" on it.
- Interior of car. Carl is driving, Daisy is in the passenger seat. Daisy: "No, Carl! It's our anniversary! Don't tell me you *forgot*!"
Lacking a web site of my own, I will reccommend the site of the Duke University Primate Center. Save the lemurs! http://www.duke.edu/web/primate/
Thomas Anthony Dougherty III
- "I feel the need, the need for speed!"
Al B Moore
- Daisy and Carl are in the car, Daisy being the one who said "What is this...", Carl, who is driving, says "I don't know, let me check my calendar..." as he pulls out his daytimer.
dan wheeler
- carl's mom: "promise me you won't drink and drive, carl." carl: "i promise"
- carl: "if i'm doomed to repeat this day of my life over and over might as well have a beer."
Jay Sabicer
- Carl shrieks loudly as the copter approaches a large wooden-style rollercoaster full of other shrieking people. Daisy is still embracing Carl, unaware of it all.
[Whoops. I guess those little hearts were a bit too distracting. Sorry. --Scott]
Joseph Caouette
Bill Randall
- Cut to a silent shot of groundhogs picnicing, looking befuddledly at the camera.
Jonathan Bogart
Animation! And colors, at that! Cool!
- Not that this will be an original suggestion by any stretch of the imagination ... but Carl and Daisy should now fly into a mountain (or a tall tree, or the Sears Tower, or King Kong, just to give us something interesting to work with when we pick up on it in Section Four). Anything that will result in a big Star Wars-type explosion should do the trick.
[Whoops. I guess those little hearts were a bit too distracting. Sorry. --Scott]
[Hey, didn't I already say that? (What is this, Groundhog Day?)]
Pike
- Carl; "Oh no, I forgot. It's SCORPION day!" Scene features carl in a car infested with scorpions.
Luke
- Carl in the car with a giant scorpion man beside him. Scorpion man says " No, it's scorpion day!"
- Happy Scorpion day (feb 21st) everyone!
Greg Lam
Hmmm.. Difficult as we have to merge with a starting panel which will immediately go into a death. Here's my best idea:
- Caption in upper left corner says: "Elsewhere". In another car there's the guy from the video store who IS drinking and driving.
- Or else a cadre of mean looking groundhogs looking over a set of plans with the title "Kill Carl".
David Goldfarb
- First thought: repetition of the previous panel.
- A giant mutant groundhog appears: "Yeah! Wanna make something of it?"
- A pack of rabid groundhogs swarm over Carl's car.
- Carl pulls into the parking lot of a liquor store. "I need a drink."
- The car suddenly turns into a helicopter. Dialogue: "What the hell?"
- The Momster appears in front of the car: "No! It's your WORST NIGHTMARE!!"
- Carl, in his car, says, "I have a premonition of impending doom."
- Winged Carl flies by, saying, "Carl! THERE you are." (I really want to get him back into the story.)
- Carl sees a hitch-hiker by the road, and slows to a stop. Next panel: "She didn't say anything about not picking up hitch-hikers...."
Mark Schlatter
- Carl stops in front of a movie theatre showing "Ground Hog Day" and says "I always wanted to see that movie!"
- We see a panel similar to the above where the car is now traveling to the left and a word balloon states "Oops... I forgot the beer!"
Eric Carpenter
- A groundhog emerges from its hole directly in front of Carl's speeding car. A look of horror (can groundhogs have 'looks'?) as it sees its imminent demise.
Eschel Hamel
- No! You're almost three weeks late!
Drew Hart-Shea
Well I'm back at last! (although you probably didn't notice my abscence, *sigh* I missed Carl a lot)
- Carl does a double take as he notices one of those desk calendars with the rip-off day-pages on the cars dash-board. It says Febuary the Second (Ground Hog Day) Carl says "AAAAARGH!"
- On a more self-reflexive note: Caption at top of panel reads (in swirly writing) : "Interlude..." Panel shows Scott McCloud sat thinking at the computer, Sky and Winter play happily in the background... Scott thinks: "Hmmm... I think I'll use Drew Hart-Shea's suggestion for Carl this week."
thats all for now...
