This week's panel suggested by the lovely Erin, courtesy of her husband Josiah Rowe

Oooh, Symmetry! Sort of...

(And a purple name.) Thank you Erin and thank you Josiah. Great idea!

As always, suggestions are listed in the order they were received. Thanks for playing and please join us again next Sunday!

--Scott
Sunday 05/16/1999

• ["camera" pans either out or down] "Oh my god, I've lost my pants!" Heart-pattern boxers, maybe?
• "No doubt 'the Man' took 'em!"
• "At least I still have Quarky the Wonder Llama!"
• "But here's my bus schedule!"
• "Oh my god, I think I'm gonna ralph ..."
• [whips out magic 8-ball] "Will I ever find my keys?!"

Joseph Caouette

• An angry-looking person stands behind Carl. Person:No, you've lost MY keys. Carl:Who's car is this?
• Carl(crawling on the floor on his hands and knees, as if he were looking for a contact lens):And I think I dropped my self-respect somewhere, too...
• All of a sudden, a bomb is dropped on Carl. Carl(his body being tossed by the explosion): Looks like NATO missed again!

Claudia Mastroianni

Poor sad Carl....

• Narration box: "And due to the power of mind over matter..." The keys vanish. Carl doesn't notice, since he didn't know where they were anyway. or...
• "I'm such a hopeless case!" Carl buries his face in his hands in despair, poking himself in the eye with the keys. or...
• Carl rummages in a box, oblivious to his keys, but finding all manner of previously lost objects.

harrison!

• carl gets a case of the d.t.'s and screams in agony as he imagines that his body is crawling with spider-monkeys.
• carl sees a fez wearin' monkey smokin' a pipe, who advises him that his keys are in his hand and that, perhaps, he should stop drinking.
• carl turns into a monkey.

  the Great Monkey rules my existence.

Jay Sabicer

• A small elephant's trunk snatches the keys away from Carl. Carl (increasingly snoggered): Hey! Give dose back!

David Goldfarb (Age 31 [recently up from 30!])

Hey Scott -- the word "winners" (as in, "Winners only -- cause we all know what would happen otherwise") does *not* have an apostrophe in it. Sorry, but it just bugs me.

• Carl grabs more beers. "Only one thing to do -- DRINK SOME MORE!"
• Carl walks off, saying "Maybe Daisy's seen them."
• Enter: Scott McCloud. He slaps Carl's face, saying, "They're right there in your hand, you ninny!" (If you don't want to break the fourth wall you could have it be Daisy or Carl's mom.)
• Carl opens the door to his car. "Maybe I left them in here."
• Carl pulls more keys out of his pocket. "Luckily I have the spare set from Mom's car."
• Wings sprout out of Carl's back. (He needs to be winged from last section, just to remind everyone.)
• Carl shrugs. "Oh, well, I'm too hammered to drive anyway."

[Tho'se damn'ed apostrophe's ke'ep poppin'g u'p.' --Sco'tt]

Travis Pelkie

Comments?

• Ok, I still like one I wrote last week (I think), that Carl attempts to start his car with the drink. Of course, it's awfully similar to the other track.
• So, I'll go with Carl's mom finding him blasted yet again. Takes him to AA.
• Better yet, takes him to AAA, he's gonna need them to find his keys.
• Or else we could start a search for Carl's dad to wrap up on father's day.
• Suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck. (If anyone can tell me where that's from...)
• All of the sudden, from out of nowhere comes... (Ya know, just a dumb panel like that, maybe Carl with a dumb look on his face.

  Well, it's the last week of classes here at SUNY Bingo. Hopefully I can get some sleep next week. Perhaps I shall devise a more devious torture for Carl later in the week, but I doubt it.

Adam Noble

More adaptations of classic poetry, please! You, of course, need a message board. Everyone's doing it. Get with the times, Scotty!

• "I wonder... (staring quizzically at keys) can I use these funny-looking can openers to drive the car?"
• Daisy drives up in a circa-1800's stagecoach. "Carl, hop on!"
• "I'll have to take my bike to the liquor store!" Carl on bike. SFX: Bike bell ringing.
• Mom'll kill me! I can't live with the guilt! I'm going to kill myself!

[A message board would be fun but I need to wait until I can devote more than a few hours a week to the site (mid 2000 I hope). --Scott]

Jeff White

• Who ever said "Don't drink and bike?" Since Carl can't find his keys in his hand, he gets his bike out of his garage, its covered in cobwebs, and he uses that to get around.
• Instead of a bike, Carl uses a skateboard or rollerblades or something.