Drew; in London, so no hope of getting to San Jose... (unless any of you CYOC players are multi-millionaires and want to fly me there to chat with Scott, Ivy and co? Oh go on... Pleease? :)
Avery J. Cohen
- I'd stick with the Groundhog Day in-joke and repeat the first panel,
except I'd change Carl's response to "Oh no, not again!". Except I don't think that will fit in the panel, so maybe instead I'd use "Good Grief!"
[*Gasp!* Put that tag back in your pocket this instant, young man!]
taylor
- A shot from inside the car focused on a cute little groundhog.
"Oh No I'll squish him!" Shouts carl.
Jeff Clear
I'm all for converging plotlines which make it a real challenge to link together. Let's start testing people's creativity! That said, I'm feeling uncreative:
- The exact same panel, "What is this? Ground Hog Day?"
- Daisy: "No, it's Friday the Thirteenth."
- Daisy: "No, it's President's Day!"
of course, Daisy doesn't have to be in the car yet, so:
- Carl, inside car, "No, it's Wednesday! I have to go pick up my new comics from Capital City Comics, in Madison, WI!"*
*OK, you can leave the plug for my favorite comic store out.
- Carl, driving while searching through the glove box, "Where did I put that calendar?"
Ethan Heitner
- Carl: Well, I guess there's only one way to find out... *drives deliberatly towards brick wall*
- Carl: Ahh, nuts to this. I'm having a beer.
TimmyC
I won! Okay, a lot of others won as well, since my sugestion was rather conventional. Okay I have a cool site to hype -- http://members.xoom.com/_xfan_/marvelx.htm
It's a fanfic site featuring X-Men-related characters. It's filled with great stories, and I write Ka-Zar, by the way.
Okay, given this panel's position it's a tuff one, but here goes nothing...
- Carl looks at his watch and says, "Woah, I'm late! Better get a move on!"
- Carl says, "What is this? Groundhog Day?" (It's an inside joke; you only get it if you've seen the movie)
- Carl looks puzzled and says, "Where am I going, anyways?"
harrison
Rowan Lipkovits
- "My car's on-board computer's calendar hasn't worked properly ever since that whole Y2K thing a two months back." (but more terse 8)
Jonathan L. Miller
adam gensler
- carl and daisy are speeding along and see lots of little groundhogs playing in a childrens playground out one of the windows.
James Riley
- Carl drinks, saying, "Well, if it is, then I can't die!"
- A giant George Washington/Abraham Lincoln appears, picking up the car and saying, "No, it's MY day!"
- Carl looks around him in the car, saying, "Who am I talking to? Am I delusional?"
- (Try this again) same panel as above, repeated.
- A cop pulls Carl over, as Carl says, "Probably shouldn't have blown through that stop sign..."
Chris Hurst
- Carl throws a wine bottle out the window. The car weave around on the road.
Doug Waldron
- Caption: "Two weeks earlier..." Carl holds a note. The note reads: "You will die on Groundhog's Day." If you can fit it, you could put this in a thought balloon and put Carl underneath it.
- Scene inside the car shows Carl's mom driving alone. Mom: "I better go back home and tell Carl I forgot to get his brakes fixed yesterday."
- A big explosion. That's it, just a big explosion.
- A car pulls up behind Carl. A man is leaning out the window holding a machine gun. Man: "I got yer Groundhog's Day right here, pal." SFX: "Budda Budda Budda"
- Carl: "Whatever."
- Carl's mom is driving. Mom: "Or is it Arbor Day?" Carl rolls his eyes.
- Scene inside the car shows Daisy in the passenger's seat blithely looking through her calendar as Carl desperately grips the steering wheel which has come loose in his hands.
- Carl gets a flat tire in East St. Louis.
- Use an animated gif to show Carl blithly driving along, maybe whistling, then the scene changes to show a space ship hovering above the car. Then the space ship emits a tractor beam that pulls Carl out of the car and into the space ship. Then the "camera" zooms into a window on the space ship and we see Carl strapped onto an operating table of sorts. Then an alien comes into the room and says "Plippee plippee plop" and a laser beam is pointed at Carl's head and then other aliens attack and then there is a big battle and stuff explodes and then some more stuff happens and Carl is still on the space ship but then he escapes somehow and goes back to earth and then the aliens attack earth but earth wins and the aliens go home. The delay produces suspense in the reader, get it?
- A man walks into my office and says "Get back to work."
Doug Waldron
- Did I mention the aliens had big ray guns?