Doug Waldron

• View from the bottom of a rickety wooden staircase, Carl's silhouette seen in the doorway at the top. Carl: "Maybe they're in -- the basement!"
• Carl: "Now I'll never make it to my inauguration!" Secret service agent: "That's okay Mr. President, we have a limo waiting for you outside!" [I know this would never fit in a single panel, but I like it.]
• Carl: "Oh well -- better my keys than my marbles!" Carl holds a small bag of marbles.
• Two aliens view a stat of the above panel on a viewscreen. Alien #1: "This is who you've chosen as a test subject? (Sigh) Beam him up."
• [I think Erich Mees was on to something with the ambiguity of that left hand, so...] Carl: "Who could have taken them?" Carl now has both hands on his face, and the hand with the keys is still dangling them behind him.
• Carl: "Great! Now my eyes are all Charlie Brown-y."

  Hope Ivy got something nice for Mother's Day?

[I don't know how nice it is, but she got to see her husband for a change. :-) I've been working a lot! --Scott]

John "Not Swedish" Barberio

Oh My, "Oh My" is popular

• "Oh my god, I lost my Beer" just because so many other people sugested it.
• "Oh my god, I've lost track of my life."
• "Oh my god, they killed kenn..." Er, no, scratch that one, I think its taken.
• "Oh my god, the Irony, oh the Irony"
• "Oh my god, I've lost all perspective" (Cue cool freeky drawing)
• "Oh my god, I've lost the plot." (Cue Non-Sequiturs)
• "Oh my god, I've lost my boundaries" (Cue borderless panel)
• "Oh my thing, I've lost my religion" (Cue Theologistic Ramble)
• "Lions and Tigers and Snakes, Oh My" (Cue Yellow Brick Road)

taylor

• Gross, random, coffee induced suggestion: Carl stomps around like godzilla screaming, vomiting instead of breathing fire
• "I'll have to hotwire the car" says carl as he pulls out a hammer.
• "I'll have to take mom's harley then." Says carl as he puts on his goggles and crash helmet.

Guy Nelson

congrats to Ted and Barney, that is one of my favorite panels so far...

• Carl: "maybe I dropped them in one of the beers!"- starts to guzzle every beer he has
• Carl's Mom: "Carl! you are an alcoholic!" Carl: "No I'm not! I'm addicted to driving, now help me find my keys before I go into withdrawal!!!"
• Carl (grasping the side of his car): "I found my keys, but now I've lost the lock!"
• Carl: "AAAHH! now I've lost my pants!" (clearly still wearing his pants)
• Carl: "Did I leave them in BORNEO?"

  Carl Suggestions: 100% "Enter: Thor" FREE!

dan wheeler

• carl's glasses are up on this forehead. carl: And now I lost my glasses!
• carl: maybe they're at the bottom of this bottle of gin! carl guzzles gin.
• carl heads for the garage. carl: i guess that means i'll have to drive the lawnmower to work again. (note: this is meant to imply a walk-behind not a ride-on style of mower.)

jeff johns

Song Sung Blues, everybody's got one.

• Carl's view swings back the other way (and we see he's sitting in the driver's seat) "NOW I'M LOCKED IN!"
• Carl sobs into his hands. "Will the nightmare never end!?!?", or maybe "Out, Out, Damn spot"
• "what's happening to me?!?!?" Maybe a close up Bill Bixby eyeball shot, or a full body Werewolf transformation

Michael Patrick

• I'll have to make a prayer to St. Anthony! (I don't know if that one makes sense or not, but that's what my mother always did whenever she lost something).
• Carl looks at his keys in his hand. Carl- Keys! Where were you?
• Carl looks outside of panel(that isn't against the rules, is it?) at another Carl panel. Carl- He's got my keys!

James Brophy

"All great truths begin as blasphemies." :O) Please read through them all they get better at the end...

• Carl looks to his left hand "...No I haven't"
• stands there for a moment, "M,m.. m... Maybe I have a problem" (BTW, have you considered how much drinking is going on? He must have gone through a couple of gallons so far)
• "I'll drive to daisy's, I think I left them there last"
• Walks to his car, "Keys? KEYS??!?! I DONT NEED NO STINKING KEYS!!!!!"
• "OH MY GOD! I've spilt my drink!"
• I can't cope with the DRINKING I'm going to kill myself!
• "I'll have to cycle", or, "I'll have to Walk", or "I'll have to get a cab" or....
• "I'll have to Fly" as he steps up to a window
• Carl gets chatty to his mother:"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." It's never going to happen, But that doesn't stop the other 99.8% of us htrowing our ideas in.
• A view above carl as he flops back into a chair. the caption reads... "Carl begins to ponder life, death, belly button fluff..." I would be so happy if you used that one. :O)

  "Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." -George Bernard Shaw

Patric Lewandowski

winners get links???????? MUST WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• carl flying through the air, "Luckily, I have superpowers."
• Carl looks at his left hand. "OH MY GOD!!!!! I lost my watch too!!!"
• shot of carl with a rifle aimed at keys in mid air "Pull!"
• Carl looks at keys in his hand. "All i have are these fake keys I made out of cheese!"
• Enter: Bob Eubanks.
• Enter: Bob Barker
• Enter: Kevin Eubanks
• a black blob covers part of the panel. carl looks panicked.... "Screw the keys... scott spilled ink again! we're all doomed!"

  I kinda like my last one.....

["Ink..." Sigh... I remember ink...--Scott]

Matt Normand

• Carl call's a taxi, and the taxi driver is cirque de soleil.
• Because the keyring is around his thumb it cuts off the circulation. His thumb turns into Robert Deniro's character in Taxi Driver and tells him to get a taxi.
• "I think my keys are locked in my car, Oh my god its cirque de soleil."
• Scratching his head, Carl saws off his ear with his keys.
• And then his freind pulls the keys off his hand, with it taking Carl's skeleton with it, leaving a pile of empty flesh. he dies.
• "oh I guess i'll walk" and carl gets hit by a passing cirque de soleil.
• In sadness Carl also forgets how he's drawn.
• Carl puts on his glasses and impales his eyes with his keys.
• Carl finds the keys to his riding lawnmower, as the keys to his car cut off the circulation to his fingers.
• Carl accidentally swallows his keys - still attached to his hand.

MAL

• Carl staggering off, or perhaps getting into the car: "Maybe Daisy can help me find 'em." Just figure it'd be nice to bring Daisy back...

matt

• "Maybe I left then in that old abandoned house."

The Mystic Mongoose

• Carl is seen messing under the hood of a Porsche 9000. One word balloon at the top has Carl saying : "I'll have to hotwire Mom's Porsche now!" At the bottom of the strip, we see another dialog balloon, with the word "Again."

Lee K. Seitz

It's been a few days since I read them, so some of these suggestions may be ones I subconsciously remembered from last week.

• And I'm out of beer, too!
• Maybe another beer will help me remember where I left 'em.
• Carl phones Daisy, "Daisy, have you seen my keys?"
• Hey, but now I don't have to make that decision.

  Oops, forgot to mention something last week. You'd said you were imitating some of Bob Lappan's lettering two weeks ago. I meant to mention when plugging my Atari Force site last week that he did some great work on alien fonts in Atari Force.

Matt Ryan

I recommend these to your attention again...

• Close-up of keys on a shelf in the fridge. Carl's hand is closing the door. From off- panel: "What'll I do now?
• Mom is washing dishes, looking over her shoulder at Carl, who is holding his hands out in a wobbly shrug, keys visible. "Hey Mom, have you seen my keys?" (How quickly he forgets his promise...)
• Carl is outside with his back to us, looking at his house. "Waitasec, this isn't my HOUSE!" (The mailbox reads "Carl".)
• Thor: "Enter, Carl." (Thor looks around, like he isn't supposed to be there.)

  Rushing off for two weeks in London, Edinburgh, Inverness! Happy Carling...

Howard Schiller

For lack of creativity this week, i present last weeks ideas...

• Silhouette of Carl in a demolished living room (with keys in hand) screaming "WHERE ARE THEY!!!!"
• Drunk Carl talking to mom (maybe in rocking chair in fron to tv)... "Mom, canni borrow your keyth to the car?"
• Carl under the hood of his car... "Guess i'll have to hotwire it!"
• Carl with his thumb out... "Guess i'll bum a ride!"
• Carl screaming in his living room (filled with Star Wars junk)... "I'M GOING TO MISS THE STAR WARS PREMIERE!"

  Hey, its another Syracuse alumni! Oh those cold winter nights and lake-effect snow!

Doug Sheppard

It's Bad Pun Day in my house.

• Carl on phone: "Hello, Ajax Piano Repair?"

Doug Sheppard

• Daisy, who was out-of-frame: "You dropped these, you drunk."
• "They must be in *Borneo* with my videos!" (This suggestion has been brought to you by page 105.)
  

James Langdell

• Mom (to an agitated monkey): What's that, Benjy? Carl needs help? [One thing inspiring this suggestion is that you draw great simians.]
• Carl: I guess I'll need to push the car. (as he pushed the car, scratch marks are left by the keys still in his hand)
• Daisy (walking up with yet another set of keys and beer can in hand, after several beers herself): Don't worry, I can drive us.