Howard Ian Schiller
Lets contrast last week:
- Close up on the car's tire squishing a poor 'ole groundhog with the Daisy saying "Uh, it was."
adam gensler
- carl and daisy, or just the car, swerve to avoid a family of groundhogs crossing the street, and there is a truck, or big looming thing, coming towards them in the opposite lane.
Jeff White
- Carl realizes that it's supposed to be Feb 3, but it's still Feb 2 (Groundhog Day) from the day before (sorta like the movie). Carl says something like "I thought today was 2/3 but this all seems so familiar...as if it was 2/2 again."
Neil Cerutti
- Scene of Carl driving, perhaps looking sidelong at a liquor store out the window. A mysterious, shadowed figure is hiding in the back seat of the vehicle...
Mark Rosenfelder
As a card-carrying member of the Gargantuan Horde, I'd like to plug my webste at http://www.zompist.com/. Lots of comics stuff there.
- A giant groundhog gives Carl a kiss, saying, "Could be, Carl!"
- The standard cartoon angel & devils by Carl's head.
Devil-Carl: Par-TAY!
Angel-Carl: Fate is against us...
- Carl passes a bunch of Georgians bearing signs saying "Carl, LIVE!" and "Stay sober!" "Weird," he says.
By the way, is Bob Lappan lettering these things?
[What is this, Groundhog Day? Naah, just kidding (this is the second time for that question). The original Carl panels were indeed lettered by Bob, as Mark obviously remembers, but the rest are a Lappanish pastiche by Yours Truly. So far this site is still a one-man operation (except for you guys, of course). Oh yeah, and lest I forget to mention for newcomers: the offer of a free plug applies to winners only (we had several winners last week) 'cause we all know what would happen otherwise! --Scott]
[Hey, didn't I already say that? (What is this, Groundhog Day?)]
[Hey, didn't I already say that? (What is this, Groundhog Day?)]
[Hey, didn't I already say that? (What is this, Groundhog Day?)]
[Hey, didn't I already say that? (What is this, Groundhog Day?)]
[Hey, didn't I already say that? (What is this, Groundhog Day?)]
[Hey, didn't I already ...?
Guy Nelson
- creepy man jumps out from the back seat: "no Carl, it's Judgment day!" Carl's response: "DAD!!"
- Carl: "well, any holiday is worth celebrating!"- cracks open a beer
- groundhog jumps out from the back seat: "you bet it is, crab cakes!" Carl is understandably shocked. (because he normally sees talking groundhogs when he is drunk)
- Carl: "Boy, I sure like beef jerky!!" (attempting to drive and open package at same time)
- and lastly: can Carl's CAR burst into flame? (just a thought...)
Thom Marrion
- Carl looks over at the driver seat, where a groundhog is behind the wheel. The groundhog is looking up at him and saying, "Hello."
Steve Burt
- Interior, front seat of car.
Carl in passenger seat sees groundhog in drivers' seat.
Groundhog: "You got it!"
Carl: "Oh no! Groundhogs can't drive!"
Josiah Rowe
A few more thoughts before the deadline--
- variation on a theme: Mom: "Promise me you won't drink and drive, Carl." Carl: "I pro-- didn't you just say that?"
- I was thinking of holding off on this one, but I suppose there's no reason I can't suggest it again later if it doesn't fly here --
Interior of car. There is a GHOST sitting next to Carl, wearing chains and maybe a groundhog mask. Carl is terrified, and nearly crashes the car. The GHOST says either "I am the spirit of Groundhog Day Past!" or "Yes! It is Groundhog Day! And you will be visited by three spirits!" (Of course, this would eventually lead to a vision of Carl standing by the "RIP Carl" gravestone, crying out "I will never drink and drive again! I will keep the spirit of Groundhog Day in past, present, and future!")
- Overhead view of Carl's car. A giant hand is reaching to pick the car up.
Caption: Little did Carl realize that he was but a *pawn* in a giant chess game!
(BTW, I *loved* "My Obsession With Chess.")
Did I already suggest the one with the overdue video on the car seat? That's a problem with this automatic submission form -- I don't have a record of what I've sent afterwards! Not that it really matters, though.
Yours, Si Rowe
Nathan Kuruna
Jeff
Douglass Barre (age 28)
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