John Burns

• (sheepish) "Well, tiny tongue always will want love!"
• (angry) "Those damned squid!"
• (resigned) "A fresh camel, then, immediately to conserve and protect, later to keep me warm."
• (agitated) "Inklings, donations, twisted flares and then the yellow mailbox."
• (sleeping on the road)

Tony Beeman

• Oh my God, I've lost my DRINK!
• Oh my God, I've lost my PANTS!

Bill Schlimme

• Carl: "I guess I'll just have to hotwire this Vespa!"
• The pink, winged pachyderm from section one reappears. Carl: "Say, don't I know you from *hic* somewhere?"
• Carl: "MOM! WHERE'D YOU PUT MY KEYS?"
• Caption: "For many moons Carl scoured the land in his quest to retrieve that which he had lost..." (Show Carl all nature boy like, complete with a Grizzly Adams beard, big coat, and fur lined boots, wandering through a blizzard on a snowy plain [think, "The Searchers"], calling out for his keys...which are, naturally, still in his left hand, maybe with an icicle hanging off them for dramatic tension...)
• Carl, pensively: "Or rather, have the keys lost me?"
• Carl, aghast, forgetting about his keys: "Oh my God, I lost my beer!"

  I know: pretty lame suggestions. Sorry.

Marsh Murphy

• I'll have to carve a new set out of soap, using these keys as a guide.
• What would Mom do is a situation like this?
• I'm a failure, a failure!
• I wish I'd never been born.
• I'm going to slit my wrists with these dull, oddly shaped knives.

T Campbell

• (Carl in engine, setting off sparks) "I'll have to hotwire my own car!"
• (Carl throws chair at window) "I'll have to BREAK out of the house!"
• (A car, not Carl's, drives by the window) "THAT guy must've STOLEN'em!"
• (Carl looks at his keys.) "I'll have to sober up to find 'em. Maybe if I EAT something..."
• (Carl looks at the ceiling, which has been subtly morphing throughout this thread.) "And the ceiling! What's happening to the ceiling??"
• Hey, wait a minute. Carl's shirt has "grown" a collar. (Carl sits in a gutter [a REAL gutter, not a comics gutter], stretching out his shirt.) "And how did I get into this GOOD shirt?" (Don't take this kind of art criticism too hard, Scott: I take this "reconstructive" approach to my stuff all the time.)
• That's probably over-intellectualizing it. Try this: (Carl sits a small distance from his wrecked and burning car.) "NOW how can I drive home?
• The hand with Carl's keys in it turns out to be Daisy's. She's taking the keys from Carl and saying: "Friends don't let friends drive drunk, Carl."
• Carl's mother yells, "Stop yelling in there, Carl! You're driving me crazy!" Carl, off-panel, thinks, "OH, NO!"
• Carl's face hardens into a paranoid mask as he thinks, "DAISY! She was in my car YESTERDAY! And she thought I wouldn't notice them MISSING!"

  You have my complete permission to e-mail me as part of any mailing list, Scott. Give my best to Ivy and the kids.

Dominic Riches

First-timer at scottmccloud.com

• Carl - holding beer and keys - says "And now my beer's gone as well!"
• Carl's walking along saying "Well I can still drink and walk!"

  I hope they're up to scratch!

Morgan Doninger

Raaaaanford! Raaaaanford!

• Carl still oblivious to the keys in his yadda yadda, slaps his brow with his key hand and says: "I coulda had a V-8! Ow..."

  That was my favorite from last week. It's too hard filling up all these pretty boxes. Be seeing you.

Josiah Rowe

• The Demon of Drunk Driving appears before Carl. Grinning lewdly, he hands Carl his keys and says, "Here they are, Carl!" (If you want, you can add, "And don't forget your BEER!")
• A simpler version of the previous: stereotypical angel-and-devil appear on Carl's shoulders. Angel: "Maybe this is a SIGN that you shouldn't drive!" Devil: "Here are your KEYS, Carl!"
• Inset: Fancy Todd Klein-esque lettering reads: "And so began... the Quest for the Lost Keys." Picture: Drunken Carl in a noble, knight-like pose.
• Carl, in the car, driving: "Maybe I left them at the LIQUOR STORE!" (This one is from my lovely wife, Erin.)

Ola Fosheim Grøstad

You forgot to mention which other book arrived in the chess strip. Love what you do. Keep doing it =)

• And worse yet, I have lost my car? ?-|
• And where did my brain go? *:-/
• Keys??? =:-{
• Am I loosing my mind? (^ ^;)
• I will take my neighbors car instead! (^_^)

[Oh, whoops. The panels in "My Obsession with Chess" that Ola is referring to actually contained a mistake. Both references are to Understanding Comics. I've fixed the wording now.--Scott]